Birthday Argument #2

Vivi and I walked to the kitchen together with a sleepy Rosie trailing behind. Aside from being almost as big as me, Rosie had grown her third tail, just like her mother. She was also putting out a similar aura. If it weren't for the fact that everyone knew Rosie now and she was very easy-going the servants would be terrified from the aura alone.

Meanwhile, Vivian's 5'9" stature towered over my own. She was well-endowed and although her stern face scared away any would-be suitor, she was quite pretty. I was only 4'3"! It wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't met any of my peers, but the tutors would occasionally bring along similar-aged children to teach us simultaneously and they all towered over me nearly as much as Vivian. To make matters worse, I glanced from Vivian's squishy chest to mine, I was flatter than a cutting board. I should've had at least some growth by now, but nothing.

Would I look like a child forever? I couldn't bear it. There were some cute boys and girls among the students the tutors brought. I was crushing hard, but they all treated me like I was five! It didn't help that all the purification pills made my skin soft and fair.

We arrived at the kitchen while my mind was still stuck on my flatness. But I soon dropped those thoughts in favor of bacon. Bacon hadn't just been on my brain today, bacon had been on my thoughts for weeks. I had told anyone who would listen and even a few that were actively running away from me about how I would be able to eat bacon after I turned thirteen. No one had endured the brunt of my bacon obsession as much as the head cook herself. She pulled through for me too. There were multiple platters full of heavenly bacon this morning. I loaded my plate high with bacon and a few of my favorite pastries. Truth be told, the pastries looked like small submarines submerged in an ocean of bacon.

I walked right by Li Kai and made a face at him while sticking my tongue out. He ignored me, but Rosie mimicked my gesture while carrying a basket of bacon and berries. Li Kai couldn't resist his rivalry with Rosie so he responded with a face of his own. He was such a kid sometimes.

Li Kai looked at the bacon on my plate with contempt. Clearly, he still hated the heavenly pork strips, but he couldn't deny that cultivators would no longer be harmed by clogged arteries, so he let me eat in peace.

It was then that Li Kai finally noticed my cultivation base. Watching his face change from disgust at the bacon to pride at me becoming a qi-gatherer to awed horror at realizing I was at the peak of qi-gathering already was quite amusing. I winked at him playfully.

Li Kao wasn't going to let it go with just non-verbal charades, however. "You cultivated to the peak of qi-gathering in just one night?" He asked dumbfoundedly.

"Why of course, this is the great me we're talking about," I replied in the most snobbish voice I could muster. It was rare to fluster Li Kai, I was going to relish it.

The daunting task of guessing my talent through observation of my cultivation speed was no longer a problem. It was the highest talent he or anyone else had seen without a doubt.

I decided I needed to explain a few things to Li Kai before he consumed his pie in the sky whole. "Kai, before you start getting crazy ideas, I don't think my talent is as high as you think," I told him tentatively.

"Too late for that, the crazy thoughts are already here, but what makes you think that your talent isn't as good as it seems." Li Kai probed.

I motioned him away from everyone else, "For starters, I cultivate twice as fast in moonlight, which is what I did last night. Then I figured out a way to upgrade that supreme cultivation technique into a divine technique." Li Kai looked like his birthday had come early, "And no, it's not for sale." Li Kai looked like I killed a puppy in front of him. "Lastly can you look at the qi surrounding me? Something is bugging me about it."

Li Kai focused for a bit, then replied, "Looks normal to me, about 30 qi particles per square foot, same as the rest of the estate. A little bit better than most areas outside that only have 15 qi particles per square foot. Why, what do you see?"

"About 200 particles per square foot, but only near OOMPH!" I started to say before Li Kai put his hand on my mouth.

"Never say that again," Li Kai demanded, before letting me speak again.

"Now you have me worried, what is going on?" I demanded back.

"You are extremely blessed. No one has what you do, nor can it be transferred to another person or benefit them in any way. As such, jealous cultivators would rather see you die than possess what they cannot. You must keep it a secret. You shouldn't have even told me. You will need to slow your cultivation down in the sect or find a way to disguise it. Even now, the highest cultivation base they'll be expecting when we do our entry examination in the Spring will be a late-stage qi-gathering with 7 meridians open. 8 or 9 meridians occasionally appear, but they are rare. Which brings us to the next problem. Somehow you've stumbled on another secret of the elite and opened all 14 major meridians and started opening the minor ones as well." Li Kai rubbed his brow in exasperation. "You still need a technique to disguise your base. I'll try to find one for you. Until then, don't open any more meridians. Don't skip them either. Since you've already discovered them, opening them will be highly beneficial to you."

"Maybe someone's instructor should've informed her what the highest level was for a disciple entering the sect before she started cultivating," I replied, every word dripping with snark.

"How was I supposed to know that my student would cultivate to the peak in a single night when she keeps so many secrets from me?" Li Kai snapped back at my audacity.

"Not even a minute ago you told me I shouldn't have shared a secret with you. Which is it? Do you want to be my confidante or my distant mentor?" I retorted in amusement.

Li Kai and I continued bickering like this until the end of breakfast while everyone else in the kitchen was ashamed to know us. Even Rosie took her food to the opposite side of the kitchen and pretended not to know me. In the end, Vivian dragged us both by the ear while we were mid-argument to the parlor for our usual games. We could resist of course, but we allowed ourselves to be pulled to the game room and ceased our quarrel.

Maybe others didn't notice, but Vivi did. We weren't really upset with each other. We just enjoyed the argument. We would've kept going until nightfall if she didn't stop us. She sat us at different tables to prevent that. Coincidentally she sat me at the gambling table with Fred. I turned to him and grinned widely while he started to perspire. This was going to be fun.