Inside the grand vault of Dry-Well Central Treasury, Hong Ling stood in front of a mountain of white Spirit-Mulberry bark, holding her two heavy kitchen cleavers with a puzzled look on her face.
“Young Master,” Hong Ling asked, tilting her head as her twin braids swung over her shoulders. “I understand why we use silver, gold, and Spirit Stones to buy things—they are heavy, shiny, and you can bite them to see if they are real. But if we print money on thin sheets of mulberry paper, won’t people say we are trying to trade tree leaves for real pigs and rice?”
Beside her, Abacus Su adjusted his round spectacles and nodded thoughtfully. “Miss Hong Ling asks the exact question every merchant in the Central Continent will ask, My Lord. Three hundred years ago, a mortal emperor in the south tried to print paper money so he could take everyone’s silver. Within two years, his court printed too much paper, counterfeiters copied his ink stamps in their basements, and a cartload of paper bills couldn’t even buy one cold pancake.”
Pei Xuan walked over to the center of the treasury floor, where three items were laid out beside a giant bronze printing press: 1. Ten thousand bales of tough, snow-white Spirit-Mulberry Paper harvested from the Great Central Canal farms. 2. Ten thousand cheap Micro-Storage Talismans stamped out by the academy students. 3. A small jade bowl containing a single drop of Pei Xuan’s Rank 5 Mid Golden-Spring Blood-Qi, alongside a…
