3 Chapter 3 – Reborn

"Hello Ken, I'm God. I've watched over you throughout your life, even if you couldn't feel it. You had a tough life, child. For your endurance, I've decided to gift you with a wish for your next life. What would you choose?"

The memories of Leo's instructions on what to do when he was offered a wish instantly surfaced in Ken's mind, and he knew what to do.

"I wish to have an unlimited number of wishes granted."

"Haha, dear child, It doesn't work like that. You can only wish for one thing."

"That was my one wish."

"Eh look, it's against the rules. But you do have a point - after such a hard life, it'd be unfair to fix only one of your problems. How about that; I will give you all the basics in addition to your main wish."

"What are the basics?"

"Your intelligence will rise, and you will have a handsome face and a nice voice. How's that?"

"Sounds good, but what about my health? I also want a strong body and great health to live long."

"Hmm that's not possible in your world… ok, I have an idea. I will send you to a world of cultivation, like the ones described in novels. Additionally, I will grant you a healthy body to buy you more time. As long as you can advance in the cultivation world before you turn 25, you can have a strong body and brain to support your memory."

"Hmm… will it be easy to advance? What if I can't advance? I'm not that smart."

He made a sad face at God, making God feel guilty for their mess up when distributing his stats.

"Uh, I will give you a great talent in cultivation. This way it won't be a problem. And you can use your wish to get better opportunities to advance and get stronger more easily. How does that sound?"

Ken thought for a moment and found it reasonable. Leo never described this situation, so he was unsure what to do. But since most of the wishes Leo told him to ask for were included, he thought it was probably ok. There was only one more thing Leo mentioned he should ask for.

"What about my environment? It'd be bad if I died as a baby due to external threats before even having the chance to grow up."

"Fine, I will make you the son of an elder in a sect. This way you will be relatively safe and have access to some resources. Don't push it anymore, those are my limits. The next thing you ask for will be your wish, even if you mean it to be just another minor addition."

God started feeling like he was taking a loss here and decided to use his authority as the god between the two and put an end to it. He swore to himself to never do the same mistake again; kids these days knew their rights too well.

Ken was ready for that moment and recited the wish Leo told him word for word.

"I wish to have the highest intelligence possible, an intelligence that would allow me to perceive and thoroughly understand to the fullest everything I see, even if I see it only superficially and only once, including strong points, weak points, and how to overcome them."

God's metaphorical skin paled when he heard it. That was too much!

"Wait, wait. Didn't you read novels? Didn't you watch donghua? You should ask for a system to help you advance faster and quantify everything to simple amounts! You should ask for a grandpa who can escort you, defend you, and teach you!"

God quickly tried to change his mind. But Leo already warned him that the genie might find his wish hard to grant and try to make him wish for something else. In that case, according to Leo, it meant his wish was truly amazing and he should just stick with it to the end.

"I want what I said."

"Okay, I will increase your intelligence to be a few times above normal. That should do the trick, right?"

God tried to make him agree to something that sounded similar, but Ken didn't change his wording. Genies and lawyers were dangerous with their words; he still remembered the story about the man who asked the genie to make his private member reach the floor.

"I wish to have the highest intelligence possible, an intelligence that would allow me to perceive and thoroughly understand to the fullest everything I see, even if I see it only superficially and only once, including strong points, weak points, and how to overcome them."

God sighed and had to oblige with Ken's request. In their exasperation, they decided on three last acts of revenge.

First, instead of sending him to the top sect of the entire cultivation world as he previously planned, God sent Ken to a third-rate sect of the mortal plane.

The second decision was to send him as a fetus, to make him go through a few months of boredom before he can be born, and then go through another decade of being treated as a kid while being 19 years old.

Last but not least, probably the worst one yet, was not cleaning his memory from all the traumas and abuse he went through in his last life. God let him remember how his family said they'd be better off without him. The moments in which other kids have bullied him and beaten him. The moments of his failures. Anything hurtful stayed with him, and there was plenty.

"Hmph, that's your punishment for extorting more than you should. Living your life or dying will be up to you, I've repaid my debt. Since you've kept your memories, you have only six years to start your cultivation journey and advance to the next rank before your brain collapses. Good luck."

Ken's soul was sent to the womb of a newly impregnated woman and started developing a new body slowly. God's promises made huge changes in his genes, making them far better than they should've been.

His brain was enhanced over and over again to grant him the perfect memory and perfect intelligence. His body kept on getting stronger and healthier as promised, his looks improved, and his vocal cords were developing.

However, it wasn't all roses. He spent 9 months in the darkness, seeing nothing and hearing nothing. From time to time, he'd feel his mother's body rock up and down or back and forth, but luckily, he was cocooned in a defensive membrane that protected him from any intrusive liquids and unwelcomed guests.

He had nothing to do during those months except for reliving the past. This time his intelligence was much higher, so as he relived his past, it was the same as going through 19 years of life with the same experiences as the former him.

He was starting to get angrier and angrier as he questioned the reasons the other kids and his family members treated him this way. Was it his fault for being born that way? Couldn't they just deal with their own business if they didn't want to interact with him?

This went on for 9 months until he finally saw a light above his head. Or under. He wasn't sure what to call it since his head was facing downward. To his anxiety, women in this world gave birth standing, and he could imagine himself falling face down and going back to the god he met earlier.

He could hear the voices of a man he assumed to be his father, the screams of his mother, and the voice of two other women. He couldn't help but feel a slight fear they might not catch him in time when he is out.

To his horror, he suddenly saw the floor coming closer at a scary speed and stopping only when he felt dangerously close to it.

'Oh no, she just changed to a squatting position.'

He sighed in relief. The birth process was over a few hours later and he was finally out. He remembered reading in his past life that it should be much more, but he figured it's probably a benefit of being a cultivator mom. Who knew how strong she could push?

As soon as he saw the light, he suddenly felt the urge to cry. It didn't have anything to do with being a baby, or at least that's what he believed.

It was because he was enveloped in darkness for 9 months, suffering from his previous life endlessly. The nightmare was finally over; now that he was out, he could just focus on external stimuli and distract himself from the past.

He started crying loudly, albeit with no tears due to the undeveloped glands. To everyone's happiness, the baby seemed healthy and beautiful.

"Congratulations, Elder Mei, you have given birth to a healthy son!"

The two midwives and the man said together.