Zhang Xiaohua returned from ahead with delight on his face. He had gone much farther forward and likewise used his divine sense to inspect the thin Primordial Qi diffused through the air. The density of Primordial Qi ahead was about the same as near Ruijin Hall, yet it felt different to his divine sense.
The Primordial Qi near Ruijin Hall carried a sharp, piercing sensation, while farther ahead, it was filled with gentleness and vitality. Even the ruins looked quite different. Along the road from the entrance of Huanxu to Ruijin Hall, the rocks, broken walls, and shattered pillars were incomparably hard; there was not even a blade of grass. Yet farther onward, weeds, small trees, vines, and the like gradually began to appear. It was just as Zhang Xiaohua had guessed: the area around Ruijin Hall should have contained mostly Metal-element Primordial Qi, while farther ahead, Wood-element Primordial Qi became dominant.
Was this not precisely the Metal and Wood among the Five Elements?
What delighted Zhang Xiaohua was that he had once taught Nie Qianyu the Great Evolution Five Elements Formation. That formation concerned the five kinds of Primordial Qi—Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. Zhang Xiaohua had merely swallowed it whole without chewing, gaining only a rough grasp of the formation. He had never seen the Five Elements vital energy within it, much less set up the formation. Even the Great Evolution Five Elements Formation he had taught Nie Qianyu of Hui Chun Valley had simply substituted five people, or five other objects, for the Five Elements vital energy. Such a Five Elements Array could only be said to resemble the form but not possess the spirit. It could only achieve some superficial transformations of the formation; the true essence and killing moves within the formation could not