Transmigrated into a Grandpa, Embracing the Laid-Back Life

Chapter 422: Outsmarting

Su Ming did not leave. He remained seated cross-legged in the same spot, but his mind was racing at an almost unimaginable speed.

In his head, three completely different tactical simulations unfolded like three simultaneous chess games.

First option: Draw the snake out of its hole. Directly attack the external guarding formation to force the black-robed man out. But the risk was immense. If the opponent didn’t emerge and Su Ming exhausted his spiritual energy, death would be certain. If he did come out, a frontal clash against a Foundation Establishment peak would be highly unfavorable... ninety percent likely to fail.

Second option: Lure the tiger away from its mountain. Create a larger disturbance elsewhere to pull the black-robed man away, then sneak into the cave to sabotage from within. But this was Black Wind Mountain, deserted and isolated; where could he manufacture a bigger commotion? Fabricating the illusion of a high-grade spirit medicine appearing would take too long and might attract unrelated cultivators, introducing too many variables.

Third option: Encircle and defeat reinforcements. But right now he was alone — where would reinforcements come from?

Su Ming’s gaze flickered in the darkness. After a moment, he discarded all three conventional tactics.

A fourth plan surfaced in his mind — more complex, but truer to the essence of the Way of Survival.

First set the formations, then lure the enemy in!

If he could win, kill him. If not, trap him and retreat at leisure. Always keep the initiative of the battlefield firmly in his hands!

Decision made, Su Ming showed no more hesitation.He rose silently, his figure ghostlike as he slipped through the rugged terrain around the cave’s entrance.

From his storage ring he produced one prepared formation flag after another, and formation plates.

On the first layer, he set up at the outermost perimeter within a radius of three hundred zhang a “Hidden-Traces Concealment Formation.” This array had no lethality; its sole function was to isolate inside from outside. Once activated, even if the black-robed man possessed tremendous skill, he would not be able to find the correct exit in a short time, effectively preventing him from fleeing if he could not win the fight.

On the second layer, along the only path a hundred zhang from the cave mouth, he buried twelve black formation flags and established a “Thousand-Silk Binding Formation.” Once triggered, this array would instantly release countless invisible threads formed from spiritual energy, layer upon layer, like a spiderweb that restricted the enemy’s movements.

all that, Su Ming reached the “main battlefield” he had chosen for the black-robed man — a relatively

specially made formation flags from his storage ring,

formation path cultivation — a simplified corner of the

the purest starlight from the night sky, exerting an innate, powerful suppressive effect on all malevolent spiritual

following the positions of the Big Dipper, and used a drop of his Foundation Establishment natal true essence as the formation core to fully activate the weak resonance between this area

layers of formations, each linked to the next —

at the center of the great array, Su Ming felt the spiritual energy fluctuations from those three formations, all completely under his control. A calm he had never felt before settled in

entrance still shrouded in

it’s time to invite you into the

his bosom a lowest-grade Light Burst Talisman. Such talismans sold in sect markets for a spirit stone per

the talisman a trace of spiritual energy at his Qi Refining standard — not more, not less

his wrist, the talisman, faintly pulsing white, arced through the air in a crooked parabola like discarded refuse and landed

Boom!

A dull explosion.

blinding white flash detonated at the mouth of the cave, accompanied by a spiritual

provocation and announcement to the powerful being deep inside the

“Hey! Someone’s here!”

a reckless,

Sure enough.

a violent, bloodthirsty pressure of rage — the terrifying anger of a Foundation Establishment cultivator

“You ignorant ant!”

out of the

man had revealed

midair, a rolling black mist swirling around him. Two eyes hidden beneath the hood glowed like blood-red lanterns,