My Journey to Immortality Begins with Hunting

After bidding Yan Yu farewell, Li Yuan sought out his daughter. She was a young lady now, too old to scoop into his arms, so he only smiled and said, "Papa's heading to Gemhill County. Anything you want me to bring back?"

"Candy!" Sheng'er beamed.

"Sure." Li Yuan nodded.

She added, softly yet firmly, "Stay safe, Papa. I can skip sweets, but you can't get hurt."

A brief hug, and he flicked a finger, vanishing to a perch near Yu Chaojin.

The instant he touched down, the copper pendant at his neck went hot. The air was thick with Yin energy.

He blanketed himself with Hidden Breath and Concealment, senses fanning wide. Every rustle within earshot fed into his awareness.

It had been nearly three years since his last visit.

He waited patiently inside a hollow rock garden. A sparrow fluttered down onto the faux boulder. Li Yuan was about to tame it as a scout when he froze.

Under the moonlight, the sparrow's shadow stretched across the courtyard—and clearly outlined the shape of a mouse.

Li Yuan stared for a long while. Yes, it was definitely a mouse. What was stranger were the numbers drifting above the heads.

Over the sparrow floated 0~1, while the mouse shadow bore 0~2. That2flickered constantly—shifting to1, then3, then an absurd6—jumping back and forth in a blur.

The sparrow beat its wings and vanished into the night; the mouse silhouette thinned and faded after it.

Li Yuan narrowed his eyes. Slipping from the rock grotto, he stood in the open.

Moonlight stretched his own shadow across the flagstones, utterly normal.

He melted into deeper shade and looked for more living things.

After several attempts, Li Yuan spotted a maid hurrying across the courtyard, steaming soup in hand. Nothing seemed unusual about the girl...until her shadow lengthened behind her. He saw a small frame, extended ears—a rabbit.

The lunar glow warped the outline, making it long and thin, but the shape was unmistakable.

The rabbit shadow twitched as though it meant to claw its way out of the ground, fuzzy paws ending in sharp talons; its side profile yawned wide, revealing chisel‑sharp incisors.

Again, numbers floated overhead.

The numbers 10~11 hovered above the head of the maid.

In her shadow, the rabbit shadow read 10~13, the final figure blinking wildly—sometimes 11, sometimes soaring to 50.

Carrying out her service for her master, the maid disappeared into the depths of the compound.

A clatter of chains followed, then the babble of a madman:

"Awooo, awoo!

Fine wine! I, Tie Sha, veteran of a hundred rivers and lakes, lost to you at last!

I'm the Blood Blade Patriarch! Bah, I'm too weak! I concede, I concede!

Only Sect Master Yu can compare...

Sacred Fire Palace, ahahaha! Awoo!"

The voice was shrill and deranged, calling themselves Tie Sha one moment, then the Blood Blade Patriarch the next. Yet, Li Yuan recognized the owner of the voice without doubt—Yu Chaojin.

Had Yu Chaojin truly lost his mind, or was he faking it?

Presently, the maid reemerged, and the inner door remained unlatched. One gentle push and Li Yuan could walk straight in.

If I meet Yu Chaojin, he thought,I'll learn everything that's happened here, save myself a lot of trouble. So I should...

He tugged the thousand‑mile thread and reappeared in Cloudpeak Province.

Snow fell outside the little hut. Deep underground, laughter and song drifted up. Tang Nian's female disciples seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Shaking his head, Li Yuan turned back toward the black market ghost domain.

He had turned around because a thought struck him. The Lotus Cult and undying husks possessed human-skin manacles, and Yu Chaojin, as the sect master of the Blood Blade Sect, was worth controlling. What if they had clapped a second pair on him?

Li Yuan never charged in blind, so he beat a quick retreat. Soon, he stepped through the threshold of the ghost domain.

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"Papa, you're back already?" Sheng'er had just unfolded her easel; one fresh stroke marked the new painting. "Where's the sweets?"

"For safety's sake, I didn't buy any this time. Next trip, I promise."

"Oh..." She obediently bent over her canvas again.

Li Yuan sought out Yan Yu and put his suspicion to her.

The blue robed woman sat inside an antique hall. "It's just as you guessed," she said. "Anyone shackled withtwosets of human-skin manacles will go insane."

"Yu Chaojin is mad, but alive. That means our enemies left a trap beside him, waiting for me to walk in," Li Yuan mused aloud. "They know I'd question him if I returned. They don't know who I am, but a tiger can't abide sleepers at its side. The Lotus Cult and undying husks laid that snare either to recruit me...or kill me."

He paused, then added, "On my way I saw the strangest thing, a sparrow with the shadow of a mouse and a maid with the shadow of a rabbit. There was clearly something strange going on, but the sparrow and maid seemed completely normal. Do you know what's going on?"

"Appearance follows the heart. Every soul is a beast," Yan Yu answered. "I spent years in Hidden River Province's ancient ghost street and uncovered one of the exotic beast garden's killing methods. Their curse lets desire grow into a beast.

"The harder you struggle, the fiercer it becomes. Even if you do nothing, it still grows, and when that inner beast fully matures, it devours you. The curse is almost impossible to break because the beast born of your own desire willalwaysoutmatch you. The sparrow and that maid are both infected."

"Even a sparrow can be cursed?" Li Yuan asked.

"Mhm." Yan Yu nodded.

"If the mouse shadow ate the sparrow, could it exist on its own afterward?"

"No. It's only a curse...unless you can find some counter." She smiled faintly. "For instance, the worry‑free flower sold at the flower shop."

"Worry‑free flower?"

Yan Yu stood and, with a playful tilt of her head, said, "If you're not going out again tonight, why not turn in early? We can discuss it...in bed."

"All right." Li Yuan smiled. Shadow blood rose from his palms, burning away the makeup. He conjured a tub of steaming water right there in the Yin saturated domain. He bathed, changed, and climbed into bed.

Yan Yu, being a ghost, needed no bath.

After a warm, tender interlude, Li Yuan drew her cool form closer; fire and ice nestled together beneath the quilt.

Yan Yu continued the discussion from where they left off. "The worry‑free flower drains memories and seals them, and that includes desire. If the sealed desire meets the exotic beast garden curse, it forcefully matures a beast vastly stronger than its host. Weak desire, weak beast, but never weaker than the person. Strong desire, strong beast.Howstrong? I don't know."

Li Yuan's eyes unfocused in memory. "So when I staggered home from the mountains all those years ago, feeling my memories leak away, it was the flower shop's doing."

"Mhm. We'll swallow that shop one day," Yan Yu said in a calm voice that made the threat sound all the more formidable.

She was a block of ice; he, a living blaze. The contrast felt strangely comfortable.

A thought struck Li Yuan. "Could this be the Lotus Cult's grand plan? Harvest memories on a massive scale, forge hordes of beasts, and unleash them as troops?"

"I'm no strategist," she replied, "but they'd still have problems to solve."

The two chatted a while longer; Li Yuan yawned and drifted off, Yan Yu pretending to sleep in his arms.

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Next day, noon

After Yan Yu reapplied his Yin makeup, Li Yuan slipped back into Gemhill County.

Yu Chaojin's plight pained him, but there was nothing he could do. The enemy clearly expected anyone seeking answers to gravitate toward the sect master of the Blood Blade Sect; they'd left the compound itself almost undefended.

Li Yuan scouted, left, and wandered the streets.

With the sun high, every shadow lay directly beneath its owner, so no one could spot another's odd silhouette. He'd chosen the hour deliberately.

Moving north toward his old Martial Lodge, he noticed his copper pendant cool. The threat had retreated. The peril must have been the trap set near Yu Chaojin; one wrong step and he would have been fighting for his life.

Silver Creek bustled as usual, yet the gossip had changed. Where people once spoke of ghost‑domains and harvests, now they argued about shadows.

Li Yuan listened, noting the clothing styles so Yan Yu could paint a more convincing disguise next time.

"Old man, stop being stubborn. Take the Lotus Cleansing. They'll waive our taxes and give out grain every month."

"You dumbass! Look at you, your shadow's asheep!"

"I can't see it. Maybe you're wrong?"

"Ask the neighbors. The Lotus Cult is poison!"

"Poison? Some people see my shadow as a sheep, some can't see anything wrong at all. Those are the ones whose shadows have problems too. And what's so bad about a sheep? The Immortals of the Lotus Cult say the cleansing washes away sin; it'll be fine."

It calmed Li Yuan a little. Not everyone was cursed, only those who'd undergone thecleansing, likely an experiment by the Lotus Cult. Given their style, the public rollout meant the test phase was nearly over.

Li Yuan walked at a normal pace and reached the north gate by mid‑afternoon. Beyond the gate, the Martial Lodge was half-a-day's walk north-east out of town.

The north gate, however, was locked down tight. Rather than force his way out, Li Yuan turned toward Little Ink Village.

Northeast of the village, a forested ravine led outside of Silver Creek, too rough to guard properly. It was the same route he'd used to sneak into the Fragrant General's encampment before.

Li Yuan set off that way.