Jonathan was still thinking hard. His pride is keeping him from openly agreeing with the groups plan. 'A man should raise his chest high despite overwhelming pressure, rather than hide in a turtle shell' as he was trying to defend his pride.
Diane and the others were waiting for Jonathan
One hour
Two hours
They were patiently waiting for Jonathan, as they grew up together, they knew of Jonathans pride. Thus, nobody was inpatient. The othere men were also thinking to themselves 'if my son is John, could i accept it so easily? Its like im declaring that im incompetent?'
Jonathan sighed, after contemplating so long he knew that hiding John is the best option they have as of the moment.
"Okay, I agree. But, i have another proposition" he said
"Aside from the three girls, you should choose 100 kids with the best talents, to be hidden with John." he added
The others were confused with Jonathans request
"Your reason?" Diane asked
"Simple, these children which are most tlaented among their peers would be given special training. Those who are age 5 who reached bronze level; 6-10 at silver level and above; and 11-15 gold level and above." He said
"They will pioneer, our new generation of elite forces!" He slowly said
The others were not surprised, though Jonathan is easy going, he is meticulous in his every decision. Thus, even though they would have a perfect plan in mind, everything would be reported to him before giving out the final decision. Since young Jonathan has been the main strategist, he could always find the minute faults in their plans and would perfect it.
Thus after hearing about his plan, they immediately agreed to it.
"Tina, lead a team of our men and prepare the camp at the back mountains. Bring our mages and grow the trees of the back mountain 10-20 times its size. Make sure that you do it secretively and gradually!" He ordered as he put emphasis on the last orders
In this world there are warriors and mages, mages are a minority in all the continent. However within the gold empire they are very rare, 1 out of 1000 have the ability to become mages. This may be due to the blood line of the citizens. As from the beginning of the gold empire it started as a tribe with the same blood line. As years passed and the tribe flourish to become an empire, there were very few people who had manage to have inter marraige within the kingdom. There are very few immigrants, and citizens are less trusting to outsiders.
"Why do we need to grow the trees?" Asked Tina, she was perplexed as the trees on the back mountains were atleasr around 10 meters in diameter, 'that would be 100-200meters in diameter! What is Jonathan thinking?' Be she never voiced this out
"Good question! It would be the perfect cover for the camp! We will contruct the camp inside the trees!" He declared
The he gave another other without further elaborating his plan "Myles, gather all array masters within the army. Enhance the array of the back mountains, make sure that its strong enough to defend against immortal beasts attacks. Add multiple layers of array within the array to prevent exit from the mountain." He ordered
'Previously the royalties back mountain is protected for the royal families rest house, thus it would not be suspicious to outsiders if the security is tightened'
Myles didnt question as she had a gist of his plan.
"Tom, Dickson and Harry, the three of you gather our elite men and capture as many beasts as you can and put them add them to our beast collection at the back mountain. Preferrable capture those level 5 and above, as we have plenty of lower level beasts there."
He ordered
"Wife, ask father to leave all his work to Minister Earl. I want him to be incharge of the camp." Jonathan told Diane
'He was confident that Alfred could handle it, before he became the minister, he was the Empires General legion commander. He was seriouly injured during the planar war thus he retired from the military and became a minister.' Jonathan confidently thought
Then he recalled the days when they started joining the army, under Alfreds leadership. He was very strict with his daughter and them, he would drill them 10 time more than the others.
Whenever the whine he would always reprimand and say "as sons and daughters of the monach, high officials and lords, you should set an example to your people! Use your efforts to motivate them into training harder! Dont be like those spoiled son of a bitch from the other empires, who only knows how to drink and have fun all day long! Remember everyone is family, the blood and sweat you put into training now, will save your life on the battle field... always remember, every life is precious! Only through continuous training and cultivation would you be able to protect yourself and others. The more you train the lesser the casualties in battle."
Sure enough during the planar wars though the gold empire has massive losses, compared with the other empires it was relatively low. Half of the immortals died including Diane and Jonathans mother. However considering the small population of the empire it was massive none the less.
"Tina ask the mages to make a huge cultivation cave on the mountain, Myles tell the array masters to apply multiple layers of immortal level protective array, preferably arrays against soul attack." Then he walked slowly side to side while thinking
"Linda, kindly arrange the camps setup, separate the boys and girls quarters, arrange for physicians and alchemist that incase of injuries. Gather cultivation resources and arrange merit systems for the kids. That all for now!" Then he smiled and walked to where the kids are
When they arrived the 3 girls were each pinching John, they parents were laughing loudly. However Jonathans eyes grew wide as he saw John was turning mad due to the teasing, Diane also move she wrapped the girls with her soul force as Jonathan took John in the air as he cried so loud. 'Hehehe... what perfect timing to level up my soul manipulation art'
A wave of soul attack baraged the castle, since Jonathan was there, he was able to stop it just as it was released by John. All were looking at the father and son in the sky as they delt the soul attack. What shocked them is that it was twice no it was more than twice as strong as the last soul attacks John released at the camp. This cemented their determination to proceed with the plan, Tina and Myles felt the urgency to complete the cave first. They are now planning to go far and beyond what Jonathan instructed, on their minds 'there should be no mishaps, our son-in-law needs to grow first. They were also having selfish thoughts as they think of their daughters happiness.'
They said their farewells as John was now concentrating on splitting his soul. This lasted for 5days as he woke up he checked his soul, there were 8 souls in his soul sea.
In these 5 days the cave was finished and Diane along with her maids went on to their retreat.
Days and months went by so fast John is now 2 years old, his body tampering arts is now at the third level high heaven just a tiny bit more and he would have a breakthrough to the fourth level. When alone and no one is monitoring him, he would try performing martial arts. By his estimate he has the the same motor development as a 10 year old.
While his soul manipulation arts completed its 9th splitting he now has 512 souls in his soul sea. He could now spread his soul sense to 5000 meters.
His soul control is now fluid, however he would always act as if he couldnt control it.
Looking at himself, he is around 3 feet tall, chubby with lots of baby fat; his cheeks are chubby and rosy; his golden pupils looks so attractive, along with his well defined straight nose and brown hair. He is so cute, if anyone is to look closely, they would think that he would undoubtedly be a dashing man when he grow up.
Due to the constant cleansing of filth from his breakthrough his skin is so tender and smooth; ther is also a cery pleasing scent coming from him. His mom would always snuggle at him when they sleep.
When he was 1 year old when everyone of the family is present, John acted like it was his first time standing and consciously made himself fall from his crib. Afterwards they let him walk, though he acted like he was wobbling and easily fall, atleast they were not too shocked.
'If i were on earth, how many oscar awards would i win' he thought to himself
He started saying words and phrases, he wanted them to think he was a genius by doing things earlier than any other child. He was tired of acting too much. He needed to start actively training, time is of the essence. Diane was so proud of her son, she start teaching him the worlds language. John was able to pick up every thing she taught him, only needing to teach him once. In just a week, he memorized all different letters, words and language known to this world. This shocked his parents, though they knew that John was special, they never expected him to be an abnormal genius. Though he could not speak in sentences, he could converse with them.
He would run around the cave and play with his mother, then she started teaching him simple martial arts movement; such as punching and kicking.
When they played John would spar with Diane, but most of the time it was either Alfred and Jonathan who would guide him in his training. John tried not to expose too much of his power, but his parents and grandfather would shower him with praises as they saw how talented he was. Most of the time, the content of his training is about soul force control. This was the main reason they hid him from the world. They needed him to control his soul force. Little did they know John has full control of his soul force, except in times that he is splitting his soul.
John took 2 years of acting until he was satisfied that it was the right time to show more of his talents. By doing this his parents and grandfather are not too surprised when he is showing a bit more abnormality in his strength.
Diane and Jonathan argued for more than a week, when Jonathan told Diane that John should join the other kids on the special training camp.
...
It took Jonathan and Alfred alot of time to decide on how they would open this up to Diane. In this one year of observing his son, Jonathan knew that his son is waaay... much better than those bronze stage 5years old kids.
During the time he was playing spar with John he noticed that his son is also combat genius. Due to the limitation of his body, he is always at a disadvantage, considering that he is always sparring with him, Diane and Alfred; he knew that his sons martial arts level can be compared to a earth or heaven level. Without using their cultivation, just purely martial arts. In hand to hand combat John is invinsible.
One time when Diane went away, Jonathan and Alfred ordered the heaven stage guard to battle John in hand to hand combat; they also asked the guard not to hold back his punches. They were shocked as they saw John fought the guard, he was able to fight on par with the guard for a two munites. After he drained his stamina, he started getting hit, Alfred planned to stop the fight, but Jonathan stopped him. Both men grew excited when they saw the look in Johns eyes, he was like an wild beast his aura rose as he looked at the guard with so much killing intent.
Diane came in time, she was so worried of John, just as she was about to teach these irresponsible men a lesson, she noticed Johns abnormal behaviour. She also got curious, thus she observed her baby which looks like a desperate warrior unwilling to give up. The determination in his eyes was not like that of a child his age, he is like a warrior who has experience under his belt. His eyes were saying 'if i cant win atleast i can bring you down with me!'
John was also surpised as he felt a strong power dwelling within him is awakening, then there was a sudden burst of power, he was covered in blood lust and killing intent as his skin color changed to gold, his pupils were now dark gold in color and eyes went red, his body almost doubled in size. He woke up the gold clans blood line ability.
Then he charged at the guard, he was ten times faster than before, but he knew that this wont last long. Indeed after 5minutes he turned back to normal and fainted on the ground.
Diane was the first one to arrive, she glared at his husband and father. As if saying 'i can never leave my son to you' the two men didnt know what to say. However deep down she was so proud and happy. She just witnessed how brave and promising her son is.
When he woke up Diane gave an introduction on bloodlines. He learned that bloodlines are special powers and attributes of a clan or race. There is no fixed method to activate their bloodlline, after generations of testing, only during a desperate battle would it activate. However she told him that other clans have a method that allow them to activate their bloodline.
Blood line power depends on its purity. The pyre the bloodline, the greater the power its bearer would have. Once he reach a high realm of cultivation, his body is as sturdy as a divine weapon.
Their gold bloodline transformation is also known as the barbarian god transformation. From the name itself, the gold empires roots are from the barbarian god race.