Ultragene Warlord

ained 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.