Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

For the ordinary people, it meant that the Imperium’s ubiquitous taxing system was highly efficient and cruel. Tax evasion was certainly impossible, and the bizarre, incessant taxes could be directly taken away from the account without a delay of half a second.

For the Immortal Cultivators, particularly the low-level Immortal Cultivators who were ambitious and trying to climb upward through whatever means possible, it meant that their whole training plans would be exposed to sunlight, or even worse, to the people who were jealous and did not want them to be strong.

Training required resources and the procurement of resources would leave various traces on the Spiritual Nexus. Then, as long as the shopping history and the flow of capitals were grasped, it would be easy to infer an Immortal Cultivator’s level and recent progress in training.

For the leadership of the major sects and families who were now in power, they did not want to see the ambitious young people or the low-level Immortal Cultivators of secondary bloodlines to climb upward.

Then, as long as they detected the anomaly in the low-level Immortal Cultivator’s account, thereby tracing the resources that he purchased recently, it would be easy for them to know that he was in the middle of certain training or even preparing for a certain crucial breakthrough.

Then, it was more than easy to play some tricks or set up a few traps at the crucial moment.

Even if the low-level Immortal Cultivators did not want to count on the strength of the families but to earn money for their training by moonlighting as mercenaries or assassins, as long as the money was the crystal coins of the Imperium and transferred on the Spiritual Nexus, it would still be discovered by the families. The heads of the families and sects had plenty of ways to buy the secret transfer records from the black market, thereby choking the necks of the low-level Immortal Cultivators.

In short, under the currency system based on the Spiritual Nexus, the people in power had controlled the lifeline of money tightly. The social stratification was even more severe, and the channels of ascension were entirely blocked. The low-level Immortal Cultivators did not have any freedom to grow wildly. The only way for them to be stronger was to be an obedient dog for the high-level Immortal Cultivators.

While a lot of Immortal Cultivators did not mind being a dog for the experts, even more Immortal Cultivators who were ambitious, disobedient, and intended to dominate the world did not want to bend to somebody else and had their necks choked for their entire lives!

The ordinary people could perhaps hold back the pain of being forever exploited by the Immortal Cultivators. They could not make any voice even if they wanted to.

However, the dissatisfaction of the billions of low-level Immortal Cultivators would certainly affect the entire Imperium!

As Immortal Cultivators, they were born to be superior to others. They were meant to dominate the world and conquer the universe, not to be somebody else’s dogs!

The low-level Immortal Cultivators had never craved strength more, but in order to get greater strength, they needed money—the real money that belonged to them, not the toilet paper like the “crystal coins of the Imperium”, which was closely monitored in every procedure of the trade!

What they desired was such a currency. First of all, it needed a relatively stable value. It did not mean that the currency could not inflate, but there should be a boundary, allowing it to inflate together with the growth of the economy, unlike the rapid devaluation of the crystal coins of the Imperium. Because of the hard work of the cash printers of the four families, the money that was enough to buy a hen today could only buy an egg tomorrow.

Secondly, and more importantly, such a currency must be untraceable and not be monitorable. Only with such features could they exchange resources without alarming anyone and grow rapidly right under the nose of the high-level Immortal Cultivators, eventually challenging their authority.

Where there was oppression, there was resistance. Where there was demand, there would certainly be corresponding products.

Based on the intense demand of the low-level Immortal Cultivators, “free coin” was born.

The free coin was not a currency in the traditional sense but only a virtual currency for fun at the beginning. It was a decentralized, peer-to-peer trade algorithm that was born on the crystal processors and the Spiritual Nexus.

The free coin did not have any features of the traditional currencies. It was not even issued by any currency agency. Instead, it was generated through a very special algorithm by digging the potentials of the super crystal processors in the entire Imperium. The trade records were recorded on the scattered databases on the nodes of the Spiritual Nexus. The advantages in the algorithm design and the multiple cryptologic characteristics ensured the absolute security of the currency.

Li Yao was not a student of economics, and he did not know much about the virtual currencies. Therefore, he did not quite understand the essence of the free coins. Perhaps another way of describing it was that the free coin was in fact a virtual, anonymous ledger that recorded all the trades that the user made, but every user in the entire Imperium had such a ledger, and the data on them could be updated synchronically.

In such a way, no hacker could possibly change the trade data of the free coins. It couldn’t have been more secure.

Also, the free coins were not issued by any bank but “mined” by digging the potentials of all the super crystal processors in the entire Imperium.

In a given period, the potentials of the super crystal processors were stable, and the number of free coins would be expectable. So, the value of the currency would be relatively stable.

What if the mining potentials of the super crystal processors significantly increased?

It meant that the super crystal processors had grown larger in number and become more powerful. The modern civilization was to a large extent a civilization of crystal processors. The upgrade of super crystal processors meant the development of the economy. Then, the addition of the free coins wouldn’t be a problem at all. It was almost perfect!

Of course, there was still a major chasm for the free coin to become a real currency, which had to be jumped over in a most dangerous jump with the wings that were known as credit.

Currency was credit. A currency without credit would be no different from the currency in a virtual game.

The free coin was merely a concept created by a bunch of crystal processor specialists among the space pirates at the peripheral worlds of the Imperium in their boredom.

The purpose of their creation was to use it as a record for the black market trades among the space pirates to avoid the attack of the authorities.

The credit of the currency was the armed forces of the space pirates. Therefore, it did not entail any value outside of the circle of space pirates.

However, in the peripheral worlds of the Imperium, the so-called “space pirates” were in fact just a synonym of “privateers”. Most of the powerful, major pirate gangs were the troops of the warlords under a different skin.

As the free coin spread out among the pirate gangs, it immediately entered the eyesight of the local warlords and Sector Master at the edge of the Imperium.

The exploitation of the central worlds of the Imperium on the peripheral worlds was extremely cruel. The dump of goods and the price scissors were almost killing the local dominators. But as it happened, their entire economic system in the past was based on the crystal coins of the Imperium. It was impossible for them to hide anything to themselves.

The appearance of the free coin gave hope to the local dominators. Under their intentional indulgence and even encouragement, the free coin soon became one of the most important trade methods on the black markets in the periphery of the Imperium. Also, it was given new credit that was guaranteed by the local dominators with their guns.

Even so, the newly born free coin was still like a baby in the cradle that was vulnerable and helpless and could be suffocated easily.

However, a serious economic crisis took place in the Imperium a hundred years ago.

A hundred years ago, the Imperium suffered an unprecedented failure in the frontline. The Black Wind Fleet, known as the strongest border defense army, was crushed. Five highly militarized, heavy industrial worlds were lost to the Covenant Alliance, whose army was ready to march toward the heartland of the Imperium.

For a moment, all kinds of rumors were spreading out. Everybody was panicking, as if the world would end soon.

But as it happened, the Black Wind Fleet did not stop there. Knowing that the court would not let go of them after the failure, they simply gathered the defeated soldiers and wandered about in the heartland of the Imperium, shouting that they would correct their mistake by conquering the desolate worlds at the edge of the Imperium. But of course, they could not embark on their expedition with a hungry belly, and the court had to pay them a large sum of compensation and military budget.

Judging from the shameless behavior of the scoundrels, it was obvious that they would surrender to the Covenant Alliance and let everybody die with them.

The emperor at that time was rather weak, and the four families were not united. In the end, they agreed to Black Wind Fleet’s blackmail despite their anger, paying a huge amount of money to appease the crushed soldiers.

As it turned out, the crushed soldiers left with the tremendous fees, only to be killed by the Star Glory Federation at the edge of the cosmos a hundred years later.

That was the other part of the story. Focusing on the time of the failure, it was “Marquess Liaohai” Lei Chenghu who stood out and saved the sky, preventing the attacks of the aggressive Covenant Alliance. However, the Imperium suffered a major setback again. The military expenses and compensations were all astronomical. There was also the chain reaction on the financial market due to the loss of five Sectors. It would be a miracle if an economic crisis didn’t take place!

The economic crisis led to the collapse of the cabinet of “Silver Fox” Li Jiande, who was the Prime Minister of the Imperium at that time. It also disrupted the last bit of the credit of the crystal coins of the Imperium.

Now, the free coin’s credit was approximately zero, but it had a stable value and could be freely traded without being monitored.

The crystal coin’s credit, on the other hand, was also close to zero, but it could crazily depreciate at any moment, and every procedure of the trade was tightly monitored.

Even an idiot would know which one to choose!

Merchants always had the keenest senses when it came to money.

Right when the Black Wind Fleet was crushed in the frontline, the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, which had been secretly developing, had already foreseen the upcoming economic crisis. Don’t forget that Di Feiwen, the deputy commander of the Black Wind Fleet, worked for the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors too. The Black Wind Fleet’s blackmail might’ve been related to the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, too.

Through Di Feiwen and other people, the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors helped the Black Wind Fleet to blackmail the court, partly boosting the outbreak of the economic crisis. On the other hand, it wagered on the chips it had on the free coin!