X-Dragon Era

The next morning, A-Da arrived on time, his face radiant from a month of merriment, although his eyes were slightly bloodshot, indicating an excess of wine and pleasure. To an ordinary person, there might not be anything amiss, but none of it could be hidden from the experienced eyes of Xin Yun.

Xin Yun gave A-Da a thoughtful look but said nothing. Everyone has the right to choose their own way of life. There's nothing wrong with liking women, as long as it doesn't interfere with others. If he were forced to abstain and practice hard, he would probably prefer death.

Besides, A-Da wasn't cut out for that. Talent, creativity, and aptitude, all were below average. No matter how hard he worked, it was difficult to make any headway. Historically, heroes emerged in their youth, and in this world, if you haven't made a name for yourself by 18, you pretty much had no chance, except for extraordinary cases like the dazzling Peacock King—Ming Xuan!

After meeting with A-Da, Xin Yun directly gave him one thousand gold coins, and then told him to return the way he had come to fetch his six brothers. It was time for those guys to have reached the First Order of bronze, I assumed. Even if they hadn't, they could still follow A-Da on the Desert of Death trade route.

At the very least, this route should remain covert and profitable for the next decade.

Of course, while the route was lucrative, it was not the kind of business Xin Yun would pursue himself. The safe passage was indeed very safe, but because of its safety, Xin Yun couldn't go. Just making money without any significant improvement in strength was not worth it to him.

Moreover, even though running that route could be profitable, it didn't catch Xin Yun's eye. In fact... Xin Yun only needed to seize a few major opportunities based on his memories from his previous life to make untold amounts of money. Such small earnings were best left for A-Da and the others to handle.

Now, the currency in this world was highly imbalanced, with 1 Gold = 10 Silver, and 1 Silver = one thousand coppers. This imbalance mainly stemmed from the early discovery and large output of copper mines, while silver mines were found later, making silver more precious.

But in fact, the values of copper, silver, and gold were not such. One gold was actually equivalent to 100 silver coins, while one silver was only equivalent to 100 copper coins.

According to memories from his past life, silver coins would depreciate in three years, plummeting from one gold for ten silver to one gold for a hundred silver. Simultaneously, the exchange rate of silver coins for copper would change from one silver for one thousand coppers to one silver for a hundred coppers, creating a tenfold discrepancy!

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Knowing in advance that the currency would depreciate made it easier to make money. Although there was no stock or futures market in this world, profits could still be made through borrowing and lending.

The method was straightforward. Before the devaluation of silver, one should borrow a large sum of silver coins, convert them to gold for storage, and once the silver depreciated tenfold, use the gold to exchange for silver coins. Thus, the borrowed money could be multiplied tenfold!

Still, borrowing money wasn't easy. Although there were money shops in this world, without sufficient collateral, they would not lend you anything. What if you didn't repay the loan?

Yet, this world's economic system couldn't compare to Earth's post-21st-century system, with too many loopholes, making it possible to achieve this, albeit with great difficulty.

Some might not understand this, so let me give an example. If Xin Yun borrowed 10,000 silver coins before the devaluation and exchanged it for 1,000 Gold for storage, then, after silver depreciated tenfold, he could get 100,000 silver coins with that 1,000 Gold. Paying back the 10,000 silver loan, Xin Yun could net a profit of 90,000 silver coins!

Note that the amount of the loan does not change with the devaluation of the currency.

Of course, just knowing this isn't enough; it also depends on how much money you can borrow. If you can only borrow a few tens of thousands of silver coins, there is no point in it at all.

A-Da wouldn't oppose what Xin Yun said now. After repeatedly urging Xin Yun to find him quickly, A-Da mounted his Pig Dragon and returned the way he came. Resting for a month, although he enjoyed tremendous pleasure between men and women, A-Da knew that strength was essential to enjoy life fully and that one must earn more money. Without money, people wouldn't even give you a second glance.

After seeing off Ah Da, Xin Yun and Yi Luo Xiang entered seclusion together, Xin Yun continued to condense his Dragon Ball, while Yi Luo Xiang began to refine the purple Ninth Grade Dragon-creation stone, striving to possess her own dragon as soon as possible.

Though Yi Luo Xiang lacked related experience, her wisdom greatly helped her. With Xin Yun's patient, meticulous, and tireless explanations, she basically understood everything she had to face, and thus everything proceeded very smoothly.

In fact, the difficulty of refining a Dragon-creation stone wasn't that high; out of one hundred people refining, at least eighty would succeed. The remaining twenty were half-smart at best and beyond help. With Yi Luo Xiang's wisdom and talent, if she couldn't succeed, then probably no one in this world could.

After nine days and nights of refinement, finally... Yi Luo Xiang successfully refined the Dragon-creation stone and obtained a purple Dragon Ball the size of a ping-pong ball. However, Xin Yun's condensation work was still incomplete, remaining at the rank of Ten Stars with no order.

The higher the grade of the Dragon-creation stone, the better the dragon's potential. This so-called potential encompasses a wide range of meanings, including the energy it contains and the speed of energy recovery!

Take Ah Da's Pig Dragon as an example; under almost full load, its energy could only last for four hours at most. If it were to fly at full speed under full load, it wouldn't need ten minutes before its energy was completely depleted. This was due to its poor potential.

In contrast, Xin Yun's dragon had much better potential, infinitely close to perfection. It could fly at full speed under full load for about 100 minutes. The total energy within the Dragon Ball and the energy recovery speed per unit of time were ten times that of Ah Da's Pig Dragon!

If the recovery power of a dragon refined from a First-Grade Dragon-creation stone is 10, then a Second-Grade would be 20, Ninth Grade would be 90, and Xin Yun's would be 99.999... Although this doesn't seem to be too much, the difference is as vast as heaven and earth, unimaginable. Forget about the difference of 9.9, even a difference of 0.1 is like a chasm.

The grade of a Dragon-creation stone certainly doesn't only determine these aspects. For instance, the appearance of a dragon's fifth claw is also influenced by it. In fact, the grade of the Dragon-creation stone determines every minute detail and plays a decisive role in them.

Of course, possessing a high-grade Dragon-creation stone doesn't guarantee becoming a great expert. In the previous life, almost ten Ninth Grade Dragon-creation stones had appeared. But what was the result? Among the Nine Great Experts, at least three of them had only used regular Dragon-creation stones. They were the Butterfly Yi Luo Xiang, Demon Queen Yan Qingying, and Peacock King Ming Xuan.

Actually, besides them three, there were at least two other people who didn't use Ninth Grade Dragon-creation stones, which means if nine Ninth grade Dragon-creation stones had indeed appeared in the last life, then at least five of their users failed to become great experts.

Hence, there isn't a direct correlation between high-grade Dragon-creation stones and becoming a great expert; they are barely related at all.

So-called success is formed by 99% effort and 1% talent. Without that 99% of the effort, it's certainly not achievable, but lacking that 1% of talent makes it even more impossible. And many times, even if you have the talent and work hard, it still doesn't work out because you might have chosen the wrong path or direction!

Therefore, with the experience of three lifetimes, Xin Yun believed that to succeed, one needs 98% effort, 1% talent, and 1% luck. Luck is indispensable.

In the following three months, Xin Yun and Yi Luo Xiang did not leave the house, cultivating in seclusion every day. Fortunately... after the Treasure Exchange Convention, Xin Yun had specifically left behind ten banknotes each worth ten thousand gold. If they didn't have any ambitions, this money would be enough for them to live comfortably for a lifetime.

Of course, neither Xin Yun nor Yi Luo Xiang were people without aspirations.

Xin Yun had two dreams. One was to marry Yi Luo Xiang, and the other was to become the foremost among the Nine Great Experts. Yi Luo Xiang's dream was much simpler: to stay by Xin Yun's side forever. And to remain there forever, she had to become exceptional. Therefore, in simple terms, Yi Luo Xiang's wish was to make herself excel, to keep excelling without limits.