Zhishi Wu arrived at the formation's hall after two more days of getting used to his senses.
"The formation's hall, looks better kept than the Alchemy Pavilion but strangely small."
The building looked to be around the size of a small house, it seemed humble yet emanated a strange scent of Qi, it was like he could tell intuitively that there was a problem with what he was seeing.
"It's like my eyes are lying to themselves."
As Zhishi Wu walked into the building a strange feeling washed over him, a feeling that he had never explicitly noticed before but that was nothing compared to the immediate change of the building.
The previously humble building had actually grown to three times its size and the door that he had walked through was a mere gate to see the true formation's hall not an actual entrance into the building.
A large smile spread across Zhishi Wu's face and he walked into the true building of the formation's hall.
"This might be even more fun than the Alchemist Pavilion."
The door opened to lead him into an area full of various scrolls stored away in systemic fashion, it was less accurate to call it a library and more so an actual database and a large quote covered one of the walls.
"Herein lies infinite possibilities."
Zhishi Wu stared at the quote for a few seconds.
"Infinity is a bold claim." he chuckled and continued to survey the area.
The more he observed the surrounding the more he saw that this place was far more popular than the alchemist pavilion.
"Maybe It's because this place has more combat relevance." he approached a person who seemed to have been crowded by people.
A middle aged man with a balding head was fighting off disciples who were bombarding him with questions.
"NO, yes, no, no, yes , yes ,NO you came here because you heard formations were popular with the female disciples, scram."
After listening in to the conversation the man was having he understood why he was balding. But as Zhishi Wu approached his attitude shifted and he darted through the crowd of people and appeared before him.
"Greetings Elder this humble one is Gulam, I am currently the caretaker of this establishment feel free to give me any task or ask me anything I am at your service."
Zhishi Wu noticed this was the type of person to be strong among the weak and weak among the strong, he had seen too many of his type.
"Just give me an introduction to formations." Zhishi Wu kept his request short and simple.
"Certainly, certainly." Gulam nodded and beckoned him to follow.
He walked over to a room that seemed something like a lecture hall and approached the board at the front while grabbing some chalk like object at his side.
"Formations are basically inscriptions that contain power, in basic terms each grade of formation can only be powered by Qi refined by a cultivator of the same stage. A mortal grade formation is powered by a Qi condensation cultivator and so forth."
He drew a character that Zhishi Wu wasn't able to read, but the way he drew the character was mesmerizing, each stroke had incredible precision like he wasn't writing rather operating on someone.
"This inscription represents serenity it when activated has an effect of calming the mind and enhancing focus and any cultivator of the Qi condensation stage who has enough proficiency with drawing formations can do it, the more precise the inscription the more effective the formation."
Zhishi Wu remembered something.
"Back when I was refining that pill I actually felt more at peace, could it be that was the effect of a formation." he thought to himself silently.
"Is there a serenity formation present in the Alchemist Pavilion?"
Gulam nodded before responding.
"They requested the formation to help them refine pills."
Zhishi Wu was excited about the potential utility of these formations, he wasn't confident in ever matching people who were truly suited for combat, everyone he had fought till now was not proficient but if he ever came up against a true expert he didn't have the confidence to beat them head on.
"Lastly about the usage of formations, they aren't consistent in their effects on higher grades of opponents, if a mortal grade formation is used on a foundation establishment cultivator its effect will be far weaker."
He then drew another inscription which took him slightly longer than the last one.
"This inscription represents area, if I merge it with serenity it will create the identical effect that the one in the Alchemist Pavilion has. This is the basic usage of formations as long as you understand the language of inscription and how to draw each individual character to its limit you will master the art of formations."
Zhsihi Wu thought about the information provided and felt like he was still missing something.
"How does Qi usage differ across inscriptions and grades?"
Gulam thought about it for a moment and had a distressed expression appear on his face before responding.
"There's no accurate way to answer this, it depends on the ink used to paint the inscription, the target of the formation and other factors such as accuracy of the inscription the amount of connections between them and so on and so forth, it is highly experimental in nature."
Zhishi Wu was hiding his face under his mask but if Gulam could see the expression on his face he would be flabbergasted.
The smile on his face was not what one would expect a wise sage to have, it was more so a smile a child would have when introduced to a new toy.
"Thank you, I'll borrow these introductory scrolls." Zhishi Wu said and walked away chuckling and muttering to himself.
"Infinite possibilities indeed."