Lingzhu Zi

Anyone who can work out a viable solution through their own thinking in a completely unfamiliar field is undeniably a sharp mind, no matter the era.

Praised by his younger brother, Lin Yun grew a little sheepish. He asked, "So this plan can actually work?"

"It can, but these items have to be crafted with great care to avoid being easily counterfeited. Also, we must never treat them as official currency. After all, we are not a sovereign state, so there is no need for us to issue formal currency. We will just make them a unique exchangeable item exclusive to Xiushui City," Lin Xiao said.

After a moment's thought, he added further, "It would also be ideal to set the exchange rule as one-way downward conversion only. That is to say, spirit stones can be exchanged for this item, and this item can be exchanged for gold, silver, and spirit stones, but no one can use gold or silver to exchange back for this item. This rule will prevent unscrupulous people from amassing money from common folks to come to Xiushui City and exchange it in bulk for spirit stones."

Lin Yun did not quite follow the earlier part of the explanation, but he fully caught on once Lin Xiao laid out the details. "You are absolutely right. If reverse exchange were allowed, there would definitely be ill-intentioned cultivators who would scheme to extort wealth from ordinary people to get their hands on massive amounts of spirit stones."

Seeing that Lin Yun had a full grasp of the critical points, Lin Xiao smiled and continued, "Then, brother, wait a little while for me. I will go work out the details of how to produce this exchangeable item right now."

"Sure thing. I'll go take care of some other affairs first. Come find me once you've got everything figured out." With that, Lin Yun turned and left.

This task was no challenge at all for Lin Xiao. He immediately went to the Finance Hall to meet Qin Jianghe and withdrew ten thousand spirit stones, then brought the entire pouch of ten thousand spirit stones to the Trade and Transaction Center once night fell.

The Trade and Transaction Center was already closed for the day. Lin Xiao went straight to the Universal Fair Scale placed at the center, set the storage pouch holding the ten thousand spirit stones on the left pan of the scale, and controlled the Universal Fair Scale with his own spiritual power.

In just a few moments, the storage pouch on the left pan vanished, while an identical storage pouch appeared simultaneously on the right pan.

Lin Xiao picked it up and opened it, and sure enough, there were a hundred thousand tiny spirit beads inside.

This was one of the more basic functions of the Universal Fair Scale: it could break down items into identical, equal-mass, equal-volume counterparts without any loss, and it could also merge items of the same category back into one of equal mass and volume.

Take the spirit beads in Lin Xiao's hand for example. The total spiritual energy contained in all of them was exactly the same as the total spiritual energy in the ten thousand spirit stones Lin Xiao had brought earlier.

This was something no ordinary cultivator could ever pull off. While a cultivator could technically split a spirit stone into several pieces, no one would ever do that, because once a whole spirit stone was cut apart, the total spiritual energy contained in the fragments would be far less than the amount stored in the original unbroken spirit stone.

The reason spirit stones had been able to circulate as currency in their whole, individual form all this time was due to the unique properties of the world's spiritual veins.

The spiritual veins in this world gestated spiritual ore, from which spirit stones were mined. It was worth noting that every single spirit stone produced from these spiritual ores had exactly the same concentration of spiritual energy, no matter what shape or size it was on the outside. If a half-finished spirit stone that had not yet reached its full spiritual energy capacity was mined prematurely, all the spiritual energy inside would drain away rapidly, leaving nothing but an ordinary, useless rock.

That was why no one would ever carelessly cut a whole, intact spirit stone.

But now Lin Xiao could easily bypass this long-standing problem with the Universal Fair Scale.

Still, he had no intention of opening up access to this function of the scale to others. For the time being, only he himself could use it.

Lin Xiao could not help but marvel once again at the impeccable quality of the system's rewards. The Universal Fair Scale, a reward he received when he first founded the city, was perfectly suited to all kinds of needs Xiushui City had. It truly lived up to its reputation as a founding reward.

Lin Yun had expected he would have to wait quite a while, but to his surprise, Lin Xiao came to see him that very same night and set the storage pouch holding the hundred thousand spirit beads right in front of him.

"What is this?" Lin Yun asked in confusion as he undid the pouch's opening.

"These are spirit beads. We will use them to exchange for spirit stones from now on. One spirit stone can be exchanged for a hundred spirit beads, and each bead contains exactly the same amount of spiritual energy. There is one more point to note: for now, these spirit beads are only for use within Xiushui City. Later, we can use them to pay salaries to all the city staff who do not practice cultivation," Lin Xiao explained.

He then added further clarification, "Any cultivator can sense that the spiritual energy held in these spirit beads is exactly the same as that in regular spirit stones, so you don't have to worry about people refusing to accept them. We also have no need to fear counterfeiting, because the cost of trying to replicate these spirit beads would be many times higher than the value of the beads themselves."

At these words, Lin Yun nodded happily. "This makes everything so much easier to handle."

"Come find me if you ever run short of the stock," Lin Xiao said.

Lin Yun nodded in reply. "Got it."

The next day, before Lin Yun's previously proposed temporary plan of using gold and silver to exchange for spirit stones could even be officially launched, a public notice rang out across Xiushui City. The notice informed all residents that anyone who had spirit stones they wanted to break into smaller units could head to the City Lord's Manor to exchange their spirit stones for spirit beads of equal value.

At first, the common people were confused by what the announcement meant, but out of curiosity, they all went over to the exchange counter at the City Lord's Manor to find out the details.

When they learned that their spirit stones could be converted into much smaller spirit beads for daily transactions, they were overjoyed. The City Lord's Manor had also guaranteed that every cultivator would accept these spirit beads as valid payment, and given the people's deep trust in the City Lord's Manor and the Lingxian Sect, many of them immediately pulled out one or two spirit stones to exchange.

After that, these new spirit bead holders went up to the low-rank cultivators who were peddling goods on the streets, and asked if they could use the beads to make purchases.

At first, these low-rank cultivators thought the ordinary people had been scammed by someone, and were treating a bunch of random unknown trinkets as treasures to trade for their goods.

But after the people mentioned that the beads were issued by the City Lord's Manor and were imbued with usable spiritual energy, the cultivators took a few spirit beads to inspect carefully. They soon confirmed that the beads worked exactly like regular spirit stones: the spiritual energy was perfectly preserved, and every single bead contained the exact same amount of spiritual energy.

The low-rank cultivators had no idea how technically difficult it was to split spirit stones evenly, so they simply assumed this was the kind of advanced method only a great sect could pull off. Since these spirit beads were just as rich in spiritual energy as regular spirit stones, and every single one had the exact same spiritual weight, they made for a perfect smaller substitute for spirit stones in trade.

After that point, the City Lord's Manor barely needed to do any more promotion. The spirit beads naturally became one of the most mainstream equivalents of value in Xiushui City.

However, the initial rule Lin Xiao had set that restricted spirit bead usage to Xiushui City led to a problem: many low-rank cultivators from other sects or royal families would exchange spirit beads in the city, but could not take their leftover beads with them when they left. In the end, Lin Xiao had no choice but to compromise and lift the restriction on the spirit beads' usable range.

He had never expected that so many cultivators would end up using the spirit beads too.

He had only created them to make things more convenient for the local residents who owned spirit stones, and had set the original usage limit specifically to avoid disrupting the economy of other regions in Pusi Kingdom.

After all, for countless years, cultivators had been getting by just fine using whole spirit stones for all their transactions. He had never imagined that they too would have so many small trades that required a unit as tiny as the spirit bead.