Cultivation: I Have Studied Abroad in the Modern World-Chapter 1229 - 544: Currency System, Underworld Reform

Chapter 1229: Chapter 544: Currency System, Underworld Reform

Zhang looked at the Nine Nether Emperor who was deep in thought and continued to explain Zheng Fa’s idea:

Jiushan Sect, no, the entire Xuanwei has long been suffering from a lack of Spirit Stones!

Ever since Zheng Fa entered the Cultivation World, he discovered that Xuanwei’s currency system was simply a tangled mess.

The cultivators on the lowest level still actually use mundane gold.

The middle level starts using Spirit Stones, but at the higher level, even between sects, more transactions are actually done through bartering.

Essentially, these were various helpless measures cultivators adopted to solve the currency issue.

In the earlier years, Zheng Fa didn’t pay much attention to currency, but when he started to manage Jiushan Sect, he couldn’t help but ponder over this matter, and the more he thought about it, the more he found it troublesome.

According to Zheng Fa’s current understanding, currency as a general equivalent essentially represents a claim—when you have currency, you can exchange it with others for corresponding resources.

From this, several core issues about currency need to be addressed.

The first is value stability—nobody wants the value of what they can exchange for to decrease.

The second is recognition—otherwise it’d be troublesome if others are unwilling to exchange with you.

The third is durability—if it deteriorates, you’d be devastated.

From these three points, several more requirements can be derived: currency must be scarce, portable.

It’s best if it can be divisible—having various denominations enables it to be used in all transaction situations.

In this regard, Spirit Stones and gold, indeed, have their advantages.

Although gold is not much use to cultivators, it is widely recognized in the mundane world; its durability and preservability are quite decent.

The biggest problem lies in value stability, or rather scarcity—cultivators can turn stone into gold.

If everyone can print money, who could withstand that?

On the other hand, cultivators are fundamentally not that interested in gold.

Precisely because of this, gold is hard to exchange for spiritual material, but this guarantees that those high-level cultivators don’t mass-produce gold, inadvertently allowing gold to still play a small role among fellow disciples.

Compared to gold, Spirit Stones are naturally better.

This item does not easily dissipate Spiritual Energy like other spiritual materials, and is recognized by cultivators.

The most important advantage is that even Jiushan Sect, with spirit material conversion technology, cannot produce it, making it hard to overissue.

Conversely, this item is also too scarce; not only is the production low, but the uses for Spirit Stones are also vast.

They are not only aids in cultivation but can also be used to set up arrays. For example, Jiushan Sect uses Spirit Stones in various arrays, with a huge daily consumption.

Before the discovery of Spirit Stones in Forget River, the value of Spirit Stones in the entire Xuanwei Realm was actually continuously skyrocketing—even resembling a sense of deflation.

The Spirit Stones at the bottom of Wangchuan River can certainly alleviate this problem, but being too useful fundamentally indicates that it’s not suitable as currency.

Another issue is that Spirit Stones are hard to break down—the lowest being a low-grade Spirit Stone, making small-scale transactions difficult.

Due to the low quantity, meeting the needs of large-scale transactions is difficult.

Due to indissolubility, it cannot meet daily transactional needs.

This leads to the awkward position of Spirit Stones—not easy to use, hard to find a substitute, so they can only be used grudgingly.

...

After listening to Zhang’s explanation, the Nine Nether Emperor felt like he had received a lesson, greatly shocked, dazed for a long time before shaking his head to regain his senses, and spoke, "So you say Jiushan Money can solve this problem?"

Zhang said, "Our Jiushan Sect’s good deeds... the junior brother used a term to describe it, called work points."

"Work points?"

"This is actually the measurement of labor value of the sect’s disciples, quite useful within Jiushan Sect." Zhang explained, "Every year, based on the past year’s production situation and fiscal surplus, we determine the amount of good deeds for the coming year to maintain its relative value stability."

"The acceptance of good deeds within the sect is quite high, and disciples also exchange good deeds with each other."

"Therefore, we say we already have our own alternative currency, and it has even been functioning for some time, and the situation is still relatively good now."

Zhang explained.

This clearly meant that Zheng Fa and they wanted to establish this Heaven and Earth Bank, not as a whim, but as something planned well in advance.

"But this system works well within the sect; trying to spread it out would pose a huge problem."

"It won’t be recognized by others."

The Nine Nether Emperor immediately said.

"Exactly." Zhang nodded, "Hence, we need a Heaven and Earth Bank... and even need to rigidly link Jiushan Money to Spirit Stones."

"We need all cultivators to believe that Jiushan Money can be exchanged for Spirit Stones at any Heaven and Earth Bank."

The Nine Nether Emperor thought for a long time before clapping his hand, "In this way, it resolves the issues of Spirit Stones being too useful yet hard to divide."

Zhang laughed, "What the Emperor said is exactly what we intend."

"This is a good thing for All Heavens and Myriads of Worlds!"

"Actually, the greatest benefit is that it can solve Jiushan Sect’s financial problems."

"Ah?"

"Just like I mentioned before, currency is a claim—in other words, if Jiushan Money is widely promoted, it’s equivalent to borrowing from all cultivators..."

"..."

The Nine Nether Emperor was stunned.

"On one hand, it’s equivalent to obtaining resources out of nowhere."

"..."

"On the other hand, if cultivators from All Heavens and Myriads of Worlds all hold Jiushan Money... would they wish for Jiushan Sect to collapse?"

In the hall, the Nine Nether Emperor and Yan Changge and others’ eyes widened, and following Zhang’s description, they imagined slightly, then they found themselves shivering with a chill up their spines.

"Is this all Zheng Fa’s idea?"

"Yes."

The Nine Nether Emperor looked up, let out a long breath, his expression complicated.