Transmigrated into a Grandpa, Embracing the Laid-Back Life

Lin Yu crossed his arms over his chest, his tone carrying a habitual picky edge, ”The bone structure is barely ground smooth. At least it held together for a few more hours than I expected. Seems your water cultivation method has some actual use.”

Su Ming ignored Lin Yu’s backhanded compliment. After so long together, he knew his master all too well.

”Thank you, Master, for your protection these past three days.” Su Ming bowed respectfully, then lifted his head, eyes bright, ”The resilience of the Like Water Art did keep my meridians from rupturing at the critical moment. More importantly, the force of the stars’ inclusiveness, reshaped by the Heaven-Mending Law, became the perfect adhesive.”

Lin Yu stopped drifting and snorted, making no rebuttal.

”Cheep!”

A crisp, excited bird cry interrupted the two of them.

The Shadow, which had been suppressed for three days, finally broke free of its invisible restraints. It transformed into a streak of black light and shot straight toward Su Ming, landing precisely on his broad shoulder.

The little black head with double golden-ringed pupils rubbed against Su Ming’s cheek with force, emitting a continuous, almost snores-like sound from its throat.

Su Ming smiled and reached out to stroke the metallic-sheen feathers on its back.

The instant they touched, a fierce bloodline resonance surged along their blood contract, roaring through Su Ming’s Consciousness Sea.He could clearly feel that, as his Dao foundation reached completion, the bloodline seal on Shadow had been forcibly jolted open just a fraction. The fragment of ancient law hidden within it was slowly yet steadily reviving.

Su Ming did not linger in the cave dwelling.

He waved away the five layers of defensive formations, whose light had already dimmed. With a muffled creak, the stone gate slowly rose.

Twilight’s afterglow, slightly cool, poured over him without holding back.

Su Ming stepped out of the cave and stood on the raised rock at Gazing Star Cliff.

He drew a deep breath.

The cold air, mixed with the pine scent drifting up from the cliff bottom, flowed unimpeded into his chest. The stray spiritual energy outside, upon touching his body, seemed to find its home, smoothly seeping through pores into his meridians.

Gone was the previous sluggishness, gone the careful restraint over spiritual energy flow.

The sensation was like a river channel clogged with silt and rubble for years finally being cleared; after thorough dredging, the water burst forth in a roaring torrent.

Refreshing, transparent to the extreme.

”Don’t get too happy too soon.”

Lin Yu’s signature wet-blanket voice sounded untimely from within the Xuantian ring.

”Your Dao foundation is fixed, and this vessel truly has no leaking seams. But this is only the beginning.”

Lin Yu’s soul body did not emerge, yet his voice entered Su Ming’s mind clearly.

”Next step is to break through to form a Core. I should warn you, for something that can reverse fate like Core formation, there is no thunder tribulation to strike you. But don’t think that’s a blessing.”

Lin Yu’s voice deepened.

”No thunder tribulation because of the inner demon. It won’t strike your flesh, it interrogates your very heart. Those struck down by thunder at least died cleanly; those who can’t get out of the inner demon’s trial end up as lunatics who don’t even recognize themselves. That thing is not even remotely easier than you enduring Pill Fiend attacks while tempering the Heaven-Mending Pill.”

”Inner demon…”

Su Ming mouthed the words quietly.

”Disciple understands. I’ve long wanted to meet that inner demon.”

.......

Inside the Gazing Star Cliff cave dwelling, the heavy stone gate had been completely locked.

Nine long-burning lamps set into the walls emitted a faint, steady orange-yellow light. The dim glow cast mottled shadows on the stone walls, and the entire space exuded an atmosphere of suffocating, absolute silence.

Su Ming sat cross-legged on the cold jade bed in the center of the stone chamber.

His hands rested steady before him, fingers moving through a rapid seal. Seventy-two formation flags became streams of light, silently sinking into the four walls of the cave dwelling.

”Dust-repelling formation, soundproofing arrays, Minor Heavenly Cycle spirit-gathering array, triple-lock spirit array.” Su Ming’s voice was extremely low as his gaze swept over the surrounding spiritual energy nodes without the slightest hesitation, ”Array nesting is perfect. Even a Nascent Soul’s divine sense from outside cannot easily pry in.”

Shadow crouched quietly in the corner of the cold jade bed.

Its ink-black feathers shone with a chilly metallic luster under the lamps. Those double-gold-ringed pupils stared unblinking at Su Ming. Not a single faint chirp escaped its throat; it silently spread its wings slightly, assuming the most vigilant defensive posture.

A pale-blue glow ignited in the air.

Lin Yu’s soul body floated gracefully from the Xuantian ring. He did not drift about as usual but hovered calmly three feet away from Su Ming.

”No leakage in the Dao foundation, spiritual energy abundant.” Lin Yu’s voice was steadier than ever, ”You may begin.”

Su Ming nodded.

He slowly closed his eyes and sank all his divine sense into the Dantian.

Within the Perceiving the Minutest Detail vision, the Dao foundation, rendered in a semi-transparent jade-green, looked renewed. The dark-gold cracks that once covered it had long disappeared, replaced by extreme toughness and purity.

Above the Dao foundation, a deep-blue lake of spiritual energy lay mirror-flat, not stirring at all.

”Hoo—”

Su Ming inhaled deeply, and the Like Water Art began to operate.

The previously still spiritual lake slowly began to revolve. This was not the usual manipulation for casting spells; it was compression from the periphery toward the center.

The rotation accelerated.

Half an hour later, a huge, deep-blue vortex had formed inside the Dantian.

Fine beads of sweat seeped across Su Ming’s forehead.

His hands clenched hard, and a burdensome ache spread through his meridians. He started to turn the seven hundred and fifty formation runes he had mastered into invisible chains, layering them around the frantically spinning spiritual vortex to prevent it from scattering outward.

At the vortex’s core, the spiritual energy had already been compressed to the extreme.

A strange qualitative change was occurring. The liquid-like deep-blue spiritual energy, under terrifying pressure, began, bit by bit, to thicken—transitioning toward a semi-solid state.

”Vrr—”

A faint tremor sounded deep within the Dantian.

At the vortex’s deepest center, the immense pressure finally surpassed a critical point. A tiny but blindingly sharp golden speck of light, like a lone lamp lit in the dark ocean, abruptly appeared.

The light dot grew larger and brighter.

Su Ming concentrated every ounce of his mind onto that speck, pouring all his spiritual energy into wrapping it, nurturing it, stabilizing it.

However.

The very moment that golden speck was about to fully solidify and become a substantive Golden Core,

Su Ming felt a thunderous boom explode in his mind.

The faint orange glow of the lamps, the cold touch of the jade bed, even the Like Water Art furiously spinning inside him—all vanished without a trace in that single instant.