In any unfamiliar field, anyone who can come up with a feasible solution through their own thinking is considered smart, regardless of the circumstances.
Feeling a little shy after being praised by his younger brother, Lin Yun asked, "So, can we do it this way?"
"Yes, we can, but it needs to be made carefully to prevent counterfeiting. Also, we shouldn't treat it as a currency, since we're not a nation that issues money. Instead, we can use it as a unique exchange item within Xiushui City," Lin Xiao explained.
After thinking for a moment, he added, "Moreover, it should only allow downward exchanges, not upward exchanges. This means spirit stones can be exchanged for this item, and this item can be exchanged for gold, silver, or spirit stones, but not the other way around. This would prevent anyone from amassing wealth from the common people and exchanging it for large amounts of spirit stones."
At first, Lin Yun didn't fully grasp the concept, but after hearing this explanation, he understood. "You're right. If we allowed upward exchanges, some unscrupulous cultivators would definitely find ways to exploit the common people for profit."
Seeing that Lin Yun understood the key point, Lin Xiao smiled and said, "Alright, give me a moment. I'll go and figure out how to create this exchange item."
"Okay, I'll take care of some other matters in the meantime. Let me know when you're done," Lin Yun replied, turning to leave.
This task wasn't too difficult for Lin Xiao. He immediately went to find Qin Jianghe from the Finance Hall and requested an allocation of 10,000 spirit stones. Under the cover of night, he took these spirit stones to the Trade Affairs Center.
The center was already closed for the day, but Lin Xiao went straight to the Heavenly Balance Scale, a special tool placed there. He put the storage bag containing the 10,000 spirit stones on the left side of the scale and used his spiritual power to operate the scale.
Moments later, the storage bag on the left side disappeared, and on the right side, an identical storage bag appeared.
Lin Xiao took the new bag, opened it, and found that it now contained one million small "Lingzhuzi" (spirit beads).
This was one of the most basic functions of the Heavenly Balance Scale. It could decompose items into equal-quality and equal-quantity components without any loss. Conversely, it could also synthesize equal-quality items back into a single entity.
For example, these Lingzhuzi in Lin Xiao's hand contained the same amount of spiritual energy as the original 10,000 spirit stones.
This was something ordinary cultivators couldn't achieve. They could break a spirit stone into pieces, but no one would do that because once a spirit stone is split, the total amount of spiritual energy it contains would be far less than the original full stone.
The reason spirit stones are used as currency is tied to the nature of this world's spiritual veins.
Spiritual veins produce spiritual minerals, and spirit stones are mined from these minerals. Every spirit stone, regardless of its shape or size, contains an equal amount of spiritual energy. If a spirit stone is harvested before its spiritual energy is fully developed, it will rapidly lose its energy and turn into an ordinary stone.
Thus, no one would casually cut a complete spirit stone.
But now, Lin Xiao could easily solve this problem with the Heavenly Balance Scale.
He hadn't opened the permissions for this function of the Heavenly Balance Scale to anyone else—only he could use it for now.
Lin Xiao couldn't help but marvel once again at the usefulness of the system's rewards. The Heavenly Balance Scale was truly perfect for all of Xiushui City's needs—no wonder it was given as a city-building reward.
Lin Yun had expected to wait a while, but Lin Xiao showed up that very night, bringing a storage bag filled with a million Lingzhuzi and placing it in front of him.
"What's this?" Lin Yun asked curiously as he opened the bag.
"These are Lingzhuzi. From now on, we'll use these for exchanging spirit stones. One spirit stone can be exchanged for 100 Lingzhuzi. They contain the same amount of spiritual energy. However, these Lingzhuzi will only be used within Xiushui City, and we can use them to pay non-cultivating employees," Lin Xiao explained.
He then added, "The amount of spiritual energy in each Lingzhuzi is the same as that in a spirit stone, and any cultivator can sense it. So, we don't have to worry about their usability. We also don't need to fear counterfeiting, because the cost of replicating these beads would be far higher than their value."
Upon hearing this, Lin Yun was pleased. "That makes things much easier."
"If you ever need more, just let me know," Lin Xiao said.
Lin Yun nodded, "Got it."
The next day, even before Lin Yun's temporary solution of using gold and silver as substitutes for spirit stone exchanges was implemented, an announcement echoed throughout Xiushui City. The City Lord's Mansion informed all citizens that if they needed to exchange smaller denominations of spirit stones, they could visit the City Lord's Office to trade spirit stones for an equal value of Lingzhuzi.
At first, the citizens didn't fully understand, but out of curiosity, many went to the City Lord's Office to find out more.
When they learned that they could exchange their spirit stones for smaller, more manageable Lingzhuzi, they were delighted. The City Lord's Mansion assured them that cultivators would accept these beads as currency. Trusting in the City Lord's Mansion and Lingxian Sect, many citizens immediately exchanged one or two spirit stones for Lingzhuzi.
They then took these Lingzhuzi and went to the streets, asking the low-level cultivators selling items if they would accept the beads.
At first, the cultivators thought the commoners had been duped into thinking these strange beads were valuable.
But when the citizens explained that the City Lord's Mansion had said the beads contained spiritual energy, the cultivators inspected a few beads carefully. Sure enough, they found that the Lingzhuzi held spiritual energy just like spirit stones, with each bead containing the same amount.
The low-level cultivators didn't understand the complex process of dividing spirit stones, but they assumed this was simply a remarkable technique from a great sect. Since the Lingzhuzi contained spiritual energy and were uniform in quantity, they could be used as a lesser substitute for spirit stones.
After that, Lingzhuzi naturally became one of the mainstream currencies in Xiushui City, without the need for further promotion from the City Lord's Mansion.
However, because Lin Xiao had initially set the rule that Lingzhuzi could only be used within Xiushui City, many low-level cultivators from other sects found themselves unable to take the remaining Lingzhuzi out of the city after exchanging them. Eventually, Lin Xiao had to compromise and lift the restriction on Lingzhuzi usage.
He hadn't expected so many cultivators to use Lingzhuzi as well.
Originally, he had only intended the beads to be a convenient option for the citizens of Xiushui City. He had imposed the restriction to avoid disrupting the rest of the Pusi Kingdom.
After all, cultivators had been using spirit stones as currency for so long without issue—who would have thought they would also need smaller denominations like Lingzhuzi for transactions?