My Journey to Immortality Begins with Hunting-Chapter 138 – Taming General Mammoth, Advancing to The Sixth Rank - Part 4

Chapter 138 – Taming General Mammoth, Advancing to The Sixth Rank - Part 4

The same day, evening.

General Mammoth summoned the remaining thousand or so soldiers under his command. After the recent siege, only this many were left.

Right before Li Yuan’s eyes, General Mammoth barked orders forbidding his men from harassing the local people any further.

As a demonstration, he chose several of the most notorious troublemakers among them and executed them on the spot.

Then he divided the rest into three groups, each about four hundred soldiers, and posted them around the entrance to the ghost domain. freēnovelkiss.com

From where they stood, all the soldiers could see was a quiet little mountain cottage. But rumors of ghosts there had many of them trembling in fear. Still, with General Mammoth present, none dared run off.

Come midnight, the cottage door creaked open and two figures emerged in haste. One was a short-haired man dressed in a blue close-fitting outfit with a bamboo basket on his back; a curved blade, glinting coldly, hung at his waist.

“That’s one of the Mountain Gang people,” General Mammoth muttered.

The other figure looked like a soldier, wearing soft armor and carrying a broadsword.

“He was one of mine,” General Mammoth said, scratching his head uneasily, “killed by the Mountain Gang’s poison. Now he’s...back.”

It only made him grasp the situation’s severity; this mass grave ghost domain wasn’t about righteous revenge—it turned anyone buried there, good or bad, into a ghost-servant looking to kill.

Swiftly, his soldiers seized both men and locked them in an iron cage hauled over by an ox-drawn cart. By dawn, the pair were still caged. They shouted all sorts of pleas, but the soldiers ignored them completely. Because they couldn’t return to the pit, no new ghost-servants appeared from the domain.

After about 24 hours, however, the pair simply vanished from the cage without warning. Soon after, two more individuals came wandering out—a regular civilian and a ninth rank martial artist—and were likewise captured and thrown into the cage.

Another 24 hours passed, and once again, the two ghost-servants trapped in the cage vanished.

The third time, two relatively strong ones appeared. One was ninth rank, the other eighth. General Mammoth personally threw them into the cage, only for them to disappear after 24 hours as well.

Then the fourth time, surprisingly, only two ordinary civilians emerged.

This process went on and on, with Li Yuan and General Mammoth continually testing. It became evident that capturing the newly emerged ghost-servants halted the domain’s cycle for precisely 24 hours. When those 24 hours ended, the mass grave seemed to reset and send out a new set of ghost-servants.

“That leaves one last question,” Li Yuan remarked.

General Mammoth, quick to catch on, replied at once, “We need to find out who exactly was buried here.”

“Exactly,” Li Yuan said.

General Mammoth nodded gravely. “Before we got here, it was already a mass grave filled with countless bodies, maybe even including some from a hundred years back. Autumnlake has a long history, and for all we know, there could even be people from a thousand years ago buried here. If any of them had real power, then sooner or later, they’ll come for us.”

“Check the county annals,” Li Yuan advised. “For now, Bluepond and Autumnlake are under your control. I’m not staying any longer.”

General Mammoth paused, then asked, “Mister Wood, how do I reach you if anything happens?”

“Go to Antelope Pass,” Li Yuan said. “If you spot a bird perched on the cliff, call my name. If the bird flies down and lands in front of you, it’s as good as me coming in person.”

At that, General Mammoth gave him a deep bow. “Understood, Mister Wood. Rest assured, I’m already caught up in this whole ghost domain business. If it doesn’t get resolved, I won’t find peace.”

Before departing, Li Yuan, still posing as a martial arts fanatic, exchanged a few more insights on life chronicles with General Mammoth. Then, having settled his affairs, he mounted his horse and took his leave.

On his way out of Autumnlake, he stopped by the local market to purchase insect-repellent salves, antidotal ointments, fragrant floral extracts, and some sweet sugared candies, then hurried home.

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Three days later.

Li Yuan was back in Gemhill. He handed out the insect-repellent salves to Auntie Wang and the maids; gave the candies to Nian Nian, Xiao Sheng, and Niu Niu; and offered the remaining items, including the floral incense, to his two wives.

After that, he spent some quiet, intimate time with Yan Yu and Xue Ning, making sure the children were none the wiser. Xue Ning was the first to admit defeat; then Yan Yu followed. When it was all over, Yan Yu lay on his chest, breathing heavily, her hands cradling his face.

In a hushed voice, she murmured, “It’s been almost four years, and you never seem to age...while I...”

Li Yuan chuckled, brushing a strand of her hair aside. “Yan Yu, you’re more captivating than ever. As for staying young, it’s all thanks to martial arts training. If you’re willing, we could try a new cultivation technique. That Return-Willow Technique didn’t work out. Let’s pick something else.”

“Spirit-Release Technique? Earthfire Roaming?” Yan Yu was well-versed in all the household affairs, and knowledge of the jianghu, even if she didn’t show it. “Neither path reaches the sixth rank, so I won’t gain extra years. If it doesn’t help me live longer, what’s the point? Besides, I’m not really into fighting...”

Li Yuan cradled his petite yet perfectly curvy wife, her skin dewy with perspiration, and said, “It’s not either of those two techniques; it’s something new. I’ll have it ready in a while.”

Yan Yu mumbled, “All right then...”

Just then, Li Yuan leaned in close, whispering in her ear, “It’s a technique of my own creation.”

“Mhm...” she started to reply, but then her eyes went wide, and she bolted upright in alarm. Straddling him, she stared down in surprise, her round almond eyes wide, looking nothing like a composed mother. “Wait...what? You did what?!”

Li Yuan tugged her back down, smiling. “I’m creating it. Will you try it when it’s done?”

Yan Yu felt as though she was dreaming. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing, even after a long moment. It wasn’t that she was slow on the uptake; it was just an idea no one else would think possible. Developing skills might be one thing, but creating a brand-new cultivation technique from scratch? Unheard of.

Only after more gentle reassurances did she finally grasp what he meant. He was preparing to create it, but hadn’t fully done so yet. Worried about discouraging him, she simply said, “Take your time, Husband... I’m happy to try whatever you come up with.”

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In the days that followed, Li Yuan often seemed like a man possessed—lost in thought, absorbed in his own world. He would draw gestures in the air, sketch lines on the ground, the rocks, the table...every surface. But unlike Tie Sha’s frantic attempts, Li Yuan’s scribbles seemed backed by a clear sense of purpose and the physical ability to test each idea.

Thanks to his shadow blood having reached the sixth rank threshold, he was only missing the final stage of merging that shadow blood to nourish his heart, enhancing his five senses, emotions, and memories.

Once all three elements were in place, the shadow blood in his body would revolve around his heart like planets around a star, forming a mysterious circulation beyond the normal pathways of veins and meridians.

So, Li Yuan could keep experimenting, trying one approach after another until he found the right path to further evolution. No one else had ever done anything like this, lacking both the time and the sheer opportunity to perfect so many low-tier or otherwise mismatched methods.

Furthermore, to learn seventh rank external or internal tempering skills, a martial artist would first have to reach seventh rank—at which point their mortal bones would already have become shadow bones.

Once that transformation had occurred, they couldn’t alter the foundation anymore. Even if they tried learning the skills afterward, they wouldn’t be able to craft a new system of cultivation around them.

The only possible chance would be at eighth rank, attempting various approaches. Yet anyone who had made it that far was already set in their ways and certainly didn’t have the freedom to start over.

In other words, Li Yuan was possibly the only person in centuries, maybe even millennia, ever caught in this unique position.

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Time flew by, and four months passed in the blink of an eye.

During that time, Li Yuan’s two white finches kept watch—one perched at Antelope Pass, the other at the edge of the mass grave.

Over these four months, more than two hundred new returnees emerged from the grave, including one unfamiliar sixth rank expert dressed in ancient garb. Fortunately, General Mammoth still managed to best him before any catastrophe unfolded.

As for General Mammoth’s attempts to research the county’s history, he made no real progress. Back when his men had run rampant—pillaging, burning, and killing—they had destroyed much of the county annals as well.

Frustrated, he lowered himself to wandering the narrow alleyways, asking elderly townsfolk what they remembered about Autumnlake’s past.

An old man told him, “My grandpa used to say Autumnlake once belonged to wild beasts, until a great hero led his followers to slay them. That’s how the county was founded.”

When General Mammoth asked about the hero’s tomb, no one had answers.

Another elder explained, “In the previous dynasty, they labeled that hero a traitor. Soldiers desecrated his tomb and scattered his remains who knows where.”

General Mammoth felt an ominous chill creeping over him, convinced that something dreadful lay ahead.

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Time moved on, and another month passed, ushering in the arrival of December.

Snow blanketed the Hundred Lotus Manor. Li Yuan, looking as though he’d been carved from ice, sat cross-legged in the courtyard. He was covered by a thin layer of snow that made his hair appear white. He wore a frown, lost in deep thought, with his fingers hovering in midair as though about to draw.

Tap, tap, tap... Tap, tap, tap... A soft rhythmic sound echoed along the veranda. Sheng’er, now just over a year old, using her walking stick as she toddled forward. Passing by, she called out in her childish voice, “Papa...!”

Li Yuan wanted to answer, but he felt on the verge of a breakthrough, just one breath away from clarity.

“Papa! Papa...!” Sheng’er repeated, voice rising as though begging for his embrace.

A ripple of urgency coursed through him, like lightning bolting through his consciousness, and suddenly the final barrier gave way. His frozen fingers sprang to life, sketching swirls in the snow with wild abandon. Strange, intricate lines emerged in a whirlwind dance of insight.

Within his body, that dense, grainy shadow blood churned around his heart like a tide.

WHOOSH! Snowflakes scattered as Li Yuan felt his senses sharpen in an instant, heart and mind both clear as day.

Like an epiphany, everything fell perfectly into place.

He glanced at his own status window.

“It’s done!” Li Yuan exclaimed.

The moment he reached sixth rank, he sensed a wholeness flood his being. Laughing triumphantly, he climbed the veranda steps, scooped up his beloved daughter, his little bundle of joy, and spun around in the falling snow.

“Kyaah!,” she giggled back, and her bright laughter mingled with his in the winter air. The scene was one of pure, simple warmth.