Empty Seat

Alex held 45 swords in the air, collectively. They moved as if they were all one sword, but they didn't feel like a single sword at all. 

They were each their own thing that he had to hold with his Qi. They did not feel like they should if they were just an upgraded version of the 21 Sword Array. 

This was not the technique he wanted to use.

"Qi, Pathway, and Intent, these 3 things need to be correct for a technique to work properly," Alex thought. "The Qi is fine since I'm upgrading the technique, and the Intent is there since I know what I want to do. So, the problem I am having really is just the pathway."

Alex took a deep breath and used the technique once more, this time pulling his Qi out from a slightly different pathway from before.

When the Qi flew out, it did nothing, like the previous hundreds of times. He couldn't help but sigh as he let the swords drop to the ground.