"System, what do you think of my money-making plan?"
On the train home, Li Xingkong asked the system. He had already told it his idea and hoped to get its approval.
"It's interesting, but there are still quite a few problems." The system briefly went over the plan. Clearly, it had found quite a few problems.
"The most important one is this: do you think the underlying logic of stock trading in the Divine Land is the same as what you imagine?"
The system's question was simple, but it went straight to the heart of the matter. Everyone knew the Divine Land's stocks were one of a kind.
"Although the Divine Land's stock market is pretty bizarre, major events will still affect its general direction. It might be crazy most of the time, but you can't control the tides of society."
Bizarre as it was, whenever a major breakthrough occurred in an industry, the corresponding stocks would take off. Whenever there was international news, the industries it affected would also fluctuate.
Li Xingkong couldn't be sure either, but this was an attempt, after all. And as he saw it, the plan did have a certain degree of feasibility.
His only concern was whether he had enough influence to rally that many people.
"I'd say your plan is basically still at the daydreaming stage. It's hard to put an exact number on it, but at least fifty percent of it is dreaming." The system laughed. "But luckily for you, you have me. I can help you."
"Since you can help me, conjure up ten billion for me." Li Xingkong was especially good at climbing up any pole offered to him. Even if the system demanded three kneelings and nine kowtows, he'd get right down and do it.
A man had gold beneath his knees. It was time to cash it in.
"Dream on. I'm just going to add another course for you," the system said. "This course is an application of mental power. It'll teach you how to tell whether a statement is true or false."
"Going by the plan, I really do need an ability like that." Li Xingkong thought back over his entire plan. Telling true information from false information really was an extremely important step, and he had to handle it himself. He wouldn't be comfortable entrusting it to anyone else.
Li Xingkong's plan was simple. To put it bluntly, he was still going to make money by trading stocks. But as he saw it, diving blindly into the stock market was no different from throwing money down the drain. If he wanted to make money trading stocks, he needed enough sources of information.
To put it bluntly, trading stocks was often about exploiting an information gap. If a listed company was about to complete a new product, it would surely have a positive effect on the company's stock. But by the time the news was announced, it would already be too late to put money into that stock. Countless big players would have gotten in ahead of everyone else, and small retail investors could only hope for a sip of the soup.
Likewise, when war broke out, defense stocks rose. When more people fell ill, medical stocks rose. When electric power developed, new energy stocks rose. As bizarre as stocks could be, they would still shift with these broader trends.
What Li Xingkong wanted was to get firsthand information ahead of everyone else whenever possible.
He had given it a lot of thought that afternoon. His first idea was to use his computer skills to build an information-gathering website. But information posted online lagged behind events, unless he could hack into the internal networks of every listed company. And hacking into internal networks? If he were caught, the consequences would be far more than a little serious. He'd be eating prison food for the rest of his life.
So that was the first idea he rejected.
If he couldn't get firsthand information, he would find a way to get advance information whenever possible.
If he knew divination, that would naturally be ideal, but unfortunately, he didn't.
It was the class reunion that had given him an idea: if he couldn't get advance information, couldn't the employees of listed companies themselves get it?
A company's confidential information had to be kept secret, but couldn't employees at least get a general idea of whether something was nearing completion? Sometimes they didn't need detailed confidential information. If the bosses who came to work wearing sour faces every day suddenly became cheerful for several days running, as though they'd swallowed some kind of personality-changing pill, wasn't that a positive sign?
If a company had everyone working overtime under pressure and then suddenly stopped one day, that meant results were about to come out. If a workplace had been relaxed and easygoing but suddenly started cracking down on attendance, that meant the company was headed for serious trouble.
People within an industry, especially those inside listed companies, were definitely ahead of ordinary people when it came to relevant information. He could take advantage of that, and with a keen eye for information, make sure he won every time he traded stocks.
So Li Xingkong planned to start by creating a large group chat. According to the simplest version of the six degrees of separation theory, it would take no more than six people to connect him to an employee of any listed company. All he needed was a little time, and he could put together a group that included employees from every listed company.
And because everyone would be brought together through friends, there would naturally be a degree of closeness between them. Combined with the ability to recognize the truth that the system would later teach him, that gave the money-making plan its core support.
He put the idea into action at once. Li Xingkong was no slouch when it came to getting things done. He immediately created a group and added all the friends he could find who worked at listed companies.
After he briefly explained his plan, several of his friends also thought it was somewhat feasible. But considering that too many people meant too many loose tongues, they had Li Xingkong mute the group. Anyone who wanted to send a message would first have to tell Li Xingkong, who would relay it after judging whether it was true.
As the saying went, a single spark could start a prairie fire. Once those first few sparks caught, things developed rapidly.
Li Xingkong had expected it might take more than a month to get it done. To his surprise, the group broke the five-thousand-member mark in just three days. That was about how many A-share listed companies there were in the country, and the people in his group already included employees from the vast majority of them.
Li Xingkong also began receiving a steady stream of information about what to buy or sell. He took his 50,000 yuan and began taking his first steps in stock trading.
How much could 50,000 yuan earn if it gained ten percent every day for a full year? He believed every newbie had thought about that upon stepping into the quagmire of stocks. Although Li Xingkong's approach couldn't possibly earn him money every day, it was already far better than that of an ordinary, clueless newbie.
Of course, while Li Xingkong was making money, he didn't neglect his studies. Although qi refining required spiritual qi, theoretical knowledge didn't. So in the days that followed, Li Xingkong began pursuing his own advanced theoretical studies.
The first thing he had to learn was the Sun and Moon Qi Refining Method. So after solving the problem of making money, Li Xingkong spent the next few days immersed in figuring out how to make the human body directly use light energy. Absorption was one aspect, storage was another, and how to supply the entire body with light energy was also a profound field of study.
"System, did the immortal cultivators before me also have to study this long before they could refine qi?"
It had been almost half a year since Li Xingkong launched his money-making plan, yet he had barely scratched the surface of his theoretical studies.
In that time, he had spent an uneventful Spring Festival, and spring had come around again.
"So much material, such thick literature, so many years of study. I never imagined immortal cultivation was this difficult."
"Of course not. Back then, many people didn't have to study nearly this much to cultivate immortality." The system seemed to be looking at someone with disdain.
"Ninety-nine percent of the people in a civilization could draw spiritual qi directly into their bodies to cultivate immortality, and leave the rest to the spiritual qi. Take the computers you use now, for example. Does everyone have to learn how to build a computer, lay network cables, and code programs before they can go online?"
"Huh? So I'm that one percent?" Clearly, Li Xingkong wasn't among the ninety-nine percent. Until recently, the entire Earth Star hadn't even had spiritual qi. He felt miserable all over.
"You should be grateful, not lamenting." Seeing Li Xingkong act so disappointingly, the system was genuinely a little angry. "What you're doing now makes you a navigator and a pathfinder for a civilization. In the past, you would have been Shennong, Suiren! What more could you ask for? You can do something comparable to what the sages of antiquity did, and you're not even willing to endure this little bit of hardship?"
"You're standing on the shoulders of countless civilizations. You only have to learn, not create. You're already very fortunate. Imagine the predecessors who created qi refining methods. When they thought they could ascend, only to discover the truth of the world and find that they were nothing more than plankton floating around the sun, they still didn't give up. You can't give up either. At least while I'm here, I don't want you thinking that way."
The resolve in the system's words was something Li Xingkong had never seen from it before.
"That's all well and good, but I feel like I've been put on a bit too high a pedestal."
It would have been better left unsaid. After the system said all that, Li Xingkong felt even more keenly that his burden was heavy and the road ahead long.
He didn't think he had the ability to shoulder something so momentous.
All he wanted now was to follow behind the system and step onto the path of immortal cultivation one step at a time.