Genshin Impact: I, the Winter Prince, reign supreme.

I just need a few more followers to register as a "star scholar" on the Collapse Iron section.

Chapter 213 A Word of Enlightenment for an Inanimate Object

Su Yu went to the weapon shop to customize a weapon, not to have a sword made for himself. Any one of the treasures given to him by the system would cause a huge sensation if taken out.

The purpose of customizing weapons is to further deplete the Mora circulating in the Liyue market.

Mora is both a circulating currency and an extremely precious material for crafting weapons.

The weapon before us was forged by a blacksmith with 10 billion Mora, making it incredibly sharp.

On the night the sword was forged, the entire blacksmith shop was illuminated by its brilliance. The Thousand Rock Army, unaware of the situation, thought the blacksmith shop was on fire, and a fire brigade of over a hundred people rushed to put it out. In the end, it turned out to be a misunderstanding.

The blacksmith shop owner flattered, "From the day this sword was created, it possessed a spirit and immense divine power, enough to rank it among the top three of Liyue's ten most famous swords. I am content to have forged this sword in my life." After saying this, he knelt down before Su Yu, unable to hide his excitement.

Forging a legendary sword that will be remembered for generations is the dream of any blacksmith. Life is but a short span of ten years, and if one can forge a world-renowned sword, one can die without regret.

Su Yu gestured for him to stand up and speak, but the blacksmith shop owner remained kneeling.

Su Yu asked what the intention was, and the other party replied that they wanted to buy back the sword as a prized possession of the store and to promote it as a national treasure of Liyue.

The lady in the Hidden Mirror and the delegation's high-ranking officials immediately rejected the idea, saying, "His Highness the Prince has already bestowed upon you the technique of 'Five Transmissions of Thunder and Lightning'. This forging method has been lost in Inazuma for a long time and is practically priceless. If you don't believe me, contact the three great officials of Inazuma and see if they are willing to pay an exorbitant price to buy the technique."

The blacksmith leaned down and said, "I believe you, I believe you."

The woman in the hidden mirror sneered, "Now that you've obtained the unparalleled forging techniques, you should honestly do your business. Coveting the sword His Highness the Prince has commissioned is called pushing your luck!"

The blacksmith shop owner trembled with fear and dared not utter a word, hurriedly offering the sword with both hands. In truth, he was just testing the waters, knowing the chances of him buying it back were slim.

The Prince of Winter on the other side can mobilize the funds of the Northern Bank. Even Pantalone, the rich man and the executive officer in charge of finances for the Fools, has to listen to him, so he is definitely not short of money.

To his surprise, Prince Zhidong, who always had a faint smile on his face, readily agreed to his request.

His Highness casually replied, “What is value? Only those who appreciate it can give it value. This sword is indeed extraordinary, but if it stays with me, it will only become an ornament. If it stays in Liyue, it will be admired by the world and absorb the wishes of the people. Given time, this sword may even be elevated to a divine sword.”

The sword seemed to possess a spirit; when Su Yu uttered these words, it emitted a buzzing echo, as if weeping and lamenting.

The blacksmith's eyes widened in astonishment, as if he had witnessed an incredible miracle. He stood there stunned for more than ten seconds before his voice trembled as he said, "Your Highness's words have transformed inanimate objects into metal and stone, comparable to the forging god whose words become law. Alas, it is a pity that Your Highness's ambition lies elsewhere, otherwise you would surely have become a legendary master craftsman renowned throughout the world."

These were not deliberate compliments, but rather heartfelt words from the blacksmith shop owner. However, to others, they did not sound like praise for His Highness the Prince.

The Lady of the Hidden Mirror said with some dissatisfaction, "Your Highness just defeated the immortals of Liyue in the Go tournament. Does he also intend to develop in the direction of Go and become a Go master?"

The blacksmith was shocked upon hearing this and exclaimed, "What? The immortals... have been defeated?"

Their blacksmith shop was usually secluded, and in order to complete the task assigned by Su Yu on time, the blacksmith and his apprentices worked day and night, completely unaware of what was happening outside. Now, upon hearing that the Immortal Clan had also lost to Prince Zhidong in Go, the shock in their hearts reached an unparalleled level.

Looking at Su Yu again, his expression was as respectful as if he were seeing the Rock King Emperor.

"Please forgive my offensive words just now, Your Highness."

"Your Highness has reached unfathomable levels in chess and forging, making you a peerless genius, one in a million. You should not be limited by a minor path like forging. Pursuing greater goals is a better choice for Your Highness. I now understand Your Highness's intentions; your vision far surpasses the imagination of us mortals."

"Since Your Highness has spoken, I will buy back this sword at three times the price, and the funds will be transferred to the Northern Bank within three days."

Su Yu nodded and asked, "How much capital does your blacksmith shop have left?"

The blacksmith shop owner answered truthfully, "All the hundreds of shops in Liyue combined don't even amount to more than 30 billion Mora."

Su Yu reminded him, "After today, many people will come to you to forge swords. You need to find a way to raise funds."

The blacksmith shop owner gave a wry smile and said, "This one sword cost 10 billion Mora, which is beyond our means. However, apart from His Highness the Prince, our blacksmith shop will require them to pay enough Mora before we start forging the sword."

When His Highness forged the sword, he only paid a very small amount of Mora as a deposit. This means that the majority of the cost of the 10 billion Mora was actually paid upfront by the blacksmith.

It is only right for the blacksmith to advance payment for His Highness the Prince, whose reputation and influence make the blacksmith feel comfortable doing so. However, the blacksmith does not intend to advance payment for other customers, and besides, it does not have the financial resources to do so.

As expected, after the sword was made public, it quickly attracted a large number of dignitaries and businessmen who offered to buy it. With the added prestige of His Highness the Prince, buying the sword might even allow them to establish a relationship with him. Naturally, the price of the sword soared to an astonishing hundreds of billions of Mora!

The blacksmith complained, "This isn't an auction house," and then refused to accept any more bids.

The high-ranking officials had no choice but to adopt the second method: commissioning forging workshops to imitate the designs.

Within just a few days, the blacksmith shop owner received more than 20 orders, with a total value exceeding 50 billion.

Moreover, seven of these orders came from the "Liyue Seven Stars," meaning that each of the "Seven Stars" placed an order.

In fact, the Liyue Sept had a heated argument about this matter during their weekly meeting. The reason for the argument was simple: as the saying goes, rarity increases value, and the more times that sword is copied, the lower its collectible value will be.

Ke Qing, the "Jade Balance Star," argued from a practical standpoint: "What you value is its collectible value, but what I value is the unparalleled quality of this sword. Even if it's a replica, I believe it can still contain some of the sword's spirit. Do you know what that means? A replica sword has the potential to grow, and it can continuously evolve and upgrade. Given enough time to nurture it, it will one day catch up with the quality of the original sword, or even surpass it."

Chapter 214 Take a Long-Term View

The "Seven Stars" discussed the matter of the sword for quite some time. Ningguang, who hadn't said much throughout, suddenly asked, "Everyone, do you have enough cash to commission a sword?"

The room fell silent immediately.

Gan Yu, who had been engrossed in filling out meeting minutes, stopped writing and listened attentively to Ning Guang's speech. As the secretary of the Moonlit Pavilion, all intelligence was compiled in her hands, making her possess even more comprehensive information than the Seven Stars of Liyue.

In the past month, Mora in Liyue has decreased significantly, and many people have even had to resort to the rather primitive shopping method of bartering.

She believes this is a dangerous sign, indicating that Liyue's commercial economy is experiencing circulation problems.

Ke Qing gave a bitter smile and said, "Most of the funds I have are lent to immortals to cultivate the true immortal techniques. I don't know how you commissioned the sword, but I traded several houses for it."

The other five members of the Seven Stars said that they also traded using half cash and half fixed assets, and none of them had ever been in such a tight financial situation.

It's not so much that they're "short of money," but rather that they have no cash. Although the Seven Stars still seem to be quite wealthy, it's all in various fixed assets, and a significant portion of their assets are deposited in the Northern Bank as fixed-term deposits.

The Liyue Seven Stars, all seasoned merchants, immediately realized the problem:

Most of Liyue's Mora has been absorbed into the Northern Bank!

The fact that Northern Bank has recently stopped lending and is only handling deposit business has led to the current situation.

Ningguang further pointed out the dangers, saying, "With the circulation of Mora drastically reduced, factories can't pay their workers' wages, and workers have no money to spend, creating a vicious cycle. Remember the trade war that Prince Winter agreed to with us? During this time, I sent Yelan to keep an eye on the Prince, thinking that Prince Winter hadn't done anything. But in reality, the Prince has been attracting more deposits for the Northern Bank. He seems to be using this method to reduce the amount of Mora circulating in the market, destroying Liyue's commercial trade. I suspect this is his conspiracy!"

After Ningguang finished her analysis, Keqing and the others expressed their agreement.

"Ningguang, what do you plan to do? To be honest, our family has been in business for generations, and we have never seen such bizarre business tactics before."

“I’ve been feeling something’s off lately, and after hearing what Ningguang said, I finally know where the problem lies. Prince Zhidong is really cunning; if Ningguang hadn’t noticed in time, we would have been in serious trouble.”

Several members of the Liyue Seven Stars expressed their feelings one after another.

Keqing's gaze hardened as she said, "Although I have a good personal relationship with Prince Winter, friends are friends, and if he poses a threat to Liyue's interests, I will not stand idly by. Ningguang, you tell me the counterattack plan."

Ningguang greatly appreciated this sense of unity and smiled, saying, "I've decided to release 100 billion Mora from our strategic reserves. 100 billion Mora will definitely restore the market to normal, and Prince Zhidong's plan will naturally fail."

"agree."

Activating the emergency reserve of 100 billion mora requires the unanimous approval of the "Seven Stars," with Ke Qing being the first to agree.

"agree!"

"I have no objection."

"Release the supplies quickly and restore order to the chaotic market as soon as possible."

At this regular meeting of the Liyue Seven Stars, after everyone had expressed their opinions, Ningguang, the "Star of Tianquan," made the final decision and reached an agreement to release 100 billion Mora from reserves.

This strategic reserve of Mora was originally prepared to cope with risks, and using it now to deal with Prince Winter is truly making the best use of it.

……

With 100 billion Mora quickly injected into the market, the market in Liyue has temporarily stabilized.

[The Rich] Pantalone left the Northern Bank and rushed to see Su Yu.

“Your Highness, in the current market of Liyue, everyone is short of cash. Even if I raise the interest rate of the Northern Bank by two percentage points, their enthusiasm for depositing money is not high.”

Pantalone was very worried.

Previously, many people deposited money in Northern Bank when there was no liquidity crisis in the market and everyone had plenty of cash on hand. But now the situation has changed dramatically. Merchants already lack cash for transactions, and with "Golden House" injecting 100 billion Molar to provide emergency relief, no one dares to put all their Molar into the bank.

Keeping money in a bank is just a dead number; only when you have it in your hands can you buy real goods.

“Your Highness, fewer and fewer merchants are depositing money recently, and many people are afraid to deposit their money in fixed-term accounts, fearing that there might be an emergency and they won’t be able to withdraw their money from the Northern Bank.”

Su Yu sat at his desk, thought for a moment, and replied, "Continue to raise the interest rate on fixed deposits! Businessmen are inherently profit-driven; when the profit outweighs the risk, I don't believe they won't be tempted."

"But... the current fixed deposit rate is the highest in the history of the Northern Kingdom. If it is raised again, we will have no profit to make."

“Look further ahead, Pantalone.”

Su Yu put down his book, strolled to the sunny window, and squinted as he said:

"If you could earn less profit, even if it meant the Northern Bank suffered a loss, but it would allow the Winter Kingdom to win the entire Liyue, what would you choose?"

Pantalone, the wealthy man, felt a tremor in his heart, but the worry on his face was quickly swept away. He said, "I know what to do. Your Highness is wise."

His meticulousness earned him the title of "Rich Man" executive, but this also meant he could only calculate small amounts and lacked the boldness to calculate big ones.

How is the deposit activity at Northern Bank progressing? Who is currently in first place?

Previously, in order to encourage Liyue merchants to deposit more money, Su Yu promised that whoever had the highest deposit amount would be invited to be a spokesperson.

Xiangling's grilled tigerfish, made at Wanmintang, attracted a large number of diners after he tried it, proving his ability to "sell goods." Sure enough, a large number of merchants from Liyue flocked to the Northern Kingdom Bank to deposit their money.

By now, this event should be nearing its end.

[The Rich Man] Pantalone replied, "Your Highness, the event is not over yet, but... the first place should be a foregone conclusion."

"Oh? Is the first place Ningguang or Keqing?"

"None of them, Your Highness... The number one is Her Majesty the Empress; she has the most."

Su Yu smiled and said, "Does the Empress want me to be her spokesperson?"

"Her Majesty’s letter said that the Prince of Winter can only speak for Winter, and no matter how much Mora is needed, Her Majesty must win first place."

After saying that, the rich man hurriedly took out the letter and handed it to Su Yu to read.

"It really is a letter from the Empress herself, haha..."

Su Yu put away the letter and smiled knowingly, "Her Majesty the Empress didn't do this to participate in the event. She was worried that we would lack funds for our business war, so she took this opportunity to deposit a large amount of money into the Northern Bank."

Chapter 215 True Name

Pantalone, understanding the deeper meaning in Su Yu's words, further confirmed, "Does Your Highness mean that we can use Her Majesty the Empress's savings?"

“Since it’s Mora that Her Majesty the Queen provided, of course it can be used.”