Martial Arts: I Have a Wilderness World

Chapter 533: Chapter 285: Concerns About Currency (Part 2)

But they didn’t know that the Storage Ring on Cheng Zongyang’s finger was just a disguise.

As the chests were inspected and put away one by one, Yu Wenlin took the opportunity to ask Cheng Zongyang about the Cultivation Immortality Realm.

However, Cheng Zongyang couldn’t be bothered to explain. He simply gave him three of the manuals he had previously recompiled, treating them as a complimentary gift for this transaction.

Regarding Spirit Stones, however, Cheng Zongyang offered them two options.

First, they could borrow from him, which would require signing an agreement. Second, they could find a way to earn them on their own. He also mentioned that if they wanted to return in the future, they could use either silver taels or Spirit Stones, but the timing of their return would not be guaranteed.

No one in the Cultivation Immortality Realm used gold and silver; everyone used Spirit Crystals and Spirit Stones. Therefore, there was no need to worry about the common folk being affected.

He set the exchange rate between silver taels and Spirit Stones at ten thousand taels for a single Spirit Stone.

’It was a total rip-off, but Spirit Stones were incredibly valuable in the Cultivation Immortality Realm. The exchange rate had to be high. Besides, he needed to make a profit. If you weren’t making money with a monopoly, what was the point of having one in the first place?’

Once the three thousand chests of silver had been collected and they were back on the surface, Cheng Zongyang said to them,

"This transaction is now halfway complete. When you’re ready, come find me in Jade Peak Immortal City, and I’ll take you there. Also, I don’t know if you plan on telling others, but future trips will require payment in Spirit Stones. You can pay for the return trip with either Spirit Stones or silver taels, but it will require signing a contract. You just have to earn enough to pay me back within the agreed-upon timeframe."

The two men understood Cheng Zongyang’s meaning and nodded in acceptance.

Cheng Zongyang then released his Flying Cloud Shuttle. Once activated, it became invisible and swiftly departed.

"The Cultivation Immortality Realm! Cultivation Immortality! I can’t believe we’ve actually encountered it in our lifetime," Shentu Li said with a laugh.

"Let’s go. We don’t have much time. We need to wrap things up quickly and head to Jade Peak County."

"Alright."

「After leaving Yunfeng City, Cheng Zongyang hurried back to Jade Peak Immortal City.」

’Even though this round trip cost quite a few Low Grade Spirit Stones, getting thirty million taels of silver means I can expand the Wilderness World’s territory by thirty thousand kilometers. Totally worth it!’

As for whether the Wilderness World was even thirty thousand kilometers in size, he suspected it was much, much larger.

Back in Jade Peak Immortal City, Cheng Zongyang went into his basement and entered the Wilderness World.

Luo Dingran had already moved the silver taels to the fifth floor. He had been given authority to mentally control all the items within the cabin, which saved a great deal of effort.

「Fifth Floor, Market Cabin.」

"My lord, are we to use all thirty million taels right now?" Luo Dingran asked.

Cheng Zongyang looked puzzled. "Is there a problem?"

Luo Dingran gave a slight nod. "As I was looking at these silver taels, a problem occurred to me. Expanding the Wilderness World’s area like this uses silver from the outside world. Won’t this cause the supply of silver out there to constantly decrease until there’s none left to use?"

Hearing this, Cheng Zongyang paused for a moment before breaking into a smile. "Old Luo, tell me, why is silver so valuable?"

Luo Dingran thought for a moment. "Hasn’t it always been valuable? That’s why it can be used to purchase goods."

Cheng Zongyang knew Luo Dingran didn’t yet understand the true nature of currency. He glanced around and, with a flick of his will, materialized a silver ingot and a piece of porcelain.

"Out in the world, how much would a piece of porcelain like this typically sell for?" Cheng Zongyang asked.

Luo Dingran glanced at the porcelain object floating before them. "For a common, everyday piece of porcelain with average workmanship... probably a few hundred cents?"

"Alright, let’s say it’s worth three hundred cents. To buy it, I have to hand over three hundred cents. So tell me, what has value: the porcelain or the silver?"

This left Luo Dingran stunned.

Seeing this, Cheng Zongyang chuckled, knowing that Luo Dingran was starting to get it. He continued his explanation:

"The valuable thing isn’t the silver or the gold; it’s the goods themselves. Gold and silver are just mediums of exchange that we—or a supreme authority—established. In and of themselves, they are worthless. You could even say the goods themselves are worthless. But we are the ones who assign them value and create demand for them. Based on the value of the goods, we then pay a corresponding amount of currency.

Take the Money Tickets from the Da Yi Commerce Association, for example. Are they inherently valuable?

They aren’t. But they are backed by the credibility of the Da Yi Commerce Association, and further backed by a publicly accepted standard—silver. That’s what gives them value, allowing them to be used universally between nations without fear of them becoming worthless.

Old Luo, let’s put aside the question of whether all the silver in the Martial Arts Realm can even be used up. Just suppose it is. If, in the future, an extremely authoritative person or faction were to introduce a new paper currency to replace silver—one backed by something with intrinsic value, like Spirit Stones—do you think that would be viable? Forget about the difficulty of implementing it, just tell me, would the method itself work?"

Now, Luo Dingran finally understood. He nodded. "As long as all the major powers and nations implemented it, there would be no problem at all. And as long as you properly exchanged the currency held by the common people, you wouldn’t have to worry about the lower classes going bankrupt."

Cheng Zongyang said, "So now, if all the gold and silver were used up, would you still be worried about having no currency to use?"

The Wilderness World needed silver to expand because the Ring Spirit required it to resolve certain inherent issues within that world.

Gold was used to restore the world’s mineral veins, but that process had been temporarily paused, meaning the world would have very few such veins for the time being.

These mechanics were simply the Ring Spirit’s requirements. The spirit itself didn’t understand the principles behind them, nor did it care to. He just had to execute its will.

’As for the outside world running out of gold and silver? Just switch to a different currency. As long as the new currency is based on a product that humans can’t endlessly replicate, there’s no need to worry about devaluation. The moment humans can create it themselves, it will eventually be mass-produced at will, rendering it worthless.’