The sun had barely shown its gentle smile from beyond the cliffs and sent its warm rays through the windows, inside the house of the Zerun family. There, the first cries of a newborn baby boy could be heard. His cries were strong and his grip mighty. The mother was overjoyed and the father brimming with happiness.

They were simple people, not too beautiful but not too ugly either. Neither of them was a practitioner of the Divine Energy control, but they didn’t mind it nor wished for it. The mother had long, dark-brown hair, while the father’s was completely black. Their hands showed the signs of healed blisters and tan from their days in the hot sun. Their clothes were worn out and patched up more than once. Their modest home had no gold or silver inside, showing their poor financial status, yet they still managed to survive and from time to time afford something new.

“What shall we name him?” the mother asked as she looked at the little baby looking up at them with big curious eyes.

“A name… yes. Hm? How about Poultry?” the father replied, but his answer brought upon a terrible pain at the back of his head.

He was struck by his mother, an old lady around 50 years of age, with wrinkles on her face, and her long hair tied in braids.

“You stupid son of mine! You are NOT going to name my grandson something as ridiculous as that!” the old woman shouted and shook her head in disapproval.

“Hehehe! Do not worry, mother in law, I will not name my son, Poultry.” the new mother said with a soft smile on her lips.

“You better!” the old woman said with a smile.

“Then what should we call my boy?” asked the man as he rubbed the back of his head where he got hit.

“Hm. How about Alutras?” asked his mother.

“Alutras…” the baby’s mother repeated the name while looking into the eyes of her son “Alutras… Yes. I like it! Alutras Zerun! It’s a wonderful name, and you like it too, don’t you?” she smiled and kissed his cheek.

The baby giggled overjoyed, but not by his name but by the touch of his mother.

“Well… alright, but I don’t see what’s wrong with the name I picked.” complained the father.

“Do you want me to smack you again?” his mother asked lifting her palm up.

“No, mother dearest! Alutras is a wonderful name! Please don’t hit me again!” he cowered back.

“Thought so!” the woman puffed and then turned her gaze towards the little baby boy “Let’s call the Diviner later to see under what lucky stars he was born.”

“Please do, mother in law.” said Alutras’ mother.

With a soft giggle escaping the baby’s lips, little Alutras seemed to have agreed with this as well, but the old and powerful soul Shengo had no idea what these people were talking about. The language they spoke was as foreign as it could be to him.

Although wise in anything related to the Art of Soul and Divine Energy Control, in anything else, he was pretty much at the same level as a peasant. He was aware of one thing though, and that was the fact that he was reborn as a baby and all of his past power had all been lost. If he wanted to reach the same level of strength as he once had, he would have to relearn everything… or rather train his new body properly. With his knowledge, his cultivation would be done in the blink of an eye. Thus, he would have more time for other things, such as making friends and finding a girl to love and care about.

I thank the gods for listening to my foolish wish and sending me to this place. Now, I just need to learn this strange language. I can’t make heads or tails of even one word these people speak! he thought while unintentionally sucking his own thumb.

Later that day, when the night cast down its shadows upon the kingdom, a man of around thirty years of age arrived in front of the Zerun family’s house. He knocked three times and then waited for those inside to answer.

The one to open the door was Alutras’ father. As soon as he saw him, he greeted him with his head bowed and palms stuck together.

“Great Diviner, the Zerun family thanks you for visiting their humble home on this wonderful day. Please, step inside!” he then moved out of the way, and with his head bowed, he waited for the man to enter.

“Hmph! Let’s get this over with! I am awaited at the temple to attend to a special lesson given by master Trengo!” he declared proudly without even looking at the poor man before him.

As one would expect from a Diviner, he wore a long, white robe with all sort of symbols on it. Around his neck, he had a feather necklace with big, red beads in between them. On his head, he only wore a simple tiara that kept his long hair from getting into his eyes.

Despite putting up the air of a capable man boosting self-confidence, good manners, and exceptional knowledge, he was but an Apprentice Diviner. Unfortunately, the Zerun family was a poor one, so they couldn’t call to a more renowned practitioner. And because of that, upon hearing the name of the great master Trengo, Alutras’ parents felt even more honored to have one of his disciples as their Diviner.

_

At the same time, Trengo was also reading the stars, but not for someone in particular, it was a practice to hone his own skills. Of all the formation up there, one in particular caught his attention.

“Oho! What a brilliant trap set up by the gods! But a Master Diviner such as myself can easily see past this silly trick!” he said with a confident smile upon his lips as he rubbed his long, white beard.

His eyes squinted at the skies and began to read the formation again, but this time, the correct way.

A moment later, he knitted his eyebrows, and the smile on his face vanished.

“Hm… Three Constellations will clash… One of the present, two of the past and yet all three are connected by the fate of a lonely star. Hm, it could be two old geezers who reunite and have a bout with the younger generation, maybe a new formed kingdom shall rise? No, that’s not it… too many kingdoms would fall under this category if it was so, maybe it’s about individuals? Two strong practitioners who meet?” then he noticed another star far away from the two of the past “But that one connects the constellation of the past with the future… and the star of Godly Fate? It’s weird… Why would the star show something like this? Am I reading it wrong?” Trengo asked himself, but he kept his eyes glued to the sky in an attempt to understand this divination.

In his job, there was no second try at reading the stars. Either the Diviner did it in the first go or failed completely. That was why this art was so hard to learn and practice unlike the Art of Soul and Divine Energy Control, where one only had to focus on himself to grow.

“If one reads this formation like I tried to the first time, then he or she will make a wrong divination. The constellation of the past I see is very strange indeed, but if I’m reading this right, then tonight a monster of incredible power will be born, one who will shake the very foundations of this world, yet what the stars in it point at isn’t a constellation of chaos and destruction but another of the past. But there’s another trap hidden here… a very subtle one. If I looked at the Star of the North and then moved my gaze towards the constellation of the past, then I would have missed the Star of Great Trials, but I cannot yet read beyond it…” he closed his eyes and then let out a deep sigh.

This was the first-time master Trengo couldn’t fully read the stars. There were so many traps and hidden meanings behind that formation of three constellations that it was as if the gods themselves couldn’t figure out what will happen to them. Then again, these sort of readings only showed a glimpse of a possible future that started out from the very moment of the birth of the said monster, but who and where it was was something no Diviner could tell.

“There’s one thing I may still be able to read about those two stars of the past… Their fate is either heavily intertwined or completely separated, but if it’s the latter, then that means one shall perish. Sigh… I once thought I knew a lot about divination, but it seems that even a Master Diviner such as I still has much to learn.” Trengo closed his eyes and began to meditate on what he learned from that reading.

Meanwhile, the Diviner who arrived at the Zerun family could not see the subtleties of the formation and fell into its many traps, thus, reading it wrong. In his eyes, there were no constellations of the past, clashes, or unknown fates, what he saw was only the Star of the Fool and a string of stars of Poverty that aligned with the constellation under which the young baby was born. No matter how he looked at those stars, he didn’t see anything beyond that. In his opinion, there was nothing else to read, so once he was certain of his divination, he told it to Alutras’ parents.

“Your son will live as a commoner and die as one. I see nothing special in his future, so rest assured, he will live to see you two age. As for marriage, not until he is 19 years old, and it might be with a girl from far away.” he declared with a proud look on his face.

If Shengo could understand his words, he would have laughed in his face as hard as he could. More so, if he could talk, he would have said that this so-called Diviner knew nothing of his past, present, or future. Those stars he read meant nothing for the one who was once a master of Soul and Divine Energy Control.

As he once said: “Stars are nothing but a fool’s guiding tool, and a real man will carve his own future with his bare fists and skills, not by following a so-called prophecy. For even if the stars speak of a great man, if he does nothing all day, he will certainly end up as a nobody rather than as a somebody.”

Either way, his mother and father from this life were actually quite relieved to hear this sort of reading. Deep down, they didn’t want Alutras to be a soldier or a fighter for the kingdom. What they desired for him was the same life they had, meaning to grow up till the age of 14 when he would find a job, settle down at his own house and then live a simple, ordinary life. Unfortunately for them, Shengo was anything but ordinary, he was an old fool with a taste for combat as well as the knowledge and power to back it up. Therefore, he would make sure to shatter his parents’ dream and the foolish divination made by the Apprentice Diviner.