Chapter 21 - A Genius?!

'WHAT HAVE I DONE~! Did I just fuck myself over?? Are babies not supposed to say thank you? Or are they? WHAT THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO DO!' I inwardly screamed as I panicked.

'Huuuuuuu. Haaaaaaa. Calm Down. Okay. Just play it cool.'

"Kya kya~!" I happily cried out as I brightly smiled as best as I could, trying to pass off as if nothing happened...

"Hooooaaaaah! I KNEW IT! SHE UNDERSTOOD US! HER FIRST WORDS! XIE XIE! ON HER FIRST BIRTHDAY~!

Ooooooooh, I'm sooooooooo happy~! Did you like your gift, Yan Yan?" Mom gasped with unending hyperactive excitement.

'All well. The cat's outta the bag. Might as well just go all th- who am I kidding? Of course, Imma lay low and stay low-key, especially since I'm a girl in this life, definitely going to be treated as some kind of prize if I stand out in some way...'

"Uhn!" I nodded my head happily.

"See~? I was right all along! Yan Yan truly could understand us. I bet you thought I was delusional or something before this didn't you?" Mom smugly boasted to Dad, playfully elbowing him in the sides.

"No, I totally trusted you." Dad said in a daze.

"Do you dare swear upon the heavens? With your cultivation base on the line?"

"...Today is a day for celebration! We should be happy so many good things happened today!" Dad tried to change the subject.

"Humph." Mom pouted with a knowing smile.

"Which is why, I also got you a gift as well." Dad said as he pulled out a beautiful wooden box that gave out a fragrant smell from his spatial ring.

"Hmm? What is this?" Mom curiously asked.

"It's a Dantian Cleansing Pill. I managed to make a 9-star one by pure luck, while practicing at the Alchemist Association." Dad mentioned as he opened the box, and the unique medicinal fragrance burst out of the opening.

"...Oh, you..." Mom speechlessly held the box.

"I was going to separately make one, but I thought It would be difficult to make another 9-star pill with my level of skill, so I just replaced the pill with my own materials for the job I took."

"So this was your surprise?"

"Yeah. Do you like it? With it, it should be much easier for me to help you cleanse your meridians and pave the way for an easier breakthrough."

"I love it! Especially since you practiced making the pill for me! Even if it was by luck, you still did the best you could for me. I could tell by the Qi composition, it has your trace on it. Thank you so much~!" Mom happily kissed Dad on the lips for a long time before separating.

"Okay, since we gave all the gifts already, let's get eating!" Mom clapped her hands together.

"You didn't prepare a gift for me?" Dad asked with a hopeful expression.

"Am I... not enough of a gift?" Mom whispered as she hugged Dad, sticking as much of her body close to dad.

*Gulp*

"Enough, enough! Definitely enough!" Dad nodded his head frantically.

"Check how's Yan Yan's noddles are doing dear, it wouldn't do for them to be overcooked." Mom said as she continued removing the eggshells for me.

"Sure." Dad replied, taking the noodles out into a jade bowl.

'Eh? They're just going to brush it off? Not surprised? I mean, I just said my 'first words', aren't they surprised? I mean, since it's my birthday, I guess a year has passed already huh... When do babies start talking anyway?' I thought as I stared at them preparing the feast.

"Annnd, done!" Mom shouted as she finished peeling all the eggs.

"To celebrate our Yan Yan's first birthday, here's 3 eggs and a bowl of longevity noodles! Slowly eat okay? The longevity noodles must be eaten in one go, and cannot be cut, bitten or broken off. So how you should eat is put it in your mouth, nibble on it and then suck it, making sure it doesn't get cut off from your mouth." Mom explained as she demonstrated with her own noodles.

I copied her movements except for using my fingers to grab the noodles instead of chopsticks.

'It's a little hot, but it's nice. I can taste the smooth broth the noodle was boiled in. It would be too high profile to just use chopsticks without any prior practice...' I thought as I carefully ate the longevity noodles all in one go.

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"Hooo.." I sighed in satisfaction as I finished the noodles in one go and ate the 3 red-shelled eggs.

Mom and Dad were watching me with wide smiles on their face as they have already finished their bowl of bone broth soup and noodles.

"Now that we're done eating, we should move on to the choosing ceremony..." Dad spoke out a while after I finished eating.

"Right!" Mom nodded as she took out a large box from her spatial ring, then clearing away the pots and pans, and spilled the contents onto the large stone table.

A spread of toy versions of weapons were in front of me, as well as an assorted of 10 special looking toys that don't look like weapons behind them.

"Auuu?" I questioned with my head leaning to the right?

"These are some toys for you, pick the ones that you like!" Mom explained.

'Hmm, I see. So it's like, a ceremony, to see the child's talents and likes?' I thought to myself as I carefully looked through all of the toys.

There were swords, sabers, spears, staffs, shields, bow and arrows, gloves, daggers, maces, hammers and the like, of all shapes and sizes, of different lengths and widths.

I looked further beyond and saw 10 toys, that looked very different compared to the others.

I saw an anvil and a hammer paired with a furnace on a piece of hardboard.

I saw a sealed cauldron with fire surrounding its bottom.

I saw herbs and needles, with a pestle and mortar.

I saw a set of strange tools with a beautiful looking pattern surrounding the tools on another piece of hardboard.

I saw a brush with ink, as well as paper with strange, runic like symbols.

I saw a wok, a pot, a knife, a stove with fire, on a chopping board.

I saw a beast with a collar and a strange symbol on their forehead.

I saw a garden with various types of plants in it.

I saw a special, complicated-looking board with various symbols and lines on it.

I saw a puppet on transparent strings that connected to nothing.

'These are...? Side professions? They all look pretty interesting. I might as well take them all. But first, weapons.

I actually want to try them all, because I'm of the faction that believes all things are connected, and can be correlated to each other.

But I suppose, starting out small is better. So what better choice than the same weapons mom and dad use?'

After thinking through, I reached my hands out to a pair of metal looking cool gloves, with joy appearing on dad's face and dismay appearing on mom's face.

Then I picked an elegant looking recurve bow, which placed a huge grin on mom's face.

I then move through the other weapons and hoarded all 10 of the side profession toys.

"Aiii~!" I cried out, waving my toys.

"Uhhhh..." Dad dumbfoundedly sounded out.

"I'm happy our daughter likes the weapons we use, probably because of the First Hunt, but... to think she likes all 10 side professions is astounding, to say the least." Mom hesitatingly spoke.

"Auuu?" I leaned my head to the side, as if to say 'what's wrong?'.

"Un mhn. It's nothing." Mom shook her head with a smile as she collected the toys back into the box and kept it. Then stroked my head tenderly.

"Well, it looks like our daughter truly wants to grow up wise, since she wants to know everything..." Dad jokingly said.

"Bai Bai! Are you telling me you don't believe our daughter can do it?!" Mom scolded.

"I'm not saying that, but a person's lifespan, time, and attention are limited. There only so much one can do. Perhaps, if she can breakthrough to the supposed Immortality cultivation realm, then she could gain a lifespan as long as the heavens, but truthfully speaking, it's more like a myth, even among the widespread connections of the Association Network that has tendrils everywhere on the continent." Dad explained himself.

"B-but..." Mom stuttered.

"We could barely even reach Core Formation realm, much less Nascent Soul realm. Not to mention the illusive Nirvanic Rebirth realm, and cultivation realms beyond. If she wants to learn almost everything under the heavens, then she has a long, hard road ahead of her." Dad depressingly mentioned.

"...Let's just do the best we can. We'll teach her what we know first. Our weapons. Our professions. Our cultivation. We'll give her the best that we can get." Mom staunchly declared.

"...Okay." Dad perked back up with firm resolution blazing in his eyes.