The Urban Dao Child

Shakti woke up to a soft voice. She lifted her head and saw Yang Dao standing in front of her on the other side of the platform, holding his sword and a faint smile on his face. She said, "Brat, you scared me."

Yang Dao smiled and asked, "Let's continue?"

Shakti shook her head and said, "I advanced in my understanding of the intent of the weapon. I need to go back and meditate and refine it further."

Yang Dao nodded and asked, "Do you concede?"

"Yes, yes. I admit you are stronger, Junior Brother Yang Dao. But I will eventually catch up with you." Shakti said.

The Dao Child raised his sword and pointed the tip of his blade to Shakti, "I'll wait for you."

This was not a provocation, but an encouragement to the girl. Shakti nodded, and after the two bowed politely, Shakti jumped off the platform.

A disciple in the stunned crowd muttered, "I seem to have entered the next realm." His tweet awakened others, and they all began to talk about their achievements. They all gained something from watching the sparring match. 

The people who used the sword gained the most, they all seemed to have gained a better understanding of the sword's intent. Someone in the Olympus family couldn't stand it and told a friend the name that Yang Dao won in a family meeting. Soon the name began to spread among students, and the young master became the Jade Sword Demon.

The target of all this awe and shock said goodbye to his friends and returned to Cloud Palace for the night. If you remember when they arrived at the square, it was already night.

The next day, the sun rose and Yang Dao headed for the formation hall. After the performance last night, his arrival received a lot of attention. But what shocked the students was that Yang Dao stood in front of the hall, and did not go in at first. Suddenly, the Dao child raised his hand and began to control his spiritual energy according to the energy of the elemental source energy to condense spirit symbols in the air.

The news of his appearance and actions was spread and many disciples gathered together. Some of the spectators happened to be learning formations as well. One of them asked in a low voice, "If I'm not wrong, condensing spirit symbols is a technique that only the Grand Master of Formation can use, right? They must be at least the nascent soul realm, right? Is Yang Dao also a nascent soul realm cultivator?"

His doubtful question sent shivers down the spine of everyone around him. A ten-year-old Nascent soul realm cultivator? Would that not mean that they have wasted their lives? However, heavens had eyes, and before the people could drown in despair a golden core realm senior disciple said, "No, my master is a formation grandmaster, and I have followed him for a long time. I have some familiarity with the soul force, this is not soul force, but I feel strong elemental energy radiating from the symbols." 

Yang Dao turned deaf to all these voices and focused only on creating symbols. It took him three hours of constant manipulation and focus to cast all the symbols in the void, then with his thoughts, the symbols began to form a web and moved forward in the void. The next moment, the web of Yang Dao's symbols came to an abrupt halt. 

All the disciples saw a big wall filled with symbols similar to Yang Dao's. The wall covered the whole Formation hall. As the web of symbols collided the wall trembled. Yang Dao shivered and closed his eyes. Cracking an array formation was not as easy as condensing some symbols, it required one to instill his intent in the symbols and strengthen them 

The Dao Child was a newbie when it came to formation symbols. However, he was the Dao Child, how can something make him stumble if he had put all his effort into it? Well, a few can but not when it came to practice and cultivating. The trembling of the wall came to a stop and it vanished. 

A disciple from the crowd cheered, "Congratulations Junior Brother Yang, you got past the test. We hope you grow strong and wise." 

The other disciples also cheered and congratulated him. Yang Dao opened his eyes and after turning to face them, he bowed and said, "Thank you." 

Soon the supreme elder of formation hall, Elder Chime walked outside the hall and came to stand behind the young boy. He smiled and said in a soft voice, "Dao, you never cease to surprise me." 

Yang Dao turned around and bowed to the old man. The two exchanged pleasantries and then Chime led the child inside the formation hall. The inside of the formation hall was decorated very simply. A long line of shelves could be seen inside, all tagged with different names. The whole place was clear of dust and any mess. 

Chime led Yang Dao around the hall, introducing him to different places and sections before finally taking him to his room. The room had a small table placed at the back of the room with a chair behind it. The older man asked, "Dao can you tell me how you condensed the symbols with your spiritual energy and kept them all from scattering." 

The Dao Child said, "Elder, I used two energies together. I do not know how to explain things to you." 

Chime was not a pushy man, he understood that everyone had a secret of their own and said, "Well, I have some advice for you, Dao. Do not use this technique until either you have reached the peak of the golden core realm, or your life is in danger. 

You took a very long time to condense all the symbols. This will be detrimental for you. The slower you cast a formation the more time the enemy gets to attack you. Also, this usage of duel energy puts an extra burden on you, right?" 

Yang Dao nodded to the old man. Chime said, "Usually, formation masters use artifacts to cast arrays. These artifacts are condensed with precious materials. You can infuse your spirit energy inside these brushes and the materials will help you cast the formation. However, when you need to cast an array formation, you will need to bury these precious spirit materials under the ground, or you can have these materials refined into array flags and erect them. Take them away when you are done." 

Yang Dao nodded and heard all that the old man said. After a couple of hours, Chime gave Yang Dao a standard brush artifact to cast formation symbols. The Dao Child asked, "Elder, what is the difference between Formations and Array formations?" 

Chime stroked his beard and said, "A formation can only do one thing at a time. While imagining a set of formations arranged together to do a lot of things at the same time. For example, the illusion formation with a killing technique in it, like the one you faced on the staircase of heavens." 

The boy was awed and his determination to learn this became even more firm. After taking his leave, Yang Dao scurried in the library and picked up books to read anything and everything that he could. The librarian also did not stop Yang Dao as the boy was reading in silence and calm, without disturbing anyone. 

The surrounding disciples were amused and impressed by this child, sometimes Yang Dao would scratch his temples, and sometimes smile faintly. His expressions brought color to the bland array hall. However, what shocked everyone was the ever-growing pile of books beside Yang Dao. Sometimes he would stop reading in between and look for another book on the shelves. Then he would read the other book completely before coming back to the old one. 

A new disciple said, "Why is he reading so many diverse subjects? Should he not focus on just one stream?" 

Beside him, a deacon was standing with a firm expression on his face. The deacon scoffed and said, "Arrays are all related to one another. He is polishing all his knowledge, unlike you dimwitted eggs. Young Master knows what he is doing. Now, get lost and do not block the wind here. Move." 

The deacon scolded all the spectators away so that the Millenial Genius of their sect can have his sweet time studying. Elder Chime had told the deacons to make sure that the boy was not disturbed, and to help him if he asks for anything. They all agreed to the commands without question after, how many ten years olds can do the things Yang Dao can do? This child was their gem. 

This was not all, at the moment, inside the elder council meeting chamber.. The other supreme elders were asking Sun Eckhart to allow Yang Dao to learn all that he can by visiting the various departments and at the same time inspire the disciples.