“That is… An interesting lineup for such an excursion. Forgive me for the rudeness however it feels relevant to note that Zi Bao has a troubled relationship with me, perhaps another assignment would be better?” Fan Zhong grimaced as the words left his mouth, on one hand asking for the mission of his punishment to be changed was rather audacious. However, trouble could only ensue if he and Zi Bao had to spend so long in each other's company.

“Indeed, Elder Wuying and I thought the very same thing. However, cooperation is a core part of being a clan warrior even when one has to assist clan members they don’t necessarily see eye to eye with. As such the rest of the elders ruled that remaining professional and fulfilling your duty alongside Zi Bao would be part of your exile to prove you can be a functioning part of the clan” Fan Cheng said while sighing “Despite your past interactions Zi Bao has proven to be a loyal and consistent warrior while on missions. In the half dozen assignments he has taken, following his elevation to an official warrior, there has been little complaint from his superiors, colleagues, or clients. Therefore it will be assumed that any friction generated during this mission will be a result of you since he has already proven himself.”

Fan Zhong’s frown deepened at these words even if he knew the logic behind them. If Zi Bao truly had learned to rein himself in and tame the normal arrogance he displayed then Fan Zhong causing waves in the mission could only be his fault. Although he had misgivings about the haughty youth's ability to truly turn a new leaf inwardly Fan Zhong steeled himself to be particularly mindful of his actions during this exile and assignment.

“Understood, I will be mindful of myself and avoid conflict as much as possible, especially with Zi Bao,” Fan Zhong said resolutely.

“Good it warms my heart to see your resolve, take these five days to firm your heart and prepare. In the meantime, the material you requested on formations and arrays is gathered here” Fan Cheng said while gesturing to a small orderly stack of manuals that had been stacked near one wall of the meditation hut “feel free to take these with you during the mission, who knows maybe your ‘heaven-defying talent’ also applies to these side skills? Just remember the martial path is long and hard, try not to stray too far or you might find the peak forever out of reach. As for the books on magical treasure crafting, their delivery was delayed due to… issues with the Wei, they should be here soon and I’ll have someone pass them along to you..”

With these words, a smirk crossed Fan Cheng’s face and he turned to leave. As he watched his brother go Fan Zhong felt a complex mix of emotions well up inside of him. Firstly he had to admit to himself that there was indeed a lingering feeling of bitterness that dwelled in that dark abyss of his heart. Whispers of indignation at being punished when others had beaten his brother tried to escape that well of dark emotions, however with his newfound fear of that place in his heart Fan Zhong quickly smothered them.

Thankfully the rest of his emotions were mostly positive ones. Mostly he felt the bonds of kinship with his elder brother and clan grow ever stronger, even if the elders were sending him into exile it was to temper him and broaden the experiences of his worldview! Some may simply be looking to attack his father or elder brother politically or simply still think his martial achievements were faked somehow. However, Fan Zhong believed in his heart that the majority truly had his best interests at heart and viewed his ability to conduct himself as a proper warrior around Zi Bao as a test of his Dao heart.

In any case, another piece of news had also shocked him slightly, Zi Bao had already been on half a dozen missions as an official clan warrior! Thinking on it this wasn’t too strange as the arrogant man had achieved third-grade warrior status around when Fan Zhong had just begun his training, this meant that he had been a part of the clan warriors for almost a year now. This fact did worry Fan Zhong however as he remembered how much this trial had allowed his martial prowess to rise.

Surely not all missions were as long as the one they would embark on nor his recent trial but even with shorter assignments with half a dozen under his belt Zi Bao no doubt had gained a heap of practical experience during his outings. Although the martial realms were classified with the grading and master systems those titles only gauged when one had a qualitative breakthrough in strength. For individuals in those realms differences still existed and they could be as vast as the distance between a child and a trained warrior.

An example would be comparing a normal musician and Fan Zhong who had devoted many years of his life to the craft. Between the two no qualitative difference existed such as one’s music being imbued with energy, touching the soul, or similar change. However, Fan Zhong had composed countless pieces that were praised throughout the local villages and even a good portion of the valley while many casual tavern and entertainment hall musicians lacked the skill to compose and play complex works.

Thus even without a qualitative difference Fan Zhong’s abilities would completely overwhelm the other musicians in this aspect. The same could be said for martial ability, two warriors may be at the third-grade realm but with experience in combat and practical application one may completely overshadow the other. Although the difference would not be as clear as fighting between realms, where one could overcome many being an unstoppable force, in single combat the skill difference would quickly spell defeat for the weaker martial artist.

Fan Zhong now secretly wondered if he would even be able to match Zi Bao with his training, perhaps with the practical experience the other party had gained the gap between them was even wider than it was previously? Slowly Fan Zhong sighed and pushed the issue to the back of his mind, truly it didn’t matter if he could fight Zi Bao at the moment what mattered most was avoiding conflict with him and silently completing this assignment. After that, his exile would be lifted and he could return home once more proudly raising his head!

Having decided to act lowkey during this assignment Fan Zhong eagerly turned his attention to the stack of manuals on arrays and formations. Previously he had been so wrapped up in the adjustments to his music and calligraphy the stack had gone unnoticed, now with nothing to do for a few days, he was eager to have a distraction to dig into. The pursuit of these skills was not wholly unrelated to his martial arts as Fan Zhong had constantly been searching for a way to incorporate his music and calligraphy into practical skills.

With an understanding of arrays and formations, he was hoping to use his calligraphy to become proficient in inscribing arrays adding a much-needed support skill to his repertoire. This idea was still in its infancy however Fan Zhong felt something resonating within the idea and so he chose to believe in the instincts that were guiding him.

So it went that Fan Zhong decided on a schedule where he would exercise and practice martial arts until the sun was high in the sky before taking an hour to practice music and calligraphy each. After that, he would study the manuals regarding the fundamentals of arrays and formations. Within these five days, Fan Zhong was confident he had at least grasped the basic terms and even started doing the simplest exercises the manuals listed for beginners.

For the arrays, he learned that the fundamentals book was titled “Fundamentals of the arrays and formations of heaven and earth”. It turned out that the term ‘array’ and ‘formation’ actually referred to very similar things and could sometimes be used interchangeably. Generally speaking, arrays referred to a set of markers, mobile or immobile, that formed a pattern to produce an effect that needed minimal supervision.

Examples of this were things like Qi gathering formations that produced environments with higher ambient Qi to grow natural treasures or speed up the advancement of those in the master realm or higher. Once the markers, something akin to inscribed array flags or posts stuck into the ground with similar inscriptions, were placed they could run the effect with minimal supervision usually powered by spirit stones or natural treasures placed near the energy cores of the array. On the other hand, formations were generally formed by items similar to the markers for arrays; however, each item was more flexible and meant to be manually run by a martial artist actively providing Qi or Mental energy.

Formations could be run by fewer people than there were cores, however, this required one of the controllers of the formation to split their awareness. Formations received the advantage of not using expendable resources such as spirit stones and natural treasures by allowing them to be powered by martial artists. The inscriptions used to make the cores of formations and arrays were made of runes that were derived from the more complex forms of ‘True Dao Runes’ that represented parts of the Eternal Dao.

True runes contained too many mysterious truths about the laws of the universe and would destroy the minds of mortals if they looked upon them so countless lesser runes had been derived from the original forms that contained less power but were safe for use of the less powerful. This basic primer on runes contained little info on how far away the more mundane inscriptions of mortals were from the source, only that innumerable lesser runes had been derived from the power of the true ones immortals used. These runes could imbue the various aspects of the different elements that made up the world in a sequence that represented the desired effect. Oftentimes to replicate the effect of a technique a martial artist knew as an understanding of the technique itself would allow for the model to better mimic the strength of the original.

The practice of using these runes extended further into what was known as spells and talismans where spells were a way to draw the symbols in the air with Qi or mental energy and use the ambient energy of heaven and earth to power the effect. Although the power of such spells was limited by the original person who derived it and took much study to understand, the results would allow for techniques that consume less energy. In a fight between higher realm, martial artist's energy reserves often could be the deciding factor between life and death. Additionally once one had a deep foundation in spells they could learn more of a similar level quickly without studying the foundations of even wildly different techniques, only requiring the spell itself. For example, a Water Qi user would normally have to start over from the beginning to use Fire Qi at all and might even face backlash to the cultivation of their martial art if they misused the fire technique.

With an understanding of basic spells, the Water Qi user could learn basic fire spells for utility purposes such as lighting torches or campfires without the time needed to familiarize themselves with how fire techniques work, instead of relying mainly on their basic understanding of spells to form the fire techniques. From a utility perspective, this would also serve the user better as that basic foundation in spells would extend to other elements as well such as small bursts of wind to dry clothes. These factors made it a great boon to learn the basics of spells for martial artists however most stopped after that as higher-level spells became immensely more complicated and time-consuming to understand.

The book did say that higher level spells could start producing incredible effects by combining simpler spells into more complex ones, however, techniques for this seemed to be closely guarded secrets of certain nobles and scholarly sects who focused on such things. Similarly talismans functioned very similarly to spells however they tended to have different rune models as they condensed the power of the spell into a physical medium such as talisman paper at the time of creation. Talismans could generally be made with any natural treasure that one could inscribe the runes on with the energy capacity of the material determining how strong a talisman could be.

Using natural treasures as material made talismans costly to make and the expense of training a talisman master was even more costly as novices would often fail in their early attempts wasting precious material. The benefits to them were plain to see however as most talismans cost a fraction of the energy to activate compared to the original technique and served as easily stored trump cards in a fight. As talismans were single-use items they were made to display the full strength of the technique without requiring as much mastery as spells did, in the hands of a skill talisman master it was said they could even bring out more power than the original through their understanding of the talisman itself.

While much of this interested Fan Zhong he was relieved to see that he could make progress on the front of formations and arrays as well as spells by learning the basics of runes themselves. Although he wouldn’t be able to use any of his knowledge of spells or runes before becoming a first-grade martial artist, as he wouldn’t be able to actively control mental energy before then, it was possible to study the theory and be able to do so as soon as he advanced to that realm. Reading further into the information on arrays and formations deeper he was able to learn the basics of how they were constructed.

The simplest form of either was a technique, powered by a user or natural treasures that contained the correctly aligned Qi to power the technique, with an energy core attached to it with a complementary element to boost the power of the technique. These two core types, energy, and technique formed the basis of simple arrays and formations. Within this, a primer was given on how elements interact with each other.

All elements were classified into the duality of yin and yang beneath which exist the quadrants of sentience and the six pillar elements that formed heaven and earth. Elements all had an alignment of either yin or yang whereas the quadrants of sentience embodied the minds and souls of all living beings. Finally, the six pillars represented the physical objects that made up heaven and earth.

Those aligned to the Yin were as follows: Beast, Mind, Wind, Water, Metal. Conversely, the Yang aligned elements turned out to be: Man, Body, Earth, Wood, Fire. Pure elemental laws are known as normal alignment to yin or yang and can each serve to feed each other except in the case of being fed by their overcoming element (i.e. Fire cannot feed water as fire evaporates water). Composite Elements if they contain both yin and yang are said to be neutral elements or in the case, both elements are of a single yin or yang alignment they are noted as strongly aligned. When a Yin Element feeds a Yang element to do something it will receive a 25% boost in power and the same is when a Yang element feeds a Yin element.

Next, the work defined the Quadrants of sentience as containing the elements of Body -> Beast -> Mind -> Man <-. Body is the starting of all living things and so gives rise to Beast. In turn, beast must think to live and so gives life to mind and finally, mind gives rise to sentience creating man who in turn begins the cycle anew giving birth to body ( or sentience in this case man refers to any sentient creature including spirits and spirit beasts). In turn, man exhausts mind which exhausts beast who in turn exhausts body who finally exhausts man forming the reverse cycle.

Elements of the sentience cycle provide a 25% boost when used to feed the element they birth and conversely when used against the element they exhaust they are 10% more effective.

Finally the six pillar elements were defined as Earth -> Wood -> Fire -> Wind -> Water -> Metal <-. Earth gives birth to wood which burns birthing fire whose temperature gives rise to wind who forms clouds that make water who washes away soil to reveal metal who decays and breaks back down into earth. Metal Exhausts water through outlasting it as water exhausts the power of the wind through formless ripples. Wind exhausts fire with fierce gales and fire exhausts woods through burning its roots while wood exhausts earth through absorbing all of its energy and earth exhausts metal through a millennium of wear. Earth Defeats fire through smothering, wood defeats wind with stout trunks and dense forests, fire defeats waters through evaporation, wind defeats metal through erosion, water defeats earth by washing away the soil, metal defeats wood through felling all its dense forests.

The first of these cycles of the six elements relates how the six elements feed each other providing a 50% boost to power when they feed the right elemental. Secondly is the exhausting cycle when an element is used against one which it exhausts it is 25% more effective in this cycle, conversely if you try to use an offensive technique against a defense technique and the defensive technique exhausts the offensive, say a fireball at a windshield, it will be 25% less effective. Finally is the Destroying cycle, when you use an element against one it destroys the technique is boosted by 100% conversely if an element wishes to overcome a technique aligned with its destroyer, for example, you want to defeat a wind barrier with a metal attack, the weak element would need to display 200% the strength of the strong element to achieve equal exchange.

Composite elements further complicated the matter and were out of scope for the basic manual. As far as setting up formations and arrays, the last topic mentioned was utility formation cores. These formation cores provided neither qi nor techniques, instead working to do things such as change the elemental alignment of Qi, move formation cores, and link different layers of multilayer formations/arrays.

Once one understood and comprehended all of this they could be said to have begun on the path of a formation or array master. With this, though Fan Zhong felt his eyes had been opened wide open, he had never known there were such complex relations between energy types, let alone such varied ways to use them! Although the text seemed dry to others he drank it up like a desert that had been given water for the first time in centuries.

During this time Fan Zhong had also been beginning to learn the basic set of runes as well and found his calligraphy skills to be a great boon as high levels of precision and control were needed to draw even the simplest of the characters. Finally, the day arrived and Fan Zhong was summoned to the ship that would take them out of Little Green Bamboo Village. On the way down the path, he looked around, marveling at the wide expanse of the underbrush and the tall bamboo all around.

This had been his world for many years, so much so that it wasn’t wrong to say this village was all that he knew. With a breath Fan Zhong steeled his resolve and continued into the village until he was at the that led ramp onto the merchant ship his team would be on. Arriving on the deck he spotted a few crew members milling about securing various things or loading crates with various labels. In the center of the ship stood a stocky man who had a slightly round belly and a long thin black beard that drooped down to his chest.

The man had soft features on his face and wore an opulent-looking dark red robe that had the sigil of a jade crate on it. Atop the man's head rested short black hair and his eyes were a deep brown reminiscent of the depths of a shallow pond when a large fish is disturbed near the bottom. To his side stood three others dressed in the warrior robes of the clan.

Of these three all were standing opposite the man in the red robe, one to either side of the man in the middle who stood slightly ahead of the others. This man Fan Zhong assumed was Fan Shun, the leader of his team and a relative of his although they had never met. Fan Shun was a well-built man who stood only slightly shorter than Fan Zhong himself.

His blonde hair was cut to shoulder length, an odd feature for someone of direct clan descent Fan Zhong noted. Fan Shun’s eyes showed specks of golden lights infrequently appearing on a gray backdrop, signs he was nearing the master realm. Martial robes of the clan colors were worn astutely in a professional manner and a small sword hung at the man’s waist. To his side away from Fan Zhong stood someone that could only be Su Fen.

Although Fan Zhong had never met the man he seemed amicable enough from a distance. The man carried himself with an air of ease; his dark blue eyes betrayed his astute alertness of the surroundings. Su Fen wore his robes loosely and slung across his back was one of the mortal natural treasure staffs used by most clan warriors.

Finally, Fan Zhong focused on the person standing on the other side of Fan Sun, a youth who stood almost two heads shorter than himself. Upon the youth's face sat sharp eyebrows and his eyes were a soft blue. The sharp angles of the youth’s short auburn hair and angular jaw added to the stern look he cast on the rest of the world as if he was challenging the heavens for the mere fact of their existence. This of course was none other than Zi Bao. Fan Zhong took a final deep breath and walked forward to greet his team.