Quick Wear: Random Cheats

Chapter 220 The Princess Who Was Killed as a Wife in a Peace Marriage (7)

"You can take it, but not too much..."

"Wait... let me think!!"

Ding Shui was still somewhat uneasy, so he quickly brainstormed and, after coming up with an idea, did some calculations and soon understood the reason:

"Sigh, those were things we deserved anyway."

"I thought something great had happened!"

"You forgot that you recently manifested a large amount of resources to exchange for those slaves, which consumed a lot of my Five Elements energy, didn't it? I just calculated that if all that Five Elements energy were converted into water attribute energy and manifested as seawater..."

It's roughly the same as the seawater you took away.

So it's actually an equivalent exchange..."

"But isn't the Five Elements energy you consume transformed from the essence of the Great Sun of this world? Theoretically, isn't it still the energy of this world that you're consuming?"

Indeed, in Xiao Hei's understanding, Ding Shui absorbs the solar energy of this world, transforms it into the five elements' energy, and then manifests it into material forms. In reality, it has always been using the energy of this world, only with appropriate transformations between energies, which is why it hadn't thought of this.

"Uh, you don't have the background in this area..."

In reality, many small worlds don't actually have a sun. Can you understand? Well, that's not entirely accurate. To be precise, while this world has a sun, the ownership of that sun doesn't belong to the world's consciousness. Only the solar energy that enters the atmosphere counts as part of the world's consciousness.

"When we talk about a small world, we are actually referring to a single life-bearing planet. In fact, there are many small worlds whose suns are projections of larger worlds."

It is a mass of solar energy, not a physical entity.

So I absorb solar energy in the atmosphere.

Solar energy that does not belong to this small world.

Do you understand now?

While artificial intelligence is superior to humans in many aspects, it requires a certain amount of relevant knowledge. Without this knowledge, it cannot function effectively. Xiao Hei clearly lacks this knowledge, which is why it is unable to perform the analysis.

"Oh, then I was really happy for nothing."

However, it's good that the power of faith is useful. Next, I'd like to focus on promoting the Illusory Realm of the Void. What do you think?
Although the power of faith can be gathered upon you and transferred to the Realm of Illusion, there will inevitably be some loss during the transfer; minimizing this loss is always preferable.

"Sure, you can arrange it yourself."

Seeing that Ding Shui had no objections, Xiao Hei quickly began to revise the publicity strategy, shifting the focus of the publicity from Ding Shui to the Illusionary Realm of Taixu. He even specially performed several miracles to make the Illusionary Realm of Taixu appear above the entire royal court and guide the souls of several devout believers!

This operation, this effect.

Compared to other religions, it is a complete and utter crushing defeat.

After all, no matter how eloquently one speaks of enjoying a happy life after death, or entering a blissful paradise, nothing compares to seeing someone actually go there. And while Xiao Hei was still quite busy every day, he was in a really good mood because the speed at which the illusory realm was becoming real was now visibly fast.

Therefore, it naturally put in even more effort afterward.

Ding Shui had to be so careful that he had to reprimand it. He had to be mindful of the limits. He could have faith, but he couldn't go beyond his duty. He couldn't just get up and pray every day without doing anything else. Was that appropriate?

Fortunately, Ding Shui discovered it in time.

Therefore, nothing went wrong in the end.

However, Xiao Hei was still a little unwilling to give up. The living Ding Shui wouldn't allow him to go too far, so he could only target the dead, those souls that he had guided into the Taixu Illusionary Realm.

They were required to pray at a set time every day.

To enjoy life, one must earn it through prayer.

As long as you are devout enough and provide enough faith power, you can have a whole bunch of handsome men and beautiful women providing personal services, and you can even experience the dream of being an emperor.

It's just taking advantage of those people who don't know anything!
What kind of service can you provide to a group of souls? It's nothing more than an illusion service, at most a service similar to a holographic game.

But those souls were quite happy.

They genuinely felt they had entered a heavenly kingdom.

Because here they don't have to work. As long as they pray devoutly for half an hour each day, they can get three very delicious meals. Praying for an hour will get them delicacies they never dared to dream of before. Praying for two hours will not only provide them with extremely comfortable accommodations, but also with some basic services provided by fairies and elves.

They didn't think the items were fake either.

Because they can taste the food.

I felt full after eating it.

Therefore, many souls treat daily prayer as a job, and some even pray for several extra hours every day, hoping to save some money for their spouses who have not yet passed away, or their sons and daughters who have not yet died.

The only thing that Xiao Hei regretted was that it couldn't take these souls with it, nor could it keep them in the Illusionary Realm for long. When these souls reached the end of their lifespan, they had to be sent into reincarnation. After all, the Illusionary Realm wasn't a true divine kingdom, and forcibly keeping them there wouldn't allow it to refine them into something like vengeful ghosts.

His lifespan in the underworld has ended, yet he has not entered the cycle of reincarnation for a long time.

It will cause one's soul to be scattered.

Another regrettable point is that not many people are dying now. Relying solely on natural deaths each day, its illusory realm is still too empty. However, it wouldn't dare to harbor any wicked thoughts about this and deliberately kill off a large number of people. If it dared to cause trouble, Ding Shui would crush it.

Therefore, we can only indirectly encourage childbirth.

The more people are born, the more people will die!

There are currently less than 500 million people in the world. If they all die, there will only be 500 million souls. But if the population grows to 7 or 8 billion, it wouldn't be a problem for 500 million to die every year, especially if the medical level deteriorates slightly.

It wouldn't be a problem if an extra ten or twenty million people died every year.

……

While Ding Shui and his group were developing normally, the Tianhong Empire began to fall into chaos. Of course, this had nothing to do with the envoys who had returned; it was due to the disruption of the market economy.

Many things are starting to go unsold.

For example, tea.

Tea, even the cheapest tea leaves, is generally unaffordable for ordinary people. They usually just dry some dandelions or other plant leaves at home to make tea, rarely buying tea leaves specifically. Or they might buy some occasionally, but only during holidays or when important guests visit, to make a show of it.

The spending power of wealthy merchants and nobles is quite good.

But tea leaves can't be eaten as a meal.

In terms of annual production, supply absolutely exceeds demand. In previous years, the surplus was basically transported to the Western Rong Empire through various channels such as smuggling and sold, and those involved basically made a fortune. But this year, the situation has undoubtedly changed. Xiao Hei's side has no limit on supply, and the price is lower, while the quality is better.

The tea from the Tianhong Empire simply can't be sold. Unless the price is lowered.

However, since the tea provided by Ding Shui is of very good quality and not very expensive, they would lose money if they tried to lower their prices to compete with Ding Shui's.

It should be noted that in previous years, half of the tea production was transported to the Western Rong Empire for sale. Now that the tea cannot be sold, not only can the funds not be recovered, but the costs of storing the tea also need to be continuously incurred.

To make matters worse...

There are also smugglers who buy high-quality tea from the Western Rong Empire and bring it back to sell. Originally, the tea market was mainly affected by the low-to-mid-range tea market. The Western Rong Empire did not like high-end tea. However, as some people brought back large quantities of high-end tea from the Western Rong Empire.

This directly led to the development of the Tianhong Empire's high-end tea market.

It also began to be turbulent and unstable.

Tea is just one example; daily necessities like porcelain, ironware, sugar, and salt face a similar situation. The Western Rong Empire not only no longer needs to buy these things from the Tianhong Empire, but can also export them in reverse, selling even higher-quality products.

As a result, a large number of businessmen suffered heavy losses, and the powerful figures behind them also suffered the same fate.

In this day and age, how many truly successful businessmen are there? Which successful businessman doesn't have powerful backers? If they didn't, they would have been devoured long ago.

As a result, many people became anxious.

Some people began to criticize, or rather impeach, smuggling merchants, hoping for a thorough investigation to prevent the flow of high-end tea from the Western Rong Empire into the Tianhong Empire and to increase the Western Rong Empire's national strength.

Someone submitted a memorial stating that they had heard the Western Rong Empire possessed a continuous supply of high-quality steel, and requested that an investigation be launched to ascertain its exact source. If possible, appropriate measures should be taken to strike it, otherwise the Western Rong Empire's strength would only grow, posing an increasing threat.

In short, they couldn't directly say that their products weren't selling and no one wanted them, resulting in huge losses.

They can only come up with some high-sounding reasons.

They indirectly achieved their goals.

However, the main concern is for the powerful and wealthy; the impact on ordinary people is minimal, and they may even benefit from it. This is because some mid- to low-end teas are unsellable, especially spring teas that cannot be stored for long periods. To minimize losses, some merchants are forced to lower prices.

Another factor is that grain prices have decreased.

Those smugglers used to transport large quantities of grain to the Western Rong Empire to sell every year. Now that the Western Rong Empire no longer needs grain, the grain merchants can't keep storing it. Those with strong financial backing might be able to hold on, but those with weaker financial backing can't and have to sell it quickly to recoup their investment.

However, this is only the initial stage. The impact will become larger and larger as time goes on, and one day ordinary people will also be affected. After all, those powerful and wealthy businessmen have many ways to transfer the losses to others and reduce their own losses.

The powerful figures here haven't figured out a way to break the deadlock yet.

Luxury cashmere sweaters from the Western Rong Empire, along with cheap wool yarn, and even a range of products such as lanolin skincare products and lanolin soaps, swept in again.

It could even be described as selling out completely.

This brings us to the border policy of the Tianhong Empire. The Tianhong Empire's border policy mainly involves not selling anything to the Xirong Empire, especially controlled items such as steel, which are strictly prohibited from sale, at least on the surface. As for smuggling, let's leave that aside for now.

There are no restrictions on the Western Rong Empire selling them goods; as long as they dare to sell, they dare to buy.

After all, the Western Rong Empire didn't have much to sell.

At most, they'll sell cattle, sheep, and horses; if the price is right, Tianhong Empire welcomes them no matter how many they sell.

This is a major policy established at the beginning of the founding of the nation.

It's not that easy to change!!

The ban on buying high-end tea from the Western Rong Empire, which was proposed by officials a few months ago, has not yet been finalized, which is why we are in this situation now.

And all of this is just the beginning!

The following spring, powerful figures, especially those who had already extended their influence to the southeastern coastal region, were present.

I received another piece of terrible news.

That means the maritime trade business has been cut in half.

Oh, no, it's an ankle cut.

The reason is simple: the land Silk Road was reopened thanks to Ding Shui's efforts, and with the continuous supply of goods from Ding Shui, it was possible to buy things by land at a lower price. Naturally, there was no need to risk traveling by sea to buy things anymore.

Why was the Maritime Silk Road opened up?

That's because the land-based Silk Road was blocked.

The rise of powerful states like the Western Rong Empire disrupted the Silk Road. At the same time, they had to find ways to buy things from the Tianhong Empire, so they had no surplus to transport to more distant places for sale. With nothing to sell, the Silk Road naturally broke down.

Of course, in addition to this, it is also related to the environmental degradation in some areas of the land Silk Road, which turned into deserts, making trade more dangerous and complicated than in the past.

However, these were all minor matters to Ding Shui.

Therefore, reopening the land-based Silk Road and making it even more prosperous was not a difficult task.

The purchasing power of overseas countries is also limited.

Having already purchased the goods from the Western Rong Empire, there was naturally no need to bother going to the Tianhong Empire to buy them again.

The reason why dozens of merchant ships still arrived even after only the ankle was severed was mainly because some overseas merchants were skeptical, believing that if the prices of goods sold by the Western Rong Empire were so low, the Tianhong Empire must have lowered prices at the source. Furthermore, they had already figured out the ocean routes, making them less dangerous than before.

They want to source directly from the manufacturer to maximize their profits.

That's why I came here specifically.

That's right, they didn't believe for a second that those things were made by the Western Rong Empire. They thought the Western Rong Empire had stolen them from the Tianhong Empire, or rather, bought them from the Tianhong Empire.

However, the reality was devastating for them.

Because they realized they were wrong. They had been too clever for their own good. The prices of goods in the Tianhong Empire were still the same as before. With those prices and those costs, they would definitely lose money if they shipped the goods back, including the transportation costs.

But if you don't buy anything, going back empty-handed would be even more of a loss.

So they could only try to negotiate the price. It wasn't until then that the merchants along the southeast coast finally understood why there were more than ten times fewer merchant ships coming this time than in previous years, and they were furious.

It can be said that from this moment on...

Two-thirds of the powerful and wealthy merchants of the Tianhong Empire harbored a deep hatred for the Xirong Empire, even more so than when the Xirong Empire attacked the Tianhong Empire or even raided it.

Because Ding Shui truly cut off their source of income.

For the first time, voices advocating war emerged in the imperial court.

Instead of invading them, we should take the initiative to attack the Western Rong Empire.