Gu Yuan looked at Elder Wang with some confusion.
Elder Wang waved his hand lightly, and a dark red flame appeared on his palm.
Pointing at the flame in his hand, he smiled and said to Gu Yuan, "This flame is a spiritual fire of heaven and earth born from ten thousand miles of lava: Molten Lava Flame!"
"I spent immense effort to obtain it back then, and I almost died in the ten thousand miles of lava sea."
Gu Yuan looked at the Molten Lava Flame in Elder Wang's hand with some surprise. This was the natural power of heaven and earth that could enhance the strength of his Eight Phenomena Space.
After that, Elder Wang summoned many rare energies from heaven and earth, things that would be highly sought after by thousands of people if they were outside.
Now Gu Yuan understood why Elder Wang said that this place was the accumulation of his half-lifetime; it was all precious rare energies from heaven and earth.
These rare energies were priceless outside. It was because Elder Wang, as a formation master, could break many naturally formed formations in heaven and earth and enter them to retrieve the rare energies.
Also, as a formation master, wealth accumulation was faster than ordinary people; a set of formations was astronomically expensive.
"Gu Yuan, you must know that the foundation of a formation master is to utilize the various powers of heaven and earth for attack. The power of two merged energies will definitely be stronger than one. The best is to borrow rare energies from heaven and earth, like the many powers I showed you just now."
"With so many rare energies, formation masters can create many combinations, allowing the rare energies to unleash even greater power."
Elder Wang began to impart the most basic knowledge to Gu Yuan, explaining the role of these rare energies in formations.
"Ultimately, these rare energies from heaven and earth are still composed of the most basic forces of heaven and earth. In a formation, one only needs to draw out one kind of power at a time, and through the formation, absorb the power of heaven and earth for amplification, eventually forming energy not inferior to the explosion of the rare energy itself. Do you understand this?"
Elder Wang looked at Gu Yuan, who nodded, indicating that he understood.
With a wave of his hand, the scene before Gu Yuan disappeared, and when it returned, they were back in the Scripture Depository.
At this moment, Elder Wang had already stood up. His figure flashed to Gu Yuan's side, and his aged hand grasped Gu Yuan's shoulder.
Elder Wang's voice sounded in his ear, "Let's go to another place to teach you formations."
A blue vortex of formations instantly appeared beneath their feet. With a flash of blue light, the two disappeared from their original spot.
When they reappeared, they were ten miles away from the main building of the First Martial Arts University, at the foot of a large mountain.
"Teacher, why did you bring me here?" Gu Yuan curiously observed his surroundings, not finding anything special.
"Don't be in a hurry," Elder Wang said with a smile.
"Close your eyes and sense the energy that is most abundant around you."
Gu Yuan did as he was told, closing his eyes and releasing his divine soul to sense the surrounding energies of heaven and earth.
Elder Wang instantly felt a divine soul power emanating from Gu Yuan that was beyond his current realm. Sensing this, he sighed inwardly that he had indeed chosen the right person.
After a while, Gu Yuan opened his eyes and said to Elder Wang, "Teacher, I sense that the most abundant power around is wood element, followed by rock."
Elder Wang nodded, indicating that Gu Yuan's perception was correct.
Then he said, "Formations have two forms and two activation methods."
"The two forms are for offense and defense, and the two activation methods are using true qi and using divine soul power."
"I will demonstrate each one to you."
"Watch closely," Elder Wang said sternly to Gu Yuan.
With a slight movement of his finger, the surrounding wood-attribute energy surged forth, constantly revolving around Elder Wang's finger.
Looking at Gu Yuan, he said, "Extend your hand."
Gu Yuan did as he was told, extending his fair palm. Elder Wang, with his fingers pointed like a sword, swiftly brushed across Gu Yuan's palm.
Gu Yuan suddenly felt a slight pain in his palm. He looked down and saw that a cut had appeared on the skin of his palm. The cut was very smooth, and blood instantly flowed out, dripping onto the ground from his palm.
Gu Yuan looked at Elder Wang with some confusion.
Elder Wang, however, smiled and said, "Don't worry, watch closely."
Upon hearing this, Gu Yuan controlled his wound to prevent it from healing automatically, otherwise, with his extremely powerful physique, such a minor wound would heal within a few breaths.
Elder Wang's finger, wrapped with abundant wood-attribute energy, began to slide over the wound on Gu Yuan's palm, leaving behind lines of energy-infused patterns on the skin.
The finger stopped, and a miniature formation appeared on Gu Yuan's palm. As Elder Wang's finger withdrew, the formation instantly erupted with emerald green spiritual light.
It absorbed the surrounding wood-attribute energy, flowed through the formation, and began to slowly enter the wound. Gu Yuan only felt a gentle power circulating over the wound, slowly healing it.
He looked at Elder Wang with surprise. Simple wood-elemental power alone could not achieve such a result. Even if the wood-elemental power surrounding Gu Yuan's palm were doubled, it wouldn't be enough.
"You guessed correctly, this is the power of formations. This little bit of wood-elemental power alone cannot heal it," Elder Wang said with a smile.
"Also, this is inscribing a formation for oneself using true qi. Next, I will demonstrate inscribing a formation for offense and using divine soul power, which is void formation!"
Elder Wang emanated his immensely profound divine soul power. Gu Yuan's divine soul perception felt as if a colossal giant, reaching the heavens and traversing the earth, had appeared behind Elder Wang.
He felt as if the heaven and earth energy within a radius of ten miles could be manipulated by Elder Wang.
On the ground in front of Elder Wang, a large area of green formation patterns instantly appeared, unleashing powerful energy.
Almost instantaneously, a large number of trees shot out from the formation, intertwining with each other, growing upwards like coiled dragons.
Finally, they transformed into a giant tree a hundred meters tall, exceptionally conspicuous in the forest.
As the formation formed before Elder Wang, Gu Yuan could clearly feel the heaven and earth energy within a radius of several hundred meters rushing towards it.
Looking at the giant tree that had grown successfully in less than a minute, Gu Yuan's eyes showed deep shock.
"How is it, doesn't it seem magical?" Elder Wang looked at Gu Yuan with a smile.
Gu Yuan nodded, then his eyes, filled with ardor, looked at Elder Wang, and he said excitedly, "Teacher, please teach me!"
Elder Wang let out a hearty laugh.
"Good, good, good! I will impart all my lifelong learning to you!"
From that day on, Gu Yuan began learning formations under Elder Wang in this forest.
Gu Yuan plunged into a busy life of learning.
During the day, he studied formations with Elder Wang, and at night, he returned to his dormitory to improve his various abilities and learn some escape methods.
One month later...