Chapter 1325: Four Elements Concept Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios Naturally, the practicality of this Gu recipe was extremely low. Because most of the materials for this Gu no longer existed. If Fang Yuan wanted to refine this mortal Gu, he would have to modify the recipe. He naturally would not do such a pointless thing. With the information he gathered, he already had a deep understanding of this mortal Gu. Next, Fang Yuan read those mortal formation path inheritances. This enriched some of his formation path foundation. Despite him not having taken the initiative to research formation path, he had come into contact with it indirectly in his first life, or come across some formation path contents in fortuitous encounters. As such, this enrichment was limited and not high in scope. It was just that he was only focusing on the test in the dream realm this time. He had an objective when gathering the formation path information, and he knew from some information: In the Late Antiquity Era, formation path had a prevailing concept. This concept stated that the four basic elements of earth, water, wind and fire could make a Gu formation stable, they could make most basic Gu formations and were the most inclusive. Naturally, this concept only prevailed for some time, after dozens of years, it went out of favor. Compared to the whole history of formation path, dozens of years was too short, this concept was like a small ripple that disappeared in the long river of history. “It is just like the origins of mankind. On Earth, people once believed that humans were made by divine beings, be it the Chinese concept of Nüwa creating mankind, or the Western concept of God creating mankind. This was an ideology that lasted for a long time, and after it dominated people’s thinking for a long period, it was broken by Darwin’s theory of evolution. But in regards to whether Darwin’s theory of evolution pointed precisely to the truth or not, as science develops, people over time may find flaws in it.” Fang Yuan’s thoughts were wandering. This earth, water, wind and fire concept was similar. Following formation path’s development, people started to find that the Gu formations created by the four basic elements of earth, water, wind and fire were not the most inclusive formations. People made new discoveries, continuously deepening their knowledge and continuously progressing. Even though this concept was abandoned not long after, back then, it was progress of some kind. This information was quite valuable, it directly gave Fang Yuan the correct way to pass the first stage of the dream realm. “It turns out that I had to use all the Gu worms to truly create a Gu formation.” Fang Yuan gained an epiphany. At the same time, he sighed: “This Tu Shi Cheng is really quite deceitful, clearly all four Gu worms had to be used, but he actually played dumb and said I needed to use at least two mortal Gu.” Fang Yuan fell into deep thought. Even though he knew this, he still did not know how to make the four Gu worms revolve around formation heart Gu to build an effective Gu formation. If these four mortal Gu could be refined, Fang Yuan could test it out in reality. This was also a common method used by laymen in deciphering dream realms in the early stages. But now, that earth path Gu worm was difficult to refine, even if he refined an earth path mortal Gu by modifying the Gu recipe, could it truly be the same as the one in the dream realm? This was a dream realm, sometimes there would be some differences in the dream realm from reality, and it was not a direct reproduction of reality. Fang Yuan pondered, and decided it was better to test it in the dream realm. The second attempt played out like before. But this time, Fang Yuan chose to activate all these four mortal Gu at the same time and coordinate them with formation heart Gu. It failed. The four mortal Gu self-detonated simultaneously, Fang Yuan was injured and kicked out of the dream realm. The third attempt, Fang Yuan chose to use the earth path Gu worm first, and water path Gu worm second, but it failed again. Following the fourth attempt and fifth attempt... only by the seventh attempt did Fang Yuan succeeded. The four mortal Gu were flying around formation heart Gu. The water path and fire path Gu worms were flying in an elliptic orbit, sometimes near and sometimes far from formation heart Gu. Earth path Gu was hovering below formation heart Gu, while the wind path Gu was hovering above, both were still. Under the control of formation heart Gu, these four Gu worms formed a mysterious force that continuously let out hazy rainbow colors. A Gu Master’s primeval essence would recover at twice the speed inside this light. “To Gu Masters, this is an extremely practical Gu formation!” Fang Yuan thought to himself. “Hahaha, good, very good, you are truly my son, you have natural talent for formation path after all!” Tu Shi Cheng laughed loudly and happily at Fang Yuan’s success. Fang Yuan: “...” The hill, the sky, and the land slowly disappeared from Fang Yuan’s vision. The first stage of the dream realm was over, the second stage was starting. Fang Yuan breathed out a sigh of relief, he had persisted on not using unravel dream in the first stage, in the end, only about ten or so guts Gu were consumed, the total expenses were still low. Without checking how much his formation path attainment had risen, Fang Yuan focused his attention on the surroundings. He discovered he was in a cage. And inside this enormous cage, there was a smaller cage. Inside this cage was a pitch black panther, it was skinny and its eyes shined with mad hunger, indicating how dangerous it was right now. “What’s going on?” Fang Yuan was bewildered. Right at this moment, Tu Shi Cheng, who was standing outside the cage, said to Fang Yuan: “I will give you five minutes to arrange these Gu worms into a Gu formation. After five minutes are over, this panther will be released, I absolutely won’t make a move at that time, and will only see if you can use the Gu formation to resist this panther.” “What?!” Fang Yuan’s eyes opened wide. This method of education, hey, are you really this kid’s father? “You are the son of Tu Shi Cheng, you can definitely do it. If you can’t do it, then you are not worthy of being my son!” Tu Shi Cheng continued with an expressionless face. “My goodness!” Fang Yuan thought, lips twitching as he looked at himself. He found that he had not grown much and not much time had passed since the first stage, he was at most about the age of fourteen. “This Tu Shi Cheng looks like he should be a righteous path Gu Immortal, why is he so heartless? Maybe this is intimidation to force his son to fully release his potential?” Fang Yuan speculated inwardly. “Regardless of who this Tu Shi Cheng’s son is, he is truly unlucky.” Time was limited, Fang Yuan calmed his mood and began to inspect the Gu worms he had. The caged panther was only an ordinary beast, but with his current young body, he definitely could not oppose it. He could only make a Gu formation to resist it. There were five Gu worms, they were still rank one. Among them, one was formation heart Gu, while the other four belonged to earth path, wind path, water path and fire path. It was almost the same as in the first stage. The difference was that although the paths were the same, the four Gu worms were different ones from the first stage. How should he group these Gu worms to form a Gu formation? Fang Yuan began to try. With the precious experience from the first stage, Fang Yuan was quite proficient. The first attempt quickly failed, Fang Yuan spat out a mouthful of blood in the dream realm due to the backlash, but fortunately, the Gu worms were not injured. He was also not expelled from the dream realm. “Looks like I can continue to try until the limit of five minutes is reached?” “Although there are still chances to continue, there is in fact almost no hope.” Fang Yuan frowned. Because of the injuries, although nothing happened to the Gu worms, his own state was very bad, his primeval essence had depleted and he was injured. Fang Yuan soon discovered that because of the injuries, when he continued to try again, he was unsteady, and although the Gu worms flew up, they were shaking. The second attempt also failed. There was more time left, but Fang Yuan was unable to continue attempting, because a Gu worm had died in the second failure. If it were any of the other paths mortal Gu, it would not be the end, but it just happened to be the formation heart Gu. “Father, my Gu worm is destroyed, can you give me another formation heart Gu?” Fang Yuan quickly asked. But the reply he got was a ruthless shake of the head from Tu Shi Cheng: “What if you were in a battle, who would give you a substitute Gu worm? Son, you disappointed me, you have no chances left.” Sure enough, the moment the time limit was reached, the small cage opened up and the panther pounced forward, biting at Fang Yuan’s throat instantly. This dream realm was extremely realistic, Fang Yuan could clearly sense his throat being torn, his breathing becoming difficult, the heartrending pain that came when his skin was ripped apart by the panther’s sharp fangs. Blood spewed out rapidly from his wounds, and the panther drank it contentedly. Tu Shi Cheng shook his head, sighing: “You are not worthy of being my son.” He then turned around and left. “Not giving the solution even at the end, is this Tu Shi Cheng of the righteous path or demonic path?” After being expelled from the dream realm, Fang Yuan’s soul returned to his body, he was naturally gloomy. After using guts Gu to heal his injuries, he continued to explore. Second failure, third failure, forth failure... Every time he failed, Fang Yuan would be killed by the panther and relive the miserable pain from being eaten alive. If it were any other person, their mind might have already collapsed. However, Fang Yuan was not afraid, he had suffered pain beyond this an uncountable number of times. He only treated the pain as a cool breeze blowing across his face, his mind still focused on constructing the Gu formation. Tenth failure, eleventh, twelfth... This second stage was much more difficult than the first stage. After Fang Yuan was expelled from the dream realm, his soul injuries were also much more severe than what he suffered in the first stage. His soul would be healed using just two guts Gu in the first stage, but in the second stage, he needed at least three guts Gu and sometimes even four to be healed. Fang Yuan calmly calculated his expenses. “If this continues, the cost will become steeper, do I have to use unravel dream?” “Wait.” While he was feeling troubled, he suddenly had an inspiration. He entered the dream realm and continued to attempt it. There was a way!