Birthday Gift

Grand Marshal Li coughed and said, "Ahem, let's not talk about that for now. Little Ye Lang, can you let us see the box you bought?"

"Tiger Girl, give him the box." The little spendthrift generously agreed. He wasn't very concerned about these things originally. Although he bought it, he didn't mind giving it to anyone or expecting anything in return.

In his words, what would a spendthrift care about such things?

When Grand Marshal Li excitedly took the box, and everyone was looking forward to it, they suddenly discovered something that made everyone a bit depressed: the box contained another box.

This immediately made people think of one thing: would this box be a box within a box, repeating until the notes appeared?

Thinking about it, how big could the notes be? This box was clearly too large.

The result was not bad; it turned out the box wasn't like that. However, a new problem arose: this box required certain procedures to be opened, and these procedures might be very, very difficult.

"Damn it, this Ban is f***ing crazy. Why lock his notes in a box like this? How is anyone supposed to see them?" Grand Marshal Li cursed immediately.

That's right, this box was no ordinary box. It was a box with mechanisms that Ban had put a lot of effort into creating. These mechanisms required profound alchemy knowledge to decipher. This was a test for the destined person. He didn't want his notes to be seen by ignorant people. To see his notes, one had to possess alchemy skills he approved of.

And this box was the exam paper to test people.

The astute individuals present easily guessed this and immediately summoned the empire's most powerful alchemists to decipher it. Fortunately, most of them were nearby.

Because of this box, everyone's attention seemed to be drawn away, causing them to forget some things, like the two birthday stars of the day. Fortunately, both birthday stars were very generous and didn't fuss about it, playing happily on the side.

Children, it's best when adults don't pay attention to them, allowing them to play to their heart's content.

"...You mean you can't decipher it immediately?" the Emperor asked with a slight frown, a little surprised.

"Yes, Your Majesty. This box requires very complex procedures to open. If there's any mistake in the process, it might trigger the internal mechanism and destroy the notes. So, we need time to study it carefully," the alchemists said.

"That's true. Since it's Ban's box, it naturally wouldn't be this simple. You can take your time to study it. I believe you want to see what's inside even more than I do," the Emperor said.

That was right. What was inside was something all alchemists wanted to see. They were more anxious than anyone to know Ban's alchemy insights.

"Heh heh..." The alchemists all started to laugh, a bit foolishly, but this foolishness made many people feel it was a cute, silly laugh.

"Your Majesty, forgive my boldness, but how did this box come to be?" After their happy, foolish laughter, the alchemists curiously asked.

"We have to thank our birthday stars today, our little Ye Family young master. You should go and wish him a happy birthday too." The Emperor pointed to the Thirteenth Young Master, who was playing an unknown game with the Seventh Princess in the plaza.

"???" The alchemists didn't understand at first what this had to do with that little spendthrift. But soon, they remembered. It must be this legendary super spendthrift who bought the box somewhere. They had long heard that his luck was always magical.

Speaking of which, this matter was indeed very, very fortunate. In fact, for the past few hundred years, this box had appeared in auction houses and pawn shops from time to time, with prices that were simply unacceptable.

According to the people who did these things, and Ban himself, he hoped that not only people with extremely high alchemy skills would see this item, but also a destined person would obtain it. Until then, no one would reveal any information about it.

However, once someone obtained it, they would immediately announce it to the world, as if to prevent it from being buried by that destined person.

It was also fortunate that they announced it to the world. Otherwise, this box would have surely remained dormant in Tiger Girl's Space Pouch, with little chance of seeing the light of day again.

To thank the little spendthrift for his "contribution," the alchemists indeed gathered around to congratulate him on his birthday. Soon, they considered a problem: they seemed to need to give him a birthday gift.

However, they had all rushed over in a hurry and had nothing prepared. But soon, someone thought of a good idea.

"Young Master Ye, happy birthday. I don't have much to give, so I'll give you this book." An alchemist took out a book and gave it to the little spendthrift. And as a book from an alchemist, it was naturally a book on alchemy.

Books are the source of knowledge. While giving a book might not be spectacular, it would never be outdated, and no one would say it was inappropriate. Moreover, it was suitable for people of all ages.

With one person leading the way, others also started giving books. They always carried alchemy-related materials and books with them, and they made sure not to give duplicates.

These were all top alchemists on the continent. Although they were just giving books, these books were very precious, some being rare finds.

Although the little spendthrift didn't understand why these people suddenly came over and gave him books, he accepted all the gifts without any politeness.

"This box... let me see it..." Suddenly, the little spendthrift saw the box in the alchemist's hand, and a look of confusion appeared in his eyes.

At this moment, everyone seemed to interpret Ye Lang's confused expression as him suspecting whether this box was the same one as before.

If it were someone else asking, the alchemists would have refused. But now that they knew this box originally belonged to the little spendthrift in front of them, they hesitated before handing the box to him, while also cautioning him to be careful.

"What is this?" the little spendthrift asked after looking at it for a while, pointing to an alchemy array on it.

"This is a defensive alchemy array. It's interlinked with the alchemy array on the side, enclosing the entire box. It can protect the box's integrity and also ensure that the box cannot be opened by other means. This arrangement of alchemy arrays is something I've never seen before. We still need to study what exactly it is," the alchemist answered professionally.

"Oh..." the little spendthrift replied, looking at the box.