The road is vague

Chapter 219 Meeting Budget
After the awards ceremony concluded.

The heads and deputy heads of each hall began their annual summary reports.

The way these hall masters and deputy hall masters behaved in the Qingming Hall was completely different from their usual behavior.

Chen Heyan and Jiang Wencai from the Dharma Protection Hall, Chen Huiling and Wang Wenhai from the Alchemy Hall, Lu Qi and Bai Jingjing from the Special Service Hall, Ye Qing and Han Mu from the Advanced Studies Hall, and Xu Chen from the Oversight Hall...

Each church uses its annual summary report to determine its expenses for the new year.

Among all the hall masters, the most special one is none other than the hall master of Sanye Hall.

Because this branch has almost no real power and is quite busy, and constantly faces difficulties from the military, who keep demanding people with spiritual roots, no one is willing to become the branch leader.

Therefore, the head of the Scattered Leaf Hall is only a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.

The head of Sanyetang also gave a year-end summary.

"Last year, Sanye Hall successfully matched 62 pairs of disciples, both of whom possessed spiritual roots. With the support of the policy of rewarding offspring, a total of 278 offspring with spiritual roots were identified last year. Among them, 35 were willing to join Qimeng Hall, and the rest joined the military. They can use this to offset 373,000 taels of silver in taxes, equivalent to 30,000 spirit stones..."

Li Mo's eyes were opened wide.

The descendants of the Sanyetang disciples can actually be used to offset taxes?

For an individual, more than 30,000 spirit stones is undoubtedly a huge fortune.

However, for a sect, it is only a small number. At least they would not personally send out a large number of disciples with spiritual roots. Most of these are due to the special laws of the Great Qian Dynasty that apply to various sects.

It’s right to think about it.

With so many people in the military, it's impossible that they were all trained by small aristocratic families like the Chen family in Bai'an County, or were independent cultivators from the common people. It seems that the scattered leaf halls of various sects are also an important source of soldiers.

After nearly two hours, the conference entered its final stage.

That was the issue of the budget allocation for this year's funds for each branch. Almost instantly, the branch leaders and deputy leaders started arguing and debating without restraint, with no one willing to give in.

Upon hearing the total annual budget of the Lingmu Sect, Li Mo couldn't help but start calculating in his mind.

"Ninety-two hundred and four thousand spirit stones."

This expenditure of spirit stones may seem enormous, but in reality, it can barely keep the sect running.

Not to mention the competition between disciples of aristocratic families and independent disciples, high-level cultivators and low-level cultivators are also vying for it, but the low-level cultivators simply have no say at all.

This often requires a powerful sect leader who can overpower all others and, for the long-term development of the sect, allocate resources to lower-ranking disciples as much as possible.

Unfortunately, Master Qingling has been in seclusion for twenty years, and there is no one to uphold justice for the lower-ranking disciples.

The Lingmu Sect is facing a shortage of cultivation resources.

For example, the Golden Core stage cultivators present here.

According to Li Mo, these people earn at least four to five thousand spirit stones a year. Based on more than thirty people, the expenses for Golden Core cultivators alone amount to about two hundred thousand spirit stones per year.

Then there are the expenses for Foundation Establishment cultivators, the daily maintenance of the mountain gate, the spirit stone consumption of the mountain-protecting array, the spirit stone consumption of each hall, and the expenses for various reward spirit stones and compensation spirit stones...

Li Moguang felt a headache coming on as he listened to the crowd arguing.

Fortunately, he has not yet been involved in such power struggles; he is merely an observer, serving as a reserve talent for his sect.

But when he thought about his future self, who might also be arguing and getting overwhelmed in order to secure a budget, his face turned ashen.

This is not the life he wants.

While the various hall masters and deputy hall masters were arguing fiercely over more budget, Li Mo looked at the reward he had just received.

Ten Spirit Gathering Pills are no longer useful; they can be exchanged for spirit stones later.

He casually put the ready-made reward of three thousand spirit stones into his storage ring.

He focused his attention on the exquisite cloak artifact and the secret technique of "Spirit Light Armor".

"Why does this cloak look so familiar?"

Li Mo felt that this top-grade magic artifact seemed somewhat familiar.

He looked down, frowned, and examined it carefully. After a moment of careful recollection, he suddenly remembered that when he first entered the second floor of the Golden Treasure Pavilion in the market at the foot of the mountain to buy magical artifacts, he had seen a cloak worth 1,800 spirit stones, which seemed to be this one.

As this was the most valuable top-grade magical artifact at the time, Li Mo had a deep memory of it.

After not seeing it for many years, he was momentarily dazed when he saw the magical artifact again. He sighed at the passage of time while trying to investigate the properties of the cloak.

A moment later, he looked surprised.

This cloak has two attributes.

One is the Wind-Riding Flight Technique. Although its flight speed is not as fast as the combined Wind-Riding Technique of the Concealment Cloak and the Clear Crane Cloak, it is much faster than the Wind-Riding Technique of the Clear Crane Cloak alone.

The other is Wind Release Technique, which allows the user to transform into a transparent wisp of wind over a short distance, passing through gaps invisibly.

"Let's call it the Wind-Riding Cloak."

After naming this magical artifact, Li Mo felt troubled.

"A cloak of concealment or a cloak of wind—what a difficult choice!"

The combination of the Clear Sky Crane Cloak and the Concealment Cloak, along with the dual wind manipulation techniques, provides him with astonishing speed, achieving a surprise effect. However, compared to the Wind Release Technique, it is clearly inferior.

However, the concealment properties of the cloak were quite practical, making Li Mo somewhat reluctant to part with it.

The Qingming crane cloak, however, is somewhat unusable.

"It seems it's time to forge a new robe; I'll just need to add the stealth attribute."

As a weapon refiner, Li Mo can refine the magical artifacts he needs at will, without having to ask anyone for help.

Having made up his mind, Li Mo immediately took off his Concealment Cloak and put on the Wind-Riding Cloak. He was just waiting to gather the right materials to craft a Concealment Robe to replace the Clear Crane Cloak.

As for this secret technique called "Spirit Armor".

After watching for a while, Li Mo sighed inwardly and finally decided to give up.

The power of this secret technique lies in its ability to provide considerable defensive capabilities without requiring a specific spiritual attribute. His lightning spiritual power, however, is not adept at defense, which perfectly complements this technique. However, practicing this technique is extremely energy-consuming.

According to "Spirit Armor", it takes at least three to five years to cultivate to the point of mastery.

This might be tolerable for other Foundation Establishment cultivators, but for Li Mo, it was extremely exhausting.

Not to mention his Five Elements Black Tortoise Shield, which has an astonishing defensive capability.

His personal movement techniques also possess considerable life-saving abilities, with four options: Hidden Thunder Step, Earth Escape Technique, Wind Escape Technique, and Thunder Transformation. In addition, after cultivating the "Li Mo Inner Classic," he has the ability to relocate the five internal organs, making his life-saving abilities quite diverse. Even if he were to acquire another Spirit Light Armor secret technique, it would not bring about any fundamental change.

He would be better off using that time to craft another set of matrix golems.

However, the sect's choice of this secret technique for him was clearly well-intentioned, hoping to compensate for the lack of defensive spells in his lightning spiritual root.

Li Mo was deep in thought.

The powerful hall masters and deputy hall masters finally reached a conclusion after much debate, and the sect's budget for this year was divided up.

Next, apart from the hall masters and deputy hall masters of each hall, everyone else left the Qingming Hall.

The annual Lingmumen meeting has come to an end.

Li Mo left the Qingming Hall with a heavy heart, pondering what materials to use to refine the invisibility robe that would replace the invisibility cloak.

"Chameleon scales, Five Elements Camouflage Bird feathers, Transformation Mud... Sigh... these legendary magic weapon-level materials are best left unsaid."

He stroked his chin, then took out the invisibility cloak and activated his spiritual eye to carefully examine its material.

"It seems to be a material made from the wing powder of dead leaf butterflies mixed with light-repelling spider silk. That's a good idea..."

"Junior brother, what are you thinking about!"

Jiang Feiyan patted Li Mo on the shoulder to bring him back to his senses.

"My master told me to go up the mountain to cultivate in seclusion for a while, saying he had something important to tell me. He seemed very mysterious. Do you know what it is?"

"I don't know...

"cut."

Jiang Feiyan glanced at Li Mo sideways and gave a soft snort.

"You even had to keep it from me? Never mind. I see that many outer disciples have returned to their sect. It's quite lively. I've not seen some old friends for many years. It's a good time to catch up."

Say it.

Jiang Feiyan pulled Li Mo and said, "Come on, let's go visit my third senior brother first. My swordsmanship has improved recently. You can be the referee, and I want to spar with him again!"

"Okay, by the way, how is Meng Xiangqiao?"

"She's already advanced to the Foundation Establishment stage. Sigh, but judging from her difficult appearance, it seems her path to the Great Dao is hopeless..."

night.

After returning to his cave, Li Mo took out a piece of straw paper and consulted various weapon-refining books in his collection, searching for suitable materials to refine the invisibility robe, and began the initial design.

As Jiang Feiyan said, many outer disciples were summoned back to their sect during this regular meeting.

It seems a big event is imminent, and he must race against time.

"Let's try to acquire Tricolor Powder, Spirit Transparent Fruit, and No-Thought Silkworm Silk first."

He first went to the market town at the foot of the mountain to purchase materials from various shops, and finally bought ten Spirit Transparent Fruits for three hundred spirit stones.

After consuming this spiritual fruit, one will have a temporary spiritual effect.

For weapon refiners, after extracting this juice and processing it specially, it can be used as a dyeing material, making it perfect for crafting concealment robes.

As for the tricolor powder and the silkworm silk, he could only go back to his sect to inquire about them.

soon.

Li Mo learned from Wei Cang that Xue Tai had a lot of tricolor powder.

The Lingdong Four Kingdoms region is rich in this material, which is often used for tattooing. Because the Lu Kingdom cultivators frequently interacted with the cultivators of the Lingdong Four Kingdoms, Xue Tai captured quite a lot of it during the war.

So Li Mo immediately went to the address given by Wei Cang and paid his respects to the captain of the Gui-character team of the Dharma Protector Hall.

Today is different from the past.

Li Mo was already the military formation instructor of the Dharma Protector Hall, and with the two of them now together, they were practically in the same boat. After learning of Li Mo's purpose, Xue Tai immediately sold him some Tricolor Powder for three hundred spirit stones.

"This so-called tricolor powder is what we people in the Great Qian call it. In the State of Lu, it is called Five Elements Earth. It is said to have miraculous effects in communicating with spirits and is also quite effective in concealment."

Li Mo expressed his gratitude.

Next comes the silkworm silk of the Wunian school.

This is a material that can shield a cultivator's divine sense from perception, and it is also a key material for Li Mo to refine the concealment robe.

After making inquiries within the sect, he finally learned through Jiang Sheng of the Weapon Refining Hall that Jiang Wencai, the deputy head of the Dharma Protection Hall, was raising a batch of thoughtless silkworms.

"Deputy Hall Master?"

Li Mo, being a member of the Dharma Protectorate, hesitated slightly upon hearing this.

Jiang Sheng smiled slightly.

"Our Jiang family members are the most skilled in weapon crafting within our sect. The male cultivators are adept at weapon crafting, while the female cultivators excel at needlework. As a Golden Core cultivator, Aunt Jiang has crafted countless robes, shoes, and hats throughout her life..."

After bidding farewell to Jiang Sheng, Li Mo arrived at Jiang Wencai's private cave with a heavy heart.

He then requested a private audience with Jiang Wencai, the deputy head of the Dharma Protectorate.

I remember the first time I met this female cultivator was during the advanced training hall examination ten years ago, and then when I joined the Dharma Protector Hall.

His hesitation upon learning that this person possessed the Silkworm of No Thought was purely out of a guilty conscience.

(End of this chapter)