Xingqiu's concerns were far from an isolated case. He was not the only one who had thought of this possibility; one could say every merchant in Liyue Harbor had.
Granted, there were others like Shitou who had performed well in this matter and instead given their businesses an extra boost.
But this sort of thing always worked best for the first person to do it. If the merchants who followed performed even a little worse than Shitou, they would be considered inadequate.
At this thought, quite a few merchants gritted their teeth as they looked at the beaming Shitou.
Half price. Half price!
Damn it, this was a disaster! Even if it was Rex Lapis himself... ahem, that was disrespectful to the adeptus.
Still, half price set the bar far too high. If he had offered twenty or thirty percent off, everyone would not have been so apprehensive.
Amid the Liyue Harbor merchants' tangled feelings of apprehension, anticipation, and alarm, the video on the screen continued.
Having enjoyed the show, Zhongli waited until Paimon and Shitou had more or less finished venting their emotions before offering some reassuring words.
"With the joint efforts of the [Liyue Qixing] and all you down-to-earth merchants, I am sure Liyue will continue to prosper as it always has."
To many in the discussion area who had guessed Zhongli's true identity, these words were a personal endorsement from Rex Lapis. Shitou really was fortunate. As long as he made no major mistakes in the future, even an adeptus would have to show him some respect.
After Shitou expressed his feelings, Zhongli was about to carry off the crate of Noctilucous Jade. Seeing him treat it as his own before paying, Paimon immediately planted both hands on her hips.
"Hey! Wait! Half price doesn't mean you don't have to pay!"
"Oh, my apologies. I forgot about paying again. Let me see..."
As though he had only just realized he had not paid any Mora, Zhongli began reaching into his pocket for money.
As soon as his hand entered his pocket, he gave it a cursory thought and answered matter-of-factly, "...Hmm... as expected, I didn't bring any."
[Paimon: There are actually people who go shopping without bringing money?]
[Pantalone: Indeed. @Childe, so why doesn't the wallet take a little initiative and follow along?]
[Childe: Huh?! You've all already decided I'm Mr. Zhongli's wallet?]
[The Rooster: Tartaglia, show a little responsibility here. You've covered all of Mr. Zhongli's expenses for these past three months anyway. Rather than hiding, you might as well take the initiative.]
[Childe: But in the video, I... wasn't that public money being used in the video?]
[Childe: I don't need to follow him around either!]
[Childe: Besides, how was I supposed to know there were actually people these days who went shopping without Mora?]
[Lumine: Ahem, Paimon, Childe, there actually are.]
For example, Rex Lapis himself, who produced Mora.
Paimon did not seem to have caught on. Both in reality and on the screen, she asked exactly the same question.
"Didn't bring what?"
Zhongli answered quite calmly.
"I didn't bring any Mora. How embarrassing. Another oversight."
Aether on the screen was shocked too, remarking, "There's actually someone from Liyue who doesn't care about money."
Fortunately, they still had the funds Childe had provided, and Shitou said it did not matter even if they were short. Only then was the purchase of the Noctilucous Jade successfully completed.
After the Noctilucous Jade was moved to Yujing Terrace, the video finally ended.
[Keqing: The venue for the Rite of Parting is also Yujing Terrace? Just as I thought-]
[Ningguang: So we of the Qixing are actually supporting this Rite of Parting as well.]
[Paimon: Huh (confused)? Why do you say that?]
[Ganyu: Paimon, Yujing Terrace is a fairly important location in Liyue Harbor. Any event held there requires the Qixing's approval before it can proceed.]
Moreover, this year's Rite of Descension had been held at Yujing Terrace, and the Rite of Parting was to take place at the same venue. This inevitably gave Liyue's higher-ups, including the Liyue Qixing and the Three-Eyed Five-Manifestation Immortal, more to think about.
However, too much information about what came before and after this video was missing. No matter how brilliant they were, everyone could only speculate and fill in the gaps based on the information they currently possessed.
As the day's second video drew to a close, viewers throughout Teyvat began discussing it of their own accord.
After all, the information that video had just revealed was indeed a sensational, earth-shattering matter in this world where people walked alongside gods.
As everyone knew, among The Seven who currently ruled Teyvat's Seven Nations, only Mondstadt's Anemo Archon, Barbatos, and Liyue's Geo Archon, Morax, were still gods of the first generation.
In particular, unlike the Anemo Archon Barbatos, who rarely appeared and displayed his true Mondstadt drunkard nature whenever he did, Liyue's Geo Archon Morax personally attended to Liyue's affairs every year, never missing a single year in thousands of years. He also bore the most important duty connected to the economic lifeblood of all Teyvat-
Producing Mora!
[Dori: Although, although this really isn't the right time to ask, aaaaah, the Mora is urging me on-now that Rex Lapis has passed away, what will happen to Mora production?!]
[Pantalone: Hmm... although... all right, this really does require advance preparations.]
[Ningguang: That is indeed...]
Dori was merely a locally based merchant in Sumeru, and quite a few of her businesses even operated in gray areas. Although she was respectfully called Lord Sangemah Bay, her intelligence network could not compare with those of leading figures in Snezhnaya and Liyue like Pantalone and Ningguang, nor did she know as much inside information as those two.
Moreover, because of her own fixation on Mora, Dori had still not realized that Rex Lapis was not actually dead.
But precisely because of this, unlike Ningguang and Pantalone, who had not considered the issue of future Mora production because they knew Rex Lapis was alive, Dori was the first to start worrying about the Mora that would circulate throughout Teyvat in the future.
In the world of Teyvat, Mora did not merely serve as a universal currency. It was also an indispensable consumable in many of the continent's production activities.
Because Mora came from the flesh and blood of the Geo Archon Morax, it possessed power in its own right.
For instance, Mora often had to be added to alchemical reactions to assist the process, and sometimes it could even replace certain missing alchemical materials.
Likewise, when warriors, mercenaries, and adventurers enhanced their weapons and artifacts, they needed Mora's power to help those weapons and artifacts evolve.
Thus, if no new Mora really was produced in the future, all of Teyvat would enter a situation where it was only consumed and never replenished, and the total amount of Mora currently in circulation would gradually decrease.
Leaving aside the problems a shortage of Mora would cause for alchemy, weapon enhancement, and other fields across Teyvat, there were the resulting economic issues alone to consider.
If no new circulating currency could be found to replace Mora, then a steadily diminishing supply of hard currency across an entire world would mean that the overall direction of that world's economy was deflation.