Four Elements Concept
Fang Yuan judges the earth path Gu recipe of extremely little practical use, since most of its materials no longer exist. The gathered information still deepens his otherwise thin, indirect formation path background from his first life. Reading the mortal formation path inheritances he bought, he learns that a since-abandoned Late Antiquity Era concept held earth, water, wind and fire as the four elements able to stabilize most Gu formations, an idea that dominated only a few decades before fading. The information hands him the answer to the dream’s first stage: a true Gu formation needs all four Gu worms together, not the two Tu Shi Cheng had claimed was the minimum. Fang Yuan judges him really quite deceitful for the trick. ch. 1325
Still unsure of the exact arrangement, Fang Yuan tests it inside the dream rather than refine the mortal Gu in reality. The second attempt, activating all four Gu worms together, self-detonates and expels him from the dream. A third attempt, using earth path Gu then water path Gu, fails as well. Only on the seventh attempt does he succeed: earth path Gu settles still below formation heart Gu, wind path Gu still above, and water and fire path Gu orbit it in ellipses. The formation gives off a hazy rainbow light that doubles a Gu Master’s rate of primeval essence recovery. Tu Shi Cheng hails him as his true son with a talent for formation path, closing the first stage; Fang Yuan has kept his cost low by avoiding unravel dream, spending only about ten guts Gu across the stage. ch. 1325
The second stage opens with Fang Yuan inside a large cage holding a smaller cage and a starving black panther. Tu Shi Cheng gives him five minutes to arrange his five rank one Gu worms, again formation heart Gu with earth, wind, water and fire path Gu, into a formation that can resist the panther once it is released. He says he will absolutely not intervene. A first attempt fails with a painful backlash that leaves the Gu worms unharmed, but a second kills the formation heart Gu itself. Tu Shi Cheng refuses to supply a replacement. He tells him no one in a battle would, ending his chances for that round. When time runs out the panther is freed and kills Fang Yuan in the dream, and Tu Shi Cheng calls him unworthy and leaves without giving the solution. ch. 1325
Fang Yuan is expelled, heals with guts Gu, and re-enters again and again, dying to the panther each time without his resolve breaking, since he has endured worse pain before. Each stage-two failure now costs him three or four guts Gu to heal, against two in the first stage. Past a dozen failures, an idea finally strikes him. ch. 1325
