Chapter 787

Although grain coupons were good, their limitations were also very large.

For example, inside Qingming now, the appeal of grain was not very great; not long ago, several million catties of grain rotted away by accident. This was really not intentional; it was truly that the speed of building warehouses could not keep up with the speed of grain production.

In order to consume the grain, the guinea pigs of the old Daoist Chuhe already numbered in the hundreds of millions, and several large breeding farms had been built. At this moment, Qingming's cement production had increased greatly, so the old Daoist luxuriously used reinforced concrete to build the breeding farms, with each breeding farm having ten floors, and the numerous guinea pigs were raised in layer upon layer of buildings.

Because the space was small and extremely crowded, every guinea pig was in a very unhappy mood, so eating became the only joy in their rat lives, and as a result, they grew fast and fat instead. Thus, the old Daoist followed the same pattern and built several more identical breeding farms.

With the surge in guinea pig meat production, Qingming could no longer digest so much meat, so the cultivators of the Tai Chu Palace were inspired by the military canned rations, added salt to the guinea pig meat, boiled it, put it into cans, and sold it in large quantities to the surrounding areas. But the biggest buyer was actually Li Zhi. Li Zhi bought five hundred thousand catties of canned meat in one breath; clearly, he was about to make a big move.

With grain coupons, naturally there could also be cloth coupons, oil coupons, steel coupons... Little Wei Yuan felt that this was not enough to cover all of Qingming's advantages, so after careful consideration, he decided to change to using Qingming's meritorious contributions as the core to issue a basic currency.

According to the naming habit of this realm, the full name of the new currency was: Qingming Benevolence and Virtue Supreme Pure Fortune Longevity Innate Merit Immortal Yuan.

Abbreviated as Qingming Immortal Yuan, or simplified a bit more as Qing Yuan or Immortal Yuan.

One Immortal Yuan was equivalent to ten points of merit and could be exchanged for one tael of immortal silver, thereby setting the basic currency value. However, in order to increase the scarcity of Immortal Yuan, Little Wei Yuan stipulated that Immortal Yuan could be exchanged for immortal silver, but immortal silver could not be exchanged for Immortal Yuan.

Qing Yuan or Immortal Yuan was interchangeable with merit and could be used in Qingming to exchange for all kinds of rare items on the merit list. Currently, the items that could only be exchanged with merit and were in short supply everywhere were longevity pills and Dao Foundation training quotas.

After pondering, Little Wei Yuan put the dark iron and dark crystal armor and weapons into the Qing Yuan purchase list and added the exchange of some bulk materials, such as high-quality forged steel ingots, military canned rations, flying swords for guns, etc., and then moved the longevity pills and other bait items out of the list.

After Little Wei Yuan handed the plan to Renjian Yanhuo to perfect, he set about arranging the printing of the first batch of paper currency, Qing Yuan. The new currency used jade paper as the base material, and specially designed paper for banknotes was used. Having had the experience of the world beyond the heavens, the size of the banknotes was no longer a problem; just copy it, it wouldn't be too big or too small.

The key was the currency pattern. Renjian Yanhuo produced thousands of versions in one breath, and finally selected more than a dozen versions for Little Wei Yuan to choose from. The first version that caught his eye had Little Wei Yuan's big face printed right in the center!

Little Wei Yuan was startled, but also felt that this seemed to be a good way to harvest luck, so he struggled for a long time before painfully putting this version down. Finally, he selected a version with the Tai Chu Palace mountain gate as the core and the scenery of Qingming as the background.

In this way, most of the luck belonged to the Tai Chu Palace, which could be considered another contribution Little Wei Yuan made to the palace gate, and then a small amount of luck filtered through the Tai Chu Palace would go to Qingming, and Little Wei Yuan could also share a bit. Although Little Wei Yuan only got two or three percent this way, it was safe, had no karma, and had no worries for the future.

Once the design plan was set, Little Wei Yuan set about arranging the printing.

The banknote printing machine was not a difficult matter. Renjian Yanhuo designed it in one hour and optimized it in three hours to create a special banknote printing machine. Not only was the plate making extremely exquisite, but several specially made ice silkworm threads could also be added during the printing process, making the texture even better and harder to forge.

And the operation of the banknote printing machine only required a Dao Foundation cultivator to shake it at a constant speed; each Dao Foundation cultivator could do it for three consecutive days, three days a round, which was the best method to polish the Dao Foundation through water-grinding effort.

In the blink of an eye, the banknote printing factory was built, and it took three days to print Qing Yuan with a face value of ten million. Subsequently, Little Wei Yuan held a Qing Yuan issuance ceremony. The cultivators of the Tai Chu Palace had never heard of this matter before, so everyone attended without exception.

Facing the banknote sheets that looked like a square rock, Little Wei Yuan first asked Zhang Sheng to take action.

Zhang Sheng did not decline; his Azure Silk Rain sword energy fell, and he immediately cut the original banknotes neatly without the slightest deviation, which made Xu Henshui and the others feel exceptionally comfortable.

After cutting the original banknotes, Little Wei Yuan raised his hand and sprinkled a bit of immortal spiritual energy. In an instant, the original banknotes shed all their mortal and vulgar air, glowing slightly, revealing an ethereal and lofty meaning, and there was a faint fragrance floating.

This was an anti-counterfeiting measure Little Wei Yuan added. Paper money could be forged, but immortal spiritual energy was hard to imitate. If someone had the ability to truly imitate immortal spiritual energy, they wouldn't bother to do this kind of thing.

Little Wei Yuan had numerous immortal plants, and what he lacked least at the moment was immortal spiritual energy. He had just taken a bit of immortal orchid energy and enlightened all the Qing Yuan with a face value of ten million. This was the first time Qingming had issued currency, so it was naturally an unprecedented major event. The cultivators of the Tai Chu Palace watched the excitement, but many people were also confused, not understanding why Little Wei Yuan had to go to such trouble when there was immortal silver available.

Only Xu Henshui, seeing Little Wei Yuan sprinkle a bit of immortal orchid energy, started to glow all over.

As soon as the ceremony ended, Xu Henshui couldn't wait and grabbed Little Wei Yuan, saying, "If the immortal orchid energy is not enough, just speak up; I have as much as you want here! By the way, do you still want immortal orchids?"

Immortal orchids were also immortal plants. Little Wei Yuan, adhering to the principle that the more the better, naturally did not refuse anyone.

Xu Henshui immediately took out two more bulbs; these were new plants divided from his Dharma Form during this period, and then he gritted his teeth and said, "My foundation has just stabilized, and I only have this many for now, but if you still want them, I can barely divide two more plants."

Little Wei Yuan was startled; this was the rhythm of Xu Henshui damaging his own foundation, so he hurriedly said, "Enough, enough! These two plants must also be kept here with you, Uncle, to be raised; I'll have the strength to raise them after a while."

Little Wei Yuan had just advanced in realm, and at this moment, Renjian Yanhuo still needed some time to consolidate. Little Wei Yuan was afraid that if he collected more immortal plants and his Mind-Reflection World grew another circle, it would be difficult to handle.

One Myriad Transformation Realm had made Little Wei Yuan cultivate until he was exhausted; it looked like he was cultivating as if flying, but if one carefully attributed the cause, it was basically all relying on killing and plundering. He even ate two small worlds, and finally had to be fed a mouthful by Wang Fu before he was satisfied; otherwise, Little Wei Yuan would most likely have cultivated until his lifespan ended and he died without advancing.

With the Qing Yuan made, the next thing was the second matter. Little Wei Yuan said to the cultivators, "Those near the water tower get the moon first; does everyone want to borrow a sum of Qing Yuan to take back? The annual interest is only ten percent; borrow Qing Yuan and repay Qing Yuan, which can be cleared through the Qingming Bank."

Everyone was still a bit unclear for a moment, but core disciples of major families like Bao Yun, Cui Yu, and Xu Henshui reacted first, and Bao Yun said, "I'll borrow two million."

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

Xu Henshui said directly, "I want all the rest!"

Little Wei Yuan was startled and hurriedly said, "It still needs to circulate; you can't borrow it all."

Xu Henshui said, "What's difficult about this? Just print more! How about you print another fifty million?"

Little Wei Yuan was startled again; it hadn't even started to be issued yet, and it was already going to have inflation?

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, Feng Tingyu took two million, and as a result, the ten million Qing Yuan was divided up in the blink of an eye. Sun Yu and Yu Zhizhuo also wanted to join in the fun, and the old Daoist Chuhe, backed by the Jianmu Hall, was also someone who couldn't be left behind, so Little Wei Yuan had to print another ten million.

Watching Little Wei Yuan sprinkle the immortal orchid energy again, Xu Henshui was radiant, almost overwhelming the entire scene.

With preparations complete, Little Wei Yuan officially issued the Qing Yuan.

Overnight, every city was plastered with issuance announcements. All personnel in Qingming, regardless of status, could receive the corresponding Qing Yuan for every point of merit they obtained. Qing Yuan could be used to purchase any supplies except longevity pills. All original benefits due to merit remained unchanged.

An ordinary person, without being lazy and without having to risk their life, only needed to work diligently for one month to get one point of merit, and in ten months, they could earn an extra one Qing Yuan, which was one tael of immortal silver. Qingming's grain and meat prices were low, and purchasing with Qing Yuan had extra discounts. This one tael of immortal silver used to buy grain and meat was equivalent to one hundred and thirty taels of mortal silver.

Thus, the basic salary system covering the entire territory was established for the first time, and the world was shaken. Overnight, Little Wei Yuan suddenly obtained two million human Dao luck.

(End of chapter)