Qi cultivation came in many different forms. The Red Collective's Cultivation Method Department recovered many old texts and figured out a lot of different means of power expression.
When Melkor sought out a qi cultivation method that could expand his capabilities in a way that was helpful to a mech commander, he quickly became attracted by the mention of formations.
It turned out that formations were a big deal in qi cultivation. The way he understood it was that it was a purposeful way to leverage massive amounts of E energy radiation to produce powerful outcomes, often far beyond the actual cultivation level of the practitioner who set up the formations in the first place!
This immediately attracted his attention due to the promise of being able to produce significant results without needing to be strong himself.
However, when Melkor dove into this subject, he found that it was a lot more complicated than he expected.