Hidden Snake

The Fate Gem suddenly started to spin, drawing everyone's attention. It shined dazzlingly in an ethereal light and emitted and low hum for about half an incense stick of time. Next, the Fate Gem transformed into a multicolored electric sphere of power and floated there for another half-incense stick of time.

Afterward, the area around the fate gem trembled slightly as the electrical sphere dissipated and shrunk back into its gem form. The gem then emitted a sharp silver and green glow, and a wolf howl was accompanied by all the heaven-earth primary force in the surroundings being pulled into the gem. This howl, which shook the souls of all the elders in the room other than Lady Isis, was powerful and unique.

The Fate Gem exploded in a multicolored mess of primal forces.

All the adults in the room wore stunned faces. Jody, himself, was staring at the spot of the explosion with his jaw hanging open.

'So much for a low profile…'

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

[The True Pharaoh of Twilight is watching you!]

[The True Pharaoh of Fate is watching you!]

[The True Pharaoh of Death is watching you!]

'Yikes,' Jody barely had time to consider his studio audience. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the trillions of particles suddenly converged right in front of Jody to once again become the Fate Gem! Except, rather than being small, round, and transparent, it was now twice the size of before, spiky, and the same sapphire blue as Jody's eyes.

"Transcendence!" 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 exploded, in the end, you know…my master was quite upset, although he was also happy…but his…the boy's…it revived? Reassembled? What does that mean?"

Jody was a bit puzzled by their reactions. Was the result right or wrong? Was he a hero or a villain? He couldn't read the atmosphere. All Jody knew for sure was that he was a big deal right now. These guys were looking at him as if they saw something terrifying but rare and precious.

He had just begun walking back toward 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 ran over to Elder Fontaine's legs. Then, over to his mother. At this point, he felt he had it confirmed.

"Mom, help me! The Fate Gem is possessed. Ghost gem! Issa ghost gem!" said Little Jody, 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 Jody himself was almost convinced of his age.

Almost.

Being a kid was fun and the perfect cover. Jody 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. It would've been so easy to fool the ad....

"Wait…" Suddenly, Jody had a terrible idea that tempted him a lot.

As a former part-time villain, his sense of morality was questionable in the first place. However, he soon did away with the idea. His family's estate was the size of a city. How could he possibly imagine robbing anyone if he was already so rich? There would be no need as long as he didn't encounter a disaster that somehow changed his entire life.

What were the odds of that?

"No, Josiah, this is wonderful!" Exclaimed 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's right. She was indeed proud of her son's potential.

"This Fate Gem has been reborn as a Destiny Star! The laws of the fate truth have fused with it and acknowledged you as a Spiritual Master! Once you reach the destiny platform, this gem will evolve into a second artifact of fate, exclusive to those born masters! 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 ancient 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, despite his protests, as she turned to face the men in the room. "When a child is born with a sleeping Origin Body, their host soul is also in a state of hibernation, making their potential null."

As she was speaking, Lady Isis let go of Jody, 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! He was trapped! Caged by the warm embrace of the air! How nefarious! How devious!

Isis tied her long, wavy braids into a ponytail before one of her rings flashed, and a brand new Fate Gem appeared in her hand.

Jody's eyes were wide with shock, and he couldn't help but blurt out in surprise, "Dad, did Mother just pull that out of her ring!? Rings can hold things? Why has no one shown me one of these before?"

'Seriously?' Lady Isis almost fell over in that moment.

She was using magic to levitate him, yet the boy was more concerned about her spatial ring. She had desperately hidden the fact that she had a storage device from this child who loved to collect everything he fancied. She even thought she had slipped up a few times over the years, yet today, she felt he'd be distracted enough.

Otherwise, Jody would surely pester her to no end, asking for one.

Most children would be so amazed by acts of magic that they forget everything else. Yet what was this? Only those with more wisdom would zero in on utility over novelty. How was this a child? She just could never distract him efficiently, and he noticed everything of value in an instant.

It's like he grew up as a begging thief on the streets. His ability to discern value was tremendous.

"Indeed, son, this is called an interspatial storage device. Your mother's spatial ring can store a myriad of items. Less of that, now. My lady, you were saying?" urged Lord Osiris, eager to know the fantastic aspects of his seed.

Lady Isis rolled her eyes at her man and their son before pausing for a moment to collect her thoughts.

"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," Jody suddenly called out while tugging at his mother's clothes from mid-air as she walked past him.

"Yes, sun of my sky, 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 a toddler. Still, Jody felt insulted by the way his mother called him a Sun in the sky. Was it because he was stuck floating here?! She was surprisingly petty today.

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

"This…" His mother could think of no simple answer to this complicated question her son asked.

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 for such a day. 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 complex matters. Genius or not, he had his entire childhood ahead of him.

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

"My son, while it is true that Sages and Saints formulate differently, the end goal is the same. We are all manipulators of energy. 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 Samsara 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," said Jody's father.

Osiris believed today, more than ever, that his son's potential was genuinely monstrous.

It might even be limitless.

Jody's questions showed a level of mental maturity that was just unheard of at his age. The House Lord's thoughts differed from his wife's. He had decided to spare no effort in formulating the mind of this baby ancestor. In the Lord's mind, little Josiah 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 and form a third. He even taught his knuckle-headed sister so well that her grades and royal studies improved dramatically.

The House believed this was all Isis' credit, but the Lord knew better.

This was not, by any means, the level of a toddler or even a small child.

Perhaps for an eleven-year-old with a sophomore rank Sage formula, such behavior would not be unusual. However, on a powerless, untrained, three-year-old with no formula to speak of? It was plainly absurd. This kid didn't even possess eyes that could see the phenomena of heaven and earth's primary forces. Lord Osiris was aware that he couldn't let any word of this event leave this room. Anyone who leaked this information would be tortured in the cruelest way he could imagine.

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 and Isis with eliminating any bell ringers.

Jody's intelligence was already enough to arouse envy. Add in his heaven-defying talent as icing on the cake, and House Trillwolf 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.