Whether a currency can circulate depends entirely on whether people recognize and accept it.
As long as the common folk approve, even a beautiful stone can become currency. This was just like the earliest knife coins in ancient times. In the beginning, these knife-shaped coins were carved from attractive stones. There's no denying—they were essentially just stones, or even shells and fossils fashioned into tools. Many would consider them worthless, yet at the time, these knife coins could be exchanged for food, goods, furs, and more.
Why? Because people recognized the knife coins. They acknowledged their status as currency. So, even if they were just stones, they held purchasing power.
If a coin isn't recognized, even if it's produced, it won't circulate.
This is why many dynasties in ancient times tried issuing paper money or baochao (precious notes). But if the people didn't recognize the value of these baochao, their rollout was met with huge resistance. They never became widespread currency. In ancient times, what people trusted most were copper coins, gold, and silver.
Now, however, the Eternal Coin (Yongheng Coin) had achieved the most crucial step—recognition.
The people of Xuanhuang Town had already accepted the Eternal Coin and were showing strong fondness and desire for it. Naturally, this recognition gave rise to a unique form of faith and belief converging onto the Eternal Coin.
Ding ding ding!!
Yi Tianxing, cultivating quietly in his meditation chamber, suddenly heard crisp, ringing sounds.
Instinctively, he turned his attention inward.
Within the Spirit Pearl Space, he saw Eternal Coins—pure white and translucent like jade—continuously materializing from the void and flying toward the purple-gold Eternal Mother Coin.
They began stacking layer upon layer, growing ever higher. With thousands of Eternal Coins amassed, the structure began to resemble a small, snow-white tree. As more coins gathered, the "tree" grew taller, sprouting a trunk, branches, and forks. Though not large, the tree looked incredibly lifelike—like one in late autumn, its leaves shed.
Yet this tree was made entirely from Eternal Coins.
Once formed, the tree radiated a crystal-clear glow. Threads of heaven and earth energy naturally converged toward it, causing it to glimmer with a golden sheen. The energy that had been depleted within the coins began to replenish, and now the process was happening much faster than when coins recharged individually.
"This is... a Money Tree!!"
Yi Tianxing stared in amazement at the coin-formed tree. This was none other than a Money Tree, condensed entirely from Eternal Coins.
Even he hadn't expected such a bizarre phenomenon.
The knowledge about the Money Tree came from the purple-gold Mother Coin itself.
This Money Tree formed when Eternal Coins that had exhausted their energy gathered and fused with the Mother Coin. Once they stacked up together, they turned into this tree. The formation of the tree significantly accelerated the recharge speed of the coins' internal energy.
More importantly, within the square holes of each Eternal Coin on the tree, Yi Tianxing could sense threads of white light flowing through—a mysterious force coming from some unknown realm. Within that light, he could perceive countless thoughts: hope, joy, desire, greed, longing—all manner of emotions, good and bad, swirling together.
"Is this... Willpower?"
At first glance, Yi Tianxing instinctively recognized the sensation. He had Willpower Orbs and was intimately familiar with their energy. What was being drawn into the Eternal Coins was undoubtedly Willpower—but it wasn't right.
"This is Willpower... but it's impure. A mix of good thoughts and bad ones. Such Willpower is toxic. Absorbing it may increase cultivation, but it also leaves behind a Willpower Poison. I've heard before: incense is toxic. That poison lies in the chaotic thoughts carried within Willpower."
Yi Tianxing frowned.
The Willpower flowing into the coins was laced with impure emotions—the townsfolk's desires for wealth, their longings, dreams, and the darker side of money: greed, sin, and envy.
This mixed Willpower was dangerous.
Only pure Willpower could be absorbed without side effects.
Yi Tianxing had no idea what exactly would happen if he absorbed impure Willpower, but the distinction between pure and impure was already enough to suggest nothing good would come of it.
"It gathers naturally—but how do I absorb it? Can I only use it to forge more Eternal Coins?"
He sighed, feeling a tinge of helplessness. Right now, he lacked the means to refine such mixed energy safely.
"Huh?"
Suddenly, he blinked in surprise.
He discovered that the Willpower gathering in the square holes of the coins was undergoing a natural separation, as though the holes connected to two different realms—upper and lower, completely distinct.
Within them, positive Willpower rose to the top, while negative emotions sank to the bottom.
Just like the Eternal Coin's two sides—front and back.
One side bright, the other dark. A mysterious law at play.
"No order, no square coin."
The Eternal Coin possessed the inherent power to filter Willpower. The coin's outer round shape and inner square hole mirrored ancient cosmic beliefs: Heaven is round, Earth is square.
Heaven is pure; Earth is turbid. The pure rises, the impure sinks.
Inside the coins, the square hole became a purifier: on the bright side, white Willpower; on the reverse, black negativity. Constantly rotating. Mystical.
"What a magnificent Money Tree. And this is only the beginning. Once the Eternal Coin is fully circulating, it'll absorb Willpower even faster. The more people use it, the more recognition it gets, the more Willpower it gathers. That means... I can continuously forge Willpower Orbs! This really is a Money Tree!"
Yi Tianxing's eyes gleamed with excitement.
He was immensely grateful for his decision to create the Eternal Coin. It was turning into a perpetual engine of wealth. Even coins that had been "used up" would return to him, not disintegrate. They'd recharge over time and become usable again.
And best of all—they gathered Willpower.
That meant he could forge more coins, then more coins would gather more Willpower, and so on. Money breeding money. Profit compounding. Aside from the initial cost of minting, the rest was pure gain.
A perfect, self-replicating cycle.
And it would only grow. A healthy, thriving loop.
Yi Tianxing had no intention of revealing the Money Tree. It was part of his personal foundation. Kept hidden within the Spirit Pearl Space, it was safe. If word got out that he had such a treasure, countless greedy eyes would turn toward him.
"This is a real Money Tree. A treasure that can generate endless wealth."
It had to remain secret. A man is guilty of having a treasure. History had proven this again and again.
This Money Tree was his trump card. No one could know about it. With it, he could forge Eternal Coins and Willpower Orbs endlessly.
Future wars won't just be fought with strength—but with wealth. The deeper the foundation, the greater the advantage.
Such a foundation could only be held in his own hands. Like a lifeline—never handed to others.
"Once Xuanhuang Town finishes building its basic infrastructure, it'll be time to liberate resources from communal ownership. We'll distribute land, and people can start running their own businesses. Only when there's profit will there be innovation. The shift from public to private is a critical step in civilization's growth."
Yi Tianxing took a deep breath, lost in thought.
He had already made up his mind.
In a village setting, communal life worked. But now, with the town cultivating farmland that matured in just a month, massive harvests were coming. Granaries had been built to store the bounty—enough to feed thousands for months.
There was time and space to transition.
Grain supply was now stable. Hunger was no longer a threat.
This was a major milestone.