Longzang

Chapter 799 Currency Issuance
Although grain coupons were good, they also had significant limitations.

For example, right now within Qingming, the appeal of grain isn't very strong; not long ago, several million kilograms of grain rotted by accident. This wasn't intentional; it's just that the speed of building warehouses couldn't keep up with the speed of grain production.

To consume the food, the old Taoist priest had over a hundred million guinea pigs and built several large breeding farms. At this time, the production of Qingming Cement increased greatly, so the old priest extravagantly used reinforced concrete to build breeding farms, each with ten floors, where a large number of guinea pigs were kept.

Because the space was cramped and overcrowded, the guinea pigs were all in a bad mood, so eating became their only pleasure in life, and as a result, they grew fast and fat. So the old man followed suit and built several more similar breeding farms.

With the surge in guinea pig meat production, Qingming could no longer consume such a large quantity. Inspired by military rations, the cultivators of Taichu Palace began cooking the guinea pig meat with salt, canning it, and selling it in large quantities to surrounding areas. However, the largest buyer was none other than Li Zhi. Li Zhi purchased 500,000 jin (approximately 250,000 kg) of canned meat in one go, clearly indicating a major plan was in the works.

If there are grain coupons, then naturally there can be cloth coupons, oil coupons, steel coupons... Wei Yuan felt that this was not enough to cover all of Qingming's advantages, so after careful consideration, he decided to change the core of issuing base currency based on Qingming's merit contributions.

Following the naming conventions of this realm, the full name of the new currency is: Azure Nether Benevolence Supreme Saint Supreme Clarity Longevity Innate Merit Immortal Essence.

Abbreviated as Qingming Immortal Essence, or simply Qingyuan or Immortal Essence.

One Immortal Essence is equivalent to ten Merit Points, which can be exchanged for one tael of Immortal Silver, thus establishing the basic currency value. However, to increase the scarcity of Immortal Essence, Wei Yuan stipulated that Immortal Essence could be exchanged for Immortal Silver, but Immortal Silver could not be exchanged for Immortal Essence.

Both Azure Essence and Immortal Essence are interchangeable with Merit Points and can be used to exchange for rare items on the Merit Point Ranking in Azure Nether. Currently, the only items that can be exchanged with Merit Points, and which are in extremely short supply by all parties, are Longevity Pills and Dao Foundation Training slots.

After thinking it over, Wei Yuan added the Nether Iron and Nether Crystal armor and weapons to the Qingyuan purchase list, and also added some large-scale material exchanges, such as high-quality forged steel ingots, military canned guns, flying swords, etc., and then removed fishing items such as longevity pills from the list.

After Wei Yuan handed the design over to Renjian Yanhuo for refinement, he began arranging the printing of the first batch of Qingyuan banknotes. The new currency used jade paper as the base material and featured a redesigned special paper for banknotes. Having experienced the outer world, the size of the banknotes was no longer an issue; they could simply be copied without being too large or too small.

The key element was the currency design. Thousands of versions of the "Human World" design were produced, but only a dozen or so were ultimately selected for Wei Yuan to choose from. The very first version prominently featured Wei Yuan's face in the center!
Wei Yuan was startled, but then felt that this seemed like a good way to harvest luck, so he hesitated for a long time before reluctantly putting this version aside. In the end, he chose a version with the Taichu Palace mountain gate as the core and the Qingming scenery as the background.

In this way, most of the fortune goes to the Taichu Palace, which can be considered another contribution Wei Yuan has made to the palace. Then, a small portion of the fortune, after being filtered by the Taichu Palace, goes to Qingming, and Wei Yuan can also get a share. Although Wei Yuan only gets two or three out of a hundred, it is safe, without any karmic consequences or worries.

Once the design was finalized, Wei Yuan began arranging the printing.

Printing a banknote is not a difficult task. Renjian Yanhuo designed it in one hour and optimized it in three hours, creating a special banknote printing machine. Not only is the plate making extremely exquisite, but they can also add a few special ice silk threads during the printing process, making the feel even better and making it more difficult to counterfeit.

The printing press only requires a Dao Foundation cultivator to rotate it at a constant speed. Each Dao Foundation can be used for three consecutive days, with each cycle lasting three days. This is the perfect method for polishing a Dao Foundation through meticulous, gradual work.

In the blink of an eye, the printing plant was completed, and within three days, it produced Qingyuan banknotes with a face value of ten million. Subsequently, Wei Yuan held a grand ceremony to issue the Qingyuan banknotes. None of the cultivators of Taichu Palace had ever heard of this before, so they all attended without exception.

Faced with a sheet of banknotes resembling a square rock, Wei Yuan first asked Zhang Sheng to make the drawing.

Zhang Sheng did not refuse. With a shower of sword energy, he immediately cut the original banknotes neatly without any deviation, which made Xu Henshui and the others feel particularly pleased.

After cutting the original banknote, Wei Yuan raised his hand and sprinkled a bit of immortal energy. In an instant, the banknote shed all its mundane and vulgar qualities, glowed slightly, and revealed an ethereal and lofty meaning, with a faint fragrance wafting around it.

This is another anti-counterfeiting measure added by Wei Yuan. Paper money can be counterfeited, but immortal spiritual energy is difficult to imitate. If someone were skilled enough to truly imitate immortal spiritual energy, they wouldn't bother with such a thing.

Wei Yuan possesses numerous spiritual plants, and what he lacks least right now is immortal spiritual energy. He just extracted a bit of immortal orchid energy and used it to transform all the ten million face value of Qing Yuan. This is the first time Qing Ming has issued currency, so it is an unprecedented event. The cultivators of Tai Chu Palace watched the excitement, but many were also confused, not understanding why Wei Yuan would go to such lengths when there was already immortal silver available.

Only Xu Henshui, seeing Wei Yuan release a wisp of celestial orchid fragrance, felt his entire being begin to glow.

As soon as the ceremony ended, Xu Henshui couldn't wait any longer. He grabbed Wei Yuan and said, "If you don't have enough Immortal Orchid Qi, just say the word. I have as much as you need! By the way, do you still want Immortal Orchids?"

The orchid is also a divine plant, and Wei Yuan, adhering to the principle that the more the better, naturally accepted all that came.

Xu Henshui immediately took out two more bulbs, which were new plants that he had divided during this period of time. He then gritted his teeth and said, "My foundation has just stabilized, so I only have this many for now. But if you want more, I can barely divide two more."

Wei Yuan was startled. Xu Henshui was about to damage his own foundation. He quickly said, "That's enough! These two plants should be kept here with Uncle for now. I'll have the strength to care for them later."

Wei Yuan had just advanced in his cultivation level, and his mortal realm still needed time to consolidate. Wei Yuan was worried that if he collected more immortal plants, and his mental world expanded even further, things would become difficult.

The Myriad Transformations Realm made Wei Yuan feel like he was on the verge of death, and his cultivation seemed to be progressing at lightning speed. But upon closer examination, it was basically all due to killing and plundering. He even consumed two small worlds, and in the end, he needed Wang Fo to come and feed him a bite before he could reach perfection. Otherwise, Wei Yuan would probably have cultivated until the end of his lifespan without ever advancing to the next level.

With the Azure Essence made, the next step is the second matter. Wei Yuan said to the cultivators, "Those who are near the water get the moon first. Would you like to borrow some Azure Essence to take back? The annual interest rate is only 10%. Borrowing Azure Essence and repaying Azure Essence can be done through the Azure Nether Bank."

The crowd was a little confused at first, but Bao Yun, Cui Yu, and Xu Henshui, the core members of the powerful families, were the first to react. Bao Yun said, "I'll borrow two million."

Cui Yu then said, "Then I'll borrow two million too."

Xu Henshui said directly, "I'll take the rest!"

Wei Yuan was startled and quickly said, "It still needs to circulate; we can't borrow them all."

Xu Henshui said, "What's so difficult about that? Just print more! Or why don't you print another fifty million?"

Wei Yuan was shocked again. Inflation was already happening before the product had even been issued?
He suppressed his impulse and finally let Xu Henshui borrow two million as well. Then, unexpectedly, Ji Liuli and Feng Chutang each borrowed one million, while Feng Tingyu took two million. As a result, ten million Qingyuan were divided up in the blink of an eye. Sun Yu and Yu Zhizhuo also wanted to join in the fun. Chuhe Laodao, backed by Jianmu Palace, couldn't fall behind either. So Wei Yuan had no choice but to print another ten million.

As Wei Yuan once again showered down the fragrance of orchids, Xu Henshui's beauty shone through, almost outshining everyone else in the room.

With everything prepared, Wei Yuan officially issued Qing Yuan.

Overnight, notices were posted throughout the cities announcing that all registered Qingming personnel, regardless of status, would receive Qingyuan for every point of merit they earned. Qingyuan could be used to purchase any supplies except for longevity pills. All benefits originally due for merit remained unchanged.

An ordinary person, without being lazy or working too hard, can earn a little merit by working diligently for a month. After ten months, they can earn an extra Qingyuan, which is equivalent to one tael of immortal silver. Qingming grain and meat are cheap, and there are additional discounts when purchasing with Qingyuan. This one tael of immortal silver is equivalent to one hundred and thirty taels of ordinary silver when used to buy grain and meat.

Thus, a basic salary system covering the entire territory was established for the first time, which shocked the world. Overnight, Wei Yuan suddenly gained two million units of human fortune.

(End of this chapter)