430: Chapter 430 One Coin Connects to Heaven

The twelfth hour after the report was released.

It was 6:00 AM in Beijing time and 6:00 PM Eastern Time in the USA.

Before the market opened, the central bank of Great Xia released a forty-seven-word announcement:

"Effective today, the exchange rate of daxia currency against foreign currencies will be determined by market supply and demand. The central bank will no longer set a central parity rate and will cease routine intervention."

The announcement was released at 9:59 AM.

At 10:00 AM sharp, the onshore foreign exchange market opened.

The first transaction price: daxia currency to eagle dollar was 1 to 0.9.

There was a ten-cent difference from the closing price of the offshore market last night.

This gap was erased within three seconds of the opening.

Then the curve continued to climb.

0.95.

0.96.

...

Within fifteen minutes, daxia currency had appreciated by ten percent.

The market makers' System began reporting errors—not due to technical glitches, but because there were not enough sell orders. Everyone holding daxia currency was unwilling to sell, and everyone holding eagle dollars wanted to exchange them.

Buy orders piled up like a mountain, while sell orders were as thin as paper.

London, 11:00 AM.

The exchange rate reached 1 to 0.98.

Traders in New York hadn't started work yet; they were woken up by phone calls. Unlike yesterday, when the calls were to "close out short positions," today's calls were "look at the exchange rate."

daxia currency to eagle dollar, 1 to 0.99.

This number meant: one daxia currency could be exchanged for 0.99 eagle dollars.

daxia currency was about to become more expensive than the eagle dollar.

This was the first time in the history of the global foreign exchange market.

In the New York foreign exchange trading hall, someone pushed their keyboard off the desk, and a corner of the plastic casing shattered. The person next to them glanced over without any reaction, because the same number was on their own phone screen.

The chief foreign exchange strategist at Goldman Sachs sent a message to the internal group: "I have been doing foreign exchange for twenty-six years, and today is the first day I feel like I don't understand anything."

No one replied.

10:00 AM, Beijing time.

The exchange rate reached 1 to 1.

One daxia currency for one eagle dollar.

The line paused at the 1 to 1 mark for about forty minutes. It wasn't because buy orders had weakened, but because everyone was staring at this number—it held a certain symbolic significance, one so great that everyone needed to catch their breath to digest it.

Then it broke through.

1.1.

1.15.

1.2.

daxia currency to eagle dollar surged past 1 to 1.

One daxia currency could now exchange for more than one eagle dollar.

The reaction from Washington came quickly.

The Federal Reserve of the USA held an emergency meeting within thirty minutes and announced an interest rate hike of 3,000 basis points.

This was the largest single interest rate hike in the USA since its founding.

After the news was released, the eagle dollar rebounded by 0.3 percent within five minutes.

Then it continued to fall.

The interest rate hike was useless.

Because interest rate hikes are meant to combat capital outflow, but the current situation was not capital outflow—it was currency substitution.

The whole world was not selling eagle dollars to buy other investment products; the whole world was selling eagle dollars to buy daxia currency, because daxia currency could buy things that eagle dollars could never buy.

Interest rate hikes increased the interest on eagle dollar deposits, but interest could not cure cancer, interest could not extend life, and interest could not help people Cultivate.

At 2:00 PM, Washington made its second move.

The Ministry of Finance announced: Effective immediately, a 30 percent special tax, called the "National Security Surcharge," would be levied on any USA citizen who purchased daxia currency.

After the news came out, the reaction within the USA was divided into two levels.

The first level was in the news comment sections. There were many supporters who said this was a necessary measure to defend the eagle dollar, claiming that Great Xia's report might be a scam and that citizens' money should not flow to a country that fabricated an Otherworld.

The second level was the practical operational level.

Within one hour of the tax announcement, the over-the-counter trading volume of daxia currency within the USA skyrocketed by 400 percent.

Not a drop, but a rise.

Because every terminally ill USA citizen and their family members were doing the same math problem: pay a 30 percent tax to buy daxia currency and then buy a rejuvenation pill, or pay no tax and wait to die?

The answer didn't need calculation.

And those wealthy people who were not sick were calculating a different problem: pay a 30 percent tax to trade for a chance to Cultivate, or hold onto a pile of depreciating eagle dollars and wait for them to become worthless paper?

The answer to this problem also didn't need calculation.

Capital was not blocked; instead, it accelerated its flight.

Because the taxation itself was a signal—it told everyone that the USA government was afraid, and that the eagle dollar was truly in trouble.

At 4:00 PM, another piece of news came from across the ocean.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the London Metal Exchange, and the Intercontinental Exchange jointly announced: Effective immediately, all commodity futures contracts would add a daxia currency settlement option.

Crude oil, gold, copper, aluminum, wheat, soybeans—all could now be bought and sold with daxia currency.

The weight of this news was even heavier than the exchange rate itself.

Because a commodity settlement currency meant: daxia currency had officially entered the underlying settlement System of global trade.

The petrodollar hegemony that the eagle dollar had spent a hundred years building loosened in a single afternoon.

At 6:00 PM, the exchange rate settled at 0.83.

One daxia currency for 1.5 eagle dollars.

The discussion on Twitter regarding the Great Xia report had undergone a visible shift during these twelve hours.

In the morning, it was dominated by mockery and skepticism.

In the afternoon, phrases like "what if it's true" began to appear.

By evening, more and more people began to read the original 347-page report—really reading it, not to find the punchline, but to find information.

Because the exchange rate was speaking.

You can choose not to believe a government announcement, but you cannot choose not to believe the flow of money.

When the smartest money in the world is running in the same direction, those who laugh will find themselves increasingly alone.

Fang Lei's tweet was still hanging on the trending list, but the style of the comments underneath had changed.

In the morning, the top comments were all "hahaha" and "Great Xia web novel becoming reality."

Now, the top comments had turned into something else.

"Teacher Fang, the exchange rate is 1 to 1. How much have your deposits in the USA shrunk today?"

"Teacher Fang, your salary is paid in eagle dollars, right? I suggest you exchange it for daxia currency quickly, otherwise you might not be able to afford it tomorrow."

"Teacher Fang, may I ask if you still stand by the statement 'Dominating the Universe by making up stories'?"

Fang Lei deleted that tweet at 3:00 PM.

But the screenshots were already circulating all over the internet; they couldn't be deleted.

Someone put the screenshot and the daxia currency exchange rate curve together to make a comparison image, with the caption: "The shelf life of a public intellectual: twelve hours."

"Sweet Air" was quieter.

His video holding a USA passport was still on his homepage, but he himself hadn't posted any new content for ten hours.

His comment section, however, was very lively.

The latest top comment was: "Bro, can you return that green card?"

Tianmen Base, Command Center.

At 8:00 PM, Su Mingyuan sat in front of the screen with a bowl of noodles in his hands.

It was sent from the cafeteria, with a poached egg added, and finely chopped green onions floating on the surface of the soup.

Tao Zhe stood next to him, and the two of them watched the exchange rate curve and the global news ticker on the big screen together.

"0.83." Su Mingyuan slurped a mouthful of noodles. "The collapse of the eagle dollar System is three days faster than I estimated."

Tao Zhe didn't even look up; he was flipping through a stack of printed papers in his hand, which contained the classification list of Spirit Medicine from the Skeleton World herb fields.

"The wording in your report was too conservative. If you had listed the entire list of Spirit Medicine from the Skeleton World—the complete categories and estimated yields of rejuvenation pill, spirit gathering pill, ningshen pill, and Dragon Tiger Pill—the exchange rate would already be 1 to 2."

Su Mingyuan didn't respond; he put the bowl on the table and picked up the towel next to him to wipe his mouth.

His gaze landed on that string of numbers. [ 23 : 47 : 12 ]

Su Mingyuan stared at that line of numbers for a few seconds: "Notify Chen Rong and Lin Wan."

Tao Zhe looked up.

"Is the Skeleton World about to open again?"

Su Mingyuan nodded: "In twenty-four hours."