12 My Reincarnation

It was clear to me that as of that day, I had to lead the life of Ke Lei Ba.

The name Akilaba? I had to keep it hidden for now…for if I ever mentioned it, then the other kings would spot me out. I still had not chosen what to do in regards to them, but for now I had to focus on developing myself.

I was a baby after all. And in seven years' time, Demonic God will begin his sick game.

I had to be ready when he does.

For the first year of my life…

Although I could not speak, I could very well listen to the things said around me. It didn't take me long till I learned my parents' names. While my father ran around the house, he kept repeating "Bai Ling" and before my mother was able to get out of her bed, she always called out "Qi Tian".

Of course, knowing their names didn't mean anything as I would have to call them mother and father when I do develop the ability to speak.

Around three months in, the fuzziness in my eyes had completely disappeared. I was able to see the world I was dropped into…the world created by Demonic God for him to play with us as he wished.

To be honest…it was not as bad as I thought it would be.

While my original thoughts wandered towards a hellish place void of life or vegetation, what I could see from my limited outdoor excursions was magnificent. Mountains spread all over the grounds like trees. There were many lush forests. Wide fields of grass. A beautiful and clear sky under the heavens in the morning and one that was starry in the evening. A sun rose and set just as it did in my old life. Even the moon was the same.

It was hard to admit that this was a different world altogether.

After I was born, quite a number of people visited my parents and congratulated them. I remembered their faces and I caught some of their names too.

(But that's irrelevant now.)

A few of the times when people came to our house, disputes and fights occurred. As I didn't yet know the language, I could never understand what was the reason or the identities of the ones that came over. What I did notice, was that my mother was always scared of them.

I couldn't shake the feeling that there was something wrong with the situation. So I vowed that day to investigate this matter when I was old enough. It was my way of repaying the woman who took care of me in this life.

Moving on to the second year…

After almost a year had passed, I began to walk. At first, I needed some help to stay balanced but then I was able to do it independently.

Of course, I was not allowed to go anywhere I wanted. Every time I attempted to go outside, one of my parents would stop me and carry me back inside to my crib.

(Which I could not get out of presently…sigh!)

Regardless of this, if I was accompanied by either, then I could go out and walk around. When that happened, I was finally able to discover things about our house and its neighbourhood.

Our house, or my parents' house in fact, was located in a large field beside the city. There were huge turned fields dedicated to harvest, herbs and other vegetation. What was weird about it, was that all the crops I saw looked like nothing I had ever seen.

My father was the one who worked in them. He had several people helping him too.

Whatever the business was, I could tell it was fairly compensating as they had so many farmers. I was still oblivious of both my parents' social standing, but what I was able to conclude was that my father was neither a bigshot nor a small one.

As for my mother, I have yet to know.

Sometime during my second year, I was able to speak. With baby steps, I began repeating syllables after them until I was taught some basic stuff such as greetings.

They were astounded by my ability to grasp the sounds so quickly. But to be honest, their language was still hard enough to learn even though I had the mind of an adult. I memorized whatever they told me and made out the context and their meanings from their attempts at miming them.

It was fairly simple after that.

A quick look through my third and fourth year…

I learned the language in a stable way, enough not to get attention from the gossiping neighbours. Afterwards, talking with my parents was quite normal and easy. No longer being in the dark of their conversations felt appeasing. If I had to spend another year oblivious to everything spoken around me…I think I could rip off my own ears.

(That's perhaps why babies don't have that much consciousness…)

During these two years, I had one goal. To learn how to write!

Since I was still young, my limbs and body were not adequate to train in any kind of activities. So what I decided to do, was to dedicate these years to learning all academic things I could get out of my parents.

To my delight, my mother told me she was educated and taught by one of the city's best scholars. I did not question how it came about that she was granted such an opportunity at the time. I was just too excited to learn more than the bare minimum taught to children my age.

If I had to describe the script…I'd give props to whoever came up with it.

A single character was equal to several letters at once. And the way it was drawn? Simply beautiful. None of the languages I knew had that kind of meticulous penmanship and brush strokes. Not to mention over thousands of different letters.

Once again, I proved to be a prodigy in their eyes and it was not long before I caught the attention of many of our neighbours. To my dismay, my mother had decided to spread the word that her son had memorized every single alphabet she knew at the age of four.

With that said, many teachers were interested to see me write things.

(Thank you, mom…)

The fifth year…

In the years that went past, I achieved my first goal which was to grasp the language and writing system of this world properly.

Once I deemed myself fluent enough, I decided it was time to begin with some physical work. And what was better training than doing physical labour in my father's fields?

He and his family (mine as well I guess) had several fields with each spreading to several Mu each. A Mu was about an acre compared to the measurements I used back in my old world.

My father was at first unsure if he should allow me to do so, but he eventually thought it would be a good experience. I of course, had bigger plans in mind than simply working the fields.

My goal was to enhance my stamina, grow the muscles of my feet and hands, and acquire enough control over my child body. What I needed most was malleability and strength. If those were achieved, I could then begin training my swordsmanship at full. After all, I was a swordsman back in the day and If I wasn't a child right now, I would have begun with it right away from the start of my reincarnation.

I needed to train in not only swords but everything I used to know too.

I don't think I mentioned it before, but prior to becoming a king, I was a trained specialist soldier in charge of operations and the defence of the royals. But until I gained enough control over my current body, I had to refrain from displaying any of my previous talents.

What I did in that year was run around the field like a crazy dog, plough the fields day and night and harvest whatever I could get my hands on. When I wasn't doing all these things, I sharpened my fists by continuously hitting tree trunks of some nearby forest.

I did what I could and made sure to feed myself just enough to grow into a fit shape. I wouldn't want my training to go to waste if I didn't get enough nutrients.

The fifth year passed by quickly and almost unnoticeable after my hardships.

The sixth year was upon me…

It was the last year I had before the possibility of an encounter could be happening. Demonic never specified if he would begin his game at the beginning of the seventh year or at its end. If I had to do something, it had to be now…or lest I fall prey this early.

After seeing me work hard, my father finally decided to teach me what I have been stressing over ever since the mention of it.

One day, he came up to me with a serious look upon his face. His exact words were kind of heart-warming but cold nonetheless.

"Son. I have deemed you worthy enough to begin training. I will teach you the Ke's methods and hope you will not tarnish our family name and instead raise us high with your future accomplishments."

It was happening…

At last! I was going to learn cultivation!

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*Check the very first chapters at the very beginning for the Index*