My Journey to Immortality Begins with Hunting-Chapter 212 – Pioneering the South, Cutting Through the Chaos - Part 2
Chapter 212 – Pioneering the South, Cutting Through the Chaos - Part 2
The crow fluttered free, returning to nest in Sheng'er’s hair.
Tang Nian gave Li Yuan a helpless glance. “That’s what happens.”
“Open it up,” Li Yuan said. “Let’s see the heart.”
Tang Nian sighed. “We’ve already checked; the heart inside is always ruined afterward.”
Li Yuan stepped forward and, with the effortlessness of stretching dough, tore open the puppet’s metal casing. As expected, the demonic beast heart within was shriveled, as though someone had stomped on it.
Tang Nian continued, “My only explanation is that the demonic beast’s heart isn’t just muscle and flesh. There’s likely a sliver of the demonic beast’s soul left inside. When an external soul tries to merge, it’s met with fierce resistance. Even if the intruding soul is strong, the residual soul in the heart is deeply rooted. They clash on instinct, and this is the result. The so-called soul in the soul iron crystal is different, more like a void of consciousness. When it’s nurtured by the blood in the heart, Yin and Yang combine, flesh regenerates, and the puppet gains a degree of intelligence. But it doesn’t seem to merge with another true soul.”
Li Yuan looked at his goddaughter. He could sense this wasn’t just idle speculation. There was hope in her words. If what she described was true, then maybe her own father’s soul still existed somewhere.
Tang Nian fell quiet, lost in thought. Li Yuan glanced at Sheng'er blinking beside him, and instinctively scooped her up, settling her on his knee.
She pouted. “The crow’s possession failed.”
Li Yuan mussed her hair. “Not a failure. If an enemy ever sends a puppet army against us, you just let your crows possess them...”
A bright smile lit Sheng'er’s face. “Then all those nasty puppets would go crazy!”
“Exactly,” Li Yuan said with a grin. “Your crows did just fine.”
He was honestly a bit delighted by the discovery. He still remembered how puppets could roam the black market ghost domain freely without provoking attacks from the ghost servants. Now, if Sheng'er’s crows took control of one, it could throw the entire puppet off balance, a rare trump card indeed.
Having coaxed one daughter back into good spirits, Li Yuan turned to the other. Tang Nian, short-haired and dressed in white, had become withdrawn after mentioning residual souls. Her gaze, always a little distant, seemed even more vacant.
“Nian Nian?”
“...”
“Nian Nian!”
She blinked, snapping out of her reverie. “Yes?”
“Pack your things. In a couple of days, I’ll take you out.”
“All right,” she said quietly, not asking where they would go.
Li Yuan went to find Ping’an next. After confirming the boy had only suffered minor scrapes, he gently comforted him, then tried drilling into him the idea that he should run at the first sign of danger.
In Li Yuan’s view, once Ping’an sensed something was off about the house, he should have turned and fled. Why stand there in a daze?
But Ping’an, stubborn as a mule, declared, “Hmph, I’m just too weak right now. If I ran today, I’d never have the right to stand there again.”
Incensed, Li Yuan grabbed his disciplinary ruler. “Next time you see danger, are you going to run or not?”
With his arms crossed, Ping’an huffed, “If you run, I still won’t.” fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
Li Yuan’s temper flared; he struck Ping’an’s palm twice, leaving faint red marks. Whereupon Ping’an burst into another round of wailing.
Later, Li Yuan looked into the boy’s reading materials and discovered he’d been devouring martial-arts tales like Legends of Heroes. Flipping through them, Li Yuan couldn’t help being reminded of a long, buried past...a phase in his life so dark and so dreaded he never wished to revisit it again—Chuunibyou.[1]
He recalled some of the novels he used to read in his past life. As a father, he had to nip this misplaced heroism in the bud. After thinking it over, he decided to tell Ping’an a heavily abridged version of A Record of Mortal's Journey to Immortality, hoping it might offer a more grounded perspective—even if he could barely remember the plot.[2]
Once his family affairs were more or less settled, Li Yuan turned his mind to another pressing question. Would heading south be a good fallback plan? Though uneasy, he knew he had to explore every possibility before making any final decision. If it didn’t pan out, at least he wouldn’t regret leaving any stone unturned.
That night, lying in bed with Xue Ning, she fretted over their son’s punishment. Li Yuan offered a thorough explanation until she, too, realized she didn’t want Ping’an getting too brave for his own good. Afterward, they moved on to serious matters.
“The relocation is more or less underway,” she said. “A lot of folks have gone with Yan Mu to Silkfloss Province, and even Zhou Jia wanted to go. I let him. It’s been exhausting, running around sorting everything out.”
Li Yuan gently massaged her shoulders from behind.
“Those demon hunters still won’t tell us where their base is,” she added. “They keep claiming they move around constantly, but I think they’re lying.”
“What makes you suspect that?” Li Yuan asked.
“They provide custom orders. If you tell them what kind of demonic beast you need, they’ll go out and bring it back pretty quickly. That means they must have a supply on hand, a warehouse. And if there’s a warehouse, there’s definitely a home base.”
Li Yuan nodded in thought. “Among these hunters, who seems to hold the highest rank?”
Xue Ning rolled her eyes. “None of them. I’ve only met the ones who do the grunt work. Whoever makes the real decisions has never shown up.”
Li Yuan paused for a moment, then murmured, “All right. I’ve got it.”
˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙
That same evening, Li Yuan was whisked away in his dreams to Yan Yu's general store, where he picked up a new pair of human-skin manacles.
The next morning, he launched his plan using money as bait, instructing Xue Ning to place a massive order for demonic beasts...far more than what the black market’s usual stock could handle.
Her subordinates went to the black market, bought every demonic beast in sight, and still claimed, “Not enough! We need more, and we need it immediately!”
Since the demon hunters and Li Yuan’s group had done business together before, there was no particular suspicion. A ninth rank hunter simply rushed south at once to restock, unaware that Li Yuan’s birds were already trailing him from the sky.
As the ninth rank hunter rode off on horseback, Li Yuan called Tang Nian to join him on a carriage at a discreet distance. When the hunter arrived at a remote, deserted settlement the next day, he hurried inside. Soon after, he emerged with a slow-moving ox cart, an iron cage on top holding drugged demonic beasts so lethargic they could barely stay awake. An eighth rank demon hunter came out to meet him, and the two headed back toward Gemhill County.
Li Yuan, unhurried, told his birds to keep a watch on that settlement. He remained in the carriage with Tang Nian and her silent sixth rank puppet. From dusk until dawn, the wild landscape around them stayed eerily still...tall grass not yet sprouting, terrain dry and barren. The little carriage rolled through endless mountains and plains like a lonely speck of dust.
Inside, Tang Nian was quietly sipping wine. She was dressed in white robes, her short hair framing her face. At 18 years old, she was well past girlhood, and Li Yuan didn’t force her to abstain.
“Aren’t you going to ask why I brought you along?” Li Yuan asked.
Propping her chin on her hand, eyes slightly glassy, she smirked. “Pops, your reasons are practically written all over your face.”
She had been calling him Godfather since she was small, but after almost ten years together, she’d grown comfortable enough to speak more casually.
“That obvious?” He chuckled.
“You don’t want me holed up, getting withdrawn again,” Tang Nian said bluntly.
“Even if it’s not just about that, you could use a change of scenery,” Li Yuan agreed.
Tang Nian’s gaze dropped. “Something big is brewing in the county. So many people left your tavern...seems like you’re preparing for something.”
Li Yuan saw no reason to hide the truth and told her about the Holy Tree Temple’s invitation and the threat from the Red Lotus Cult. Hearing the name Silkfloss Province made Tang Nian pause.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
After a moment’s hesitation, she answered frankly, “Silkfloss is where we used to live...”
Li Yuan glanced at the puppet, whom he’d always called Tang Qiu, and jokingly cursed, “That Old Tang sure tricked me. He told me your Tang Family came from some little seaside county. Silkfloss’s all mountains, no ocean in sight.”
Tang Nian spoke in a near whisper. “Pops, my dad wasn’t trying to lie to you. He just must have thought I never knew the truth. He never wanted me going back. And...he’s not actually called Tang Qiu. His real name is Tang Xuan.”
For a while, both godfather and goddaughter fell silent.
1. I debated translating it properly as Eighth-Grader Syndrome, but I guess using the Japanese term is more apt in this context. ☜
2. I...actually have never read RMJI. So, I have no idea what Li Yuan is referencing here. I am interested in the thoughts of readers who did, though! ☜
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢
