Learning to read is no easy task for an infant who is not even a year old and has just begun to babble.
It is even more difficult when the person taking care of him is also an underage young girl.
Besides, Yan Taibai’s parents would not feel at ease leaving him in the care of anyone else in the Yan family.
Fortunately, the young girl is somewhat mature for her age. Although Yan Yun is only thirteen or fourteen, she is a cultivator and has the help of other family members, so she takes quite good care of Yan Taibai.
Still, good as she is, Yan Taibai thinks it is far too difficult to expect Yan Yun to teach him how to read.
However, a turning point soon arrives!
The *Zhuazhou* ceremony!
Just like in his past life, when Yan Taibai reached his first birthday and his parents still had not returned, Yan Yun had no choice but to prepare the *Zhuazhou* items for him herself.
Most of them are common items for a child's divination ceremony: a wooden sword, a writing brush, books... The only difference is the inclusion of immortal cultivation items such as talismans and magical tools.
Without a trace of hesitation, Yan Taibai grabs hold of one of the books and refuses to let go.
Right after, the status panel changes once more!
Host: Yan Taibai
Gender: Male
Age: One year old
Realm: None
Form: Infancy
[First cultivation simulation completed: Reward granted - Metal Heavenly Spiritual Root]
[Requirement for second cultivation simulation: Read ten thousand volumes of books.]
[Progress: 0%]
Seeing the changes on the panel, Yan Taibai’s cute, exquisitely carved little face wrinkles up, his eyes filled with a complicated expression.
Asking a slacker to "read ten thousand volumes of books"—isn't this just making things hard for him?
Yet, tempted by the allure of the unknown reward, Yan Taibai makes up his mind to fulfill the requirement of reading ten thousand volumes.
"Could it be that our household is going to produce a bookworm?"
Just as Yan Taibai is caught in a flurry of complicated emotions, the young girl Yan Yun looks at him clutching the book tightly in his two little hands, her pretty face looking far from pleased.
After all, bookworms are terribly boring—a fact the young girl Yan Yun knows all too well.
"Oh well, since you little fellow like reading so much, I'll teach you."
After a long moment, the much more mature Yan Yun lets out a helpless smile. She packs away the rest of the *Zhuazhou* items and picks up Yan Taibai, who is still holding the book.
Instead of putting it back in the crib, she carries him toward the courtyard study.
As a courtyard bestowed by the cultivating Yan Family Fortress, though small, it has everything one needs, including a modestly sized study.
This is where most Yan family children receive their primary education.
Of course, the Yan family also has a school!
Its first responsibility is to teach the children of the fortress how to read and write, and the second is to impart knowledge about the Immortal Realm.
As for the teaching of cultivation techniques and spells, that is not handled at the school, but rather at the Yan family's Martial Arts Hall.
Drawing on the experience of his two lifetimes, Yan Taibai quickly displays the side of a "prodigy" under Yan Yun's instruction.
With an eidetic memory akin to a Foundation Establishment cultivator, he masters the language of this Immortal Realm and all the daily characters he needs in just one month.
To Yan Taibai's disappointment, however, the progress bar for reading ten thousand volumes has only increased by one percent.
There is still ninety-nine percent left to go before completing this task.
Fortunately, he is only one year old and has plenty of time; besides, being too young is not suitable for cultivation.
His meridians, bones, and internal organs are still undeveloped, making him unable to absorb and withstand the spiritual Qi of heaven and earth. He will have to wait until he is at least three to five years old before he can officially embark on the path of cultivation.
Therefore, Yan Taibai has ample time. All he needs to do is read, read, and read.
Through his reading, Yan Taibai has also confirmed that the cultivation world he transmigrated into is indeed the world of *Mortal's Journey to Immortality*.
The Yan family he belongs to is none other than the current number one cultivation clan in Yue Country: Yan Family Fortress.
It is a powerful cultivation clan boasting multiple Core Formation stage experts at the helm, and the only one that possesses an entire commandery—Linzhou.
As for the matter of the Yan Family Fortress later defecting to and even taking control of the Ghost Spirit Sect, that is not something Yan Taibai needs to concern himself with right now.
The most important thing for him at present is to read and complete the panel's task of reading ten thousand volumes.
Only then can he proceed to the second cultivation simulation and obtain the unknown reward!
Thus, relying on his photographic memory, Yan Taibai takes just another month to memorize every single book in his courtyard's study.
The progress bar for reading ten thousand volumes leaps to a full five percent, greatly delighting him.
However, in order to drive the progress bar to one hundred percent as quickly as possible, Yan Taibai sets his sights on the Scripture Pavilion of the Yan Family Fortress school.
The Scripture Pavilion houses no less than one hundred thousand volumes of books alone, which will undoubtedly allow him to complete his task.
To his surprise, while he initially thought that entering the Scripture Pavilion to read at his current age would be terribly troublesome, he merely mentions it to his aunt Yan Yun, and she leads him right in without meeting any obstruction.
Upon closer inquiry, he learns this is because he has become a member of the local orphan club.
Yan Taibai feels no excessive sorrow over this matter.
After all, he never even met the two of them, and Yan Yun does not dwell on it either, simply having grown much more mature.
Her previous bitter mutterings to herself have all vanished.
Aside from taking care of Yan Taibai, delivering meals to him where he lives and eats in the Scripture Pavilion, and washing his clothes, her daily routine consists solely of looking after the shop business and cultivating.
Because Yan Taibai is considered an orphan, the Yan family has granted him a dividend share in a rather profitable commercial shop.
The spiritual stones alone amount to over a hundred per year—more than enough for Yan Yun and him to live without worry over food and clothing.
This gives Yan Taibai a bit more sense of belonging toward the Yan Family Fortress; at least it is not like the predatory property-grabbing of his past life—perhaps related to the fact that Yan Yun is also a cultivator.
Yan Taibai is quite a little celebrity in the Yan Family Fortress. For no other reason than that he immerses himself in reading at the Scripture Pavilion every day—something that not even a poetry-obsessed "bookworm" or "scholar" of the Yan family could achieve, let alone a toddler of one or two years old.
Yet Yan Taibai does it, and he stays there doing just that for a full two years.
What leaves Yan Taibai helpless, however, is that even so, the progress bar for reading ten thousand volumes has only reached fifty-six percent.
The further along he gets, the harder it becomes, much like being swindled by Pinduoduo in his past life.
Naturally, this is also related to the heavy duplication of knowledge and information in the books he reads. With new knowledge becoming scarcer by the day, it is only logical that the progress slows down.
Having figured out the reason, Yan Taibai asks the manager of the Scripture Pavilion for permission to go up to the second floor to read, but is ruthlessly refused.
Only cultivators of the Yan Family Fortress are qualified to enter the second floor of the Scripture Pavilion, and though he bears the reputation of a prodigy, he is still a mortal and thus unqualified to enter the second floor.
Fortunately, he is about to have his spiritual roots tested alongside other children of the Yan family of his age.
With his Metal Heavenly Spiritual Root, he is bound to win the attention of the Yan Family Fortress!