33: Chapter 33 A Better Choice

The rules for the other lender, Qiankun Large Loan, were a bit different.

It required collateral produced in one's divine kingdom, and the platform would issue a loan amount ten times the value of the collateral.

As for interest, the first year had an ultra-low rate of one percent. However, starting from the second year, the monthly interest would increase by one percent each month.

Calculated this way, after one year, the annual interest would increase by twelve percent—a typical predatory loan that would devour you whole.

"So what if it's a predatory loan?"

Gu Han played with the Qiankun Large Loan card, his expression calm.

With the current development speed of his divine kingdom, let alone a year, he was absolutely confident he could pay back the principal and interest within a single month.

Having made his decision, Gu Han wasted no more time.

First, he picked up his handheld console and scanned the QR code on the Fangxin Loan card to download a dark-gray anonymous app. Despite the high-risk warning, he practicedly clicked to proceed with the installation.

Following the prompts, Gu Han generated a one-time connection coordinate for his divine kingdom and sent it over.

In less than a minute, an evaluation report popped up on the screen.

[Divine Kingdom Prosperity: 31]

[Evaluation Result: Highly potential.]

[Loan Limit: Two million credit points.]

Gu Han clicked to confirm the loan.

The agreement was generated, and the coordinates of his divine kingdom were connected.

[Ding! Two million credit points have been transferred to your anonymous account. Please note that after the interest-free period of the first month ends, an annual interest of one hundred thousand credit points will be incurred.]

Looking at the extra two million in his account, Gu Han let out a long sigh of relief.

But this was not enough.

He switched back to his divine kingdom, his consciousness sweeping across the heartland of the Ant-man Race.

With a thought, Gu Han loaded a hundred-thousand-year spirit-enlightening flower into the card and then extracted it into reality.

He opened the exclusive software of Qiankun Large Loan, opened the evaluation page, and transferred the spirit-enlightening flower over.

The progress bar on the screen loaded rapidly.

[Ding! Collateral evaluation complete.]

[Item Name: Hundred-Thousand-Year Mutated spirit-enlightening flower]

[Estimated Market Value: Three hundred thousand credit points]

[Available Loan Amount: Three million credit points]

[Interest Calculation Method: 1% annualized for the first year, increasing by 1% monthly starting from the second year.]

[Confirm collateral and disburse loan?]

Gu Han decisively clicked to confirm.

[Disbursement successful! Three million credit points have been transferred to your account.]

[Current monthly interest payable: Two thousand five hundred credit points. Total interest within one year is thirty thousand credit points.]

Five million!

Including the money left over from selling the White-Feathered Six-Winged Beast earlier, Gu Han's current available funds reached an astonishing five million, ten thousand, and eight hundred credit points.

Gu Han's heart rate couldn't help but quicken slightly.

Going from penniless to holding a massive sum of five million took him less than half an hour.

This sense of fulfillment from controlling vast resources put his brain into a state of extreme excitement.

Gu Han quickly opened the cultivation technique section of the trading platform and directly filtered for "Body Tempering" and "Group Applicable".

A dense list of items instantly popped up on the screen.

The "Bull Body-Forging Technique" that had caught his attention before was also on the list, priced at five hundred thousand credit points.

Gu Han glanced at it and thought to himself, 'It's not that you aren't good enough, but that I have a better choice now.'

The Ant-men themselves were already strong enough; the Bull Body-Forging Technique would only be icing on the cake.

Now that he had sufficient funds, he had to choose something that could develop in the long run.

His gaze swept quickly across the list.

"Dragon Elephant Prison Suppressing Gong", priced at 1.5 million, was extremely powerful but required the practitioner to have exceptionally high comprehension. He passed on it immediately; the Ant-men's intelligence was still in the enlightenment stage, and learning this would be strictly for the late-game.

"Berserk Blood Art", priced at 1.8 million, could unleash several times one's combat power in a short time, but the side effect was overdrawing life force. Gu Han shook his head; the Ant-men already had short lifespans, and overdrawing them further would truly turn them into consumables.

After flipping through a dozen pages, Gu Han's gaze stopped on a B-grade cultivation technique named "Swallowing Heaven Bloodline Method".

Price: Two million credit points.

The description was very simple: treat the physical body as a furnace to temper vital energy and blood. Its greatest feature was that practitioners needed to consume massive amounts of food, and once they reached a certain realm, it could influence the constitution of their offspring.

This meant that as long as the first generation of Ant-men succeeded in their cultivation, the next generation they bred would be born with a certain level of physical strength.

Generation after generation, as long as enough time passed, even uncultivated larvae would possess terrifying physiques. Although it was also a late-game technique, it still provided some strength in the early stages.

Gu Han did not hesitate at all and clicked to purchase immediately.

Now that he had the technique, the food supply had to keep up as well.

Body tempering consumed meat resources the most. The current food source of the Black-Armored Ant-men relied entirely on the Six-Winged Chicken. Although the meat was delicious and high in energy, the variety was too single. Over time, it could easily cause nutritional imbalance.

Because the Zerg race was unpopular, their exclusive resources were relatively cheap.

Gu Han typed "Zerg, crustacean, enhancement, food" into the search box.

The page refreshed, and a bunch of bizarrely-shaped species popped up.

He carefully examined their attributes and picked out the four items most suitable for the Black-Armored Ant-men.

The first item was Crystal Marrow Wood.

This was a type of wood buried deep underground, rich in mineral essences. After the Ant-man Race gnawed on it, it could significantly increase the density of their chitinous shells and strengthen the resilience of their limbs and bones. Not only would it reduce the probability of fractures during labor and combat, but it would also accelerate wound healing.

The second item was Condensed Honey Flower Seeds. The nectar produced by this flower was extremely thick and rich in high-energy biological nutrients. After the Ant-men consumed it, their physical endurance would directly double. Whether carrying heavy loads or migrating long distances, they would not easily tire, while it also strengthened the pressure resistance of their internal organs.

The third item was Rock Heart Moss. This stuff attached itself to ore and rock walls, growing by absorbing the spiritual energy of the earth veins. Its function was to consolidate the foundation and nurture vitality, improving the basic resistance of the Ant-man Race to withstand the cold miasma and common toxins underground.

The last item was Iron-Shell Insect Pupa. These were the mature pupae of underground hard-shelled insects, high in protein and calcium. Long-term consumption could significantly increase muscle explosive power, especially boosting the biting power of the Ant-men's mandibles, causing their hunting and obstacle-breaking abilities to skyrocket.

Combining these four items together was practically a nutritional package tailored specifically for the Ant-men.

After adding them all to his shopping cart, Gu Han opened the customer service chat box directly.

Gu Han: [Boss, I'll take three hundred portions each of Crystal Marrow Wood, Condensed Honey Flower Seeds, Rock Heart Moss, and Iron-Shell Insect Pupa.]

The other side took a few seconds to reply, clearly shocked by this quantity.

Myriad Insect Cave Boss: [Yo! Brother, are you trying to build a Zerg army? No problem, we have plenty of stock. I'll give you a discount; it'll be 1.2 million credit points in total.]

1.2 million?

Gu Han raised an eyebrow.