My Journey to Immortality Begins with Hunting

"Never," Li Yuan answered without blinking.

"Then why hide behind a Yin disguise? Afraid to show your true face?" At such close range, her fourth rank senses easily detected the Yin aura covering his face.

After a long silence, Li Yuan said quietly, "Please forgive the disguise."

Gu Xuejian shook her head. "Enough. You saved my life and shared a secret of such weight. I have no right to pry."

Li Yuan hesitated, then remarked, "When I met you earlier, your...personality was completely different."

Gu Xuejian answered frankly, "A side effect that showed up after I reached fourth rank, nothing more."

"It only appeared after your breakthrough?"

"Yes." She nodded.

Li Yuan thought for a moment, took a silk pouch that normally held pills, tore a strip from his robe, pricked his finger, and wrote the words,Beware the temple master. He sealed the cloth inside the pouch and handed it over.

Gu Xuejian accepted it with a curious smile. "A sealed pouch?"

"Before you leave the Holy Tree Temple again, open it," Li Yuan said solemnly. "If you forget...disaster will follow."

"And if I open it sooner?"

"It loses its effect."

"Very well. I give you my word."

She closed her eyes again, racing to heal the last of her wounds, while Li Yuan kept silent watch.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Several days later

"I'm fully recovered," Gu Xuejian announced.

"Then go at once," Li Yuan replied. "I have my own road to take."

She bowed. "I, Gu Xuejian, repay all debts. You refuse to show your face or leave a name, so remember this passphrase—friend in cave, blood sealed pouch. That's how you'll be able to reach me in the Holy Tree Temple. Anything within my power, I will do."

Li Yuan clasped his fists and smiled. "May the mountains be ever green and the rivers ever flowing. Farewell."

Gu Xuejian shot into the sky like lightning and vanished.

Li Yuan flexed his finger and turned back toward Cloudpeak Province.

Back home, Li Yuan explained his absence to Yan Yu in detail. She took it calmly, then filled in a few gaps of her own. Their combined picture was grim. The Lotus Cult seemed to be using ghost items to forgesuper soldiers.

"What about that warm snow?" Li Yuan asked.

"I'm not sure," Yan Yu said, "but it's probably one piece of the same scheme."

"And Apparel Atelier? The Lotus Cult works with them, and Apparel Atelier—through the imperial tutor—controls an army of undying husks. That drags the emperor in as well. What's the atelier ghost's goal? If it wanted to swallow small ghost domains, it could do what we did. If it merely wanted to relocate south, a single conflict would force the move."

"If Apparel Atelier is a ghost domain as vast as the exotic beast garden," Yan Yu added, "it cannot leave its birthplace."

Li Yuan nodded thoughtfully. A clearer outline of the grand design was forming, but the crucial piece still eluded him.

Yan Yu said nothing, simply moved behind him and began combing his hair with cool, ghostly fingers. Chill seeped into his scalp, sharpening his thoughts until half‑formed ideas clicked together like puzzle pieces.

"I see it now," Li Yuan murmured.

"Known fact one, the atelier ghost wants to grow stronger by merging with more ghost domains, yet it's anchored to the Jade Capital.

"Two, through the imperial tutor and the Immortal Worship Cult, it has strengthened the undying husks, but they still can't match the Five Elements Alliance, let alone the Buddhist and Daoist sects of the Central Plains, or the reclusive, self-serving provincial governors who each had powerful armies of their own.

"Three, the atelier ghost, emperor, and Lotus Cult are partners.

"Four, the Lotus Cult and the emperor are merging ghost domains to raise the quality of their meat fields.

"Five, the more dreadful the ghost domain, the richer the nearby meat field.

"Six, the Lotus Cult itself commands powerful undying husks..."

Li Yuan broke off, brow furrowed. "There's still a few missing pieces to this puzzle. For instance, how exactly does the atelier ghost evolve? If it only needed small ghost domains, it could have absorbed them long ago. So either it's different from you, Yan Yu, or it doesn't want small ones at all. If the latter, does it require something on the scale of the exotic beast garden? But the exotic beast garden can't leave its ancient ghost street. How could the atelier ghost swallow it?"

Too many veils still hung in front of his eyes, opaque and impenetrable. Yet whatever the truth, the future spelled immense peril.

Yan Yu massaged his scalp gently, her voice a soothing whisper. "Slowly...there's no rush."

Li Yuan suddenly asked, "Yan Yu, if I use the copper accessory peddler's copper accessories and the candy peddler's sugar figurines on you, can you absorb them?"

"I can," she replied, "but Sheng'er would have to move out for a while, and you wouldn't be able to visit."

"Will that put you in any danger?"

"These days, I feel more alive than ever. Why would it? So, Husband, shall we start tomorrow? Give me the sugar figurine and I'll just lick it; the candy peddler will come for me. Give me the copper hairpin and I'll braid a doll from my own hair, stab it with the pin, and the copper accessory peddler will appear."

Li Yuan shook his head. "I only wanted to check your condition. But now isn't the time to act. If the Lotus Cult or atelier ghost sense our ambitions, they might turn every spear on us and wipe us out solely because we'd be blocking their way."

The pillow‑talk drifted on.

After a while, Li Yuan lay back. Yan Yu rolled on top of him, and the couple enjoyed their customary intimacy before falling asleep in each other's arms.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

The next day.

Refreshed, Li Yuan returned to Gemhill County and resumed lurking near the Blade Seekers compound.

Weeks of observation had shown that the palace sat at the very heart of the Lotus Cult's territory; its true defenses lay in the outer ring, leaving the core deceptively lax.

After bonding with a new flock of sparrows that came and went freely, Li Yuan finally slipped eyes and ears inside the compound walls.

Days passed.

While Li Yuan observed the Blade Seekers, he also searched for the exotic beast he had seen that night. At the same time, he also had Tang Nian dig up more information on the Ice Folk.

The last two lines of inquiry went nowhere, but the first yielded a breakthrough.

Li Yuan spotted three old acquaintances, Instructor Zhao, Instructor Xu, and Instructor Yang—better known as Zhao Chunxin, Xu Sheng, and Yang Teng.

Zhao Chunxin had been his senior sister in the Blood Blade Sect; Xu Sheng was the student he had appointed to lead the Grand Abode; and Yang Teng was a disciple he had taken from the Orange Blossom Sect.

Strangely, the figures floating above their heads showed a floor of 350—standard for sixth rank martial artists—but an absurd ceiling of almost 700.

No other sixth rank martial artists served in the Blade Seekers.

By day, the three taught Ruling Blade, Phantom Blade, and Final Blade; by night, they howled in agony, as though suffering torments beyond imagination.

Li Yuan measured the distance: Zhao Chunxin's nighttime cell lay just under 500 meters inside an outer wall. He crept closer and felt the sameseedhe'd sensed before.

So, that's it,Li Yuan realized.

He marked a member of the Lotus Cult named Er Bao, a menial worker who delivered drugged meals to the instructors after dark.

For several nights, Li Yuan studied his habits, gait, and speech until he could copy them flawlessly.

Back in the black market ghost domain, he first used the Yin makeup to turn himself into Er Bao, then asked Yan Yu to give him the same look the next morning.