All realms have enabled me to achieve the Great Dao.

Chapter 293 Spirit Stones for Wine

As news of the Trial Tower spread, people from cities surrounding Chang'an flocked to the city to see it for themselves.

Chang'an City became increasingly bustling.

Zhou Yongcheng's tavern business was getting better and better, but those who came to buy wine were all people in the court, and all of them were Li Shimin's confidants. Those who were not confidants did not know that the tavern existed.

In order to obtain gold, Li Shimin and his people traded with aristocratic families and foreigners using copper coins.

In addition to trading, he also sent people to search for gold mines everywhere and to mine them extensively.

While selling alcohol, Zhou Yongcheng was also keeping track of Minghui's journey to the West.

So much time has passed, and Minghui has only just overcome two difficulties; she is about to reach the Flowing Sand River.

Several years have passed in the blink of an eye.

With the advent of the Trial Tower in the Tang Dynasty, various inheritances emerged.

There are martial arts, immortal cultivation, weapon crafting, talisman crafting, array crafting, Confucianism, Buddhism, and so on.

The Tang Dynasty had entered a period of intellectual ferment, with a hundred schools of thought contending.

On Zhou Yongcheng's advice, Li Shimin built many academies in Chang'an.

The academies all teach how to cultivate. Although there is a tradition, not everyone in the Tang Dynasty can read and write, and cultivation is not something that can be understood at a glance, so they still need to be taught by others.

Once the academy was established, Li Shimin recruited a large number of cultivation talents from all over the country.

The current imperial court is full of cultivators, and each of them has a high level of cultivation.

All ministers who were close to Li Shimin and whose cultivation level was no lower than the Golden Core realm could enter the tavern to buy wine. With the boost from the wine, their cultivation would naturally be much faster.

Over the past few years, Li Shimin has attempted the Trial Tower three times. Although he failed to pass the test, it was still a good result. He entered the fifth level and obtained a scroll called "Forging the Heavenly Court," which contained the chapters on dynasties and imperial dynasties.

Upon receiving the Heavenly Court, Li Shimin was overjoyed. The Heavenly Court stated that once the Dynasty was established, he would be the ruler of the world.

Therefore, Li Shimin made intensive preparations for the establishment of the Yun Dynasty.

On Minghui's side, it took him several years to get through more than twenty tribulations. Guanyin even came down to urge him several times to speed up his progress.

But Minghui remained unchanged, not in a hurry at all, and did things her own way.

They survived the ordeal at Wuzhuang Temple. Minghui ate a few ginseng fruits, and her cultivation level soared, reaching the True Immortal Realm. She was only one step away from reaching the Golden Immortal Realm.

Minghui's cultivation has reached the True Immortal Realm, and he has awakened several Buddhist supernatural powers. If he encounters demons with evil karma and whose realm is similar to his, he will step in to eliminate them.

He believed that the merit he gained from eliminating demons himself was greater than that gained by having Liu Er and the others eliminate demons, which was why he took matters into his own hands.

That's why Liu Er and the others knew that Ming Hui possessed supernatural powers and magic, and they dared not underestimate Ming Hui, treating her with great respect.

The will of the Journey to the West universe has also digested all the powerful origins given by Zhou Yongcheng, and the universe has evolved to the intermediate level of Hunyuan.

The Earthly Immortal Realm is larger than it was before the Investiture of the Gods, because it has incorporated several powerful beings at the Heavenly Dao Realm, and it is also more stable than it was before the Investiture of the Gods.

The changes in the Immortal Realm naturally attracted the attention of the two major powers, the Heavenly Court and Mount Ling.

When the innate spiritual energy between heaven and earth became richer, they noticed the changes in the world, but they were baffled by the inexplicable changes.

As the Immortal Realm expanded, many cultivation sects moved their headquarters to new blessed lands.

Various races also moved to new places to multiply and thrive. The original territory of the Earthly Immortal Realm was too small, and many races fought each other. Now that the territory has expanded and there is more space to live, they migrated their tribes to places suitable for them to multiply in order to avoid fighting.

The current Immortal Realm is so vast that any place you find is better than your original one.

The newly evolved places are full of treasures, and many powerful immortals go there to seek opportunities.

Even many gods in Heaven descend to the mortal realm to seek opportunities, not to mention those rogue cultivators.

In order to prevent powerful beings from destroying the world, the will of the universe issued a notice to the Hunyuan Realm experts, stating that Hunyuan Realm experts must not fight within the world, or they will be punished by heaven.

If a Primordial Chaos Realm expert wants to fight, they can only go to the Endless Chaos. In the Chaos, they can fight at will, and the will of the universe will not interfere.

Inside the tavern, Li Shimin and Zhou Yongcheng drank tea and chatted.

"Shopkeeper, besides gold, can your tavern's spirit wine be traded for anything else? Gold is really hard to come by," Li Shimin asked.

Over the years, more and more people have come to the tavern to buy spirit wine, and all the gold they have has gone into Zhou Yongcheng's pocket.

After looting all the gold within the Tang Dynasty's borders, they sent people to plunder foreign lands.

The Tang Dynasty also plundered the gold of many countries surrounding it.

Gold is being mined and used up as soon as it's extracted. Even if they have many gold mines, the gold they extract is not enough.

That's why Li Shimin asked Zhou Yongcheng if something else could be used to replace gold.

Using gold to buy spirit wine was already the biggest discount given to Li Shimin and his people. What is gold? It's a mundane thing. Gold is practically useless to cultivators.

Over the years, Zhou Yongcheng has acquired several thousand tons of gold. Li Shimin and his men are still mining it frantically, using it as they go, and it's definitely not enough.

Zhou Yongcheng thought for a moment. Now that the Tang Dynasty had become a cultivation kingdom, cultivators used spirit stones.

Now that we have spirit stones, let's use them for trading.

So Zhou Yongcheng said, "From now on, let's use spirit stones for transactions. For low-grade spirit wine, ten low-grade spirit stones will cost one tael."

Mid-grade spirit wine, one ounce for ten mid-grade spirit stones.

Top-grade spirit wine, one ounce for ten top-grade spirit stones.

"Top-grade spirit wine, ten top-grade spirit stones per ounce, how about it?"

Li Shimin did not expect Zhou Yongcheng to agree, as mining spirit stones was much easier than mining gold.

Spirit stones can be used immediately after being mined, but gold requires refining using magic, which is time-consuming and laborious.

Before the major changes in the Journey to the West world, spirit stones were relatively scarce, since the innate spiritual energy decreased and the spiritual veins naturally dried up.

The world has changed dramatically, and innate spiritual energy is abundant, with many spirit stones.

Since spirit stones are not scarce resources in the Immortal Realm, the value of spirit stones at all levels is not that high.

One top-grade spirit stone is equal to one hundred high-grade spirit stones, and so on.

In a world where spirit stones are scarce, a single top-grade spirit stone could be worth thousands or even tens of thousands of high-grade spirit stones.

"Thank you for your kindness, shopkeeper," Li Shimin said, bowing with his hands clasped in thanks.

Zhou Yongcheng waved his hand.

Li Shimin did not stay in the tavern for long before returning to the palace.

He issued an order to collect spirit stones from various places and bring them back to the capital.

Spirit stone veins exist throughout the Tang Dynasty. Some veins are mined by the imperial court, while smaller mines are given to certain powerful entities. The imperial court cannot possibly mine all of them.

At the same time, Li Shimin summoned his ministers and told them about using spirit stones to purchase spirit wine.

The ministers were also quite pleased, as gold was indeed difficult to obtain, and the surrounding countries had been thoroughly plundered by them.

They can't drink the spirit wine every day now; they can only drink it occasionally. Gold is really hard to come by.

In the following period, Li Shimin and his companions used spirit stones to purchase spirit wine.

They were quite extravagant, buying mid-grade spirit wine by the pound, and not drinking low-grade spirit wine themselves, using it to train their subordinates or for their families.