Me and countless me.

Chapter 91: The Sect's Way of Making Money

Arriving at the main hall, Li Ke handed the blueprint to Yue Buqun, but as he looked at his master who was still a little worried, he decided to be more forceful.

After all, if Yue Buqun does not show absolute strength and lets him take the lead, who knows where he will end up.

However, Li Ke planned to ask Yue Buqun more questions.

So, after handing the blueprint to Yue Buqun who was obviously absent-minded, Li Ke asked.

"Master, I'm actually quite curious about how other sects make their livings. And how did the Songshan Sect rise to prominence?"

He had been concerned about this for a long time, because in the original book these sects seemed to be very short of money, but also seemed not to be short of money, and they just engaged in political activities every day.

Even the Taishan Sect has gotten involved, which is actually a big problem.

The Taishan Sect occupies Mount Tai, which is also a famous palace and temple of the imperial court. Strictly speaking, the status of the Taishan Sect is quite transcendent. Why would it mix with other people from the Five Mountains Sword Sect?

No matter what, their status should be higher than Wudang and Shaolin. Why bother playing with the rules of the underworld?

Moreover, the rise of Songshan Sect was simply inexplicable. With Shaolin around, it was actually possible for Songshan Sect to rise. It was simply hilarious.

"Well... let me tell you about it."

Yue Buqun was stunned for a moment. Although he didn't know why his immortal disciple asked him this, he still spoke out.

"The reason why Songshan Sect was able to rise is because Zuo Lengchan had helped the great hero Shao Fangshao, who had helped Xu Jie recover and was a great hero and righteous man in the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, Songshan Sect sought the protection of some of the elders from Xu Ge, got to know some of the officials, and recruited many retired soldiers to practice martial arts in the mountains. Therefore, most of the swordsmanship of Songshan Sect is as magnificent as the iron cavalry. Therefore, Shaolin Temple was willing to give up part of the tenants' land to let Songshan Sect make a fortune. Therefore, Songshan Sect and Shaolin Temple often have conflicts. Just the dispute over water has caused many casualties between Shaolin and Songshan, not to mention the dispute over tenants' land, population and slaves."

Yue Buqun paused here before continuing.

"In the past, I wanted to make you understand the difference between good and evil. I was afraid that you would cause troubles if you didn't know better, so I didn't explain it to you clearly... For example, the martial arts sects, the first-class martial arts sects, such as the Huashan and Taishan sects in the past, all rely on collecting land rent to maintain their operations. The Taishan sect is different. Although it relies on the court for work, the previous generations of Taishan sect leaders were extremely extravagant and lost a lot of the sect's assets in gambling. Therefore, they had to open a sect and recruit disciples to make up for the deficit in the government. Normally, they would sell some Taoist certificates to maintain their reputation."

"As for the Hengshan Sect, their main means of business are tea, Hunan embroidery, and Hunan lotus seeds, plus collecting rent and the like. The Hengshan Sect is a nunnery, um... they also rely on the land for revenue, but they also have knitting, needlework, and treatment for infertility... um, revenue. Add to that the adoption of widows and orphans, and some places for nuns and lay Buddhists, and the income is quite good."

Treating infertility...

The corner of Li Ke's mouth twitched. What other methods are there to treat infertility these days? Isn't it enough to just say surrogacy?

But it is obvious that disciples like Yi Lin will never treat infertility. Those who do this are most likely outer disciples of the Hengshan School, or disciples who have not practiced martial arts.

"Oh, yes, the reason why the Five Poison Sect in Yunnan is a cult is not only because they support the Demon Sect and use a large number of poisonous insects to attack, but also because they want to do business on their own and come to the Central Plains to buy food, cloth, salt and iron, but they are not tolerated by the government and various forces, so they kill innocent people indiscriminately. Since the previous generation, they have become a cult."

Yue Buqun said this and picked up a cup of tea. He wanted to see Li Ke’s reaction to these things.

These are the inner workings of the sect. In the past, he had planned to wait until Linghu Chong became more mature and then teach the two of them together, but now it seems that there is no need for that.

The corner of Li Ke's mouth twitched, and then he asked.

“Then, could it be that the Sun Moon Sect is smuggling salt and iron in the sea trade?” Yue Buqun laughed.

"Which martial arts sect dares to take over the salt and iron business? Don't think that the people from the various salt and transport gangs are polite to us, because they know that the people behind the scenes will not provoke us martial artists for them. But if the Sun Moon Demon Cult dares to interfere with the salt and iron business, then the army will arrive in an instant! They just occupy some small silver mines and a few sea trade routes. I heard that they have unclear relations with the Japanese pirates and often smuggle some things out. But they are not doing well. The Sun Moon Demon Cult wanted to attack us in the past because they wanted to seize the trade routes and land of our Five Mountains Sword Sect to strengthen their own power and compete with those aristocratic families for profits."

Li Ke nodded, he understood.

To put it bluntly, all these martial arts sects are fighting each other just for money, and what the Huashan Sect wants to restore its reputation is money.

The Five Mountains Sword Sect controls a large amount of land and trade routes, and will not be too concerned. As long as the Five Mountains Sword Sect is defeated and forced to surrender, a lot of benefits can be obtained.

To put it simply, what Ren Woxing and his men wanted to do was to take over the Shaolin Temple and then tell the abbot that the money from incense offerings would be split 50-50 in the future.

"That's it..."

Li Ke knew what he had to do.

To put it simply, it's about making money.

Since the Five Mountains Sword Sects have money, then let them merge. However, in order to avoid some problems arising from the merger of the Five Mountains, he still needs to do some operations.

"Then Master, are you ready to be the leader of the Five Mountains?"

Li Ke asked with a bow.

"This...if it weren't for the Songshan Sect taking the lead, this would have been difficult to accomplish, and the imperial court would have been furious."

With Li Ke around, Yue Buqun had no doubt that the merger of the Five Mountains would succeed, but he was not sure what the imperial court would think.

The Songshan School has Xu Jie as their backer, but they don’t.

"This is easy to do. Just make the court too busy."

Yue Buqun was a little stunned. He could hardly understand what his disciple was saying.

But what Li Ke said next made Yue Buqun stunned.

"As long as His Majesty the Emperor lifts the maritime ban, I think Lord Xu Jie and other high-ranking officials in the court will have no time to cause trouble in the martial arts world."

Li Ke smiled slightly. He was quite familiar with the Ming Dynasty. Since the Five Mountains Sword Sects all relied on industries for their livelihood, this Emperor Jiajing was probably just like in history, knowing nothing at all.

That is, Japan really has a lot of gold and silver mines!

(End of this chapter)