My Journey to Immortality Begins with Hunting

The barren plains lay shrouded in a dim gray haze.

Yellow leaves skittered across the sky like frightened sparrows, then fluttered down among the brittle grass where a brocade-robed youth stood lost in thought.

Li Yuan studied the new entry in his skill list hovering before his eyes—

Incomplete Six Paths - Mortal World Transformation (1/4)

First he tried the simplest fix. Allocate a few stat points at it. But nothing happened, not even a brief flicker.

So the 1/4 wasn't one out of four points; it was one quarter of a full point. Only when he collected the remaining three quarters would the skill knit itself into something whole.

Li Yuan closed his eyes, letting his mind graze the fragment's edge. A picture formed, perhaps the completed art resembled the legendary Six Realm Transformations. Back on Earth, he'd heard of the Six Paths—Naraka, Preta, Beast, Asura, Mortal, and Heaven.

This Mortal World Transformation already allowed him to remodel flesh and bone at will, copying any face he'd seen or even ones he imagined. With deeper mastery, he should be able to grow as large as a demon or shrink to the size of a gnat, the way the Monkey King used his 72 Transformations.

But this wasn't Earth. Who knew if theseSix Pathsmatched the ones in Buddhist lore? Li Yuan doubted it. Here, the world spoke of demonic beasts and ghosts and the Sun and Moon. No mention of any Asuras. Seldom a conscious ghost, and no real hell like Naraka. Only the shadowy ancient ghost street that lacked any notion of divine judgment.

Perhaps the Six Paths in this world were Mortal, Beast, Plant, Sun, Moon, and something else. This pure speculation, of course. Still, if there were an upper three and lower three realms like the myths said, the Human, Beast, and Plant paths would surely be the lower lot. What stood above them remained a riddle.

A chill wind swept across the plain, driving the leaves before it in rustling waves.

Li Yuan caught one between two fingers. His neatly combed hair streamed behind him, as did the well-fitted brocade. Xue Ning insisted he dress properly these days, and with a capable wife fussing over him, he did look rather presentable.

The leaf settled. A thought struck him.

"If the Mortal Path is clearly not one of the upper three, where do those lofty realms hide? Do those so-called gods sealed in the Deathless Tomb belong to the upper path? If so, which one, and what are the other two?"

In that instant the world grew hazy and vast. Li Yuan felt like a frog that had finally leapt clear of its well, only to discover that the lantern-lit patch he'd calledeverythingwas no larger than a bean, lost in a sea of darkness still waiting to be explored.

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That night, Li Yuan and Xue Ning lay on a specially reinforced stone bed. Anything lighter would have cracked weeks ago. They started on opposite sides, but Li Yuan suddenly rolled over and pinned her beneath him.

The beautiful woman gave a startled squeak, then blinked in surprise. The weight on her body felt…normal.

Shock lasted a heartbeat, curiosity the next. She slid her arms around him, giving a tentative pinch to his once-solid waist, then another to his shoulders.

Color crept up her cheeks. It had been a long time since they'd engaged in proper physical intimacy, and anticipation brought back a shy softness she'd nearly forgotten.

"You used to be as heavy as an elephant," she whispered. "Why are you so light all of a sudden?"

Li Yuan chuckled. "Because my wife is too stunning for her own good. Thinking about you day and night gave me all the motivation I needed. I worked the fat right off."

Xue Ning's laughter rang across the room, bright and warm as spring wine, just before the stone bed began its earnest creaking.

"Pfttt, please." Even someone as seasoned as Xue Ning, who'd spent half her life steering court intrigue from the comfort of an angler's terrace, couldn't keep a blush from blooming. "I'm already past my prime and youdietedfor me? Besides, what part of you was everfatin the first place?"

Li Yuan hugged her tight. "In my eyes and in my heart, you will always be young. Always beautiful."

The oldest, cheesiest line in the book, yet it hit its mark with lethal accuracy.

Sweetness filled Xue Ning like warm honey. She wrapped her arms around him, closed her eyes, and traced every line and hollow of his body.

For Li Yuan, it wasn't raw lust but tenderness, the pure urge to cherish. He held her the way a giant might cradle a porcelain teacup.

He'd never have dared before; but the Mortal World Transformation gave him surgical control over flesh and power. If he pressed a finger into an anthill now and decided to crush exactly two ants, not a third would perish; snap three legs on one ant, the fourth would stay whole. That was the level of precision he commanded.

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The night passed beneath rattling tiles.

Morning found Xue Ning contentedly burrowed under the quilt while Li Yuan stayed right there beside her, listening to the autumn gale scrape against the oiled-paper windows.

In Cloudpeak Province, once September ended, the snows would come roaring in. The mercury thermometer was already plummeting by the hour.

Xue Ning hated the cold; she normally kept a brazier blazing and a hand-warmer glued to her palms. But a living furnace of a husband beat charcoal and iron hollow.

After a while, she gave his chest an affectionate shove. "Go on, you have things to do."

Reluctance glimmered in her eyes, yet she refused to shackle him. The shove didn't move him in the slightest.

Li Yuan grinned. "Today? I'm staying right here."

"Here, as in bedall day?" She rolled her eyes. "We're an old married couple, not newlyweds. And another round would finish me off."

"I'm not asking for a round. Just five more minutes."

Five became ten, ten became twenty. Eventually she sighed, gave up, and—secretly delighted—dozed off in his arms.

Li Yuan watched the window. Soon a ragged autumn rain began to lash the courtyard, the manor, the little town beyond, the green hills behind it. Everything was drowned in a curtain of icy grey.

Raindrops scoured the plaque above the gate, polishing the wordsDawn Manoruntil they gleamed.

Xue Ning had chosen the name, hoping every child raised here would grow like the first light of day—bright, unflagging, and forever upward. Of course, the higher a child soared, the farther from home they flew.

Through the rain came the faint chant of children reciting primers. This was the new generation of Ice Folk learning their letters.

Crows flapped across the grey sky.

In the study, Sheng'er sat with her long black hair in a neat ponytail, paging through scrolls and the ledgers of the Nimbus Group. The work was turning the once-art-mad girl who'd spent her days crying for her father into someone almost grown; but for now she still handled only the simpler tasks. Without trial by blood and fire, how could anyone stand alone?