Chapter 99: Rank 1 Formations
"I accept," I said finally. "But I do have three conditions."
"Oh?” He raised an eyebrow whilst taking another sip from his seemingly endless supply of wine. “This should be interesting."
"First, any study of my energy must be non-invasive. No attempts to extract it without my permission," I held up a hand as he opened his mouth to protest. "I know you could probably do it if you wanted to, but I'd prefer we establish clear boundaries."
He thought about this for a moment, then nodded. "Fair enough. Though, you should know that my study methods have been known to be a little…unconventional."
"What do you mean by that…?"
“I'll probably be drunk most of the time." He shrugged at my expression. "It's part of my cultivation method. I see things more clearly through the lens of spiritual wine."
That…actually made a weird kind of sense. Different cultivators had different ways of perceiving spiritual phenomena. If his path involved alcohol, maybe being drunk really did help him understand things better. Regardless, it wasn’t for me to judge.
"Second condition," I went on. "You need to teach me formations properly, I don’t want to just learn the basics, but also the theory behind them.”
"Now that's the kind of student I like! Too many disciples just want to memorize patterns without understanding the principles." He leaned forward, suddenly animated. "Did you know that most formation masters don't even realize why triangular configurations are more stable than square ones? It's all about the energy flow vectors and…"