Immortality Starts With Investment Chapter 2: This Is Investment!

Gift-Offering Bonding System?

The system's name by itself seemed peculiar. Explanations of target gift recipients, complete with tenfold returns and similar details, struck him as even more bizarre. Did it mean that offering a gift to Lin Ke'er would bring him back ten times the value? Was this essentially a simp system?

Ye Chen promptly checked the system's complete information. Moments later, its full explanation materialized in front of him.

"This system is the Gift-Offering Bonding System."

"Providing a fitting gift to the right person ensures a return reward."

"The recipient must satisfy these conditions: beauty exceeding 90 points, physique surpassing 90 points, ownership of spiritual roots, status as a cultivator, and remaining a maiden."

"Depending on the recipient's unique attributes and cultivation stage, the system delivers varying multipliers for gift returns.…"

"Returns can involve quantity multiplication or quality enhancement, chosen by the system according to the host's requirements."

"Gifts must not surpass the female cultivator's cultivation requirements. Unsuitable gifts get rejected by the system, yielding no return."

"Should the gift carry great significance to the recipient and provoke intense emotions, extra rewards might be awarded."

"Just one gift return can activate each week."

After scanning these details, Ye Chen felt completely baffled. What an unusual system this was. Offering gifts brought returns, and if the item was desperately needed by the female cultivator, bonus rewards could follow. Wasn't this the ultimate simp's road to cultivation?

This system itself pushed people toward simping... What on earth was happening in this world? Yet, thanks to it, Ye Chen saw he might not have to abandon cultivation entirely!

"Fellow Daoist Ye?"

Lin Ke'er saw Ye Chen fixated on her face, deep in thought without replying. She arched a brow, mildly puzzled.

Honestly, Lin Ke'er held scant respect for Ye Chen. His cultivation remained feeble, and despite support from a minor family, he lingered at the third level of Qi Refining. Crucially, though, Lin Ke'er was a loose cultivator.

With family backing, Ye Chen still trailed in progress, signaling one clear fact: mediocre aptitude, probably a low-grade spiritual root. His sole potential value lay in alchemy skills.

Even that, Lin Ke'er questioned. His products were mainly low-grade Qi Gathering Pills, without any mid-grade successes. A cultivator like him offered no real prospects.

Barring entry into Qingyun Sect, he'd remain a fleeting acquaintance in her journey. Definitely not prime Dao companion material.

Still, Lin Ke'er concealed these judgments behind a neutral expression. Ye Chen held some utility for her. Poor quality or not, his pills were pills. Twenty low-grade Qi Gathering Pills matched a low-grade spirit stone's worth. Her monthly earnings scarcely hit three low-grade spirit stones. Thus, she offered a gentle smile, aiming to rouse him from his stupor.

Ye Chen snapped out of it at her voice. Gazing at Lin Ke'er now, his eyes held a transformed light. He despised simping. But what grated more was Lin Ke'er's habit of receiving endlessly without reciprocation—a classic green tea ploy.

That said, with real gains involved, especially tenfold returns... Her green tea nature became irrelevant. Simping? Ridiculous!

Gifting without returns equaled simping. Gifting with tenfold rewards? Pure investment. This Gift-Offering Bonding System made Ye Chen's troubles appear straightforward to resolve.

No longer did Lin Ke'er appear as an annoying green tea figure to him. She gleamed like a radiant goldmine. Until a female cultivator with superior return rates appeared, she'd get whatever she desired from him.

The pricier the gift, the better—bigger investments meant bigger payoffs. In cultivation, wealth, companions, techniques, and territory reigned supreme. The System promised boundless chances. Immortality and patriarch status lay within reach.

Ye Chen grinned broadly at Lin Ke'er, eyes alight. "No need for modesty, Fairy Lin. You've reached the third level of Qi Refining so young, all as a loose cultivator. Such remarkable talent, with a bright path ahead. I've emerged from seclusion and refined a fresh batch of pills. These go to you."

Ye Chen pivoted toward his room. In reality, he lacked even a storage bag.

Hearing his words, Lin Ke'er hastily declined with waved hands. "Fellow Daoist Ye, really no need. Those are your painstaking efforts, meant for the shop. I'd feel awful holding up your duties…."

Ye Chen smirked silently inside. Rejecting yet smiling? Keep refusing harder—want me pleading? So predictable.

Precisely what Ye Chen sought from her. Genuine reluctance would complicate things. He smiled reassuringly. "Fairy Lin, you're worrying too much. My Qi Gathering Pills have a solid success rate, leaving extras beyond my quota. A few won't impact my obligations."

Lin Ke'er stopped objecting then. Her eyes warmed, head dipping with a flush. "Thank you then, Fellow Daoist Ye! Such generosity."

You're generous, your entire clan is generous.

Ye Chen jeered internally while striding steadily. He dashed back to his quarters, gathering the pill bottles from his predecessor's work. Two bottles held twenty pills altogether.

Ye Chen mentally tallied: Handing over all twenty now could yield at least two hundred back. Next week, two hundred given for two thousand returned.

Lin Ke'er alone could let him launch a pill shop. He could adopt modern business strategies, undercutting prices to bankrupt Silvermoon Market rivals. Profits would skyrocket!

Yet as he seized the bottles, the system intervened.

"For pill-type gifts: Limit of ten pills per offering. Excess yields no return!"

Ye Chen's tycoon ambitions shattered instantly. He sulked but grabbed one bottle and exited.

"Fairy Lin, take this please."

Lin Ke'er's eyes lit up joyfully, though shyly accepting with care. "Your generosity overwhelms me, Fellow Daoist Ye. Thank you. When I advance, repayment is certain."

Lin Ke'er peeked down at the bottle, heart bursting with delight. Precisely ten pills—beyond her hopes!

Ye Chen nodded with a smile, indifferent inside. Two lifetimes taught him green teas rarely repaid simps. Perhaps not always—rumors of simps fathering kids with "lovers" existed. Irrelevant now. The system's chime already echoed sweetly in his thoughts….