Severus sprinted through the fog-filled tunnels, keeping an eye on the words carved into the walls, which appeared to mark locations on the surface just like those in other sections of the catacombs.
According to the materials on Qimen Dunjia from Pomona's bookshelf, there was a concept in the refined theory of the Five Elements called "coveting generation and forgetting restraint." The Five Elements generated and restrained one another. The normal sequence began with wood: wood generated fire, fire generated earth, earth generated metal, metal generated water—"wood, fire, earth, metal, water." Simply put, when wood encountered fire, it would actively make it flourish. Finding "wood" often represented a path to survival, but that "wood" was not necessarily actual timber.
Yin and yang always appeared in corresponding pairs. Earth's attribute was nurturing all things. A company cultivated people: the company represented earth, while its employees represented wood. But on the scale of a nation, the nation was earth, and the company became the "wood" growing from that earth.
A small cycle nested within a larger one, and that larger cycle might itself be nested within an even greater cycle. Besides, the formation was being driven by a water dragon. Metal generated water, and metal restrained wood. The words on those walls had all been inscribed in metal. Qimen Dunjia also had its own attributes; the methods for breaking the Eight Dry Formations and the Eight Water Formations differed. Moreover, electricity could be conducted through metal. Even if Muggles could not use magic, with electricity, who knew what tricks they might devise? Anything built by humans would quickly become ruins and vanish if no descendants maintained it. This place was clearly being maintained, which meant it was still functioning normally. Unless he understood its sequence, blindly running through it would not let