Chapter 270
Currently, the total circulation of Peace Coins is less than one million, with 200,000 in Lan Hu Town, 100,000 in Linhai Town, and the rest distributed between Desolate City and Jufeng Mountain.
The total population in these four areas is about 70,000 to 80,000.
Releasing this currency worth one million points into the market wouldn’t create much impact. Even if several times more coins were issued, it wouldn’t cause significant inflation.
In fact, the currency will only start being used as money when there are more Peace Coins circulating in the market. People who stockpile them because of their inherent value will begin using them as currency.
“Our Peace Coins are different from paper money. They already have high value, and as long as the system is functioning, Peace Coins can be exchanged for goods continuously, so the probability of inflation is much smaller,” Zhou Qi explained further.
Tang Yu’an nodded in understanding.
“Mm, over the past month, I’ve made so many Peace Coins, just in time for them to be useful!”
With the formation of Lan Hu Forest in Desolate City, a large number of Lan Hu Leaves naturally dropped daily, and Tang Yu’an had collected them all and used his housework robots to turn them into Peace Coins.
In addition to the leaves he traded from Lan Yunqing, the stock was already depleted. The total value of the coins made reached 1.53 million points.
When Zhou Qi mentioned it, Tang Yu’an directly pulled out two large boxes filled with Peace Coins, neatly stacked from one-unit to one hundred-unit in denominations. It looked very impressive.
“….”
Zhou Qi paused, then asked, “Why did you make so many?”
Tang Yu’an chuckled, “These are money!”
When he was a child, he often dreamed of finding money on the road and becoming a millionaire. Now, he could print his own money!
Wouldn’t it be great to print more? Even if he didn’t spend it, just looking at it at home made him happy.
Zhou Qi couldn’t help but laugh when he saw the boy’s gleeful expression. He reached out to pinch Tang Yu’an’s nose. “Little rascal.”
As he tried to pull his hand back, Tang Yu’an grabbed it, holding Zhou Qi’s hand in front of him, playing with it while talking.
The boy’s mouth moved, but Zhou Qi couldn’t focus on what he was saying. All his senses were drawn to Tang Yu’an’s hands.
He could clearly feel the boy’s soft fingertips moving across the veins on his hand, gently rubbing the calluses on his palm, and occasionally pinching his fingers, tenderly caressing them.
Zhou Qi took a deep breath, trying to calmly pull his hand back, pretending to reach for the Peace Coins in the box.
However, Tang Yu’an wouldn’t let go of him.
Suddenly, he grabbed his wrist, pulling Zhou Qi’s hand to his face, rubbing his nose against the back of his hand and taking a deep sniff.
Then, with bright eyes, he said, “Brother Qi, did you wear perfume? I keep thinking your scent smells so nice!”
He lowered his head to sniff again.
Zhou Qi: “….”
He was about to lose his mind.
“Brother Qi?”
“No, no….”
Zhou Qi paused, clearing his throat, and changed the topic, saying, “Let’s continue talking about the situation at Flame Dragon Fortress.”
“Mm, okay!”
Tang Yu’an glanced at the RV’s location on the map and said, “The RV is about a third of the way to Old Mo.”
Since the desertified terrain made roadblocks less frequent, the road was progressing faster.
About half a month ago, Tang Yu’an stopped laying cement roads.
After all, once the roads were open, they would facilitate communication between the two places, and they didn’t know what the situation was like at Flame Dragon Fortress, so it was safer to leave things as they were for now.
Whether to build a road between Flame Dragon Fortress and Lin Hai Town could wait until Lin Hai Town was fully covered by the protective shield.
“The fire dragons at Flame Dragon Fortress are gone,” Tang Yu’an said. “According to Gan Lin, there should be a one- or two-month hibernation period.”
The surrounding surface’s fire stones had already been collected, so they would need to be mined underground.
“I traded a batch of protective suits and tools to them.”
The protective suits were made from normal temperature fabric and could protect miners from burns during excavation.
“Kang Kang has cultivated two more breadfruit trees, plus the three seeds I bought from the dimension shop, all of which I’ve traded to Gan Lin.”
Each breadfruit cost 1,000 points, which was a minor expense for Tang Yu’an, who had recently earned millions in points.
If it weren’t for Old Mo’s area being too arid, where planting too many breadfruit trees would consume large amounts of water, he might have traded even more.
Currently, six breadfruit trees were already at their limit.
However, after the fire dragons entered their hibernation period, water evaporation slowed down, and people wouldn’t get thirsty as quickly, reducing their water demand.
“Has the number of believers recruited by Old Mo decreased?” Zhou Qi asked.
Tang Yu’an shook his head. “No, it’s actually increased a lot, nearly reaching 5,000 now.”
In a little while, their population might surpass that of Desolate City and Jufeng Mountain combined.
“Old Mo and Gan Lin basically don’t go out anymore, especially Old Mo.”
Having received so many believers, the pressure must be immense. That’s likely why Old Mo’s upgrading speed has slowed down.
In the past month, Turs had sent another batch of weapons back, and Tang Yu’an sent two sets to Old Mo and Gan Lin.
Zhou Qi listened intently to Tang Yu’an’s recount, frowning as he thought.
“What about Purple Sky Fortress? How are things there?”
Before Zhou Qi left, Tang Yu’an had already established a branch at Purple Sky Fortress and hired the fishing team leader, Zhan Xiong, as an employee.
His son, Zhan Xiaotian, had survived thanks to Tang Yu’an’s treatment.
After all this time, Zhan Xiong’s level had surpassed Lv5, and he could now communicate with other employees on the forum.
However, he wasn’t very active, only occasionally posting while mostly lurking. His most frequent use of the forum was the trading area.
Since Hai Jing sold salt at a low price in the trading area, Zhan Xiong had stopped selling salt and started selling seawater instead.
There was no way around it, since Purple Sky Fortress had no space for salt production, and he couldn’t compete with Hai Jing.
As for other products, he had nothing to offer.
Selling seawater had been a sudden idea, and since the trading area had everything for sale, he thought he’d give it a shot, and surprisingly, it sold!
What surprised Tang Yu’an the most was that the largest purchaser of seawater wasn’t Old Mo, but Wen Qingqing from Ice Flame Fortress.
“I asked her in the dream,” Tang Yu’an said. “Wen Qingqing buys seawater mainly to pour on the roads to prevent freezing and to deal with ice and snow creatures.”
Yes, Ice Flame Fortress had found a way to deal with the ice-and-snow mutated creatures.
They started by pouring seawater to melt the ice blocks on the roads outside the fortress but unexpectedly discovered that when the seawater touched those ice-and-snow creatures, they scattered as though burned.
The first soldier to notice this realized that seawater might be the weakness of these mutated creatures.
What had started as a free gift with Wen Qingqing’s sale of fire stones and charcoal turned out to be in high demand for the army.
The most important discovery was that Ice Flame Flowers didn’t like seawater either!
Although the flowers didn’t die when they were touched by seawater, their petals would shrivel up and take three to four days to reopen.
As everyone knew, Ice Flame Flowers were the main cause of the extreme cold disasters at Ice Flame Fortress.
Though they could only delay the flowers’ blooming for a few days, it still significantly reduced the snowfall at Ice Flame Fortress.
So now, Wen Qingqing’s salary was mainly spent on buying flame stones and seawater.
“Zhan Xiong, after receiving training from Old Mo and Old Ping, now has a deep understanding of the teachings and objectives of the Commerce God Sect!”
Tang Yu’an said, “He has now developed all the fishing team members into customers, but I’m not sure about the more specific details.”
Before leaving, Zhou Qi had especially reminded him, so he didn’t go to Purple Sky Fortress to take risks on his own.
“Let’s find a time to visit,” Zhou Qi said.
“Okay.”
Tang Yu’an nodded and then asked, “Brother Qi, should we assign the branch manager task to Sister Wen?”
Now, as long as an employee reaches level Lv20, they can establish a branch, and at level Lv21, they can activate the protective barrier. Although opening a teleportation array requires level Lv25, which is more difficult, even just activating the protective barrier is very useful, especially for places like Ice Flame Fortress, which is almost constantly subjected to cold disasters.
After all, within the protective barrier, the temperature can be maintained above zero, and the living conditions would improve a lot.
“What’s her level now?” Zhou Qi asked.
“Lv16.”
Although it’s already quite good compared to Brother Chi Hao, Sister Wen is still in the fortress, so her level is relatively low.
“Maybe the later level rewards aren’t as tempting, so after reaching Lv5, most employees focus on earning points and don’t really care about leveling up.”
Tang Yu’an said, “If we assign the branch manager task, I believe Sister Wen will start focusing on experience points and build the branch as quickly as possible.”
Ice Flame Fortress is just too far away. At the speed they travel to Fire Dragon Fort, even if they left now, it would take a year to reach.
Moreover, the dream drift bottles from this world, after a transaction is done, break when the wish-maker wakes up from their dream, so they can’t travel through dream drift bottles.
So, the branch at Ice Flame Fortress can only rely on Sister Wen herself.
Zhou Qi nodded, “Okay, but before that, let’s move her to store number 6.”
Sister Wen had always been at the main store and hadn’t received “Pottery” training from Old Mo. Plus, she grew up in the fortress, making her more clever than the other employees.
She frequented the bulletin board and forum mainly to buy and sell things, rarely participating in other topics.
Zhou Qi couldn’t be sure of her loyalty to the “Mysterious Merchant.”
Since they’ve decided to disguise themselves as a church, they should complete the church training thoroughly, ensuring that the management doesn’t have any issues.
“Oh, right.”
Tang Yu’an almost forgot about this issue. He quickly moved Sister Wen to store number 6 and then began customizing a branch manager task for her with Zhou Qi.
After sending out the task, they donned their masks and cloaks, then used the teleportation array to arrive at the Purple Sky Grocery Store.
They planned to conduct an on-site inspection and think about the development strategy for Purple Sky Fortress.
Just as they entered the basement, they heard noisy voices from above.
Although Tang Yu’an had shrunk the protective barrier to the basement, because of the “Evil Guest Repel” aura, anyone who harbored malicious intent toward Zhan Xiong and his son couldn’t enter the grocery store.
So even if Zhan Xiong took out a huge amount of food, which shouldn’t exist in Purple Sky Fortress, it should be safe.
Seeing that Zhan Xiong and Zhan Xiaotian weren’t in the room, Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi came out of the basement.
When they reached the door and heard the sounds from outside, their faces showed strange expressions.
“Silence! Morning class is about to begin! Quiet down, everyone!”
Zhan Xiong’s deep voice rang out, and the previously noisy crowd quieted down.
Morning class? What’s that?
For some reason, Tang Yu’an suddenly had a bad premonition, and then he heard Zhan Xiong’s voice again.
“Praise the God of Commerce!”
As his voice fell, hundreds of others shouted in unison, “Praise the God of Commerce!”
“Great God of Commerce, thank you for providing us with food, so we can avoid hunger and suffering…”
“From today onwards, I will faithfully fulfill your will… I will respect the elderly and love the young, maintain hygiene, and show politeness…”
“I will love and care for my children, never abandoning or abusing them. I will work hard and be brave, using my hands to create…”
Tang Yu’an: 0.0
It’s only been a little over a month! How does it feel like Purple Sky Fortress has just started a branch church? Didn’t they say that missionary activities were banned in the fortress?
Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi exchanged glances, quickly walking outside under the cover of the Shadow Umbra.
They saw Zhan Xiong standing at the front of the crowd, and the street was filled with people kneeling, all chanting and following Zhan Xiong’s lead. The scene looked quite imposing.
However…
Tang Yu’an felt like running away, especially since he knew that this God of Commerce church was something they had made up.
But Zhou Qi grabbed his hand.
“You need to adapt in advance.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“There are thousands of people at Old Mo’s place.”
