Chương 124: Level 2 Formations

I took a deep breath and started gathering qi into my hand. The feeling was different from the red sun's energy which felt dense and almost syrupy. Qi felt a whole lot lighter and more responsive. It flowed around like water instead of thick honey, which somehow made it easier but also harder to work with at the same time. It was easier because it moved where I wanted it to, but harder because it never wanted to stay in one place.

I started tracing out the Protection Barrier formation in the air and tried my best to weave the qi into the patterns I learned. I started with the outer circle, and watched my finger leave a faint glowing trail of spiritual energy behind it, but before I could finish the circle the beginning of it already started fading away.

"Hmm." I watched the rest of the qi dissipate.

"Well, that's annoying."

"Perhaps you should try doing it on the ground first?" Azure suggested.

"Using the earth might help stabilize the energy pattern for you." That did make a lot of sense. Every formation master started off using physical mediums before they moved on to doing pure energy manipulation. I knelt down and started tracing the same pattern on the ground, but this time I channeled my qi a lot more deliberately. The outer circle finally took its shape and started glowing with this soft white light.

I went ahead and added the three foundation triangles at 120-degree intervals while making sure every line was perfect. Then I added all the connecting lines last so they could create the paths for the energy flow. The qi didn't immediately dissipate like it did when I was drawing in the air, but I still wasn't sure how long it was going to last.

"That's not bad," Azure commented.

"Although, you might want to adjust the angle on that northwest triangle a tiny bit. It looks like it's off by about 0. 4 degrees." I made the quick correction and instantly felt the formation's energy flow smooth out perfectly.

"Drawing on the ground definitely helps a lot. It feels like... having training wheels on."

"Hey, Azure," I called out while I sat there studying my handiwork, "what else did those books say about formation weaving? I only skimmed through that section."

"The real key difference isn't about what medium you use; it is about how the qi is bound into those stable patterns."

"So, it's like doing programming with energy instead of using chalk?"

"It is a similar concept. Whenever you use physical tools, the medium helps maintain the structure of the formation. But when you use pure qi manipulation, you have to create what the texts call 'resonance anchors', which are points where the energy pattern becomes self-sustaining." I gave a slow nod.

"So, it's not enough for me to draw the lines out, I need to make them... stick?"

"The books described two main techniques: Energy Layering and Pattern Locking. Energy Layering is when you create multiple different 'sheets' of qi that reinforce each other. Pattern Locking is when you use specific resonance frequencies that make the qi naturally want to hold its shape."

"Right." I sat back on my heels and tried breaking the whole thing down into steps.

"First, I have to draw the formation out. Then I need to layer the energy, so it has structure. And finally, I have to lock the pattern in, so it holds its shape perfectly."

"That's the basic process for it, yes." I tried doing it again, but this time I focused on building up layers of qi while I was drawing every single line. It felt like painting using watercolors, where every stroke added more depth and substance to it. The formation took its shape a whole lot slower this time, but the lines were glowing with a much steadier light. It still ended up dissipating after only thirty seconds though.

"You need to fix the resonance," Azure suggested.

"Try adjusting the qi's frequency while you are layering it." My next attempt lasted for almost a full minute before it faded away. And the one after that made it to two whole minutes but the energy flow was uneven. My fourth try managed to create a nice stable pattern, but the whole thing collapsed the second I tried activating it. It took me another four attempts before I finally started getting a real feel for the proper resonance.

It was like trying to tune an instrument, except I was using qi instead of strings. If I went too high, the energy became unstable, but if I went too low, it wouldn't hold its shape at all. Finally, on my thirteenth try, everything clicked into place. The qi flowed smoothly into the pattern and all the layers reinforced each other naturally while the resonance locked it together. The formation sat there glowing with this steady, beautiful, white light.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. I sat back and grinned.

"Now that's a lot more like it."

"Shall we go ahead and test it out?" I nodded.

"Hey Yggy? You want to do the honors for us? Try hitting it with maybe ten percent power?" The vine uncoiled itself from where it was sitting and manifested thorns that looked like they were designed for testing barrier strength. Its first strike hit the barrier like a giant hammer and sent ripples flying through the energy field. The second and third strikes came in fast and tested out different points on the formation.

Then the fourth strike managed to find a weak spot sitting in one of the connecting lines and the entire thing shattered into pieces.

"It took four hits," I nodded, feeling quite pleased about it.

"That's not bad. It should be enough to handle any third-stage attacks at least briefly." With that nice little confidence boost, I moved on to the Light Formation. All the experience I gained from creating the Protection Barrier made this one easier, because I already had a much better feel for doing the energy layering and the resonance locking. The pattern for it was simpler too, it was just a central core for focusing the qi with radiating lines for distribution and then an outer circle for containment.

It only took me three tries to perfect it, and when I finally activated it, the formation cast a steady blue-white light across my practice area.

"That is very efficient," Azure commented.

"Although the color is a bit distinctive." I gave a shrug.

"We can work on fixing that later. Now I'm more interested in trying the Qi Gathering Circle." This specific formation fascinated me for a bunch of different reasons. While I had been drawing the nested circles and the inward-spiraling lines, I had watched the qi flow through the World Tree Sutra's pathways into my inner world before concentrating in the middle of the formation's center.

"Azure," I said slowly, while an idea started forming in my head, "if qi can enter my inner world, and this formation can gather it and concentrate it..."

"You are thinking about qi storage," Azure finished the thought for me.

"So, you can use it when you are in the Two Suns world."

"Exactly! Because if we could store qi in here, then I wouldn't have to worry about burning through my soul essence to use basic techniques anymore." Azure's form flickered which was what he always did whenever he was trying to figure out how to tell me something was impossible without hurting my feelings too much.

"That sounds good in theory, but there is one small problem with it, Master."

"Oh?" I raised my eyebrow.

"What's wrong with my brilliant plan?"

"Well, there aren't any rank one qi storage formations in any of those books we read." I let out a frown.

"Why not? It seems like a basic and incredibly useful thing for people to have."

"Because," Azure started explaining, "qi storage formations have to incorporate aspects from qi gathering formations, which makes them more difficult to draw out. But the bigger issue is that they require a constant stream of qi to stay active. In fast-paced situations like a battle, that would mean the cultivator has to channel their energy directly into their formations. But for long-term situations, they have to use spirit stones as their power sources."

"Ah." I deflated a little bit.

"Which means until I figure out a way to store spirit stones inside my inner world, my plan to have hundreds of storage formations is going to have to wait."

"And please don't forget how expensive that would be," Azure added with a smile.

"You will have to wait until you are rich too." I let out a sigh and looked around the practice area we set up. The whole ground was covered in the fading remnants from my previous attempts at making qi-woven formations.

"Out of curiosity, what level are qi storage formations supposed to be anyway?"

"Level three," Azure replied.

"That's also where they learn elemental manipulation and more complex qi circuits."

"Well then," I straightened up, "I guess we might as well try to breakthrough to level two then. At least I meet the requirements to start learning level two formations."

"While you do meet the requirements to learn about level two formations, you will only officially be considered a level two formation practitioner when you can successfully create your own original level two formation." I remembered reading about that rule before. There were infinite possible designs for making formations, if a practitioner wanted to progress up to the next level, they had to create their own unique version of an already existing formation type.

It wasn't enough to simply copy what other people had already done, you had to demonstrate your understanding of it by innovating something new. As for how they detected plagiarism in this world, well I wasn't sure about that, but I highly doubted I would ever be able to get away with doing it with Elder Chen Yong, despite his perpetually drunk appearance, the elder seemed to know his stuff.

But it's not like I would ever try to cheat my way up the levels anyway, because I wasn't learning formations to gain status or recognition. I wanted to truly understand this fascinating system of communicating directly with spiritual energy since its potential was limitless.

"So," Azure's voice broke through my thoughts, "which formation would you like to try leveling up?" I sat there considering the three formations I knew. The Light Formation was probably the simplest one because its only basic purpose was creating illumination, so trying to make it dynamic would mostly involve adding in the ability to adjust its brightness or maybe changing its colors which wasn't particularly useful. The Qi Gathering Circle was more complex and more useful too.

Making a dynamic version of it could possibly adjust its entire gathering range or maybe focus on specific types of spiritual energy. But something about it felt incomplete. It was almost like I was still missing some kind of fundamental understanding about how qi gathering worked in the first place. So that left the Protection Barrier. I let out a smile when I remembered Hong Yue testing out my barrier. The massive bear's demonstration had taught me a lot about the formation's strengths and weaknesses.

"The Protection Barrier," I finally decided.

"Because it's the one I understand the best right now both in terms of its structure and its practical application. Plus having a more advanced defensive formation seems like it would be useful given... well given everything happening right now."

"That is a very sensible choice," Azure agreed.

"The books showed three different examples of level two protection barriers. Would you like me to show them to you?"

"Yes, show me."