Chapter 9 - Targeted! part 2

Jodye Trill once again struggled out of his mother's embrace, but a sliver of her power stayed attached to him like a collar. Ignoring this degrading feeling, he dashed over to the mark left over from the explosion.

Suddenly, out of nowhere the trillions of particles suddenly converged right in front of Jodye to become the Fate Gem! Except, rather than being small and transparent, it was now twice the size of before and the same sapphire blue as Jodye's eyes.

Lord Osiris' entire body began to tremble when he saw the Fate Gem reassemble, "Impossible...no way..."

"It...it exploded.." stammered Elder Mercer. Didn't that mean?

"S Grade," Lady Isis, Lord Osiris, and Elder Fontaine spoke in unison.

"It's fine that it exploded, it's fine..." sighed Elder Mercer, "mine too exploded, in the end, you know...my master was quite upset, although he was also happy...but his...the boy...it revived? What does that mean?"

Jodye was a bit puzzled by their reactions. Was the result right, or evil? He couldn't read the atmosphere. All he knew for sure was that he was a big deal right now. These guys were looking at him as if they saw something terrifying. Jodye had just begun walking back towards his mother when he noticed the Fate Gem calmly floating behind him as he walked, so he stopped. Then he ran over to his dad's legs. Then he over to Elder Fontaine's. Then over to his mother again. At this point, he felt he had it confirmed.

"Mom help me! The Fate Gem is possessed. Ghost gem! It's a ghost gem!" Said Little Jodye Trill tugging on his mother's dress and pointing at the Gem as he floored the room once again. The Hall was filled with boisterous laughter, and the tension in the room once again evaporated slightly. These elders thought that this youth was the most exciting brat they had met so far. Even he, himself, was starting to be convinced of his age.

Being a kid was fun, and the perfect cover. Jodye secretly fantasized about how many more people he could have killed as an assassin if he had been able to do so as a child. He would've surely been rich.

"Wait..." suddenly Jodye had a terrible idea, that tempted him a lot. As a former part-time villain, his sense of morality was already questionable in the first place.

"No, Joseph this is wonderful!" Exclaimed the lady Isis, her ice phoenix-like eyes fervent, as she lifted her son in the air and spun him around three times before placing him down. Her face was flushed red, and she had a proud smile on her face. That right, she was indeed proud of her son's potential. "This fate gem has been reborn as a destiny star! The laws of fate have fused with it and acknowledged you as a master! Once you reach the destiny platform, this gem will evolve into a second artifact! Now you will be an elite among the elite, destined to stand above the myriad of other warriors."

After Lady Isis' powerful words faded, the entire room went silent, as all eyes fell on her. Lady Isis was momentarily startled before she remembered that her background was truly deeper than these bumpkins. She composed herself, speaking eloquently to the crowd.

"As you all should know, a Sage class expert's main soul is actually a fusion between a host soul and a hollow soul," Lady Isis picked up her son and held him in her arms, in spite of his protests, as she turned to face the men in the room. "When a child is born with a Sage Body their host soul is in a state of hibernation, making their potential null."

As she was speaking, Lady Isis let go of Jodye who remained floating in the air, totally shocking the boy himself. It felt as if she was still holding him! Yet she was clearly no longer doing so. Isis tied her long wavy braids into a ponytail before one of her rings flashed, and brand new Fate Gem appeared in her hand.

Jodye's eyes were wide with shock, "Did she just pull that out of her ring!? Rings can hold things? Why has no one shown me one of these before?"

Seriously?

She was using magic to levitate him, yet the boy was more concerned about her spatial ring. How was this a child? She just could never distract him efficiently, he noticed everything.

"My lady, you were saying?" urged Lord Osiris, eager to know the fantastic aspects of his seed.

Lady Isis rolled her eyes at their son and then paused for a moment as if in thought, "The fate gem is a mysterious object refined by top-level Saint class experts to assess the potential of an individual's main soul. The reaction of the fate gem is a weakened reflection of the main soul's primary affinities..."

"Ma," Jodye Trill suddenly called out while tugging his mother's clothes from mid-air.

"Yes, my little heartbeat, what is it?" asked Lady Isis, glancing at her son as if she had been waiting for him to speak. Subconsciously, she had started taking the child's thoughts and statements more seriously. It was no longer similar to the way she would talk to an infant.

"How come Saints can make things for a Sage? Shouldn't there be differences between the two?" asked the ever-inquisitive young Jodye Trill.

"This..." his mother could think of no simple answer to this complicated question her son asked. Lady Isis had been expecting him to ask her about the spatial ring on her finger, before demanding to have one of his own. This was why she hadn't shown him this ring before, after all. Still, that would have been simpler as she was already prepared.

However, to explain where the boy's thinking was wrong here, she would first need to emphasize the importance of force comprehension. In her heart, it was too soon for her son to learn of or even understand such matters! He had his entire childhood ahead of him.

"Bwahaha," However, right when Lady Isis was about to lightly brush off the question, the House Lord interjected with his trademark boisterous laugh.

"My son, while it is true that Sages and Saints cultivate differently, the end goal is the same. Once you reach the highest levels of strength, the comprehension of the different powerful forces of the earth and the sky is what will truly separate the weak from the strong. Saints are proficient in controlling fate power, which gives them powerful and unique traits and abilities. The ability to refine items such as the fate gem is merely one example of such abilities." Osiris Trilleck believed today, more than ever, that his son's potential was genuinely monstrous. It might be limitless even. His questions showed a level of mental maturity that was just unheard of at his age.

The House Lord's thoughts differed from his wife. He had decided to spare no effort in cultivating the mind of this baby ancestor. In the Lord's mind, little Joseph Trilleck was like a giant sponge that just soaked up all the information it was given like it was liquid. The boy had never asked the same question twice, and once his questions were answered, his understanding of the subject would become profound enough to connect two pieces of information together to form a third.

This was not, by any means, the level of an infant or even a child.

Perhaps for an eleven-year-old, with a Sophmore rank Sage cultivation, such behavior would not be unusual. However, on a powerless, untrained, one-year-old, with no cultivation to speak of? It was plainly absurd.

This kid didn't even possess eyes that could see the phenomena of heaven and earth primary forces. Lord Osiris Trilleck was aware that he couldn't let any word of this event leave this room. They had many powerful enemies, and the consequences could be imagined. He would have to task Lylian with keeping this information from the other wives.

Jodye Trill's intelligence was already enough to arouse envy. Add in his heaven-defying talent as icing on the cake, and House Trilleck would be under siege in a few days once the news spread. After all, Lord Osiris was aware that they already had a vicious viper lurking around in the shadows, plotting something against them. Waiting to strike like a snake in the night.

Lady Isis was pouting while facing the Lord, which instantly made the Lord's heartache a bit, but Lady Isis did not comment on it further, before finishing her explanation. "When the Fate Gem experiences changes, it means that the host soul has reached its awakened state. The awakened combat soul communicates with the main soul through the host, once it too stimulates.

"Joseph's fate gem experienced seven changes. The first was a light of samsara. This indicates a combat soul with fate power. Perfect for Sage Saint dual cultivation. The second change was a ball of thunderbolt force. This represents the elemental force of the thunder and lightning elements! Joseph also has a combat soul with Innate elemental force," Lady Isis' jewel-like eyes were shining with pink and gold lights as she paused, "the third change was enough to confirm our concerns. Joseph most likely possesses a Sky Wolf combat soul!"

After the words "Sky Wolf" were mentioned, all the elders took in deep breaths and exchanged glances with each other. Sky Wolves are a species of second-generation Origin God Beasts. They are creatures who were born powerful with natural law systems of their own inside their bloodline, or lifeblood dao powers. There is only one significant difference between a Sky Wolf and other Spirit Wolf species.

That difference was divine power!

There are seven grades of combat souls. Starting at S Rank, with F Rank being the lowest. Of course, having a weak combat soul didn't necessarily mean one would definitely be trash. It just said that 90% of the time one would very likely be trash.

S Grade Combat Souls possess an ability known as a divine spark. This is what separates the S Grade from the A Grade. A Combat Soul that has the force genesis of an Origin God Beast will gift the host soul a considerable advantage in the comprehension of that power. There was even a chance of inheriting its divine spark and origin god beast bloodline, also known as the Divine Legacy.

However, this was the rarest of rare occurrences. Only souls with a significant destiny would be given such an opportunity.

"Less of this, Icey, I'm sure we all knew what you've mentioned so far. How do we explain the fourth change?" the silence was ended by the pragmatic voice of Lord Osiris. He was far past agitated at this point. How many good deeds did he do in his previous life to have such a child?

"The fourth change," Lady Isis couldn't help but smile as she glanced at a dark corner of the room. When Jodye followed her eyes, he saw Ke Si emerge from the shadows. Then, the space surrounding the nine of them was replaced with darkness for everything more than four meters away from their group.

"As Elder Mercer can tell you, a fate gem's explosion means one thing. A divine power!" Lady Isis' voice begins to rise an octave her breathing was quickening, "Well what you may not know, is that when the fate gem experiences a rebirth, it can only mean that there is more than one divine power! That's when it becomes a Destiny Star because the destiny of the person it chooses is great enough for heavens to take notice."

What she didn't tell them was that only a fallen body would get such a reaction. Otherwise, the divine powers wouldn't be able to coexist. This meant that Jodye was indeed possessed by one of his combat souls. However, there were no changes after the previous incident. Therefore, Isis had a sneaking suspicion that this boy was born a fallen unlike herself.

Could there be such a coincidence in the world?

"What!?" Exclaimed the crowd. There wasn't a single one of them who wasn't in shock. At their high-level of power, they were all aware that the first lady's choice of the words, 'more than one,' was no slip of the tongue. She would not say such words without confidence!

Jodye's Fate Gem had three changes, which means he had three Combat Souls. This was already insane. Humans could only have three Combat Souls at one time. Any more and their Main Soul's Soul Source would become cancerous. This just spelled death.

On top of that, his Fate Gem exploded and experienced a rebirth. That meant that little Jodye Trill possessed more than one combat soul with divine power. Couldn't there be a chance that all three were divine?

"There's no way..." Contrary to Jodye's expectations, no one looked happy or excited anymore. Everyone other than himself and his mother had solemn expressions on their faces. At this moment, he realized that there was some major issue with him being so talented. This was something Jodye had trouble understanding. 'No matter how you look at it, this is awesome isn't it?'

"My lady, the day has been long. This one thinks that perhaps you should take third young master back home to eat and rest," said Elder Fontaine.

This made Jodye Trill's little face frown. He knew he couldn't expect them to speak seriously in front of a child like him. Just like that, his potential had been revealed at last! Because of this, he was being treated as an abnormal freak!

"What kind of jerks send a kid to his room for getting the best grades?" thought Jodye privately. However, all Jodye knew for sure was that he was still too weak.