— Eastern Badlands, Desolate Wilds, 2 months later
Jodye shook his head and smiled wryly after remembering those events. Though the end result was thrilling, it nonetheless proved that relying on Sylvester’s currently unstable ability was dangerous, and shouldn’t be done lightly.
“It’s too dangerous, Sly. I’d rather gather a bit more power first. I feel like I’m close to comprehending the Nascent level of Titanic Rage force!” exclaimed Jodye Trill in excitement.
“Titanic rage force? Are you some barbarian war god? Quit being such a p****. How will you ever get stronger if you’re so scary?” snapped the voice of Sylvester Tricko as he landed on Jodye’s head.
“I feel rather strong at this moment,” Jodye’s face was complacent. He felt like he had the right to brag a little. Last week he had broken through to the seventh level of the Wimpy Man Realm, the peak first stage of the Titanic Rage Law4Lawthe rules and principles that create, govern, and maintain the energies of the universe. When laws come into harmony they form different systems naturally, with as many functions as the laws in harmony. For laws to enter a state of harmony, they must be compatible and have a proper conduit such as a star, or anything with its own unique Origin source law. With a good enough conduit it is possible to make incompatible laws reach a state of harmony, but in such a scenario there is a high chance of the force turning cancerous. The condensation of law energy produces what is known as Force or Qi... By the Titan clan’s standards, he was already at the height of the realm, ready to take steps towards the next stage. So far he had refined astral points in both his hands, wrist, and ankles, as well as in his neck. Next would be his feet, and then his spine. A total of seven astral passages were currently full of astral might. His physique had also been further refined and perfected.
Now, without using any superpower at all, he was capable of lifting 3,250 pounds in one hand. How crazy was that? Each of his astral points could now increase his strength by 3.5 bp! With seven astral points active Jodye’s overall strength would skyrocket by 24.5! That meant the current weight of his strength was 5,700 pounds, or in other words, he possessed the equivalent of 57 points of battle power or 57 bp! This meant anyone with bp under 57 bp wouldn’t be a match for this mighty five-year-old! Of course, this was only while his astral might lasted.
Currently, Jodye Trill probably only could keep his astral points open for two hours, or use 10 Fists of Might, before his Astral Might9Astral Mightone of the 9 original formless energy masses that existed within primal chaos before the universe was formed. Also known as the 9 layered skies or the Heavenly Ennead. Astral Might can be viewed as a universe without a will of its own, and thus, no laws, only pure power. Fourth layer. The Ancient Titan race uses astral might in all their cultivation practices. Volos race practices require both true essence and astral might. would completely be depleted, his body strained and exhausted. He could, perhaps, prolong the time by not using all of his strength, but to comprehend Titanic Rage force he had to rage! He would never grasp it if he held back when fighting.
He had to go full throttle in every battle! Otherwise, it just wasn’t worth it. For this reason, Jodye chose to only rely on his body’s natural strength, without using his astral might. The astral might would have to become his trump card since the amount of time he could be in that state was limited. At any rate, he had never felt so damn powerful in his last life, despite his varied skills and techniques.
His five-year-old self was already capable of squishing his previous 21-year-old self into meat paste. Such power was insane! He barely knew how to remain calm. He was addicted to having more strength. However, he seemed to have reached a bottleneck, and could no longer progress as quickly. The remaining essence in the saint force grass that his Grandpa Geb had left for him in his space ring was no longer as effective at improving his physique.
Initially, he had thought the old man was stingy by only giving him 250 stalks. However, to reach his current level he had just used up 80 of them. He had absorbed essence from 12 stalks of saint force grass since his last breakthrough, but he still hadn’t cleared his next spirit point. The bodies of the hero race and the bodies of the heaven slaughter race were fundamentally different. Due to this, he assumed he would be able to achieve greater heights, as the hero race was proven to have the most potential.
Unfortunately, things don’t always go as planned. Of course, if Grandpa Geb knew that Jodye had already absorbed the medicinal essence of 80 stalks of saint force grass, then he would surely call this kid a monster! Most Fledgling Saint Realm and Scholar Realm dao practitioners wouldn’t be able to absorb that much saint force grass if you gave them an entire year!
“Seriously guys, magic is cool and all, but you know what the classic problem with magic users is? Speed!” shouted Jodye Trill to the two sky wolves. “No matter what, casting spells takes time! During that time the spell caster will surely be in danger, unable to fend for himself, the optimal moment to strike!”
Jodye still remembered very clearly how he felt four years ago watching the two nobles Rondo and Edward battle each other in the sky, while his mother carried him. Though the handsome brown-skinned noble, Rondo, won the battle through the use of magic, it was only because he was a rank higher than his opponent! At the same level, he wouldn’t have had the time to chant those incantations which powered his devastating final blow.
“This is not a class one should enter before having the means to counter this fact. Both my mother and father have Saint cultivation bases too help with this issue, but what do I have? Just think about it, if I have a powerful physique then what will suffering from a few attacks amount too? Will those blows even matter? I think not, and then zap! A thunderbolt hits them in the face!” Jodye acted out his words in an animated way.
Xavier clapped his hands in awe, his little eyes shining. Sylvester merely stared at Jodye. The expression on his canine face appeared to be one of mild intrigue. This was Jodye’s first time seeing this look on the wolf.
“It seems you are smarter than you pretend to be,” said Sylvester, still staring at Jodye in his jewel-like blue eyes. “What you say is not without merit. After all, your mother was likely an expert-level Saint before she broke through the Scholar Realm. As was your father, once all is said and done. It’s impressive that they’ve reached such heights as both Sage and Saints. Especially at their age, and on this pitiful planet.”
“My mom is a Sage too?” Jodye Trill was caught off guard by this critical fact that Sylvester casually presented.
“Indeed, you fool. Though what your mother demonstrated most recently was her prowess as a great Heaven’s Master, she must use Origin Energy6Origin Energyone of the 9 original formless energy masses that existed within primal chaos before the universe was formed. Also known as the 9 layered skies or the Heavenly Ennead. Origin Energy is the milky white mysterious and unfathomable first layer. Practitioners use origin energy as the medium to safely absorb magic and voodoo qi to condense her Serenity Force,” said Sylvester Tricko impatiently, as if he was talking to a monkey. As in his opinion, only a dumb monkey wouldn’t notice the difference between essence and energy, “Let’s not forget the time we saw her release her combat soul. Well, perhaps you were distracted at that time, but I was there and saw it very clearly.”
“Ah! That’s right, she does use origin energy pretty often. In fact, before that day I had never even seen anyone use true essence force,” Jodye Trill was still marveling over how strong his mother and that expert were. He could always remember the suffocating pressure of the latter when he had them cornered. Of course, his mother had still cleaned that goon up as if he were terrible air. There was also the time when his mother was teaching him the basics about Sages before he even refined his source artifacts. This had already slipped his mind, as it was so long ago.
“Despite this, it is imperative that you increase your rank. At your current rank, we can not even help you even if we are summoned. After all, Freshman Rank Sage’s typically can’t even summon their combat souls at all. You must at the very least achieve the Sophomore Rank before the competition next month, or what will you amount to at that time?” Sylvester Tricko was speaking in a shockingly gentle way as he lay on Jodye’s head. “You must stop underestimating the power of a Sage at once! The Sage you killed used less than 40% of his true strength to attack you, he simply completely underestimated you, he didn’t even summon up any heavenly force momentum. This is why he was foolish enough to perish at your fists! Do not expect to get so lucky again in the future. Even if you have a little bit of extra muscle compared to most mortals, it means nothing to the truly adept experts. Those who understand the forces of nature are truly terrifying.”
“Well, if I didn’t find a serenity crystal I wouldn’t get tonight’s training! This should be our priority every day. You can do this, still, yes?” Jodye asked Sylvester.
“Why do you think I lead you to the Twilight Sphinx? Did you not see how many crystals littered the walls of that cave? You simply won’t need any more serenity crystals. Watch and learn, boy,” Sylvester then floated over to Eureka and spoke to her in an ancient sounding language that seemed to resonate with Jodye’s soul. Jodye felt strange as if he could almost understand them. Just as the feeling became more intense, Sylvester floated back over to him saying, “Twilight Sphinx’s can corrode origin stones and beast cores into serenity crystals. Give her an origin stone.”
Jodye frowned. Origin Stones were stones formed naturally by condensed origin energy. Apart from being helpful to cultivate with, they were often used as currency. One C-grade origin stone was worth 50 gold crystal notes. That was 50,000 silver crystal notes! Origin stones were divided into grades by the quality plus quantity of the energy inside. Jodye only had 10 mid-grade origin stones, the size of fists. Five were given by Grandpa Geb, two by his father, and three by his mother. His mother had told him that this was his capital to reach the next rank within two months! Yet, this damn wolf wanted him to squander it! Though admittedly, he hadn’t practiced Sage cultivation at all this month.
There was only one month left.
“If you give the origin stone to the Twilight Sphinx, won’t the new serenity crystal still be yours? Are you not in need of higher quality serenity crystals? Do you believe your task is to find them simply because your mother likes them? Do you even know how valuable serenity crystals are? You bumpkin.” Sylvester Tricko’s harsh way of speaking had suddenly returned. “You have absolutely no need to use origin stones to cultivate as long as I’m here. Not to mention you have an origin gem, this is already a cheat code. That’s the same as having 10 high-grade origin stones! Where exactly are you losing here?”
“I can’t rely on you, or there’s bound to be another huge commotion every time I cultivate! You’re the biggest problem here!” berated Jodye Trill. Sylvester was actually speechless for the moment. This was true, after all.
“I can’t control my abilities properly because you are still too weak. I honestly shouldn’t be able to use them at all, like X, whom can’t even transform properly,” Sylvester Tricko sighed before continuing, “Our compatibility rating is high, which is why I can sometimes use more of my power. However, if I do so in excess, our rating will drop, due to the soul strain.”
Hearing this, Jodye calmed down a lot. He was aware that Sly had to strain his soul every time he assisted because Jodye was currently just too weak to support it. This made Jodye somewhat uncomfortable. Strength, ah, if only he had more power!
“Fine.” Jodye touched his space ring with his right hand, and a single origin stone, the size of a fist, appeared in his hand.
As if fearing he would change his own mind, Jodye immediately tossed it to the hovering wolf pup, who caught it in his mouth. Sylvester Tricko then landed next to Eureka and briefly spoke to her again in that ancient language.
Eureka then put her paw on the origin stone, followed by Sylvester placing his paw on top of hers, as he urged his mysterious ability to absorb energy. Jodye had yet to ask about the nature of this ability. As Sylvester had never elected to tell him on his own, Jodye knew asking would yield him nothing. Besides that, he would eventually find out through his [Cosmos Revolving Grimoire]. As the stone quickly lost its luster, it actually started to slowly crystallize, then mutate and give off a chill. Two minutes later Eureka had absorbed all the origin energy within the stone, which was now an ice cold purple and gold crystal.
“High-Grade Serenity Crystal!” nodded Sylvester, satisfied with this outcome.
“This this is a serenity crystal? This thing has at least three times the energy as the one in my room! It’s not even half the size though.” Jodye Trill marveled at this before becoming alert with a start. However, he quickly calmed down as he had only felt the voice of fate from his Grimoire.
[Summon Time: Expired. Guardian summons end.]The pages of the grimoire glimmered, and the two Tricko princes vanished back into its pages. Before disappearing, Sylvester sent Jodye a message via telepathy, “Perhaps… you are right. It is indeed dangerous for you to rely on me at this time. Cultivate origin on your own until you advance to the next realm. I will be able to assist you better at that time.”
Did Sly just admit he was wrong? This was a first.
However, did he say the next Realm? So then, he would have to first rank up and then rank up once more! Thinking this, Jodye also accepted the fact that he was wasting time by not cultivating more diligently.
“Well, I’ve got a Serenity Crystal for the day. I’ll head back to camp early, and cultivate until mother returns for our training tonight,” said Jodye Trill, thinking out loud. He then spoke again though no one seemed to be near him for miles, “Where are we right now, Sek?
“Reporting to the young master, we should head 500 meters east if we want to return to camp,” said Sek Si gently, walking out from behind Jodye as if she was there the whole time.
“Mn. Let’s go.”
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