Transmigrated into a Grandpa, Embracing the Laid-Back Life

In the early morning, the air at Gazing Star Cliff carried a refreshing chill that cleared the mind.

The heavy stone gate completely cut off the outside noise. Inside the cave dwelling, a few night pearls set into the dome cast a soft glow, which mingled with the pale white mist rising from the earth-vein Spirit Gathering Array.

Su Ming sat cross-legged on the smooth stone bed, neatly arranging seven or eight storage pouches of different types in front of him.

Entering the Formation Peak Secret Realm for a six-month seclusion was no joke. There was no Administration Hall from the sect and no market supplies; everything had to be calculated and prepared in advance.

He deftly produced threads of spiritual energy and sorted the contents of the storage pouches into categories. Elixirs, spirit talismans, fragments of formation plates, beast materials, and those worthless odds and ends left over from mundane Great Xing piled up into a small mountain in an instant.

At the edge of the stone table, a black furry ball was crouched.

That was the newborn Shadow, only a few days old.

The little one's beak, astonishingly sharp, pecked rapidly up and down, pulverizing a red ration pellet mixed with silvery “stardust powder,” then swallowing it contentedly. Its pure-gold irises rolled frequently, scanning every corner of the cave with extreme vigilance; even the tiniest noise from Su Ming rifling through items would make the fluff at its neck bristle instantly.

The assassin’s instinct was already carved into this little creature’s marrow.

Su Ming ignored Shadow’s watchfulness and casually opened an old gray cloth pouch. It was the cheapest storage bag he had used when he first joined Cloud Hidden Sect and did menial work in the outer sect; mostly outdated scrap metal and worthless junk were inside.

Just as he was about to toss the clutter into the waste pile, his fingertips suddenly brushed something cool and refreshing.

His movements abruptly stopped.

There were no intricate formation lines carved on its surface, only a “Pagoda” character worn smooth by time.

Su Ming stared at the bronze token, stunned for a moment, then a flash of surprise crossed his eyes.

How could he have forgotten this!

The Pagoda Token given by the Transmission Pagoda’s gate-keeping elder!

Dust-covered memories surged into his mind like a tide. It had been tossed to him personally by that indistinct-faced gate elder after he had just chosen the three inheritances including Like Water Art at the Transmission Pagoda.

The elder’s original words still seemed to echo—“Hold this token to be exempt from contribution points. At the tower’s external resonance area, borrow the Transmission Pagoda’s starlight to aid comprehension for one hour each time. The number of times you accumulate is unlimited.”

Since receiving the token, because of his trip to Iron Wall Pass, descending the mountain to mediate war, and various other trivial affairs, he had at most used it only once right after he got it.

Su Ming swiftly ran calculations in his mind.

Twelve months a year… since the mundane world had no sect arrays covering it, it certainly couldn’t draw the Transmission Pagoda’s starlight, but even counting only the months he spent inside the sect, the starlight quota accumulated on this token must amount to nearly twenty hours at minimum!

This was star power condensed from the Cloud Hidden Sect’s ten-thousand-year Dao resonance, a top-tier cultivation resource that others could not obtain no matter how many contribution points they spent, yet he had let it gather dust at the bottom of a storage pouch like trash.

A ripple like waterwaves faintly spread in midair as Lin Yu’s soul body, solid and white as jade, drifted out without a sound.

He crossed his arms and glanced down from above at the bronze token in Su Ming’s hands, then rolled his eyes dramatically and launched into merciless mockery.

“Your memory makes your teacher nervous just watching,” Lin Yu clicked his tongue twice, pointing at a patch of verdigris on the token’s edge. “Look, the token’s almost rusty. A Way of Survival practitioner may avoid trouble, but did you forget the rule that you don’t pass up a bargain?”

Su Ming solemnly wiped the bronze token clean with his sleeve until it shone.

“You are right to scold me, Master. I have wasted a treasure.”

He inhaled deeply, shoved the disordered storage pouches aside, and sat cross-legged in the center of the stone bed.

At the peak of the early Foundation Establishment stage, he was just one final step from breakthrough. He had intended to spend a large number of spirit stones to force the breakthrough, but now, with nearly twenty hours of Transmission Pagoda starlight available, the breakthrough would be a matter of course.

Su Ming formed an extremely peculiar hand seal and held the Pagoda Token aloft in both palms.

Within him, the viscous lake-like liquid spiritual energy thundered into motion, flowing along his meridians in thin threads into the bronze token.

Hum—

A deep, muffled bell-like toll, as if from the ancient heavens, abruptly sounded in the cave’s void.

The once-dead bronze token, after absorbing spiritual energy, caused the “Pagoda” character on its surface to blaze with a piercing silver light. The silver radiance did not scatter but shot straight upward like a sharpened blade, striking the defensive formation lines in the dome of the cave dwelling.

Boom!

A low grinding of mechanisms followed as the skylight used to observe the stars split open under that pulling force, tearing a gap nearly a zhang wide.

In the next moment, an incredible sight appeared.

Even though it was broad daylight outside, a silver-white starlight abruptly manifested beyond the skylight, like an inverted waterfall from the heavens, mixed with the Transmission Pagoda’s ancient and vast Dao resonance, thundering down!

The entire cave dwelling was instantly bathed in a dazzling silver brilliance. The starlight was so dense it condensed into crystal-clear silver dust in the air, which slowly drifted down.

This was the immense star power the Transmission Pagoda had gathered over countless years, directly drawn here by the Pagoda Token.

As the starlight entered his body, Su Ming couldn’t help but emit a gratified, low hum.

The sensation was like a long-dry riverbed suddenly hit by spring torrential rain.

The scriptures of Like Water Art flared brilliantly in Su Ming’s Consciousness Sea. Without his deliberate prompting, his water spiritual energy fused with the silver starlight seeping into his pores.

Water naturally benefits all things without contention.

This gentle yet mighty water-based spiritual energy perfectly enveloped and assimilated the domineering star power, then washed along the Strange and Extraordinary Meridians, pouring straight into the depths of his Dantian.

To Su Ming’s further delight, the energy that had been assimilated by the starlight, when flowing through his previously damaged Dao foundation—later repaired with Earth Vein Spirit Milk using Kintsugi—was absorbed by those faint golden repair veins as well.

The Dao foundation, in that instant, became more unshakable than ever.

Under the assault of such vast power, the barrier of his cultivation began to show subtle loosening.

Chirp!

While Su Ming immersed himself in cultivation, Shadow on the stone table was also startled by the sudden phenomenon.

For a Profound Shadow Crow with pure star-blood, the Transmission Pagoda’s starlight was an irresistible temptation.

The little one grew so excited it forgot to eat. It flung open its still-growing meat wings and leaped from the table, landing with precise accuracy at Su Ming’s crossed legs.

It slightly raised its short, sharp beak and, like gulping water, greedily absorbed the starlight residue drifting from Su Ming.

As the starlight continued pouring in, Shadow’s once-ink-black down subtly revealed complex dark-golden patterns. These patterns crawled like living vines across its wings and neck, and each flicker was accompanied by a heart-stopping edge of sharp energy.

Lin Yu floated in midair, stroking his chin as he watched the harmonious sight of man and bird freeloading on a welfare benefit, a smile tugging at his mouth.

“That brat finally remembered this,” he muttered inwardly. “The quality of this starlight is far superior to spirit energy drawn from spirit stones. It’s a major tonic.”