Primordial Era: I am a treasure trove, full of magical treasures.

Xuanbao sat upright atop the Lingxiao Palace, secretly amused by Haotian's helpless and resigned expression. This head steward, though prone to complaining, was always efficient and decisive, never disappointing him—a true top-tier employee.

As expected, after Haotian left the Lingxiao Palace, he immediately summoned the heads of various departments of the Heavenly Court, and a massive project centered around the "Spirit Crystal" quietly began in the Thirty-Three Heavens.

……

Land grabbing and mining

With the Xuanbao attaining the Dao of Hunyuan and the Heavenly Court's power at its zenith, the efficiency of the Heavenly Court reached an unprecedented level.

As the chief steward of the Heavenly Court, Haotian issued a series of decrees, which were quickly transmitted to every corner of the prehistoric world through the system of city gods, land gods, mountain gods, and river gods.

"By the decree of the Heavenly Emperor: From this day forth, all unclaimed spirit stone veins in the primordial world shall belong to the Heavenly Court. All mountain gods and local deities shall immediately investigate the distribution of spirit veins, spiritual caves, and spirit stone deposits within their jurisdictions, register them, and report to the Heavenly Court. Anyone who privately seizes, conceals, or resists shall be punished for defying Heaven!"

The moment this decree was issued, the entire primordial world trembled!

Spirit stone veins have been ownerless since ancient times, mainly because these things are not very useful. Although they are crystals of spiritual energy, most of them are full of impurities and cannot be used for cultivation. Therefore, most of them are just pretty stones.

Moreover, the Heavenly Court has made such a grand announcement that all these unwanted stones in the primordial world belong to the Heavenly Court. Does that mean these stones are very useful?

Therefore, there are naturally many people with ulterior motives who do not want to hand over these spirit stones, thinking that they will surely have great benefits in the future.

Of course, there were also those who resisted.

But these voices of resistance quickly disappeared.

There was nothing they could do. A million heavenly soldiers were pressing in, including hundreds of Great Luo Golden Immortals. How could they possibly fight them?

……

In just a few years, more than 70% of the spirit stone veins on the prehistoric continent fell into the hands of the Heavenly Court.

As for the small and medium-sized mines, the Heavenly Court did not forcibly requisition them. Instead, under the guise of "cooperative development," it signed agreements with the local forces: the original owners would continue to mine the mines, but the spirit stones produced must be sold to the Heavenly Court at a fixed price and could not be circulated privately. If any violation occurred, the cooperation would be terminated and the mines would be confiscated.

This strategy, combining both kindness and severity, avoided making enemies across the board while ensuring a stable supply of spirit stone raw materials.

Spirit Crystal Refining

A massive amount of spirit stones were transported to the "Spirit Crystal Heaven," a special site opened up by the Thirty-Three Heavens, where enormous refining furnaces stood, operating day and night without ceasing.

Although Xuanbao had become a hands-off manager, he had already perfected the core process of refining spirit crystals and passed on the techniques to the Five Elements Incarnation and the core weapon refiners of the Heavenly Court.

The refining of spirit crystals involves three steps:

The first step is purification. The collected natural spirit stones are put into a furnace and smelted with the true fire of the sun to remove impurities, retaining only the purest innate spiritual essence. This step consumes a great deal of magical power, but for the Heavenly Court, there are plenty of Golden Immortals and Taiyi Golden Immortals who work in shifts, and with the assistance of the improved formations of the Xuanbao, the efficiency is extremely high.

The second step is shaping. The purified spiritual essence is compressed and shaped using magical power according to four grades: low, medium, high, and supreme. Low-grade spiritual crystals only require simple compression to maintain a rhomboid shape the size of a pigeon egg; medium-grade spiritual crystals require more precise compression to increase their spiritual energy density a hundredfold; high-grade spiritual crystals require the assistance of array formations to compress the spiritual energy to a near-liquid state; as for supreme-grade spiritual crystals, Xuanbao must personally intervene, using the Primordial Dao Fruit to draw upon the merits of the Heavenly Dao to integrate them, resulting in extremely low yields.

Finally, using the Falling Treasure Coin as the mother coin to shape the crystal, one by one, the spirit crystals were successfully refined.

The production of spirit crystals is enormous. After all, the Heavenly Court now encompasses most of the cultivators in the prehistoric world, so manpower is naturally not lacking.

In just a few months, the Heavenly Court's stockpile of spirit crystals had reached an astronomical figure: trillions of low-grade spirit crystals, tens of billions of mid-grade spirit crystals, hundreds of millions of high-grade spirit crystals, and millions of top-grade spirit crystals.

All is ready except for the opportunity.

……

"Your Majesty, the spirit crystal reserves are sufficient. May we begin implementation?" Haotian stood in the Lingxiao Palace, bowing as he asked for permission. Although his face still showed fatigue, it was filled with excitement and anticipation.

Xuanbao put down the jade slip in his hand and nodded slightly: "Let's begin. Let's start with the Heavenly Court. Issue my decree: From this day forward, the salaries of all serving celestial officials, celestial soldiers and generals, and subordinates of all departments in the Heavenly Court shall be paid in spirit crystals. The existing quotas of spirit stones, pills, and magic weapons shall be converted into spirit crystals of the corresponding grade according to the ratio."

"As you command!"

This decree, like a boulder thrown into a calm lake, stirred up a huge uproar within the Heavenly Court.

Since its inception, the Heavenly Court's salary system has primarily been based on in-kind distribution: elixirs, rare and precious treasures... a wide variety of items, varying in value, and often resulting in unequal distribution of value. Although the celestial officials had complaints, they dared not say much due to the Heavenly Court's authority.

Now, all salaries have been converted into spirit crystals, and they are paid on time and in full, which makes many celestial officials both curious and uneasy.

I'm curious, is this spirit crystal actually any good? I'm also worried, what if this spirit crystal is worthless, wouldn't I be losing a lot of money?

However, when the first batch of spirit crystal stipends was distributed to the celestial officials, all doubts vanished in an instant.

"This...this is a spirit crystal? Such pure innate spiritual energy!" A Golden Immortal official held a mid-grade spirit crystal, feeling the pure spiritual energy contained within it, his eyes filled with shock.

"I'll try to absorb it..." He sat down cross-legged and began to circulate his cultivation technique. The spiritual energy in the mid-grade spirit crystal flowed into his dantian like a trickle of water, perfectly merging with his own magical power without any stagnation.

"My God! This spirit crystal is more than ten times faster to absorb than directly breathing in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth! Moreover, it has very few impurities and hardly needs to be refined!" He suddenly opened his eyes, his voice trembling with excitement.

Beside him, a celestial official at the Taiyi Golden Immortal realm held a high-grade spirit crystal, his eyes gleaming: "This high-grade spirit crystal... I feel that absorbing a hundred of them would be enough to compensate for a thousand years of arduous cultivation! The Heavenly Court is... about to strike it rich!"

Those high-ranking officials of the Heavenly Court who were fortunate enough to be allocated top-grade spirit crystals were even more excited. The dark yellow spirit crystal not only contained a massive amount of pure spiritual energy, but also a trace of warm Daoist charm. Holding it in one's hand, one felt a sense of peace, and some of the obscure and difficult-to-understand Daoist insights that were usually difficult to comprehend even showed signs of loosening.

"This item... is truly a treasure!" An elderly minister at the Quasi-Saint realm stroked the top-grade spirit crystal, his voice hoarse. "If I could possess this item for a long time, my cultivation, which has stagnated for ten thousand years, might be able to advance another step!"

When the news spread, the entire Heavenly Court was in an uproar!

Those celestial officials who were initially skeptical of spirit crystals now wished they could slap themselves. They rushed to the Heavenly Court's "Spirit Crystal Exchange Center," hoping to exchange their savings for more spirit crystals.

Haotian had made preparations in advance, setting up exchange points throughout the Heavenly Court and announcing the exchange standards:

- 1 medium-grade spiritual crystal = 100 low-grade spiritual crystals

- 1 high-grade spiritual crystal = 100 medium-grade spiritual crystals = 10000 low-grade spiritual crystals

- 1 Superior Spirit Crystal = 1000 High-Quality Spirit Crystals (but in principle, it is not open to the public for exchange and is only used as a merit reward).

At the same time, the Heavenly Court also opened "Spirit Crystal Shops" to sell all kinds of cultivation resources: pills, magic weapons, cultivation techniques, materials for innate treasures, and even innate spiritual treasures... all of which can be sold with a price tag in spirit crystals.

A celestial soldier used his accumulated innate spiritual materials to exchange for three hundred low-grade spirit crystals, and bought a bottle of third-grade immortal pills that would normally require a hundred years of military merit to obtain. He couldn't stop smiling.

A celestial official used 100 mid-grade spirit crystals to purchase a low-grade acquired spiritual treasure that he had longed for, and he was very fond of it.

A general at the Taiyi Golden Immortal realm used fifty high-grade spirit crystals to order a batch of standardized magical artifacts for his subordinates, greatly increasing their combat power.

The spirit crystals circulated rapidly within the Heavenly Court.

Building Trust

However, the true value of spirit crystals is not only reflected in their purchasing power.

When designing the Spirit Crystal system, Xuanbao considered a key issue: in addition to serving as currency, Spirit Crystals must also possess "practical value" that other currencies cannot replace.

Therefore, the Heavenly Court introduced a series of welfare policies tied to spirit crystals:

Firstly, spirit crystals can be used to accelerate cultivation. The Heavenly Court has established "Spirit Crystal Cultivation Rooms" in various sacred cultivation sites. Cultivators only need to pay a certain number of spirit crystals to enter and cultivate. The cultivation room is equipped with a spirit-gathering array, which can efficiently release the spiritual energy in the spirit crystals. With the guidance of the array, the cultivation speed is several times or even dozens of times faster than outside.

Secondly, spirit crystals can be used to exchange for Heavenly Court merits. The Heavenly Court's merit system was originally accumulated by completing tasks and making contributions in battle. Now, spirit crystals can also be exchanged for merits at a certain ratio, which can be used to exchange for higher-level cultivation techniques, magic weapons, and even quotas to enter the Heavenly Court's secret realm for cultivation.

Thirdly, spirit crystals can be used to offset heavenly tribulations. This is the result of Xuanbao's careful consideration and communication with the will of Heaven. All cultivators registered with the Heavenly Court can consume a certain number of spirit crystals during their tribulation to invoke the Heavenly Court's fortune and weaken the power of the tribulation. This is undoubtedly a great boon for those cultivators stuck at a bottleneck and fearing the heavenly tribulation.

The main reason is that, since the clone has mastered a certain amount of the laws of heaven, what it wants to do is very simple, nothing more than whether the Xuanbao (mysterious treasure) is similar or not.

The introduction of this third policy completely ignited the enthusiasm of the Heavenly Court for spirit crystals.

"What? Spirit crystals can offset heavenly tribulations? Really?"

"Absolutely true! I heard it from a friend. This is a rule personally established by His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor in communication with the Heavenly Dao! As long as you are a cultivator registered with the Heavenly Court, when you consume spirit crystals during your tribulation, you can invoke the Heavenly Court's fortune to protect you, reducing the power of the tribulation by at least 30%!"

"Thirty percent! My god! I've been stuck at the peak of the Golden Immortal realm for three thousand years because I wasn't confident I could survive the Taiyi Heavenly Tribulation, so I never dared to break through. Now that I have spirit crystals... I'll go collect spirit crystals right now!"

"I want to go too! I've heard that the cultivation room is extremely efficient; as long as you're willing to spend spirit crystals, you can break through realms several times faster!"

In no time, the Heavenly Court's Spirit Crystal Cultivation Room was overflowing with people, and long queues formed in front of the merit exchange windows. Even those old-time quasi-saints who were usually aloof and indifferent to worldly affairs began to pay attention to the movement of Spirit Crystals.

They discovered that the trace of Heavenly Dao merit and Daoist essence contained within the top-grade spirit crystals was also beneficial to their cultivation. Although the effect was negligible, for them, who had been stuck at a bottleneck for countless eons, any possibility of progress was worth striving for with all their might.

Snowball effect

The successful implementation of Spirit Crystals within the Heavenly Court has had a powerful demonstration effect.

Those forces closely associated with the Heavenly Court, such as the Dragon Clan, Phoenix Clan, Qilin Clan, and some powerful rogue cultivators who had already pledged allegiance to the Heavenly Court, began to actively request to the Heavenly Court to participate in the Spirit Crystal System.

After consulting with Xuanbao, Haotian approved their request, but with one condition: members of these forces must first register with the Heavenly Court and accept its jurisdiction and command before they can obtain the right to use the spirit crystals.

This condition, though seemingly harsh, is not unacceptable to those forces eager to break through and gain the protection of the Heavenly Court. Especially after witnessing firsthand the changes in the Heavenly Court officials after using the spirit crystals, more and more cultivators are beginning to be tempted.

A dragon elder used his clan's treasured ten-thousand-year-old coral to exchange for one hundred high-grade spirit crystals from the Heavenly Court. After three months of seclusion, he successfully broke through to the peak of the Taiyi Golden Immortal realm, only one step away from becoming a Quasi-Saint. Upon emerging from seclusion, he roared to the heavens and immediately announced that the entire dragon clan would join the Heavenly Court's organization and be subject to its commands.

A rogue cultivator, a quasi-saint, exchanged a superior-grade acquired spiritual treasure he had crafted for three top-grade spiritual crystals. After half a year of comprehension, the bottleneck that had plagued him for tens of thousands of years began to loosen. Overwhelmed with emotion, he burst into tears and knelt down in the direction of the Lingxiao Palace, swearing allegiance to the Heavenly Court.

The snowball keeps getting bigger and bigger.

In just a few years, the number of cultivators registered with the Heavenly Court has exceeded 80% of those in the prehistoric world, whether they joined the Heavenly Court voluntarily or involuntarily.

Those forces that stubbornly resisted and refused to use spirit crystals found it increasingly difficult to gain a foothold in the prehistoric world. They discovered that without spirit crystals, they couldn't even buy some basic cultivation resources, and were nearing the point of being unable to survive.

They were isolated.

The trend has been set

One year later, at the Lingxiao Palace.

Xuanbao sat upright on the imperial throne, listening to Haotian report on the results of the promotion of spirit crystals, a satisfied smile appearing on his face.

"Your Majesty, as of now, the cultivators registered with the Heavenly Court cover more than 90% of the forces of the myriad races in the prehistoric world. The circulation of spirit crystals has covered more than 70% of the living beings in the prehistoric world. It is estimated that the total amount of spirit crystals currently circulating in the market is approximately 30 quadrillion low-grade spirit crystals, 30 quadrillion mid-grade spirit crystals, 30 quadrillion high-grade spirit crystals, and 100 million top-grade spirit crystals."

"The value of spirit crystals has remained stable over the past year."

"Furthermore, the Heavenly Court has grown more than tenfold since the implementation of the Spirit Crystal system. The operational efficiency of various departments has greatly improved, and the cultivation enthusiasm of cultivators has soared to unprecedented heights. According to incomplete statistics, in the past few years, the Heavenly Court has added more than 100,000 Golden Immortal cultivators, more than 5,000 Taiyi Golden Immortals, and three Quasi-Saints."

Haotian closed the jade slip, his face filled with sincere admiration: "Your Majesty is wise! The system of spirit crystals is truly a groundbreaking innovation that will benefit the primordial world and future generations! I dare to predict that within a hundred years, spirit crystals will become the sole currency of the primordial world, and the foundation of the Heavenly Court will be as stable as Mount Tai!"

Xuanbao nodded slightly, but there wasn't much pride in his eyes. He knew that the implementation of spirit crystals was only the first step. The real challenges were yet to come.

Those isolated forces will not sit idly by and wait for their doom. Those chaotic demons' minions lurking in the shadows will surely try every means to destroy the spirit crystal system.

After all, the primordial world was too united, and they were basically all bound to the Heavenly Court's war chariot.

However, Xuanbao was not worried.

The Spirit Crystal system has been established, the seeds of trust have been sown, and the snowball has begun to roll. As long as the Heavenly Court remains powerful, and as long as the value of Spirit Crystals is not overturned, this system will become increasingly stable, eventually becoming an inseparable part of the primordial world.

In this process, I will also gain a vast amount of fortune and merit, adding the most solid foundation to my Primordial Dao Fruit.