Transmigrated into a Grandpa, Embracing the Laid-Back Life

The morning mist in the Purple Bamboo Sea had not yet dispersed. Dewdrops clung to the bamboo leaves around the pavilion, sliding down the purple nodes and falling into the earth without a sound.

Su Ming held the somewhat coarse teacup and quietly watched the tea leaves rise and fall in the cup.

”Su Ming.” Qingfeng sat opposite, rubbing his hands. His expression was awkward, his gaze darting between the jar of Hundred Flowers Nectar on the stone table and Su Ming’s face. He hesitated for a long moment before speaking, ”You… you really want to see my master?”

Su Ming lifted his eyes. His gaze passed over the rising tea steam and landed on Qingfeng’s face. He nodded.

”Master instructed that we must go to Tianji Pavilion in Central Continent to request medicine, and only a recommendation from Master Xuanming will do.” Su Ming’s voice was steady, revealing little detail, only stating the necessity of the trip.

Qingfeng’s mouth twitched violently. He instinctively glanced at Mingyue as if seeking help.

Mingyue felt her senior brother’s look. She put her hands on her knees and leaned forward slightly, speaking softly, ”Su Ming, actually… my master, the old man, he’s not truly evil, it’s just…”

Mingyue got stuck.

Her face was full of an awkward struggle that was hard to voice. She rummaged desperately through words in her mind, trying to find a relatively polite way to describe her master.

Qingfeng sighed and gave up on delicacy, lowering his voice to add, ”Ambushes, drugging people, stakeouts, taking advantage of the vulnerable. Any trick that solves a problem without bloodshed, the old man has used it all.”Su Ming’s fingers holding the teacup paused slightly.

”In the cultivation world, when people mention the name Master Xuanming…” Qingfeng looked around as if afraid of eavesdroppers, ”outsiders’ first reaction is usually that he’s the one who stabs others in the back.”

A deathly silence fell over the pavilion.

For a moment, Su Ming did not know what to say.

Inside the Xuantian ring, however, Lin Yu’s soul body experienced a violent fluctuation.

”Ambushes? Drugging? Stakeouts? Taking advantage of the vulnerable?”

Lin Yu’s voice rang in Su Ming’s Consciousness Sea, filled with an uncontrollable ecstasy and excitement, his speech even quickening.

”This old cunning bastard… no, this Master Xuanming fellow is a model for us!” Lin Yu hovered in the void, his soul body’s glow flickering, ”The cultivation world is full of hotheads who shout about fighting and killing, throwing their lives away for face. How rare, how incredibly rare! A practitioner of the Way of Survival, and we meet a kindred spirit here!”

Su Ming sighed inwardly. He did not respond to Lin Yu’s jubilation, merely set the teacup back on the stone table with a very light clink.

”My master is actually very good to us.” Qingfeng, seeing Su Ming remained silent and thinking he had been intimidated, hurried to add, ”He keeps the good things for us. It’s just his ways of doing things… they’re really hard to guard against. When we were young and went down the mountain to train, once we mentioned his name, people either ran away or attacked outright. Back then we felt ashamed. Now that we’re older, we can understand.”

In this cannibalistic cultivation world, staying alive mattered more than face.

Su Ming asked no further and made no comment. He understood the Way of Survival even more deeply than these two outer sect disciples.

”Lead the way.” Su Ming stood and smoothed his purple True Disciple robe.

Qingfeng and Mingyue exchanged a look. In each other’s eyes they saw a trace of helplessness.

They both nodded in unison, carefully put the jar of Hundred Flowers Nectar into a storage pouch, and rose to leave the pavilion.

Shadow lay on Su Ming’s shoulder, its golden eyes rolling around. It seemed to sense the tension in the air; its black feathers slightly bristled and its small claws stealthily hooked the fabric of Su Ming’s shoulder.

The three left the Purple Bamboo Sea and followed a secluded mountain path toward the rear mountain of Formation Peak.

The path grew more remote. The stone steps beneath their feet gradually disappeared, replaced by an earthen road thickly covered with fallen leaves. The trees on both sides grew tall and dense, slicing the sunlight into scattered patches.

”One more question on the way,” Su Ming walked behind them, unhurriedly speaking, ”what exactly is Master Xuanming’s temperament?”

Qingfeng walked in front, using a bamboo pole to push aside thorns blocking the way. After thinking for a moment he turned back and said, ”Hard to say. When he’s in his cave dwelling, he speaks to us fairly kindly. But with outsiders…”

”It depends on his mood.” Mingyue added, ”Sometimes he will smile and chat with you, and then turn around and bury you in a ditch. But don’t worry, Su Ming, he does have one bottom line.”

”What bottom line?” Su Ming asked.

”He never makes things hard for juniors,” Mingyue said earnestly. ”He says bullying juniors is pointless and doesn’t get you any benefit. He prefers to mess with peers—those elder righteous types who think too highly of themselves.”

Su Ming nodded slightly. That was good news. As long as he wasn’t dealing with an unpredictable, bloodthirsty monster, there was room to negotiate.

Inside the ring, Lin Yu straightened the folds of his soul body’s robe, smoothing down the slightly creased hem, hands clasped behind his back as he struck an air of profound inscrutability.

”This old fox, Teacher must take a good look today.” Lin Yu’s voice lowered, revealing a rare focus, ”Someone who can live for centuries and make stabbing in the back a signature move is definitely not an ordinary person.”

Qingfeng and Mingyue led Su Ming through a dense bamboo grove on Formation Peak’s rear mountain.

The spiritual energy here was much thinner than at Gazing Star Cliff. The air carried the stench of decaying earth, as though sunlight rarely reached it. Ahead rose a steep ridge overgrown with thorns, without even a beaten animal path to step on.

If not for being led by these two, an ordinary person arriving here would think it a dead end and turn back.

Qingfeng came to a bush full of barbs, reached out, and very cautiously pushed it aside two feet to the left.

Beneath the brush, a narrow path completely hidden by weeds was revealed.

The path was extremely narrow, only wide enough for one person to pass sideways. On both sides were steep stone walls covered in moss, and overhead tangled branches and vines sealed the sky, not allowing a sliver of light through.

”Senior Brother, stay close to us. Whatever you do, don’t step on the moss on either side.” Qingfeng lowered his voice, his tone full of solemnity.

Su Ming nodded and followed behind them into the concealed path.

As soon as he stepped in, Su Ming’s eyes narrowed slightly.

His divine sense at the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment made his perception of the surroundings extraordinarily sharp. He did not release spiritual energy; relying on instinct alone, he sensed the chilling killing intent hidden in the seemingly ordinary stone walls flanking the path.

He stopped, his gaze landing on a stone on the right wall that was a slightly darker color and covered with coin-sized patches of moss.

The stone looked casually embedded in the soil, but when combined with a vine hanging above it and a tiny crack on the left wall…

”Composite formation.” Su Ming muttered in his mind.

And it was not an ordinary composite formation.