Chapter 3 Planning to Buy a House
Jiang Cheng paced around the outskirts of the wasteland.
He carefully compared Wuyue City in the game and the one in reality, and he could almost be certain that the location of the Spiritual Spring would definitely be within this wasteland.
Today's date was June 12th, just a few days after the national high school exams had concluded throughout Liang Kingdom.
If Jiang Cheng's calculations were correct, an earthquake would occur at the beginning of September, three months later, coinciding with the emergence of the Spiritual Spring and the skyrocketing housing prices.
And at the end of September, after the earthquake, would be the enrollment examination period for the various major universities in Liang Kingdom.
As long as he could earn a sum of money to buy a house before September, investing in the real estate market around the wasteland, he could enjoy tenfold profits and comfortably attend the enrollment exams of prestigious universities.
Cultivating immortality was an extremely expensive affair.
Even if Jiang Cheng managed to attend a prestigious Immortal Sect university and graduated into one of the Five Great Immortal Sects, his path to immortality would still be difficult without a steady supply of Spirit Stones to improve his cultivation level.
Jiang Cheng was clear-headed about it; putting future concerns aside, with a house that was about to surge in value right in front of him, there was no reason not to buy.
So the current problem was where to get the money.
Asking his parents was not very realistic.
While Jiang Cheng's family was not poor, they were also not wealthy enough to allow their child to "play with buying a house."
Morning came, and the sales offices around the wasteland opened one after another.
Jiang Cheng walked around the wasteland and roughly understood the housing prices in its vicinity.
There were three properties for sale surrounding the wasteland.
Apartment buildings, detached villas, and duplex properties.
From a price perspective, the apartment buildings were the cheapest, the duplexes were next, and the detached villas were the most expensive.
The cheapest apartment had only three rooms, two large and one small, covering about forty to fifty square meters. This was including the shared areas, and the actual usable space was probably less than that.
This was more suitable for single cultivators to reside in, at most accommodating a girlfriend, but kids and parents were out of the question.
However, even so, the apartment buildings were beyond what Jiang Cheng could covet at the moment.
The total price for a single apartment unit was 32,000 low-grade Spirit Stones, averaging out to 710 stones per square meter.
Jiang Cheng's entire worth didn't even amount to 200 Spirit Stones.
As a high school student who had just come of age, without a job or social security, he wouldn't be able to get a mortgage loan.
If he wanted to buy a house, he could only pay in full.
To accumulate 32,000 low-grade Spirit Stones, even if Jiang Cheng worked three jobs a day earning 700 Spirit Stones a month, it would take forty-six months to save enough for the down payment.
But he only had three months to raise funds.
The pressure was immense.
"If only I could be reborn, this world of cultivating immortality has no lottery, no soccer, the methods to speculate and earn money almost always involve risking one's life, to live honestly and make a large amount of Spirit Stones in a short period is really too difficult."
Despite that, Jiang Cheng still had no intention of giving up.
In his past life on Earth, Jiang Cheng had watched his classmates who had just graduated and taken out loans to buy houses become wealthy. In this life, within the world of "Immortal Gods," he did not want to miss out on any house that could bring him financial freedom!
After much thought, Jiang Cheng could only think of one way that was both safe and could quickly yield a large amount of Spirit Stones—borrowing money!
Within Wuyue City, Jiang Cheng did not have many friends, and among these few friends, the only one he could truly call a "brother" was Cao Wang.
Cao Wang came from a well-to-do family; his parents rented him a house in Wuyue City just so he could focus on his studies.
But the guy managed to learn everything except studying.
Cao Wang came from a wealthy family, never considered the cost of his spending, and was someone who never worried about money.
Rental House.
Cao Wang sat on the bed, scratching his head and ears. His mind was entirely occupied by Jiang Cheng, and he didn't feel like sleeping at all.
The two brothers shared everything with each other. Cao Wang knew all about Jiang Cheng's attempt to confess his feelings to Lin Yao.
Knowing how much Jiang Cheng liked Lin Yao made Cao Wang fear that if the confession failed, Jiang Cheng would take a hit and be unable to recover.
But more than fearing Jiang Cheng's possible failure to confess, Cao Wang feared Jiang Cheng's success even more.
Cultivators need to cleanse their marrow and rid their bodies of impurities, so they often had impressive appearances, especially the beauty-loving female cultivators.
Among the beautiful female cultivators, Lin Yao's appearance was exceptionally outstanding.
The thought of Jiang Cheng successfully confessing and becoming intimate with Lin Yao made Cao Wang roll around with jealousy.
Aside from being taller than him and slightly better-looking than him, did that dog Jiang Cheng have any other advantages?
In terms of cultivation level, Cao Wang was at the fourth level of Qi Cultivation while Jiang Cheng was at the third; regarding family wealth, Cao Wang's father was a factory owner, and Jiang Cheng hesitated even when buying a popsicle—he couldn't be any higher than Jiang Cheng.
Why would Lin Yao have feelings for Jiang Cheng?
Impossible! Absolutely impossible!
When Cao Wang heard footsteps outside the room, he quickly got up from the floor and sat upright at the desk.
Although the university entrance exam had just ended, it didn't stop him from immediately starting to review the material.
Mr. Cao's strategy was that of the early bird struggling to fly.
After entering the password, the door opened and Jiang Cheng walked in.
"How did it go?"
Cao Wang's tone was indifferent as if he truly didn't care and was just asking casually.
Hmm?
Jiang Cheng was a bit slow to react, then remembered that Cao Wang must be asking about his confession.
Right now, his mind was filled with thoughts of buying a house, and if Cao Wang hadn't mentioned it, he wouldn't even remember who Lin Yao was.
"It failed, she and I aren't suitable for each other."
Jiang Cheng diplomatically spoke, sparing the face of the Enchantress of the Demonic Tao.
Cao Wang found it harder to suppress a smile than suppressing an AK.
He came up to Jiang Cheng and patted his shoulder with "great regret."
"Ah, failure is just failure. To me, Lin Yao is just average, nothing special. Once you, brother, get admitted to a top university and become a core disciple of the Five Great Immortal Sects, what woman couldn't you pick?"
"Cao, do you have any Spirit Stones?" Jiang Cheng wasn't interested in women.
"What do you need them for?"
"I want to buy a house."
Buy a house?
You, buy a house?
No dog would believe that!
It's mostly for Lin Yao again!
Cao Wang was in a good mood and didn't point out the lie. He took out his storage bag and with a flick, placed two thousand Spirit Stones on the ground.
"Here you go, all my savings are here."
Cao Wang knew Jiang Cheng inside out. Apart from Lin Yao, this guy had nowhere else to spend money, and he was trustworthy and hardworking, so there was no fear of him not paying back.
Jiang Cheng wasn't pretentious and gave a formal bow of thanks.
"Thank you; I'll borrow these Spirit Stones for now and write you an IOU right away."
"We're brothers, do we really need an IOU?"
"Separate matters accordingly."
Jiang Cheng found some paper and a pen and properly wrote out an IOU.
Cao Wang took the IOU from Jiang Cheng, noticing that it was more professional than his father's business contracts. Not only did it include the basic information about the IOU, but it also specified the method of calculating interest, various clauses of responsibility, and even detailed what possessions could be used as collateral if the debt couldn't be paid back and the person accidentally died.
Such a simple IOU had practically considered all possibilities.
"Awesome!"
Cao Wang held back for a moment before he could only give Jiang Cheng a thumbs up.
One had to admit, having the ability to write such a detailed IOU was a talent in its own right.
"Jiang, if you don't get into an Immortal Sect, you might as well become a lawyer in my dad's factory.
Jiang Cheng smiled and didn't take Cao Wang's joking seriously.
He was a person who liked to reason things out.
Instead of not making things clear in advance and having a crazy argument later, it was better to put the rules on paper so that everything was clear and there would be no disputes.
However, although he had borrowed the money, he was still far from the sum needed for a house.
Two thousand Spirit Stones were only a fraction of the thirty-two thousand needed.
He still needed to find a way to make money fast.
"Cao, do you know of any channels to get work? I want to draw more talismans to make money."
"Jiang Cheng" was known for his handsome looks, decent academics, and his one skill in talisman drawing. He had represented his school in the Liang Kingdom's primary and secondary students' talisman drawing competition, winning a second-place award—a feat that would consider him an entry-level Talisman Master in the Talisman Association's ranking system.