Chapter 1 Hidden Dead Angle

The four teammates had already left, leaving Wanlifengdao alone in the huge courtyard. Night fell, the moon was bright and the stars were few, and a cold wind blew in gusts. The shadows of the trees swayed, as if something was spying on him from the dark forest.

He gathered dry branches and piled them up. Wanlifengdao held his long sword and took out a bottle of high-concentration alcohol from his backpack, sprinkling it on the pile of firewood. Then, he took out a Swiss Army knife from his pocket and used the flint on the knife to light the firewood.

A player's backpack can hold up to twenty items. The item slots and equipment slots don't overlap, so each slot in the backpack has to be carefully considered. High-concentration alcohol, capable of starting a large fire and destroying corpses, was worthy of a place in the backpack, while the versatile Swiss Army knife was carried close to the body, not taking up an item slot.

As the flames rose, radiating light and warmth, dispelling the chill, Wanlifengdao's eyes reflected the firelight, and the rigid expression on his face eased a little.

The crackling of the firewood covered the sound of the wind, and also covered the faint *shenyin* coming from outside the temple courtyard.

"Uhh... uhhh..."

It sounded like a woman's *shenyin*, but it had nothing to do with romance or intimacy.

If one had to describe it, it was like the desperate, hoarse sound made when a throat is torn open and blood gurgles out of the trachea.

It was very similar to Kayako's wail in *The Grudge*.

Wanlifengdao had carried out many missions and had reached Lv5. In order to anticipate danger and protect himself, he had deliberately increased his Agility and Perception attributes to 7 points.

Even with the whistling wind and the crackling of the firewood, he still heard the strange *shenyin* outside the temple at the first moment.

Wanlifengdao held his long sword in front of him and was about to shout for his teammates to come and support him when he heard the *shenyin* rapidly increase in volume, from faint to loud, from far to near.

*Crack—*

A blue flagstone at the base of the wall split in two, the crack extending all the way from the base of the wall, like a wave rippling across the surface of water, attacking Wanlifengdao.

Before Wanlifengdao could shout, he saw a pale, flawless arm suddenly emerge from the soil beneath his feet, violently pushing open the flagstone.

The arm was more than two meters long, with slender upper and lower arms, unlike a human arm. The five verdant jade fingers were round and smooth, the tips of the nails painted with red *koudan* made from crushed balsam petals. Judging by the hand alone, it would be more than qualified to be a hand model on Taobao.

Wanlifengdao wasn't a hand fetishist, and even if he was, he probably wouldn't be able to appreciate this snow-white arm, as slender as a python, suddenly appearing in front of him.

With the long sword in hand, a desire to kill arose. Wanlifengdao swung his sword down with thunderous force, but the snow-white arm twisted and writhed as if it had no bones, dodging the sword as if it had eyes.

Wanlifengdao was about to lift his sword and slash back, but the boneless arm shot out like lightning, directly entangling Wanlifengdao's waist, arms, and throat, tightening slowly and powerfully like a python strangling its prey.

The snow-white, cold, plump, and smooth hand covered his face, tickling his beard and blocking his mouth and nose.

There was no intimacy, only terror.

In just an instant, Wanlifengdao felt his ribs about to break, his eyes filled with bloodshot, and his compressed lungs felt like they were about to explode.

"Uhh—"

He groaned with difficulty, using his last bit of strength to release the long sword in his hand.

The long sword fell downwards, but just as it was about to hit the ground, it was suddenly kicked up by the tip of Wanlifengdao's shoe, and he gripped it in his hand again.

Wanlifengdao gripped the long sword and stabbed it fiercely into the mud, towards the source of the snow-white arm.

The sword tip hit something, and scarlet blood gushed out of the mud. A scream was heard, and the snake-like arm quickly released its grip and retreated back into the soil.

*Crack crack crack crack crack crack—*

The blue flagstones in the temple cracked again, and this time the cracks fled outwards, towards the outside of the temple.

The arm buried in the ground wanted to escape.

"Where do you think you're going?!"

A roar came from in front of the Great Hero Hall. Xinghechou, who was holding various sutras in his hands, dropped the Buddhist scriptures, drew out a bronze *changji*, and leaped down from the steps in front of the hall.

The bronze *changji* suddenly burst into flames, drawing a circle of fire in the air, and slammed down on the blue flagstone.

碎石飞溅，尘土飞扬，地底处又是一声惨叫传来。

Sparks flew, dust filled the air, and another scream came from underground.

Following closely behind Xinghechou, the Huibing Dharma Master silently stepped on the ground with his cloth shoes. As he leaped forward, his soft and delicate flesh suddenly expanded, instantly transforming into a muscular man, his shiny muscles comparable to those of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

*Boom!*

The muscle-bound monk Huibing's fists slammed into the ground like pile drivers, causing visible tremors to ripple across the ground. The aftershocks struck the arm buried deep underground.

*Crack.*

The clear sound of a bone fracture rang out. The monk Huibing was about to deliver another heavy blow when he discovered that the arm had already escaped the courtyard, fleeing into the dense forest outside the temple.

"Hoo...hoo...cough cough cough cough..."

Wanlifengdao stood bent over, the pain of suffocation causing him to cough uncontrollably. Fresh air had never been so lovely and charming.

"Are you alright?" Xinghechou frowned, patted Wanlifengdao on the back. The monk Huibing, his muscles returned to normal, also walked back.

"I'm fine." Wanlifengdao's face was flushed and pale by turns. He was the second highest-level person in this team, yet he had almost died an unknown death at the hands of this slender arm that could burrow into the ground.

He barely straightened up, pulling at his collar to ease his breathing, and angrily complained, "Who said there was no danger in collecting firewood alone? Where's that guy surnamed Li?! Where is he?"

"What are you calling me for?"

Li Ang walked over leisurely from the west side of the courtyard, carrying a wooden box, followed by Liu Wudai, who was also carrying a similar wooden box.

Wanlifengdao held his long sword, his face gloomy, and said, "I said we shouldn't have split up. Do you know I almost died?"

"Didn't you not die?" Li Ang curled his lip and put down the wooden box. "If that monster couldn't even kill you, now that we're all here, it's even less likely to kill us.

Besides, now that we know its attack methods, we can be more targeted in our future precautions."

Wanlifengdao's expression was uncertain. He secretly suspected that this "companion" who was pretending to be crazy was deliberately letting him be attacked alone in the courtyard in order to obtain information about the enemy.

Li Ang ignored him, directly put down the wooden box in his hand, and then ran up the steps of the Great Hero Hall in a few steps, picked up the pile of Buddhist scriptures that Xinghechou and the others had dropped, and returned to the fire.

"*Lengyan Jing*, *Fahua Jing*, *Xin Jing*, *Jin Gang*, *Lenga*, *Bei You Ji*, *Feng Shan Ji*, *Shan An Za Lu*... The scriptures in the Guhan Temple's Sutra Pavilion are no different from what this little monk has read before."

Seeing Li Ang casually flipping through the Buddhist scriptures, Huibing put his palms together and said, "This is not a fictional otherworld, it should be ancient history of the real world, and at the latest, it should be the Ming Dynasty."

"The Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty." Li Ang casually added, "To be precise, it's the fifteenth year of Jiajing, which is Bingshen in the sexagenary cycle, which according to later calendars is 1536 AD."

"How do you know?" Xinghechou asked.

"Look at the ledger." Li Ang pointed to the wooden box at his feet. "This box contains the accounts of Guhan Temple recorded by Abbot Daozhi of Guhan Temple. The last entry in the account is a list of tenant rents for the monks' fields in the eastern village.

The last date is in March of the Jiawu year, 1533. If you push it forward three years, it's now 1536."

Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty...

Xinghechou and Wanlifengdao were both a little confused. Although they had both received compulsory education, and the latter was a genuine post-90s college student, they were both quite ignorant of history.

The Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty was not as famous as the Jianyuan period of the Han Dynasty or the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty, nor did it have lingering Qing Dynasty loyalists willing to invest in filming dramas like the Qing Dynasty.

They really didn't understand this period of history. It would be quite good if they could name Wang Shouren, Qi Jiguang, and Hai Rui, let alone the Renyin Palace Coup or the Gengxu Rebellion.

Seeing the confused expressions on Xinghechou and Wanlifengdao's faces, Li Ang showed a mysterious smile.

He sat on the ground, placed the various books in front of him, and indifferently picked up a ledger by the firelight and began to read.

"What are you doing?" Wanlifengdao said dumbfounded, "Shouldn't we be sitting together, guarding against monster attacks?"

"You guys guard, I'll take a look at Guhan Temple's past accounts first." Li Ang said leisurely, "The monster has already attacked once and was severely injured. It probably won't take action again in a short time."

With that, Li Ang began to read the ledger, flipping through it extremely quickly. At the same time, he casually picked up a Buddhist scripture and threw it to Huibing, "Here, Dharma Master Huibing, you can take a look too. This is an ancient Buddhist book from 500 years ago, usually kept in museums."

Huibing smiled wryly, took the scripture, and sat down.

Li Ang looked at the ledger and read aloud.

"Paying imperial grain and national taxes in the Renchen year... water foot money... car foot money... food money... warehouse inspection money... pu basket money... bamboo basket money..."

"Settling tenant rents in March of the Gui Si year... collecting 25 *shi* and 5 *dou* of rent grain, collecting 11 *shi* and 3 *dou* of interest grain, collecting 2 *shi* and 5 *dou* of principal and interest shares..."

"...borrowing 20 *liang* from Gong Shisan, a merchant from Longyou, Chen Zheng acting as guarantor, with an annual interest rate of two *fen*..."

Li Ang's voice of reading the accounts was like demonic sounds entering his ears, making Xinghechou feel dizzy. He would rather find a monster and fight it for three hundred rounds than listen to these inexplicable things.

"Can you stop reading?" Wanlifengdao couldn't help but say.

"Flowers will wither, grass will wither, people will lie, and clues will disappear, but the numbers in the ledger will not deceive. No matter how clever the accountant is, how much they embellish, the real problem will be exposed through simple number games.

The sooner I finish reading these accounts, the sooner I can discover the anomalies of Guhan Temple and find the reason for the monsters lingering here."

Li Ang shook the ledger and said casually, "These ledgers of Guhan Temple use the earliest Longmen accounting method,

Which divides all accounts into four categories: 'In' (various income), 'Pay' (various expenses), 'Store' (various assets), and 'Owe' (various liabilities).

Using the balance method of 'In - Pay = Store - Owe' for accounting, setting up a general ledger for classified records, preparing an In-Pay statement (income statement) and a Store-Owe statement (balance sheet), and implementing dual-regulation to calculate profit and loss.

This accounting method is also called Helongmen."

Li Ang looked at his teammates, "It sounds complicated, but it's actually quite simple to calculate. Are any of you majoring in business administration? Help me reconcile the accounts?"

"....."

What the hell is business administration.

Xinghechou and Wanlifengdao looked at each other, their eyes revealing a sense of pain in the ass.

The Special Affairs Bureau's training for field personnel is mainly how to deal with demons and monsters, how could it be like taking a cultural class like this?

Liu Wudai sat next to Li Ang, picked up a ledger, and slowly flipped through it, as if she could understand those obscure classical Chinese characters and the complicated accounts arranged vertically.

Moreover, she didn't read the ledger word for word, but translated the classical Chinese on the spot, using modern accounting methods to directly reorganize the accounts.

Guhan Temple's Changsheng Treasury lends to tenant farmers, landlords, and merchants, with principal and interest rates, compound interest, annualized interest, and interest on interest....

Li Ang raised his eyebrows, exchanged a glance with Liu Wudai, "You understand too?"

Liu Wudai said expressionlessly, "MSc, MBA."

Oh, Master of Science, Master of Business Administration, high-end talent.

Li Ang nodded and began to verbally reconcile the accounts with Liu Wudai.

The two were like performing a crosstalk show, one sentence from you, one sentence from me, making Xinghechou and Wanlifengdao feel like they were dying.

Later on, Li Ang and Liu Wudai, who were working together in perfect harmony, simply reported a series of inexplicable nouns plus numbers to each other.

What were the cashiers, deposits, inventory, sales and inventory, management fees, fixed asset details, intangible asset details, and liability details of Guhan Temple over the past few years...

Soon, nearly an hour passed, and Li Ang and Liu Wudai finally finished flipping through the two large boxes of all the accounts of Guhan Temple for the past ten years.

"Hehehe, hehehehehe, hehehehehehe."

Li Ang tapped the cover of the ledger with his knuckles, laughing strangely with unknown meaning.

Liu Wudai frowned slightly, a layer of displeasure covering her cold and pretty face.

Xinghechou, who had never felt an hour could be so long, took a deep breath and asked Li Ang, "What did you find?"

"Blind spot."

Li Ang said quietly, "I think I guessed the identity of the arm ghost just now."