As Fang Yuan continued thinking about these problems, something else emerged in his mind - a problem which revealed a deficiency within his system and attainment levels. It was like running his tongue across his teeth and noticing a gap - a gap which was massive and now that he had found it, quite annoying to think about.
***
Below, the Shellfish Tribe had decided to finally try to get their revenge on the Green Hill Tribe. The main advantage of the Green Hill Tribe was the fact that they occupied the higher ground, being able to wall off an area and focus on a tiny area of attack. Behind them were craggy cliffs, difficult to climb while they attacked from the other end.
The Shellfish Tribe, however, had anticipated this. They had sent the bulk majority of their forces to one side of the hill and then had unleashed their tamed monkeys on the other side, which began climbing up the cliffs. By the time the Green Hill people realized what was going on and attempted to dislodge the monkeys, it was too late. The monkeys were far better at climbing and keeping a hold on the terrain than the humans. They found themselves being assaulted by the monkeys and later on the human climbers who had followed them.
The battle was bloody and had massive casualties on both sides, but finally, the Shellfish Tribe had triumphed over the Green Hill Tribe. What few women remained were then absorbed into the Shellfish Tribe, although after the battle was done, they were only about a third of their original size, even considering the fact that they had lost half their members before this skirmish had even started to the Green Hill Tribe's raid.
The Shellfish Tribe's future was now uncertain. They didn't have many people, and a power vacuum had set in. Their weakness could be preyed upon by the neighboring tribes. This attack had been bloody and myopic by anyone's metrics, a Pyrrhic victory if there ever was one.
That did not stop them from celebrating. At long last, they had managed to get revenge. The people of the Shellfish Tribe shook the heads and skulls of their enemies in the air, defecated within the hearths of their houses, and had their way with their woman in a celebration of violence. Even their pet monkeys celebrated, throwing rocks at the human captives who could only cry out in pain.
Yes, even though they were now in an unfavorable position, this victory seemed to have brought great joy to the people of the Shellfish Tribe which masked their current reality for the time being. Their emotions of joy and elation radiated upwards as the Emotion Lilies began to be tinged with a gentle golden color.
'This is extremely inefficient,' Fang Yuan noted. Back when he had been a Rank 6 Blood Path Immortal, he had not had to deal with many of these things. It was not a good thing, mind you; it was simply the fact that he had fewer resources to control and fewer things that he could do.
Now, though, with his attainment increased, his potential was far greater, but at the same time, he was lacking something crucial in order to exploit this potential: a lack of foundation in the Formation Path.
Formations were ways of arranging gu worms in order to achieve certain results. Paradise Earth Immortal Venerable had been one of the most talented Venerables when it came to the Formation Path. The integration formation currently running within his aperture was an example of such.
As for Genesis Lotus Immortal Venerable, while Fang Yuan did not know the details, his paintings seemed to form a formation in their own right, or at least something resembling a formation.
Fang Yuan's attainment in the Formation Path, however, was basically nonexistent.
He could ask Paradise Earth for more help, but unless he gained access to the latter's true meaning (doubtful as Paradise Earth had good reasons to not want to help Fang Yuan), it could take decades for him to achieve any kind of result.
However, the benefits would be immense.
Fang Yuan's attainment levels were quite extraordinary for a Gu Immortal at Rank 6; there were very few Immortals who could match him when it came to their breadth as well ad depth.
For one, he was a Great Grandmaster in the Emotion Path.
As the Integration Formation continued, his Human Path attainment may also soon reach Great Grandmaster.
Thirdly, if the dream realm they had found in the Blood River Graveyard was indeed a Blood Path dream realm, he would have a third path at that level.
Most people only reach Great Grandmaster attainment in one path, and that usually at Rank 8, with a few geniuses achieving it at Rank 7 with the help of an inheritance or overwhelming natural skill.
The Formation Path could bring the fruits of these attainments together in order to achieve a greater result.
As an example, right now, his Emotion Lilies were absorbing the emotions of the people below in his aperture. However, this was a very indirect method. It was the equivalent of someone having a bowl of hot soup in front of them, but only able to sniff the scent of the food, unable to take a single sip. Most of the emotions within his aperture were actually wasted and not being processed by the Emotion Lilies.
He was exploiting less than 0.1 percent of them by his estimation.
The number of humans within this aperture was immense, so even this indirect method yielded reasonable results.
But what if he had an Emotion Path formation set up around the Emotion Lilies? He could concentrate the emotions within his aperture and greatly stimulate their growth.
With even a mortal formation, by his estimation, could increase the yield by over 10 or even 15 times. By exploiting the emotions to a greater degree, he would not have to wait decades for it to show results. He could potentially have a good field of both Emotion Path refinement materials and Emotion Path gu worms within only a few years.
The design for such a formation began crystallizing in his mind as he thought of them, but there were massive gaps in it. Unless he was willing to spend a good few months on just this with lots of trial and error, he would get nowhere with this idea unless he strengthened his attainment in the Formation Path.
This could also be extrapolated to the Human Path as well. Right now, in order to obtain Relic Gu, he was relying upon the humans within his aperture to generate them, and nature was simply making them on its own.
However, if he could set up a Human Path formation to accelerate this process once he understood the Human Path to a greater extent, he might actually be able to make enough Relic Gu to have a good market within Treasure Yellow Heaven, as well as supplementing his income from selling Ambition Gu.
As his attainment in other paths increased, so would the value of the Formation Path.
The potential gains were high, but he had to stop himself there.
The reason was that he had no easy way to increase his attainment in the Formation Path. He had not chanced upon a Formation Path dream realm as of yet - and he did not have easy access to dream realms currently. Without a doubt though, if such an opportunity presented itself in the future, he would have to take it.
Putting that aside, a Refinement Path dream realm to increase his attainment would be next on his list. It would let him finally set up a system for refining Relic Gu on a large level.