My Journey to Immortality Begins with Hunting-Chapter 202 – Yan Yu’s General Store, A Visitor Arrives - Part 1

Ghosts could exist both as spirit entities and in solid form. That explained why ghost servants could so easily slaughter skilled martial artists, while those very masters found themselves slashing at empty air. No matter how they struck, all their blows would simply pass through.

Of course, that was unless the blows were infused with ancestral seal shadow blood, granting it the pure Yang energy capable of directly attacking the pure Yin energy that formed a ghost’s existence. Otherwise, there was simply no way to harm these spirits.

At that moment, Li Yuan felt the woman in his embrace clinging to him. He looped an arm around her back, his hand resting on her shoulder, drawing her petite, ice-cold body close.

He murmured, “Ghosts and ghost servants revert to spirit form the moment they’re attacked. But when they attack, they can be spirit or flesh at will. The truth is, they have no consciousness like humans do, so they’re not making a choice; they automatically slip into spirit form whenever they come under threat. That’s why no one can touch them.”

Yan Yu whispered in his ear, “I, however, can choose. I can let my husband hold me.”

Li Yuan tightened his arms around her. “It’s been one year, five months, and 21 days...”

Yan Yu added gently, “20 days, you’re still four hours short.”

They fell silent for a moment. That length of time marked their separation, and both remembered it with painful clarity.

In the cold, ghostly air, the black market buildings, not truly made of brick and stone, grew more frigid by the second and exuded an eerie chill that seemed to penetrate the soul. Once-deserted streets were now dotted with little carts. No one stood in front to sell anything, nor did any peddler linger behind. Only the drooping flags stirred faintly in the bleak night wind. There was something deeply unsettling about these scenes. Yet, in their own strange way, they also radiated a quiet tenderness.

Li Yuan asked, “Could you come home with me?”

Yan Yu shook her head. “I can’t go back.”

He expected this answer, yet still couldn’t quite accept it. “Why not?”

She explained, “I was just an ordinary person once. With so little Yang and Yin energy in my body, I should have died the moment I encountered these ghosts. I survived only because two ghosts balanced each other out and merged within me. What you see now is me. But in truth, the real me might already look entirely different, a larger entity formed by these two ghosts fusing.

“As long as I remain here, standing on these grounds steeped in Yin energy, I’m effectively immortal...frozen in this form forever. But the price is that I’m bound to the ghost domain. I can appear in the ancient ghost street, and if someone near this realm triggers the ghosts’ grudge, I’m compelled to go kill them. I can’t refuse it; my body will move on its own and carry out the killing.”

Li Yuan said, “But I can touch you, and nothing’s happened to me.”

Yan Yu replied, “That’s because I’m allowing it. I’m choosing not to let you trigger the grudge.”

Li Yuan asked, “What if I trigger it by accident?”

She fell silent for a moment, then answered, “I would still have to carry it out. But as long as you don’t show any intent to harm me, or do something like buying that Yin-marked powder from outside, you won’t set off the grudge.”

Something on Li Yuan’s mind made him hesitate. Yan Yu, perceptive after all their years together, immediately guessed what he was thinking. She leaned closer and whispered a few words into his ear, smiling.

Li Yuan felt his cheeks flush. The idea of his wife being a ghost intrigued him. He hadn’t tried that before, and he was...curious.

He slipped his arm beneath her knees and lifted her. “Feng’er and that peddler really have no awareness?”

Yan Yu’s pale cheeks took on a faintly shy tinge. She shook her head and wrapped her cold, white arms around Li Yuan’s neck. Then, remembering something, she leaned in again and whispered, “Just in case, this time, you can’t...”

Her voice trailed off apologetically.

Without replying, Li Yuan simply carried her through the eerie buildings, pushed open a door to one of the lofts, and laid her down on the bed.

They lost themselves in each other. The night felt far too short. When it finally ended, they rested side by side, content yet wanting more.

After a long while, the ghostly pale beauty draped herself across Li Yuan’s chest the way she once had in the living world. She tapped his firm chest playfully. “So...did it feel any different?”

“Cold,” Li Yuan replied.

“...” Yan Yu stared at him blankly.

He continued, “But just now, in that short moment, I felt all my pent-up frustrations...everything that weighed on me as a high rank martial artist, fade away. I’ve never experienced that before. Even if...”

“Even if what?”

“Even if I called Xiao Lan and Xiao Zhu, or even Xue Ning, it never felt like this.”

Yan Yu chuckled and teased, “Then I really have become your treasure.”

“You already were.” Li Yuan pulled her closer.

Though he felt that surge of heat and power, it was like he was plunging burning steel into icy water, just the right cooling quench. After a brief pause, Li Yuan sensed something within himself once more and remarked, “Actually, it’s not just that I feel good.”

“Hmm?” Yan Yu raised an eyebrow.

Li Yuan clarified, “I feel better than ever before.”

Yan Yu playfully patted his strong arm. “You rogue.”

Li Yuan asked, “If Yin and Yang oppose each other...with ghosts being Yin, martial artists being Yang, do you think what we just did might hurt you?”

Yan Yu closed her eyes and focused on her own state. After a moment, her brow creased slightly. “I wouldn’t exactly call this good,” she said.

“What do you mean?” Li Yuan asked, brows knitted in slight concern.

Yan Yu gave a light laugh. “Because it isn’t just good, it’s unbelievably good!”

Li Yuan was momentarily speechless. He had worried that his wife might change, but she seemed just like before, though his curiosity was definitely piqued.

She continued, “A ghost is pure Yin, but what keeps me conscious are the bonds I share with you, with Sheng'er, and with everyone else in our lives. When you and I are together like this, we’re strengthening that bond, letting me stay as I am now.”

She went quiet for a moment, then added, “Think of that bond as a new kind of obsession, something akin to a ghost’s grudge or lingering regret, except this one is warm and human.”

Li Yuan said softly, “Then how about I take the thousand-mile thread you gave me before, wrap it around you, and come see you every day?”

Yan Yu rolled her eyes at him. “Don’t even think about using that item on a ghost! It’s basically like forcibly dragging two ghosts together. If they happen to meld, they might fuse, but more often, they’ll just touch briefly and separate. In the worst case, it’ll only bring over the wisp of Yin energy from that item rather than the ghost itself.

“Remember how that peddler from the rouge shop came after Sheng'er? It was just close by, so it rushed over to attack. I kept drawing it in and attacking until we finally fused. But if you used that thread on me, it would be an attack. And once you attack, I have to follow the rule and kill you. So, Husband, absolutely do not use it.”

She paused, then laughed. “Besides, you don’t actually need it.”

“Why not?”

“Because as long as you’re here in Gemhill, I can come to you whenever you fall asleep at night.”

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

That same evening.

Li Yuan returned to Hundred Lotus Manor. After a rather energetic reunion with Xue Ning, ending the little episode they’d started...he closed his eyes and drifted into sleep.

This dream was different, just as Yan Yu had said it would be.

He found himself in a pitch-black room devoid of light. In front of the window stood a ghostly white figure with its back to him, its pallor unsettling in a way that made him involuntarily shudder. Despite expecting something like this, Li Yuan was still taken aback.

That eerie silhouette didn’t match his wife’s outline at all. He tried to close his eyes and brace himself for whatever changes she’d undergone, but his eyelids wouldn’t move. In fact, aside from his eyeballs rolling around, he couldn’t move or make a sound.

Yan Yu... Let me move, please? He wanted to call out but couldn’t. Before he could panic, the crushing weight in the air vanished, and he felt his body loosen.

Li Yuan blinked at the white figure by the window for a moment, then took a deep breath and walked toward it. No matter what my wife has become, a ghost, a monster, or even an eldritch being... if she’s still Yan Yu, I’ll accept her.

One step, two steps, three steps... He drew closer, about to call out her name, when he heard a soft, mischievous giggle behind him.

It was Yan Yu’s laugh.

“Husband, why are you going after Feng’er?”

Startled, Li Yuan whirled around to see a petite woman in a snow-white robe standing a short distance away, smiling. She had one hand over a little girl’s mouth.

“Yan Yu! Sheng'er!” He quickly went to them, glancing first at his wife, then back at the pale figure by the window, thoroughly confused.

Yan Yu explained with a knowing smile, “In the ancient ghost street, we may appear as separate entities, but in truth, we’re all part of the same whole.”

With that, she let go of their daughter’s mouth, and Sheng'er happily scurried to Li Yuan’s left side, grabbing his arm, while Yan Yu clung to his right.

Even in the depths of this ghostly realm, having his wife and daughter beside him put Li Yuan somewhat at ease.

Both Yan Yu and Sheng'er leaned against his arms, playfully clinging to him. Despite the sinister surroundings, Li Yuan felt a faint warmth within.

The three of them came to a door; Yan Yu pushed it open. Beyond lay a narrow corridor leading to another door that was slightly ajar, a thin rim of light outlining its edges.

New novel 𝓬hapters are published on fre ew𝒆bnovel.com