Chapter 17: Delayed Gratification

"You are steady enough, and you indeed deserve praise. I've truly never seen a student with theoretical knowledge as solid as yours. However, don't be too proud. You are only leading those ordinary students, but compared to the descendants of those great families, this is actually a disadvantage."

"Take the Luo Family and the Li Family, for example; they both have their own Actuaries. These people specifically help the younger generation arrange their Divine Kingdoms."

"They have been immersed in this path for hundreds or even thousands of years. There are plenty of people in this session whose prosperity is higher than yours," Li Qingying reminded him.

"Thank you for your guidance, teacher."

"You took first place in this assessment, and I promised to give you a D-rank building. What type do you want?"

"Is there a building that can slowly improve the aptitude of believers?"

"Not pursuing rapid growth in strength, but focusing more on the foundation of the believers—you are quite good. However, what you want isn't something a D-rank building can provide. Let me think." Li Qingying's eyes narrowed slightly as her consciousness connected to her own Divine Kingdom.

A moment later, she seemed to have found a target.

"The building you want isn't available, but I have an adult Taisui. Do you want it?"

"A Taisui!" Yang Fan froze on the spot.

Yang Fan had read about it in books before. A Taisui was not a demon beast, but rather livestock bred by top-tier Animal Husbandry Masters.

Its body was like a small hill and it did not move. After its flesh was cut off, it would grow back the following month.

The meat of a Taisui indeed had the effect of changing aptitude, but it was very weak. Most gods merely treated it as a meat-producing machine, similar to the D-rank building, wine pool and meat forest.

However, the value of an adult Taisui was as high as 2 million Faith Points. Even among C-rank buildings, it would be considered on the more expensive side.

"Teacher Li, isn't this too valuable?" Yang Fan said.

"I bought this in my early years. Nowadays, even the mortal believers in my Divine Kingdom find its taste too poor. It is of no use to me anymore; consider it an investment in you."

"In the future, if you have the means, you can also purchase the B-rank building, bailing blood pool. Placing the Taisui inside it can yield a steady production of Blood Pills."

"Thank you, teacher."

A Taisui was of immense help to the current Yang Fan. Once placed into his Divine Kingdom, his believers could eat meat to their hearts' content, which would be of great benefit to practicing the Federal Body Refining Technique.

"One more piece of advice before you leave. The artificial intelligence only judged your Divine Kingdom's prosperity, but what I am giving is investment advice."

"The investment returns on the moon well, sun spring, and water lotus are all too low. Your family circumstances aren't great; you must learn to have your believers learn some crafts and do high-return work."

"Divine Kingdom development requires massive resource support. After leaving the Virtual World, hurry up and pack these things up to sell them, and find some other investments to make."

"So young, yet your investment style is more conservative than those old fogies. How can this be?"

"And one more thing: ordinary people shouldn't even consider trying to produce a fountain of life. The probability of that is lower than meeting an old man on the street who takes a liking to you and hands over a hundred million Faith Points."

"Yes." Yang Fan's expression was a bit awkward.

It wasn't that Yang Fan hadn't thought about making high-return Divine Kingdom investments, but for him, it was somewhat not worth the effort.

The higher the threshold, the higher the investment return. This not only required believers to possess corresponding life skills, but Yang Fan would also have to frequently monitor the believers' work.

Just like his parents, who had to descend divine oracles every day to direct their believers in mining. If a mine was hollowed out, it would instead damage the foundation of the mineral vein.

Under the tenfold Evolution Talent, this was too energy-consuming.

One day of his own time was worth ten days of others'. Even low-yield assets would become highly profitable. His energy should be focused more on improving the strength of his believers.

If it weren't for the fact that Yang Fan came from an ordinary family and was hardworking and studious, Li Qingying, as a god, would not have given him individual pointers.

After Li Qingying left, Yang Fan didn't return to reality immediately because he had received an invitation.

"Brother Yang, I've booked a private room at the Heavenly Fragrance World. The coordinates are '369, 110, 1742'. You can teleport here directly by clicking the coordinates."

Yang Fan tapped the blue coordinates, and his entire being turned into data as he arrived inside a private room.

If he hadn't known he was in the Virtual World, Yang Fan would have suspected all of this was real at this moment.

The fresh aroma of food, the scent of high-end perfume, and the sandalwood fragrance of the tables and chairs. It made one feel as if they were physically present, with no sense of abnormality at all.

"How is it? Coming here for the first time, does it feel different from the classroom?" Seeing Yang Fan's surprised expression, Li Shuhao couldn't help but say.

"Indeed."

"This is the entertainment district. If it weren't made realistically enough, who would come here to spend money? From the perspective of the cerebral cortex secreting dopamine, this place is no different from the real world."

"Brother Yang, you should still come here to play often when you have time. Staring at the Divine Kingdom's development with high intensity every day is very stressful."

"I'm not as wealthy as Student Li. All my Faith Points have been put into Divine Kingdom investments," Yang Fan said, playing down his situation.

"Brother Yang's personality really suits me. This seems to be called 'delayed gratification.' I used to read Divine Kingdom investment books in the library, and every book would mention this point."

"The books say that if a god wants to become wealthy, they must learn delayed gratification. The Faith Points we earn must be reinvested into the Divine Kingdom. Compound interest is the number one miracle of Divine Kingdom investment."

"Even if the annual return on investment is only 10%, as long as you persist for 100 years, your final return will be 13,780 times the original."

"Brother Yang, don't you think it's magical? If an ordinary family could truly achieve delayed gratification, could they also become wealthy one day in the future?" Li Shuhao asked, taking a deep breath.

"I suppose so."

"A month ago, I thought so too. I even planned that once my Divine Kingdom awakened, I would have my believers learn various life skills and then invest with peace of mind. After a hundred years, I would become rich and could let my parents enjoy their later years in peace."

Speaking to this point, Li Shuhao stood up, picked up a glass of red wine from the table, and looked out the window.

"Until I awakened the C-rank talent, Steel Body, and the Li Family reached out to me, a disciple from a branch line. At that moment, I realized how laughable my thoughts were."

"I am a second-tier genius of the Li Family. At that time, I received a reward of one B-rank building and twenty C-rank buildings. If this were in the past, it would be wealth I wouldn't dare dream of even if I worked hard my entire life."

"In addition, I have a monthly family subsidy of 2 million Faith Points and can enjoy an annual dividend of 10 million Faith Points from the Li Clan Genius Investment Fund."

"I'm not afraid of Brother Yang laughing, but when I saw the Li Family's legal team bring out this contract for me, I almost fainted from happiness."

"What bullshit compound interest investment, what becoming rich through delayed gratification."

"In this world, choices are far more important than hard work. Luck often makes reality much more dramatic."

"Congratulations to Student Li on your meteoric rise," Yang Fan remarked with emotion.

Yang Fan had truly broadened his horizons today. He hadn't expected the wealth of these great families to be so profound.