As dusk fell from the sky above the small city of Crimson Circle, a young man that went by the name of Pan Chao sat inside of his room.

This youth was only eleven years old but when he was eight years old, he drew the attention of an elder within the Pan clan and thus began his training in the world of formations. The boy had short blonde hair and green eyes, and unlike other children his age who began cultivating instead of spending their days studying, he was very lean and of average height.

He was rather well versed, as he assisted this elder in fixing many existing formations which were passed down by their ancestors in order to protect the clan from any outside harm. But, the majority of his time was spent studying many formation type books. Unfortunately, the Pan clan only had one and two star formation books so if he wanted to surpass the second star as a formation expert, he would have to raise funds to buy one at a merchant group or the governor's mansion.

The Pan clan was a formidable existence and was currently the second strongest clan within Crimson Circle, but was the third strongest organization within the walls of the city. The undisputed number one power was the governor's mansion that held a distant relative of the royal family. However, the number one local clan was the Kong clan that had a Master stage cultivator within their ranks.

The Patriarch of the Kong clan was said to have spent a large sum of the clan's resources in order to pull the Master stage cultivator into their clan, but it was clearly worth it as even those visiting Crimson Circle would have to pay their clan a visit and even go as far as conducting business with them before reaching the governor's mansion. Not only that, but it was rumored that the Master stage expert would die of old age in three hundred years which would be more than enough time for the Kong clan to grow to not need the expert as much.

This was not uncommon, since those who travelled for business would be able to make arrangements with any governor's mansion in any city, but it would cost a much higher percentage compared to trying to make arrangements with a strong and nearly unshakable power within a city instead. The cost was much higher, because the governor would take a cut, and it was a guarantee that nothing bad would happen to said owner or business while in the city.

What the Pan clan lacked in combat strength, they made up in other areas such as having the most formation experts within Crimson Circle as well as having a fully functioning blacksmith business that would see sales all around the region. This may have seemed impressive, but the reason they were able to do so much business, was only because the equipment that they made, were usable by any and all cultivators which meant that the quality was not the highest.

Still, having such an active business had allowed the Pan clan to build many relationships with the weaker of powers located within the region. And although it would not place them in a position to compete with the stronger of powers within the region, it at least gave them some level of protection against those with ill intentions towards them behind closed doors.

It was a very long day for Pan Chao as the elder finally had him begin cultivating like all of the other youths of the city. The elder explained to him, that if he were to reach a high enough height with his cultivation, that he could eventually assist their blacksmiths in placing elemental seals on the equipment that they sold very rarely. Formation experts were able to translate the secrets that they have learned while cultivating into inscriptions that once placed on a piece of armor or weapon, would increase its power tenfold at the very least!

The Dao was a path that cultivators would take in order to find immortality, and understanding different paths towards immortality would be how one's strength would be judged. There were many Grand and Minor Dao that existed since the beginning of time, but as numerous as they were, only a certain amount would generally be seen unless a cultivator found a mysterious path that had not been pursued in tens if not hundreds of thousands years.

Pan Chao was not aiming for immortality since only one in ten million cultivators could reach such heights in their lifetime. Instead, he was just focused on learning many different Dao paths through his training as a Qi cultivator. As of right now, there was no need for him to also train as a Body Refinement cultivator since his body was rather weak and if he juggled too many paths, he would end up not reaching the highest stages that he had the potential to reach.

Still, training was much easier said than done, and Pan Chao began to understand why cultivators were looked up to. The training was nothing like he had ever felt before as his entire body was covered in sweat almost immediately as he tried to control the heavenly energy in which he guided into his body very slowly using the cultivation technique that his Pan clan gave to every member.

The cultivation technique was slightly better than the techniques that were widely distributed by the Emperor of the Grand Xia Dynasty. Since cultivators would live much longer compared to a mortal, it was a small price to assist even commoners in cultivating since the benefits for the Dynasty itself would only continue to increase and prosper.

Due to this decision on the Emperor's part, he was able to make this entire world into his own within the span of only two thousand years and with the help of his five hundred followers who were all passed down an entire Commandery for their clans. Each Commandery had ten regions and each region had a total of five cities besides its capital.