My Journey to Immortality Begins with Hunting

In front of the black market ghost domain, Li Yuan found himself engulfed in a feeling he could only call mystical.

It was as if he were holding a new power in his hands while remaining clueless about its true nature. This was much like the nature of existence. A person could think and speak yet were blissfully ignorant of life's many mysteries.

Oblivious to his nakedness, he rose to his feet. Black hair coiled with flame, his eyes narrowed against the bleak late September wind, lost in thought.

"Hahh…" He breathed out.

Ethereal fire poured from his mouth, spreading into a blazing field the size of a football pitch. Yet the flames refused to hold their shape; they scattered, gathered, then split apart again in mid‑air.

Li Yuan observed the scene, then breathed in. The fire streamed back through his mouth and nostrils, leaving only blackened earth before him.

"As a sort of domain, it's too unstable," he murmured. "Then let's try this…"

Li Yuan seized Azure Serpent. The instant blood met metal, a scarlet tongue of flame ran along the edge. He pressed down with his left hand, and a geyser of blade qi erupted out. Wherever the arc of light swept, flames followed.

He raised his arm, and a fiery blade nearly a hundred meters long speared into the sky, a dazzling crimson pillar. Magnificent, yet still unsatisfying.

"Power that can't expand and contract at will isn't mastered. I can draw the flame out. Must I really drag it back the hard way? Can't I compress it again? Energy in a smaller vessel is always stronger. I have to condense it. That's the key—

"Eh?" Li Yuan raised an eyebrow and softly exclaimed. His body was still changing; or rather, the true transformation had only just begun.

Beyond the rising heat and strength, his heart and flesh were becoming denser. The 10-blade ancestral seal hovered at the side, while the awkward wisp of extreme Yang blood previously lodged within his heart had vanished. Flesh swelled, then compressed. His heart stayed the same size, yet grew impossibly more dense, surely becoming many times heavier than before.

And the change wasn't limited to the heart. With every passing second, Li Yuan grew heavier. He stood still, yet the soil sank beneath his feet as if an iron statue, or something even denser, were pressing down.

At last, the process stopped.

Li Yuan gave a light hop. Each landing made the ground quake. He who had once weighed under 100 kg now exceeded a full ton while his frame stayed lean. Heat rolled off him, reminding him uncannily of the meat fields.

He waited until his weight stabilized, then exhaled in relief. Turning into a human‑shaped meat field would be absurd.

Still, it appeared that Yang energy, the Everflame, and meat fields were all somehow connected.

Li Yuan had previously come to the following conclusion—

Ghost domains were directly tied to the Earth and Supreme Yin. When a region accidentally gathered enough Yin energy, and it fused with a powerful obsession, a rule-bound ghost domain would emerge.

Meat fields were tied to the Heaven and Supreme Yang. Yang was light and rose; Yin was heavy and sank. When Yin energy was thick enough, it would force Yang energy down, forcing it to condense. And that was how a meat field formed, full of soulless yet freshlygrownmeat.

Because meat fields formed passively and after ghost domains, you could find terrifying ghost domains paired with mere seventh or eighth rank meat fields, evidence that supported his theory.

However, the recent discovery of the Everflame now disrupted part of that logic. How exactly, he couldn't say yet. So he continued observing himself.

Li Yuan's heart seemed to be burning. To his knowledge, burning expended energy, but why didn't he feel anyfuelbeing consumed?

He'd puzzled over that while sitting before the bonfire of the Trueflame Tribe with no answer. Now, with the Everflame blooming in his chest, comprehension dawned.

This wasn't combustion at all. It was condensation, Yang energy condensing.

Li Yuan could feel the Yang energy of the land converging on his heart, making it look aflame even though it was merely boiling Yang energy.

And with that realization, he stepped closer to the truth of the Yang domain.

It looked like fire, but the flame was only a facade. Behind it was a deeper force, a power of gathering and attraction.

"Maybe the Everflame of the Nine Flames are just a natural phenomenon, Yang energy condensed in one spot for some unknown reason, exactly like what's happening to me," Li Yuan mused deeply, observing the warmth streaming through him. "The Yang energy isn't generated inside me; the environment draws it in. So if my surroundings overflow with Yang energy, the flame in my chest will burn hotter. And if the place is barren, the flame might snuff out altogether.

"Still, the actualflamedoesn't matter, " Li Yuan concluded. "What matters is that my body has gained the ability tocondenseYang energy."

That, he realized, made it a second mode of condensation.

He organized his thoughts—

Passive condensation was when Yin energy dragged Yang energy underground, forming a meat field. The stronger the Yin energy, the higher quality the meat field. Such sites were barren of Yang energy and impoverished.

Active condensation was when Yang energy drew itself together of its own accord. Outwardly, this would appear as aflame.

"Could it be that the frozen tundra of the Western Extreme is so barren that its Yang energy was siphoned off by the Everflame?" Li Yuan guessed, only to look at himself. "No, that can't be the whole story."

Whispers of gods and devils resurfaced in his memory.

"Maybe all of this was artificially set into motion?" Li Yuan pondered deeply, then shook his head. He shelved the thought for later.

First, he wanted to test out his theories.

"If I step into a meat field, the absence of Yang energy above ground should weaken the flame in my heart. Or I could try a place utterly devoid of Yang energy and see how the flame behaves once it's at its faintest." Li Yuan rubbed his chin.

Such places were rare, yet one lay directly behind him.

He turned. Inside the black market ghost domain, Yan Yu in her blue robe watched in silence.

"Yan Yu," he called, smiling, "I think I've made a breakthrough. Mind if I try it out?"

He explained his condition and plan, then strode toward the boundary of the black market ghost domain.

"Wait." Yan Yu's voice halted him. His own feet had already stopped.

Time hung motionless.

Between him and the ghost domain, two vast fields clashed. One brimmed with Yin energy, and the other boiled with Yang.

From a distance, it looked as if black and crimson were being rammed together by Heaven and Earth.

Li Yuan's domain was smaller, but the stalemate was real. To enter, he would have to tear a hole through the black market ghost domain itself, for he was now the embodiment of the surrounding Yang energy.

A mountain of Yang trying to invade a sea of Yin, only all‑out conflict could settle it. Otherwise, the two would swirl like black‑and‑white fish, endless and spectacular beyond words.

He drew a deep breath, willing the fire to hide, but it refused. The Yang energy gathered stubbornly in his heart. Several attempts to step across ended in a violent grinding of black and crimson.

"I can't get in right now," he muttered, exasperated.

A boundary no wider than a fingertip separated him from Yan Yu, close enough to see her clearly yet too far to touch.

"Hold on a second," she said, floating off. She soon returned with a freshly laundered robe, trousers, undergarments, socks, and boots. Passing them through the threshold, she chided, "You can't run around naked forever."

Only then did Li Yuan remember his state. He dressed quickly.

"You look so much livelier, far better than before," she laughed.

"Oh? Was I that bad?" he teased.

"No, no, my husband has always been the brightest sun in my life."

Yan Yu's smile brightened; Li Yuan's own face lit up.

"Yan Yu, I'm stronger again, but…" He clenched his fist, leaving the remaining words unsaid.

"The invasion of the Ice Folk you worried about has begun," Yan Yu said softly. "Your letter went unrecognized, and the front lines have changed a lot. Maybe check in first?"

"I will," he agreed. "I'll take a look, then have a stroll around. Don't worry. We can't be together for now, but it's just a small roadblock. By the time I come back, I'm sure I'll have it sorted out.

"I know you will." She smiled; silence settled once more. Then she whispered, "Come home early."

"Mhm."

"Off you go, then."

"I'm off."

Li Yuan turned. Yan Yu turned. Each took three steps and paused, but neither looked back. They walked on, their paths parting beneath a sky of battling crimson and black.

The smiles on their faces dissolved into quiet sorrow.

Yan Yu still had Sheng'er to keep her human side intact. So in theory, Li Yuan could leave for a very long time.

Yet after a few more steps Li Yuan stopped, turned, and called back, "Yan Yu!"

"Mhm?" She looked over her shoulder.

"It really is just a small roadblock. Believe in me. I'll settle it and come right home."

"Mhm." Yan Yu smiled gently. "I'll be waiting."