The two returned to the headquarters of the Evernight Guild.

Without delay, Zhou Huai directly invited Gao Yuan to Zhuge Kongming's private quiet room.

Gao Yuan was clearly somewhat flattered, lowering his posture even further.

He opened his briefcase, took out a thick stack of blueprints, and carefully spread them out on the table.

"Please take a look, Master. This is the most basic'Spatial Anchor' Formation."

Gao Yuan pointed at the core node in the center of the blueprint, which was composed of hundreds of runes, his tone carrying a scholar's rigor.

"The construction of any dungeon is inseparable from it."

"Its function is to forcibly tear open a stable fissure between the real world and the the void, and fix it in place."

"This process has extremely high requirements for materials, and even more meticulous control from the Formation Master."

Zhou Huai listened calmly without interrupting.

His eyes gazed at the blueprints, but in his mind, those complex lines and runes were instantly decomposed and reconstructed.

The SS-rank Heavenly Artisan talent quietly activated.

In Gao Yuan's eyes, that was a two-dimensional flat blueprint.

But in Zhou Huai's consciousness, it transformed into a three-dimensional, resplendent energy model.

The energy flow of each rune and the energy load of each circuit were clearly presented in the form of data.

"Look here, the structure composed of these three runes is the core of the entire anchor, responsible for energy output and stability."

Gao Yuan's finger pointed at the blueprint, talking endlessly.

"Their arrangement order and the carving depth of the runes cannot have the slightest deviation, otherwise..."

Before he finished speaking, Zhou Huai suddenly spoke.

"This place can be modified slightly."

Gao Yuan's voice came to an abrupt halt.

He raised his head, his face filled with astonishment.

"Master, what did you say?"

Zhou Huai stretched out a finger and pointed at another seemingly inconspicuous connection point on the blueprint.

"The position of this 'Gathering Qi' rune is wrong."

"It is too close to the core structure. When the Formation operates at full capacity, it will generate energy backflow and form unnecessary consumption."

Zhou Huai's voice was not loud, but every word was clear.

"Moving it here and connecting it in parallel with these two 'Energy Guidance' runes can increase energy utilization by at least three percent."

Gao Yuan's mouth opened slightly, and the eyes behind his lenses were filled with disbelief.

He instinctively looked in the direction of Zhou Huai's guidance.

In his mind, countless data and models operated at high speed.

A few seconds later, the astonishment on his face instantly turned into shock.

A shock akin to supreme enlightenment!

"So... so it can be done like this!"

Gao Yuan's voice was trembling. He grabbed the pen and paper nearby and frantically began to calculate.

"Correct! Correct! Placing the Gathering Qi rune behind and utilizing the delay of energy conduction to form a buffer... Heavens! This is simply a Genius-level conception!"

"How could I not have thought of this! How could I possibly not have thought of this!"

He was so excited that his face flushed red, and the look he gave Zhou Huai had transformed from initial respect into fanatical worship.

The discussion between the two continued like this for a whole day.

From the most basic spatial anchor to complex scene-building Formations, and then to the energy model of ecological circulation.

Gao Yuan felt that the knowledge he had accumulated over the past dozen years was like a novice apprentice in front of the other party.

Every theory he proposed could be instantly understood by the other party, allowing him to draw inferences from one instance.

Even more, the other party proposed more exquisite and unimaginable optimization schemes.

In the end, it was no longer him doing the explaining.

Instead, he was like a student, greedily recording every word that came out of Zhuge Kongming's mouth.

Until the night outside the window grew darker and the moon hung high in the sky.

Gao Yuan stopped his pen with lingering reluctance.

Looking at the stack of blueprints filled with brand-new theories in front of him, he let out a long sigh of relief, his face filled with satisfaction after extreme fatigue.

As for Zhou Huai, he also roughly understood the basic principles of dungeon architecture.

Gao Yuan stood up and bowed deeply toward Zhuge Kongming.

His gaze was bright and energetic, and his tone was filled with heartfelt admiration.

"Mr. Zhuge, your talent in the Dao of Formations is the only one Gao has ever seen in his life!"

"No, it is something I have never even heard of!"

"Hearing your words today is better than reading books for ten years!"

The next day.

Just as the sky was faintly brightening, Zhou Huai found Gao Yuan, who was still organizing his notes and hadn't slept all night.

"Teacher Gao, let us begin."

Gao Yuan was immersed in the ocean of knowledge and was stunned upon hearing this.

"Begin? Begin what?"

Controlling Zhuge Kongming, Zhou Huai wore a gentle smile on his face.

"Constructing the first dungeon."

Gao Yuan's eyeballs almost popped out of his sockets.

The pen in his hand dropped to the ground with a 'clatter' sound.

"Wh... What?!"

"Mr. Zhuge, are you... are you not joking?"

Gao Yuan's face was filled with horror.

"Although your talent is high, isn't it too hasty now?!"

"Constructing a dungeon is an extremely dangerous matter! If you are slightly careless, you are very likely to be washed into the spatial turbulence and left without a whole corpse!"

"We should still test step by step, starting with the most basic Formation simulation..."

Zhou Huai shook his head and interrupted him.

"There is no need."

"Only practice can lead to faster progress."

He had absolute confidence in the talent of his SS-rank Avatar.

Looking at the other party's calm and firm gaze, Gao Yuan was momentarily unable to utter any words of rebuttal.

He opened his mouth, and in the end, could only let out a bitter smile.

"Alright."

"You are not only a Genius, but also a crazy Genius."

The Evernight Guild's operation efficiency was terrifyingly high.

In less than half an hour, all the materials needed to construct the dungeon were ready.

On a large open space at the back of the guild.

Controlling Zhuge Kongming, Zhou Huai began his first dungeon architecture.

Without any hesitation, he directly put into practice the'Spatial Anchor' Formation that he had discussed with Gao Yuan yesterday and modified himself.

Under the control of his mind, six carving knives turned into six streams of light, dancing fluently like flowing water on the hard ground.

One profound rune after another was accurately carved at an astonishing speed.

Gao Yuan stood to the side, watching nervously.

He discovered that the speed and precision with which the other party carved the Formation were far more terrifying than he had imagined.

Every rune seemed to have been measured with the most precise instrument, without the slightest error.

In less than ten minutes.

A huge circular magic circle with a diameter exceeding ten meters had already taken shape.

As the last stroke fell.

"Hum——!"

The magic circle suddenly lit up, and a blinding white light soared into the sky!

The surrounding air began to distort violently, and a powerful spatial force erupted roaringly with the magic circle as the center!

The space in the center of the magic circle, like a lake surface into which a pebble was thrown, rippled in circles.

In the end, a pitch-black vortex exuding a faint glow slowly emerged.

The teleportation array was complete!

Zhou Huai took a deep breath, without a shred of hesitation, and stepped into the pitch-black vortex.

His vision distorted for a moment.

The scenery in front of him changed abruptly.

There was no sky, and no earth.

There was only a boundless expanse of darkness and nothingness.

There was no matter here, no sound, and even the concept of time seemed to become blurred.

Floating in this nothingness, an unprecedented pride surged in Zhou Huai's heart.

"Then, let us begin."

He stretched out his hand and spread his five fingers.

Boundless Mental Strength surged out like a tide, transforming into countless invisible carving knives, frantically creating on this canvas of nothingness.

"Let there be mountains."

With a thought in his mind.

The nothingness ahead began to distort and compress violently.

Countless energy particles condensed out of thin air, making a deafening roar.

A towering peak forcibly rose from the ground out of the darkness!

The rocks were rugged, the cliffs were steep, stabbing straight into the "sky" of nothingness.

"Let there be water."

He pointed out with another finger.

Above the peak of the mountain, space rippled in a circle.

Clear water currents emerged out of thin air, trickling at first, and instantly turning into a roaring torrent.

The water rushed down along the mountain, making a loud'swishing' sound, converging into a sparkling lake at the foot of the mountain.

"Let there be forests."

He waved his palm gently.

Countless green light spots drifted out from his palm, like fireflies, scattering onto the newly born mountains and earth.

Wherever the light spots landed, tender shoots broke through the soil, and plants grew wildly.

Within a few short breaths, a lush primeval forest covered the entire land.

The wind rose, and the sea of forests responded with waves of sound.

Zhou Huai floated quietly in mid-air, overlooking this Small World that he had created with his own hands.

Mountains, rivers, forests...

Everything appeared so real and so full of vitality.

At this moment, he suddenly had an illusion.

He seemed to be the god of this world.

With a single thought, he could turn the vast sea into mulberry fields.

With a single thought, he could also return all things to nothingness.

The overall outline of the dungeon had already appeared.

Next was the most critical step.

Creating life inside the dungeon—exotic beasts.

Compared to the construction of the environment, this was the real difficulty.

Zhou Huai took a deep breath and mobilized his Mental Strength once more.

Learning from the way he created mountain ranges, he forcibly condensed a large amount of energy particles into the shape of a wolf.

A lifelike black wolf appeared in the forest.

Its form was perfect, its fur was distinct, and even its gaze carried a hint of ferocity.

But it just stood there, motionless.

Just like an exquisite sculpture.

A few seconds later, with a soft 'pop' sound, the black wolf turned into countless light spots and dissipated in the air.

It failed.

Zhou Huai frowned slightly.

"It has the form, but lacks a 'core'."

He tried again.

This time, he first used Mental Strength to construct an extremely complex energy core, simulating the most basic action logic of living creatures.

Then, he attached energy particles to it and shaped the form.

Light flickered.

The second black wolf appeared.

This time, it moved.

But its movements were incomparably stiff, and its limbs twitched uncoordinatedly, like a shoddy marionette.

It opened its mouth, seeming to want to roar, but its throat could only make a 'click-click' strange sound.

The next second.

"Boom!"

The black wolf's body suddenly exploded, and the violent energy shockwave instantly razed the surrounding trees to the ground.

"The core is unstable and cannot bear the external energy shell."

A bright light flashed in Zhou Huai's eyes, and he instantly found the source of the problem.

He closed his eyes. In his mind, the countless theories expounded by Gao Yuan, as well as various conceptions he had deduced himself, flashed past like bolts of lightning.

The essence of a Formation is the materialization of rules.

Then what is the essence of life?

Is it instinct? Is it desire? Or... a piece of code written deep into the soul?

Zhou Huai suddenly opened his eyes.

This time, he did not rush to shape the form, nor did he rush to construct the core.

His hands danced in front of him, his ten fingers so fast that they almost left afterimages.

Countless threads of Mental Strength, thinner than hair, intertwined and wound around his fingertips.

It was like "programming".

For the life about to be born, writing the bottom-most action logic.

Hunger would make it hunt for food.

Threats would make it fight.

Fear would make it flee.

An extremely complex yet incomparably stable rune matrix slowly took shape in front of him.

"Go."

He flicked his finger.

The rune matrix turned into a stream of light and sank into the ground.

Afterward, he mobilized his energy and, using this matrix as the core, reshaped the wolf's form.

The light dispersed.

In the shadows of the forest, a robustly built black wolf quietly emerged.

Its whole body was pitch-black without a trace of stray fur, and only its eyes were two dim green lights.

It was no longer a sculpture, nor was it a marionette.

It twitched its nose gently, sniffing the unfamiliar scent in the air.

Its ears turned alertly, catching every trace of sound coming from the wind.

Suddenly, it lowered its head, letting out a low, threatening roar from its throat.

A pair of cold beastly pupils locked tightly onto Zhou Huai's figure in mid-air.

Its hind legs bent slightly, its muscles taut, assuming a posture ready to pounce and kill at any time.

It was done.

A trace of a smile finally appeared on Zhou Huai's face.

【Level 1 Shadow Wolf】

Although it was merely a Level 1 exotic beast, for a Formation Master, this was an incomparably huge progress.

Creating life from nothing.

Countless Formation Masters exhausting their entire lives and researching for years might not necessarily be able to achieve this effect.

Yet Zhuge Kongming used only two days.