James pictured the Mana Gathering formation in his mind. It was a magic circle with a pentagon in the middle and 5 smaller magic circles overlaid on the 5 triangular sections of the pentagon.
He tried to push his mana outside his body but when he did, it took the form of a cloud of gas. He knew he'd need to concentrate his mana into threads for it to work but shortly after his mana appeared, it dispersed into the air. This surprised him since from what he'd read, mana was suppose only disperse after a couple of minutes. However it only took a handful of seconds for his to disperse.
'What the hell is going on? How am I suppose to push my mana into threads when I only have a couple of seconds to do it? Why would my mana disperse so fast compared to others? It could maybe be the cultivation technique that makes my mana take the shape of clouds…Or maybe because my mana is gold in color instead of the regular blue?'
James let out a frustrated breath, he was ready to finally create a formation and now he can't even find out how to start.
'Guess i'll go ask master, hopefully he'll have an answer so I can save a lot of time fumbling around.'
James got up and headed to his master's pavilion. Soon they were sitting across from eachother on meditation mats and James began explaining his problem.
"Hmm interesting…most likely it's due to your being too pure. A cultivator's mana usually contains impurities which gives it its distinctive blue color. However yours is different, it is pure with no impurities. This, in theory, gives you many advantages like making it much easier to manipulate and it should be more efficient when casting spells. The problem is that it is rather unnatural for such pure mana to exist outside of very special circumstances.
Those impurities that regular mana contains is what slows down the mana dispersing process. They help the mana resist being manipulated and as such makes it take a while for the world to reabsorb the mana. However yours doesn't have those impurities to help combat the pull of the world and so it disperses very quickly."
'So it was due to the different color if my mana, just a slightly different reason haha. I guess i'll need to figure out a way around this problem…maybe I could concentrate it into threads while it's still within my body? Or I could look into getting a Mana Gathering formation from the sect and using that along with the one already set up in my cultivation room should help slow the process…'
James began thinking of different ways to conquer this problem. There were a few different methods he could come up with and then began discussing them with Faldon for his opinion.
"I would suggest trying to concentrate your mana while it's still within you. While using external tools to help with forming the threads in the outside world could be a temperary solution, it would end up limiting you in the long run. It wohld mean that in the future, you'd only be able to create formations in specially designed rooms. Another reason to try to condense it within your body is that it will be good practice for when you decide to form your mana core. To be able to reach the Core Formation realm, a cultivator needs to condense their mana from a gaseous state to a solid one within their dantian. The dantian is a small space lovated just above the bellybutton. So if you manage to form mana threads, you'll essentially be reaching the half-step Core Formation realm. Well only if you convert all of your internal mana into threads that is. If you only condense mana you need for the formation that's ok too since it's still good practice. Ultimately it's up to you but that is my recommendation as your master."
James returned home contemplating what Faldon had told him. He agreed that concentrating it internally would be the best option in the long run. He was just debating on if he should spend his time converting all his mana right away or just what he needed for the formation. He definetly wasn't in a rush to improve his cultivation realm but if he converted it all right away then he may save time later whenever he wanted to create a new formation.
James made up his mind, he would concentrate all his mana into threads, that way he would not only get stronger but won't need to convert his mana every time he wanted to create a formation.
He sat down on his meditstion mat, closed his eyes and focused on his mana. He felt it, floating around like small clouds drifting through his body. He then focused on squeezing the mana together into the shaoe if a thread. To his surprise, it was very easy and the mana in that cloud formed a thread after a minute. His master had told him that he most likely wouldn't recieve any resistance from his mana but it still momentarily surprised him by how easily the thread was formed.
James then spent the next week converting all of his mana into threads. With each one he condensed, James could feel a subtle difference within him, like he knew he was getting stronger without even checking his Profile.
Right after finishing to create the last thread, he couldn't wait any longer and began creating the Mana Gathering formation. It took him only 30 seconds to complete it and then he marveled at his creation. It was a thing of beauty, it floated before him, rotating slowly and was golden in color with a slight glow. Eager to see it's effects, James took out a large piece of paper he'd prepared and then moved the formation onto it.
Once the formation merged onto the paper, it turned completely black as though it was painted on with ink. James then layed it on the ground and activated it. The formation glowed with a golden color as it hummed to life and soon something completely unexpected happened.
Above the paper, small storm clouds began to appear out of nowhere and the next second a heavy aura crashed down, pressuring the entire Enlightenment Peak.