554 The test of Wits.
Yang Dao gazed at the signs made by Hector and mumbled, “This is interesting.”
From what Hector has gathered outside, the array world seemed to be focused on one thing only, that is to confuse them. The confusion was caused for what? Nothing. Yang Dao had deduced this much, the array was meant to confuse them but it did not have a motive behind such a thing. Seemed like all their assumptions in the earlier deduction were wrong.
The boy consumed his part of special noodles and with the wave of his hand, he called over the waiter. After he paid the bill, he stood up and along with Hector walked up to Bai Hu’s table and said, “Sometimes things happen without any reason, and that lack of reasoning is what confuses us a lot.”
These words were heard by Bai Hu and Seth as well. However, the first one to stand up after this queue was none other than, Natalie Brookes. She hid her face like a maiden in distress and held Yang Dao in her bosom. The two other men, Bai Hu and Seth, did not have a chance to say anything before Hector came over and made them a few signs that were similar to what he told Yang Dao.
They understood the gravity of the situation and after following the gazes of their fellow disciples they all moved outside the restaurant. The bill was paid with spirit stones. Yang Dao said, “What do you think we should do here?”
Seth said, “I have no idea what was going on in there. The people were uttering complete nonsense. It had no heads or tails. Then Hector told us to get out of that place before things became even more complex. Tell us, what’s up?”
Yang Dao shook his head and said, “That is the crux of the situation, there is nothing going on in this place. We have nothing coming at us, other than a constant dose of nonsense. When things are going on without a pretext, that leads to confusion and blurry senses of judgment. This array is designed to make us all go mad. Do you realize why the trial spirit called this the trial of wits?”
Bai Hu nodded and said, “I understand, this will not be easy. How do you use your wits to get out of something that was completely based on nonsense?”
Yang Dao sighed and said, “Simple, you break the illusion they have created. Find the array nodes. This whole world is an array. The wits tell us to get out of this place, and that is what we shall do.”
Natalie Brooke asked, “Where shall we find the nodes you mentioned?”
Yang Dao said, “The main figures of this world shall be the nodes we are looking for.”
Bai Hu raised his eyebrow and said, “Do you think that city lord and that son they mentioned earlier at the restaurant could be the powerful nodes?”
Yang Dao nodded and said, “Yes, I hope that is the case. Just to be safe, go search among the weak and lowly too.”
The people nodded and Bai Hu distributed the jobs quickly. Yang Dao had one job and that was to slack with Natalie Brookes to accompany him. The two people did not bother with the world of illusions but they decided to cultivate and discuss alchemy. Natalie was surprised when she found that Yang Dao was an alchemy master.
His age and his skills really put the world to shame, even if they were the talented ones, they were still dumb defeated by this child. Yang Dao did not take offense when the girl called him a monster in shock, he decided to show her what a monster was. Turned out that the boy had swallowed all the books and theoretical knowledge of a grandmaster-level alchemist. The only thing that stopped him from advancing was the knowledge he needed at the practical level.
His cultivation has yet to advance to the nascent soul realm. As the two people interacted, Natalie gained a lot of knowledge that was crucial to her growth. Suddenly, Natalie asked, “Young Master Yang, I have heard that the sovereign sect, has an Alchemy talent, but her name is Yue Jing, why did I never hear anything about you?”
Yang Dao chuckled and said, “I have been in the sect for less than a year, Yue Jing is my cousin, and she is also an alchemy master. However, some complications in her cultivation have led to stagnation. She is in search of inspiration. Her golden core needs special circumstances to be created. It is because of her cultivation sutra.”
Natalie Brooke nodded and said, “I have heard, the cultivation sutra used by her excellency Elder Jing Shui is not a simple one, so no wonder the breakthrough is hard. However, since the sect has you, it is nothing urgent.”
Yang Dao shook his head and said, “A strong force can never be dependent on one person only. If they do so, then not only will they crush that person but themselves as well. They might be strong for a short time, but in the long run, they will be making a fool of themselves.”
Natalie Brooke nodded, it was not as if she was dumb, but she was checking the heart of this young boy in front of her. Yang Dao did not mind satisfying her curiosity. He asked, “Have you ever heard of Athena Olympus?”
Natalie Brooke nodded and asked, “Yes, I have heard about her joining your sect as well. If I am not wrong then she might be the same generation disciple as you are, given that you have not joined the sect for a time more than a year.”
Yang Dao nodded and said, “Indeed, but she is not only the same generation disciple but she is also my fiancee. Well, I planned to use this trial as a vacation for us, but these elders conspired against us and held her back. Hmph, I shall show them once I return in triumph.”
This sudden clarification by the young child was clearly suggesting, I am committed to someone else, please do not fall for me. Natalie Brooke nodded and replied with a smile, “I wish you both happiness Young Master Yang. Do invite me when you hold the wedding.”
Yang Dao nodded and with a smile said, “It is still far in the future, but I will call you once it is settled.”
The two people chatted with leisure.
…
Bai Hu and the others were busy scurrying through the crowd. They had no idea where to find the powerful people from this world. They were birds flying in the dark. Hector had given them both scarves to hide their faces so that the people of this illusionary world would ignore them a bit.
Suddenly, Bai Hu sensed his communication jade shaking. He took it out and heard Seth’s voice, “Big brother Bai, I found the Young City Lord and tried to interact with him, but the guy was like a wolf in heat and charged at me, so I cut him down.”
Bai Hu frowned and berated him, “This is not appropriate Seth. Tell me where are you, I will find you right away.”
Seth replied hurriedly, “Big brother Bai, it is nothing messy, this guy suddenly glowed like a firecracker and turned into a silver cube. What do you think I do? I can sense that it is related to the array formation, but I am not exactly sure.”
Bai Hu suddenly became stiff, and he said, “Collect the cube and meet Yang Dao, as soon as possible.”
Seth understood and said, “Yes, right away.”
The communication stopped and Bai Hu moved to regroup as well. Hector, was also responsible for locating the powerful people but subconsciously he was noticing the changes in the surroundings as well and after spending a long time in the place, he found that things had changed. He decided to pull out of the scene and regroup with Yang Dao and the rest.
…
Yang Dao sat on the ground with a silver cube floating in the void in front of him. He gazed at the cube with an intense gaze and suddenly said, “This is not the only node of the array formation. We are missing two more.”
Bai Hu asked, “How can you be so sure?”
“Big brother Bai, this is a saint-level array if you heard the trial spirit correctly. To cast such an array you need to engrave nodes with array runes, these nodes have a core. They come in a set of odd numbers, three, five, seven, nine. The smaller they are, the more they are. This one is as big as a watermelon, so I can say that there are three such nodes. We need to find them all, compare them and then discern which one is the core if we are to get out of here.” replied the young boy patiently.
At this time, Hector came back and he waved his hands. Yang Dao saw the signs and stood up in shock. He said, “This array seems to be more tricky than I could have imagined.”