Chapter 55: Immortal Economics and the Merit Standard

From the moment Zhen Chanzi introduced him to cultivation, Wang Qi had always harbored suspicion about one very common fact—how could it be that spirit stones were a currency?The amount of currency needed in circulation in a given period was directly proportional to the total amount of commodity prices and inversely proportional to the velocity of the currency’s circulation. Too much or too little currency would cause economic turmoil.

[The amount of spirit stones can hardly be controlled!]

The spiritual energy contained in a spirit stone varied. It was hard for a trade to take place when cultivators hadn’t agreed on a standard price—enter the spirit pool, an invention meant to resolve disputes over price levels.

The more spirit stones entered circulation, the bigger the plunge in their value. A cultivator coming out of seclusion a decade later would find his savings not worth a dime when a new spirit stone vein got mined.

The opposite applied as well. Depleting a spirit stone deposit hiked up the value of spirit stones. People with aspirations for wealth would surely hoard loads of spirit stones.

Regardless of the event, they all had a large impact on the market.

With an unclear reward, alchemists would think twice about accepting a commission; the same went for refiners. It led to an individual needing to learn far more and shorten the time spent on cultivation. This created a vicious cycle.

Ultimately, the cultivators would find their hope for advancing cut off and would have nothing holding them back from attacking each other, changing the image from ‘capitalism’ to ‘cannibalism.’

In the eighty thousand years of immortal cultivation history, due to severe exhaustion of veins or large-scale mining, the cultivation world went through five such disasters.

Zhen Chanzi explained once that the large sects monopolized most of the spirit stone veins. Such a sect would regulate the circulation of spirit stones, with only their core members having free access. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ N0vᴇlFirᴇ.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

In any case, the market was still affected. Ancient cultivators needed spirit stones for cultivation. One day, a pile of them got used up, and that resulted in the amount of spirit stones in circulation getting out of control. This wasn’t Earth, where money couldn’t be eaten or used up. Not to mention earthlings didn’t exactly engage in burning or ripping money on a whim. 

The frail currency system led to cultivators falling back on the primitive bartering system.

To settle the issue, the ancient cultivation world added an amendment.

The immortal sect’s hiding period was the best example. There were hardly a hundred cultivators in the entire world at the time. The resources were spread evenly among each one of them. The mortals had rumors of immortals walking among them, but no one sought them. 

This, however, led to a wakened humanity as demons seized half the Divine Province. The oldies didn’t much care, but with humanity’s numbers dwindling, the sects had a hard time finding good seeds, to the point of being unable to pass on their legacy. The remaining sects reenacted the ‘open borders’ action.

A cultivation dynasty was also a solution. A cultivator clan would rule humanity and unite the secular and the immortal path. The imperial family, officials, and soldiers were the only ones allowed to cultivate. One had to join the system to train, and if found guilty of transgression, the result would be decapitation. 

This stabilized the market, giving humanity enough strength to fend off demons.

The system was vulnerable, however, to the appearance of a cannibalistic cultivator. Of the three immortal cultivation dynasties noted in history, two collapsed due to the emergence of cultivation devouring geniuses among farmers, flooding the lands with blood and reaching the Great Ascension. 

The collapse of the system resulted in demonic cultivators running rampant, bringing about an age of cultivating by devouring others. In those dark eras of humanity, people replaced spirit stones. It led to a steady supply, leading to the cultivation world flourishing once more. But the sects keeping to this path broke their legacy, none of which was present today. 

In the present Immortal Alliance, the mining of spiritual energy from the void outside their world was very much possible, employed on a small scale as they took the consequences into consideration. The merit system started off as a way to incentivize people to join the Immortal Alliance and reward its members for their military service. Later on, it had known many expansions, making the things bought with merits have a guaranteed greater value. The exchange rate between merits and spiritual energy was yearly adjusted as well, to prevent cultivators from going bankrupt throughout the process. 

Finishing an Immortal Alliance task netted merits. The vast majority of items in the Immortal Alliance had a fixed price. The alliance encouraged its members to trade among themselves as well. The core sects of the Immortal Alliance could also use large-scale exchanges to regulate the number of merits in circulation.

With the Immortal Alliance as the guarantor, merits would one day replace the ever-devaluing spiritual energy and become its common currency.

Having understood all that, Wang Qi sighed, “Seeing how the faction I’m part of seeks stability so that everyone can attain immortality is nice and all, but it’s cutting me off from any illicit gain.”

Xiang Qi said, “There are other ways to get plenty of merits. High risk, high return. Go to the Western Sea and join the ranks against sea demons. Or the Eastern Sea to hunt down ancient cultivation dregs.” 

Wang Qi smirked. “Senior Sister, who are you trying to fool? Are those places a Qi Refining cultivator could ever go to?”

“Getting close to an Eminence and joining his research team would also get you plenty of merits. The Immortal Alliance places a lot of importance on this; earning merits like this is no less dangerous than fighting ancient cultivators or demons with your life on the line.” Xiang Qi thought hard about this proposal: “Since you caught the Arbiter of Arithmetic’s eyes, maybe a Myriad Arts Sect Eminence would take you.”

Wang Qi shook his head. [I know myself better than anyone.] Hilbert found him interesting based on the many skills he trained, not in terms of arithmetics. [Going to Myriad Arts Sect with this will earn me their disgust.] 

[Not to mention, I have too many secrets.] Being seen as a bookworm is my limit. [Doing more will ruin everything.]

Xiang Qi muttered, “Why not summarize your insights into Dao and deductions into cultivation methods and then submit them to the Immortal Alliance? The rewards are particularly generous.” 

Wang Qi’s heart stirred. Daoist Proscribe’s work had great value. Then there were the many cutting-edge achievements of Earth’s physics swimming in his head. Just that Daoist Proscribe was a heated topic in the Immortal Alliance. By coming forward, he’d either screw himself into an early grave or kill himself. As for Earth’s knowledge, what was the typical reaction of a government when a high school student presented theoretical results beyond their time?

Divine Province’s laws of physics and Earth’s were similar, but spiritual energy’s presence changed everything. [God knows if all the knowledge I have from Earth will end up worthless the higher up I go.]

As he crossed out many scenarios, Xiang Qi facepalmed, “I totally forgot! You’re still just an Immortal Institute freshman!”