Birthday Gift

Grand Marshal Li coughed dryly. "Ahem, ahem. All right, let's not talk about that for now. Little Ye Lang, could you let us have a look at the box you bought?"

"Tiger Girl, give him the box." The little Prodigal Son agreed generously. He had never cared much about such things. Although he had bought it, he did not mind who he gave it to, nor did he care whether he got anything in return.

In his words, what would a Prodigal Son care about such things for?

As Grand Marshal Li excitedly took the box and everyone waited with bated breath, they suddenly discovered something rather depressing: inside the box was another box.

That could not help but make people think of something—could this be the kind of box that contained another box, repeating endlessly until the notebook finally appeared?

Just think about it: it was only a notebook. How large could it be? This box was clearly far too big.

The result was not too bad. The box was not like that after all. But a new problem arose: opening it required a series of procedures, and those procedures might be exceedingly difficult.

"Damn it, Ban must have something wrong with his head! He locked his own notebook in a perfectly good box—how is anyone supposed to read it?" Grand Marshal Li was the first to curse loudly.

That was right. This was no ordinary box, but one Ban had painstakingly crafted with mechanisms built into it. Those mechanisms required profound alchemy knowledge to crack. This was a test for anyone fated to find it. He did not want ignorant people reading his notebook; anyone who wished to read it had to possess alchemy skills he acknowledged.

This box was the examination paper meant to test them.

The shrewd people present easily guessed as much and immediately summoned the Empire's strongest alchemists to crack it. Fortunately, most of them were nearby.

Because of the box, everyone's attention seemed to have been drawn away, causing them to forget certain things—such as the two little birthday stars of the day. Fortunately, both were generous and did not fuss over it. They merely played happily off to one side.

Children were like that. The best thing was when adults did not pay attention to them, so they could play and fool around to their hearts' content.

"...You're saying that even you can't crack it for the moment?" The Emperor frowned and asked, somewhat surprised.

"Yes, Your Majesty. This box requires an extremely complicated procedure to open. If any mistake is made along the way, it may trigger the mechanisms inside and destroy the notebook. We need time to study it slowly," the alchemists said.

"That makes sense. Since it is Ban's box, it naturally would not be so simple. You may study it at your leisure. I believe you want to see what is inside even more than I do," the Emperor said.

That was true. What lay inside was something every alchemist wanted to see. They were more anxious than anyone to learn of Ban's alchemy insights.

"Hehe..." The alchemists all began laughing, their smiles a little foolish, yet the kind of foolish smiles many found endearing.

"Your Majesty, may I presumptuously ask how this box was obtained?" After their happy, foolish laughter, the alchemists curiously asked.

"For that, you should thank today's little birthday star, the Young Master of the Ye Clan. Go wish him a happy birthday as well." The Emperor pointed toward the Thirteenth Young Master, who was playing some unknown game with the Seventh Princess in the square.

"??" At first, the alchemists did not understand what this had to do with that little Prodigal Son. But they quickly remembered: it must have been that legendary super Prodigal Son who had bought this box somewhere. They had long heard that his luck had always been astonishingly magical.

Come to think of it, this truly was an extraordinarily fortunate matter. Over the past several hundred years, the box had appeared at auction houses and general stores at intervals, always marked with a price no one could accept.

According to both the people who handled these matters and Ban himself, he hoped not only that someone with exceptional alchemy skills would see this item, but also that a person fated for it would obtain it. Before then, no one would reveal any information about it.

However, once someone obtained it, they would immediately announce it to the world, as though they feared it would be buried along with that fated person.

Fortunately, they had announced it to the world. Otherwise, the box would surely have slept inside Tiger Girl's Space Pouch, with little chance of ever seeing daylight again.

To thank the little Prodigal Son for his "contribution," the alchemists indeed gathered around to celebrate his birthday. Before long, though, they considered a problem: they seemed to need to give him something as a birthday gift.

They had rushed over in such a hurry that they had not prepared anything. But someone soon came up with a good idea.

"Young Master Ye Lang, happy birthday. I don't have anything else to give you, so I'll give you this book." An alchemist took out a book and handed it to the little Prodigal Son. Naturally, a book brought out by an alchemist was a book about alchemy.

Books were the fountainhead of knowledge. Giving one might not be particularly dazzling, but it would never go out of fashion, nor could anyone say it was inappropriate. It was suitable for both young and old.

With one person taking the lead, the others began giving books as well. They carried alchemy reference materials and books with them wherever they went, and made sure not to give duplicates of what the others had offered.

These people were all top-tier alchemists of the continent. Though they were only giving books, those books were all precious, some so rare that they could only be encountered by chance.

Although the little Prodigal Son did not understand why these people had suddenly come over and even given him books, he accepted every gift without the slightest politeness.

"This box... let me see it..." Suddenly, the little Prodigal Son saw the box in an alchemist's hands, and a momentary confusion appeared in his eyes.

At that moment, everyone seemed to interpret the little Prodigal Son's confused expression as him wondering whether this was the same box from before.

If anyone else had made such a request, the alchemists would have refused. But now that they knew the original owner of the box was the little Prodigal Son before them, they hesitated before handing it over, while also warning him to be careful.

"What is this?" The little Prodigal Son studied it for a while, then pointed at an Alchemy Array on it and asked.

"This is a defensive Alchemy Array. It interlocks with the arrays beside it, enclosing the entire box. It can protect the box's integrity while also ensuring it cannot be opened by other means. This arrangement of Alchemy Arrays is the first I've ever seen. As for exactly what it is, we still need to study it," the alchemist answered professionally.

"Oh..." The little Prodigal Son replied as he looked at the box.