Inside the palace, facing Cheng Gujian, who received her daily audience, the young Empress Dongfang Xiao curiously raised this question.
To be fair, having lived in the deep palace for so long, with a young emperor and suspicious ministers, her real power was probably not that great. Under such circumstances, apart from occasionally appearing as a mascot, she didn't care about many things.
Now that people are asking this question proactively, it's easy to see how widespread the issue of the Poseidon Stone has become.
"...How did Your Majesty find out about this?"
Cheng Gujian reacted the same way, not offering an explanation immediately, but instead asking this question.
"It was the ladies-in-waiting around me talking, and I overheard it by accident..."
Dongfang Xiao pouted and urged, muttering, "Hurry up and tell me what happened."
"yes."
Cheng Gujian nodded and recounted the story of the Sea God Stone.
"...The first to propose acquiring the Sea God Stone was the trading post opened by Xu Shi, and other trading posts followed suit later."
He summarized it this way: "Nowadays, the entire main city is basically very active in this regard."
"I see."
The young empress nodded thoughtfully. "From what you're saying, it was that Envoy Xu who started it... Why would he do that? Can you guess?"
"Um……"
Grand Duke Gu Jian paused for a moment.
As the de facto ruler of the royal family in a certain sense, he certainly had a deeper understanding of this matter, but after these days, he still couldn't fully figure out Xu Shi's intentions.
After defeating the sea god and obtaining a large number of sea god stones, he naturally sent people to study them as soon as possible.
However, the results were not good. As I said before, this thing is somewhat useful, but not very useful.
It's possible to directly shatter the "divine energy" inside, but doing so would require spending time and effort to remove impurities from the sea god stone and the residual energy of the sea god itself. The results would not be ideal, and it would be better than the "divine energy" veins they already possessed.
Therefore, in the end, he did not further develop it, but only kept a portion for storage, and distributed the rest as rewards, as mentioned before.
He knew that Xu Shi was no ordinary person. Could it be that they had some better way to deal with the Sea God Stone?
In his opinion, this Brother Xu was definitely not making baseless accusations, especially with such a high-profile and expensive acquisition... It's impossible to say there wasn't something fishy going on.
But after observing it for the past few days, he hasn't found any other clues. If he had to say something, it seems like they are turning it into a work of art.
The trading post did indeed display many items made from sea god stone, and Cheng Gujian also noticed that a trend of sea god stone ornaments had begun to become popular among the noble circles.
The earliest claim was that "the Poseidon Stone can nourish the abilities of the 'Chosen Ones' and prolong their lives," which was enough to excite everyone. In addition, the Poseidon Stone is indeed beautiful. Over time, regardless of whether this thing really has such effects, people began to flock to it.
Whether it's a large decorative piece or a small necklace, bracelet, or ring, according to the servants, in aristocratic circles these days, if you don't have a sea god stone on your person or in your home, you'd be embarrassed to show your face... And gradually, this trend has also begun to emerge in the common people's circles.
Sea pebbles are graded into different levels. The top-grade variety with its deep blue color is indeed unaffordable for the general public, but the lower-grade ones can still be acquired by gritting one's teeth and purchasing one or two pieces. Although the current market standard for sea pebbles is based on 100 grams, most handicrafts made from them do not require that number.
For example, a ring or necklace set with three to five grams of the lowest quality Neptune stone would only cost a dozen or a few dozen copper coins. What's so unaffordable about that?
Despite their verbal complaints about the noblemen, their actions betrayed their true intentions: they imitated their hobbies and tried to emulate them... People are vain, after all; it seemed that simply wearing the Poseidon Stone made them nobles too.
This must be Xu Shi's purpose?
Cheng Gujian could easily understand the concept of "luxury goods"... It seems that he was using this to make a profit from the price difference. The price of a finely processed Poseidon Stone would definitely be higher than the purchase price.
Is this his way of making up for the losses from the war against the Sea God? To be fair, all three sides made considerable sacrifices in the war against the Sea God, in terms of manpower and resources... As for the acquisition of the Sea God Stones, Cheng Gujian thought it was quite normal. He knew that when Xu Shi was in deep crisis, they had no time to collect spoils of war, and their inventory was far less than his or the Holy See's. Now that they were going to do this, they would naturally spend money to acquire more.
So he shared his analysis with Dongfang Xiaoting, saying, "In my opinion, that's roughly the case."
"oh."
The little queen blinked and murmured, "This is actually quite interesting..."
Cheng Gujian agreed, acknowledging that Xu Shi's methods were indeed effective, as this was the most efficient way to maximize the benefits of the Sea God Stone so far. Not to mention, the fact that it could create such a trend in such a short time made it obvious that Xu Shi would make a fortune.
Thinking about it, he couldn't help but smile. How could he have overlooked this point? He simply reused the waste and distributed it to his subordinates, yet he still received a lot of complaints behind his back... Getting old.
"What is the Grand Duke's opinion on this?"
Dongfang Xiao smiled and looked at him, then asked again.
"In my opinion, this is not a bad thing."
After a moment's thought, Cheng Gujian said seriously, "Xu Shi did make a profit for their city-state by doing this, but in the end, the empire as a whole also gained more gold and silver for circulation."
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