Chương 60: Chapter 59 – Lessons From an Expert

The gathering was hosted at the Serenity Tea House, where Ren met with senior Chun Wei the night before the lecture. Their last meeting had been too brief and rushed, and Ren had looked forward to reconnecting after over a year. Chun Wei had been injured in the inheritance trial but looked much recovered now. The left sleeve of his robes still hung loose but detracted nothing from his dignified appearance. The gathering itself had begun smoothly in the private reserved rooms of the upper floor of the tea house.

The Serenity Tea House had an illustrious history. Some wise core disciple a long time ago had recognized the need for entertainment and had selected the very refined art of tea drinking for his venue. The tradition had been carried forward ever since, giving a place for young disciples to engage in the 4 noble arts of calligraphy, painting, go (a game of strategy), and music. Ren had been eager to learn through discourse and see if any of the four arts resonated with him.

Even if he were fully occupied now, perhaps one day he would have fewer things competing for his attention. He would need a hobby then. In the large private rooms, the participants gathered and greeted each other. Introductions were made, and Ren was touted as a prodigy at herb growing. He honestly couldn't thank senior Chun Wei enough for his assistance and care. The other seniors were also all of the inner sect and varied in age and appearance.

Quite a few expressed interest in doing business with him at a future date. Even before the food was served, Ren was already very glad he had attended. But once he took a bite, waves of pleasure erupted in his mouth even as the others chuckled warmly at his expression.

"Don't be shy, junior! That's how it was for all of us. The food at Serenity is a rare treat. Savor it well!" They said, patting him on his back. Zhao Ren was a young master of the Zhao family. He had attended banquets and feasts all his life. The most precious and rare ingredients were prepared by the best chefs for his delectation. But before this food, those dishes may as well have been dirt. It was only with iron will that he didn't lose himself any further and grab at the food.

But the social interactions receded to the back of his mind as he ate.

Which was why when he finally resurfaced, he hadn't noticed the party grow into the realms of revelry. Ren stared around in shock as the refined and gentlemanly appearance of the tea house had evaporated. The seniors were raucously drinking and laughing. He sensed arrays sealing in noise and even more subtle arrays that deflected attention. Chun Wei noticed him looking around and pulled him in close.

"The gatherings are always like this. Everyone accumulates a lot of stress along the path of cultivation and needs a place to vent. The Serenity Tea House acknowledges the need and provides a place where they can't disturb others and thus are ignored by the members of the Hall of Discipline. It's harmless fun but only if you don't overindulge, so be careful." Chun Wei looked completely in his element with a jar of wine in hand as he said this. For once, Ren felt like cursing at his most respected senior.

"I understand these types of events are common and vital for forming connections, but couldn't you have warned me before? I came expecting elegant conversations about music and art, and all those seniors are already half drunk! The only music I hear is bawdy songs, and the only painting I can see is the one on the face of that one fellow who passed out.' Ren still didn't know whether to laugh or cry when someone poured a cup of wine for him. The fragrant scent of peach blossoms captured his nose.

The mere aroma lightened his mind, and he found himself half a cup in before he noticed.

"Delicious wine!" Ren couldn't help but praise it. Then he gasped as his internal organs turned into a furnace. And that was the last memory Ren had of that night. Ren stubbed his toe on a table as he was leaving the tea house. It made him wish he had begun cultivating his body a long time ago, as somehow even as a foundation realm cultivator, the little toe could still cause such pain. He was half stumbling as he followed the crowd of seniors towards the Hall of Learning.

Many of them looked completely unaffected by last night's revelry, but a few others looked far worse than him. Senior Chun Wei was engaged in enthusiastic conversation with two others as though he hadn't been dancing with his one arm around Ren's shoulder the night before, if the blurry fragments of Ren's memory were right. Ren excused himself and found a discrete place behind some trees to change his robes and straighten his appearance. As he scrambled around, a low branch whacked him in the face.

To soothe his pounding headache, he reluctantly swallowed a recovery pill he had purchased for combat. He wasn't going to risk being ill during the lecture he had been waiting months for. The pill worked quickly, and the nausea and pain faded. There was a strange sensation from his dantian, but he postponed it for later. He couldn't be late for the lecture. He at least felt mentally prepared enough to attend the lecture of a core formation expert.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. The Hall of Learning in the inner sect was just one enormous hall with all the seats facing a central podium. It could hold hundreds of disciples, meaning almost all of the inner sect, at once. This hall was packed full of eager disciples. It wasn't possible that all of them were array users, but the art of formations was broad and influenced many fields.

Everyone could gain something, especially if the one imparting the wisdom was one with such a deep attainment in formations and a core formation realm on top of that. At the appointed time, the elder entered the hall and slowly walked to her seat at the podium. Elder Jiao Yue looked in her early 30s and very fair. A few muffled gasps rang out as disciples took in her enchanting appearance. Ren was more focused on not missing a word she said and leaning forward in anticipation.

Once she took her seat, 3 disciples were lifted by an invisible force into the air and hurled out of the hall. Ren barely had a moment to notice their disheveled appearance and the faintest scent of wine as they passed over him. Having killed the chickens to warn the monkeys, the elder began speaking to an absolutely silent hall.

"Formations are one of cultivators' most important creations." The words were clearly audible despite the distance. The phrase sounded very familiar to Ren until he placed it. Back in the outer sect, his very first teacher of formations had said exactly the same thing. Someone who had attended the elder's lectures before perhaps? The elder continued speaking, so Ren focused again.

"In almost every field cultivators have made advances in, you can find the traces of formations in their foundations. But what are formations? Merely the flow of qi creating strange phenomena?" A few disciples were shaking their heads subconsciously at the rudimentary phrasing. They were shocked when the elder continued.

"Fundamentally, it is. The natural flows of qi, which create mysterious effects. But when these flows were studied back during the dawn of cultivation, people found ways to replicate them. For those of you who use the terms "formations" and "arrays" interchangeably, here is the real difference. A formation is natural, whereas arrays are crafted by cultivators." Here Elder Jiao Yue paused to let them absorb the lesson. Ren noticed the discrepancy in her words instantly, but he kept his mouth shut.

After a breath, the elder continued.

"Yes, that's right. Arrays are crafted by cultivators, but the best cultivators do more than imitate nature. They embody it until that array can once again be called a formation. Not everybody makes that distinction, but for all you young ones, that should be the pinnacle to strive toward." Ren was feeling the excitement in his heart grow with every word. Even though nothing practical had been taught yet, the elder had painted an image of perfection, a goal to work toward.

"Formations are closely tied to cultivation itself in many ways. Even the core that a cultivator forms is a mirror of formations that ancient cultivators observed in beasts and in nature. All cultivators are served by having a basic understanding of formations."

"Let us examine some of the applications before we truly begin. I see almost everyone present wears a spatial pouch on their waist. Have you wondered how they are made? How is it that these marvels are common enough that even a qi gathering realm disciple may afford them?" Ren's heart was thudding in his chest as secrets he thought he wouldn't learn for many years yet were teased. Indeed this was one mystery that no one he knew could answer.

"To compress and fold space and seal it within an object is no trivial thing! It is made possible by a great formation that our sect received from our parent sect. That formation is one of our most prized possessions and allows us to manufacture spatial pouches in great quantities. Built by masters and so perfect that it can be called a formation again, it allows for the miracle of holding all of one's possessions in a small bag on one's waist."

That reveal had double the impact as this was the first time Ren had heard the Heavenly Sword Sect was but a branch of a larger sect. His thoughts were racing crazily until he remembered these things were far beyond his means and there was nothing he could do about it. That reassuring thought let him return his focus to the elder. The rest of the lecture involved elder Jiao Yue talking about the huge protections laid around the sect. Various types of arrays were introduced, dissected, and reformed.

The importance of array flags was highlighted, and how the point of failure in many arrays was due to a structural flaw in an array flag at a crucial location. Support arrays, offensive arrays, defensive arrays, fortress arrays, and alchemy arrays. Going by her own words, very few formations were given, but that made sense to Ren, as each one was probably an incomparably valuable treasure. Ren absorbed all he could. He inscribed the elder's words and his thoughts into prepared jade slips.

It was the only way to keep up with the onslaught of information. By the time the lecture ended half a day later, Ren's mind was completely saturated. So drained was he that not a single thought found enough space to fully form. He absentmindedly bid farewell to his companions and started flying back. On the way, he pondered over all that he had learned. It had been an enlightening experience that greatly expanded his horizons.

Many of the formations he had learned of today he could see being implemented on his mountain array. One other thing the elder had mentioned in passing had resonated with him. The part about how formations even had a place in core formation. It reminded him of something important. If he was planning to accelerate his cultivation until he approached the next realm, then it only made sense to prepare for it along the way. A new manual? Advancement using the Causality of Karma, his current manual?

How would he even advance if he hadn't restructured the scraps of the manual into one customized for him? There was so many questions that he needed to find and answer to. His return journey was a silent and introspective one.