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

Half a month later, Li Chengqian returned to Chang'an after his vacation. Looking at the mountains of wealth piled up in the national treasury and the gradually saturated real economy, he launched a new round of "dimensional reduction" plan.

The air in Taiji Hall still carried the smell of sulfur and gunpowder from the firecrackers on New Year's Eve.

Beneath the magnificent golden dome, civil and military officials stood in neat rows on both sides, arranged according to the new digital official rank system.

Li Shimin sat on the dragon throne, his face glowing, as he flipped through a thick stack of digital asset ledgers that had just been presented to him by the central bank.

Following this global dark web storm, the Tang Dynasty's treasury has reached a staggeringly high level of abundance.

However, Li Chengqian, who was the mastermind behind all of this, was standing unsteadily in the center of the main hall.

His bright yellow prince's robe was worn askew, his hands were tucked into his sleeves, and his face still wore his signature sleepy expression.

"Father, stop looking. Those numbers are just lifeless objects lying in the supercomputing center."

Li Chengqian yawned, his lazy voice breaking the solemnity of the hall.

Li Shimin raised his head, glared at him with his dragon eyes, and chuckled and scolded him in an annoyed tone.

"You brat, you just got back from vacation and you're already undermining me?"

Now that the world is at peace, the workshops in the West Market are operating day and night, and merchants have so many credit points that they are almost overflowing.

Tell me, if you don't keep all these assets in the national treasury, what kind of wealth can you generate?

"That's the problem. Our Tang Dynasty's real economy is already saturated."

Li Chengqian rolled his eyes helplessly and slowly pulled out a specially made dark gold data pointer from his sleeve.

"With money, people buy cars and houses, and acquire all the necessary household items."

Steel, cement, clothing, and other industries have reached a critical point of overcapacity.

If everyone has spare cash but nowhere to spend it, the financial liquidity across the country will stagnate in the long run.

The court officials listened to the Crown Prince's analysis and looked at each other in bewilderment.

Fang Xuanling frowned, hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward and bowed to ask.

"Your Highness, since there is overcapacity, we can continue to export to overseas countries."

"The barbarians in the Western Regions, Tibet, and even Persia haven't yet adopted the exquisite bracelets of our Great Tang Dynasty."

"Mr. Fang, how many coins do they have in their pockets?"

The real wealth is still in the hands of the old aristocratic families and newly emerging factory owners in our Great Tang Dynasty.

The real economy has already been thoroughly exploited. To get them to willingly hand over their hidden credits, we need to find them a completely new "field of韭菜" (a metaphor for exploiting unsuspecting individuals).

The smile on Li Chengqian's lips began to become somewhat unfathomable, and he made a sharp slash in the air with his right hand.

"Tian Shu, show the new toys I brought to all of you gentlemen!"

With a low growl, the previously calm air above the Taiji Hall distorted violently within a microsecond.

Thousands upon thousands of bright blue holographic particles, like a reversed galaxy, converged wildly from the four corners of the hall toward the center.

Under the influence of immense computing power, those particles burst forth with dazzling light.

Instantly, a magnificent city floating in a massive data stream was forcibly projected above everyone's heads.

That city was larger than any ordinary person could imagine.

The majestic city walls are made up of countless number blocks with shimmering, glowing geometric lines, and there are twelve huge city gates.

A series of moats formed from pure light waterfalls flowed ceaselessly.

In the center of the city, a miniature version of the Daming Palace floated in mid-air, radiating a noble golden light a hundred times more dazzling than that of the real world.

[The Great Tang Universe: The Second Chang'an]

These five stark white characters, with a breathtakingly sci-fi aesthetic, were firmly welded to the forefront of the city.

A collective gasp filled the hall.

Changsun Wuji was so shocked that he almost dropped the court tablet in his hand.

His squinting eyes were filled with shock, and he tilted his head back in a daze, drool almost dripping from the corner of his mouth.

"This... what a paradise this is! Your Highness, are you building a new capital in the heavens?"

"Lord Changsun, this is not in the heavens, this is in the network, in the virtual digital dimension."

Li Chengqian tapped the void with his pointer, and the massive holographic city immediately rippled.

He turned his head and looked at the shocked officials and began to explain this grand plan to consume excess production capacity to them in a very enticing, conversational way.

"My lords, a person's physical needs are ultimately limited in this lifetime."

Even if you are extremely wealthy, you can only live in one house per day, and even if your bed is the biggest, you can only sleep in a seven-foot bed. You can only eat the most delicacies three times a day at most.

In the end, all the construction of real industries is just a pile of worthless steel and cement.

However, human vanity is limitless!

Li Chengqian walked to Li Shimin's desk, placed his hands on the edge of the control panel, and his clear eyes reflected a shrewdness that sent chills down one's spine.

"In reality, even if you, Lord Changsun, bought a fine horse, you could only take it for a spin on Zhuque Street at most."

But in this "Second Chang'an", as long as you are willing to spend money, I can let you ride a holographic dragon and look down on all living beings from the heavens!

Human beings' competitive spirit, vanity, and desire for immortality will all be constrained by the mortal body in reality.

This metaverse, constructed from code, will perfectly support the wealth appreciation of the Tang Dynasty for the next century—it's the ultimate, cleanest virtual playground for exploiting investors!

This is a forward-thinking approach that completely digitizes and assetizes human desires.

It transformed into a heavy technological sledgehammer, shattering the traditional perceptions of all the old bureaucrats in the Taiji Hall on the spot.

Wei Zheng opened his mouth, wanting to find a sentence or two from the classics of Confucian sages that rebuked "playing with things and losing one's ambition."

But as he gazed upon that ethereal palace radiating boundless wealth, he realized that all his moralizing seemed utterly inadequate in the face of the algorithm's unparalleled romance.

"Your Highness, would the common people and shrewd merchants really be willing to buy these fakes with real gold and silver?"

Fang Xuanling swallowed hard, his voice carrying the characteristic hesitation born of doubt.

Whether it's true or not isn't up to you to decide; it's up to the body to decide.

Li Chengqian smiled mysteriously and pulled out a specially made holographic helmet from his pocket. The helmet was made entirely of black titanium alloy and had dark gold inscriptions flowing on its surface.

He threw the helmet on the ground.

The infrared sensor on the helmet lights up in a microsecond.

A deep virtual perception field that extends in a 180-degree circle.

In an instant, all the important officials in the Taiji Hall were enveloped within it, and the ultimate virtual experience crashed down upon them without warning in that millisecond.

Everyone felt that the scenery in front of them suddenly changed.

The Taiji Hall has disappeared, and the cold floor tiles are gone.

They found themselves standing bare-handed atop the clouds thousands of feet in the sky.

The fierce wind howled in my ears, and beneath my feet lay the magnificent and beautiful landscape of the Tang Dynasty. I could even reach out and touch the white sea of ​​clouds that were radiating warm moisture.

The exhilarating feeling of weightlessness caused by the absence of gravity, the extreme excitement of being able to control airflow and fly between heaven and earth.

Through the neural network behind the helmet, all the sensory organs in their cerebral cortex were deceived in an instant.

Not just flying.

Changsun Wuji was somewhat shocked to discover that he could conjure a blazing fireball out of thin air with just a thought.

That was magic, that was a miracle, that was the ultimate, extraordinary power that workshop owners and warriors in the real world could only dream of.

Every micro-expression was magnified infinitely at this moment.

The ministers danced wildly on the clouds, letting out gasps of astonishment as if they had never seen anything like it before.

This digital ecstasy, capable of distorting the senses of ordinary people, abruptly ended after a mere thirty seconds of experience.

Suddenly, everything went black.

We returned to the somewhat somber Taiji Hall.

Everyone's thighs were trembling slightly from the overly realistic flight experience they had just had.

Eyes wide open, the only sounds in the hall besides heavy breathing were the fervent covetousness for that black helmet.

The city's anticipation reached its peak in that one minute, thanks to Li Chengqian's most brutal technical means.

"Father, do you think those dukes and merchants with money to burn can resist the temptation of becoming immortals or gods?"

Li Chengqian put away his helmet, leaned against a pillar, and wore a playful, lazy smile.

"Buy! We must buy! I almost thought I was actually flying on a sword!"

Li Shimin slapped his thigh and jumped up from his armchair in excitement, his dragon eyes filled with a greedy determination to win.

Those powerful families who are restricted by law and physical constraints in reality would definitely line up to exchange their entire fortune and lives for nothingness code once they witness the extraordinary nature of the metaverse.

In the center of the hall.

The massive holographic image of the Second Chang'an lit up once again.

Countless virtual streets are arranged in a staggered pattern under the cold light.

Li Chengqian slowly turned around, using that data pointer.

It accurately pointed to a super-large virtual golden wasteland in the city with the best feng shui, which was only one street away from the main hall of the Daming Palace.

At the end of the press conference, Li Chengqian pointed to a virtual wasteland in the Second Chang'an Lane that was closest to the Daming Palace and announced with a smile: "The first virtual land auction will officially begin tomorrow night at 11 PM. The starting price is 100,000 credits."