Alex found Luo Xing outside near the pond with Xiao Huang.
"Sister Xing, brother Huang" Alex called out.
"Oh, little brother, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with sister Mei?" Xiao Huang asked. "She just took away Uncle to practice on him."
"It should be fine. I'm in the same spot as her with what needs to be done next," Alex said.
"Did Mei'er really learn it all in a single day? That just seems unbelievable," Luo Xing said.
"Haha, your sister is quite talented," Alex said.
"So, what did you come here for?" Luo Xing asked.
"Oh, you see. About a month or two ago, I started having interests in formations and even started learning them. I learned how to make base formations on plates and can even make Heaven grade True ranked formations on plates. But I couldn't understand how to proceed with the formation flags."
"What should I do? How do I get them made? How I should carve them? Those sorts of things. So, I was hoping you could teach me a little," Alex asked.
"Oh little brother, you're talented in formations too? Do you have any you've made?" Xiao Huang asked.
"Uh, yeah. I made a few. Here's one of the better ones I've made," Alex said as he brought out his True ranked formation plate.
"It's a—"
"A light barrier formation?" Xiao Huang said in a bit of surprise and took it from Alex's hands.
He carefully looked at the strokes and the angles the strokes were in.
"What Efficiency is this formation at?" he asked.
"56%," Alex said. He had in fact made better ones, but those were formations that he found through the dead man in the Southern Forest, so he couldn't bring it out.
"Hmm… although I can see some errors, it's really not bad for a newbie. The bigger problem is either in the depth of the strokes or the impurity in the metal plates."
"Still, the fact that you made such a high-level formation, even if it's just on a plate is quite amazing. Congratulations brother," Xiao Huang said.
"Haha, it's the product of 2 months worth of effort. Also, I learned a lot about focus and persistence thanks to making pills, so I could make these," Alex said.
"Let me test it," Xiao Huang said and attached two True Spirit stones onto the plate and threw it on the ground just as he filled it all up.
Suddenly, a barrier burst forth from the plate and surrounded the people there. Alex was a little surprised as he wasn't expecting Xiao Huang to suddenly test his formation plates.
He looked around and saw the bright light surrounding him. He walked up to the barrier and placed his hands on it.
Xiao Huang did the same and said, "Hmm… that's not a bad barrier. That should be able to stop at least True Master realm attacks."
"Of course you can destroy the plate as well. Deforming a True ranked metal plate might be hard, but you can surely just remove it from the energy source that is the True Spirit stones," Xiao Huang said and went up to the plate to do just that.
"Let that be a lesson, little brother. Never use a plate formation in a fight. With a formation made through formation rods, you can set the distance from how far away they can activate. That way you can properly fight without worrying about people taking off your formations," Xiao Huang said.
"I see," Alex said. He did remember how the Spirit Disorienting formation was set about 50 meters out of where it actually started.
'Oh, that reminds me,' Alex thought.
"Um, can you tell what this formation flag does?" Alex said as he brought out two formation rods.
"I could only find two of these, so I'm not sure if you can learn anything, but I hope you will at least try."
Xiao Huang nodded and took the rods. "Hmm… it's hard to tell how the formations would go, but I can make some guess," he said and looked further.
"Hmm… the metal alloy itself is not very much used, so the formation should be either some sort of illusory formation, Cloud making formation, or concealment formation," Xiao Huang said.
"Concealment formation?" Alex's eyes perked up.
"Yeah, the kind that stops light, sound, and even aura from escaping," he said.
'That must be it. No wonder master and sister couldn't find me at all,' Alex thought.
The rod he had taken out was the same rod he found when he was stuck in the Southern Forest. If it truly was a concealment formation, then it would have been impossible for them to come to find him.
"Alright, come sit down. We will teach you what we can," Xiao Huang said.
Luo Xing sat right by and taught him too.
For the next 2 hours, they cleared most if not all of his confusions about making formations using formation flags.
Apparently, when making a formation flag, you did not make the full strokes. Instead, you only carved the beginning of it.
If a formation blueprint had 6 corners also known as origins, then there would have to be 6 formation flags.
Each of the rods of the formation flags would have to have one of the origins carved onto them. Since the rods were usually cylindrical, getting a curved carving that was straight was very hard to achieve.
Once one was done with that, there was also the case of the cloth part of the flag itself.
The cloth was just there to hold the spirit stones and transfer the Qi through the air. Apparently, it was made up of beast hides for fluid energy transfer.
The better the cloth was, the further apart the formation flags could be.
Alex was quite happy when he learned that he didn't have to worry about making the cloth and only needed to worry about carving the formation.
'Thank god, I just need the formation blueprint,' Alex thought.
"Nephew Huang, can you come with me for a second," Shi Nangong called Xiao Huang and he left. Alex could guess why that was.
'Uncle must be looking at brother Huang as one of the people to transfer Qi,' Alex thought.
"Do you want to continue?" Luo Xing asked.
"Um… sure, but don't you want to go look if Uncle is fine?" Alex asked.
Luo Xing smiled and shook her head. "Mei'er wouldn't want me there most likely. She still hates me quite a bit," she said.
"Um… can I ask why? if you don't mind," Alex said.
"Uh... sure, it's stupid really. Most would say she's in the wrong here, but I think it's okay for her to be angry at me," Luo Xing said.
"When I was little… I was contracted with a rather fatal illness. It…was horrible, but the illness didn't affect children as fast, so I was still mostly okay."
"Mothers took care of me one after another, day after night, and reared me. They did it so much so that… Mei'er couldn't even see mothers for most of the days."
"Father brought in doctors to check what was wrong, and they found the problem rather easily. Except, the cure wasn't so easy to come by."
"It needed a special ingredient… hah, I don't even remember the name of it anymore," Luo Xing said as she shook her head.
"The ingredient was rather rare and hard to find, so father took some men and went into the Southern forest to search for it."
"He spent days in there looking for the ingredients. He was motivated to save me. Unfortunately, one day… mother, Mei'er's mother contracted the illness too," Luo Xing's eyes were starting to fill with tears.
"When father came back, happy with the single ingredient, after many days, he returned home to see both mother and me on the deathbed."
"The illness…" Luo Xing's tears started dripping down her cheeks. Her lips quivered as she forced herself to speak. "Mother looked so frail back then. I… I wished she had used the pill on herself."
"But she chose…" Luo Xing started crying. "She chose to give the single pill to me."
"I was cured, but mother…"
Luo Xing didn't continue and just sobbed. Alex could feel the sadness in her voice.
Just as Luo Mei loved Shi Nangong, Luo Xing loved Luo Mei's mother too. However, there was no way a child could love a mother more than the mother could love her child.
"I'm sure she was happy when you got the pill," Alex said.
"She was, I don't doubt it. She told it to me herself. But…" Luo Xing said. "But it hurts when I remember back that… that the reason mother died was because of me."
Alex sat quietly while Luo Xing sobbed. "But that doesn't mean that Sister should hate you," he said.
Luo Xing sniffed while wiping her tears. "Since mother and I were kept in the same room, most people stopped visiting us in fear of contracting the illness."
"Mei'er, who was already having little time with mother, stopped getting to meet her after she fell ill."
"Even when… when mother died, even then she couldn't meet her in fear of contracting the illness."
"Really the only time she saw mother after I got ill was… perhaps her covered body in the funeral."
"Even then… Mei'er couldn't go close to her. I got ill, and mother got ill. We both went into a single room for containment and when I came out okay, mother did not."
"To the young Mei'er, when the adults tried explaining what was happening, she started blaming me for taking away mother."
"At least… I got to say goodbye to mother before she died. Mei'er, however, didn't even get that."
"So, while I think the hate is completely irrational and I don't deserve it… I also think that she's not in the wrong with hating me," Luo Xing said.
"Perhaps… one day she might choose to call me sister again. But until then… I will just have to wait," Luo Xing said with a sad smile.
"I'm… sorry for making you remember that," Alex said.
"Don't be," Luo Xing smiled meekly. "It had been a while since I thought of mother again. It's… good to know that I still have memories of her."
"You know what they say, a person is not gone as long as you can remember them," Luo Xing said; her mood getting better. She wiped away whatever remaining tears she had.
"Since you helped me remember mother and are helping father right now, I will leave you with one information about Formations that you likely won't find from any books," Luo Xing said as she looked around.
Alex immediately sent out his spiritual sense to see if anyone was listening.
"It's kind of a secret… so I hope you don't tell it to anyone," Luo Xing said and came close to whisper.
"You don't need a metal base to make a formation."
