Transmigrated into a Grandpa, Embracing the Laid-Back Life-Chapter 128: First Impressions of Cloud Retreat

Qingfeng finally realized he had been somewhat inappropriate, clearing his throat lightly and resuming his little-adult demeanor.

"Worldly mortal affairs, just this much is interesting."

Though he said this, the curiosity in his eyes simply couldn't be hidden.

Su Ming saw that the timing was ripe and finally revealed his true intentions.

He let out another long sigh, his face once again showing that desolation and unwillingness.

"Ah, it's just a pity that after tomorrow, I don't know if there will be another tomorrow."

"Su Ming's worthless life is not worth regretting if lost. It's just that all this learning, and those unfinished interesting stories, will turn to dust along with this broken body."

He looked at Qingfeng and Mingyue, his gaze utterly sincere.

"Su Ming dares not hope to join an immortal sect. I only seek to find some menial job like chopping wood or carrying water on this immortal mountain, to barely cling to life."

"I don't want elixirs, I don't want cultivation methods, I just want a place to survive."

"I've studied, I can keep accounts, and I still have some strength left. As long as the sect can give me a bite to eat, Su Ming is willing to work like an ox or a horse to repay this great kindness!"

After speaking, he moved to get out of bed and bow again.

This time, Qingfeng didn't let him bow.

For the first time, the little boy's face showed genuine conflict and worry befitting his age.

Mingyue was beside him, tugging hard on his sleeve, pleading softly, "Senior brother, please help him, look how pitiful he is. And... and I still want to hear the rest of the story."

Qingfeng glared at her.

"What do you think Cloud Hidden Sect is? A shelter?"

Though his words were harsh, his heart had already softened.

This Su Ming, though a mortal, was clever, spoke well, and the stories he told were truly interesting.

Most crucially, he understood boundaries and knew when to advance or retreat.

Someone like this, staying at Guiding Peak to entertain himself and his junior sister... seemed... not entirely unacceptable?

"Fine, fine!" Qingfeng waved his hand impatiently. "I'm really afraid of you!"

He looked at Su Ming and snorted.

"Let me be clear first, I can only take you to the External Affairs Hall to ask. Whether they accept you or not is not up to me!"

Upon hearing this, Su Ming's face instantly lit up with the radiance of having survived a disaster, his eyes filled with gratitude.

"Thank you, Immortal! This great kindness and virtue, Su Ming will never forget it for the rest of my life!"

...

Three days later.

Su Ming's injuries, nourished by the spiritual rice porridge, had finally improved somewhat, allowing him to barely walk.

As promised, Qingfeng took him and Mingyue to the External Affairs Hall of Guiding Peak.

Su Ming pushed open the wooden door that emitted a faint bamboo fragrance.

The cool morning air, rich with spiritual energy, rushed into his lungs, refreshing his spirit.

However, moments later, his entire body froze in place.

His pupils involuntarily dilated, as if even his breathing had stopped.

He thought he had walked out of the bamboo hut, but it was as if he had stepped out of the mortal world, falling into mythology in a single step.

Before him was no longer a mortal scene.

The "Guiding Peak" he was on itself floated above an endless sea of clouds.

Looking out, countless immortal mountains, floating islands, and jade pavilions were scattered like stars.

They were like a handful of emerald pearls casually scattered by a deity, quietly suspended amidst the churning, golden-dawn-flowing cloud waves.

Some peaks were completely inverted, waterfalls cascading from their tips, transforming into thousand-foot silver rivers.

Yet these silver rivers didn't fall into the abyss; they dispersed into seven-colored spiritual mist mid-air, nourishing the circling immortal cranes.

Some mountains were transparent like glass, with jade marrow-like spiritual veins flowing slowly inside, emitting a gentle, eternal halo, becoming the natural light source of this realm.

Connecting the peaks and islands were not lifeless mortal bridges.

They were "rainbow bridges" constructed from solidified rosy light and runes.

They flowed slowly as if alive, with elegantly shaped, powerfully aura-ed humans or beasts occasionally walking upon the light.

Or cultivators flying on swords or boats, transforming into streams of light streaking across the sky, creating subtle ripples of spiritual energy.

This was completely different from the carefree, leisurely immortal realm he had imagined; this place was more like a precise and magnificent colossal creation.

His gaze was involuntarily drawn to the extreme heights of the sky.

There, under the sunlight, a layer of translucent watery ripples faintly appeared.

The ripples were composed of countless minute runes and veins, slowly circulating as if breathing, enveloping the entire heaven and earth.

It was silent, yet emanated a pressure that made his soul tremble slightly.

"What is this?"

He was inwardly horrified.

"This is the sect's grand protective formation."

Qingfeng's slightly proud, childish voice sounded beside him.

Su Ming snapped back to reality, seeing Qingfeng standing beside him at some point, hands clasped behind his back, trying hard to mimic his master's mature posture.

"This place... where is this?"

Su Ming's voice carried an unconscious dryness.

The imperial palaces and prestigious Hanlin academies he once thought grand now seemed as insignificant as dust—no, even less than dust—before this sea of clouds and mist and the mighty power of the heavenly way.

Qingfeng was quite satisfied with his reaction, lifting his little chin even higher.

"This is our Cloud Hidden Sect's 'Guiding Peak,' considered the sect's outer gateway."

"What you see is just the ordinary scenery of the sect."

He casually pointed toward several of the most majestic, awe-inspiring peaks in the distance, listing them off familiarly.

"Look, that one with sword aura soaring into the sky is 'Heavenly Sword Peak.' The senior brothers and sisters there have bad tempers; better not provoke them."

"Next to it, with pill clouds swirling and fragrance wafting, is 'Pill Cauldron Peak.' They're the richest."

"And over there, the one that looks the most plain, even a bit messy, is 'Formation Peak.' A bunch of senior brothers and sisters obsessed with studying formations, though our sect's grand protective formation is the work of their founding ancestor..."

Finally, his tone casual, he dropped a bombshell heavy enough to shatter all of Su Ming's past perceptions.

"As for where you came from, the three mortal dynasties—Great Xing, Northern Barbarian, Western Flame—are just three zones the sect casually delineated for easier management of the mortal world."

"Every so often, we routinely pick a few promising seedlings from there to bring in."

"Casually delineated... three zones..."

These light words sounded more deafening to Su Ming than thunder from the highest heavens.

The scholarly honor he had fought for, the factional struggles he had been deeply entangled in, the Yongchang Marquis Manor he had viewed as a colossal entity...

The entire stage for all the joys, sorrows, honors, and humiliations of his past eighteen years was actually just a piece of land this vast immortal sect had "casually" marked out?

An unprecedented sense of insignificance, and... a thrill of having broken free from the bottom of a well to glimpse the vast truth of the world, surged and churned simultaneously within him.

He instinctively touched his chest.

There, his heart meridian had nearly been shattered by a Foundation Establishment cultivator's palm.

Though now healed, a hidden ache remained.

He looked at the unimaginable immortal spectacle before him, at the celestial grand formation enveloping the sky.

The shock in his eyes gradually faded, replaced by a settled clarity and an unprecedented firmness.