78: Chapter 78 Entering the Transmission Hall, Beginning My Scientific Cultivation

Inside the Hall of Power Transmission, it wasn't the brightly lit, bookshelf-lined spacious hall that Xu Ruyu had imagined.

Beyond the entrance was a deep, winding corridor with thick stone walls on both sides, embedded every few zhang with a Night Pearl emitting a soft white glow.

The air was thick with the unique scent of old paper, spiritual ink, and some sort of preservative herb; it was so silent that he could only hear his own footsteps and the rhythmic 'thump-thump' of Granny Liu's wooden staff on the floor.

Granny Liu walked with a hunched back, not very fast, yet with a peculiar rhythm.

She didn't look back, her raspy voice echoing in the corridor: "The 'Pavilion of Miscellaneous Arts' is in District C, the Seventh Corridor. It opens daily at Noon and closes at the Hour of the Sheep.

You may take out at most three Jade Slips or equivalent classics at a time; they must not be damaged, privately transcribed, or taken away.

Violators will have their cultivation base crippled and be expelled from the Sect."

Her tone was flat, but the content made Xu Ruyu's heart shudder.

He hurriedly replied, "This Disciple understands and will surely abide by the hall's rules."

Granny Liu said no more, turned several corners, and arrived at a relatively open fork in the road.

She extended a withered finger, pointing toward a slightly narrower path on the left marked with the character 'C': "Go straight to the end, turn right, and the seventh entrance is it. Remember the time."

Having said that, she ignored Xu Ruyu entirely, turned around, and leaning on her staff, slowly walked toward another, darker passage, her figure soon vanishing into the shadows.

Xu Ruyu bowed toward the direction she left, then took a deep breath, suppressing the slight discomfort in his body and the trepidation in his heart, and stepped into the District C corridor.

The bookshelves here were more densely packed, almost reaching the ceiling, and were categorized with countless Jade Slips, beast skin scrolls, bamboo slips, and even stone carvings.

The air was stuffier, and the light was dimmer.

Following the instructions, he found the entrance to the Seventh Corridor and walked in.

Both sides of the corridor were filled with dense pigeonholes, each with a simple label like 'Introduction to Formations', 'Basic Talisman Runes', 'Identification of Refinement Materials', 'Pill Fire Temperature Control Formula', and so on. Xu Ruyu had a clear goal and went straight to the Formation area.

He carefully took out three rather old-looking Jade Slips from a pigeonhole labeled 'Basic Formation Theory'.

Finding a stone platform with a faint light source, he sat down cross-legged and sank his Divine Sense into the first Jade Slip.

Information from the Jade Slip flooded into his mind like a tide, mainly concerning the definition, origin, classification, and most basic principles of Formations.

In traditional cultivation concepts, a Formation is a means to 'borrow the momentum of heaven and earth, gather spiritual energy, turn the void into reality, trap and kill enemies, or protect oneself and aid cultivation.'

The core lies in the 'Array Pattern' (energy guidance paths), 'Formation Bases' (energy storage and amplification nodes), 'Formation Eyes' (core control and energy source), and the mobilization of 'Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi'.

Xu Ruyu watched with a furrowed brow.

These descriptions were profound, but to him, they were too abstract and idealistic.

"What is the 'momentum of heaven and earth'? How is 'Spiritual Qi' 'guided' and 'bound' by specific patterns? Why do different combinations of patterns produce different effects?"

He put down the first Jade Slip and picked up the second, which recorded the detailed diagrams and layout methods for some of the simplest Tier 1 and Tier 2 Formations, such as the 'Minor Spirit Gathering Formation', 'Mist Formation', and 'Warning Formation'.

It was illustrated with text and images, detailing the Materials needed (certain Spirit Stone powders, specific elemental spirit woods, etc.), the method of carving runes, and the key points for injecting spiritual power.

Xu Ruyu carefully studied those Formation rune patterns.

In his eyes, these winding, aesthetic lines were no longer just mysterious symbols, but more like... circuit diagrams? Or streamlines in fluid mechanics?

Once this thought arose, he suddenly felt a sense of enlightenment!

The 'Formation Base' is like a capacitor or an inductor, responsible for storing and regulating energy.

The 'Array Pattern' are the wires or pipes, responsible for guiding the flow of energy.

The 'Formation Eye' is the power supply or pump, providing the initial energy or control signal.

And 'Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi' is the background energy field that fills the environment and can be guided by specific 'frequencies' or 'structures'!

So, could the principle of a Formation's effectiveness be understood as: using specific Materials (media with different energy properties) and rune structures (preset energy channels) to construct an 'energy field guidance and amplification System' in a local area? This System can resonate with or directionally extract from the environmental background energy field (Spiritual Qi), thereby achieving effects like energy accumulation, transformation, and directional release in a specific area?

The more Xu Ruyu thought, the more excited he became. Using his finger dipped in the thin dust accumulated on the stone platform, he began to draw on the smooth stone surface.

He first drew a simple schematic of the 'Minor Spirit Gathering Formation' runes.

According to the Jade Slip's description, this Formation could slowly gather Spiritual Qi within a three-foot radius to the Formation Eye to assist in cultivation.

"Assuming Spiritual Qi is a flow of particles or an energy wave that can be guided..." Xu Ruyu muttered to himself, starting to label the physical parameters he imagined next to the runes. "The bending angle and width of the runes might determine the 'resistance' and 'direction' of the energy flow..."

"The material properties of the Formation Base (the Spiritual Qi affinity of the Spirit Stone powder, the spiritual conductivity of the spirit wood) determine the efficiency of energy storage and transformation... The Formation Eye is the energy convergence point and output port..."

He tried to analyze the flow of the Array Pattern using simple principles of geometry and fluid mechanics.

"There's an acute angle turn here. According to fluid mechanics, this is prone to energy vortices or loss, but the Jade Slip specifically emphasizes the need to inject more spiritual power here to 'reinforce' it... Is this 'reinforcement' similar to increasing 'pipe wall strength' or applying a 'guiding force' to prevent energy from dissipating or becoming turbulent here?"

He then compared several Formations with different functions.

He found that the runes of the 'Mist Formation' were more winding and complex, with many loops and intersection nodes; the Jade Slip explained it as 'disturbing Spiritual Qi to generate illusions.'

In Xu Ruyu's view, this was like constructing a complex 'energy turbulence field' or 'holographic interference field', interfering with the normal propagation of light or Divine Sense (which was also a type of energy wave).

The runes of the 'Warning Formation' were relatively simple, but had several special 'sensing runes'; the Jade Slip said it required dripping in the blood of the Formation's creator or leaving a Divine Sense mark.

Xu Ruyu understood this as an 'identification circuit' or an 'energy signature sensor'. When an unauthorized energy body (an intruder) entered the Formation's range and changed the preset energy field distribution, it would trigger the alarm mechanism.

Time flew by in his focused contemplation.

Xu Ruyu was completely immersed in the wonderful experience of deconstructing metaphysical knowledge with scientific thinking.

He forgot the pain in his body, the hostility outside the hall, and the constraints of time.