34: Lingzhu and Wanbao.com

Zhang Sheng had long understood the dangers of the Yellow-rank Secret Realm.

Regarding his plan to go to the Yellow-rank Secret Realm, Zhang Sheng hadn't told anyone; he didn't want his friends to worry, nor did he want them to fall into danger by accompanying him.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call the Yellow-rank Secret Realm a "Death Secret Realm." Almost every conquest involved sacrifices, but if no one was sent to conquer it, once the Yao Beasts descended upon the real world, the consequences would be even more severe.

He still needed to prepare thoroughly.

While Zhang Sheng was Cultivating as usual in the Alchemy room, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution.

A universal currency for Cultivators was born!

That was—the Spirit Pearl. A type of semi-artificial Spiritual Artifact.

Zhang Sheng looked at the official Huaxia notice and the released production method for Spirit Pearls in shock.

From its appearance, a Spirit Pearl was a colorless, transparent bead the size of a marble. The body could be made using various Materials, such as the branches of the Red-leaf Tuanhua Tree, the stalks of gold spirit rice, and so on.

The Red-leaf Tuanhua Tree was also a type of spirit plant from the Secret Realms, which could now be transplanted to Earth.

Most importantly, governments could use modern industrial processes to first manufacture the Spirit Pearl embryos, then Cultivators would inject their own spiritual power into them, and finally, a complete Spirit Pearl would be obtained after performing a spirit-sealing operation.

Spirit Pearls had many uses, the primary one being replenishing a Cultivator's Dantian with spiritual power. The replenishment speed was at least twice that of normal Cultivate. If the Spirit Pearl was pre-injected with one's own spiritual power, the speed could even reach a staggering ten times.

Not only that, Spirit Pearls could also be used in conjunction with Spirit Gathering Arrays to increase Cultivate speed.

Countries around the globe unanimously agreed to use Spirit Pearls as currency to exchange resources with each other.

The refining method for Spirit Pearls was made public. That night, everyone at the First Cultivation University received a hundred Spirit Pearl embryos.

For something that could be industrially produced, Huaxia would soon be able to produce massive quantities, and the manufacturing process for Spirit Pearl embryos was very simple.

Furthermore, the school's original academic credit system was abolished.

Existing academic credits were converted into First-order Low Grade Spirit Pearls at a 10:1 ratio.

The change in universal currency also heralded a dramatic shift in the world.

Originally, the academic credit system was only implemented within the First Cultivation University, but converting to Spirit Pearls meant aligning with the outside world.

It was just as Zhang Sheng had thought.

Huaxia announced: The establishment of a unified national online trading platform for cultivation resources—Myriad Treasures Net!

The platform was similar to traditional shopping platforms like Taobao or JD.com, except traditional goods were replaced with cultivation resources, and traditional currency was replaced with Spirit Pearls.

All citizens of Huaxia could trade cultivation resources on Myriad Treasures Net.

The emergence of Myriad Treasures Net caused a massive stir within Huaxia.

The Huaxia government began distributing large quantities of Spirit Pearl embryos to the public for free.

As long as you had Spirit Pearls, you could exchange them for desired resources on Myriad Treasures Net: various martial arts, Cultivation Techniques, Spells, Talismans, Medicinal Pills, Formation Plates, and so on.

From this moment on, cultivation civilization truly began to develop rapidly on Earth.

The reason Spirit Pearls could serve as a trading currency lay in the spiritual power they contained. If one's own spiritual power was injected, it could be absorbed at ten times the speed. When fighting Yao Beasts, it allowed for rapid recovery of spiritual power, which might even save a life at a critical moment.

Even if it wasn't one's own spiritual power, it could still be absorbed at least twice as fast, greatly enhancing the recovery speed of spiritual power, which was highly useful for both combat and practicing Spells.

Besides this, more than two thousand colleges and universities across Huaxia began to follow the example of the First Cultivation University, establishing different academies such as the War God Academy and the Artifact Refining Academy.

Holding a Spirit Pearl embryo in his hand, Zhang Sheng guided his internal spiritual power into it. He soon injected 10 points of spiritual power and completed the spirit-sealing.

The originally transparent Spirit Pearl embryo turned into a faint milky-white finished Spirit Pearl.

"Skill: Spirit Pearl Spirit-Sealing (Beginner: 1/10)"

Zhang Sheng shook his head.

Making a finished Spirit Pearl was not easy.

With Proficient-level Refining Essence into Qi, it took half an hour to refine 10 points of spiritual power, which could only make one Spirit Pearl.

Others practicing "Primordial Chaos Qi Refining" would be even slower and would take a long time to make one Spirit Pearl. But even if it was just to save their lives in danger, everyone would surely be willing to make them.

Zhang Sheng stopped after making ten Spirit Pearls for backup.

These ten Spirit Pearls were stored separately for future combat use.

Now, Zhang Sheng's previous eight thousand-plus academic credits had been converted into over eight hundred Spirit Pearls in his account. Thinking of his parents, Zhang Sheng quickly dialed the phone... "Dad, just take them!"

"Your son is exceptionally talented and has more Spirit Pearls than I can use. You and Mom shouldn't waste time making Spirit Pearls. Buy whatever you want on Myriad Treasures Net. If the Spirit Pearls in your bank account aren't enough, just let me know."

"...And also, you must go to the Security Bureau to sign for the package I sent you; it's full of treasures. Don't be in a hurry to practice 'Primordial Chaos Qi Refining'; first, work on Refining Essence into Qi properly. I have plenty of essence food pills."

...Old Zhang couldn't win the argument with his son and sent his account details over.

Upon seeing the seven hundred Spirit Pearls suddenly added to his account, he muttered to himself, "Our boy has really made something of himself."

Zhang Sheng sent ten vajra talismans and some top-grade essence food pills back home through the Security Bureau's cultivation resource delivery channel.

Returning to the dormitory, Zhang Sheng used all his remaining Spirit Pearls to buy Materials for drawing vajra talismans.

Refining Essence into Qi and drawing Talismans constantly alternated. In two days, Zhang Sheng drew a full thousand vajra talismans.

Adding his previous stock, Zhang Sheng had accumulated over one thousand two hundred vajra talismans.

With his skill in making vajra talismans reaching the Transcendent level, Zhang Sheng could draw one in less than a minute.

A young man carrying a large bag of vajra talismans arrived at the school warehouse.

"Student Zhang Sheng, did you draw all these vajra talismans yourself?" a middle-aged man asked.

Zhang Sheng didn't expect that selling some Talismans would alert the school's warehouse manager.

"Yes, is it not allowed for me to sell these vajra talismans to the school?" Zhang Sheng asked.

"Of course you can. You can sell as many Talismans as you have to the school. Moreover, the quality of these Talismans is excellent. I can give you 35 Spirit Pearls each," the manager said with a smile.

Before this, he had specifically tested the power of the Talismans Zhang Sheng brought, and to his surprise, the defensive power was nearly double that of those sent by the Talisman Academy.

"Student Zhang Sheng, my name is Ma Chengming. You can call me Manager Ma. I believe we will have many more opportunities to deal with each other in the future."

The refined man in a suit proactively extended his right hand.

Zhang Sheng didn't expect that as the warehouse manager of the First Cultivation University, he would be so polite to him.

As the current cradle for cultivating top-tier combat power in Huaxia, the school's warehouse was directly linked to Myriad Treasures Net.

More accurately, the school mall and academic credit system were the predecessors of Myriad Treasures Net.

The initial pricing of various cultivation resources on Myriad Treasures Net was all referenced from the academic credit pricing of the First Cultivation University.

"Thank you, Manager Ma. You can just call me Little Zhang," Zhang Sheng said respectfully.

The thousand vajra talismans were sold for thirty-five thousand Spirit Pearls.