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Shu State, Chaofeng County.
After handing the last crepe from his snack cart to a customer, Chen Liang let out a long sigh of relief, a look of unburdening in his eyes.
"Finally sold them all!"
He reached out to open the wooden box used for collecting money, which wasn’t filled with Great Xia’s paper currency, but with spirit coins of various sizes.
These spirit coins were made by grinding used-up spirit stones into powder and casting them with some minerals by Dongling True Sky, to be used as everyday transactional currency by the common people.
Five years ago, as soon as Dongling True Sky took over Chaofeng County, they abolished Great Xia’s original currency system and began issuing spirit coins.
At first, there was much opposition within Chaofeng County, since Great Xia’s citizens had always been accustomed to saving, and the abolishment of Xia currency meant they lost all the wealth they had accumulated at home.
For several consecutive months, the streets of Chaofeng County were occupied by a large number of protesters, and the outcry against Dongling True Sky grew louder.
Some even claimed they would kick Dongling True Sky out of Chaofeng County and welcome back Great Xia’s Imperial Court.
However, as several Great Demons attacked densely populated districts, causing the deaths of tens of thousands, the original waves of opposition gradually subsided under the threat of demons.
After all, what use was money if they were no longer alive?
Chen Liang closed the wooden box with the money and began tidying up the various items on the snack cart, while quietly calculating the day’s earnings in his heart.
"Earned eighty spirit coins today. After deducting the cost and the taxes owed to Dongling True Sky, I’m left with thirty-one. Continue your adventure at freewebnovel
Home is running out of rice and flour; it’ll cost ten coins to buy some back, leaving me with a savings of twenty-one spirit coins."
"The Master of the Lingzhen Taoist Hall in the city is said to be an external disciple of Dongling True Sky. To become a disciple, one must pay a tuition fee of ten thousand spirit coins, and if one is talented and fortunate, there’s a chance to enter Dongling True Sky through the hall.
Once inside Dongling True Sky, I can avoid the demon extermination tax and might even have the hope of moving into the inner city.
I have no hope in this lifetime, but maybe my son Cong has a chance to be admitted into the sect."
Thinking of this possibility, Chen Liang’s eyes filled with hope.
In the ten years since the resurgence of the Spirit Energy Tidal Surge, he too had dreamt of suddenly ascending and stepping into the sect, but reality was that he was just one of the common people.
Ten years ago, after graduating from college, he became a programmer, joining one of the booming companies of the time.
Despite the looming crisis of the Spirit Energy Tidal Surge, with the order maintained by Great Xia’s Imperial Court, Chen Liang could work normally, marry and have children.
But as the world revived further, causing the collapse of Great Xia’s order, the electrical grid and infrastructure, which had taken decades to build, were almost overnight destroyed. Even basic electricity supply became a challenge, and he lost his job as a programmer.
Left with no choice, Chen Liang had to pick up his family’s traditional craft and start selling crepes to make ends meet.
Chen Liang, at least skilled in one area, was considered lucky. Those who truly suffered were those who lost their original jobs due to the collapse of the order.
After Dongling True Sky took over Chaofeng County and abolished the original currency, these people, to support their families, had no choice but to join Dongling True Sky, becoming spirit farmers and pioneers.
These were not enviable professions.
Spirit farmers had to care for the Spirit Rice and Spirit Plants cultivated by Dongling True Sky. Although they were taught the basics of cultivation from the sect, the little bit of spiritual energy they cultivated had to be used to nourish the Spirit Rice and Spirit Plants, leaving no surplus spiritual energy for improving their own cultivation.
Despite reaching the Essence Refining Stage, the prolonged depletion of spiritual energy made the state of the spirit farmers even worse than ordinary people.
As for the pioneers, their work was even more dangerous. With the revival of the world, vast new territories had emerged that were still undeveloped and required a large number of people to tame the wilderness.
In areas far from cities, there was an endless emergence of venomous insects, ferocious beasts, and demonic creatures. Even with cultivators from Dongling True Sky stationed there, it was still possible to encounter danger, and a moment’s carelessness could lead to death in the wilderness.
Most risked their lives just to make a living, and only a very few pioneers could stand out from the masses and qualify to enter the inner city of Chaofeng County.
Chen Liang couldn’t help but look towards the center of the County City, the area sealed off by an invisible barrier Formation.
It was said that within the inner city, there was still a normal supply of electricity, and life continued without any difference from the time before the world revived, with games and entertainment galore. Countless people had died in the wilderness fighting for a spot in the inner city.
"Maybe if Great Xia’s Imperial Court were still around, such a situation wouldn’t have occurred," Chen Liang couldn’t help but think to himself.
Just as he finished organizing his things and prepared to push the snack cart home, he suddenly heard a tremendous roar from afar.
He saw the invisible barrier dividing the inner and outer city of Chaofeng County shattered by a beam of sword light, revealing the brightly lit prosperity of the inner city.
"Who is it!"
"What audacity, to attack my Dongling True Sky!"
"You have wrought your own death!"
One by one, figures clad in Taoist robes and exuding extraordinary presence soared into the firmament above the inner city district as beams of Flight of Light emerged.
Chen Liang recognized one of the purple-robed cultivators – he was the Lingzhen Taoist Hall Master he had previously wanted his son to study under, a strong Qi Training cultivator.
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Yet even a figure like the Lingzhen Hall Master ranked at the very end among the cultivators ascending into the sky, with the three cultivators at the top exuding a radiance so bright it was hard to look at directly.
"Could they be the legendary Grotto Heavens True Beings?"
No sooner had this thought crossed his mind than a flash of sword light like thunder raced across the sky, and the cultivators from Dongling True Sky, who had stood proudly in the air, fell like raindrops, including those three Grotto Heavens True Beings.
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