144: Chapter 144 The First Step in Dimensional Reduction! The Great Qin Bank and the Drunken Immortal Powder!

Inside the yin-yang life and death diagram, the Alchemy Pavilion.

"Boom!"

The massive Pill Furnace emitted a dull roar as the lid flew open, and a rich yet strangely sweet medicinal fragrance instantly filled the air.

Su Yan wiped the sweat from his soot-covered face, his mouth twitching wildly as he looked at the thousands of tiny pink pills—at least ten thousand of them—clustered at the bottom of the furnace.

"Revered Master, can this thing... really be called a Medicinal Pill?" Su Yan picked up a pink pill, his face full of existential doubt.

Floating in mid-air, the Nine Nether Pill Venerable also had a complicated expression, his remnant soul trembling slightly.

"The main ingredient is Dream Grass, and the supplements are Ghostwood Incense that slightly stimulates the Divine Soul... Consuming this thing is useless for improving one's cultivation! At most, it makes the blood surge and creates a false illusion in the Divine Soul that 'I'm the best in the world' and all troubles have vanished!"

"I have refined Immortal Pills my whole life, yet this is the first time I've wasted my pill fire on such bottomless trash!"

The Nine Nether Pill Venerable was heartbroken, feeling that his professional career had suffered a devastating insult.

"Senior, you are mistaken."

Accompanied by a gust of fragrant wind, Ying Yue'e walked into the Alchemy Pavilion with graceful steps.

She picked up a pink pill and sniffed it lightly, her Phoenix eyes gleaming with the shrewdness unique to a capitalist.

"The low-level Cultivators of the Upper Realm are exploited by local tyrants like the Li Family to the point where they can't even afford to eat, all while carrying the heavy burden of immortal cave loans."

"Every day they wake up just to earn money by mining and paying off debts, living worse than dogs."

"Do they lack top-grade Immortal Pills that can help them Breakthrough their Realm? No, they could never afford such things in their entire lives."

Ying Yue'e tossed the pill back into the furnace, her red lips curling into a cold arc.

"What they lack is an anesthetic to escape reality—emotional value!"

"This medicine will be called 'drunken immortal powder' from now on. The cost is less than one-thousandth of a low-grade divine crystal, but in the eyes of those desperate poor devils, it's a life-saving Immortal Pill!"

The Nine Nether Pill Venerable and Su Yan exchanged a glance, both sucking in a breath of cold air.

Heart-piercing! This Grand Princess of Great Qin had calculated human weakness down to the bone!

Three days later.

West of Tianshu City, the slums.

The originally dilapidated City God Temple had been renovated overnight into a magnificent structure.

A purple-gold plaque, personally infused with a trace of Sword Intent by Su Feng, hung at the entrance—'Great Qin Bank'!

Two rows of Su Family disciples dressed in uniform martial attire stood with a surging Aura.

Outside the bank, a dense crowd of low-level Loose Cultivators had already gathered. They were all drawn by the news spread by Su Yuan.

*Creak—*

The bank doors swung open, and Ying Yue'e sat regally in the center of the hall, dressed in a magnificent Phoenix robe.

Su Yuan stood at the door with a beaming smile, holding an amplifying Magic Treasure.

"Cultivators of Tianshu City! The Great Qin Bank opens today, premiering our Divine-Grade stress-relief Medicinal Pill—drunken immortal powder!"

Su Yuan's voice echoed across half the district: "Take one pill, and I guarantee you'll forget all your troubles! Even if you have to work yourself to death in the mines tomorrow, tonight you can experience the pleasure of being a Heavenly Immortal!"

A commotion immediately broke out in the crowd.

The old man from the Void-Returning Realm who had been begging on the street to pay his immortal cave loan squeezed to the front tremblingly and swallowed hard. "This... young man, how many divine crystals for one drunken immortal powder? I haven't paid this month's mortgage yet, and I only have half a low-grade divine crystal left..."

Su Yuan laughed heartily and waved his hand.

"Everyone, you've misunderstood! Our Great Qin Bank's pills don't cost divine crystals!"

A huge uproar erupted from the crowd at these words.

Not taking divine crystals? Then what do they take?

"To buy the medicine, you must use the exclusive vouchers issued by our Great Qin Bank—great qin spirit notes!"

Su Yuan pulled out a stack of exquisitely crafted papers from his robes, printed with special anti-counterfeiting formation patterns.

"One low-grade divine crystal can be exchanged for one 'One-Yuan' Spirit Note! Using Spirit Notes to buy drunken immortal powder costs only ten cents—that's one-tenth of a crystal—and furthermore..."

Su Yuan paused deliberately, throwing out the ultimate killing move designed by Ying Yue'e.

"As long as you deposit your divine crystals into our Great Qin Bank and exchange them for Spirit Notes, the bank will calculate interest for you at one-thousandth per day! Deposit a hundred crystals, do nothing, and ten days later, you'll earn one crystal for free!"

Dead silence.

The streets of the entire slums fell into a deathly silence.

The eyes of all the low-level Cultivators widened, their breathing becoming heavy.

In Tianshu City, borrowing money from the Li Family's bank meant usury with a 'give nine, return thirteen' interest rate!

When had they ever heard of a bank paying interest to the people who deposited money?!

"It... it must be a lie, right? How can there be such a free lunch in the world?" someone swallowed, unable to believe it.

"I'll try!"

The begging old man gritted his teeth, pulled out half a sweaty low-grade divine crystal from his crotch, and slammed it on the counter. "Exchange it for Spirit Notes! I want to buy drunken immortal powder!"

Su Yuan quickly processed a 'Spirit Note Passbook' with the old man's name on it, deducted ten cents, and handed him a pink drunken immortal powder.

The old man swallowed the pill on the spot.

Three breaths later.

*Boom!* The old man's withered face instantly turned flushed, his eyes grew misty, and then he burst into a fit of wild laughter.

"Hahaha! I am a Heavenly Immortal! The Li Family's immortal cave loan is nothing! I'm going to sleep on the clouds today! This is amazing!!!"

Although his cultivation hadn't increased, the extreme excitement and the emotional value of forgetting all pain completely enthralled the old man!

*Hiss—!*

Seeing this, the surrounding Cultivators' eyes instantly turned red with greed.

On one hand was the despair of working to death every day to pay off debts, and on the other was extreme pleasure for only one-tenth of a crystal—and even earning interest on deposits!

Even a fool could do the math!

"I want to exchange! I'm depositing five divine crystals!"

"Don't push! I've even brought my wife's coffin money! I want to deposit fifty! Give me ten drunken immortal powders!"

"Long live the Great Qin Bank!!!"

It was madness! The entire western slums were in an absolute frenzy!

Countless low-level Cultivators struggling in the mire rushed toward the Great Qin Bank as if grabbing a final lifeline, frantically stuffing in every last bit of divine crystals they had hidden away.

Sitting in her armchair, Ying Yue'e watched the low-grade divine crystals pour into the backyard warehouse like flowing water and gracefully took a sip from her teacup.

The first step of the dimensional strike—'Seizing Seigniorage' and 'Low-level Capital Absorption'—had been perfectly achieved.

These poor devils might have little money individually, but their numbers were vast!

In less than a week, nearly eighty percent of the divine crystals circulating in the outskirts of Tianshu City had entered the Su Family's pockets, replaced by those 'great qin spirit notes' that cost almost nothing to produce.

At the same time.

In the most prosperous area of Tianshu City, the Li Family estate.

Inside the luxurious main hall, Li Changming, the head of the Li Family, was listening to two beautiful female Cultivators play the zither.

"Patriarch, news has come from the west side. That kid named Su Feng, who holds the City Lord's token, didn't dare come to our chamber of commerce to cause trouble. Instead, he went to the slums to open something called the Great Qin Bank."

"Not only are they selling some low-grade trash medicine, but they're also playing some trick about giving interest on deposits. Now all the poor devils in the west side have gone mad and are depositing all their money."

The butler lowered his head, his tone full of mockery.

"Giving interest on deposits? Hahahaha!"

Li Changming laughed out loud as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world. "I thought the person with the City Lord's token was someone extraordinary, but it turns out he's just a fool who only knows how to do a losing business!"

"Collecting the scrap metal of a bunch of paupers and paying them interest every day? With his meager background, can he even last half a month?"

Li Changming picked up a cup of ten-thousand-year spiritual wine, a trace of viper-like greed and contempt flashing in his eyes.

"Don't worry about them. Once they've lost all their divine crystals paying interest and those low-level commoners can't withdraw their money, they will naturally smash that bank to pieces!"

"When that time comes, I will personally step forward and take back the City Lord's token from him!"

What the Li Family head didn't know was that the 'losing business' in his eyes was actually a meat grinder hand-woven by Ying Yue'e for his century-old family, one that would tear him to pieces!

The fangs of capitalism have only just bared!