Transmigrated into a Grandpa, Embracing the Laid-Back Life

Chapter 331: The Remnants of the Black Pine Formation

The cold wind was like a knife, cutting to the bone.

Black Pine Forest got its name because the pine needles here were pitch black like ink and hard as iron. Snow piled on the branches, and with the slightest disturbance, large clumps of snow mixed with ice shards would crash down, making dull thuds.

Su Ming knelt in the snow, breathing heavily. With every breath, his fourth broken rib protested, as if someone was sawing back and forth inside his chest with a blunt blade.

"Cough..."

He covered his mouth, a pool of glaring crimson staining his palm.

Su Ming propped himself up on his knees, swaying as he stood.

The cold here wasn't just about the low temperature; it was a deathly silence that seeped into the marrow. In the distance, the direction of Iron Wall Pass was lit up by towering flames that dyed half the sky red. The faint, heart-palpitating rumble of earth veins could still be heard, but within this pine forest, it was as quiet as a massive tomb.

"Cold is right," Lin Yu's divine sense swept the surroundings. "This place is thirty miles from Iron Wall Pass, part of the 'buffer zone.' According to the cultivation world's parlance, this is a backwater that neither demon beasts nor cultivators like to stay in."

Su Ming didn't respond. His gaze fell upon the crude teleportation formation before him, formed by three ancient stone tablets.

The formation lines were ancient, even somewhat incomplete, covered by a thin layer of snow. The groove at the core was empty. The spirit stone originally embedded there had clearly long since exhausted its spiritual energy, turning to dust."Elder Mo... truly calculating without a single oversight."

Su Ming reached out, his fingertips lightly brushing over the cold patterns on the stone tablet. Although this teleportation formation was crude, its formation line structure was extremely exquisite. It was clearly a one-way, fixed-point teleportation modified by a master, specifically designed for emergency evacuation from desperate situations.

"Stop sighing. Hurry up and check if this thing is still usable," Lin Yu urged. "Although the probability is low, if those bugs trace the spatial fluctuations and come here, we'll have to prepare for a second round."

pitifully small amount of water spiritual energy within him, letting it travel along the formation lines for a full

intact, but seventy percent of the spiritual energy circuits are broken. The core spirit stone is depleted." Su Ming withdrew his hand, his expression turning ugly. "To reactivate it, we'd need at least three high-grade spirit stones, and it

"High-grade spirit stones?"

eyes filled with despair. "Where would we get high-grade spirit stones? We even used up all our

caused the surrounding survivors, who were still reeling from shock, to

were mostly wounded soldiers scattered from various defense zones, along with a few formation apprentices like Lu Jun. Now, they all looked

and also confusion about the

ignored Lu Jun's breakdown. He turned, his gaze shifting towards the low stone hut beside

hut was half-buried in the snow, its wooden door hanging askew as if ready to fall off at any moment. The snow on the

"Come, let's go inside."

tightened his tattered blue robe, gripped the long sword with its rolled edge, and trudged step by step towards the

he followed. "We... we're not running? This place is too close to Iron Wall Pass! The insect swarm will definitely chase us

"Run? Run where?"

as cold as the wind in this forest. "Do you have a flying boat? Or an earth

Jun opened his mouth but couldn't make a

a musty smell mixed with dust assaulted their

simple. A stone bed, a wooden table missing a corner, and a few long-dried meditation cushions. Thick dust had accumulated

gaze was instantly drawn to a well-hidden trapdoor in

revealing dark stone steps below. A chilly wind was

the way we came out," Su Ming murmured to

its exit was right under this

table," Lin Yu

quickly walked to