Ultragenic Warlord

Chapter 427: Surprise After Surprise

Sun Mengmeng smiled. "This was Yun Bing's idea. Each race has special racial characteristics and different needs, and she suggested the bazaar so that it could enhance the rate at which goods flowed from race to race in order to make this city truly come alive."

Zhang Lie nodded. "Very well done, Yun Bing! You're right—a city should be prosperous, not just a random gathering of people."

Yun Bing blushed. "I didn't learn any architecture, unlike Chu Feng. All I studied was business, and upon seeing these citizens bartering with each other, I had the idea of constructing a bazaar."

The Yeluo chief added, "It's been much more convenient since this bazaar was set up."

Zhang Lie and the crowd walked through the bazaar to the shock and awe of many shoppers within.

Humans sold soulshards, the wood spirits sold herbs, the Yeluo sold their potions, and the rock spirits their labor and large lifeforms that they had captured. The bazaar was lively but orderly, and it was clear that Yun Bing had put no small amount of effort into planning it.

Yun Bing elaborated on her thoughts. "Every race buys and sells something different. The humans sell soulshards in hopes of obtaining the flesh of genetic lifeforms and rare herbs and potions."

The shaman of the wood spirits murmured, "The wood spirits have been very interested in human inventions like playing cards and children's toys. I was also surprised to learn just how compatible the Yeluo's potions are to our race."

The Yeluo chief added, "My tribe wants the flesh of all sorts of genetic lifeforms, soulshards, and spiritual herbs, ?and we sell the potions unique to the Yeluo clan."

The Yeluo were particularly talented alchemists and potioneers, thanks to the original location of their tribe deep within the Yeluo Valley, and quite a few recipes had been passed down from their ancestors.

Yun Bing concluded, "The rock spirits only need rocks, minerals, and gems, but they're far more capable of killing genetic lifeforms than the other races around. They can produce tons of regular lifeforms and quite a few mutated-grade lifeforms. One or two superior-grade lifeforms have shown up before as well."

As expected of a nomadic tribe that had once done whatever they pleased within the second realm! If not for the fact that their rock quarry had been near depletion, Zhang Lie was certain he wouldn't have been able to take the rock spirits down so easily.

Indeed, considering their rock armor, they were very well suited to combat. Once they ate enough rock, their bodies would be as sturdy as adamantium—and even if they were somehow taken down, they would be able to make it back alive unless their cores were smashed apart.

Given Yun Bing's limited power in the city, the fact that she had nevertheless managed to get all the clans to work together had to have required inordinate effort on her part.

"Thanks for your hard work."

Yun Bing smiled. "It's nothing much. Sun Mengmeng and the others helped me a lot."

Without Team Zenith's authority, Yun Bing could hardly have managed the Herculean task on her own.

"It's good that we were able to find so many examples of properly maintained markets and bazaars as reference—otherwise, the market would surely have become disorderly very quickly." ?Yun Bing had been relying on real-world examples of successful markets when designing the one in Zhang Lie's city, and she had requisitioned the help of her clan to do so. "To be frank, the hardest problem we've had was to get the rock spirits to understand and obey the rules of the bazaar."

The rock spirits all had rocks for heads, and it was difficult for them to wrap their heads around complicated and abstract thoughts.

Zhang Lie couldn't help smiling as he thought of the rock giants trying to thumb through a leaflet of rules and instructions.

"In the end, we were only able to teach a few rock spirits about the rules of the bazaar, and they'll represent all their tribe members within it."

"What currency are you using?" Zhang Lei sounded very curious.

Only with currency would the city be able to move away from a bartering system to a trade-based system. Human cities like Qi used government-issued points, but points were clearly worthless to the alien races.

Sun Mengmeng retrieved two coins from a pocket, one gold and another silver. Both were delicately engraved. "These are what we're using now."

Gold and silver? Zhang Lie picked up the two coins and sniffed them—they smelled like medicinal herbs rather than precious metals.

One side of the silver coin was engraved with Zhang Lie's face, and the other with Venombane. One side of the gold coin was likewise engraved with Zhang Lie's face, and the other with a city.

Zhang Lie crushed apart the coin to find a smattering of bone powder. "This is... the bone of a mutated-grade lifeform, as well as one of a superior-grade lifeform?"

Yun Bing nodded. "The rock spirits consume gold, so we didn't think it would be appropriate to cut down on their food reserves."

Sun Mengmeng continued, "Many in the bazaar were already trading with genetic lifeforms as the common denominator, so we decided to use their bones as our common currency."

Yun Bing and Sun Mengmeng traded off. "The currency is specially prepared using herbs from the wood spirits, then dyed with a recipe from the Yeluo. That's how we made them gold and silver. In the current market, ten thousand silver coins correspond to one gold coin. The main issue is that we're quite lacking in superior-grade lifeforms, so we haven't been able to produce more gold coins."

Sun Mengmeng took over. "Our next step was to introduce paper currency, but we didn't want to do so without your approval. Furthermore, we don't have the technology to create paper currency that others can't replicate."

"What can you buy with a silver coin?"

"Ten tons of regular-grade lifeforms can be exchanged for one silver coin, and a ton of mutated-grade lifeforms for a hundred silver coins. A hundred silver coins can buy you a regular-grade soulshard, and a gold coin a mutated-grade soulshard."

Zhang Lie looked on with interest as he saw a hunter chop up meat from some genetic lifeform on the spot, turning it into a fresh serving of some street snack or another.

If he were to let the city develop as it was now, would there be a day during which humans could obtain gene fragments without needing to brave the danger of uncharted territory out in the wilderness of the second realm?

Zhang Lie could hardly have predicted that the city would develop to this extent in the two months during which he had been gone.