Dawn Spider

Chapter 193 The Dilemma of Haimeng Peak Forest

Jin Huisikui Mountain is on vacation, sometimes lying under the seed tree bestowed by the god of pokeweed; sometimes lying under the seed tree bestowed by the god of golden vine; sometimes using the divinely bestowed food he just received to digest and absorb; sometimes using the primal crystal to accelerate meditation, basically without moving.

Silver and Sky Blue kept running around, first completing the loan business that had been scheduled last year, and then visiting the six Zerg warriors this year.

After about twenty days of running around, everything was done.

Jin specially compiled two ledgers.

A record of issued bonds, detailing the issuance date, amount, term, and purchasers.

A detailed record of the loan, detailing which mountain, which Zerg warrior, the loan date, and the loan amount.

During the last ten days or so of the holiday, Jin took Yin and taught it some simple alien characters that Jin had deciphered from the alien civilization while excavating ruins.

You don't need to know many words, just some keywords in the ledger.

Jin couldn't show that he knew a lot of characters from other civilizations, so when keeping accounts, he deliberately used pictures and the super-complex characters created by the Flame Spider tribe instead.

Just understand it intuitively.

From then on, Yin would refer to the ledger and prepare the divinely bestowed food for redemption when the bonds matured. If there were insufficient funds to redeem the bonds, he would have to find a way to reissue them.

Of course, more importantly, when the loan is due, you need to visit and remind the relevant Zerg warriors in advance that it's time to repay the debt and remind them to repay it on time.

Although Yin is only a high-ranking warrior, he has the most and most important responsibilities.

Jin offered to give it a raise next year, making it the same as Hongzhui and Dafeng, at 6 yuan per year.

Tianlan seems alright; I can get a permanent position, and my salary will double next year to 4 yuan per year.

...

On Ivory Island, Dafeng oversaw the excavation work at the ruins, occasionally inquiring about the situation of the three Insect Kings at Ruins No. 1002.

No news has been released.

...

2 month 14 day,
Gold, Silver, and Sky Blue head to Purple Sandalwood Mountain to meet with Lord Famu and Lord Red Cone Mountain. Together, they will travel to Shark Harbor to check the accounts with the Five Schools Spider King.

Last year, a total of 372 million Primogems worth of Divine Force Food in seed form were acquired and transported into the Kingdom's treasury. Correspondingly, 372 million Credits were also issued.

In the past month, the loan business issued 464 million credit bonds.

A total of 836 million units of credit notes were issued.

841 million yuan in credit notes were redeemed.

Recycling exceeds issuance.

It's obvious that some spiders held creditor currency that they didn't exchange during last year's trading season, but they've come to exchange it this year. Similarly, there should also be spiders holding creditor currency that they haven't exchanged in time this year.

The credit currency has just been introduced, and people are not yet used to it. In time, everyone will get used to it, and I believe that many people will actively choose to hold, store, and carry the currency, which is convenient and does not require worrying about it getting damp or deteriorating.

……

One hundred banknotes were bundled together, piled up, and counted three times to confirm they were correct before being put into two oversized cobweb bags.

“The Spider King of the Five Schools needs to make up 5 for you this year. The Lord of Red Cone Mountain will send it over later.”

"Why don't you leave 5 credit notes with me? Next time you sell bonds, come to me first, and I'll buy them with credit notes."

"That's okay too!"

Jin Shuangli agreed, took out five 10,000-yuan notes, rolled them into a tube, and handed them to the Spider King of the Five Schools, while instructing:

"Yin, next time you issue bonds, go to the Spider King of the Five Schools first."

"remember."

Yin agreed.

The important business is done.

Lord Famu casually inquired, "Five Schools Spider King, I heard you've purchased nearly two million bonds?"

The Spider King of the Five Schools replied, "Based on several years of observation, the little spider's approach has some feasibility, and I support their work."

The Spider King of the Five Schools looked at Jin and slowly said, "Purple-haired Jin, recently I have a preliminary idea. Could you please take a look?"

“Every year, our Flame Spider Kingdom manages the Sea Lemon Peak Forest, sowing and cultivating wild divine seeds, which yields a profit of approximately 110 million. These profits are distributed to the Flame Spider warriors who participate in the management of the forest.”

“I was thinking, what if we slightly reduced the salaries for managing the forest, saving 100 each year to buy bonds, accumulating 1000 million in 10 years and 10 million in 100 years? Once it reaches a certain scale, the interest generated can be included in the kingdom's common revenue and used to increase the salaries of the Flame Spider Warriors who participate in managing the forest. What do you think of this method?”

The Sea Lemon Peak Forest is a massive forest managed by warriors from various peaks of the Flame Spider Kingdom through a rotating work schedule. The divinely bestowed seeds produced belong to all Flame Spider warriors of the kingdom and are directly sown and cultivated into wild divinely bestowed seeds, becoming a shared treasure of the kingdom's Flame Spider warriors.

The profits from these wild, divinely bestowed seeds were distributed to the Flame Spider Warriors who participated in the work in the Haimeng Peak Forest.

The Flame Spider Kingdom has a population of over 1300, and more than 1000 warriors have signed up to participate in the management of the Sea Lemon Peak Forest. The profits of just over one million, when divided among themselves, amount to a pitifully small sum by the time it reaches each warrior. "Not good at all!"

Yin spoke first, reacting strongly.

Are you kidding me? Almost all the Flame Spider Warriors are involved in the management of the Sea Lemon Peak Forest, withholding their salaries to buy bonds? Aren't they afraid of causing public outrage? In the end, the anger will inevitably be directed at themselves for promoting the bond and loan business.

"Not very good."

Jin also denied it, asking, "Are the Flame Spider Warriors who participated in the public forest work not doing a good job?"

"That's not it."

The Spider King of the Five Schools said, "My idea is to appropriately expand the scale of the Haimeng Peak Forest. Expanding the scale requires more soldiers to participate in the work. But the current salary is too low, so it is not appropriate to ask everyone to put in more effort."

"The rewards for raw stones are already excessive. Distributing more raw stones is pointless as everyone will have more than they need. To increase salaries, we can only improve the supply of divinely bestowed food. However, the profits from wild divinely bestowed seeds won't increase in the short term, and may not even see significant improvement in ten or a hundred years..."

Lord Cloud Mushroom, who was accompanying them, asked in confusion, "Five Schools Spider King, isn't the Sea Lemon Peak Forest doing very well? Why do you suddenly want to expand?"

"Very well? You spiders have no concern whatsoever for the development of the tribe!"

The Spider King of the Five Schools said irritably, "The management of Haimeng Peak Forest is in very bad shape! There are big problems!"

"The first problem is that the Haimeng Peak Forest has not produced any divinely bestowed seeds for more than 50 years. At this rate, when will we be able to cultivate 100 or 200 wild divinely bestowed seeds? The forest area is not large enough, and we urgently need to expand the forest area to increase the chances of producing divinely bestowed seeds."

"The second question is, according to statistics, the number of warriors in our Flame Spider Kingdom has increased by 214 in the past 100 years. So, what about the next 100 years? I estimate that it will increase by 250 to 300."

"When these additional warriors join the management of Haimeng Peak Forest, the profits from the wild divinely bestowed seeds will be diluted. The amount each warrior receives each year cannot be less than 1000."

"The kingdom's current 12 wild divine-given seeds are mainly supported by the annual income from the Sea Lemon Ancestral Tree. Secondly, the Lord-level Silver Candle Wood is also profitable. Further down, there are 8 Mountain Lord-level wild divine-given seeds, which generate some income each year. There are also two trees whose evolution level is below Mountain Lord level, which have been resting and cultivating themselves."

"Wild, divinely bestowed species evolve and grow slowly, and this predicament is unlikely to improve in the next hundred or two hundred years."

"With the increase in the number of soldiers, the size of the forest should expand accordingly. The Haimeng Peak Forest should have been expanded long ago."

"The salaries for managing Haimengfeng Forest have been declining and cannot fall below the 1000 mark. We must find other ways to generate revenue. Zi Maojin, your method of interest-bearing bonds and loans is a very good option."

—That's true.

That makes sense!
—But the income from wild, divinely bestowed seeds is already meager, and the wages for managing the Haimeng Peak Forest are already low enough; they certainly can't be any lower.

By this time, twenty or thirty Flame Spider Warriors who had set sail had gathered at the dock. Hearing the conversation, they all crowded around and started discussing it.

Spiders began offering advice and suggestions to the Spider King of the Five Schools.

Some foolish spiders actually suggested abandoning the Seamon Peak Forest and the 'Flame Spider Fire' plan...

The Haimeng Peak Forest has been managed for nearly a thousand years. The project, named "Flame Spider Fire," was originally conceived to cultivate more wild, divinely bestowed species like the Haimeng Ancestral Tree, to continuously and permanently provide divinely bestowed resources for the tribal warriors, ensuring that the flames of the Flame Spider burn forever.

Over the past thousand years, there have been some gains, but not many. The quantity and evolutionary level of wild, divinely bestowed seeds have not kept pace with the rapid development of the tribe.

Especially now, the tribe's insect population exceeds 1300, with as many as six insect kings. The last raid on the Cyathea Mountain ruins yielded a large amount of high-level divine resources, and the tribe will soon produce its 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th spider kings…

The number of Spider Queens is about to break the double digit mark, and the species is growing stronger and more prosperous.

In comparison, at first glance, the Seamon Peak Forest and the wild divinely bestowed seeds don't seem so important, and the 'Flame Spider Fire' project initiated by the Flame Spider Elder seems somewhat useless.

Of course, there are more intelligent spiders.
Many of the Flame Spider warriors felt they should be mindful of potential dangers even in times of peace, and should take advantage of the tribe's prosperity to increase efforts in cultivating more wild divinely bestowed seeds to ensure that the current prosperity could be sustained.

The controversy was quickly resolved; the spiders who proposed abandoning the 'Flame Spider Fire' plan were reprimanded, shoved, and ostracized from the chat circle.

...

Returning to the essence of the problem,

We must find a way to solve the problem of insufficient income from the current wild divinely bestowed seeds produced by the tribe.

The spiders continued to offer suggestions to the Spider King of the Five Schools, but none of them worked.

A more reliable approach would be to increase the premium on the divinely bestowed food traded back from the Southern Continent from the original 5% to 10%, and use the additional 5% to subsidize the management of the forest.

But this requires the cooperation of the seven tribes of Ivory Island.

However, the seven major tribes of Ivory Island have been earning a 5% premium over other tribes through trade. If the premium were to rise to 10%, would the smaller and medium-sized tribes of Ivory Island agree to that?

In everyone's opinion, a 5% premium is already a bit excessive, and wouldn't a 10% premium be forcing everyone to rebel?
Seeing that Jin remained silent, the Spider King of the Five Schools called out, "Purple-haired Jin, I originally came to discuss this matter with you. You have many ideas, so please give me a suggestion."

"There is a solution..."

Kim declared in advance, "Don't hit me."

"Who dares?"

The Spider King of the Five Schools waved its claws and said, "Speak freely!"

(End of this chapter)