Zhongli once again reminded us of the subjects that were yet to be discussed, and after he stepped back, Ningguang took charge of the talk.
-"Now, it's time to talk about our economy. We need to establish a solid market so that Hold won't be at the mercy of others. Four major issues need to be addressed: currency, commodities and products in Hold, markets, and consumers."
Ningguang passed us an outline of the plan she had prepared and continued her explanation.
-"Consumers are the first issue. Most of the people in Hold are used to controlled or small economies. Even if we were to establish a mostly free market, few people would be able to utilize it."
-"Only people from Xianzhou had access to the market that was mostly free. Those coming from Terra were always limited by their cities and lack of resources. At the same time, Nobus's Japan and Teyvat were not advanced enough, and only nobles and rich merchants had access to markets."
-"Thank you, Astraea, you are right. Even if our own markets were to appear, few would use them as they never had access to such structures. That's why we need to open small local markets that will educate on how future ones will operate. Not to mention that strong regulation and oversight will be necessary to avoid exploitation and bubbles from appearing."
~"What markets do you want to create?"
-"I will not be mentioning food or retail markets as they are local issues, but those still need to be expanded as, for now, most products are distributed directly from Hold. I mostly want to establish Labor, Stock, and Bond Markets. In addition, the creation of the Central Bank, oversight agencies, and taxes is necessary."
~"A labor market is definitely needed, as we have a solid workforce but can't utilize them properly. But I'm not sure about Stocks and Bonds."
-"Those are needed for investments. We can't control what people think is valuable. We can only control how they can spend their money on them."
~"I'll listen to you as I must admit, I don't have a great understanding of the economy."
-"Central Bank is what is needed the fastest, together with the currency, about which I will speak more about later. Right now, [Vault] is used only internally by members of Hold, but its safety and functionality could make it a major player even in other worlds, giving us credibility and a better position in negotiations."
-"Indeed, IPC can dominate so much of their world thanks to being the center of money flow."-Astraea spoke her mind.
-"That's why we should try to replicate their success but on a multiversal scale. They dominate the whole world with the economy. We have to have the same ability. Oversight will also be necessary to prevent troubles. Here again, IPC shows us what happens when those are left unchecked."
~"Yes, we can't leave everything in the hands of interest. While I don't mind the free market existing, Hold can't be at its mercy."
-"I fully agree. The Hold will never be influenced by market forces. It's our job to make sure of that. All industries that are necessary to us, especially our self-sufficiency, have to be guaranteed. I also strongly suggest isolating the realm of Hold from interests by not allowing possession of land and keeping the strict merit-based organization in place."
~"We will need time to cultivate such a society, but this is something worth striving for."
-"Continuing, taxes can be set later with cooperation between Justice and Economy Ministries. Until our economy is healthy, we can't focus on those. The subject that we have to solve as early as possible is currency. Right now, we use IPC standard currency, but for many reasons, we have to switch to one controlled by us."
-"The question is, what are we to take as our currency? It has to be impossible to counterfeit, accessible to us in great amounts, and have innate value not exceeding its nominal one."
~"I have something that I wanted to suggest for that role. Leaves of the [Yggdrasil]."
-"Hmm... Arent those valuable?"
~"My leaves are simple containers for the laws of my world. I can create countless amounts of those, and no other being in existence can copy them. They are almost indestructible by conventional means, as any force would simply pass them through."
I manifested a small branch of the Tree over our heads and showed them how, from one leaf, countless smaller ones could appear.
~"Single leaf is colorless."~I manifested one in hand to make a more detailed showcase.~"Only by using one's spirit can you touch it as they are immaterial, and this allows their storage in one's inner world, even for mortal beings. For basic currency, those are good as there won't exist a need for special storages if one can simply carry them all on oneself."
-"This is indeed an enviable characteristic."
~"The next upside is that those leaves can carry some [Void] power, making them colorful."~The leaf in my hand started to shimmer with colors.~"[Void] is power beyond Chaos. Even Outer-God level beings can't manipulate it freely, making it almost impossible to counterfeit, but also make its innate value rise with the increase of face value."
-"Those can indeed work, but won't that energy attract others?"
~"It will. [Void] is similar to Terminus' Authority of Origin, and by the sole nature of its existence in one's inner world, you will be nourished by it. This can attract more people to use our money, especially the rich and powerful, as they would want the benefits and try to understand the power of [Void]."
-"You want to use a similar approach to Spirit Stones in those Cultivation worlds?"
-"Mora on Teyvat also acts as a catalyst for alchemy. Having some innate value that won't affect its usefulness as a medium of exchange is a great idea. Those can also work as proof of status with their pleasing appearance."
~"And as most basic leaves don't possess such qualities, they will be freely exchanged, not hoarded for the effects."
-"Sure, your leaves are a good idea, but the next issue is the name of the currency."
~"How about simply calling them 'Crystal Leaves'?"
-"Well fitting and easy to remember. Let's go with that. We will implement them together with our bank. We'll have to find a way to promote those, but that is for later to discuss. Now, we can move to the matter of Hold's products and commodities."
Ningguang passed us a list of products that Hold manufactured in the last half a year.
-"Hold's products can be divided into three categories: internal, plant-based, and other. Internal are those unfit for trade, mostly our weapons and equipment. Plant-based are self-explanatory, but due to Hold's special circumstances, we excel at those. Other is all else, and here is the problem. Almost everything we produce can't be sold."
-"We have to create some industries, huh."
-"For now, I have four propositions that can easily make money for Hold: Artifacts, medicine, technology, and techniques."
~"Techniques are not a good avenue to seek profit in."
-"Yes, but if we were to create some basic Cultivation techniques, those would sell well."
~"This will need more careful consideration."
-"Sure. But some weaker Artifacts and technologies are not a problem, right?"
~"No, but still act with caution."
-"Of course. Last but also probably the best field for us is medicine. Not only do we produce many rare herbs, but we can use both alchemy and chemistry to our advantage to create an unrivaled medicinal powerhouse. Healing incurable diseases is easy for us, and we can go a step further and prolong one life, even sell immortality."
~"I won't agree to that. While I won't stop prolonging life, immortality is still beyond my bottom line. One has to earn his immortality, or it will haunt him one day. My views might have changed somewhat, but I still stand by my idea that immortality is as much, if not more, a curse as it is a blessing."
-"I will take that to the hearth, but you won't mind the rest of avenues of medicine?"
~"As long as they are not addictive or harmful. While I don't want to have a reputation as a saint, I certainly don't want to be seen as an evil being. I will set up some labs for you to test everything."
-"Please. Now, the last subject remains, setting up the Hold's economy by absorbing five worlds that we spoke about before. Can this be done, and how, Yue?"
~"It is possible, taking five worlds into my own, but it will require some preparations. Forcefully absorbing a world is possible, but it will destabilize laws and cause problems in the future."
-"You often focus on stability, why?"
~"Basically, I can't grow stronger on my own. Only by expanding the source of my power can I become stronger. But that also means that by weakening it, I will become weaker. By focusing on stability, I ensure that any mishap won't send me back thousands of years, if not more."
-"I see."
~"Not counting dead worlds, each world possesses a basic intent of self-preservation, a World's Will, that might grow to full Spirit in powerful worlds. If I were to absorb a world directly as it is, said intent would oppose me. At best, this would result in damage to the absorbed world, and, at worst, injury to mine world."
-"So how can you prevent it?"
~"I used a Chat Group to test some of my conjectures and came up with two ways to absorb a world without harm. One requires a world to be in a situation where it can't survive, then the World's Will won't oppose me absorbing it if I were to save it."
-"But for a world to reach such a dire state, won't it be too destroyed for any useful civilization to remain?"
~"Yes, that's why I also prepared another way, but it's more time-consuming. I have to fool the World's Will into believing that I'm its champion."
-"Champion?"
~"Call them protagonists. Cultivators call that force Luck. It's bestowed by the world to its inhabitants, and more often than not, there will exist beings that possess much more than normal people. If I'm able to gather Luck of a world, I can fool it into becoming part of me without opposition."
-"Either destroy or fool a World's Will?"
-"How can you gather Luck?"
~"Clishe method, take opportunities from one who were they destined to."
-"Kill that person?"
~"No, I have to blend into that world. The easiest way is to use the same method as when I went to Azeroth. But this is the perfect pretext to take some of you with me to live a few years in peace and quiet."
-"If you spin it that way, it is indeed a great occasion."
~"We would be able to use this time to start your idea of spreading our influence in said world. I plan to visit the first world after the Festival of Domination next month."
-"We will talk about this later. Now, let's continue with the main subject of this meeting."
Ningguang continued to delve into more and more detailed plans for the near future of our economy, mostly assisted by Loki, Tingyun, and Ji Xuanyuan when needed.
We needed a little over four hours to close this chapter, allowing us to move forward with the meeting. Zhongli, as always, introduced our next subject.
-"To close this meeting, we need to address the upcoming war and matters of Yue's personal forces. I suggest starting with the second subject."
~"Sure. What do we need to address, Astraea?"
-"First is what Hold's attitude towards Spirit Empire and Valkyries is to be."
-"Spirit Empire will be a force of this world, working in its best interest in mind. The Hold is part of this world, so we are allies."
-"This is what we can explain to civilians, but we still need some hierarchy."
~"All Elven forces will always act as if I ordered them personally. They will not have the ability to command forces of Hold, but no Hold member aside from me can order them. I will open access to Hold's Realm to Elves, but only those invited will be able to enter Emerald Dream."
-"That will work. While some matters need more details, this can be left for other meetings. What about Valkyries?"
~"Their strength is not that different from Champions of Hold. How about treating them as an Imperial force? Only Nobu and I will be able to deploy them."
-"I can work with that."
-"Then I'll leave that to you and Nobu to discuss. I have one more matter. How should we call this world?"
~"Most appropriate is to call my world as [Yggdrasil]. But this whole realm can be simply called Hold."
-"Then we will refer to them as such."
-"I think we can now move to the last point."-Spoke Nobu, who was visibly bored.-"Upcoming war. First is our front against Chaos Fraction. I received data on the forces of our allies, and most likely, they will man defenses while our forces will act as main combat units. The average of their soldiers is too low. Even their champions can be considered as bellow average in our ranks."
~"We are working on a method to secure our soldiers' souls so that they can be resurrected after the fight, but we have only limited success until now. I will make sure that it is finished before the war."
-"Nice. I also heard that MemokeepersĀ are working on some techniques to help us, Astraea?"
-"Yes, they are preparing seals that will work against those demons. I will contact them later to cooperate with you."
-"The last matter is the training of our people, but with the success of Simulated Realm, there is no problem. The second front is on Yue."
~"Valkyries will be my main battle force, assisted by my Guards and Herrschers from Hold. This should be enough to deal with them. Aside from that, I ordered Tyrande to take Sisters of Elune to act as healers for the war. They won't enter the battlefield, mind you."
-"What about dragons and the rest of your Spirit Empire?"
~"This war is a matter of Hold. As you all said before, I have to keep personal and Hold's matters separate."
Loki nodded at my words from her seat.
~"I will also move druids to take care of the aftermath, but none of my forces will act if not pushed into a corner."
-"I will work with that in mind. The war is expected to erupt in a few years, but the first skirmishes can start as soon as next year. I suggest we place Hold in a state of preparation, and after next year's Festival of Domination, we will enter a state of readiness so that we can deploy half of our forces within a day and a full deployment within a week."
~"You are general here, so I will listen to you."
Elysia Ningguang and Astraea also agreed to follow Nobu's decision.
-"Then I have nothing to add that needs to be addressed here. More details are already in regular reports, so that's it."
Five of us then turned to Zhongli, who proceeded to close the meeting. Exiting the [Throne Room], I moved to the Inner Palace as it was already late into the night.