Transmigrated into a Grandpa, Embracing the Laid-Back Life

“As long as Master finds it pleasant to use, that’s fine. In the spiritual fields behind Formation Peak, your disciple has plenty of raw materials planted—enough for you to smoke every day.” Seeing his Master’s improved condition, Su Ming felt a weight lift from his heart.

“Nourishment is all well and good, but this stuff is like the ginseng soup mortals drink—it can sustain life and nurture the body. But if you want to truly break through a bottleneck and raise the upper limit of your soul body, relying solely on smoking isn’t enough.” Lin Yu drifted down onto the meditation cushion, his expression gradually turning serious.

Catching the implied meaning behind his Master’s words, Su Ming’s lips curled into a slight smile. “Master is talking about the Minor Void Spirit Attraction Formation?”

“No shit.” Lin Yu rolled his eyes. “The Grand Elder gave you a full ten jin of Void Stone Powder and Boundary Origin Sand! Now that you’re sitting on a fortune, are you going to hurry up and get the Minor Void Spirit Attraction Formation up and running, or just let it rot?”

“Your disciple understands.”

Without the slightest hesitation, Su Ming willed his divine sense, and several jade boxes and jade bottles sealed with high-grade talismans appeared neatly arranged on the stone table.

He looked up at the skylight at the top of the cave dwelling—a feature deliberately left open for observing the stars.

“The Zi hour is approaching, and the sky is clear tonight. It’s the perfect time for the moonlight essence to be at its peak.”

Su Ming stood up, taking a deep breath to adjust his condition to its pinnacle.

He didn’t use the crude dark-gold formation plate from before. Now, having mastered over three hundred rune principles, his understanding of the path of formations had completely transcended his former self.

Walking to the center of the open greenstone floor in the cave dwelling, Su Ming held his right hand like a sword, gathering spiritual energy at his fingertips.

“Ssshh—”

His finger carved into the hard greenstone like a blade. This time, built upon the original “Spirit Attraction” formation framework, he boldly integrated three high-level control runes he had comprehended outside the Lantai Secret Garden: “Lock,” “Seal,” and “Gathering.”

A full half hour passed before a supremely complex circular formation pattern, a zhang in diameter, was finally completed.

Sweat beaded on Su Ming’s forehead, but he dared not pause for a moment. He opened the jade bottle, using his spiritual energy to guide the Boundary Origin Sand, precisely laying it along every circuit line of the formation. Then, he evenly sprinkled the Void Stone Powder across the three core formation points.

Finally, gritting his teeth, Su Ming retrieved thirty-six mid-grade spirit stones brimming with spiritual energy from his storage pouch. Following the pattern of the Thirty-Six Heavenly Stars, he embedded them one by one into the grooves along the formation’s edge.

“Activate!”

Su Ming’s hands formed a complex hand seal, and the Like Water Art within him churned wildly as a surge of spiritual energy instantly poured into the formation core.

“Humm—”

All thirty-six mid-grade spirit stones blazed with dazzling light simultaneously!

In that moment, the air inside the cave dwelling seemed to be sucked dry. The moonlight essence cascading down through the skylight didn’t fall to the ground but was forcibly twisted and pulled by an invisible force mid-air.

Holding his breath, Su Ming stared intently at the center of the formation pattern.

There, the once-smooth greenstone floor began to blur. Under the violent reaction between the Void Stone Powder and the Boundary Origin Sand, the void seemed to turn into a piece of thin paper scorched by raging fire, warping and folding in an eerily strange manner.

A void node, no larger than a fist and black as ink, slowly opened in the center of the formation like the vertical pupil of a demon.

A wait of a full quarter-hour stretched out like an eternity.

Finally, just as the glow of the thirty-six mid-grade spirit stones was about to fade, an extremely thin wisp of mist seeped out from that pitch-black void node.

Su Ming’s eyes widened in anticipation.

But when that wisp of mist completely drifted out of the node and hung suspended in the air under the formation’s restraint, the light in Su Ming’s eyes quickly dimmed.

It was an extremely murky, grayish mass of mist.

—The most basic, most common gray mist Source Substance.

“Only gray mist…” Looking at that drab, gray thing, Su Ming couldn’t help doing a quick mental tally of the cost. Thirty-six mid-grade spirit stones, plus the priceless Void Stone Powder and Boundary Origin Sand, all for this piece of “waste material” as a base payout. The return rate was so low it was almost enough to make him vomit blood.

“I miscalculated. I’ve taken a huge loss tonight.” A bit disheartened, Su Ming withdrew his spiritual energy, and all thirty-six spirit stones crumbled to powder at once.

“Kid, don’t get so discouraged.”

Lin Yu, however, remained perfectly calm, even a bit eager. He drifted forward, opened his mouth without the slightest sign of disdain, and absorbed the entire mass of gray mist Source Substance held by the formation.

As the gray mist entered his body, a very faint fluorescence flickered across the surface of Lin Yu’s soul body.

“Do you think the premium Source Substance deep in the void is some cheap vegetable at the market that you can just pull out whenever you want?” Lin Yu sighed contentedly, then spoke with the wisdom of experience. “Cultivation itself is like rowing a boat upstream—it requires meticulous, patient effort. We’re stealing the fortune of the void; gray mist is still part of the origin! Many a little makes a mickle—that’s the true Way of Survival. Don’t always dream of striking it rich overnight. That’s a fast track to deviating from the proper path and going berserk.”

Listening to his Master’s lesson, Su Ming took a deep breath, thoroughly suppressing the restlessness in his heart.

“Master’s instruction is correct.” Su Ming looked at the wreckage of the formation, his gaze regaining its firmness and calm. “There are still plenty of materials. Today yields gray mist; tomorrow, I’ll try again. Your disciple refuses to believe that, among countless attempts at fishing, I won’t hook a single strand of golden thread or silver gleam!”

Lin Yu sat cross-legged in mid-air, looking at his disciple’s composed state of mind, and closed his eyes in satisfaction.

In the moment his eyes shut, he muttered to himself in a voice only he could hear:

“But to be honest, the taste of this gray mist really is quite disappointing. Hopefully next time… we can get a bit of silver thread Source Substance to satisfy this craving.”