6. The Language of Qi Energy
After dinner, Clay began memorizing the contents of the second book titled Basics of Formation. The book has 12 pages and it really is just an introduction of what different formations look like and the common materials involved in inscribing them. The only detailed explanation was the twelfth page which explains Qi Gathering Formation.
Having read the books, Clay is astonished on how his memory has significantly improved now that that he has become a cultivator. It is not on the level where he can memorize everything with just one look but enough to engrave something to his memory after five or sixth look.
Because he was distracted, it took him half the night to completely memorize the 2nd and the third book called Lightning Burst Formation.
Having confirmed and imprinted the information to his memory, he laid on the bed to rest.
Like any normal being, things would randomly pop in his mind before falling asleep and surprisingly, he recalled the sample Spatial Formation on the book and compared it to the patterns he saw in his latest memory fragment. He has this feeling it was from a fictional movie like Superman, but it felt real at the same time.
Formations and Inscriptions basically are like drawings similar to Crop Circles back on earth but unlike Crop Circles which are meant to deceive the gullible, Formation and Inscriptions are the real deal. From simple to complicated artistic drawings, these forms of art have different usages.
One big sample is the Spatial Storage Ring he has. There are tiny intricate carvings scattered around the ring forming a Spatial Formation used to open space.
And comparing that to his most recent memory fragment from earth, he recalled looking into a satellite display of a massive Formation drawn on a desert. The drawings were massive and complicated but at the center of the Formation when closely analyzed has some similarities on the sample Spatial Formation on the ninth page of the book.
Clay had already accepted being reincarnated but he is still curious as to what really happened in his past life and since the subject of Formation called forth a portion of his memories, he wanted to delve more on the subject.
If only possible to just asked more books about this field but he is afraid that Rani’s hatred towards him may worsen if he is not careful. For now, he will tolerate and study what was given.
Just like that, three days has already passed.
It is a windy morning and Rani brought Clay to a Workshop. The building did not have fancy decorations but was twice bigger than their residence.
"Today, you will learn how to carve Formations. Unfortunately, one can not immediately use precious materials so for practice so we will use the blood of a wild board." Rani proudly spoke and introduced the subject.
“Mhh”
Clay chose to nod every time Rani looked at him. Similar to how Rani instructed him to cultivate, there are a lot of areas Clay wanted elaborated. At times, he wanted to speak but the last time he asked a question, he got reprimanded instead.
But what annoys him though is that he is literally being thought like a clueless child and as an adult inside, he gets easily irritated by some unnecessary repetitions.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
"So basically, I am going to learn how to write using a feather. Just how long do you plan on babbling before we get to the good stuff?” Clay thought to himself. Hiding his annoyance, he pretended to listen attentively to avoid riling and disrespecting Rani.
As the lecture continues, Clay began to wonder about other professions available within this new world. Surely the world is vast and had been made more interesting with the presence of Qi and he wonders if there are other fields he is better suited with and the biggest question of them all is, “What exactly do cultivators do for a living?”
After talking for around an hour and a half, Rani finally picked up a brush and started inscribing a Qi Gathering Formation. While a Gathering Formation normally is inscribed the size of a regular room, for the sake of practice, they are doing it on a piece of paper.
Rani only needed five minutes to complete the inscription and showed it to Clay.
"It took me a month of practice to master it on a piece of paper and at least two more months of wasted resources to carve a functioning Qi-Gathering Formation and one is currently carved in your room." Rani proudly said as he handed the brush to Clay. Clearly he was looking down on him based on his tone just now implying that he will never be able to successfully inscribed one.
"I will definitely work hard senior", Clay responded in words this time. He felt provoked he wanted to reveal that he has already reach Peak-Early Qi Condensation but he stopped himself. He controlled himself as he knew there will be a right time to properly show off.
Clay believes that similar to cultivation, carving Formations should be easy as soon as he figure out the secrets of the art. He dipped the brush on the prepared ink and tried to imitate Rani’s however when he imbued the brush with his Qi and tried drawing the first part of the Formation, to astonishment he realized it really was not simple.
He did not know what was added to the boar's blood nor what is up on the paper, but the moment the brush touched the parchment, the blood becomes difficult to handle causing his control to shake making him unable to follow the patterns of the Formation.
Rani smirked with derision but did not make a comment about it.
"Come find me after you have mastered craving the practice formation", he said before leaving.
When Rani left, Clay sheepishly swallowed his pride and rested in humiliation. He did not continue carving instead he looked at the diagram again to analyze if there is an easier way of completing it.
“It would really help if you’re here to point out my mistake.”
This time, Clay cursed but still humbly tried to recall everything Rani discussed and reiterated earlier.
Earlier, Rani emphasized on the importance of control however Clay could not think of a way to exercise and refine Qi control aside from actually doing it.
Not to tire himself, he took a sit and looked around to divert his mind then tried scrutinizing his memory for any information regarding how artists drew their works back on earth. Occasionally, he would remember pieces of arts like Mona Lisa, Van Gogh, tattoo artists and junkies vandalizing the subways but he cannot remember anything about how did these artworks were produced.
After a quarter of an hour of fruitless thinking, he picked up the brush and tried carving the Qi Gathering Formation. Just like earlier, the brush became harder to control when it come in contact with the paper but he diligently concentrated.
After around twenty minutes stroking the brush, he consumed almost half of his Qi reservoir but at least he finally carved his first ever Formation.
“Let’s see…”
When Clay looked at his drawing, even he got scared.
It was a perfect failure. It would be a waste of time just describing how this was drawn by a grown man. The sizes on each side do not match and the rough edges of the curves are scattered everywhere. The image was no different from a kindergarten artwork.
*Sigh!
Clay knew it was futile to further continue. Though it is still a bit early for dinner, he still went to the kitchen and caught Aunt Shi busy preparing their meal.
Clay sat on a chair and did not make any noise to avoid disrupting the busy Aunt Shi. He was impressed by how is she able to manage the kitchen all by herself. He watched how she’s doing multiple things at a time.
Though it was uninteresting watching a woman prepare a table, after a few minutes, Clay suddenly had an inspiration.
“That's right.” He just realized the Formation is laid out on four equal quadrants. “What if I carve them simultaneously?”
He recalled a tool called pantograph. He could attempt to have one brush inscribe one side and the other three brushes copies the first one.
While it did not sound promising, Clay wanted to still test it out.