My Journey to Immortality Begins with Hunting

Four months passed.

A young man with flowing black hair stood In a valley outside the black market ghost domain. He had White Serpent sheathed at his waist and gripped Azure Serpent in his hand.

The long blade's azure edge hummed softly.

He picked up stones, lumps of iron, and bits of metal one by one and tossed them in the air. As they fell, he positioned the blade directly in their paths.

The stone, iron, and metal all parted like tofu, gliding off both sides without the faintest sound.

"Practice pays," Li Yuan murmured, recalling how four months ago the cuts, though sharp, still lacked today's silken ease.

May had already arrived in Cloudpeak Province.

The snows had melted, the peaks lush with green, and wildflowers blanketed the slopes. Animals emerged, nosing through the forest for food.

Li Yuan's eye caught a mountain hyena loping between the trees. In a blink he was in front of it, blade drifting like water.

Startled, the hyena whirled and bolted the other way. But front or back made no difference; the blade was everywhere.

A heartbeat later, beast and blade slid past each other, and the hillside was spattered with crimson mist.

The hyena felt a sudden chill along its flanks. After sprinting a dozen meters, it saw—almost with a detached calm—its own head and spine shoot from the torso like a blood-red scorpion, flop onto the grass with athud, then slither half a meter farther like a crimson snake. The limbless stump kept running a few more steps before crumpling, blood bursting outward in a grotesque tableau.

Li Yuan stopped, glanced at Azure Serpent in his hand, then at the carcass.

"It never realized it was already dead. One stroke carved it apart cleaner than a butcher's knife through an ox—too keen, too smooth; even death itself takes on an eerie elegance."

He strolled on, turning the moment over in his mind. The strike was noiseless and unstoppable, with the speed of the Phantom Blade and power of the Final Blade, yet not a trace of wasted force.

At a mountain brook, he plucked a blade of grass, clenched it between his teeth, and savored the vigor of spring—the morning dew shimmering like silk.

Suddenly, Li Yuan pressed the ancestral seal into his heart and focused on the blade. Light around him dimmed; moisture in the air condensed into a fine mist, cocooning him in darkness. He raised the blade high, then brought it down across the stream.

Cutting water, severing flow.

The instant steel kissed water, the entire current ahead vaporized, hazy mist curling upward. A fish riding the current reached the invisible line and detonated into a mist of blood, boiling away with the steam.

For a breath, the scene held in place...half brook, half drifting vapor, one slash cleaving the stream.

Li Yuan sheathed the blade, spat out the grass, touched the hilt, and executed City Toppler. Gone was the metallic banshee's screech of old; in its place settled hush and shadow. Fog and darkness swelled until they outlined a giant over a dozen meters tall.

The sun was bright and the breeze was soft. Yet around him was only gloom and mist. Even the perception of a fifth rank martial artist couldn't pierce it.

Li Yuan dismissed the shroud and began to climb.

On a peak he faced a sheer wall, drove the blade in, and it sank like a knife into tofu. Right hand gripping, left hand resting on the guard, he gave a wrist-flick.

An invisible ripple fanned outward; with a low, bell-like hum, a smooth cut appeared almost a hundred meters away.

He levered the blade, hoisting an entire section of cliff on its spine, shifted it into thin air, then flicked again—sending the severed mass tumbling back to its birthplace.

For the first time, Li Yuan had loosed something akin toblade qi—though, strictly speaking, such a thing should not exist in this world.

True force in this world always requires contact; only a fourth rankdomaincould bend this rule. Yet his slash had reached over a hundred meters.

Sitting on the precipice, Li Yuan watched a bird glide through the sea of clouds. He gave a casual wave, and the bird burst apart.

He sighed. "Distance ruins the finesse, eh?"

Back in the black market ghost domain, Tang Nian's puppets had delivered provisions.

Li Yuan caught a chicken, took up a kitchen knife, and applied the very pinnacle of blade craft. His eyes were intent, the knife a blur, the other hand cradling the bird. The chicken clucked, oblivious to the steel already threading its body.

He set the knife down, exhaled, and feathers flew. Wings, thighs, and breast settled neatly on a platter; the severed head rested atop, its pupils only then going dull.

Propping his chin on his palm, Li Yuan pondered, "My fifth rank blade skill must hinge oncontrol. Yes, that's the path. The intense vibrations make the edge sharp enough, but I still lack absolute cohesion, absolute precision.

"I can still grow stronger!" he muttered like a man possessed.

That night, even with Yan Yu in his arms, all he saw before his eyes was the blade—glimmering light, silent breath of steel, invisible arcs stretching into the dark.

Yan Yu left him to his thoughts. Only after Li Yuan finally relaxed did she speak.

"Husband, you and Sheng'er shouldn't stay shut up in the black market ghost domain forever. You belong in the living world.

"Her shyness is my fault. When she visited Nian Nian's place the other week, she came back a little rattled. But she still looked happy. Shedoeslike crowds; she's just been isolated so long she's afraid of people."

Li Yuan sighed. "And where do you think we should take her?"

"Sheng'er is a jade husk, and Ping'an isn't here. Why not take a few more wives, raise a family, put down roots somewhere in Cloudpeak?"

"The last thing on my mind is taking on more wives. My mind is preoccupied with studying the blade, the war in the Central Plains, and looking into rumors about the Deathless Tomb."

"Then do it for Sheng'er."

"Yan Yu, I'm a fifth rank martial artist now. No ordinary woman could even carry my child."

"Try enough times, one of them might," Yan Yu said with a smirk.

Li Yuan rolled his eyes. "I'll take Sheng'er out for a while, then."

"And don't sneak back here to sleep," she added. "Stay outside, once a week at most."

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

The next morning.

Father and daughter left the black market ghost domain.

Sheng'er's skin gleamed like white jade, her jet-black hair catching sunlight in pinpoint sparks, as though a thousand eyes were blinking at once.

"Where are we going, Papa?" She already understood her mother's plan. Knowing she would eventually have to stay in the black market ghost domain forever only made the outside world more alluring.

Li Yuan chose a quiet mountain lodge for a few days' rest.

Tang Nian's underground palace, lavish but cluttered with puppetry gear, was no place for a young girl to live.

Still, when Li Yuan informed her of his plans, Tang Nian couldn't help but offer her own unsolicited advice.

"Pops, why not marry the heiress of some big Cloudpeak Province clan? My disciples keep scorecards on who's the prettiest. Say the word and you'll be married in three days—family life, social whirl, the works.

"Don't fancy that? Be an honoured enforcer at a sect. With your skill, any beauty there would line up to share a bed!"

"You should watch your mouth... Sheng'er is right here!" Li Yuan said, shooting Tang Nian a glare and bopping her on the head.

"How's the investigation of the Ice Folk coming along?"

"Slow," Tang Nian admitted. "All western routes were snowed shut through winter. Puppets alone can't do the job; we need real people out there."

"Fine. Clear a quiet wing of your palace, recruit a handful of reliable disciples, let Sheng'er play with them."

"Right away, Pops." Tang Nian's eyes sparkled. "But why stay at the lodge? This place is our restricted grounds. The greater Tang Sect estate has three inner palaces, eight towers, 108 courtyards. Outside that, ringed villages—all ours. We've got 3,000 inner disciples and 38,000 outer ones.

"If you want Sheng'er to taste ordinary life, take her to the inner grounds. Of the three palaces, the third is the scripture hall; the first and second are empty. I'll reserve the first palace for you two. We put a veil over Sheng'er's face, and she'll be Cloudpeak Province's mysterious young beauty. Give it a couple of days, and the jianghu will invent a nickname for her!" Tang Nian chuckled.

WHACK!

"Stop clowning around," Li Yuan bopped her on the head again.