Transmigrated into a Grandpa, Embracing the Laid-Back Life

Chapter 268: The Fragment of the Map Enters My Arms

Stepping out of the bamboo grove, the mountain breeze brushed his face, and Su Ming realized his back was slightly damp with sweat.

"Brother Su, impressive!"

Luo Feng patted Su Ming's shoulder, his face first showing admiration, then revealing a trace of a bitter smile.

He hesitated for a moment, lowered his voice, and said, "To be honest with you, Brother Su, I also spent over half a year studying this 'Eight Gates Lost Trace Incomplete Formation'."

Hearing this, Su Ming's footsteps paused slightly, and he turned his ear to listen attentively.

"The difficulty of this formation lies in its self-binding causality," Luo Feng said with a serious expression. "It's not like ordinary formations where the flow of spiritual energy has a clear beginning and end. Within this incomplete formation, there are at least three key nodes that are mutually causal yet contradictory. I tried seventeen different deduction paths. Each time I felt I was about to sort it out, I would always discover, in some unexpected place, that a premise from my earlier deduction had already been overturned by myself... It was like spinning in circles in a maze with no exit."

He glanced at the jade slip in Su Ming's hand, a flicker of lingering fear in his eyes. "The solution I ultimately submitted was to forcibly construct a larger energy field externally using the 'Seven Stars Suppressing the Mountain' pattern, to 'wrap' and 'suppress' this entire tangled mess, thereby forcing a relatively stable spiritual energy channel to emerge from the chaos. Elder Qingquan looked at it and said my solution was 'using brute force to break finesse, losing the ever-changing, unpredictable essence of a lost trace formation, but it is still a path.'"

Luo Feng patted Su Ming's shoulder again, his tone sincere yet carrying a hint of helplessness. "So, Brother Su, I can't help you this time. Since Elder Qingquan has taken out this formation again as a test and explicitly stated there's no time limit, he wants to see your unique method of breaking it. My path has already been walked. If I tell you about it now, it would only limit your thinking. This hurdle, you must cross it yourself."

Su Ming understood in his heart and was quite grateful for Luo Feng's frankness and goodwill.

"Senior Brother Luo's willingness to be so candid is already a great favor. The path of formations, while all methods return to the same origin, varies from person to person. Since it's a test question, there must be a solution," Su Ming said with a smile. Although he had no real confidence in his heart, his expression remained calm and unruffled. "No matter how difficult, it just means spending a bit more time.""Your mindset, I truly admire it," Luo Feng shook his head. "I still need to go into seclusion to finalize the Nine Palaces Formation Plate, so I won't see you off. When you solve it, we'll have a proper drink. Also, take this token. It's Elder Qingquan's token. In case you solve it ahead of time, you can come directly to the Listening to Waves Pavilion to pay your respects to Elder Qingquan."

After bidding farewell to Luo Feng, Su Ming walked alone down the mountain path.

He reached out and touched the jade slip and token in his robe, his steps becoming a little lighter.

......

before the stone table, which was covered with densely packed draft papers. Discarded paper balls filled the bamboo basket at

under the lamplight. The mottled patterns on its surface seemed like the breathing of some ancient creature,

Waves Pavilion, Su Ming had been sitting rigidly before the table for

"Wrong, still wrong."

hand hovered in mid-air. A drop of ink finally gathered at its tip, unable to bear the weight any longer, and fell with a soft *plop* onto the paper, spreading into a dark blotch

already the one hundred and seventh

logic of the "True Meaning of Basic Rune Deconstruction," any formation,

the load-bearing walls and

this "Eight Gates Lost Trace Incomplete

temples, and pointed at the tangled mess of a structural diagram on the draft paper, saying in a low voice, "Master, look here. According to the rules of spiritual energy flow, the 'Qian position' governs life. Spiritual energy should flow smoothly to the 'Kan position' and transform into water-element power. But every time I try to deduce this step, the spiritual pressure at the 'Kan

more absurd was that this

yet another it might even vanish into thin air, as if that node was a

mutually causal. If I untangle the head, the tail gets knotted; if I straighten the tail, the head gets messed

Lin Yu didn't respond

jade slip, arms crossed, brows furrowed tightly, as if examining an extremely thorny and difficult

don't you think this formation is a bit... 'disgusting'?" Lin Yu suddenly

precision and rigor. Even if they had a murderous aura,

visually disgusting, but

key incomplete nodes on the jade slip. "You've been using a 'disassembly' approach to deal with it, but the problem

Yu paused, his voice becoming somewhat profound.

chill shot up Su Ming's back. He instinctively looked at the seemingly dead, silent jade slip. "Master, are

be precise, it's

power stirred at his fingertip, sketching a distorted formation model within Su Ming's Consciousness Sea. "The original framework of this formation is indeed the 'Eight Gates Lost Trace Formation,' that's correct. But it suffered extremely violent destruction. This destruction wasn't a simple break. It was some external force that forcibly twisted its core logic, causing a

spiritual energy flows through here, there's a very unnatural 'sense of stagnation.' It's like... a tumor growing in a blood vessel. Blood flowing past is forced to change course,

at that model, a spark of inspiration flashed in Su Ming's