Though formations were profound, the Human Race still knew how to use them. Don't forget, the Human Race descended from Nuwa, and Lady Nuwa's elder brother, Emperor Xi Fuxi, was one of the Primordial World's foremost masters of formations.
After Lady Nuwa created humanity, she worried that the Human Race would have a hard life. When she left behind her inheritance, she not only passed on her own teachings but also casually left several of Emperor Xi's inheritances, including the art of formations.
After all, formations were widely acknowledged in the Primordial World as one of the very few supreme methods for defeating the many with the few and the strong with the weak.
Each of the Three Ancestors of the Human Race excelled in something. Ancestor Sui was skilled in wisdom, and Ancestor Zi excelled at creation. As for Ancestor Chao, his greatest talent was undeniably formations.
It was precisely because of this that Jiang Yuan proposed combining architecture with formations.
When Youchao heard the suggestion, it was as though his meridians had all been unblocked. Not only did he easily combine the two, he also continued to advance further and further along this path.
Give him a little more time, and he would probably be able to fully fuse architecture with formations, then forge magical treasures in the form of buildings.
The exquisite clothes and splendid buildings—the new things appearing among the Human Race—kept visitors from other races lingering, and they willingly brought out precious treasures to trade for them.
In response, the Human Race took the opportunity to state what they needed, asking the other races to help find Silkworm Insects that had no intelligence and were skilled at spinning silk.
It was all so obvious that even the densest person should have guessed that the Human Race's clothes had something to do with silkworm silk. Yet the other races who heard about it stubbornly failed to make the connection.
It wasn't that they were stupid. Lady Nuwa had obscured the heavenly secrets related to this matter. Unless their strength reached a certain level, no matter how clever they were, they couldn't make the connection.
Developing trade, collecting taxes, and exporting their culture—the changes the Human Race had undergone over the past century could be summed up in those few things. It might not sound like much, but compared with the Human Race of a hundred years ago, the present-day Human Race was like a whole new world.
The people themselves hadn't changed, but everything else had undergone earth-shaking transformations. Resources, in particular, had grown not only in quantity but also in variety.
Thanks to these resources, Jiang Yuan had made tremendous progress over the past century, even while dividing his attention between two tasks. He had long since reached the peak of the Void Refining Realm and was just half a step away from becoming a Heavenly Immortal.
Or, more precisely, he had met the requirements for becoming an immortal thirty years ago. He simply hadn't dared to break through.
Whenever he thought about it, Jiang Yuan felt as if a dog had taken a dump on him. He was so frustrated he could die. Over the past century, he had attempted to break through to the Heavenly Immortal realm twice, and both attempts had failed.
The first failure was understandable, but the second was maddening. It wasn't that he couldn't succeed; it was that he could succeed but didn't dare break through.
For Jiang Yuan to become a Heavenly Immortal, he first had to condense nine avatars, then fuse them into one. That would allow him to become a Creation Heavenly Immortal.
These nine avatars could be Innate Living Beings, Innate True Spirits, or even Innate Gods and Devils. In short, the higher the life rank of the avatars, the stronger he would be after becoming a Creation Heavenly Immortal.
Jiang Yuan was exceptionally ambitious. If he was going to condense avatars, he would naturally choose the strongest kind. So he chose to create nine Innate Gods and Devils Avatars.
That posed no problem, and it wasn't difficult for him, especially with the Human Race controlling more and more resources.
In just thirty years, by devouring the blood essence of Fierce Beasts and using a vast amount of resources, Jiang Yuan had successfully condensed nine Great Gods and Devils Avatars. Next, he had to fuse them into one and turn them into a Creation Dao Fruit.
That was where Jiang Yuan's first breakthrough attempt failed.
The nine Great Gods and Devils Avatars he had condensed—Savage Fish, Scaled Horse, Mountain Lord, and the rest—were powerful, but they had nothing to do with one another and shared no common origin. As a result, fusing them was extremely difficult.
Of course, if Jiang Yuan was willing to spend Merit to activate the Creation Jade Disk, he could still force them together.
But Jiang Yuan did the math and decided it wasn't worth it. Rather than spend a huge amount of Merit to force a fusion, he might as well condense nine new Gods and Devils Avatars that shared the same origin.
That would use up more resources, but the Human Race could now acquire resources far faster than it could earn Merit.
Faced with the choice of spending more resources or more Merit, Jiang Yuan chose the former.
Any sensible person would make the same choice. Merit was harder to come by than resources, and it was there as a last resort—it could truly save your life at a critical moment.
So Jiang Yuan spent another thirty years and condensed nine new Gods and Devils Avatars with a common origin: Kun Fish, Moon Rabbit, Rainbow Deer, Drumming Ox, Thunder Camel, Cloud Mirage, Mountain Lord, Phoenix Feathered Eagle, and Mysterious Snake.
At first glance, these nine Great Gods and Devils seemed unrelated. But take the rabbit's eyes, the deer's antlers, the ox's mouth, the camel's head, the mirage's belly, the tiger's paws, the eagle's talons, the fish's scales, and the snake's body, and together they formed the Primordial Azure Dragon.
The Primordial Azure Dragon was an original Fierce Beast formed from the flesh and blood of the Chaos Demon God, the Chaos Dragon. Its rank was equal to that of an Innate Divine Being, and it stood on the same level as the Ancestral Dragon.
After condensing these nine Gods and Devils Avatars, Jiang Yuan felt his breakthrough was sure to succeed this time. There was no way it could fail.
But on the eve of his breakthrough, he suddenly realized that he had made no mistakes in his cultivation—yet he had made a tremendous mistake in his stance.
He had taken the wrong side. His position was wrong.
Who had created the Primordial World? Great God Pangu!
Who was the Primordial World's greatest enemy? The Chaos Demon Gods!
And what aspect was he preparing to condense for his breakthrough? The Primordial Azure Dragon.
Who was the Primordial Azure Dragon? A descendant of the Chaos Demon Gods, and a common enemy of all the Primordial World's living beings. Long before the Three Races, back when the Primordial World had just been created, the Primordial Azure Dragon had been surrounded and slain by a host of Innate Divine Beings.
At that thought, Jiang Yuan immediately realized he had made another mistake in choosing his avatars. He shouldn't have chosen Innate Fierce Beasts. He should have chosen Innate Gods and Devils from the Pangu divine lineage.
Forming the Primordial Azure Dragon aspect wouldn't put his life in danger, but it would make the mainstream reject him and leave him forever on the fringes.
Just imagine: everyone else cultivated the Pangu methods, while you cultivated the Demon God methods. Would anyone take you seriously? Of course not—they would all reject and belittle you...
Having made the wrong choice again, what else could Jiang Yuan do? He could only learn from his mistake and condense nine new avatars.
The Demon God methods could still be cultivated, but only if you had powerful backing. If you were a Sage's disciple, no one would think twice about you cultivating the Demon God methods—or even the Devil Dao.
But for an ordinary person, those were forbidden arts. You couldn't even touch them.
Jiang Yuan was merely a creation of a Sage, still a hundred and eight thousand miles away from being a Sage's disciple. So he could secretly learn forbidden arts like the Demon God methods, but he couldn't make them his main cultivation method, much less let anyone find out.
And if he couldn't make them his main cultivation method, that meant Jiang Yuan couldn't use them to become a Heavenly Immortal. So he had to replace his nine avatars.
Having fully learned from his mistakes, Jiang Yuan chose these nine Gods and Devils Avatars in order: Qiu Niu, Ya Zi, Chao Feng, Pu Lao, Suan Ni, Bi Xi, Bi An, Fu Xi, and Chi Wen.