Joseph, at first, had that confused look on his face. Then a few seconds passed, and his face morphs and changes into shock, and then into complete horror.

That was Nascent Armor!

"YOU— YOU—"

Joseph pointed at Michael. "You’re a Nascent Spirit cultivator?!"

This kind of revelation was enough to send someone into a heart attack. In fact, the only reason Joseph was still standing right now was because he was a Nascent Spirit cultivator too! If not, he would have definitely been unconscious the moment he found out.

This was absurd. Michael was only in his early teens. Yet, he was already able to achieve the Nascent Spirit realm. Nobody would believe him if he told them.

Nobody had seen this kind of genius. Ever. The fastest ones to reach the Nascent Spirit realm at least reached puberty before they did so.

But Michael was still so young! Joseph didn’t even know that this was possible.

After all, it was common knowledge that Maugnetics had to wait at least a few months before they advanced to the next stage. Surgery to the heart needed a lot of recovery time, and it wasn’t a good idea to have so many of them in quick succession. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

If Joseph did the math right, then Michael should have started his Maugnetic journey when he was one year old! That was literally impossible.

This meant that Michael probably started very early, from five years old onwards.

Of course, the truth was far stranger than that. And if Joseph found out the truth that it had only been less than two years since Michael became a Maugnetic, then even his Nascent Core wouldn’t stop him from having a heart attack.

"I’m only able to summon this much of my Nascent Armor," Michael complained. "I still need to get more Spirits before I can cover my whole body with it."

"... how much do you have..." Joseph asked carefully.

"35."

Joseph fainted.

...

...

...

About half an hour later, Joseph finally awoke from his nap.

Michael was very thankful that he was able to explain to Joseph’s guards that he wasn’t the cause for this sudden unconsciousness.

Well, he was. But he didn’t actively cause it.

"Oh god... I can’t believe it," Joseph said, holding his head. It was as if Michael had just told him some very bad news.

And from his perspective, it was. If Michael had already gotten a third of the way to the 1st stage of the Nascent Spirit realm when he was so young... then what was he doing?

Joseph remembered it took him a decade to start gathering Spirits.

Michael probably wasn’t even born yet.

This was the sort of existential crisis that would affect even a Nascent Spirit cultivator like him.

"You’re a Nascent Spirit cultivator." Joseph raised his head as he suddenly realized something. "Wait. Were you the one who defeated the Nascent Spirit cultivator from the Tri-star company?"

Michael shook his head. "No, she did."

Joseph turned his head to see a dark-faced woman staring back at him devoid of any emotions. It startled him seeing such a human act so... inhuman.

"Who is she?"

Michael gestured to Alpha, who bowed her head. "She’s my clone."

Silence. Joseph’s eyebrows twisted together. "Nevermind the fact that you have a clone... why is she emanating a strength above that of a Body Formation cultivator?"

Michael didn’t want to explain. "She’s a strong clone."

It was at this point that Joseph realized that Michael had a lot more secrets than he was letting on. Even now, he found that he was still underestimating his little nephew.

He was grateful he didn’t know everything.

"Alright... I’ll try to remove this from my brain," Joseph said genuinely. Any more and he would freak out. "Let’s go back to our topic. You’re a Nascent Spirit cultivator."

"Yes," Michael replied.

"And I’m guessing that you want to learn how to use your power to fight against the Nascent Influence?"

Joseph hit it right on the head.

After a solid deep breath, Joseph let go of any surprise he had left in his mind and treated Michael as if he was a peer. An equal. That was because he was essentially in the same realm as the boy was.

"Alright. There’s no straight way to learn how to use your Nascent Influence. Everyone learns them at their own pace. On their own terms.

Essentially, it boils down to how much you know yourself. How much you know your Diva.

The Body Formation realm is the foundation of your connection to your power. It is your opportunity to learn more about yourself.

And in the Nascent Spirit realm, it is your time to apply what you learned. If you know that by heart, then you can influence everything outside your own self."

That basically verified Michael’s guess that his talent was once again crucial to learning his own Nascent Influence.

Once again, the path to learning that was vague.

"But I wouldn’t worry about my own Nascent Influence if I were you. I would worry about how to defend against others."

Michael raised his eyebrow, intrigued.

"There is a way for you to defend against a Nascent Influence. Actually, two ways.

The first is to find the source of the Influence and break their concentration. Once that happens, the influence is broken and you can live happily knowing that it will be harder on them if they want to repeat the same Influence on other people."

Based on what Joseph said, it seemed that Influencing people with the same thought wasn’t a good idea. People would eventually gain resistance against it.

I know where the Nascent Influence comes from. But I don’t know how to break it. Their headquarters is even more tightly guarded than Strongholds.

"What’s the second way?" he asked.

"The second option is for you to use your natural resistance against Influence and spread it to those around you.

It will be like shielding them under your roof to shield them from the cold."