If Anything Goes Wrong, I'll Shoulder It Myself

Although Su Xian had tried to explain in the simplest language possible, macroeconomic concepts such as "financial leverage," "reserves," and "interregional settlement," which surpassed ten thousand years of historical development on the Douluo Continent, still left them completely baffled.

But that did not stop them from realizing that this plan really could rake in a fucking astronomical amount of soul coins-and screw those big trade associations squeezing their throats to death!

Mu En was, after all, a shrewd old hand who had lived for two hundred years, and his mind worked extremely fast.

Following Su Xian's line of thought, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he asked eagerly, "Teacher Su, since these banknotes and this bank are so useful, why don't we... no, why doesn't Shrek Academy open them directly to ordinary people across the continent? If everyone deposited their Gold Soul Coins in the Sea God Pavilion Bank, wouldn't Shrek's treasury be able to buy even the Sun Moon Empire?"

"Absolutely not!"

Hearing this dangerous idea, Su Xian hurriedly waved his hands and doused him with cold water. "Uncle Mu En, you absolutely mustn't assess the risks of macrofinance with the greedy mindset of a small-scale peasant economy."

"Why?" Mu En froze.

"Because with Shrek's rotten system and the corrupt habits of its middle- and lower-ranking administrators, if it fully opened its banking operations and let every commoner deposit money, believe it or not, Shrek's entire economic system would collapse within three years!"

Sitting cross-legged, Su Xian pointed out the fatal flaw.

"I don't understand. Could you explain in detail, Teacher Su?" Zhang Lexuan, who had been taking notes beside them, could not help asking.

Su Xian smiled and asked in return, "It's simple! Shrek's middle- and lower-ranking administrators take kickbacks even when reselling soul beast materials. Now imagine everyone in the city depositing money, suddenly dumping hundreds of millions or even billions in cash flow into their hands. Do you think those administrators could resist embezzling it? Could they resist diverting that money into usurious loans and using it to squeeze the commoners at the bottom?"

"Once a huge shortfall develops and ordinary people can't withdraw their money, it'll trigger a frenzied bank run across the entire city! At that point, the reputation Shrek has built over ten thousand years will go bankrupt! Everyone on the continent will see them as the biggest swindlers around. The Sun Moon Empire won't even need to attack-the commoners will tear down the Sea God Pavilion themselves!"

Mu En sucked in a cold breath.

Indeed, as the Pavilion Master, he knew better than anyone how many worms were eating away at Shrek from within.

If they really opened it to commoners across the continent, those administrators would embezzle Shrek itself into oblivion.

"And besides corruption, there's another deadly problem-you can't solve the information gaps involved in counterfeit prevention, forgery, and cross-regional settlement!"

Su Xian continued, "Think about it. If people all over the continent forged Shrek's paper currency to exchange at banks for real gold and silver, or someone fabricated a deposit record in Star Luo City and then went to Heaven Dou City to withdraw the money, even ten mountains of gold would be plucked bare."

Qian Duoduo was particularly sensitive to accounting matters and immediately pressed anxiously, "Then... how do we get out of that situation? Does that mean these banknotes can't be issued?"

"Why couldn't they be issued? When we encounter a problem, we need to look past appearances to the essence and find the optimal solution."

With perfect composure, Su Xian said, "There's a saying: multiply any small matter by the continent's population of several billion, and it becomes an unsolvable disaster! So our first step isn't called universal adoption. It's called-a 'pilot program'!"

"A pilot program?" Everyone pricked up their ears.

"Exactly!" Su Xian raised one finger. "In its early stages, Shrek's Sea God Pavilion Bank absolutely must not open to ordinary people or small and medium-sized merchants! You should only establish branches in Shrek City and the principal cities of the Three Great Empires."

"And impose a strict entry threshold! For instance, only major trade association alliances worth more than ten million Gold Soul Coins, great noble families with a century of heritage, and major sects would qualify to open deposit accounts at the Sea God Pavilion and use high-denomination banknotes!"

"This is called a limited-quota large-client system!"

"First, there are only so many major trade associations, making them easy to supervise. Second, these associations have enormous physical businesses. The monk may run away, but his temple can't! If a top-tier trade association like that dares forge paper currency or maliciously exploit loopholes to cash out and cause a run..."

"Then that would be wonderful! Shrek's already worrying about finding an excuse to get money! Just send over a few dozen Super Douluos and have every justification to confiscate their property and wipe out their clans! Legally seize all their mineral veins, shops, and physical businesses, turn them over to the public coffers, and use them to replenish the treasury! What's that called? That's called credit collateral!"

Ruthless!

So fucking ruthless!

Yan Shaozhe, crouching outside the window, and Mu En and Qian Duoduo inside the room all felt their hearts race.

This blind man was not merely a financial genius-he was practically a bandit wearing human skin!

He set traps specifically for those major trade associations. If they dared step out of line, they and their entire family trees would become fertilizer for Shrek's treasury!

"But..."

Qian Duoduo swallowed, still spotting a technical difficulty. "Teacher Su, even if we control the number of clients, what if a merchant needs to do business abroad? He deposits money at location A, then travels ten thousand li to location B to withdraw it. Information travels so slowly in that novel, and the local treasuries can't reconcile their accounts. How do we prevent fraud and bank runs in other regions?"

"That requires a rigorous advance reporting system, along with the anti-counterfeiting technology unique to this fantasy world!"

Su Xian held up two fingers and began filling in the final piece of the puzzle for these natives:

"First, the reporting system! If a major merchant wants to withdraw a huge sum elsewhere, he must report it to the Sea God Pavilion Bank at his original location half a month in advance, stating where he intends to withdraw it and how much. Then Shrek uses the highest-grade sound-transmission soul tools, or directly dispatches high-ranking flying soul masters from the agility attack department, to deliver encrypted information to the destination treasury ahead of time for its records."

"When the merchant reaches his destination, he can only withdraw the amount he reported. Once the money is withdrawn, the local treasury immediately destroys the banknote stubs on the spot, right in front of him, and transmits the information back. That completely eliminates the loophole of 'withdrawing one note's worth of money in multiple locations.'"

"As for forgery and counterfeit prevention..."

At this point, Su Xian could not help laughing, seemingly mocking the novel's author's imagination. "Uncle Mu En, when you're playing your murder mystery role-playing game, have you forgotten that 'Peerless Tang Sect' is a world with supernatural powers?"

"What does Shrek Academy have no shortage of? High-ranking soul masters!"

With a sweeping gesture, Su Xian casually proposed an anti-counterfeiting mechanism that could only be described as a higher-dimensional strike. "When printing those high-denomination banknotes worth millions or tens of millions, just ask that Limit Douluo from the Sea God Pavilion called Mu En to come out and seal a thread of his fundamental spiritual power into every single note!"

Su Xian scoffed. "Apart from a mere handful of people on the entire continent, who the fuck could imitate a Limit Douluo's spiritual fluctuations?! If anyone dares forge currency like that, a single sweep of spiritual power would expose it on the spot, and the Limit Douluo could even follow the spiritual imprint and shatter his skull from afar! Even modern banknote presses would weep at anti-counterfeiting technology like that!"

As a Limit Douluo, Mu En knew that drawing out fine threads of his spiritual power and imprinting them on paper was entirely feasible!

This was practically an uncrackable fucking anti-counterfeiting code!

Now everyone's doubts had been swept away.

"Oh, good heavens!"

Qian Duoduo was the first to recover. Slapping his thigh, so excited that tears nearly burst from his eyes, he launched into another round of unhinged flattery in a thick local accent. "Teacher Su! You truly are Tang San reincarnated! With earth-shaking wisdom like this, never mind our Niulai Village-even that Sea God Pavilion Master in the novel has a brain no bigger than a walnut kernel compared with yours!"

Rather than getting angry, Mu En nodded repeatedly in agreement. "Exactly, exactly! When I read that novel before, I thought those elders were pretty impressive! But after hearing Teacher Su's analysis, they're nothing but a bunch of uncivilized cavemen! If Teacher Su could go to Shrek, what would the Sun Moon Empire even have left to do?"

Zhang Lexuan gazed at Su Xian with stars in her eyes too. "You're amazing, Teacher Su! If our Niulai Village could someday produce a university student as clever as you, blue smoke would rise from our ancestral graves!"

Under this successive bombardment of flattery, Su Xian's satisfaction shot straight to its peak.

Though he still wore a "modest" smile and waved his hands repeatedly, his crossed leg, cocked high in the air, and the corners of his mouth, nearly stretching back to his ears, had already betrayed how thoroughly he was floating on air.

"Oh, I'm nothing special. You're all too kind."

Su Xian leaned back smugly in the bamboo chair and began his round of humblebragging. "Mainly, I took economics as an elective back at university. Dealing with the Douluo Continent's primitive feudal commerce would take no more than a flick of my hand."

"If I really transmigrated there, handling those all-muscle-and-no-brain Shrek executives and those self-important traditional trade associations would be a matter of a single word! Basic stuff. No applause needed."

As a contemporary university student born in the 2000s, Su Xian simply enjoyed watching these sheltered mountain villagers being dazzled silly by his spiel.

When he had first arrived, blind and covered in injuries, he had lived in fear.

Now that they had become familiar, he was letting himself go more and more when showing off before these novel enthusiasts.

While Su Xian basked in his own brilliance, humming a little tune in the sunshine.

Mu En shot Qian Duoduo and Zhang Lexuan a look.

Understanding immediately, they silently withdrew to a corner of Guanjia Hall's corridor more than thirty meters from the bamboo chair.

Even Yan Shaozhe, who had been crouching outside the window, patted the mud off his backside and joined them, rubbing his numb legs.

A moment earlier, they had still been meek, simple villagers.

Now the aura surrounding the four of them abruptly changed.

A top-level, absolutely classified miniature meeting of the Sea God Pavilion formally convened beside Niulai Village's pigsty.

"Pavilion Master, this method... is brilliant!"

Qian Duoduo lowered his voice. "We use our reputation as backing, have the big trade associations deposit their Gold Soul Coins, and issue them banknotes! As long as we exploit the timing properly, the Soul Tool Department's industrial assembly line can start operating at full capacity immediately!"

Although Yan Shaozhe usually did not get along with Qian Duoduo, he put aside his teasing now and raised his concerns gravely. "Pavilion Master, it's unquestionably a good method! But Shrek has never dealt with anything like banknotes in ten thousand years. If someone maliciously triggers a bank run, or a flaw appears in the counterfeit prevention, Shrek's ten-thousand-year foundation could be destroyed overnight."

"That's why Su Xian was right. We can only begin with a small-scale pilot program."

Zhang Lexuan analyzed calmly, "We'll start by opening one 'Sea God Pavilion Bank' within Shrek City and take the knife to those traditional trade associations clamoring about cutting off our rare metals supplies! Aren't they rich? We'll use financial methods to turn all their money into paper, then use their money to buy up the mineral veins outright!"

"No more hesitation! The wheels of the age are already rolling over our faces. We at Shrek can't keep being turtles with our heads tucked in, clutching golden rice bowls while waiting to die!"

Mu En made the decision on the spot:

"Duoduo, return to the Sea God Pavilion immediately and gather the Soul Tool Department's finest metal foil and specially made parchment. I will personally infuse them with my fundamental spiritual power to serve as the anti-counterfeiting seal for the first batch of Sea God Pavilion banknotes!"

"Shaozhe, Lexuan, mobilize all the core members of the Inner Court's enforcement teams and secretly take control of every treasury in Shrek City!"

"First thing tomorrow morning, the Sea God Pavilion Bank will officially put up its sign and open for business in Shrek City!"

"If anything goes wrong, I'll shoulder it myself! Even if the sky really does come crashing down..."

"Don't we still have that fearless blind man in there to back us up?"