My Journey to Immortality Begins with Hunting

Inside a weather-worn hide tent of the Trueflame Tribe, smoke-smudged walls glowed amber in the firelight.

The Wolfmother sat swathed in a snow-white fur cloak, her lithe shape cinched by a silver silk dress. She stretched her long legs, the flames outside painting a faint, quivering red halo over her skin.

Li Yuan met her gaze in silence.

"How do you know?" he asked.

"From my memories," she replied.

"I think you're simply afraid the tribes will produce another power to rival you," Li Yuan said.

Silence pressed in.

"Yes," the Wolfmother admitted at last, then added, "but that isn't the whole of it. I don't want you to lose your mind with grief when your child dies young. Your offspring's strength matters less than your despair. If you lose control, this frozen land will face the real catastrophe."

"Why would my child die young?" Li Yuan demanded.

"It seems the gods truly wish me to stop you," she said. "They've granted me knowledge beyond the ordinary. I'll share it with you now, so you will abandon this notion."

Li Yuan propped his chin on his palm, drained a mug of milk-wine, tossed the cup aside, and fixed her with a lazy smile. "If you won't leave the Western Extremes with me, then I'll have this child no matter what."

The words had barely fallen when her body went rigid. A killing chill bled from her; her eyes rolled back until only white remained. Her glass-white eyes were less perfect than Sheng'er's, yet just as pale.

"Wolfmother," Li Yuan murmured, watching the air around her grow hoarfrost-cold. The test was conclusive. There were two minds in that body. "So you do exist."

"You're mistaken about one thing," she said. "I'm no intruder in her flesh. I am still her."

"Meaning?"

She ignored the question. "The gods showed me this. The flames around you are solidified Yang. Do you know what Yang truly is?"

"Answer my first question or I'm keeping the child," Li Yuan replied.

"I am an undying husk," she said at last. "She is the fragment, what's missing from me. We were once a single soul."

"Then how were you split? If I'm right, the fragment is the original you, isn't she?"

Her expression turned almost devout. "The gods gave me a destiny. Yet I was born mortal, and mortals are stamped with flaws no destiny can erase."

She paused. "That is all I know. Now, Khagan, back to our topic. Do you understand Yang?"

Li Yuan let the question pass; he already had a fair idea. After all, his wife was the owner of the general store on the ancient ghost street. There was no topic the two of them hadn't broached.

He had learned a ghost was like an appliance. It had to be plugged in. Once it tapped the omnipresent Supreme Yin, it became a true ghost. Before that it was merely a harmless, lingering obsession, warped fragments of a soul.

Yin twisted those fragments, tore them apart, then fixed them into something nearly immutable—a mutation of the spirit.

Ghost servants were no different. Slain by a ghost, their souls soaked up its power, mutated, and were drawn into its orbit, stripped of will yet impossible to destroy so long as the Yin energy endured.

A jade husk was rarer still, a perfect fusion of human and a particular ghost. If a soul was born alreadyaltered, it was no longer simply mutated.

For the gods here to create jade husks after birth was a feat Li Yuan could scarcely imagine. The thought left him weighed down, more wary than ever of that sacred burial ground and painfully aware that the Wolfmother was likely just an ordinary girl who had been chosen—and ruined.

These thoughts flashed by in an instant.

"I don't know," he said finally. "What is Yang?"

"You'll see soon enough," the Wolfmother answered. "On this land, before the sacred flame, even an outsider's womb will bring forth a mighty life, a child of the Nine Flames."

Li Yuan's face remained still; he merely nodded.

She rose and paced beneath the wavering light, her shadow stretching along the hides. In a low, ringing voice she asked, "Why? It's because of the Everflame! The Yang in the flame reshapes the life growing in the womb, turning it into something its parents never were. To call the Khagan a Child of the Sun is no empty title."

She lowered her voice, her tone distant. "All those others merely warm themselves beside the blaze… Butyouare the blaze."

Li Yuan chuckled. "Then I truly can father children born strong, children destined to be Khagan. Give me a thousand wives and I'll raise a thousand khans."

He had no intention of acting on the notion, but the calculation amused him and might coax more out of the Wolfmother.

"Ordinary women can't endure your flame," she said, "but the ritual elixir changes that. It's brewed from rare Yin domain herbs that still grow on this permafrost. Yet any child you sire will burn through life at terrifying speed.

"Look!" She lifted a hand, counting off. "A common warrior of the tundra lives a little over a century. Most tribe chieftains die in their seventies. Your children, 30 odd years, at best. They are consuming themselves to harvest that power."

"Flesh mutated by blood and flame," Li Yuan murmured.

The Wolfmother hesitated, then nodded. "Yes. All Yang comes from the Sun. The more a creature basks in that radiance, the fiercer the mutation and the shorter the span of years. That applies to you as well, Khagan."

Li Yuan blinked. "You mean my own life will be cut short?"

She inclined her head. "You were once an outsider, blessed with a longevity unknown to mortals. But the flame that empowers you also feeds on your years."

For a heartbeat, Li Yuan tensed then flicked a glance at the unseen status window only he could read.

「Eternal Youth:Your lifespan is infinite, and you will always remain at the peak of your youth. You will never die of old age…」

Relief washed through him, swiftly followed by a somber light.

"A sad truth…and yet—" He clenched his fist, every inch of him radiating sunlight. "If a man walks beneath Heaven and cannot blaze like the Sun, what is the point of living at all?"

The Wolfmother stared; this was not the reaction she had expected. To face shortened days and answer with such blistering courage, she was astonished.

Just then her body shuddered, and a depthless presence flickered behind her eyes. Her voice dropped to a chill monotone.

"Now you know cause and consequence. Whether you beget heirs is your choice. So long as their flames do not scorch the Deathless Tomb. In return, when death comes, a coffin within the necropolis will await you. Not only for your deeds, but because you are unique.

"You, Li Yuan, are the first human to become the Everflame. The new world will need you."

Li Yuan froze. He sensed the Wolfmother had become someone or something else entirely, vast and unfathomable. He seized the moment, eyes wide in deliberate awe. "You… You are…?"

She regarded him without blinking.

Realization bloomed across his face. He bowed deeply, joy and reverence mingling. "I am honored beyond measure."

The presence seemed pleased with his insight. "You may call me the Gravekeeper."

The chill vanished. The Wolfmother surfaced as though from deep water, rubbing her brow. "It seems the gods have spoken to you directly."

Li Yuan nodded, thoughts spinning. A beguiled maiden, a broken jade husk, and now a gravekeeper. Three layers inside one fragile body.

"You are fortunate," she said softly. "Few hear the promise of the gods."

"When I lie in that coffin," Li Yuan asked, half-teasing, "will I become one of your gods in turn?"

She blinked, uncertain. "I…suppose so."

"In that case," he said, "I've heard the Wolfmothers keep a trove of scrolls. Fetch them. I'd like a look."

After a moment's hesitation, she agreed.