Stock Dividends

I have to admit, the Luo Family's ancestral "medical treatment" is truly effective.

After a night of rest, Tang Ping felt the restlessness and emptiness that had been lurking in his heart completely dissipate. Even his gaze had become sharp and bright once more, and his body felt as if it were brimming with inexhaustible energy. That fighting spirit, the vow to charge toward higher realms, was burning fiercely again.

What made him even happier was that early the next morning, his optical computer received a transfer notification from Luo Xiaoyu. It was the "Star Rank First-Class Reward" issued by the family after she broke through to the Star Rank—a full 10 million Black Dragon Coins.

Looking at the suddenly increased number in his account, Tang Ping did not hesitate for a second. He immediately opened the Virtual Universe stock trading interface and invested all the money into two stocks: Galaxy Liquor and Galaxy Tea.

Although the share prices of these two stocks remained stable at 100 Black Dragon Coins and hadn't risen, they happened to coincide with the annual dividend payout, and the 10% dividend rate was quite substantial. Counting the 22 million in market value he already held, his total account balance instantly became 22 million × 1.1 + 10 million = 34.2 million Black Dragon Coins.

As the numbers flickered, he felt the solid sense of satisfaction that comes with accumulating wealth.

As for the 1 million Black Dragon Coin red envelope reward Babata had given him earlier, he had already conveniently exchanged it for cultivation resources: several bottles of "Purple Marrow Fluid" to accelerate force condensation, and a small piece of "Stardust Crystal" for polishing his spiritual telekinesis.

Watching the string of ever-growing numbers in his account, Tang Ping clenched his fists, his fighting spirit burning even brighter: "With sufficient resources, this time I must break through to the fifth level of the Planetary Rank as soon as possible!"

In the days that followed, Tang Ping's life returned to a routine and peaceful state. Every day, aside from his scheduled cultivation, he handled various affairs.

However, there were a few minor episodes during this time. The Luo Family's legal department was highly efficient, and it wasn't long before they took Zhang Min and Li Feifei to court. In the end, not only did the two sell off all their valuable possessions, but their parents even had to step in to scrape together money, yet they still couldn't pay off the debt.

Out of consideration for the fact that they were still university students, the court finally ruled that the two must sign a loan agreement, repaying 3,000 Silver Blue Coins per month, including principal and interest, for a full 10 years before the debt would be considered settled.

Once the lawsuit concluded, Zhang Min and Li Feifei were unwilling to accept it. They immediately went to their student group chat, crying and complaining, accusing Tang Ping of being "heartless" and "kicking them while they were down."

The group chat exploded instantly. Many students who didn't know the truth followed suit, accusing Tang Ping of making a mountain out of a molehill.

Tang Ping looked at the toxic comments in the group, finding them both ridiculous and boring. With a flick of his finger, he exited the group chat. Out of sight, out of mind; he couldn't be bothered to waste his breath on a group of people who couldn't see the situation clearly.

A few days later, good news arrived from the Weidi Family: the first batch of dividends from the mining operations had finally arrived, and the amount was a staggering 1 million Black Dragon Coins!

Tang Ping did the math. At this rate, the annual profit could reach 4 million Black Dragon Coins. Even if he gave half to the Luo Family as agreed and kept 20% for the Weidi Family, he would still personally receive 1.2 million Black Dragon Coins per year—which, converted to Silver Blue Coins, was a full 1.2 billion!

This number shocked Tang Ping. One had to realize that when the Luo Family previously managed this mining area, they only received 1 billion Silver Blue Coins over ten years. Now, the profit for a single year far exceeded the past, so it was no wonder the Luo Family always encouraged their descendants to come out and manage things personally.

However, Tang Ping didn't intend to hoard all this money for himself. He knew very well that the smooth operation of the mining area relied on the patrol of the security team, as well as the regular maintenance of the space fortress's energy core and equipment. All of these required funds to be allocated from the profits.

Even after deducting various expenses, he would still have 500 million Silver Blue Coins in hand per year, or about 500,000 Black Dragon Coins. This money alone was enough for him and the now-Star Rank Luo Xiaoyu to cultivate with peace of mind, without ever worrying about resources again.

"Life here is much more comfortable than on Earth!" Tang Ping couldn't help but sigh.

Back on Earth, he had the desire to improve his strength but was restricted at every turn. Now, here, not only did he have money, but he had all the cultivation resources he needed, and he could do whatever he wanted without anyone pointing fingers. It was simply an ideal sanctuary for cultivation.

Of course, he hadn't forgotten the risks here.

This star system was isolated in the sea of stars and was not on the patrol route of the Black Dragon Mountain Empire's main fleet, meaning it could be attacked by space pirates at any time.

Although the Luo Family had joined forces with the Black Dragon Mountain fleet to conduct a thorough sweep a few years ago, those desperate criminals were all incredibly bold, living with their heads on the line. As long as there was profit to be made, they would dare to take the risk.

This was also why the rewards given by the family were so generous, yet very few descendants were willing to come here to guard the post. If one could lie flat comfortably at home and still have cultivation resources, who would want to run to this remote place and risk their life?

However, Tang Ping wasn't too worried. After all, this star system fell under the Weidi Family's business scope, and the overall profit wasn't particularly high. Those space pirates likely wouldn't look twice at such a "godforsaken" place; it wasn't worth the risk for such a small gain.

Shaking his head and casting the thoughts of risk to the back of his mind, Tang Ping organized the financial statements and turned to walk into the cultivation room.

Now, he had a bigger problem!

Ever since Luo Xiaoyu broke through to the Star Rank through their "in-depth exchanges," she seemed to have found a "shortcut" to increasing her realm. Now, almost every week, she would find various excuses to come to him—sometimes saying she was "feeling restless due to a bottleneck in cultivation," other times saying she "felt her spiritual telekinesis was chaotic and needed adjustment"—and every time, she would drag him into "meeting the challenge head-on."

The key was that after Luo Xiaoyu promoted to the Star Rank, her strength skyrocketed to over ten times that of a Planetary Rank. Her base strength was 90 million jin (about 90,000 tons), while Tang Ping was only at the fourth level of the Planetary Rank, with a physical strength of no more than 4 million jin. He had absolutely no power to resist in front of her and was defeated quickly every time.

If it weren't for the fast recovery speed of Planetary Rank force, combined with the nutrient solutions and medicinal pills he kept on hand, he wouldn't be able to withstand such "tossing."

"This can't go on..." Tang Ping rubbed his sore waist and fell into deep thought.

Although he could continuously improve his strength through cultivation, Luo Xiaoyu's realm was higher than his, and her rate of growth was faster. At this rate, the gap would only continue to widen.

Suddenly, an idea struck him. He spread his hands, and the pale purple Thunder Domain and the pale blue Wind Domain were released simultaneously. The two domains fused rapidly around his body, forming an energy shield that contained both violent power and agility.

Feeling the power in the domain to control everything and dominate all things, Tang Ping instantly regained his confidence: "Even if my realm isn't as high as hers, I have the Wind-Thunder Fusion Domain! Next time, I will definitely be able to... at the very least, I'll be able to stand toe-to-toe with her!"

After being excited for a moment, he calmed down again.

If the battle became too intense, he might not be able to maintain the domain for long. It seemed the safest approach was to research some secret techniques that could complement the domain.

Besides, he was a Spiritual Telekinesis master! Could spiritual telekinesis only be used for combat? Perhaps it could be put to use in other areas!

Having figured this out, Tang Ping immediately took out the Wind-Thunder Secret Canon and began to read it carefully.

With his current strength at the fourth level of the Planetary Rank, creating a secret technique from scratch was a waste of time. It would be better to look for moves in the secret canon that he could borrow and then improve them by combining them with his own domain and spiritual telekinesis.

Luo Xiaoyu, just you wait. Next time, it will be my turn to take the upper hand!

Hehehe~