The Urban Dao Child

Yang Dao's smile made different people develop a different image of him in their minds. Yue Ming furrowed his brows. He was not an idiot to not notice the change in the vibe around. He wanted to say something when he noticed Athena, Trent, Diana, and Daniel walking over to Yang Dao. 

He sensed a twitch on the corner of his mouth. He could understand why everyone else was going there, but Trent Grande was from the Overlord Grande family. The relationship between Trent's uncle and Yang Dao's dad was not completely harmonious. The boy could not understand why Trent even mingled with Yang Dao. 

Thinking about this he suddenly came up with a thought. He put on the best of his smiles and said, "Everyone, Yang Dao is my cousin, so allow me to introduce him to you all properly and formally." 

With that said, he took a step forward and came to the center of the hall, he said in a sonorous voice, "Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters, the prime disciple of the sect master, Yang Dao, son of Yang Shan and Yue Ling. He belongs to the medium-level domain Yang family, umm there location, I do not know where it is. He is ten years old, and also happens to be the successor nominated by the patriarch of the Yue Overlord, Yue Lei Wang." 

Then he exaggeratedly took a deep breath. At the end of the introduction, the expression of a lot of people changed. They did not know what to make out of these details. To some, they were completely irrelevant and to some, they were an opportunity. Yang Dao gazed at Yue Ming's back and a thought surfaced in his mind, 'Cunning snake.' 

The reason was, those who held hostility towards Yang Dao would use this information against him. There were no enemies for the time being, but who could say that to pursue his path of cultivation he will not offend a few people and have a conflict of interest with them 

Yang Dao stepped forward and cupped his hand to all the people and he said, "I have seen senior brothers and sisters. Please take care of me in the future." 

The organizer of the gathering stepped forward and said, "Junior brother Yang Dao, welcome to the sovereign sect. I am Thale Fray. Little Diana is my cousin. I am the one who organized this gathering..." 

The two people exchanged pleasantries and Thale introduced Yang Dao to some of the prime disciples. All of them greeted each other with a smile on their face but Yang Dao could tell that it was all a facade. The boy greeted them with proper etiquette. After the handshakes and sweet small talks, the people settled down. 

They were all sitting around tables and eating while chatting with each other. A tingling voice attracted their attention. In the center of the hall, a girl stood wearing blue robes and said, "Since the gathering has begun, I will take the initiative to introduce the newcomers to the true purpose of the gathering." 

She took a deep breath and said, "The gathering is an unofficial sparring session between all the prime disciples and we all compete freely to grow over our disparities. In these exchanges, we take care not to harm the other person grievously, and also, there is a betting system. Some fellow brothers and sisters use this event to settle minor grievances as well. Of course, if the conflict is major then you can go to the Death Battle arena." 

Yang Dao was surprised but he did not show it by asking a few questions. He decided to ask Alisha later on. After the girl stopped explaining the details she said, "I would like to invite Senior sister Jude, I have made some progress in my martial skills but I cannot figure out what does it lack. Please guide me." 

A cold-faced red-robed lady stood up from her seat. She was a captivating beauty and a lot of boys inside the hall could not take their eyes away from her. Yang Dao was those few who were not affected by her overflowing charm. The boy frowned and said, "This person is not a human." 

Thale was sitting beside him and was surprised to hear such a thing. He asked, "How do you know that this senior sister is not a human." 

Yang Dao replied, "Fluctuations of energy around her are different. What is she?" 

Thale was surprised and said, "She is a member of the thunder fox clan. She is half a beast-man." 

The young boy looked at the charming lady, then he asked, "Senior Brother Thale, who is that senior sister, who asked for the advice?" 

Thale smiled and said, "That lady is also from a beast clan, her name is Sayani, she's a shadow wing panther." 

Yang Dao was surprised and asked, "There are quite a few beast-men in the sect I presume." 

Thale nodded and said, "The overlord families may rule over a domain but the rest of the people all live there too. No?" 

The young boy nodded and watched the match unfold in front of him. He could tell that the skills used by both the people were not weak, however, Sayani was lagging. Jude would point out the way to her from time to time and gradually Sayani became adept at it. After the spar was complete the people bowed to each other and backed away. 

After them, a robust young man stood in the center of the hall and he said, "I am a sword practitioner, my name is Allan. I would be grateful if any senior brother could point out my sword technique." 

Yang Dao looked around and found that no one stood up. Allan was a true disciple, since his status was low, he began to look disheartened. The boy said, "Can I spar with you?" 

Everyone heard his immature voice and was surprised. They did not expect him to jump in. Allan was baffled himself, but before he could hesitate, the boy has stood up from his seat and came to stand in front of him. The boy had a smile on his face and said, "You are at the third stage of the spirit formation realm?" 

Allan nodded subconsciously, and the boy said, "Okay, you do not have to hold back. I am at the first stage of the spirit formation realm too, would you help me consolidate my realm?" 

The people around were shocked. It was considered very insulting when someone used you as a whetting stone to hone their skills but Yang Dao asked such a thing upfront eliminating the negativity of the statement. Thale could sense that this boy was not a normal person, however, this command on eloquence was something he had never seen before. 

Allan thought about it and said, "Thank you." 

He did not think Yang Dao would have much skill but still, since the person was the prime disciple of the sect master, he decided to follow and play along with a child. 

Allan took out a big epee from his waist pouch. It was a spatial treasure. He raised the epee above his head, holding it with two hands.  Yang Dao on the other side placed his hand over the hilt of his sword. He parted his legs with his right shoulder facing Allan.

Thale saw that the two people has taken their stance and said, "Begin." 

Allan took a step forward and slashed his sword at Yang Dao, right from the first blow, he picked up the attack. However, Yang Dao was not a normal ten-year-old. He exerted strength on his feet and closed the distance with Allan. It seemed as if Yang Dao was eager to face the epee falling at his head. 

However, suddenly he was smirked and everyone heard a  Shing. Yang Dao took out his sword and deflected the attack. He said, "You are holding back, senior brother." 

The attack did not stop there, the hilt of his sword struck at the chest of the guy, making him take two steps back. Yang Dao swung his sword in his hand and surprised the people. He said, "Sword is a weapon that cut down, things. Everyone has different reasons behind why they want to cut down, however, one must never be indecisive." 

Allan questioned, "What if cutting down is a mistake?" he did not know what happened that made him raise this question. 

Yang Dao smiled and said, "If you can see that it is a mistake to cut things down, then can you not use your sword to protect it? However, remember that sword only attacks one target at a time, and whatever, it attacks is hacked down. So, if you wield a sword, then you better be decisive in your heart. You want to learn and practice, right? You decisively asked for others to help you. Why do you hold back now? See-through your own decisions, or stop using a sword."

Allan did not reply but came over to strike. He could not understand why, but this young boy had tugged at the strings in his heart and it resonated with the soul, deep inside him. His sword slashed without any hint of hesitation. 

Yang Dao smiled, "Good strike." as he parried the incoming attacks. The ease on his parry was so surreal that if they were not all cultivators, the people would have thought that they were both putting up a performance. 

Yang Dao was weaker in the realm but he was good in quality and thus he fought with Allan on an equal footing. The other prime disciples looked at this and they finally understood the reason why Yang Dao was the prime disciple of the sect master. They could see the spirit manipulation of the surface of his blade. 

They could see that if this was a life and death battle, Allan could have died, however, Yang Dao was pulling the former to a higher level. He was doing this so effortlessly that they almost had an illusion that he was an older person. The shock was not of his battle prowess, but of having such prowess at an age of 10. This baffled them and a lot of them took a mental note, never to mess with this guy.

After fifteen minutes, Allan could not keep up and rested his sword. He clasped his hands and bowed to Yang Dao. Then he said, "Thank you for your advice." 

Yang Dao did the same and was about to go back to his seat when he heard a familiar voice, "Cousin, how about we compare as well?" 

Yue Ming spoke up, he thought Yang Dao was turned so why not beat him and make him lose face. However, the next moment he realized his mistake. As he was cursing himself to be too careless, Yang Dao said, "Can you wait till I consolidate my realm?" 

Yue Ming showed an amiable smile and sat down.. He looked forward to what was going to happen next.