The Urban Dao Child

Yang Dao sat in his meditation room, with his eyes closed and legs crossed, it has been two days since he entered the seclusion. Alisha was responsible for guarding him, she was standing outside the room.

Two days ago when she woke up from the enlightenment process, she found herself in the nascent soul realm. She did not know when she had broken through but one thing was sure to her that it was because of Yang Dao and Dao Yin. Her effort to look after Yang Dao had become even more profuse.

Yang Dao was unaware of the changes outside, even when he visited the elder hall to tell his master about his decision of seclusion, he did not take the time to notice all the changes in the people around him.

He has been cultivating for the past two days without rest, the motive was not to break through but to accumulate enough spiritual energy to push through the doors that blocked him the last time. He was not worried about anything, in books it was mentioned that the stronger the soul, the heavier the gates to get into the realm.

Yang Dao accumulated spirit energy into a small ball above his golden core. This ball was what he wanted to use to break through the gates of the nascent soul realm. After he thought that the energy accumulated was enough, he controlled the spirit energy ball to charge at the gates of his soul.

As the spirit energy moved up, the resistance coming from the shackles on his soul began to repulse his advances. The boy however did not give up. He controlled his spirit energy into a drill-like shape. This drill helped him bypass the repulsion. However, the gateway was not yet open.

Yang Dao did not give up but kept holding the drill against the repulsion, time passed slowly, and the progress of his cultivation was as slow as a snail walking up the mountain. The Dao Child, however, did not lose his patience. He was able to hold on against all the pressure that he was facing.

At this moment, a thought emerged in his mind, “It was easier to do this during battle when I invoked that strange power inside me. However, now, it feels like I am in a quagmire. The harder I try, the harder it pulls me back.”

Despite getting such thoughts the boy did not dare to lose focus from his drill. Time passed quickly, and it has been four days. Suddenly, Yang Dao realized something, he thought, ‘When you have incomplete comprehension, only that is when you face such pressure from the shackles. To break the shackles one must be wiser and know what it is that they want. Since I want to advance to the realm of the nascent soul. I must know, what a soul is.’

Yang Dao did not push the drill any further and began to ponder over the question, ‘What is a soul?’

The thoughts inside his mind began to focus and a lot of explanations that he has read or heard over the past few years began to surface in his mind. Yang Dao was not only recalling the things he heard, but he was also rearranging them. The rearrangement of arguments will give him a chance to come up with the best plausible explanations and at the same time, use all that to come up with something of his own.

The comprehension continued and more new ideas began to surface. Yang Dao would not rush but will scrutinize his thoughts first. Soon, he was lost in state where time lost significance to him. Alisha was allowed to open the door of his room to check if he needed anything.

The girl would only check on him twice, at dawn and at dusk. She will leave after probing him with her spiritual energy. She was scared that her probe might disturb him, but after the second day, nothing could effect Yang Dao even if the whole planet was to go Kaboom, he will not move or be disturbed.

Yang Dao was immersed in his comprehension all this while trying to find out the answer of what a soul was, however, when he could not find anything adamant, it came to him. A soul is everything yet nothing. Something that exists but does not. It was not something tangible yet it could move things. It would go through the cycle of life and death but only so that it could get away from it all.

The mysteries of a soul were immense yet it was nothing too big. After he walked along the trail of these thoughts, Yang Dao came to find unique understanding of what a soul was. As soon as he came to realize this, the drill shaped spirit energy, shot forward like it was a bullet through the wind.

Yang Dao felt as if an explosion happened in his brain. The next thing that he saw was an island surrounded by immeseaurable waters. The clear blue skies, lush green palm trees on the island. Yang Dao gaze down at his feet and found himself standing on a sandy shore. He raised his head and stared at the horizon.

Closing his eyes, he tried to sense what was going on with him and found that he could clearly see his own body, every tissue, ever blood vessel, how the body contracted when he inhaled and how it expanded as he exhaled. This was not something he had expected earlier.

Even more so, he could see the spiritual energy traveling inside his body. After initial inspection, Yang Dao found that he was surrounded by the elders of the sect. At this moment he was still unable to control his new gained powers. To him everyone looked like a skeleton held together with muscle and veins.

He was surprised to see such a sight, the round big eyeballs of these people were concentrated on him. Yang Dao suddenly realized that it was because he was still using his soul sense to look at things. His eyes were still closed. After taking a deep breathe he took his consciousness back from the soul sea and opened his eyes to look at the people in front of him. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀ​ꪶ​

Sun Eckhart smiled and asked, “Looks like you discovered the perks of opening your soul sea.”

Yang Dao nodded, and asked, “Ummm, master, why are you all here?”

Sun Eckhart said, “Alisha was worried about you so we came over to check.” calmly.

“Huh, why was she worried? Did I not say I will be in seclusion?” questioned Yang Dao.

Elder Jing Shui smiled and said, “You said that a month ago, Dao. It has been a month since you went into seclusion.”

Yang Dao was shocked, he asked, “But how?”

Sun Eckhart waved to the elder elders who left after congratulating the child. While the sect mastre sat down on the floor and said, “Dao, when in seclusion, sometimes we lose our consciousness of time and even more, ourselves. Soul is a mysterious element of a person, and the trial to discover its secrets needs a lot of indulgence. This indulgence costs people time. Sometime, people do not even come out of the seclusion for decades.”

Yang Dao nodded and said, “Thankfully, I managed to come back before I got lost.”

Sun Eckhart shook his head and said, “It is because they go astray from their aim. You on the other hand have enough control and your comprehension power is strong enough to keep you on a steady path.”

Yang Dao nodded and said, “I accept your compliments humbly, master.”

Sun Eckhart chuckled and said, “Now, would you like to eat?”

Yang Dao nodded and said, “As if that was something you needed to ask.”

He stood up from the floor and walked outside the room. As soon as he came out his nose moved, and he sniffed in the aroma of the food lingering in the air. The boy quickly moved and came to the kitchen and found Alisha cooking something.

She sensed his presence and said, “Young Master, I will have your saffron porridge ready in a few minutes. Why don’t you take a bath and get ready in the meantime?”

Yang Dao nodded and said, “Thank you senior sister Alisha.” before he left to take a bath.

After a few minutes, the young boy, Sun Eckhart, and Alisha sat on the dining table where Yang Dao slurped all the porridge with a vigilant expression. Sun Eckhart said, “Dao, nowthat you have broken through, it is time for you to travel to theally sects. They have all been waiting for your arrival, and I think if I did not send you off, then Lysa might actually come over here to take you away.”

Yang Dao nodded and said, “Okay master, I will do as you say. I will go to the Immortal Sword Sect before I go to some other place. I want to check a few things there.”

Sun Eckhart nodded and said, “This time, carry some spirit stones, and medicinal pills with you. Using soul force can deplete spiritual essence of your core a bit too quickly.”

Yang Dao nodded his head and assured Sun Eckhart that he will follow all the instructions.