Delayed Gratification

"You're certainly steady-headed, and you do deserve praise. I've never seen a student with theoretical knowledge as solid as yours. But don't get too proud. You're only ahead of ordinary students; compared with the descendants of great families, this is actually a disadvantage.

"Families like the Luo Family and the Li Family have their own actuaries, people who specialize in helping the younger generation plan out their Divine Kingdoms.

"They've been immersed in this field for centuries, even millennia. There are plenty in this class whose Prosperity is higher than yours," Li Qingying reminded him.

"Thank you for your guidance, Teacher."

"You placed first in this assessment. 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?"

"Rather than pursuing rapid growth in strength, you place greater importance on your believers' foundations. Very good. But what you want isn't something a D-Rank Building can provide. Let me think." Li Qingying narrowed her eyes slightly and connected her consciousness to her Divine Kingdom.

A moment later, she seemed to have found what she was looking for.

"I don't have the building you want, but I do have an Adult Tai Sui. Do you want it?"

"A Tai Sui?" Yang Fan froze where he stood.

Yang Fan had read about Tai Sui in books before. They were not demonic beasts, but livestock raised by top-tier breeders.

Their bodies were like small mountains, incapable of movement. Once their flesh was cut away, it would grow back the following month.

Tai Sui flesh could indeed improve aptitude, though the effect was extremely weak. Most Gods simply regarded them as meat-producing machines, much like the D-Rank Building Wine Pool and Meat Forest.

However, an Adult Tai Sui was worth as much as two million Faith Points. Even among C-Rank Buildings, it was considered rather expensive.

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

"I bought it years ago. Now, even the Mortal believers in my Divine Kingdom think its meat tastes terrible. It's useless to me now, so consider it an investment in you.

"If conditions permit in the future, you can also purchase the B-Rank Building Hundred Spirits Blood Pool. Put the Tai Sui inside, and it can produce Blood Pills at a fixed rate."

"Thank you, Teacher."

A Tai Sui would be of enormous help to Yang Fan right now. Once it was placed in his Divine Kingdom, his believers could eat meat to their hearts' content, which would greatly benefit their cultivation of the Federation Body-Tempering Art.

"Before you leave, let me give you one more piece of advice. The Artificial Lifeform only evaluated your Divine Kingdom's Prosperity just now, while I'm offering investment advice.

"The investment returns from the Moonwell, Sun Spring, and Water Lotus are far too low. Your family circumstances aren't good, so you need to learn to let your believers pick up some trades and do work with high returns.

"The development of a Divine Kingdom requires massive resource support. Once you leave the Virtual World, quickly package up and sell those things, then look for other investments.

"You're so young, yet your investment style is steadier than those old fossils'. How can that do?

"And one more thing: ordinary people shouldn't even think about cultivating a Fountain of Life. The odds are even lower than walking out your door, meeting an old man who takes a liking to you, and casually giving you a hundred million Faith Points."

"Yes." Yang Fan looked slightly embarrassed.

It wasn't as though Yang Fan had never considered high-return Divine Kingdom investments, but for him, they were somewhat not worth the cost.

The higher the threshold, the greater the investment returns. This not only required believers to possess the corresponding life skills, but also required Yang Fan to keep an eye on their work constantly.

Just like his parents, who had to issue Divine Oracles every day to direct their believers in mining. If the mines were emptied, it would instead damage the foundations of the mineral veins.

Under his tenfold Evolution Talent, that would consume far too much energy.

One day of his was worth ten days of someone else's. Even low-return assets would become wildly profitable, so his energy should be focused more on improving his believers' strength.

If Yang Fan had not been born into an ordinary family and studied so diligently, Li Qingying, a God, would not have given him personal guidance.

After Li Qingying left, Yang Fan did not immediately return to reality, because he received an invitation.

"Brother Yang, I booked a private room at Heavenly Fragrance Haven. The coordinates are ''. Just tap the coordinates, and you can teleport over."

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

If he had not known he was in the Virtual World, Yang Fan might have suspected that everything before him was real.

The aroma of the food, the scent of expensive perfume, the sandalwood fragrance from the tables and chairs—it all felt utterly immersive, without the slightest sense of incongruity.

"How is it? It's your first time here, right? Doesn't it feel different from the classroom?" Seeing Yang Fan's astonished expression, Li Shuhao could not help asking.

"It does."

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

"Brother Yang, you should come here and have fun more often when you have time. Staring at the development of your Divine Kingdom at high intensity every day is incredibly stressful."

"I'm not as wealthy as you, Classmate Li. All my Faith Points have gone into Divine Kingdom investments," Yang Fan said modestly.

"Brother Yang, your personality really does suit me. I think this is called 'delayed gratification.' Back when I read books on Divine Kingdom investment in the library, every single one mentioned this concept.

"The books said that if Gods wanted to become wealthy, they had to learn delayed gratification. The Faith Points we earn must be reinvested into our Divine Kingdoms. Compound interest is the greatest miracle of Divine Kingdom investment.

"Even if the annual return on an investment is only ten percent, as long as you persist for a hundred years, your eventual returns will multiply many times over.

"Brother Yang, don't you think that's amazing? If an ordinary family could truly achieve delayed gratification, could they also become wealthy someday?" Li Shuhao asked after taking a deep breath.

"They probably could."

"That was what I thought a month ago too. I even planned to have my believers learn all sorts of life skills as soon as my Divine Kingdom awakened, then peacefully make investments. After a hundred years, I'd become rich and let my parents enjoy a comfortable old age."

As he spoke, Li Shuhao stood up, picked up a glass of red wine from the table, and looked out the window.

"Then I awakened the C-Rank Talent Steel Body, and the Li Family came looking for me, one of their branch descendants. Only then did I realize how laughable my thoughts had been."

"I'm a Second-Grade Genius of the Li Family. Right away, I received a B-Rank Building and twenty C-Rank Buildings as rewards. In the past, that was wealth I wouldn't have dared dream of even if I worked my entire life.

"On top of that, I receive a monthly family subsidy of two million Faith Points, as well as annual dividends of ten thousand Faith Points from the Li Clan Talent Investment Fund.

"To be honest, Brother Yang, when I saw the Li Family's legal team take out that contract, I nearly fainted from happiness.

"What the hell was compound-interest investing? What the hell was getting rich through delayed gratification?

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

"Congratulations on rising to the heavens in a single step, Classmate Li," Yang Fan said with feeling.

Yang Fan had truly broadened his horizons today. He had never expected those great families to possess such immense wealth.