Dawn Spider

Chapter 73 Investing! Financial Management!
"..."

"Retrieve the life pouch and continue strengthening?"

"Lord of the West Serpent, are you sure?"

"We don't need to ask the Spider King?"

"Are you just too lazy to go through all that trouble?"

When it comes to matters of life and death, Jin dares not be careless.

The owner of Red Cone Mountain made no attempt to hide his doubts.

“Lord West Serpent, you are a lord-level warrior, so you are fast. A round trip will take you at most a day. What kind of work do you have on the mountain? Jin and I will stay here and do it for you. It's the same thing.”

"You dare to question me?"

Lord West Serpent was displeased and retorted, "I am a peak lord who possesses three Divine Seeds of Destiny. Do you think my understanding of Divine Seeds of Destiny is more profound than that of those Spider Kings who only have one Divine Seed?"

The Lord of Red Cone Mountain hesitated, then mumbled, "I don't know. Just to be safe, let's ask around. If the Spider King says the same thing, then the matter is practically settled..."

"Stupid spider!"

"Go find the Spider King yourselves, don't come looking for me."

The Western Serpent Lord was irritable and extremely impatient. His gaze fell upon the gold beneath the golden vine tree, and suddenly, as if remembering something, he asked:

"Little Purple Hair, the big item you chose in the Ivory Island ruins treasure vault last time... I heard it's a great treasure? It can process divinely bestowed food with primal force, compressing it into more durable 'granules'? Put it in a metal box, and it can be preserved for hundreds of thousands, even millions of years without spoiling?"

Jin replied, "Lord Famu has checked it, and that's roughly the gist of it."

The West Serpent Lord waved his claws and said, "I also have a little favor to do that I need your help with. Come on, let's go up the mountain and talk about it in detail."

Jin quickly understood the other party's intention and readily agreed, "Okay!"

The taro was left behind, taking root and resting next to the golden vine.

Jin and Hongzhui went up the mountain.

...

An oval tunnel, carved into a steep slope on the south side of the mountain, leads directly into the heart of the mountain.

The soil system was modified and reinforced, and the hemispherical hall, more than 20 meters in diameter, was close to the stone wall and filled with metal display shelves.

The display shelves are filled with all sorts of 'treasures' unearthed from underground ruins.

Armor, weapons, equipment components, daily necessities, handicrafts...

All of them are Force artifacts, and they are either well-preserved or slightly damaged but still usable.

It is evident that the Western Serpent Lord, having accumulated abundant evolutionary resources, began to pursue spiritual fulfillment and became keen on collecting rare artifacts from alien civilizations.

In the center of the hall, there was a rectangular dining table with blue borders and a white top, made of primal metal.

The West Serpent Lord leaned over the table and, with his mind, controlled a large metal box on the display shelf that contained the Primal Crystals. A blue halo rose from the box, forming a screen. He manipulated the spider silk to lightly tap the box, and eight small spider silk bags floated out and landed on the table.

On the display shelf, eight bright silver plates floated up simultaneously and were placed on the dining table.

The spider silk bag was opened, and the divinely bestowed food was taken out and placed on a plate.

"You can't eat the purple-haired spider!"

Lord West Serpent called out, "Red Cone, have a taste."

"Thank you for your hospitality, Lord West Serpent!"

The owner of Red Cone Mountain expressed his gratitude.

This is the 'hospitality standard' that Lord West Serpent uses to entertain other lords, using only the best lord-level or even king-level divinely bestowed primal force food.

The master of Red Cone Mountain unceremoniously manipulated a spider silk thread, twisting it one strand at a time and stuffing it into his mouth.

The golden body was too short, so it climbed up the red cone mountain master's middle foot, up the back armor, and onto the top of his head, and spoke while standing on the top of the red cone mountain master's head.

"Lord West Serpent, do you wish to use our equipment to process divinely bestowed food made with primal force?"

"Correct!"

Lord West Serpent said, "I may remain at the Lord level for at least another 10 years. During this time, the output of ordinary life seeds is fine, but the output of divinely bestowed seeds... I can't consume them all myself, so I can only exchange them for primal stones, which is a huge loss for me."

“It’s easy to sell God-given Force food for exchange for Originium. But it’s almost impossible to buy God-given Force food with Originium.”

"My idea is to borrow your equipment, process it, and store it up so I can eat it when I become the Insect King."

Lord West Serpent asked, "Is everything alright?"

"There's a minor problem; the equipment is still missing containers to hold the processed God-given Force food..."

Jin raised his claws and pointed to the metal crates containing Force-elemental food displayed on the showcase, saying:

"When this box is opened, it contains 10 tubular metal containers, and the Force Food is sealed inside the containers. Currently, the equipment is missing these containers, so it cannot be used."

"understand!"

Lord West Serpent said, "So, once we successfully crack and open the metal box we obtained from this relic, you'll have this metal container, and the equipment can be used normally. Is that what you mean?"

Kim replied conservatively, "That's how it is, barring any unforeseen circumstances."

The Western Serpent Lord said, "There are several thousand insects working together day and night to try to crack the code. I believe we will be able to do so soon. Jin, you can process it for me when the time comes."

"no problem."

Jin readily agreed, saying, "There will be a fee for processing. The equipment depreciation, the cost of raw stones used to operate the equipment, and the labor cost for the Flame Spider Warriors to operate the equipment will all add up to 3%. Of course, Lord West Serpent, you will definitely want a discount, and I will only take 1% as a service fee."

"..."

Lord West Serpent hesitated for a moment, then without thinking, readily agreed, "No problem!"

Compared to the inevitable exchange for raw gems, whether it's 1% or 3%, it's a negligible tip.

Lord West Serpent followed up, "Little Purple Hair, back in the ruins, you took a liking to that thing at first sight? So you insisted on choosing it? What did you see? That shouldn't be the case. None of us lords noticed anything amiss. Besides, before the ruins opened, those old Insect Kings must have inspected it beforehand, and none of them found it to be a valuable item..."

Lord West Serpent asked, "How did you discover that?"

"It is indeed complicated."

Jin carefully considered his words and slowly said, "First of all, we need to clarify what kind of place that ruin is. Obviously, the underground level of the ruin was a place used by the alien civilization to process food with primal force, and all the processing equipment is rotten and damaged..." Jin made slight modifications and repeated what he had said to Lord Famu to Lord Xishe.

"..."

"Crack!"

"What a brilliant mind, what sharp insight."

The West Serpent Lord was amazed and couldn't help but look at Jin with new respect. "A bunch of insect kings and lords who have lived for hundreds of years are not as good as a little spider who has just awakened. They have all lived in vain!"

"Luck. Luck. It's all down to luck."

Jin tried to be modest and changed the subject, asking, "Lord West Serpent, when I broke through to the intermediate warrior level, I retrieved the Golden Leaf Vine into my life sac to strengthen it. Are you sure there won't be any problems?"

"What could be the problem?"

At this point, the Western Serpent Lord became somewhat displeased, thinking that Jin, this little fellow, was quite clever, and unusually, he patiently explained:

"The Divine Seed of Destiny evolves in sync with the Zerg warriors, which is a drawback of the Soul Bond. When the Zerg warriors break through and evolve, the Soul Bond affects them, causing the Divine Seed of Destiny to passively break through and evolve."

“There’s an example right in front of me. For instance, my Southern Serpent God-given Seed has just reached the Lord level and is still far from breaking through to the Tree King level, right? But if I were to break through to the Spider King level now, due to the bond of souls, it would also be affected and break through along with me, inevitably resulting in failure and death…”

"But if the destiny seed transforms into a seed form, will it still be affected? No, it won't."

"Is that so?"

Jin seemed to be thinking for a moment, then said, "Then, I will listen to Lord West Serpent."

Lord West Serpent instructed, "Based on my speculation, if you transform the Golden Leaf Vine Divine Gift Seed into a seed form and place it in your life sac to complete the breakthrough, the tree spirit of the Golden Leaf Vine Divine Gift Seed will follow you and be the first to complete the breakthrough, reaching the intermediate level. However, it will only break through halfway. After reseeding, it will quickly enter the breakthrough state, and the 'tree body' will follow closely behind to complete the breakthrough."

"Therefore, you need to be careful that before the breakthrough, the Golden Leaf Vine needs to grow to its peak state to complete the breakthrough."

"But from my observation, the Golden Leaf Vine's Divine Gift Seed is almost at the peak of its initial stage. So, this is not a problem at all, and you don't need to worry about it."

The Western Serpent Lord concluded, "Be careful before your breakthrough, and prepare plenty of raw stones."

"Understood……"

Jin pondered for a moment, then felt that the Western Serpent Lord's words made a lot of sense, and politely said, "Thank you for your guidance, Western Serpent Lord!"

"The Lord of the Western Serpent is amazing!"

At the table, the Lord of Red Cone Mountain devoured all the Force-based food on his plate in one go, and tentatively asked, "Lord of the West Serpent, is there anything else?"

"Gone!"

The Western Serpent Lord was furious. He used his mind to control the silver plate, which floated back to the display shelf. The spider silk bag tightened its opening and fell back into the metal box, where the lid slammed shut with a clang.

The Lord of Red Cone Mountain: "..."

Lord Red Cone Mountain asked, "Lord West Serpent, you're not planning to send the freshly harvested divinely bestowed snakeskin fruit to Silk Sunflower Mountain for processing, are you? If that happens, those spiders won't be able to eat the fruit, right? Won't they hold a grudge against Shangjin...?"

The Western Serpent Lord sneered and asked, "Red Cone, aren't you one of 'those spiders' too? Are you worried about yourself?"

Lord West Serpent waved his claw and said, "Don't worry, just like in previous years, the fruit pulp will be distributed to you to eat, and the seeds will be dried and used to exchange for the divinely bestowed primal force food needed for the Spider King's future evolution and growth. Then, they will be sent to Silk Sunflower Mountain to be processed and stored."

"Lord West Serpent is wise!"

The Red Cone Mountain Master breathed a sigh of relief and said pitifully, "We spiders without divinely bestowed seeds have to rely on scraping fruit peels to eat to barely maintain our evolution."

"Focus on managing your territory and stop wandering around aimlessly all day," Lord West Serpent said gently, offering a mild but firm reprimand.

It's clear that the Lord of the Western Serpents is a kind-hearted person and takes good care of his fellow Flame Spiders.

Jin Lingji suddenly had an idea and asked, "Lord West Serpent, have you noticed that the Golden Leaf Vine is different from the common divinely bestowed seeds?"

"It's so different! Completely different! It's much stronger than ordinary divinely bestowed seeds."

Lord West Serpent answered affirmatively, but sensing there was another meaning in Jin's words, he countered, "Isn't this the result of your life sac mutating and being repeatedly strengthened?"

Yes. But not entirely.

Jin said, "In the initial stage, the Golden Leaf Vine only blooms one flower..."

Lord West Serpent didn't quite understand and, impatient to guess, urged, "Just finish what you've got."

Jin said, "The Golden Leaf Vine should be even more powerful than a regular divinely bestowed seed; it's a divinely bestowed seed of another level. This type of divinely bestowed seed produces very few flowers and fruits, and its flowering and fruiting cycle is extremely long..."

Jin paused for a moment, then said, "Lord Famu heard of a similar situation when he was trading in the southern continent, about a tribe called the Golden Stag Beetle..."

He recounted in detail what Lord Famu had said about the divinely bestowed seed of the Golden Rain Tree, and concluded by saying:
"I can confirm that the Golden Leaf Vine and the Golden Rain Tree are of the same kind, but a more powerful divinely bestowed seed. However, this powerful divinely bestowed seed consumes more raw materials during its evolution and growth process."

"After being repeatedly strengthened by my life sac, the Golden Leaf Vine is consuming so many raw stones that the spider can hardly bear it."

Lord West Serpent asked with a serious expression, "So, after reaching the intermediate or advanced level, Lord Silk Sunflower Mountain might not be able to afford the offerings anymore? You want to borrow raw stones from me?"

"It's not about borrowing...investing! It's about financial management!"

Jin Xi said, "The Golden Leaf Vine begins to flower and bear fruit at its advanced stages, but it takes many years to mature and be harvested, and the quantity is extremely limited. The effects are unknown, but they will definitely not be bad."

"Lord West Serpent, we can do this: you invest some raw stones to buy out the first batch of Golden Leaf Vine fruit. If you need it, you can use it yourself; if not, you can sell it to other insects and make a profit."

"Hey!"

"You little purple-haired rascal, you're really smart!"

"That's a really interesting way to play!"

Lord West Serpent asked with great interest, "How many raw stones do you need?"

Jin said, "We can calculate it based on the number of fruits. One fruit costs 50,000 raw stones. Let's start by investing based on the yield of one fruit, how about that?"

"If the Golden Leaf Vine can bloom two flowers after evolving to the intermediate level, then, according to the pattern, the advanced level will most likely produce three flowers and three fruits. At that time, you can decide whether to invest in a second and third fruit based on the situation."

"Oh!"

"Interesting!"

"That makes sense."

Lord West Serpent readily agreed, "5 Primal Stones is no problem. I'll help deliver them to Silk Sunflower Mountain, and while I'm at it, I'll also take a look at the equipment for processing divinely bestowed Primal Force food..."

The Red Cone Mountain Master, who was listening to the conversation, was stunned.

Is the Lord of the Western Serpent so easily fooled? How come I never noticed before?
(End of this chapter)