Transmigrated into a Grandpa, Embracing the Laid-Back Life-Chapter 147: A Great Path Lies in the Scrap Heap

Su Ming had hit a bottleneck.

He was stuck on the fifth basic rune.

"Concealment."

For seven whole days, aside from his mandatory attendance at the Accounting Office, he had devoted every moment to this rune.

Yet it was like an unreasonable, stubborn stone, utterly unresponsive no matter how Su Ming tried to grind it down.

*Crack.*

On the ground, a newly outlined trace of cyan light shattered precisely at its final turn.

Spiritual energy dispersed, the glow extinguished.

Another failure.

Su Ming's brow furrowed tightly, his fingertips trembling slightly from excessive mental concentration.

He couldn't understand where the problem lay.

After over a month of arduous practice, his control over that wisp of spiritual energy within him was already a world apart from before.

He could make the spiritual energy as pliant as silk thread, or as rigid as a steel needle.

Carving the first four runes was now something he could do with ease, with an extremely high success rate.

But this "Concealment" character alone felt like a creation from another world.

He could perfectly replicate every stroke of its form, precisely control the output of spiritual energy at every node.

Yet, the result was something that possessed only the outer shape.

It was merely a glowing doodle, lying there quietly until it exhausted its energy and faded away.

It lacked "intent."

"Master."

"This 'Concealment' character rune, your disciple... cannot comprehend it."

Hearing his disciple's plea for help, Lin Yu lazily stirred his thoughts.

"Oh? What is it you don't understand?"

"Your disciple can already accurately depict its form and perfectly control the flow of spiritual energy, but it... simply won't work."

Su Ming described his predicament in detail.

"It isn't introverted like the 'Gathering' character, nor outwardly expansive like the 'Control' character. Your disciple cannot sense where its 'principle' lies."

Listening to this, Lin Yu's mind was as clear as a mirror.

Seriously, the first four runes were basic physics, dealing with the conduction and shaping of energy.

This "Concealment" character was already brushing against the edge of quantum mechanics, dealing with "existence" and "observation."

Could they possibly be the same?

Tell him directly?

No.

It's better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish.

The core of nurturing an outstanding disciple lies in guiding him to think for himself.

"Disciple." Lin Yu's voice was as still as an ancient well. "This teacher asks you, what is 'concealment'?"

Su Ming was taken aback and answered without thinking. "To hide, to not be seen."

"Superficial." Lin Yu was unsparing. "A rock, hidden behind a tree, does that count as concealment?"

"It does."

"Then a fierce tiger, hidden behind a tree, waiting to choose a person to devour, does that count as concealment?"

"That also counts."

"Then this teacher asks you again, the wind that blows past your cheek, the dust that falls upon your shoulder, did you see them?"

Su Ming was stunned once more.

The wind has no form, dust is visible, but... he had never paid them any mind.

"Your disciple... did not pay attention."

"This, is the true meaning of 'concealment'."

Lin Yu's voice carried a trace of leisurely guidance.

"True concealment is not making you disappear from others' sight. It is making you disappear from others' minds."

"It is making you become like the wind, like dust, like a pebble by the roadside. Others see it, yet it's as if they didn't. It exists, yet carries no sense of presence."

Su Ming's mind was struck hard by these words.

To exist, yet carry no sense of presence...

Wasn't this precisely the essence of the *Aura Concealment Art* his master had imparted?

"You need not practice for the next few days." Lin Yu's voice sounded at just the right moment.

"What you lack is not skill, but comprehension."

"Go do your tasks, go calculate your accounts, use your eyes to see, use your heart to feel."

"Do not try to draw 'Concealment', but go and seek 'Concealment'."

Having said this, Lin Yu severed the soul-thought connection, leaving Su Ming alone, sitting dazedly in place, repeatedly chewing over his master's words.

...

The next day, in the Accounting Office.

Su Ming sat at his familiar desk, holding an account book, but his gaze was somewhat unfocused.

"To exist, yet carry no sense of presence..."

He looked at the leaves falling outside the window, at the streaks of light flashing across the distant Rainbow Bridges, at the menial disciples coming and going within the Accounting Office.

Who was the wind? Who was the dust?

"Brother Su! Brother Su! What are you daydreaming about!"

Wang Defa's booming, loud voice jolted Su Ming out of his contemplation.

Wang the fat man was carrying a large stack of old, dust-covered archives, which he placed heavily on the table before Su Ming, causing the ink, brushes, paper, and inkstones to jump about.

"Come on, come on, stop gazing at fairies out the window, time to work!"

Su Ming snapped back to reality and looked at the "small mountain" before him, somewhat puzzled.

"Steward Wang, what is this?"

"Sent over by those bookworms from Formation Peak." Wang Defa said with a look of disdain, patting the dust off his hands. "They said they need to destroy a batch of scrapped formation flags and formation plates, and want me to verify the numbers and go through the procedure."

He pointed at the pile of archives.

"These are the records of that batch of scrap: storage, issuance, and loss. Messier than a chicken coop. Do me a favor and sort them out, make a general ledger."

Wang Defa chuckled and lowered his voice.

"This job is easy, no one's rushing it. Take your time with it, good chance to rest your brain." 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

After saying this, he hummed a little tune and waddled his portly frame into the inner room for tea.

Su Ming shook his head helplessly.

He picked up the topmost scroll and unrolled it.

A musty, decaying scent, mixed with the unique odor of dissipated spiritual energy, wafted over him.

The archive recorded the loss situation of a batch of formation flags named "Misty Trace Illusion Dust Flags."

While cross-checking, Su Ming retrieved the corresponding physical items from a large wooden crate beside him.

Most of those formation flags were already tattered and worn.

Some had broken flagpoles, others had large burnt holes in the flag cloth.

The complex runes once inscribed on them had long since lost their spiritual light, leaving only faint, nearly illegible traces.

Su Ming's work was monotonous and mechanical.

His mind remained immersed in his master's words.

His fingertip unconsciously brushed across a relatively intact formation flag.

The flag cloth was woven from an unknown type of cyan silk, cool to the touch.

Just as his fingertip touched a damaged rune on the flag cloth, his movement suddenly halted.

An extremely faint, almost completely dissipated remnant of spiritual energy transmitted itself into his perception through his fingertip.

This aura...