Chapter 1766 - 1769: Life Is Hard
Ever since the God Slaying Alliance rolled out its plan in God Slaying City, the place had been ridiculously peaceful.
After all, Southeast Gourd Island already had a special kind of feeling toward the God Slaying Alliance, and now that it had basically turned into something like a capital, being directly ruled over like this just felt... whatever.
However, many people soon noticed something strange.
To be precise, a bizarre new shop had appeared.
A Bank.
This left everyone completely dumbfounded.
They’d seen rice shops, oil shops, even Elixir Medicine Shops and Weapons Shops, but a Bank? Never in their lives!
What does a Bank even do?
Sell money?
Then what do you use to buy it?
Totally baffling!
You couldn’t really blame them; there was no such thing as paper money here. Everyone’s transactions were done with real gold and silver.
What is paper money?
When paper money first appeared, it was just a storage note for gold and silver, which is why it could be used in place of real gold and silver.
But here?
Each city was basically its own force. You put your money in a Bank in one city, and you expect another city to acknowledge that note?
So business like Banks had simply never appeared.
Yet one had suddenly popped up now, and in the inner city no less, aimed at Cultivators; this left everyone completely at a loss.
As a result, this newly opened Four Seas Bank immediately drew a crowd of onlookers.
"Come one, come all, take a look! Four Seas Bank is now open!"
Wang Lai and a bunch of his subordinates were shouting themselves hoarse at the entrance.
Very soon, someone voiced the doubt on everyone’s mind: "What does this Bank even do?"
Seeing someone ask, Wang Lai’s face lit up, all warm and friendly: "A Bank, a Bank is a place where money makes money! Of course, by ’money’ we mean Spirit Stones—a place where Spirit Stones give birth to Spirit Stones!"
"What?!" The man was scared silly. "Spirit Stones can reproduce now?"
The surrounding Cultivators all started chattering.
"Nonsense! How could Spirit Stones produce more Spirit Stones?"
"Exactly! What, you’ve got a Spiritual Stone Ore Vein under there or something?"
"Stop spouting nonsense!"
"..."
Wang Lai didn’t argue; he just smiled: "Of course Spirit Stones can’t literally produce more Spirit Stones, but Spirit Stones can be used to earn Spirit Stones!"
"Earn Spirit Stones?" The crowd was still confused.
Spirit Stones earning Spirit Stones—that’s just doing business!
If it’s doing business, they could do it themselves. What did this Bank have to do with anything?
"Everyone, don’t rush, don’t rush! Let me explain slowly!"
Wang Lai continued, "My lords, what is it that we Cultivators long for?"
He didn’t wait for an answer and went on directly.
"We long for stronger Cultivation and eternal life! But Cultivation requires resources. Where do those resources come from?"
"You buy them with Spirit Stones!"
"I just said Spirit Stones earning Spirit Stones—of course that’s doing business. But, my lords, do you have the time to do business yourselves?"
"You all have to focus on Cultivation!"
"So that’s where we come in—the Bank. You hand your Spirit Stones to us, we sign a contract with you, then we take those Spirit Stones to do business, and in the end we pay everyone dividends!"
After he spelled it out so simply, the Cultivators watching more or less understood.
They understood, sure, but a lot of people just showed a bored expression and turned away.
A bunch of lunatics!
They were supposed to hand their Spirit Stones over?
If these guys turned around and ran off, who were they supposed to go after?
A whole bunch of people drifted off, but some still stayed to keep watching the show.
Wang Lai wasn’t in any hurry; he continued explaining and promoting at a leisurely pace.
They’d already anticipated this scene. Their line of work obviously couldn’t target the truly brilliant, but they also couldn’t target complete idiots.
Their target was those with a bit of petty cleverness.
On top of that, there hadn’t even been Banks here before, so this petty-clever customer base had to be slowly cultivated by them.
Wang Lai stood there, talking the sky into blossoms.
Stuff about leverage, economic control, getting rich together, and so on and so forth.
The point was to use all this ridiculously highbrow-sounding jargon to make these people dizzy; as long as they felt like they’d "gotten it," that was enough.
While Wang Lai was hyping things up outside, Qin Hai was inside the shop nodding and bowing nonstop.
"But of course, but of course." As he spoke, Qin Hai quietly slipped over a small bundle, heavy in the hand.
The greasy-faced fellow across from him nodded in satisfaction, then patted Qin Hai on the shoulder: "Do a good job. I’ve got my eye on you!"
With that said, the greasy fellow left in high spirits.
After he left, the subordinate who’d been serving on the side swallowed hard and looked at Qin Hai in disbelief: "They’re... really this dumb?"
"Yeah." Qin Hai also felt a bit like laughing and crying.
Everyone knows that currying favor is usually a labor-intensive, troublesome job.
Besides the gifts you give, you have to worry about face; everyone has to stay polite and cheerful.
And usually, this is a long-term business. You don’t lock things in with just one shot!
So—
They’d originally planned to use the Spirit Stones they had on hand to cozy up to just one of those seven or eight big shots.
But then—
Same pile of Spirit Stones, and they managed to nail all seven or eight!
They even had Spirit Stones left over!
My goodness!
This couldn’t be real, right?
"Sigh, they’ve had it rough..." Qin Hai let out a helpless little sigh.
"Yeah, they’ve had it rough..." The subordinate immediately echoed.
Even though that sigh sounded like complete nonsense, it was genuinely how they felt.
Only after dealing with these seven or eight God Slaying Alliance big shots did they realize—these guys didn’t even know how the hell to accept a bribe!
They believed in the rule of the biggest fist, so there was no bribery—only open robbery!
But the God Slaying Alliance had taken over so many places, and a bunch of rules had come down.
The very first one: no open robbery. Anyone who broke it would be dealt with on the spot!
So these lords, who spent three hundred sixty-four days a year in Cultivation, suddenly had no income!
What, were they supposed to do business like ordinary Cultivators?
Never mind the loss of face— even if you let them, they wouldn’t know how!
So when Qin Hai showed up with Spirit Stones, asking for their "care," it was like opening a whole new door for them. The Spirit Stones dazzled them so much they could barely keep their eyes open.
The first one or two still tried to act reserved; after that, they completely let themselves go!
They didn’t bother with face or dignity—just straight to the point!
Giving me Spirit Stones? Great, great!
That makes you a good man!
Got something you need? Just say it! Opening a shop? Do it, do it!
What, a Bank? I really don’t get it, but no problem. You’re a good man, so go ahead, open it!
You’re worried someone will cause you trouble? Tell me. Let’s see who dares—I’ll smash their dog heads in!
Just listen to how fired up they were. If they didn’t look down on Qin Hai’s Golden Core Stage Cultivation so much, they’d probably have wanted to become sworn brothers already!
Which is why Qin Hai said—these lords really had it rough.