Spirit Beads
A person who can come up with a feasible solution through their own thinking in a field they have never been exposed to before can be considered intelligent at any time.
Feeling a little embarrassed by his younger brother's praise, Lin Yun asked, "Is it okay to do that?"
"Sure, but this thing needs to be made well to prevent it from being easily counterfeited. Also, it can't be used as currency. After all, we're not a country and don't need to issue currency. Let's just treat it as a unique exchange item in Xiushui City," Lin Xiao said.
After thinking for a moment, he added, "And ideally, it should only be an exchange down, not an exchange up. That is to say, Spirit Stone can be exchanged for this item, and this item can be exchanged for gold, silver, and Spirit Stone, but you can't exchange gold and silver for this item in the reverse. This will prevent people from accumulating wealth from the people and exchanging large quantities of Spirit Stone in our Xiushui City."
Lin Yun hadn't quite understood the beginning, but after this explanation, he understood. "You're right. If it's possible to exchange for higher-level items, there will inevitably be unscrupulous cultivators trying to extort money from the common people."
Seeing that he understood the crux of the matter, Lin Xiao smiled and continued, "Then wait for me, brother. I'll go and do some research to see how I can get this exchange item."
"Alright, I'll go take care of other things first. Let me know when you're done." With that, Lin Yun turned and left.
This was not a difficult task for Lin Xiao. He immediately went to Qin Jianghe in the Finance Hall to withdraw 10,000 Spirit Stone, and took the 10,000 Spirit Stone to the Trade Affairs Center under the cover of darkness.
The Trade Affairs Center was already closed, so Lin Xiao went directly to the Heaven and Earth Fairness Scale, placed the Storage Bag containing 10,000 Spirit Stone on the left side of the Heaven and Earth Fairness Scale, and then used his Spiritual Power to control Heaven and Earth Fairness Scale.
In no time, the Storage Bag on the left side of the Heaven and Earth Fairness Scale disappeared, but an identical Storage Bag appeared on its right side at the same time.
Lin Xiao took it down and opened it, and sure enough, there were one million tiny Spirit Bead inside.
This is a fairly basic function of the Heaven and Earth Fairness Scale. It can break down items into equal quantities of the same kind with zero loss, and conversely, it can also synthesize equal quantities of the same kind of items.
For example, the Spiritual Qi contained in the Spirit Bead in Lin Xiao's hand is the same as that contained in the ten thousand Spiritual Qi Spirit Stone that Lin Xiao brought earlier.
This is something that ordinary cultivators cannot do at all. They can split a Spirit Stone, but no one would do it, because once a Spirit Stone Spirit Stone is split into several pieces, the total amount of Spiritual Qi contained in these pieces will be far less than the Spiritual Qi content of the original whole Spirit Stone.
The reason why Spirit Stone can be used as currency is due to the characteristics of the Spirit Vein in this world.
The Spirit Vein of this world give birth to spiritual mines, and Spirit Stone are mined from these mines. It is worth mentioning that every Spirit Stone produced from these mines, regardless of its shape, contains the same concentration of Spiritual Qi. If a semi-finished Spirit Stone that does not meet the required Spiritual Qi content is mined prematurely, its Spirit Stone Spiritual Qi will rapidly dissipate, turning it into an ordinary stone.
Therefore, no one would casually cut a complete Spirit Stone.
But now Lin Xiao can easily solve this problem using the Heaven and Earth Fairness Scale.
However, he has not granted access to the Heaven and Earth Fairness Scale feature; currently, only he can use it.
Lin Xiao couldn't help but marvel once again at the high quality of the system's rewards. The Heaven and Earth Fairness Scale was truly perfect for all the needs of Xiushui City, and it was indeed worthy of being a city-building reward.
Lin Yun thought he would have to wait a while, but Lin Xiao came to him that very night and placed the one million Spirit Bead from the Storage Bag in front of him.
"What's this?" Lin Yun asked, opening it with a puzzled look.
"From now on, we'll use these Spirit Bead to exchange for Spirit Stone. One Spirit Stone can be exchanged for one hundred Spirit Bead. They all contain exactly the same Spiritual Qi. However, there's one thing: these Spirit Bead are currently only valid for use in Xiushui City. From now on, we'll use them to pay the salaries of employees who don't cultivate," Lin Xiao said.
He then explained, "The amount of Spiritual Qi contained in this Spirit Bead is the same as that of a Spirit Stone, which any cultivator can sense, so there's no need to worry about its use. We're also not afraid of others counterfeiting it; the cost of counterfeiting these Spirit Bead would be many times their original value."
Upon hearing this, Lin Yun readily agreed, "That makes things much easier."
"If you don't have enough, come to me again," Lin Xiao said.
Lin Yun nodded. "Okay."
The next day, before Lin Yun's previously mentioned method of temporarily exchanging gold and silver for Spirit Stone could be officially implemented, a notice was issued in Xiushui City, informing all citizens that if they had Spirit Stone that needed to be exchanged, they could go to the City Lord's Mansion to exchange them for Spirit Stone Spirit Bead of equal value.
The people were initially confused, but they all went to the exchange office in the city lord's mansion out of curiosity to find out more.
They were delighted to learn that their Spirit Stone could be exchanged for smaller Spirit Bead, and the City Lord's Mansion assured them that the cultivators would accept these Spirit Bead. Trusting the City Lord's Mansion and the Lingxian Sect, many people immediately took out one or two Spirit Stone to exchange for them.
Then these people took the Spirit Bead to low-level cultivators selling them on the street and asked them if they could buy anything with the Spirit Bead.
At first, these low-level cultivators thought that these mortals had been tricked into exchanging a bunch of unknown beads for something else.
But after hearing that the City Lord's Mansion said these beads were imbued with Spiritual Qi and could be used, the cultivators took a few Spirit Bead and examined them carefully. They found that, just like Spirit Stone, the Spiritual Qi was well preserved, and the Spiritual Qi content of each bead was the same.
Lower-level cultivators were unaware of the technical complexity of splitting Spirit Stone; they simply thought it was a method used by major sects. Since these Spirit Bead were rich in Spirit Stone Spiritual Qi and each one was of equal weight, they could naturally be used as a secondary substitute for Spirit Stone.
After that, the City Lord's Mansion hardly needed to do anything to promote it anymore; the Spirit Bead naturally became one of the mainstream equivalents in Xiushui City.
However, because of the rule that Lin Xiao had set that the Spirit Bead could only be used in Xiushui City, many low-level cultivators from other sects and royal families were unable to take the remaining Spirit Pearls out of Xiushui City after exchanging Spirit Bead. In the end, Lin Xiao had no choice but to compromise and lift the restrictions on the use of the Spirit Bead.
He hadn't expected so many cultivators to use Spirit Bead.
He intended this to make things convenient for the people in the city who had Spirit Stone, and he set this restriction so as not to affect other parts of the Pusi Kingdom.
After all, cultivators have been using Spirit Stone for so long and they've been doing just fine. Who would have thought they would need to break down their transactions into Spirit Pearl?