With the birth of Profound Yellow Grain, Jiang Yuan's idea for currency had, one could say, become a reality. All he had to do was extract the Profound Yellow Qi from the grain, and it could be used as currency.
No one in the Primordial World could resist the allure of Profound Yellow Qi. As the source qi of Heaven and Earth, it could do almost everything Profound Yellow Merit could, except directly increase one's cultivation or Destiny.
Whether for cultivation, alchemy, artifact refinement, healing, strengthening one's foundation, or elevating one's life level, it could all be put to use.
The name said it all. Even Merit had the words "Profound Yellow" added before it. From that, one could see how precious Profound Yellow Qi was.
No cultivator could refuse such a treasure, no matter who held it out to them. Therefore, if this substance were used as currency, it would immediately win the recognition of the Ten Thousand Races.
Whether currency could circulate depended on whether people accepted it. As long as someone recognized it, even a piece of wastepaper could be used as money.
And the more people accepted it, the greater its influence. The Ten Thousand Races were the main body of the Primordial World. A currency recognized by all of them would be the Primordial World's legal tender.
The nature of Profound Yellow Qi meant it would easily win the recognition of the Ten Thousand Races and become the Primordial World's legal tender.
That was why the birth of Profound Yellow Grain meant Jiang Yuan's idea for currency had, in a sense, come true.
"The appearance of currency will undoubtedly help drive the development of the Primordial World. This is merit for promoting its development. I wonder how much Merit it can bring me?"
Jiang Yuan rubbed the Profound Yellow Grain in his hand as he imagined the possibilities. With this merit to his name, he could call himself the Primordial World's God of Wealth from now on.
And once he became the God of Wealth, would he ever have to worry about lacking resources? He could have as much as he wanted!
That life would be utterly blissful.
Boom!
Just as Jiang Yuan was dreaming of all this, a sudden change occurred in the heavens above. Auspicious clouds and radiant qi gathered, then transformed into a Golden Lotus of Merit that descended. Part of it merged into his body, while the rest fused with the Profound Yellow Grain.
The next moment, the Profound Yellow Grain underwent a transformation. Each plant had originally yielded only 3,600 grains, but its yield instantly surged to 10,000—nearly three times as much.
"This..."
At first, Jiang Yuan stared in a daze. Then he was overjoyed.
A higher yield for Profound Yellow Grain was a good thing. More grain meant more resources, enough to support more cultivators. How could that be anything but cause for celebration?
In high spirits, Jiang Yuan cut down several stalks of Profound Yellow Grain and wove them into a grass ring. Then he went to the Sacred Temple nearby and carefully placed it on the statue of Lady Nuwa.
Naturally, he did this to keep the matter secret.
Having cultivated Profound Yellow Grain, Jiang Yuan's next step was surely to spread it, so that more races could grow it. That was unavoidable.
With more Merit under his belt, he had gradually gained some experience.
Heavenly Dao was extremely strict about this. Unless someone truly performed a monumental feat, it would not grant a large amount of Merit all at once. Instead, it gave it out bit by bit, like a slow, steady stream.
Jiang Yuan's previous meritorious deeds had all worked this way. This time, his cultivation of Profound Yellow Grain was no exception.
Cultivating Profound Yellow Grain was a meritorious deed, so Heavenly Dao had bestowed Merit upon him—but not much. The grain had only just appeared and had yet to spread throughout the Primordial World.
To gain more Merit, he would have to see how Profound Yellow Grain developed in the future. The farther it spread, the more Merit it would bring Jiang Yuan in time. And vice versa.
Only when Profound Yellow Grain was growing everywhere across the Primordial World would it bring Jiang Yuan boundless Merit.
For now, that day was still a long way off.
In other words, if Jiang Yuan wanted to gain more Merit, he had to actively spread Profound Yellow Grain.
Besides, if he wanted to use Profound Yellow Grain to complete the currency system, he had to spread it as well. Otherwise, if only the Human Race had it and the other races did not, what was the point of building a currency system?
Taken together, Jiang Yuan had no choice. He had to spread Profound Yellow Grain.
He could spread Profound Yellow Grain, but the seeds he distributed had to come with restrictions.
After maturing once, or perhaps two or three times, the fruit they bore would lose its ability to grow. It would no longer take root and sprout.
At that point, if the other races wanted to keep growing Profound Yellow Grain, they would have to come to the Human Race and buy new seeds.
These were advanced strategies Jiang Yuan had learned from later generations. As long as he kept a firm hold on the source, he could secure a steady stream of profits and ensure the Human Race always maintained its advantage.
Besides, Jiang Yuan wasn't a Sage. He couldn't possibly give away for free the Profound Yellow Grain seeds he had painstakingly cultivated at the cost of who knew how many resources, could he?
That was impossible and unrealistic. As the saying went, in the Primordial World, you couldn't afford to be a good Samaritan.
If Jiang Yuan actually did that, the Ten Thousand Races wouldn't be grateful. They would call him an idiot, then do everything they could to kill him and steal the Merit from his deed.
One had to know that cultivating Profound Yellow Grain brought Merit, and spreading it did too. And the work of spreading it wasn't limited to Jiang Yuan. Anyone could do it.
The difference was that as long as Jiang Yuan was alive, he would receive a share whenever someone gained Merit for spreading Profound Yellow Grain, since he was the one who had cultivated it.
But if he died, they wouldn't have to share that portion of the Merit with him. The one who spread it could enjoy it all.
Merit was so precious that it went without saying: countless people would take the risk, trying to kill Jiang Yuan so they could claim that Merit for themselves.
Jiang Yuan didn't want to die, nor did he want to make enemies of the whole world and live in constant fear. So he had to keep a firm grip on the original seeds of Profound Yellow Grain.
That way, anyone who wanted to grow Profound Yellow Grain would have to buy seeds from him.
This would ensure that every seed of Profound Yellow Grain had come from him. Outsiders would be unable to spread it even if they wanted to.
If outsiders couldn't spread it and couldn't find out who had cultivated Profound Yellow Grain, naturally they wouldn't target Jiang Yuan for its Merit.
As for Jiang Yuan, he would not only earn a fortune by selling seeds, but also claim the Merit for spreading the grain all to himself. It was a win on every front.
That was why Jiang Yuan had woven Profound Yellow Grain into a grass ring and placed it on Lady Nuwa's statue. He wanted to borrow the Holy Mother's power to make his plans a reality.
With a Sage concealing the secrets of Heaven, who could figure out that Profound Yellow Grain had anything to do with Jiang Yuan? And under the influence of a Sage's power, making the seeds of Profound Yellow Grain lose their ability to reproduce after a few generations would be even easier.
Together, these two factors would create a further misconception. People would think that Profound Yellow Grain, a crop that bestowed Merit, had probably been given to the Human Race by Lady Nuwa so they could use it to develop.
It was a perfectly reasonable guess. Wasn't a crop that bestowed Merit wondrous? Of course it was wondrous beyond compare, a divine treasure of creation.
It was tied to creation, and it came from the Human Race. If Lady Nuwa hadn't made it, who else could have?
Surely no one would suggest the Human Race had come up with it themselves. That was laughable. If a mere acquired race had that kind of ability, the Ten Thousand Innate Races would die of shame.