My Journey to Immortality Begins with Hunting

A few days later.

The old hunter's strength faded markedly.

Snow fretted; she loved this life, this husband, and the man she now called her father. Surely, the ones she now called family deserved the most sacred funeral rites.

That night, after a long struggle with herself, she nudged Li Yuan awake. He slipped an arm around his new bride.

"Whatever you are," he murmured, "you're my wife."

"Mhmm. I'll always be Woody's woman." Gathering courage, she went on, "But I'm not from here. I...ran away from home. Where I come from there's a special place, the Deathless Tomb. When a tribesman is near death, we carry them there. Body and soul freeze solid. The prophecy says that when sunlight returns to the land of Evernight, they'll awaken...and be reborn in a new age."

Li Yuan listened without a word.

Snow went on, voice hushed but earnest. "Father's so sick. I'd like to take him there, let him rest in our Deathless Tomb. He'll fall into a sacred sleep there. When you and I grow old, we'll go too. Then one day, when sunlight finally breaks the endless night, the three of us will wake together...reborn."

She searched his face. "Woody...do you believe me?"

"I do." He drew her into his arms. Her skin felt cool as ice yet burned with hidden heat, muscles far tougher than any ordinary woman's. Since reaching fifth rank, no one apart from Yan Yu had brought him such sheer delight until her.

"I'll convince him," he promised. "Then we set out."

"I don't really want to go back," she admitted. "Home is nothing but cold and darkness."

"You'll have me."

"Mmh... I've played long enough. Time to go home. Thank you for going with me."

Li Yuan's eyes glinted with both anticipation and caution. He now knew for certain that Snow had no shadow blood at all. Her power was simply the strength of her flesh. Whatever secrets or dangers the Ice Folk hid ran deep.

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Several more days passed.

The old hunter, persuaded at last, slung a bundle over his back and leaned on a stick. On a clear, snow-bright day he set out westward with his son and new daughter-in-law.

At a strange frontier, they halted in front of a wall of pure darkness where light itself seemed barred.

The old man's white beard quivered.

Snow took one arm. "Three days more, Father."

Li Yuan supported him from the other side. "Come on, Dad."

The three stepped into the Evernight.

The instant they crossed, Snow moved as though guided by an unseen compass, weaving left and right through the black.

"How can you tell the way?" Li Yuan asked.

"Fire pulls me," she said simply.

"Let's keep it in plain speech."

"My old pa always said we were born beside a flame; a spark of it lives in us. That fire keeps us alive in the cold and dark. And once we enter the Evernight, it points us home, back to the Everflame."

"Everflame? Is that a fire that never goes out?"

"It's the hope of every tribe on the frozen plain."

Li Yuan finally understood. She was a living beacon. It was no wonder no outsider could find the Ice Folk alone.

After some hours, the old hunter's breathing grew ragged. They sheltered behind a wind-shaped monolith. In the pitch dark, Snow's eyes glowed faint crimson, letting her see; Li Yuan's fifth rank sight sufficed as well.

"How about we rest for a while?" he asked.

"H-h-yes," the old man rasped.

Li Yuan pitched two small tents—one for the old hunter, and one for himself and Snow. The couple curled up together and soon slept.

That night, theold huntersilently rose. Like a ghost, he slipped from the tent. As he moved, white whiskers and deep wrinkles faded; in moments, he'd become a long-legged enchantress in a crimson gauze dress.

Farther off, four burly figures waited beside an ornate carriage. The red-clad woman drifted aboard, crossed her legs, uncorked a jar of wine, and glanced back down the trail.

"Pops really did pick up a new little wife," she chuckled. "From here on, you're on your own. I thought Cloudpeak Province was cold and bleak, but this place is even harsher."

She toasted the dark sky and rode away.

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A couple of hours later.

Li Yuan and Snow woke to an empty tent.

"Dad!"

"Father? Father...!"

They searched frantically. No trace, only endless snow and jagged crevasses.

"He must have fallen into an ice fissure!" Snow's eyes flooded, tears freezing the instant they left her lashes. Flickers of internal flame kept her from icing over entirely, but grief strangled her voice. "Fatherrr!"

Li Yuan stayed silent. He knew the truth. His goddaughter had her own mission and had simply left.

And the deeper they marched, the stranger this region became. Tang Nian's shadow blood congealed, her own rank slipping, and even the Yin makeup she relied on began to fail. If she pressed on further, the disguise would peel away on its own.

The journey into the Ice Folk's domain had only just begun.

Li Yuan stayed with Snow through her tears, built a small mound as a gravestone for thefatherthey'd lost, and then led her deeper into the great ice plain.

Their progress was slow, far slower than when Li Yuan had explored alone. He kept time in his head to stay oriented, all the while monitoring his own cultivation.

After a day and a half, he felt the five strands of extreme Yang ancestral source blood in his chest go cold; his cultivation slipped from fifth rank to sixth.

Another day and a half, and the blood sand in his veins thickened and chilled, freezing much of its power. He sank to seventh rank.

Snow, however, was utterly unchanged. Her combat power remained a steady sixth rank, her body seemingly made for this killing cold.

"We're close," she whispered, nervous excitement in her voice.

Li Yuan squeezed her hand. Back in Cloudpeak Province, that hand had always been icy; here it was warm.

The two stopped at the rim of a broken ice cliff. Below lay bottomless black; ahead, a wind that cut like blades.

"Close your eyes, Woody," Snow said.

"I'm not closing anything," he answered, slipping in a rustic bit of sweetness. "Even if there's a cliff ahead, I'd cross it with you. Any place with you is joy enough."

Snow's cheeks warmed. Without another word she stepped out, pulling him after her.

There was no plunge, only solid ground that hadn't been there a heartbeat before. The scenery shifted. It was still blizzard and darkness, but definitely not the same place.

A secret realm, Li Yuan thought, scanning the night. At least his guide was also his wife; that alone lowered the danger.

Snow broke into a trot. Soon, a single pin-prick of light glowed ahead, startlingly bright in the storm.

Two gigantic silhouettes rushed toward it, spears raised.

"Leave," a harsh, unfamiliar voice barked through the gale. "Outsiders have no place here!"

The towering figures loomed like devils above the boundary of light. Then the one on the left peered closer, recognition dawning. He leapt down and raced over.

"Baatar! It's me, Snow!" Snow called out.

The young man on the left stared blankly, then leapt down from his position and rushed over. "Snow? It's really you. You're back!"

But his eyes flicked to the boy at her side, the hands they were still holding. "You brought a man from outside...?"

"That's right." Snow wrapped both arms around Li Yuan's elbow, perfectly unabashed. "He's my man."

Li Yuan braced for every worst-case scenario—the jealous childhood friend demanding satisfaction; elders dragging Snow off for punishment; threats, trials, assassins in the dark...

None of it happened.

By now, the young man on the right also walked over. He was broad-shouldered and white-haired with faintly dark teeth. He simply grunted, "Snow, it'd be more useful if you'd brought women. Men don't birth babies and won't strengthen the tribe."

Snow lifted her chin. "Blacktooth, my man's stronger than you. If you don't believe it, fight him."

"Huh?" Li Yuan almost groaned. Of all the problems that he had taken into account, he never thought his wife would just volunteer him for a duel!

Blacktooth eyed Li Yuan up and down. "Well? Fight or not?"

"Fight!" Snow declared. "Darling, flatten him!"

Li Yuan massaged his brow. "My beloved, shouldn't we first report to your chief? Explain why you left—"

"In our tribe, only strength earns respect," she insisted. "The way you dominate me. Do the same to him."

Blacktooth bared his not-so-black teeth. "You have the balls or what?"

A quick glance from Li Yuan revealed the man's combat power at 625~640—not trivial, but nothing he hadn't beaten before.

"Fine," he sighed.

Snow and Baatar stepped aside.

Li Yuan also accepted the spear that Baatar tossed him.

The ice tip gleamed a ghostly blue. Blacktooth charged with a roar.

Li Yuan—currently only seventh rank, yet a peerless master of blade and spear—stepped forward to show the Ice Folk man exactly how arealoutsider fought.