That's because of inflation. Not the normal economic kind, but the kind where the author dumps big piles of coins and such right away to show how valuable the protag's bullsh*t swag and loot pulled from corpses is. But then you have to go up from there, so either you use the magic credit card or the MC ends up with enough gold, gems and magic crystals to build a new island out of them.
True true. Too bad it works so well. I really can't see myself writing the MC looting a tough opponent only to get a handful of change back. Just doesn't work well no matter the value of the small coins.
Any suggestions? Figuring out a decent, non cliche, economic system is hard. A fantasy bank like Gringotts makes sense but then why would enemy A carry any loot on him rather than have it in his bank?
Realistically you could just use differently-valued small items and then have the larger sums of money be in the form of either increasingly rare items or letters of credit with large clans or banks (i.e. cultivator consortiums, minor clans in themselves but ones who profit from lending/storing money & valuables) and so forth. Cultivator economics are basically a mix of barter and non-fiat currencies, which doesn't make sense for their relative sophistication as anything other than "this is cool." But having complex financial systems would push focus toward systemic and interpersonal issues more, which is cooler (in a more sophisticated fashion than LN demand).
Trading in rare and unique items, or services might just be the best option. Having currency works but it will get ridiculous after a while. Especially when most items shown to be worth buying in Xianxia tend to also be considered priceless. Trading in cultivation techniques and resources seems like the sort of thing people would value after a point.
I mean, you could just say that most cultivators in this setting become like Human Bijuus once they reach a certain level of power or something, or that to reach the true heights of cultivation requires becoming a Sage and then going from there. And the endpoint is stuff like the Sage of Six Paths, or just the Ōtsutsuki in general. Hell, Truth-Seeking Orbs alone are so versatile you could have at least a dozen different guys using them without any overlap in their fighting styles.
That said, being able to sink continents is really only below-average as an endpoint for Xianxia, IMO; honestly, I think our view on it just tends to get skewed by the really crazy stuff that often sticks out to us far more and thus becomes emblematic of the genre in our minds. The ones where you train for literal millions of years at a time and casually eradicate galaxies as an opening move are not the typical ones, just the ones that become memorable due to how ludicrous they are (and how several of them are often the ones recommended to people as "gateways" into the genre). In fact, I'd say the ones that have a better grasp on when the constant escalation just starts to wear thin are usually the much better ones.
Yeah, I have to agree. I think limiting things to city busters will be fine for this. Being able to fling nukes around is already good enough, there's no need for characters capable of destroying entire planets or galaxies with a sneeze. The cultivation path I have for this setting leads to extreme levels of power but I dont plan for it to be too absurd... maybe. We'll see if we get there lol.
I actually meant what the fluff for them would be, and what kinds of cultivators would tend to practice them. Also what they'd be called, since the names are both Japanese and don't always sound setting-appropriate if translated. "Shigan," for example, means "Finger Gun."
I think they'd be pretty basic martial arts all things considered. Compared to the rest of OP, the moves aren't that silly or difficult to understand so most cultivators could use them or something similar. They'd be basic cause all you need is a good level of fitness and some absurd amount of control over your whole body, no mystical energies or w.e. That's the sort of stuff that's usually covered in the first cultivation realm of any setting.
The fluff of the abilities doesn't need to be changed at all. 'Clench your muscles really hard for this move', 'relax everything and flow with the wind for this move', 'use all of your speed and power to kick off really hard', and etc. Nothing there that's really comparable to the profound mumbo jumbo of most Xianxia techniques.
As for names, they'd probably get more flowery lol. Just take an animal and relate the move to one of its body parts or actions. Shigan for example could be 'Piercing Horn of the Sacred Bull' or 'Penetrating Tiger Claw'.
