Huang Rong from The Return of the Condor Heroes: Brother Jing, let's get a divorce.

Three days later, in the council chamber.

Yang Guo sat cross-legged on the armchair, holding a teacup in his left hand and a walnut in his right.

With a flick of the finger, the walnut shell cracked open with a "crack," and the fragments flew out, bounced on the pillar, tumbled twice, and fell to the ground.

Li Mochou limped in, carrying a thin booklet. She walked to the table and slammed it down in front of Yang Guo.

"Take a look at your wealth, Master Yang."

Yang Guo was startled and almost spat out the walnut kernel in his mouth.

He wiped his hands, picked up the ledger, and opened to the first page.

The cover was written in Lu Wushuang's crooked handwriting as "Quanzhen Sect's Income and Expenditure Ledger".

The contents inside were written neatly and carefully, with each stroke representing a single character. The booklet had a total of twelve pages, with the first eight pages listing expenses and the last four pages listing income.

Yang Guo opened the expense section and his brows immediately furrowed.

There were more than thirty items listed in a dense, detailed manner.

During his tenure, Shen Zhifan procured 62 silk Taoist robes, each priced at eight taels of silver.

Eighteen custom-made sandalwood memorial tablets cost one hundred taels of silver.

Forty catties of tea were transported from Chang'an City, and another sixty taels.

The jade-inlaid waist pendants made for the fellow disciples in each branch cost fifteen taels each.

There were also expenses under the guise of "banquets for distinguished guests" and "raw materials for alchemy," which flowed out one by one and all went into the pockets of Shen Zhifan and his gang.

Yang Guo's face grew darker and darker as he turned the pages.

The most outrageous record is that Shen Zhifan, under the pretext of "repairing the Ancestral Hall," withdrew three hundred taels of silver from the account, but actually used the money to book the Zuiyue Tower in Chang'an for three days.

"Damn it!" Yang Guo slammed the booklet on the table. "Did these old fogies eat all the money or spend it all on prostitutes?"

Li Mochou sat down, holding onto the edge of the table, and turned to the last page to show Yang Guo.

"Take a look at how much stock is in the warehouse now."

Yang Guo looked down and saw four large characters written on it: Seven Taels of Silver.

There are a few more lines of smaller text below.

The rice, flour, and cooking oil are enough to feed about 300 people for half a month.

The medicine reserves consist of twelve bottles of wound medicine, eight packets of hemostatic powder, and nothing else.

The weapons and armor included 103 longswords, of which 67 were chipped and rusted.

Yang Guo fell silent.

Seven taels of silver.

The Quanzhen Sect, a renowned and orthodox Taoist sect located on Zhongnan Mountain, had only seven taels of silver left in its pocket.

That's not enough to stay three nights in an inn in Chang'an.

All sixty-seven swords were rusted.

Lu Wushuang stood by the door, twisting the hem of her clothes between her fingers, and added softly, "There are also three taels of loose silver, which took me a long time to count."

Yang Guo leaned back in his chair, staring blankly at the beam on the ceiling.

"It's not just about the warehouse." Li Mochou took out another piece of paper and spread it on the table. "I had Li Zhiqing check all the land deeds under the Quanzhen Sect's name. The leases for several plots of land haven't been renewed for three years, and the tenants haven't paid rent for a long time. A general store in Huxian County at the foot of the mountain, which originally used the Quanzhen Sect's name, was actually transferred by Shen Zhifan to his cousin surnamed Liu, and all the monthly income goes to that Liu."

Yang Guo had a toothache.

"What about income?"

"Our income comes entirely from rent from the villages and towns at the foot of the mountain and sporadic donations from pilgrims. The rent is less than two hundred taels of silver a year, and donations from pilgrims are even less. The reputation of the Quanzhen Sect in the martial arts world has been getting worse and worse in recent years, so who still goes up the mountain to burn incense? Uncle Qiu is nominally in charge but doesn't look at the accounts at all. The second-generation disciples only care about practicing their skills and cultivating the Tao, and no one cares about firewood, rice, oil, and salt."

"Anything else?"

"And then there's your logistics department. Wang Tieniu took some men to scout out the back mountains yesterday and found two caves that could be converted into warehouses. The conversion requires timber, lime, and nails, which need to be purchased from the foot of the mountain. We don't have the money. He came to me asking for money, and I told him to go to you."

Yang Guo closed the booklet and tossed it onto the table.

"An annual income of forty-seven taels of silver, but expenses are more than ten times greater than income. All the savings I accumulated over sixty years have been squandered by those bastards, Shen Zhifan. Seven taels of silver isn't even enough for me to have a decent meal when I go down the mountain."

He knew perfectly well that the food, drink, and expenses of the entire Quanzhen Sect over the past few months had all been paid for with the money Xiaolongnu had taken out of the ancient tomb.

Those gold ingots and jade pendants were left behind by Wang Chongyang, but later belonged to Lin Chaoying, and are now inherited by Xiaolongnü to support Yang Guo.

Xiaolongnu was giving herself money to spend, and Li Mochou absolutely had to know about it.

Yang Guo, the leader of the Quanzhen Sect, was kept by his own woman.

If word gets out, how will he ever face the world again? He might as well hang himself.

Yang Guo rubbed his face vigorously, striking a pose of a hero at the end of his rope. He leaned back in his chair, covered his forehead with his right hand, and let out a long sigh.

"Alas, even a skilled cook can't cook without rice. These predecessors have squandered the business so thoroughly, leaving me with nothing but an empty shell."

Li Mochou stared at Yang Guo's face for two seconds.

The kid avoided eye contact for a moment.

Li Mochou had been in the martial arts world for twenty years and had seen all sorts of people.

Yang Guo's portrayal of "unfulfilled ambitions" was quite good, but the slight redness on the tip of his nose and the way his gaze drifted to the left clearly indicated his guilty conscience.

However, seeing Yang Guo's seemingly carefree attitude and his struggles when faced with real problems, with hundreds of people waiting to be fed, four departments needing to be put to work, and only seven taels of silver in his hands, Li Mochou couldn't quite describe her feelings.

Anyone would be in a bind.

She didn't ask any further questions.

"Alright, stop pretending." Li Mochou leaned forward, lowering her voice slightly. "Let's not talk about money for now. I've had Li Zhiqing lead a group to tour Zhongnan Mountain for the past three days, and they've seen everything they need to see."

She picked up the booklet and turned to the page tucked in the middle. On the page was a simple map of Zhongnan Mountain, compiled by Li Zhiqing and his disciples after their survey.

"If you want to make money, there are three paths on Zhongnan Mountain." Li Mochou pointed to three locations on the map with her fingernail.

Yang Guo immediately sat up straight, putting away his dramatic expression.

"First, medicinal herbs." Li Mochou pointed to an area in the northwest corner of the back mountain and on the shady side of the north slope. "No one goes to this area year-round. Li Zhiqing took his disciples up there and found that wild He Shou Wu (Polygonum multiflorum) was everywhere. There was also Gastrodia elata, Ganoderma lucidum, and Polygonatum sibiricum. Especially He Shou Wu, your Quanzhen Taoists pass by it every day, but no one recognizes it. These things are sold by weight in the pharmacies of Chang'an. A He Shou Wu that is over thirty years old can sell for five taels of silver, and a hundred-year-old one can sell for more than fifty taels. Li Zhiqing roughly counted, and there are at least a hundred plants in that grove on the north slope alone."

Yang Guo's eyes darted around. A hundred thirty-year-old trees would cost five hundred taels of silver; if he came across a few hundred-year-old trees, that would be enough to sustain the Quanzhen Sect for half a year.

"But this is a long-term business," Li Mochou continued. "After harvesting, the produce still needs to be dried and processed, and it will take at least two or three months to see results."

Yang Guo nodded.

"Secondly, brewing wine." Li Mochou's finger moved to a spot marked "spring" halfway up the mountain. "The water quality of Zhongnan Mountain is excellent, and the wineries at the foot of the mountain all use spring water from Zhongnan Mountain to brew wine. There are also many wild fruits and medicinal herbs on the mountain. Taoist health-preserving wine is very famous among the people, and high-ranking officials and nobles love it. Find a few skilled brewers, add medicinal herbs to the spring water to make wine, put it under the name of the Quanzhen Sect, package it as 'Zhongnan Immortal Wine,' and sell it exclusively to the high-ranking officials and nobles in Chang'an. This kind of wine doesn't need to be produced in large quantities, but rather it needs to be rare. Selling a jar of health-preserving medicinal wine for ten or eight ounces is not a problem. But brewing wine also takes time, as short as one or two months, or as long as half a year."

Yang Guo nodded again.

"Both of these are slow processes." Li Mochou put down her hand and looked at Yang Guo. "Seven taels of silver won't last until next month. You need a way to make money immediately."

"What kind of approach?"

"Talismanic rituals".

Yang Guo was stunned for a moment.

Li Mochou's lips curled into a sneer: "Don't look down on this. Ordinary people pray for peace, marriage, and children, and what they believe in most is the talismanic water and rituals performed in Taoist temples. The Quanzhen Sect's reputation has been renowned in the Guanzhong area for sixty years. You can write a few talismans, stamp them with the Quanzhen Sect's seal, and sell them at the market down the mountain. A piece of yellow paper costs two coins to make, but you can sell it for three hundred coins after drawing a few strokes. You can calculate how many times the profit is multiplied. During festivals, when they hold a ritual, wealthy merchants line up to donate merit money. What do you think those small Taoist temples rely on to survive? This is what they rely on."

Yang Guo slapped the table in admiration and jumped up from his chair, startling Lu Wushuang.

"Technician Li! You're my lucky charm!"

As Yang Guo spoke, he rushed to Li Mochou and almost hugged her tightly.

Li Mochou leaned back and pushed Yang Guo away by pressing her hand on his forehead.

"Enough talk, let's get down to business."

Yang Guo took two steps back, rubbing his hands together, his mind racing.

All the random stuff I watched on Douyin in my past life came flooding back now.

"All three of your approaches are good, but you're still missing a blockbuster product."

"What's the hottest item?" Lu Wushuang couldn't resist and came closer from the doorway.

Yang Guo ran to the table, grabbed a brush, and drew a series of crooked circles on the paper.

"A bracelet!"