Chapter 8: A Conversation Between Two Fathers

“How is she?”

A bit after the Yin-Yang Sphere turned to its dark side and I fell asleep under the tree, Mr. Adamas returned to the throne room to find my father sitting on his high marble seat, contemplating the floor with a deep frown on his face, not even looking up as he asked Mr. Adamas the question.

“She’s resilient, and, as usual, more socially aware than one would expect from her age. To distract from her own fear, she decided to try her best to care for me.” Mr. Adamas smiled sadly. “And she actually did a pretty good job.”

My dad then looked up and a sad smile came over his face as well. “Shaar is stable. We got him through the worst part, so there is a pretty good chance he’ll survive. But it was close.”
Mr. Adamas almost collapsed onto the floor as an expression of relief and exhaustion appeared on his face, the man having spent the entire day since I’d woken up forcibly keeping himself from collapsing in worry. And Dad quickly got off his seat, grabbed the larger man’s arm, and guided Mr. Adamas to sit on the throne instead as he continued explaining more about the man’s son.

“I have enough space element resources stocked up to cover that element for hatching the beast, and dark element resources are easy to come by, the kingdom likely already having enough in our storehouses. But time element resources are going to be more difficult to come by.

“I’ve already sent people to the neighboring kingdoms and the mainland to inquire about trades, however, so don’t worry about that side of things.

“And, with Doctor Auris’s help, we don’t have to worry about Shaar’s nutrition.

“The bigger issues are going to be raising Shaar’s tier high enough for the beast to safely hatch and how to afford the expense of the beast once it does.

“Shaar not being conscious enough to move his own qi, mana, and then psyforce is going to cause problems, but I think I’ll be able to come up with some solutions for raising his tier. They will not, however, be optimal.

“And how much energy the beast requires while in egg form has me very, very worried about how much it will need to eat once it hatches.”

The ignorant might ask why the two didn’t even consider killing the beast before or after it hatched, but this was because both men were properly trained adepts. Killing a bonded beast before it hatched would completely cripple an adept, making him unable to ever cultivate to a higher tier without a massive investment in resources to fix his body and soul, an investment way beyond the capabilities of a small island’s king. And killing an adept’s beast after it hatched would cause the adept to lose all power gained from that beast.

Sure, the damage from the death of a bonded soul beast was completely recoverable with just a few decades or the use of relatively cheap resources, but that complete recovery involved bonding with another soul beast of the same species or, preferably, the beast born from the egg formed from the dead soul beast’s beast core. And our fathers no longer believed the beast Shaar had bonded to was a shadow squirrel, while changing the beast I was bonded to would just make me weaker without getting rid of my curse-like trait.

“On the bright side, whatever the beast is that the Umbra clan gave you, it is undoubtedly powerful.” My father’s smile grew a bit more genuine, a tad on the jovial side even. “I accidentally figured out Shaar’s trait today when I was trying to measure just how much the beast was eating.

“Shaar’s psyforce is an entire tier higher than it should be.” My father’s expression turned into a frown. “Which is probably one of the only reasons he’s still alive.

“But, whatever the case, he’s awakened to Energy Enhancement as his first trait, starting with psyforce, and that’s pretty awesome.”

Adepts could only bond to a new soul beast egg before starting on the path of soul beast cultivation, at the peak of tier 3, at the peak of tier 6, and at the peak of tier 9, meaning even a tier 10 immortal could only ever have four traits. But traits gained from already hatched soul beasts almost always advanced one step every time an adept reached tier 4, tier 7, and tier 10. So, traits gained earlier were generally stronger, and the advancement path of Energy Enhancement, unlike my Incarnation of Beauty, was well known even with how rare the trait was. At the first awakening of the trait, one of the three energy types of adepts—qi, mana, or psyforce—would increase by a tier, in Shaar’s case psyforce, and, upon each advancement, the same would become true for the second and then third energy types as well.

It was a very, very strong trait, and, with Shaar awakening it first, it had the possibility to become godlike if Shaar ever became an immortal, as it was theorized it would then increase the quantity and quality of all his energy types by two tiers, possibly enabling him to fight immortal kings and queens as just an immortal, a full tier jump.

Sure, it would also put a target on his back if he ever grew truly powerful, as he’d then become a possible threat to the real powerhouses controlling the world, but dad didn’t need to say that part out loud as Mr. Adamas was not an idiot.

“Crap.” Mr. Adamas took a deep breath, closed his steel gray eyes for a second, and then opened them to look at my dad. “Who should I be training myself to kill?”

“Well, let’s ignore the immortals for now.” Dad laughed out loud, but his smile had turned wolf-like. “That’s a future problem. And they’re not involved at the moment.

“From what I can surmise, it’s most likely that neither of the children’s mothers knew about the beasts chosen, and, given the copy of the Umbra Clan’s main cultivation technique appears genuine, I’m guessing Ivette’s adopted father didn’t know either. For the attempted assassination of your son, it’s most likely only the Shadow Duke was involved.

“So, if you want to train to kill someone, you can take as your target one of the five most powerful mortal adepts in the world.”

My dad looked up at the ceiling and sighed as his smile faded. “As for Kyla, looking back at our brief interaction, her grandmother definitely knew. But the main culprit is likely the mortal head of the Securis branch.”

“If Ivette’s not involved, should we tell her?” Mr. Adamas’s face scrunched up in that same way Shaar’s always did whenever he was thinking hard about something. “She seemed pretty talented, so she’d probably have access to those time element resources.”

“Really?” Dad turned his silver eyes back to Mr. Adamas, an expression of wonder on his face.

And Mr. Adamas, in turn, looked confused. “What?”

“You really did no research on the woman you had a kid with, even with her father telling you politics were involved in why she couldn’t raise Shaar? None whatsoever?”

“She gave up Shaar and left me to take care of him on my own.” Mr. Adamas looked a little uncomfortable. “Why would I want to know anything about her?”

“Well, for one, so you could help your son avoid the political land mine that is his existence.” My father shook his head. “Really, Adam.

“The woman you had sex with is, for one thing, married, and was at the time you conceived Shaar. More important, her marriage was a political move by the Umbra clan after their immortal died in the same battle that caused your master’s deadly injury, marrying her to the next head of the Fulmen Clan, whose immortal is still alive.

“And, two years before we met her, she had her first child, the heir apparent of the Fulmen Clan, before running away to join the army.

“When we met her, she was a lieutenant colonel, and, while she’s now the youngest major general in the Elysian army, her current personal status isn’t anywhere close to her husband’s, while Shaar’s very existence is a slap to that powerful man’s face.”

My dad sighed again. “For now, it’s best if we just pretend Shaar’s died. We want to stay out of that mess for as long as possible, regardless of whatever Shaar’s mother’s feelings are.”

Mr. Adamas was quiet for a minute, obviously thinking, his expression changing rather rapidly, mainly showing anger, sadness, and annoyance.

Then he asked, “What should I do?”

“We might need a blade to get access to those time element resources, so we need you on standby. But, for now, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, I’d be thankful if you could guide Kyla for a while. Maybe bring her to see Shaar tomorrow.

“She needs training in cultivation, but, with her talent, I don’t have the right technique for her yet, so I need to go visit her mother.

“For now, she should probably focus on learning about the common skills for plant type beasts and how she wants to raise her temptation tulip.”

“How long do you think you’ll be gone?” Mr. Adamas had a slightly worried look on his face.

“At least three months. But you don’t have to worry about Shaar.” My dad walked up to Mr. Adamas and gave him a hug. “I’ve asked my teacher to come over, and she’ll watch over the island and your little genius while I’m gone.”

A look of relief came over Mr. Adamas’s face, the man knowing information I wouldn’t for decades.

“Tell Kyla I love her and that I’ll see her when I’m back.”

Then, without going to see me at all, my father left to go play politics with my mother’s side of the family.