Dawn Spider

Chapter 167 Bonds
When the three divinely bestowed seeds of the Red-headed Termite Kingdom ripened, Dafeng returned to the kingdom alone to process them, while Jin did not follow.

Therefore, Jin did not enter the Red-headed Termite Kingdom during this year.

……

Apple Hill
A spacious reception room was built at the foot of the mountain specifically to receive guests.

The Secret Order Ant King specially arranged fire tubes and fire thorns, led his troops into the sea, caught various kinds of fish food from the sea, and solemnly placed them on the stone table to entertain the distinguished guests.

"I've heard that the flesh of fish in the sea has a higher nutritional content than that of birds and beasts on land. Jin, Dafeng, you've worked hard all year, eat more."

"..."

"Ok."

The wind agreed.

"The secret order ant king has gone to great lengths."

Jin's heart twitched, but she remained polite on the surface, exchanging a few pleasantries before changing the subject and explaining:
"Because of the excavation of the ruins last year, everyone on Ivory Island is talking about me. So, I took advantage of this incident to travel around, inquire about information, and visit people to discuss cooperation in processing and trading of the God-given Seed."

"I know, it's a smart choice."

The Secret Order Ant King praised it and then tentatively asked, "How many God-given Seeds were agreed upon in total?"

Jin replied, "Currently, the cooperative transaction for the God-given Seeds that Ivory Island has reached an agreement on involves a total of 126 trees, with an estimated annual income of over 40."

Jin proactively stated, "As agreed, Dafeng's annual salary will increase by 10,000. He will also receive divinely bestowed primal force food worth 60,000 primal stones annually."

"Um--"

As expected, the secret order ant king nodded with satisfaction and raised its claws again to signal, "Eat. Let's eat and talk."

Jin took an octopus that he hadn't eaten much of on Mount Silky Sunflower, wrapped it in spider silk, injected venom, and waited for it to dissolve.

Enter chat mode.

"Jin, you haven't evolved this year?"

"I plan to use 40 Primal Crystals to accelerate meditation, enhance my heterogeneous abilities, and then break through to the fourth stage of evolution. But I've been too busy this year, constantly on the go, and haven't had the time, so I'll postpone the evolution for a year."

I understand. I understand.

"Is this year coming to an end? The thousand-layered flowers should be heading out. According to your calendar, the new year is about to begin."

"Yes."

"So, there are no more transactions planned?"

"That's all. I rested at Dafeng Mountain for a few days, and on January 8th I set off for the Great Poison Armor Tribe at Partridge Mountain to complete the transaction for the Golden Leaf Nanmu God-given Seed. Afterwards, I went to Qingsha Port nearby to wait for the caravan that went to the Southern Continent to return for the transaction, and then took a ship back to Silk Sunflower Mountain."

"You've worked hard all year, take a good rest..."

The Secret Order Ant King made a polite remark, paused for two seconds, and then asked, "Haven't you had time to tend to the land that Dafeng Mountain allocated to you? What kind of plants do you like? I'll have Bai Ye bring a batch of worker ants over to help you plant them."

"No need... for that trouble."

Jin Siwei quickly changed his mind and said, "Then I'll trouble Bai Ye. Help me plant a batch of silk palm, firewood, thunderwood, sandalwood, flame camphor, firewood, magicwood, geranium, and wisdom cypress..."

Jin rattled off the names of 20 high-quality arbor plants in one breath.

The Secret Order Ant King looked at Bai Ye with a sob in his eyes.

Bai Ye said, "These are all plants that are prevalent on Borneo Island, and most of them are fine. However, about eight kinds of plants, such as silk palm, firewood, thunderwood, sandalwood, and flame camphor, are not grown much on Ivory Island, so we may need you to provide seeds."

"Don't they grow plants like silk palm, firewood, and thunderwood here?"

Jin simply said, "Then there's no need to trouble yourself. I won't plant any more. Just plant some of the other 12 kinds of plants for me, and plant more of the magic wood."

"no problem!"

Bai Ye agreed.

Jin quickly changed the subject and apologized, saying, "Secret Order Ant King, I owe you 10 units of divinely bestowed food. I will arrange for a strong wind to send it back to you as soon as I return to the Flame Spider Kingdom."

"It's nothing. Just give it to me whenever you have more money in your pocket."

The Secret Order Ant King waved its antennae magnanimously and asked, "Weren't you still digging through the ruins with the Curcuma King and the others? What's the situation now? Are you still digging?"

"They're digging. But progress is slow because the team consists mostly of high-level warriors..."

Jin and the Secret Order Ant King chatted about excavating ruins, and then talked about some interesting things that happened on Ivory Island this year.

For example, the last warrior of a certain tribe died of old age, and the tribe disappeared; a divinely bestowed seed appeared in the territory managed by the warriors of a certain tribe...

Jin Shuangzhao held the spider silk sac and sucked on it, casually asking, "The Red-headed Termite Kingdom has cultivated such a large area of ​​forest, and all the plants are of high quality. Statistically speaking, a divinely bestowed seed should be born every hundred years or so, right?"

"Probability?"

The queen ant, looking rather helpless, shook her antennae and replied:

"When the probability is low enough, it all comes down to luck. The Red-headed Termite Kingdom isn't very lucky. Moreover, the forest you see is the result of development after reaching the Lord level. The kingdom's location is poor; before reaching the Lord level, in order to deal with attacks from evil spirits, its territory was shrunk to a radius of 5 kilometers centered on Apple Mountain."

"Oh--"

“I think the Red-headed Termite Kingdom has an excellent geographical location, with no other tribes around, allowing it to expand freely. Now it can expand even further.”

“It won’t work. Expanding the forest requires corresponding support kings. Currently, the resource income of the Red-headed Termite Kingdom is only enough to sustain my evolution and growth as well as the Cluster Flower Queen. It’s already very difficult to support four support kings.”

—If we raise more ant colonies and raise them to a higher level at a low cost, can't they still command the ant colony to do their work as usual?
—Surely the level of a mountain lord shouldn't be a problem?
—Why not create more Mountain Lord-level support kings? After Mountain Lord level, just stop providing them with resources for evolution, right?
Jin Xin felt something was off. He sensed that in the termite kingdom, the relationship between the queen and her ant king wasn't just that of master and servant, but also seemed to be one of close seniority and junior.

It would be presumptuous of me to ask such a question.

Jin said vaguely, "Four Zuo Wangs are equivalent to two Zerg warriors, so they do require a lot of resources."

"Yes, nurturing a Zuo Wang is easy, but keeping one alive is not. If we are lucky enough to harvest the fourth Divine Seed in the forest we manage, we will have the confidence to nurture the fifth and sixth Zuo Wang."

The Secret Order Ant King asked, "Gold, I heard from Great Wind that your idea of ​​storage and lending was rejected by the Flame Spider elders?"

"Uncertain."

Jin didn't care and said confidently, "Once I grow a bit older, complete one or two more evolutions, and become stronger, they won't be able to control me anymore. I'll keep going."

Damn it!

The secret order ant queen choked for a moment. The little spider was not only quick-witted, but also incredibly bold.

The Secret Order Ant King, in high spirits, first stated his position: "Jin, I've always thought that your idea of ​​borrowing and lending is excellent!"

"The Flame Spider tribe is one of the top clans among the natural gods, a wealthy and powerful clan. Your elders, confined to the social circles of the Flame Spider Kingdom, cannot understand the plight of those small, helpless tribes, nor can they understand that the loan business is more helpful to those warriors than... taking advantage of them."

"Yes. So, regardless of whether it's for public or private reasons, I will steadfastly promote my ideas!"

"So when are you planning to start? At the Mountain Lord level? I can save some money then."

The secret order ant king's intentions were quite clear: it wanted to earn some interest income through deposits and loans.

Jin's heart skipped a beat, and he said, "No need for the Mountain Lord level, I can do it now! Secret Order Ant King, don't I owe you 10? You can transfer it to..."

Jin said, "Considering the reality of the Nature Gods, if deposits are allowed, then without a doubt, every Zerg warrior would be happy to deposit, but very few warriors would be willing to borrow."

The secret order ant king nodded its antennae in agreement, saying, "That's true. The number of insects we have is definitely far greater than the number we borrowed."

Kim said, “So I decided not to accept deposits. I have a better idea. Every year, I issue ‘bonds’ as needed.”

"Bonds?"

The secret order ant king was in high spirits, eagerly awaiting the next installment.

Jin immediately drew out six strands of spider silk from its abdomen, and its forelegs and chelicerae swung around in a blur. Soon, a spider silk roll measuring 19 centimeters long and 11 centimeters wide was woven, with blue-purple spider silk as the base and semi-transparent white spider silk depicting pictures and characters.

The front features a semi-transparent white flame spider pattern.

The back features a pattern of a golden vine.

Four rows of characters on the front:

[Face value: 10000]

[Release Date: January 1, 2013]

[Repayment Amount: 11000]

[Payment Date: January 1, 2018 for Shanglu]

On the back of the silk roll, there is a faint, translucent white snowflake-shaped anti-counterfeiting pattern.

The golden control silk scroll floated down and landed in front of the Secret Order Ant King, saying, "I intend to issue these bonds."

"One scroll represents that I have borrowed 1 Primogems worth of God-given Force Food, with an annualized interest rate of 2% and a fixed term of 5 years. I can only redeem it after 5 years by presenting this scroll to me, and the redemption amount is 11000 Primogems worth of God-given Force Food. In other words, the return over five years is 1000 Primogems worth of God-given Force Food."

"I only recognize bonds, not Zerg. Whoever comes to me with a bond, I will redeem it for them. Zerg warriors holding bonds may consider transferring the bond to other Zerg if needed."

"Hey!"

"Wonderful!"

"That's wonderful!"

Upon hearing this, the Secret Order Ant King's eyes lit up, and he praised it highly, asking, "Only 2% annual interest? Isn't that a bit too low?"

Jin said, "The annual interest rate is 2% for a 5-year term and 3% for a 10-year term. The bond amount is fixed in two denominations: 1 and 10."

After Jin finished speaking, he drew out spider silk and wove it at lightning speed, immediately creating a larger bond with a 10-year term and a value of 10.

"Lend me God-given Force Food worth 10 Primogems. It will expire in 10 years and can be redeemed for God-given Force Food worth 13 Primogems. The return will be God-given Force Food worth 3 Primogems."

"This bond is excellent!"

The Secret Order Ant King's eyes blazed with fury as he eagerly asked, "Gold, you don't need to rush to repay the 10 units of divinely bestowed Force food you owe me. How about I accept this bond instead?"

"Row……"

Jin agreed, controlling the spider silk scroll to fly in front of the Secret Order Ant King, while simultaneously taking back the 1-denomination bill.

"Jin, your spider silk is so exquisitely woven! Beautiful!"

The Secret Order Ant King used its two antennae to bind the unfolded spider silk with pure primal energy, held it up to its eyes to examine it closely, and praised it highly.

What does this string of characters mean?

"The release date is January 1st, 13th year of Shanglu, which is... the upcoming New Year."

"Phytolacca acinosa, 13 years?"

"This is the 13th year since I awakened my Force, according to my own calendar. Pokeweed is the year of my reign, and it's a wild, divinely bestowed seed that I cultivated."

Jin raised his claw and pointed, explaining, "The line of characters below means the redemption date is January 1st, 23rd year of Shanglu, which is 10 years from now."

"understand!"

"It's easy to understand, and also simple and convenient!"

The Secret Order Ant King asked, "Gold, how do you calculate the interest rate when you lend money to Zerg warriors who need resources?"

Jin said, "That's even simpler. The annual interest rate is 3%, with no minimum repayment period and a maximum repayment period of 30 years. There's also a rule that no interest is calculated for periods less than six months, and for periods more than six months, it's calculated as one year."

The Secret Order Ant King paused for a moment, then asked, "Doesn't that mean... there's no interest rate differential?"

Jin sighed, “I can still earn a 1% interest rate spread by issuing 5-year bonds. My main source of income is from processing the peel and pulp of the Divine Force Fruit through cooperation. For now, I’m only implementing this system among my partners. As everyone’s evolution level increases and their income increases, I will naturally earn more.”

"Imagine if all 114 divinely bestowed seeds I'm currently cooperating with evolve to the lord level, how much would my annual income be? More than double, right? Probably exceeding 100 million."

"Makes sense!"

The Secret Order Ant King sincerely praised, "Jin, those Zerg warriors who can cooperate with you are lucky. They should cheer for having met such a brilliant Flame Spider as you."

As the Secret Order Ant King spoke, he shook his antennae and sighed, "The Twin Islands of Sal and Ivory Island are too small, with only a little over seven thousand to less than eight thousand insects in total. The upper limit is not high enough."

"Jin, when you grow up and become powerful, you can consider promoting this method to the Southern Continent, right?"

"Yes, that's a thought. I believe the greatest danger in trading on the Southern Continent doesn't come from the evil spirits, but from the local Zerg warriors..."

Both King Jin and King Secret Ant were ambitious and uninhibited entrepreneurs, and they talked enthusiastically about their development plans for the Southern Continent.

(End of this chapter)