These were the only two possibilities.
With respect to the first, Jiang Chen surmised that Great Scarlet Mid Region had no formation master of that caliber, period. A formation master at the level of the heavenly planes was probably alive somewhere on the Divine Abyss Continent, but there was no chance he was in Great Scarlet Mid Region. It was possible that he wasn't even located in the human domain. Therefore, that possibility could be eliminated. All that remained was the second.
His heart was conflicted. He had spent his utmost efforts on finding a powerful earth attribute treasure. Among the five elemental attributes, he'd always lacked completion of earth. That was one of the fundamental reasons he hadn't yet broken through to emperor realm. He had been waiting–no, was still waiting–for an earth attribute treasure to appear.