Formations and Artifact Refining are different.
Formations, just like the electronic programs from An Jing's previous life, are constantly iterating and optimizing, with the related technologies, Spiritual Patterns, runic patterns, and base structures all rapidly improving and updating.
Subdue Evil claimed to be a Sword Array master, but all of his stuff is outdated. An Jing, together with Subdue Evil and Huo Qing, took a look at the Formation manuscripts of the Tianyuan Realm, which immediately made Subdue Evil give up the idea of teaching An Jing, instead allowing An Jing to self-study.
"Originally, we used the 'Four Symbols Totem', followed by 'Eight Diagram Formation Patterns', 'Nine Palace Star Talisman', 'Ten Heavenly Stems', and 'Thirty-Six Heavenly Gang and Seventy-two Earth Fiend' as the basis for composing Formations."
