He looked old, the face of a man who had seen the height and decline of generations, but the signs of age did not equal weakness. His Qi was like a deep river, wide and controlled, and it surged where needed with the slow confidence of amassed years.
Beneath him the formation was a lattice of sustaining lines, a support array more complex than most defensive rings. From Lin Mu's close assessment he could see how it fed Qi and regulated the Patriarch's internal flows.
It was a masterfully designed structure within the sphere's greater framework.
The innermost lines matched those of the sphere itself, as though the Patriarch's private array had been woven into the body of the refuge to form a single living system. Those connections were a blessing and a curse. They amplified his cultivation, but they also made his position visible to someone skilled enough to read the formation's signature.
