John wanted to dive right into studying formations. But when he went to enroll for classes, their were no teachers!

It wasn't that the sect wasn't teaching it, he just happened to want to join during a break!

The core formation expert was on vacation for now.

One of the benefits of being in the inner sect was that there wasn't a time limit for the first two levels in the book pavilion.

John decided to use the few weeks before classes started to learn some escape and defense techniques. He studied an escape technique called 'Tornado' that could allow one to fly. He also learned an earth type defense technique called 'Empowered Connection' that worked by directing the brunt of the attacks force into the earth at ones feet.

By the time he had mastered these techniques, classes had started and a new semester began.

He walked into the classroom and took a seat. Another person he was familiar with walked in, it was Chen Zhao. John remembered recruiting him in the fifth town during his recruitment campaign. They were on good terms.

"You're studying formations as well this year?"

"Yes. I'm surprised you are as well, with your spiritual roots. You can become a core in a few more years."

"Bahhh, cultivation is too boring. I want to make money! Money is power!"

"Don't those in alchemy make more money then those in formations?"

"Really? Can I change my classes?"

"Did you already pay the yearly fee?"

"Yes..."

Chen frowned.

John laughed.

John still had over a hundred low grade spiritual stones leftover from when he piloted the flying artifact. They never asked for them back, so he assumed it was part of the payment for his work.

It cost 50 of them just for the tuition.

More people began to fill the class. Everyone here was in foundation establishment!

There was about 20 people that joined.

Finally, after almost an hour later, the teacher showed up.

He stopped and wrote his name in chalk.

'Lao Jilu'

"I will be instructing you all for the next year in the study of formations."

"Pass this basket around, remember. Take only one ring."

"This is called an admin ring. I warn you all now. Formations is the most dangerous of the four disciplines. Those that study it must dabble in artificing and talismans. A mistake in alchemy can cause the pill furnace to explode. At foundation establishment, you can prepare for that. But a mistake in formations can cause you to become an idiot. Or can make you completely braindead!"

Someone raised their hand.

"Why is it so dangerous?"

"Good question. As you know, in order to break into core formation, you need seven dao pillars. These melt and form your core. But, there is actually a secret that I'll reveal to you now. This is part of the reward for your tuition. Do not spread this around, it is a secret to being a formation master!"

The interest of everyone was piqued.

"What if I were to tell you that I still have a dao pillar!"

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"Impossible! The middle dantian is completely transformed when you become a core formation cultivator!"

"You are correct. But, formation masters build a dao pillar in their upper dantian as well!"

Most people gasped at the revelation.

Wasn't that suicidal?

The lower and upper dantian were hardly touched in cultivation. Besides making sure to keep balance, they were hardly used. Because it was extremely taboo to mess with them. They were often sealed and protected.

The upper dantian controlled your senses and perception.

If you messed around with it, you could become an idiot!

Now this teacher was telling them, to become a formations master you had to have a dao pillar stored there? Nonsense!

Someone else asked:

"Why do you have a dao pillar? Isn't the Qi generated from your core far stronger?"

"It is stronger and more explosive! But that isn't suitable for inscribing runes, now is it? Think about formations truly. How do you think they work?"

The student couldn't answer, they had no idea!

"Formations follow a set of logic from something we call a 'runic library'. This library is composed of over 12 million different combinations and algorithms. Everything from physics, rendering, to communication. The ring I gave you has the entire library stored in it."

"When you create a formation. You inscribe all 12 million lines of logic on a microscopic level into the material. Every formation starts exactly the same."

"Cultivators found it was too hard to memorize this many lines of logic, well memorizing may not be the problem, it is recreating and pulling those runes from memory that is. So they created two systems of using runes. You either use an admin ring to create the initial blue print of the formation. Or you use the template from your dao pillar. That's right! You must inscribe every line of code into a dao pillar in your upper dantian. If you make a single mistake, you will become a cripple!"

"So, now that you know the stakes... who wishes to no longer continue?"

The teacher looked around the class.

But nobody stood up to leave.

Who would waste 50 low grade spiritual stones! They had to get their money's worth!

"Good! Good! I hope none of you will regret this path, for it is a glorious one."

Lao walked into the closet and brought out a cart of books.

There were over a hundred books.

"You all might be mistaking something here. Thinking you each will get your own book. In all honesty, this is for your own safety. There are a total of 115 books here. Each book has roughly a hundred thousand lines of logic. They are labeled #1 all the way to #115."

"I do not have any copies, besides the first book."

He walked back into the closet and brought out another cart.

"Everyone take a textbook."

The textbooks were passed around.

John looked at a blank white book with a #1 on it.

He opened it up and looked at the back.

It was 400 pages.

He couldn't help but think.

"A hundred of similar length books? How long will it take to go through them all?"

The teacher frowned at the reaction of everyone.

"You think this is a lot? You have a soul field! You can read 5,000 words a minute using it!"

"It'll only take you about 20 minute to read through one. If you were still in Qi Condensation, don't even think about getting started in formations. But we are all geniuses here. Our soul field has photographic memory. Unless you have an incredibly weak foundation."

"It'll only take you guys around 40 hours to memorize these internal logics. We used to use memory crystals instead of textbooks. But we found people were overloaded with the amount of information. So we decided to go with a more old fashion approach."

"Even with photographic memory. You need a way to retrieve those memories. It'll be vague and hard to recover. This is why you will be inscribing these runes into a dao pillar in your upper dantian. Then the Qi produced from this pillar will be special. It will be incredibly precise!"

"There is a reason for all of this. It is so the runes have an operating system to follow! Every formation starts the same. It is simply the parameters we alter, making programs."

John raised his hand.

"If we are to create a dao pillar with the logic inscribed on it. Won't that interfere with our cultivation?"

"This is called the forbidden dao pillar. It is called that because it is that which remains. Since it isn't in your middle dantian, it won't effect your cultivation..."

John raised his hand again.

"Yes?"

"If we are suppose to make a dao pillar in order to become a formations master and be able to use the blue print of 'runic library'. Won't that take almost a decade to do?"

"A decade, for a single dao pillar? What type of nonsense are you talking about... it'll only take a few years at most. What grade are your spiritual roots?"

"Low grade."

A few people started to laugh.

"Silence! He obviously got here through extreme hard work. Congratulations on building a foundation!"

"Thanks..."

"It will take you a decade or so to build this special dao pillar. It'll even cut into your cultivation time, but this is the price you must pay."

"How will I learn formations without having this special dao pillar?"

"That is what the admin ring is for! It acts as the dao pillar. It can't be used for higher level stuff. But for the basic exercises we will be doing. It will be fine. You'll need a dao pillar for more complex stuff later on."

"You all paid 50 spiritual stones for tuition, and I don't plan to let that be a waste. This class will not be dismissed until all of you have read through the entirety of all 115 volumes of the runic library!"

Some people began to groan...

Everyone started reading and passing around the books.

80 hours later, the first class was dismissed.

Everyone was tired except for John.

He soaked up the knowledge like a sponge.

He had memorized over 12 million lines of code.

He was also excited for the next class.