Lai Bolin sat quietly in his workroom deep within the ever shifting bowels of the Golden Peak sect’s Hall of Knowledge, the semi-sentient consciousness of the giant library making sure that nobody stumbled upon his laboratory on accident while he was busy working.

Dozens of wide unfurled scrolls decorated the walls of the room, most of which were currently blank and waiting for the array master to fill them with intricate formations for all the needs of the sect, while a set of tall wooden shelves were put up against the back of the room, filled to the brim with different writing utensils and various models of ships no different from the sect’s main method of transportation.

But for now, they’d have to wait as the older man was busy, hunching over his desk with bloodshot inky black eyes and a bent back, his coppery hair faded by the inevitable hand of time hanging in a messy tail that sprawled over his back and shoulders, writing a few characters just to cross them over several times.

The Elder had spent the last few hours trying to put together a comprehensive lesson on the basics of formation building, but how could such a thing possibly exist? There was so much hidden in just the first steps of array creation, so many secrets of geometry, mathematics, and Intent needed to fully comprehend what exactly made a formation possible in the first place! How could he condense all of his knowledge in a way that would let the minds of the young and inexperienced grasp the greatness of his craft?!

The hunched man let out a defeated sigh, running a hand through his long graying mustache in an unconscious tick.

Elder Lai rose to his feet, momentarily abandoning his dilemma in favor of indulging in other, more enjoyable work. There was a good reason why he usually did not take part in such beginner level courses, as his perspective was so far removed from that of a true novice of the art that he could not properly formulate adequate lessons for them.

But he would just need to find a way, after all the young Hui Chen had come to him personally asking for this favor, something so rare that he could not find it in himself to turn down the lad.

Not to mention that his poor old heart would’ve broken under the weight of the young man’s pout.

With a wave of his hand, one of the many ship miniatures appeared in front of him, accompanied by a set of differently sized brushes, three inkpots filled with multicolored liquids, and a single golden carving tool.

A snap of the Elder’s finger set the space around him to trembling as the miniature ship went from being the size of a fist to that of a small house, the walls and ceiling of the workshop shifting around to give him more space to work.

A small, eager smile made its way to Elder Lai’s face as he grasped one of the floating brushes and dipped it in his specially prepared ink.

“Now, where was I?” He murmured to himself, tired eyes with heavy bags under them shining with glee. “Ah right! I was just about to renovate the Exploration Troop’s vessels’ spatial bridging matrix. I’m sure I can get it to work with even less spiritual energy if I really put my mind to it…”

A jaunty tune filled the room as the Elder started working, humming to himself jovially.

>>>

The hall filled rapidly with hopeful disciples, ready to take full advantage of this once in a lifetime occasion.

The times Elder Lai had organized such a public and open lecture could be counted on the fingers of a single hand, and he'd never before done one on the fundamentals of his chosen art, which made aspiring formation masters all over the Golden Peak run to try and find a seat as close to the front as possible.

Lai Bolin stood completely still at the center of the hall, his eyes closed and his chest not even rising and descending to take a breath.

To be completely honest, the man was mildly nervous. He'd tried again and again to come up with a satisfactory lesson plan that would be able to convey the full breadth of his knowledge to his pupils, but alas, he could not find a perfect solution and instead settled on giving a barebone introduction to the practice with as little of his own not inconsiderable insight as he could manage.

Hopefully, that would be enough to satisfy the young Hui Chen, as his prideful heart would not react well to such a failure if the worst came to pass.

After the number of arrivals became smaller and smaller Elder Lai finally opened his eyes, his inky black orbs taking a moment to sweep across the crowd of disciples despite the fact he'd already thoroughly analyzed everyone present with his spiritual senses.

His gaze seemed aimless at first, only pausing for a single moment on a certain disciple before his eyes returned to wandering around the hall.

The cultivator in question was none other than Yu Xiang himself, sitting down comfortably atop a cushion he'd brought along for the lesson, his blue and purple robes looking no different from those of any other inner disciple if not for a recent addition.

A rectangular badge made of solid gold the size of an open palm was affixed to his belt, the carved symbol of their sect displayed proudly at its center and marking the young cultivator as someone under the sponsorship of someone higher up in the sect hierarchy than most of those present.

"Welcome everyone." He said, his voice carrying evenly throughout the entire room and immediately bringing the low murmur that had filled the hall to an alt. "I am quite pleased to see so many promising youngsters take an interest in this most fundamental art."

A wave of his hand summoned a large slab of white wood, lacquered to perfection so that it was as smooth and clear as possible.

"Now, without further ado, let us dive headfirst into the basic principles of formation building." A light shined at the tip of his finger as he raised it to the white board behind him, and as he came in contact with the wood black inky lines took shape on its surface, forming several different images and shapes.

"Since being aware of Intent was one of the prerequisites for participating in this lesson, I will assume most of you have at least some awareness of the mechanism that governs it, even if only on its practical application." Most of the disciples present nodded in assent, which was good enough for the Elder.

"Very well then." He then turned back to the board, pointing at the various black shapes that had taken form on its surface. "Intent, for those of you who aren't familiar with the theoretical side of things, is the concentrated power of a person's conviction, belief, and willpower. Now, there is some debate over what exactly that entails but that's not relevant to our lesson."

The Elder waved his hand dismissively before resuming his lecture. "But the power of Intent is not something held solely by Cultivators, or humans for that matter. Spiritual beasts and spiritual plants can also harness this power, and, most important of all for us, the world itself exercises this power."

Many heads shot up at his words, bringing a smile to his face as a chorus of questions echoed through the hall. Elder Lai simply raised a hand to bring the commotion to an alt. "Indeed, every object around us holds some traces of Intent, be it because they have been around living beings enough to passively absorb some traces of energy, or simply because they naturally gather and cycle the Intent flowing through the world."

With a dramatic flourish of his robes another set of symbols, these ones far less abstract and taking the shape of various natural formations, appeared on the white board. "And those objects are the basis for our art! As we study and comprehend the effects certain shapes affect upon the world, we can then mix and match them to create complex formations that do not need a constant supply of Intent and spiritual energy to function!"

"Barrier arrays! War formations! Our sect's flying ships! The only limit placed upon what you can do with formations is dictated by your own knowledge and skill!" An eager smirk took over his aged and pale features. "So, tell me, my young aspirants, what is it that you wish to accomplish with this limitless art?" His excited expression was mirrored by the sea of disciples, but his gaze once again fell upon the young Hui Chen's protege, who was busying himself filling a length of a scroll with his notes.

That awarded him an internal nod of approval from the Elder.

The lesson kept going for another few hours, the Elder's clear enthusiasm for his chosen profession proving itself contagious as soon enough the only thing all of the present cultivators could think about were formations, and it was with great reluctance that they started to pick themselves up and leave the hall once their time was up.

Elder Lai smiled to himself as he kept standing at the center of the lecture hall, altogether satisfied with how the lesson had gone. He'd left an open invitation for anyone present to come and ask him questions about the content of his lecture, but he doubted anyone would actually take him up on his offer, after all, for all of his efforts at seeming kind and approachable he was still an Elder of the sect, with all of the gravitas such a position gave him.

He shook his head, his graying mane whipping around at his movements, then he raised his hand, starting to-

"Excuse me?" A voice surprised him, something that shouldn't have been possible due to his level of cultivation, until he noticed that he had forgotten to deploy his aura after his lesson had come to an end.

Such an amateur mistake, he was really getting rusty, when was the last time he'd even been in a proper fight?

Lai Bolin dispelled those idle thoughts, turning around to find the young Xiang waiting for him, not unexpectedly now that he'd redeployed his aura.

The young man was wearing a serene smile that looked like an exact copy of the young Hui Chen's, which would have highlighted him even if he didn't already know about their connection. "Yes? What can I do for you young man?"

The inner disciple unfurled the scroll held in his hands, offering it to the Elder, who took it with no hesitation.

"During your lecture, you briefly touched upon the way a person's Intent can be used to modify the basic building blocks of a formation..." The Elder nodded curiously. Indeed he had, learning how to make one's own 'language' of array creation was a most important step for a formation master and one which many people struggled over for years.

Which is why he was caught off guard once again by what he found upon the young man's scroll.

It looked like a variation of a basic shielding array he'd taught during the lecture, but somewhat stylized and with an unknown script being used in place of some of the usual symbols.

It was obviously an attempt at a personalized array, something the Elder had seen hundreds of times and which wouldn't have been unusual at all. Or at least. it wouldn't have been if it weren't for what he could feel through his spiritual senses.

It was solid, the Intent embedded in the script working in tandem with the rest of the formation seamlessly. Elder Lai almost absentmindedly fed the amateurish formation a trickle of spiritual energy and he watched in amazement as a small weak barrier sprung to life over the script.

His mouth fell open, while the young Xiang's serene expression broke into a sheepish smile, clearly not understanding the magnitude of his accomplishment.

What kind of little monster had their Prince found for himself?!