"Second and Fifth ladies," came Ke Si's voice from behind, scaring the hell out of both Lylian and Vivian causing them to almost jump out of her skin.
Surprisingly, Vivian was the one who barely reacted to Ke's sudden appearance.
After calming her startled heart, Lylian quickly explained what she knew to Ke Si.
In his heart, Ke was startled.
The third young master had just suddenly screamed in pain before exploding in flames again. He only calmed down after the flames dispersed? This was indeed unusual.
Ke pondered momentarily, then said, "The young Lord Trill's situation is unique. You may relax, my ladies, as this one will oversee the rest of Little Third's training for today."
Vivian curtsied lightly and floated back up to her pavilion weightlessly. Lylian rested her gaze on Jody for a while more before returning to her balcony. Meanwhile, the flames surrounding Jody finished retreating back into his glabella, and he had managed to regain focus, returning immediately to the Host Space.
...
— Josiah's Host Space
"Well, that didn't work. We almost lost you there, little buddy," Xavier was currently on top of Sylvester's back as they floated in the void space before Jody's throne.
This looked odd as little Xavier was still much bigger than the puppy Sylvester. Xavier had a mocking smile on his face as he poked Jody's wounds.
"Perhaps not," said Sylvester, slightly shifting his body, which caused Xavier to fall down below through the nimbus cloud, where he landed on the dragon egg. Sylvester continued, "I'm not sure what happened, but if we can make it happen one more time, then refining your eye should be completed."
Jody was currently chanting in that strange language once more, refining the energies running rampant in his head. After thirty minutes passed, he spoke to Sylvester, "Actually, I think you're right. The refining of my right eye is about 60% complete, which is amazing. This should have taken weeks! Still, I'm temporarily unable to see out of it at all. I'm going to wait for my vision to return first."
"That is fine. Your master seems to have been good to you, but heed my words. Having your physical strength outpace your force and soul by too much would not do you any good. They will benefit each other more if they are of similar strength."
Sylvester had lectured Jody like this countless times already. Ever since Jody's father discovered that he owned a draconic force genesis, he tasked Lylian with giving the youth suitable medicinal herbs to cultivate his physique. As a result, Jody could use the herbs' medicinal strength to purify two more astralis over the last few weeks. Now, he had a total of five. He was already close to the known peak of being a Wimpy Man.
Jody's physical body alone could exert the strength to eject a 200-pound boulder at 90 mph! This was already twice as strong as his sage power, which was only at 1 bp. Of course, since Jody couldn't produce any battle force on his own yet, the power of 1 bp was still enough to hurt him critically, and his 2p strength may not be enough to beat any Sage at his level.
However, once Jody unleashed his astral light, in which case his power could climb up to the level where he could launch a 1,500-pound anvil at 90 mph! This was the equivalent of 15 bp! Therefore, his body formula was far more advanced than his origin. If he could formulate a battle force, he would be able to add his astral light to his mana and rukh. At that time, his power level would actually surpass 15 BP.
While it was quite easy for Jody to extract the astral light from the spiritual energies of heaven, he did not have the same knowledge of origin energy. He had no idea how to do it properly.
It could be said that no matter how outstanding his talent was, he honestly had to start from scratch with his origin formula. He didn't have a miraculous sage art formula method to simplify this process. He had no clue why his father had yet to provide one for him, nor was he allowed to take one from the library. Jody felt oppressed and neglected. Thus, he just focused on training his physique. This was simple as he possessed the Titanic Rage Law and could be considered a powerhouse within his realm. Of course, this was despite his realm being pathetic at this time.
After all, level five was close to the limit for Wimpy Man warriors, as the ceiling was the seventh level. Not that Jody would need to stop at level seven. Unfortunately, there were no young titans around for Jody to fight or spar against. He would probably have to settle for picking on these saint kids.
"I mean, for crying out loud, you're still at the Orientation rank. You haven't even stepped into the beginner-level Awakening Freshman Rank! Your younger brother awakened a month after you but seems to have already broken through to the intermediate level. This kid is a talent, you know," Sylvester would spend half of every day trying to convince Jody to try harder in his origin formulation, "You have to increase your efforts."
"Then provide for me a suitable mana or rukh formula! And how can you be so sure that Jumoke has reached the intermediate level?" asked Jody incredulously.
"When you sparred with him yesterday, his breathing differed from when he challenged you a week ago. Stable. Almost like that of an expert. Definitely above the beginner level. He should have gotten stronger," Sylvester was currently harassing Xavier with flames.
Frustrated, Xavier's form changed into that of the golden sword with a flash of golden light, which just floated in place, ignoring the fire.
"If I use my astral force, then his breakthrough wouldn't even matter. He wouldn't put a scratch on me!" scoffed Jody in disdain.
"Oh yeah, using cheat codes to win in a fair competition. Real mature. At least Jumoke can connect his origin veins on his own, you wimp," barked the increasingly rampant sky pup. "What right do you have to be so arrogant? When he reaches sophomore rank and can augment his strength with his Combat Seed, let me see how you will fight them."
Sylvester's berating words sent a shiver down Jody's spine. For the Truth of the Sage, the Origin Scholars had two sub-ranks.
The Freshman rank was known as the awakening for two reasons. The first was, of course, the refining of a source artifact, which would suspend the consciousness during the process. The second reason was that to advance, one had to "awaken" their constitution. In other words, they had to connect the origin vein pathways to the twelve spiritual meridians. The spiritual meridians were in twelve vital systems.
As for the Sophomore rank, it was known as the soul rank. This was because a Sophomore rank Sage's combat soul could augment the strength of its host via the combat seed in the force genesis. The type and amount of augmentation would vary depending on the grade of the combat seed. This idea made Jody sweat a little, but just a bit.
Sophomore rank sages were much more potent than their Freshman rank counterparts because they could borrow strength from their combat souls on top of their already superior strength. The current Jody wasn't much weaker than a sophomore rank sage, but only if they didn't draw upon any extra force.
"Well...perhaps I should try and find my mother. Today's training has already ended at any rate." Jody exited his meditation and soon realized the vision in his right eye was excessively blurry.
He fashioned himself an eye patch made of grass, leaves, and string to rectify this. Sylvester was once again impressed by his dexterity.
"Are you injured, little third?" asked Ke, who appeared out of nowhere with little bell chimes.
Jody was not surprised, as he had noticed Ke Si since long ago. In fact, Ke was hidden in the trees shadow before Jody's second mother even appeared.
Jody quickly fabricated a response, "I made a mistake while trying to understand my legacy and have temporarily lost visibility in my right eye."
Not a lie was told.
As T'Zhanè had taken it upon himself to name Jody as his legacy inheritor, the memories he imparted to Jody were a legacy in and of itself. Taking out an icy blue pill, Ke nodded his head as if this response was within his calculations. Jody's eyes immediately shifted to the pill as wafts of medicinal fragrance invaded the atmosphere.
"Remember, young lord," replied Ke sagely. "You must prioritize your safety when practicing. Haste makes waste, after all. It would seem that I need to inform our Lord that he will need to expedite the process of finding you a suitable technique. Here, young lord, swallow this origin convergence pill. It will help stabilize your energy."
"My father is looking for a mental formula for me?" asked Jody as he directly swallowed the pill.
He didn't believe Ke would harm him, and the medicinal fragrance from the pill was hypnotic to his nose. So, instead of questioning the medicine, Jody directly asked about the matter he was most concerned with. Meanwhile, seeing the boy instantly take the pill, Ke was left speechless. This brat was simply too fearless.
"Young Lord, allow this one too..." Worried for his safety, Ke wanted to help Jody refine the pill.
"Less of that, I'm fine. Quickly, tell me about my old man," interrupted Jody with undisguised impatience.
Would he need help with refining a pill when Sylvester was awake? The answer was no.
"You seem to have inherited your mother's unbridled personality," Ke sighed, further wasting Jody's precious time. "The House Lord and his First Lady are indeed out searching auction houses for a suitable force formula for you. They are looking for a rare Dragon-type force manual."
"Summon them back at once," demanded little Jody.
He just didn't believe he needed whatever dog shit dragon-type force manual. He just needed a pretty decent one so that he could understand the process! Afterward, he could fashion a process of his own design, one perfectly suited for his body. Origin Beasts didn't need to formulate, they just needed to eat, grow, and appreciate their bloodline limits. When an origin beast consumed energy, it had to obey the different laws in their blood. Therefore, Sylvester couldn't help him, and it seemed that Xavier only knew details about the Saint path, having a something special apparently that could facilitate the same process for his sage path.
"This..." Ke was momentarily stunned. "It is not convenient to summon them back from their current location. What is...?"
"Then you will take me to them. Mn, let's leave now." Jody walked to Ke Si's side and held his sleeve.
Ke looked down at the almost four-and-a-half-foot child, whose head came up to around his waist. He remembered barely being able to deal with Jody when the latter was but a baby. Now, it would seem the boy was even more unbridled.