The Pattern for Fire

The plate surprisingly accepted his Qi. "It's working," he said excitedly. Although he had done the best he could, he still knew that it was far from being decent.

He waited for the fire to light up, but for some reason, nothing happened. No spark, no shine, or any other sign aside from the fact that it graciously accepted his Qi. 

"Did something go wrong?" Alex wondered. "It's working for sure… but it's not producing fire. Is the efficiency too low?"

But that didn't make sense. From what he understood regarding formations, even when they had terrible efficiency, they would at the very least work, albeit horribly. 

"Then does that mean the formation was never meant to light a fire? No, it did make fire," Alex thought. "Am I missing something?"