I'll try Occam's Razor first.
Holding the Teleportation Talisman, Li Xiao thought silently to himself.
The principle of Occam's Razor was "Do not multiply entities unnecessarily." Li Xiao intended to try dismantling the runes of the Teleportation Talisman. If it still worked after certain runes were removed, that would mean those parts were merely smoke and mirrors.
Only by removing the superfluous runes could Li Xiao identify the parts that actually worked.
Of course, the runes might also form a single greater whole, with every rune indispensable. If Li Xiao removed even one, the Teleportation Talisman would cease to function.
Over the next few days, Li Xiao immersed himself in studying the runes. He redrew large numbers of "shortchanged" Teleportation Talismans, some missing their opening runes, others missing a stroke from certain runes.
"After several days of research, I can basically confirm that these runes form a whole. As long as they exist as this particular whole, they seem bound to work. The problem is that their underlying principle is completely incomprehensible. These incredibly complex runes are more like the most primordial form of energy, as though this is simply their inherent nature."
Li Xiao leaned back against the backrest, holding dozens of Teleportation Talismans. He had created countless control groups, yet still failed to work out the principle.
To put it bluntly, the principle behind why a Teleportation Talisman could teleport was: it was a Teleportation Talisman...
Because it was a Teleportation Talisman, it had the ability to teleport.
This did nothing to explain why it could teleport, yet teleport it certainly could.
When in doubt, quantum mechanics.
Li Xiao decided to blame everything on the quantum realm, then put the Teleportation Talismans into his Storage Ring and promptly forgot the matter.
If he kept thinking about it, he