My Journey to Immortality Begins with Hunting

A month rolled by.0

In Cloudpeak Province, November snows sealed the roads; carts and horses bogged down. Li Yuan's network of scout birds could not reach the region, so they scattered across Silkfloss Province instead, bringing him a clear picture of the brewing storm.0

He pieced the truth together in moments. His earlier suspicion that Gu Xuejian had sided with Qing Hancheng evaporated.0

"Not bad," he murmured in praise.0

In fact, he had arranged a similar smokescreen. If Gu Xuejian hadn't acted, his own agents were ready to plant near-identical rumors, turning every eye southward and buying his party time to slip away. His people, though lower ranked, might have been caught. Yet even that failure would have bought him hours.0

Gu Xuejian's strike wiped out those worries entirely. In Li Yuan's ledger, she had done him a grand favor.0

Now, however, travel was nearly impossible. The horses stumbled, and the carriage refused to budge in the knee-deep drifts.0

Li Yuan, Jing Shuixiang, and Cui Huayin could endure, but they also had two children and a pregnant woman in tow.0

Before setting out, Li Yuan had already used the thousand-mile thread once to jump back and let Tang Nian know in advance.0

He had also tied the other end to Wang Heran, so that he could return quickly after dropping Ping'an and the others off. He hadn't forgotten the true goal of this journey, nor did he fancy retracing the entire route the long way again.0

North of Sword Mountain, the open steppe pinched into a narrowing strip of scrub. Through the murky light a jagged gorge took shape ahead. Just as the party reached the mouth of the ravine, arumblingrang out as heaps of snow on the left bank were being pushed aside.0

Something large was approaching.0

No one flinched or panicked. Li Yuan and the four fifth rank elders had long since abandoned the habit of jumping at shadows; even if the world came crashing down, they would simply deal with it accordingly.0

Snow burst outward. Eight life-sized puppets and two curtained palanquins emerged, both carriages wrapped in thick brocade now frozen stiff.0

Li Yuan walked over. Heat rolled off him; in a breath the frost-locked palanquins and half the snowpack sluiced away in dirty rivulets. The others stared, wide-eyed.0

"A party trick, nothing more," he said, and began handing out seats.0

"Ping'an, take your wife and child in that one. Yao Jue, Huayin, Shuixiang, you three ride up front with me."0

Yao Jue skipped over first, eyeing the puppets. "Wow, sixth rank puppets? Eight of them too? Looks like you've got real pull in Cloudpeak Province."0

The rest stayed put.0

Li Yuan tilted his head. "Ping'an, get your family inside before the cold bites them. Gawking can wait."0

He tossed two scabbard boxes, one to Jing Shuixiang, one to Cui Huayin, then smiled. "Huayin, step back for a moment. I'll speak with you later."0

Cui Huayin obliged, leaving the clearing to Li Yuan and the petite elder in black ceremonial dress.0

Jing Shuixiang drew the slim red blade from the box; the air warped with vicious, ruinous power. She said, "Beat me, and I'll come with you."1

Li Yuan raised an eyebrow. "A match of skill or a pure fight? If it's a pure fight, charge in right now. If it's a match of skill, we can see whose blade is more fine."0

"Pure fight," Jing Shuixiang answered. "I'd only end up frustrated if I lost in a match of skills."0

Crimson light crept along the blade, oozing a murderous chill.0

Li Yuan knew its workings. He'd forged it himself, burning three centuries of life force to split the essences ofwitheringandgrowthin Jing Shuixiang's blood.0

The result was the Wither And Growth Blade. The Wither Blade completely locked down weaker foes and suppressed stronger ones, its fear aura swelling with every kill until anyone beneath her rank could only kneel and beg. The Growth Blade was a wellspring of healing, a battlefield phoenix feather, not unlike Yao Jue's flying dagger.0

Together they had turned Jing Shuixiang into a walking meat grinder.0

Li Yuan stooped, picked up a dull gray twig. "All right, come."0

The instant the word left his lips, Jing Shuixiang, Cui Huayin, even Yao Jue, and the daughters-in-law peeking from the palanquin, fell silent.0

Everyone knew that no matter how great the martial artists, you needed a fine weapon. The exception, however, appeared to be Ping'ans father.0

Ping'an gave a helpless grin. "Fourth Mom, my dad is scary enough with a twig."0

Li Yuan laid it out. "Blade or branch, same to me. My weapon isn't an object. Anyobjectmerely adds an arm's length. If I use anything else, I might not stop short."0

Of course, he was referring to his blade qi.0

Jing Shuixiang's eyes flickered. She crouched, fingers stroking the blade; behind its slim red edge her pupils gleamed, strange and sanguine, drenching onlookers in dread.0

She stepped forward, one pace, a second, then a third.0

Each footfall dragged her foe out of reality, dropping him on a lonely plain where she prowled like a man-eating tiger. Then a deeper horror seeped in. It was the taste of universal decay, of every effort turning to dust, every joy dying in the dark. Fear fused with despair until those blood-bright eyes burned unearthly.0

Fearflowed from the Wither Blade.0

Martial artists who cultivated the Cycle of Withering and Growth possessed special powers.0

In Jing Shuixiang, that power manifested as theIntimidating Glare. It was a rare spirit based attack that could cripple an opponent, reducing their strength by 30%. Unleashed without warning against a peer, it could flatten them outright.1

To rob an enemy of the will to fight and drown them in fear…when those two currents swirled together, Jing Shuixiang could rampage almost unopposed below the fourth rank. That was why Ping'an, monstrous talent though he was, was ranked beneath her.0

Ping'an had cultivated five strands of source blood; Jing Shuixiang had only cultivated three.0

Yet the blade Li Yuan forged for her, and her special ability, kept her firmly seated as the Holy Tree Temple's third strongest.0

Li Yuan observed the 1,860~13,412 floating above Jing Shuixiang's head and nodded lightly. Those figures were nothing to take lightly.0

Then the world dimmed.0

Night seemed to fall in a single blink.0

Li Yuan heard thetap tap tapof purposeful steps, the high keening of a drawn blade like a sultry assassin in stiletto heels dragging steel through an alleyway, oozing dread.0

He looked up and met a pair of blood-red eyes.0

Fear. Despair. Two cold hands reached for his heart.0

They never landed.0

The instant those mental claws touched the furnace of his heart they melted. Snowflakes in boiling soup, frost on red-hot iron, snuffed out without effort.0

Twang!The sound rang like a snapped harp string.0

Jing Shuixiang shuddered, staggered, and braced her blade against the ground. The petite elder in her black dress swayed, on the brink of fainting.0

"Are you all right, Shuixiang?" Li Yuan called, worry unfeigned as he took an instinctive step forward.0

Power ebbed from her, a sudden blank where the Intimidating Glare and Wither Blade's terror had been.0

Jing Shuixiang gulped cold air, cheeks flushing. She shot him a glare. "You should focus on yourself. In a duel, don't fuss over your enemy."0

"Oh." Li Yuan dutifully backed up a few paces. "Then how about a breather first?"0

"No need." She withdrew her unique skill, exploded forward, and in a heartbeat was upon him. The narrow blood-red blades traced arcs like splashes of fresh gore.0

Li Yuan flicked his twig,strugglingto bat each slash aside.0

Blades bloomed everywhere.0

He looked for all the world like a kindly uncle beating dust out of rugs. A left swipe, right tap…each lethal slash popping into glittering confetti.0

To keep up appearances he added the occasional grunt, a wince here and there, as though the twig weighed a hundred pounds.1

Suddenly the storm of light ceased.0

"I yield," Jing Shuixiang said.0

Li Yuan exhaled. "You've improved so much, dear wife. I almost couldn't hold out."0

Her face reddened. His acting was terrible and they both knew it. A sigh slipped out. "Give me a moment, Husband."2

Snowflakes drifted around them. She drew a breath, then began quietly, "I was locked in struggle with the Lotus Cult, buried in tasks and reports from subordinates and then suddenly… Suddenly, you dragged me out."0

She hesitated, then pushed on, "Li Yuan, let me be honest. I don't…feelthat way about you. I picked you as a spouse because I was injured, and among the candidates you were simply the best fit.0

"Afterward I stayed because you were the keystone between the Gu faction and the Jing faction. I stayed because you were a master weaponsmith.0

"You were so extraordinary, and I thought,If I'm his woman he'll forge me a fine weapon, won't he?I never expected you to burn life to do it, but love? Romance? I've never felt much of that…for anyone. We'd already shared a bed, so I kept sharing it. Nothing more."0

The words hung in the air, thinner than the mountain wind.0

She stood on the snow-packed trail, black dress fluttering, a shy-pink blossom pinned at her collar. "Understand? If you regret it, there's still time. I'm not the sort to sit home waiting, warming your sheets. I have no feelings for you. I have no feelings foranyone. I only think about my own path. That's the truth."0

Li Yuan's eyes creased. "So what do you want to do?"0