Chapter 1380: This Is War! (Third Update)
The attendees numbered thirteen thousand.
These were the leaders and sovereigns of all the worlds, all members of the Heavenly Alliance. The Heavenly Alliance could be said to be the most colossal force in this world!
Even the Heavenly Court was merely the nominal ruler; the true ruler of the myriad heavens and countless realms was the Heavenly Alliance!
A million years ago, when Qin Mu returned to the early years of the Longhan Era and proposed to Ling Tianzun the founding of the Heavenly Alliance, his thoughts were to overthrow the Heavenly Court, to grant the later-born beings, especially the human race, the right to exist, to prevent tragedies like that of Yu Tianzun from recurring, and to ensure that people would no longer endure the miserable life of the Longhan Era.
The founding principles of the Heavenly Alliance, established by Ling Tianzun, Yun Tianzun, and Yue Tianzun, were exactly the same.
But now, the Heavenly Court still existed, never overthrown, while the Heavenly Alliance had already hollowed out the Heavenly Court and become the actual ruler. Yet this era was not much better than the Longhan Era.
And the Heavenly Alliance had evolved into a ruler even more difficult to deal with and overthrow than the Longhan Heavenly Court of those days!
He put away the invitation. Of the Five Founding Elders of the Heavenly Alliance, Yun Tianzun was dead, Yue Tianzun had just recovered from her injuries but had become a rebel, and Ling Tianzun was cycling between life and death. The Kai Emperor had become a traitor.
Only he, Mu Tianzun, could still appear in the Heavenly Alliance.
"Therefore, no matter what, I must go!"
On the Heavenly River, one towering ship after another sailed from the myriad heavens and countless realms, heading towards the Heavenly Court. Since Mu Tianzun had designed the Spirit Energy Transfer Bridge, the Heavenly River had not been this lively for a long time.
The Spirit Energy Transfer Bridge connected the myriad heavens and countless realms, linking every major heaven, even the most distant Four Extremities Heavens, allowing travel to the Heavenly Court in the shortest possible time, saving an incalculable amount of time.
Mu Tianzun's design of the Spirit Energy Transfer Bridge had brought the Heavenly Court's rule over the myriad heavens to an unprecedented height!
In the past, whenever a divine being of the Heavenly Court descended upon another heaven, it was a disaster for that place. The mighty divine might crushed the barriers of the world, causing the spiritual energy and essence of that heaven to leak away.
Now, they could descend simply by using the Spirit Energy Transfer Bridge, and it was much faster, making it almost impossible for any major heaven to rebel.
As for the increased interaction between the major heavens, commerce had reached a level of prosperity unimaginable in the past, all within just over ten years.
It could be said that in the seventeen years since Mu Tianzun had gone to the Heavenly Court, the total volume of trade among the myriad heavens had equaled the total volume of the previous tens of thousands of years.
The reason the rulers of the myriad heavens were now sailing from the Heavenly River to the Heavenly Court by boat, instead of directly using the Spirit Energy Transfer Bridge, was mainly to flaunt their status and position.
After all, those qualified to attend the Heavenly Alliance meeting were all sovereigns of their respective heavens, so naturally, they wanted to make a grand entrance.
However, it was precisely because of the frequent commercial exchanges that a phenomenon of currency concentration had occurred. Especially in recent years, resources and wealth had begun to gather in the hands of the divine families who controlled trade in the major heavens.
And the overall wealth of the myriad heavens had begun to converge on the Yuan Realm.
At the Heavenly Court, in the Jade Pool, every sacred place saw ships coming and going. Various divine beings laughed and chatted. All kinds of rare delicacies and fine wines flowed like water onto the banquet tables. Cups clinked, and beauties were as numerous as clouds.
Every previous grand meeting of the Heavenly Alliance had been held at the Jade Pool, and the Heavenly Alliance Hall was also located on an island in the Jade Sea.
Rumor had it that this was the place where the Heavenly Alliance was founded. It was said that back then, after Ling Tianzun bid farewell to Mu Tianzun and Qin Tianzun, she met Yue Tianzun and Yun Tianzun at the Jade Pool. It was there that they established the original Heavenly Alliance and drafted its most ancient rules.
At this moment, in a side hall of the Heavenly Alliance Hall, the Second Heavenly Master, Meng Yungui, was perusing the files sent in from the various major heavens.
Below him were tens of thousands of Daoist priests from the Heavenly Court's Daoist Sect. Beside each person were piles of files as high as mountains. For each major heaven, two or three Daoists skilled in numerology were tallying the commercial information sent from that heaven over the past ten years. They would organize and compile the statistics, then submit the compiled data to Meng Yungui for review.
The files around Meng Yungui had piled up so high they buried him. This Heavenly Master suddenly split into eight separate bodies. Then, with a shake, each clone grew three heads and six arms, becoming four-headed and eight-armed. Their palms flew, and their eyes read at lightning speed.
The tens of thousands of Daoist priests from the Heavenly Court's Daoist Sect and Meng Yungui locked themselves in the side hall. They spent over ten days before they finished reviewing all the commercial exchange information sent from the myriad heavens.
Meng Yungui clapped his hands and said in a deep voice, "I thank all my colleagues for your hard work. You may go and rest."
The Daoists bowed to him and filed out, leaving only the old Daoist Master of the Heavenly Court's Daoist Sect and Meng Yungui in the hall.
The old Daoist Master had a kindly face and smiled, saying, "What did you discover, Heavenly Master Meng?"
Meng Yungui rubbed his bloodshot eyes, stretched lazily, and said with a grave expression, "A great calamity."
The old Daoist Master was astonished and laughed, saying, "Now the Taixu has been pacified. The Land of No Worries and the Creators are suppressed in the Other Shore void at the end of the Void Bridge, with no possibility of a comeback. The situation is excellent. Why such pessimistic words from Heavenly Master Meng?"
Meng Yungui glanced at him and said seriously, "Teacher, you are my first teacher, with unparalleled skill in numerology. If I can see it, how could you not?"
He flicked his sleeve, and countless files flew into the air, unfurling with a rustling sound.
The old Heavenly Court Daoist Master looked at those files and saw that countless files had traces marked by Meng Yungui with cinnabar red ink.
Looking closely, the places Meng Yungui had marked were all trends in the flow of Heavenly Coins within the various major heavens.
Heavenly Coins were the currency of the Heavenly Court, issued by the Heavenly Court's Commerce Heavenly Palace. Each Heavenly Coin had a unique Heavenly Court imprint that others could not counterfeit.
The total amount of Heavenly Coins was not fixed. Especially in recent years, with commerce booming among the myriad heavens, the Commerce Heavenly Palace issued more Heavenly Coins to purchase various divine materials, divine metals, and divine ores from the major heavens, as well as elixirs, divine weapons, towering ships, and even slaves.
And the commercial exchanges between the major heavens also used Heavenly Coins.
"Teacher, what do you see?" Meng Yungui asked.
The old Heavenly Court Daoist Master smiled and shook his head.
"The flow of Heavenly Coins in the myriad heavens mostly shows the same phenomenon: an outflow of Heavenly Coins."
Meng Yungui said in a deep voice, "In the past, there was also the phenomenon of Heavenly Coins flowing out of the major heavens. That was because the Heavenly Court minted too many Heavenly Coins, and the major heavens earned too many Heavenly Coins from the Heavenly Court, causing the value of Heavenly Coins in those heavens to depreciate."
The old Heavenly Court Daoist Master laughed, saying, "So we pushed up the land and housing prices in the Heavenly Court, constantly inflating them, attracting Heavenly Coins from the major heavens. The gods and demons of those heavens used Heavenly Coins to buy property. This reduced the amount of Heavenly Coins in the major heavens. Wealth gathered in the hands of the Heavenly Court, and with fewer Heavenly Coins circulating in the major heavens, the value of Heavenly Coins rose again."
Meng Yungui nodded, saying, "The Heavenly Coins gathered in the hands of the Heavenly Court, and the Commerce Heavenly Palace destroyed a portion of them. The circulating Heavenly Coins became fewer and fewer. The housing and land prices in the Heavenly Court had no buyers and naturally fell. This caused these houses and lands to depreciate rapidly, turning the wealth accumulated by the major heavens over centuries or millennia into nothing."
The old Heavenly Court Daoist Master smiled, saying, "The major heavens became poor again. The Commerce Heavenly Palace minted even more Heavenly Coins to purchase divine materials, divine metals, divine ores, elixirs, divine weapons, towering ships, and even buy the mines, land, and population of the major heavens! So the major heavens had to work hard again for the Heavenly Court's Heavenly Coins. We only need to use this method, plundering the accumulated wealth of the major heavens once every thousand years or so, to keep them constantly working for the Heavenly Court."
"And the Heavenly Court doesn't need to pay anything. At most, it mints and destroys Heavenly Coins."
Meng Yungui sighed, saying, "But now, this method no longer works."
He waved his hand, and columns of text on the files from the various major heavens lit up: "Teacher, please look. These files show the annual flow of wealth from the major heavens to the Yan Kang Nation in the Yuan Realm. And these numbers are the Heavenly Coins flowing out of the Yan Kang Nation in the Yuan Realm."
The old Heavenly Court Daoist Master stared intently. After a moment, he smiled and said, "The Yan Kang Nation of the Yuan Realm is making money from the major heavens. They purchase raw materials from those heavens, then sell the refined daily-use divine weapons back to them, earning quite a bit."
Meng Yungui brought up another batch of files, saying, "These are the Heavenly Coins the Yan Kang Nation has earned from the Heavenly Court."
The old Daoist Master looked closely, pondered, and said, "The Yan Kang Nation earns a considerable amount of Heavenly Coins from the Heavenly Court every year. However, the solution is not difficult. Heavenly Master Meng only needs to follow the same method, absorb the Yan Kang Nation's Heavenly Coins, and you can plunder their wealth."
"This is the hardest part."
Meng Yungui sighed: "Those country bumpkins of Yan Kang simply refuse to buy the land and houses of my Heavenly Court!"
His face flushed with agitation: "In the past ten-plus years, they only bought property once, and that was to buy a house for that country bumpkin Mu Tianzun! This is war, a war aimed at the Heavenly Coin, aimed at the Heavenly Court! These country bumpkins want to use the Heavenly Coin to crush the Heavenly Coin, to crush the Heavenly Court!"