Inside the main hall.
When everyone learned that the sect still had seventy low-grade spirit stones left,
their expressions eased considerably.
Although losing ten low-grade spirit stones for nothing was somewhat hard to accept,
when they thought about the seventy low-grade spirit stones that remained, it no longer seemed like much. They would just treat it as spending money to avert disaster.
However, upon seeing everyone’s softened expressions,
Daoist Taihua shook his head with incomparable bitterness.
In an instant, the disciples in the main hall fell silent one by one.
Not seventy spirit stones?
Seventy taels of gold?
Everyone’s mood became rather complicated.
This was indeed somewhat troublesome.
“Seventy taels of gold? Although the difference is quite large, if we work hard, it’s not impossible for us to earn that within two months.”
Su Changyu said with a grave expression.
He looked every bit like an eldest senior brother, responsible and dependable.
Hearing this, everyone did indeed calm down.
Having seventy taels of gold was still not bad.
They were only short thirty taels of gold. If everyone gave it their all, it wasn’t as though there was no hope.
But the next moment, Daoist Taihua’s expression grew even uglier.
In an instant, Su Changyu swallowed.
His eyes were filled with disbelief.
“Sect Master, don’t tell me we only have seventy taels of silver.”
Su Changyu’s face was full of incredulity.
If it was seventy taels of silver, then they might as well stop dreaming.
With seventy taels of gold, they could still say that if they worked hard, they could strive to earn thirty taels of gold within two months. There would still be a slim chance of survival.
But seventy taels of silver?
Then what the hell was there to even do?
Yet just as everyone thought there were only seventy taels of silver, Daoist Taihua once again shook his head bitterly.
Su Changyu: “”
Xu Luochen: “”
Wang Zhuoyu: “”
Chen Lingrou: “”
Silence.
Silence.
The great hall sank into deep despair.
Seventy copper coins?
What the hell.
Are you kidding me?
At first, everyone had thought that seventy taels of silver was already the bottom line for Qingyun Daoist Sect.
But they had never expected that Daoist Taihua never disappointed.
Seventy copper coins?
What the hell was there to even do now?
Hell, do you understand?
Qingyun Daoist Sect’s net income each year was only around thirty taels of gold.
Although Qingyun Daoist Sect was an immortal sect, it was the worst of the worst kind of immortal sect. Earning thirty taels of gold in a year was already considered quite good.
There were only eight people in the sect from top to bottom. They had no mines and no land. They could only rely on planting a little spirit rice to earn a meager income.
To have everyone gather so much silver within two months—how were they supposed to gather it?
Even selling themselves might not be enough.
“Wait, that’s not right, Sect Master. Although our Daoist sect is indeed poor, surely we’re not this poor, right? What about all the savings accumulated over the years?”
Someone did not believe it, feeling that although the Daoist sect was poor, it could not possibly be this poor.
A proper immortal sect, and its entire foundation amounted to only seventy copper coins?
One had to know that even some escort agencies in the mortal world might have more than seventy copper coins.
Upon hearing this, Daoist Taihua could not help but become angry.
“Luochen, what do you mean by that? Could it be that you think your master lined his own pockets?”
Daoist Taihua said somewhat irritably.
“This disciple would not dare.”
Xu Luochen immediately shrank his head back.
But Su Changyu stared straight at this unreliable master of his.
“Sect Master, I believe you would not line your own pockets, but there’s no way the Daoist sect only has seventy copper coins left. Just tell us the truth.”
Su Changyu vaguely felt that the matter could not be so simple.
As soon as he said this, Daoist Taihua wanted to open his mouth and retort, but under Su Changyu’s gaze, he could not help but look a little guilty.
“Actually, our sect did originally have some savings.”
“But later on, I thought that keeping silver on me was a waste. Last time I went down the mountain, I discovered a novel thing below called a cultivation fund. They said that if I deposited money into this fund, there would be returns every month, and the returns were quite good.”
“I figured, someone would help us safeguard our silver and even give us returns. Wasn’t that a guaranteed profit?”
“So all the silver was used to buy the fund.”
Daoist Taihua stammered somewhat as he spoke.
“A fund? What is that?”
“Master, then go withdraw it now.”
“That’s right. Forget about returns or not, hurry up and withdraw it now.”
Everyone spoke one after another. After learning that there was still some family fortune, they all breathed a sigh of relief.
However, Daoist Taihua said helplessly,
“I want to withdraw it too, but after I deposited the silver, by the second month, I couldn’t find the people anymore.”
Daoist Taihua said with a heavy heart.
Whenever this matter was mentioned, he felt miserable. He had spent his entire life hunting hawks, yet this time he had capsized in a gutter.
“Sect Master, you really…”
“Sect Master, how much silver did you invest?”
Everyone was both helpless and curious.
“Not too much, not too little. About two hundred taels of gold.”
Daoist Taihua said somewhat embarrassedly.
“Two hundred taels of gold?”
“Hiss!”
Cries of shock rang out.
Everyone truly found it hard to believe.
First, because this amount was too outrageous. Second, because how could Qingyun Daoist Sect possibly have two hundred taels of gold?
What kind of concept was two hundred taels of gold?
If the sect ate fish and meat every day, according to a normal high standard, it would cost at most one tael of silver a day.
In a month, that was only thirty taels of silver.
In a year, at most four taels of gold.
They could eat lavishly for a full fifty years.
Fifty years.
How many fifty years did a person have in life?
So miserable it made one want to cry.
“Sect Master, did you misspeak? Two hundred taels of gold? How could our Qingyun Daoist Sect possibly have that much silver?”
Wang Zhuoyu found it somewhat hard to believe.
Forget him; who among those present would believe it?
“One hundred and twenty taels of gold was borrowed by me.”
Daoist Taihua’s voice was rather low, and he did not dare answer loudly.
Hiss!
Everyone sucked in a cold breath.
One hundred and twenty taels of gold was borrowed?
What did that mean?
Dumbfounded!
Dumbfounded!
Dumbfounded!
Everyone was utterly dumbfounded.
Did this mean that not only did they have to gather one hundred taels of gold within two months to solve this problem, they also had to gather another one hundred and twenty taels of gold to solve a different problem?
Daoist Taihua lowered his head. He was indeed somewhat embarrassed.
Originally, he had not intended to speak of this matter. After all, the sect’s financial authority was entirely in his hands, and no one would audit the accounts.
But now that something like this had happened, he had no choice but to say it.
Inside the great hall, there was a deathly stillness.
Everyone’s mood was very heavy.
Daoist Taihua did not know what to say either.
Nor did everyone else know what to say.
In the end, Daoist Taihua took a deep breath, then slowly spoke.
“No matter what, your master will definitely think of every possible way. I called you here today also in the hope that we can pool our ideas and think of a solution. If there really is no other way, your master can only stake everything on one attempt. At worst, I’ll make a trip to the Jinglin Mountain Range.”
Daoist Taihua said as such.
But once these words were spoken, everyone became even more helpless.
The Jinglin Mountain Range was a famous demonic beast mountain range. Only certain desperadoes would go to that sort of mountain range to hunt demonic beasts and earn spirit stones. It was filled with danger.
How could they possibly let their master go to such a perilous place?
Yet they truly did not know what to say.
“Forget it. All of you go back and see if you can think of any solutions. Changyu, you stay behind. Your master has something to entrust to you.”
Daoist Taihua spoke, telling Su Changyu to remain.