Blue Silver Grass Guide.

Chapter 553: Crossroads of Life
"Ah Xin, do you think we are short of money now?"

Just when Qingqiu was puzzled, Ling Yi's calm voice rang out in this simple and spacious office.

"Lack of money?"

Qingqiu Xin was a little stunned. He hadn't come across this word for a long time.

Even when he was still in the [Shuimu Principality], the [Blacksmith Association Shuimu Principality Branch] at that time only operated in a corner of Douluo Continent. As the son of Qingqiu Li, the vice president of the association, he had never worried about mundane things like money.

Of course, this does not mean that Qingqiu Xin is detached from worldly matters. It just means that during his growth process, he suffered almost no hardship because of money.

The reason why he is keen on making money is that he regards [Aoki Chamber of Commerce] as a channel and medium to realize his own life value.

This goal was formed under the influence of Ling Yi.

If he had not met Ling Yi, perhaps Qingqiu Xin would have put cultivation first, like 99% of the soul masters in Douluo Continent. He would have spent his whole life either meditating to improve his soul power or on the way to the soul beast forest to hunt for soul rings.

Practice, fight, practice again, fight again... repeat over and over again until the end of life.

In the middle of his life, he might marry one or more female spirit masters of his own will or under the influence of his family, and give birth to offspring. And his offspring would repeat his cycle of training and fighting, and the cycle would continue.

Qingqiu Xin and 99% of the soul masters in Douluo Continent did not think there was anything wrong with this kind of life that they could foresee the end of, until Qingqiu Xin, Long Yin, Zhang Mufeng and others met Ling Yi.

They began to fear, fearing that they and their descendants were living like mechanical puppets, with everything planned by a predetermined fate from birth to death. Like a simple drawing in black, white and gray, they would eventually be lost in the long river of time without a trace left.

"Brother Yi, these are two different things~"

Shaking his head, Qingqiu Xin shook off the complicated thoughts in his mind, frowned slightly, and said in a deep voice: "First of all, no one will think that they have too much money. This is what you told me before. Capital should be greedy. Limited greed can keep people motivated without getting lost."

"Secondly, we now have a huge fortune that is enough to be passed down for more than ten generations, but the people below us do not have our opportunities. Their income and wealth only allow them to be barely wealthy in the current Douluo Continent."

"In your words, Brother Yi, it means being moderately wealthy and well-off."

"If the profits of our [Aoki Chamber of Commerce] decrease, they will be the ones who are directly affected. Once their income decreases, not to mention problems such as work enthusiasm, in terms of subsequent consumption, even if we have more stimulus measures, it will be difficult to keep the funds circulating in the market at the original level, let alone continue to increase. This is not in line with the concept of keeping wealth for the people that you mentioned before, Brother Yi..."

Listening to Qingqiu Xin's argument, Ling Yi did not get angry. Instead, a smile from the heart gradually spread across his eyes.

"Dong~dong~~"

Tapping the tabletop lightly with his knuckles, Ling Yi said with a smile on his face, "Ah Xin, I'm very happy that you can say this. This shows that you have absorbed what I taught you in your work over the years and have your own understanding of it."

The principles are all very simple. It can be said that any netizen from Ling Yi's previous life can explain them all. Some keyboard warriors who have been hanging around Zhihu and Bilibili for many years can even explain them more comprehensively and concisely than those university professors.

The problem is that Ling Yi is in Douluo Continent, a deformed world where the average education level is not even as good as that of an elementary school dropout in his previous life.

Not to mention, Qingqiu Xin may not be able to say any wise words on general principles, nor can he summarize his past experiences in a book, but in terms of the actual management of the [Aoki Chamber of Commerce], he is definitely qualified, even excellent.

Qingqiu Xin did not smile because of Ling Yi's praise. Although he felt a sense of satisfaction of being recognized, he knew that Brother Yi would probably say "but" later.

Brother Yi once said that everything before "but" is meaningless.

Ling Yi's eyes swept across Qingqiu Xin's face, and he could easily tell what his little brother was thinking. He smiled and shook his head, then instantly stopped smiling and said in a flat voice: "Xin, today Brother Yi will teach you another principle about capital."

“In the capitalist concept, the greatest wealth of the rich is not money, but the poor!”

"Ah?" Qingqiu Xin was startled when he heard this, his face full of confusion: "Poor people?"

"Yes!" Ling Yi nodded, and then said: "Only when poor people exist can the money of the rich be useful. Otherwise, it is just a pile of scrap metal."

The naked words brought Qingqiu Xin into a cruel worldview.

"Only in transactions and sales does money have its value as a unit and standard for measuring value." Ling Yi's face showed a hint of sarcasm: "Only when some people have empty pockets and need money to maintain their own survival, their bodies and souls will be willing to accept the drive of the rich, for the money called reward..."

"Ah Xin, you have to remember that in the human society you and I live in, human beings themselves are the greatest wealth, not those soul coins themselves that cannot be eaten, drunk, worn or lived in."

"Ah Xin, you have to remember that the greatest value of the Qingmu Chamber of Commerce is not how much supplies we have hoarded or how much wealth we have earned, but how much of the population share of the Douluo Continent is occupied by the members of our Chamber of Commerce and those who have intersected with our Chamber of Commerce."

"When we send out a message to buy a certain ore or herb, if the people of the entire Douluo Continent start looking for this ore or herb, then the 'wealth' of the Qingmu Chamber of Commerce will truly reach the pinnacle of the world!"

There was a look of confusion in Qingqiu Xin's eyes. He understood Ling Yi's words, but he couldn't quite comprehend them.

In his and most people's understanding, if you have money, you can buy many things, food to fill your stomach, clothes to cover your body, a house to live in...

If they had more money, they could move to a bigger city, so that they and their children and grandchildren could receive a better education, eat more nutritious food, wear more defensive gear, and live in a place with a richer heaven and earth energy...

But now, Ling Yi's words have overturned these perceptions. "But this..." Qingqiu Xin couldn't figure it out for a moment, so he stopped thinking about it. This is what Ling Yi taught him before, so he asked, "Is there any connection between this and our lowering of the prices of food supplies in the north of the [Heaven Dou Empire]?"

Facing Qingqiu Xin's question, Ling Yi smiled and said lightly: "Because I want to control the grain trade in the entire Tiandou North Land in the hands of the [Qingmu Chamber of Commerce]."

"What?!" Qingqiu Xin widened his eyes, looking at Ling Yi's handsome face with a warm smile, and could hardly believe his ears.

"Ever since the cold current from the Far North swept south, the grain production in the northern part of the Heavenly Dou Empire has dropped sharply. Now at least 60% of the grain is transferred from the south by our Qingmu Chamber of Commerce, which barely stabilizes the grain price."

Ling Yi said: "But there are many villagers and townspeople who originally did not need to spend money to buy food. They only needed to work on the land to get a year's worth of food for themselves and their family."

"Although we have now switched to growing 'Blue Silver Wheat', the price difference with 'Blue Silver Rice' can make up for the difference, and the combination of what we grow ourselves and what we buy can maintain our original living standards, but many local nobles have taken the opportunity to raise food prices, causing many families to return to the situation before the 'Blue Silver Rice' was introduced."

The gap in the snow-capped mountains to the north of the "Frozen Forest" was blasted open by Ling Yi himself, and he was also the one who let the cold current in.

Although he was also the one who promoted "Blue Silver Rice", the living standards of all the people in Douluo Continent were also improved due to the promotion of "Blue Silver Rice" and "Blue Silver Grass". Now that things have regressed, the main responsibility should not be blamed on Ling Yi, but those nobles who took the opportunity to raise food prices should be punished.

However, Ling Yi was too lazy to cause trouble to those nobles one by one, and he would not do any face-saving projects of targeted poverty alleviation. He only needed to exercise the power of macro-control of grain prices on behalf of the [Tiandou Empire] and guide everything back on the "right track" so that the people of Tiandou North could live in peace and continue to work hard to have children without having to worry about the life and growth of themselves and their descendants.

Qingqiu Xin, who obviously sensed the significance of this, was speechless for a moment. After a long while, he asked in a low voice: "Brother Yi, these issues are the ones that the [Tiandou Empire] officials should consider, or should Xue Ye consider them?"

"I always feel that Brother Yi treats the people of the [Tiandou Empire] as his own people." Qingqiu murmured in his heart.

Even if it is the [Spirit Hall], which is dedicated to the awakening of the martial spirits of all the people and spreading the glory of angels, Pope Qian Xunji will not interfere with the grain prices in a certain place in the [Tian Dou Empire] when Emperor Xue Ye does not care, just for the local people to live a better life.

"That's enough~" Ling Yi waved his hand and said nonchalantly: "Xue Ye is Xue Ye, I am me, I don't need to care what Xue Ye thinks about what I want to do."

"Uh~" Qingqiu Xin nodded and said, "Okay, Brother Yi, since you said so, Mangli and I will take care of the rest."

The initial opposition was because of Ling Yi's trust in him, which allowed him to sit in the position of deputy director of the "Commerce Department" of [Lingyun City] and be in charge of most of the affairs of [Qingmu Chamber of Commerce]. He did not want the interests of [Qingmu Chamber of Commerce] itself to be affected because of Ling Yi's momentary kindness. That would not only reduce the income of the middle and lower-level members of [Qingmu Chamber of Commerce], but also affect Ling Yi's image in the eyes of [Qingmu Chamber of Commerce] members.

Ling Yi has been regarded as a god by many members of the Qingmu Chamber of Commerce. In Qingqiu Xin's eyes, a god cannot have a single stain.

However, since Ling Yi is now determined to implement the price reduction plan, what he has to do is to figure out how to better execute it and achieve Ling Yi's desired goal faster.

……

A hundred miles southeast of Tiandou City.

A carriage stopped at a three-way intersection. Shi Nian, whose appearance and spirit energy had changed, let go of the reins and turned his head to whisper to the carriage behind him: "Master, where should we go next?"

The car curtain was lifted, revealing Yu Xiaogang's face, which had become much more handsome due to the evolution of his martial soul. His eyes, with a hint of red light in them, scanned the intersection ahead.

"Master," Shi Nian raised his hand and pointed forward, saying respectfully, "The road on the right leads to Tiandou City."

"The road on the left leads to the Sunset Forest."

"Should we go to Tiandou City to repair ourselves and buy some necessary supplies first, or should we go directly to Sunset Forest?"

While listening to Shi Nian's words, Yu Xiaogang suddenly turned his head and looked at the way he and others came. He couldn't help but think of what Ling Yi said in "Lingyun City".

"Xiao Gang, these three roads in front of us all lead to different places, the research institute, the large parade ground, and the library."

On the streets of Lingyun City, Ling Yi strolled among the crowds, smiling back at the pedestrians around him, and said to Yu Xiaogang who was following closely behind him: "These three roads are like our lives. Every choice will open up a different life."

"You are walking on your own path in life. You need to judge right and wrong, true and false, by yourself. Don't let the noisy crowd sway your thoughts. Persevere. Even if you fail, you will be reborn!"

Ling Yi's words were still echoing in his mind. Yu Xiaogang suddenly recalled the look in the eyes of the 'blood bird' Andariel before his death on the hill outside Rogue Town a few days ago.

The old man whose martial soul was obviously evil, but who had spent his entire life working hard for civilian soul masters to study, actually had a look of worry instead of resentment in his eyes before he was devoured? !
Are you worried that I will bring disaster to the world?

Yu Xiaogang thought so.

Ridiculous! Are those ordinary ants worth my slaughter?!
Thousands of ordinary people are not as valuable as a second-ring great soul master and dark energy warrior!
Not to mention, for myself who is about to break through to the eighth-ring Soul Douluo, there is no need to hunt people below the fifth-ring Soul King and the internal organs tempering Spirit Master!
There was a flash of hostility in his eyes, and Yu Xiaogang suppressed the trace of guilt that had just emerged in his heart, and re-examined the fork in the road before him.

Should we go to Tiandou City to rest first?
Or go directly to "Sunset Forest"?
Shi Nian and Flanders had both been transformed. Even Zhao Wuji and others from Lingyun City could not recognize the latter in person, not to mention that the former was just an ordinary and unknown Soul King.

As for Yu Xiaogang himself, with the evolution of his martial soul, his body shape and appearance have been optimized step by step, and he is now completely different from the ordinary him he used to be.

Yu Xiaogang was confident that even if his father Yu Yuanzhen was present, he would probably have to look at him carefully for a long time before recognizing him from his facial features.

So, how to choose?
(End of this chapter)