My Journey to Immortality Begins with Hunting

The Deathless Tomb was pitch-black, so dark that even a fifth rank martial artist whose sense stretched more than five kilometers was rendered completely blind.

That darkness mingled with the ever-harsher blizzard, as though lumps of icy night were pressing in from every side.

Li Yuan's braids had frozen into stiff icicles, his face numb and rigid, the pelt around his waist mere ornament now. The shadow blood circulating through him fell silent, his cultivation slipping from fifth to sixth rank, sixth to seventh rank, and still sinking.

Snow fared better. Her body could take the cold; her eyes could still see. Warmth clung to her frame, her long legs giving off a constant heat.

Li Yuan clamped his knees against the direwolf's flanks, arms locked around his wife's waist partly so he wouldn't be thrown off and partly to share her warmth. While she described what lay ahead, he thought at speed.

Suddenly Yan Yu's previous words flashed through his mind.

"The ice coffin ghost remembers no sun or moon, no meat fields or ghost domains, only a world of ice and snow."

But if there are no ghost domains, Li Yuan mused,how did the ice coffin ghost create one?

Creating a ghost domain required two things. The first was a naturally formed region of extreme Yin. The second was a dead soul with a lingering obsession strong enough for that Yin energy to be weaved into a ghost domain.

Ghosts don't lie. The ice coffin ghost came from here. But it somehow reached Cloudpeak Province and formed a ghost domain when it encountered a land of Extreme Yin.

From this, two simple deductions followed.

First, the bodies interred here aren't preserved. They simply froze to death.

Second, something must be transporting the corpses out of this place, whether by someone's design or by some odd natural mechanism.

If Li Yuan could prove the second point, it would go a long way toward showing theDeathless Tombwas anything but. Yet the Nine Flames believed in it utterly; trying to debunk it would almost certainly lead to unforeseen consequences.

Li Yuan sighed inwardly. He didn't care about the truth; he only wanted a place that could keep his loved ones whole forever. He could live on, but he refused to watch them age and die, then stand before their graves lamenting life's cruelty.

Just then, Snow's startled voice broke in.

"Darling, a maze! There's a maze up ahead!"

"What sort of maze?"

"Walls several dozen feet high, built of clear blue ice. I think I've heard of this maze before. Legend says the gods abandoned this land because devils hid here. The maze was built to trap the devils so they could never find a way out."

"Built by whom?"

"Our own Arikkhan of the Nine Flames, ages ago. Few of us ever come this deep nowadays."

"Do you see any frozen bodies?"

"None."

"Hey, stop, stop. Don't go any farther," Snow suddenly yelled.

Li Yuan felt her haul on the reins, trying to keep the wolf back, yet the beast forged straight toward the maze. His scalp tingled. "Let's turn around, now!"

"I'm trying!" She yanked harder.

When that failed, she raised a fist—

Smack! Smack! Smack!She pounded the wolf's skull. With a pained yelp, the ash‑grey beast twisted and actually sped up, bolting for the maze.

"Stupid wolf! What's gotten into you?!" Snow cried, thumping away, helpless.

Li Yuan felt the sudden burst of speed. He made a split‑second choice, gathered her into his arms, and flipped off the wolf's back.

As they landed, the direwolf's footfalls, which were as rapid as drum beats, faded into the distance and were swallowed by darkness.

"What is wrong with that wolf?" Snow stood with her hands on hips, fuming.

Li Yuan kept hold of her. "Forget it. We have to leave, now."

"Right..." She knew there was no reining the beast in, not with that eerie maze ahead.

She bent, hoisted Li Yuan onto her back, crimson light flaring in her eyes, and sprinted for the exit.

The gale howled. The clear blue ice crystals glittered everywhere.

The ground was so cold it turned syrup‑thick; an ordinary traveler would plant a foot, lift it, and leave the skin of their sole behind.

Li Yuan saw nothing but black, his heartbeat spiking for an instant. Yet the sharper the danger, the steadier he became. He refused to blink.

All at once his pupils contracted. Against the endless cold and dark, a ghost‑pale 625 ~635 floated toward them from the maze.

Something's out there.

A chill shot to his scalp; he had not felt such lethal intent in a long time. His right hand slipped to his belt and drew White Serpent, which he always carried with him. He had left the more conspicuous Azure Serpent behind in the black market ghost domain.

A ripple stirred the air, imperceptible in the wind‑blown snow to anyone else. However, Li Yuan was a man whose senses had been honed to the extreme. He could differentiate the strikes of a blacksmith's hammer from over a kilometer and a half away and sense a falling leaf beneath a roaring waterfall. To him, the ripple boomed like thunder. Its endpoint aimed straight at the back of his head, a needle-sharp sting.

An arrow!His arm moved as thought formed. Steel flashed like lightning. Braids of frozen hair slapped his cheek, and ice‑dust burst away.

Klang!The unseen projectile veered off. He neither saw the shaft nor knew if it was poisoned; he simply let it fall.

Only then did Snow, still running, hear the commotion. She spun, eyes wide.

"An ice arrow! Who's shooting at us?"

She slowed, scanning the dark, blood draining from her face.

"Don't stop!" Li Yuan barked. "Just run."

His tone steadied her; she hit her stride again with him on her back.

Whoosh!Another arrow flew at them with lethal intent.

Klang!Li Yuan split it in two.

Snow obeyed, but fear and worry gnawed at her speed. Each step was shorter than the last.

Li Yuan leaned to her ear. "Think of something that makes you furious. Then run faster."

She clenched her jaw, dredged up a rage, and suddenly let out a battle cry. Her long legs blurred, nearly matching the direwolf's earlier dash.

Li Yuan fixed on the dark, ears combing the blizzard for the faintest wrong note. He cut down seven arrows in all. Each strike drew more heat from his shadow blood; after the seventh, his palms tingled, fissures cracking the skin. His power was slipping further down to eight rank. He might not be able to stop the next arrow.

Who's shooting?

Why are they trying to kill us?

Is it someone from the Trueflame Tribe? Some other force?

And why did the direwolf bolt into the maze meant to trap devils, the maze the gods abandoned?

Questions flared and died.

Li Yuan gripped the blade tighter; the sense of peril crawled over him like ants.

Time blurred. His hands and feet went rigid, his shadow blood sinking toward being completely inert. Only the trickle of warmth from Snow against his chest kept the cold from hollowing him out. It was exactly like the year he'd tried riding his electric bike through a blizzard. Snow slapped his face numb.

At last, Li Yuan's cultivation slipped to eighth rank. He didn't hesitate and bit hard on his tongue. The spike of pain jolted his blood alive, clawing him back to seventh rank. He watched the dark like a leopard, White Serpent frozen almost to his palm.

Then, at last, a bean‑sized glow appeared ahead. It was the tribe's bonfire.