Deposed? I couldn't be happier! I wouldn't even be a dog to the crown prince.

As Li Shimin's cold decree rang out, a somber funeral bell tolled outside the Taiji Hall. The heavy metallic clang swept across every glazed tile of Chang'an, as if mourning a bygone era. Wang De, his face solemn, held the electronic edict, shimmering with a cold purple glow, and slowly ascended the white jade steps. He took a deep breath, and his aged voice, amplified by a loudspeaker, broadcast live to all provinces worldwide: "By order of the Chairman, effective immediately, gold, silver, and other physical currencies are to be withdrawn from the legal tender of the Tang Dynasty. All settlements throughout the territory will be solely linked to the Tian Shu Credit Point!"

At this command, the entire city of Chang'an, and indeed the entire empire, fell into a brief, deathly silence, followed by an overwhelming tremor.

The once bustling morning market in front of a redemption point on Zhuque Avenue came to an abrupt halt.

The people looked at each other in bewilderment, still clutching heavy copper coins or pieces of silver in their hands.

A vendor selling flatbread stood frozen in place, looking at the smart terminal in front of him with a sense of helplessness.

"This...this silver is really useless now?"

He timidly handed two loose silver coins to the staff behind the counter.

Under that sophisticated scanner, the purity of the silver fragments was confirmed.

Then, the staff tapped the holographic panel a few times.

The electronic bracelet on the vendor's wrist emitted a crisp "beep" sound, and a string of green numbers gently jumped.

"Sir, it's all set up now. From now on, you can just scan the code to buy flour, which is more convenient than paying with cash."

The vendor stared at the "ten credit points" flashing in the bracelet, his eyes filled with disbelief.

He instinctively walked to the oil shop next door and, with trembling hands, brought the bracelet close to the sensor.

"Payment successful, one point deducted from your account."

The machine's crisp and pleasant beeping sound stirred up a storm in the hearts of the people.

This payment method, which requires no weighing, no cutting, and not even visual verification, shocked them like never before.

That sense of convenience that transcends time quickly dispelled the fear of the unknown.

In just half an hour, people could be seen excitedly displaying their credit balances in the streets and alleys of Chang'an.

Unbeknownst to them, this invisible number was binding their fate entirely to that dark blue algorithmic hub.

However, deep within the grand mansions of Chang'an, the atmosphere was as cold and gloomy as a mass grave.

In a villa belonging to the Cui family in Jiangnan, the remaining clan elders were stumbling and rushing into the private treasury.

The heavy iron door was pushed open, revealing boxes of neatly stacked barefoot gold.

On ordinary days, these bright yellow little cuties are the source of their confidence to decide life and death.

But now, under the dim light, these gold bricks appear somewhat dull and lackluster.

"Report! Master, the grain shops in the city are refusing to accept gold!"

"Breaking news! The cloth shops and oil mills have also switched to credit points, and our counters are full of scrap metal!"

These piercing reports were like death knells striking everyone's hearts.

The elder of the Cui clan reached out with trembling hands, his fingertips tracing the cold, hard gold bricks.

Unable to purchase goods in the market, this once immense wealth instantly turned into piles of useless stones taking up space.

They couldn't even find a shopkeeper willing to accept gold if they wanted to buy a liter of rice to fill their stomachs.

This feeling of despair, of falling from the pinnacle to abject poverty in an instant, drove these pampered bigwigs to the brink of madness.

Their foundation, their power, their centuries of accumulation all vanished before these few lines of cold code.

Meanwhile, in the holographic monitoring room of the Taiji Hall, Li Shimin was changing into a more form-fitting black outfit.

He didn't sit down, but stood with his hands behind his back, his eyes fixed on the huge virtual screen.

On the screen, the virtual figures for the national treasury were soaring upwards at a terrifying arc.

That is the "seigniorage" and "management fee" that the system precisely harvests when physical wealth around the world is forcibly converted.

Those strings of zeros, representing wealth, kept overlapping and magnifying in Li Shimin's pupils.

His fingertips tapped lightly on the edge of the console unconsciously, the rhythm so fast it was chilling.

"Is this the power of numbers?"

Li Shimin murmured in a low voice, his tone revealing a chilling greed.

The thrill of plundering the world's wealth without waging war or leaving corpses strewn across the land completely corrupted him.

He watched as those aristocratic accounts turned gray due to the illicit funds being locked, and suddenly let out a twisted, cold laugh.

The laughter echoed through the empty hall, sounding exactly like those cyber villains who reap souls in the shadows.

"Hahaha! Look at Wang De!"

Li Shimin suddenly turned around and pointed at the red curve on the screen that looked like a sharp sword shooting into the sky.

"From this day forward, there will be no more powerful clans, only my 'users'!"

His eyes no longer held the restraint he once had for renowned officials; instead, they were filled with an absolute obsession with data.

He began to enjoy the romance of this overwhelming power, reveling in the suffocating feeling of having the world at his fingertips.

Meanwhile, in the Cui family mansion in Jiangnan, a thousand miles away.

The air was so tense it was almost on the verge of spontaneous combustion.

Cui Yonglin, the current head of the Cui family, sat in a wheelchair, the artificial hill behind him already smashed by his angry retainers.

His once cloudy old eyes were now filled with terrifying, spiderweb-like blood vessels, and a beast-like growl came from his throat.

The contents of the imperial edict were floating on a holographic projection in front of him, like a giant mocking face.

"Li Shimin... do you intend to let my clansmen starve to death in the treasury!"

Cui Yonglin's voice was hoarse and stern, each word seemingly filled with intense hatred.

He looked at the wailing clansmen filling the room, and at the elders who were once high and mighty, now limp like stray dogs.

A desperate, suicidal idea instantly formed in his nearly collapsing mind.

He slammed his hand hard on the armrest of the wheelchair, so hard that it cracked the fine sandalwood.

Beside him, a fine, warm jade ruyi that had been with him for decades was casually picked up by him.

"Snap!"

Emerald green jade fragments flew in the cold light as he smashed the priceless treasure violently onto the bluestone slab.

The crisp cracking sound echoed in the deathly silent hall, stirring up the ferocity of all the survivors.

Cui Yonglin suddenly sat up halfway, his eyes bloodshot as he roared at the assassins below.

His voice was distorted from excessive force, carrying a sense of resolute determination to destroy everything.

"Since he's not giving us a way out, then let's dump all the cash! Let's create a bank run! Empty the physical vaults of the Tang Dynasty's central bank!"