My Journey to Immortality Begins with Hunting-Chapter 094 – King of Canines - Part 2

That day, Zhao Chunxin lugged the bag of demonic meat back to Li Yuan’s residence, an estate with the number 38, where she waited for him. As soon as he returned at dusk, she rushed over, sack in hand.

“What were you thinking?” she growled. “Why give me all this meat when you need it yourself? Even if you had to share it, you didn’t have to give me everything! Do you have a brain in there? The sect gives you however much, so you give me that same amount. Why?”

Li Yuan just smiled. “Senior Sister, I’ve been focused on demonic beast taming lately. I haven’t even had time to practice my blade. One person can only handle so much on their plate at once, right? Blademanship and taming are two different paths; you can’t excel at both at the same time. The sect master values me, so he gave me this demonic beast meat, but it’s basically going to waste at my place. I’d rather you have it and put it to good use. Help me out here, okay?”

“Help my—!” Zhao Chunxin spat. “Stop it. You need to eat this meat yourself, and you also need to keep training both your taming skills and your blade. Don’t slack off.”

Even as she barked at him, she left the sack behind and stormed out.

Li Yuan watched her retreating figure without saying another word.

The next day, back at Zhao Chunxin’s own residence, Huang Gang hurried over. “Madam Zhao, Young Master Li sent the meat back again. He said if you won’t accept it, you’re not treating him like a true junior brother.”

Zhao Chunxin stood there silently for a long moment. Finally, she turned south, toward Li Yuan’s house, and bowed her head. “Then I won’t send it back this time. Huang Gang, take it to the kitchen. Have them start cooking. I won’t waste my junior brother’s good intentions. I need to reach the seventh rank soon so I can protect him!”

With that, she headed for her training ground, strapped on a heavy set of armor, drew her executioner’s blade, and flared with sanguine energy as she practiced her cuts. Each swing tore the air with a resounding crack. Meanwhile, the smell of cooking meat drifted from the kitchen.

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Later that evening.

In the courtyard of Li Yuan’s residence, petals from the apricot tree drifted in the evening breeze.

Sitting outdoors, Li Yuan sipped hot tea. The Horse Butcher was embedded in the dirt nearby, his Spirit-Release Technique manual sat on the table, and the Wilderness Demon Taming manual lay open in his hands.

He’d been juggling three goals lately—

The first was merging Spring Thunder, Spring Awakening, and Leaping Abyss into a single move.

The second was studying at the replica of the life chronicle in the Spirit-Release Technique manual every day, hoping for new insights.

The third was training Wilderness Demon Taming to the seventh rank.

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Time flashed by, and in about a month and a half, Li Yuan finally saw a transformation in his status window.

NEW! Basic Wilderness Demon Taming - Rank 7 (1/10)

At last, he’d reached the entry level for seventh rank.

Without hesitation, Li Yuan started allocating stat points to the skill. Even when he reached the Master level, he pushed through and maxed it out fully. He could sense the mutations that occurred when taming skills reached full mastery were different from other skills.

Master Wilderness Demon Taming - Rank 7 (160/160)

In a flash, he invested another 309 stat points, leaving himself with 158 stat points.

Once again, a flood of memories gripped him.

Through vivid impressions, he saw himself train endlessly, forging deeper bonds with beasts. With each breakthrough, the demonic beasts at his side grew ever more terrifying. Finally, seventh rank demonic beasts, fearsome entities that once required the utmost caution, now obeyed him like tame dogs.

He felt a profound spiritual link form with them. It wasn’t just a simple taming bond. The demonic beasts became stronger through him, and he gained power from them in return. Even an average man would seem superhuman surrounded by such creatures, while demonic beasts of formidable strength could evolve into something even more dreadful through his influence.

Still...he wanted more. The memory conjured up an image of tiny ants. So he left his demonic beasts once more, wandering into the mountains and encountering colonies of ants.

Patiently, he studied them, tried to dominate them, again and again, never losing heart.

Time in the mountains flowed without measure. He couldn’t tell how long he’d been training when, one day during a drunken stupor, he accidentally succeeded in linking his spiritual bond to an ant.

Ants were different from demonic beasts; they couldn’t handle his power, nor could they lend him any. And yet the spiritual link undeniably existed.

A new mutation arose. The ants couldn’t share strength with him, but they could share some of their senses, allowing him to perceive the world from an incredibly alien angle.

In turn, while he couldn’t grant ants more power, he could grant them his eyes and ears, so the nearly blind insects could suddenly see and hear far more than before.

Li Yuan took a moment to let this realization sink in, a thrilled smile emerging on his face. He jumped to his feet and headed over to an old tree in the courtyard, scattering leftover rice from dinner and grinding it into crumbs at the entrance to an anthill.

He’d intentionally brought three separate ant colonies to his courtyard over the past month, relocating each one so they formed a sort of triangular balance around the garden. As the ants discovered the food, they scurried over to inspect it.

Focusing on one worker ant heading for the crumbs, Li Yuan lowered his gaze and began producing that odd, clicking sound. He was giving it a command to leave the courtyard and head out past the gate. He tried to convey the route via their new spiritual link.

In an instant, that ant veered away from its original path, scuttling off into the distance.

Li Yuan remained seated in the courtyard, yet his vision followed the ant as it roamed farther and farther away.

He saw Auntie Wang washing pots and dishes, watched Xiao Sheng and Niu Niu practicing their exercises, and caught glimpses of the maids gathering firewood and water.

From the ant’s perspective, the world was colossal. The shoes looked like massive towers, and skirts like the drapes of the heavens. Everything had a kind of slow-moving grandeur.

Li Yuan tried adding more ants to the link, but when he reached around 20, his mind felt overstretched. Clearly, that was his limit for controlling them simultaneously.

It’s not enough to gather a wide range of intel at once, he thought, but it’s more than enough for a silent, targeted investigation. For instance...I could spy on the black market.

He paused, then shook his head. No, best not to stir things up there.

Still, the new ability made him quite pleased. Stretching and letting out a contented sigh, he reflected that controlling ants was an unexpected bonus.

Tomorrow, he planned to speak with Tie Sha again about visiting the demonic beasts beneath the sect’s fortress. If all went well, Tie Sha would grant him free access so he could tame each and every demon dog inside.

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The next day at Blood Fury Hall—

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“So you want to head down to see the demonic beasts? You must have made good progress these past two months. Alright, first try to control a ninth-rank blackrock mastiff. Come with me, and I’ll teach you the secret mechanism. After today, you can come and go as you please.”

As Li Yuan anticipated, Tie Sha was quite satisfied with his diligence and growth. They arrived at the small building once more, and Tie Sha revealed how to open the hidden entrance. Last time, he had already opened it in advance.

Inside, the sect master walked straight to the northern corner, crouched down, and rested his hand on one of the bricks. He gave it a slight push, causing it to recede inward, revealing a dark little hole.

“Inside, you’ll find a triangular iron plate. Turn it left once, pause, then left twice more, pause, then right three times. That’s all.”

Before he finished speaking, the faint sound of chain links dragging echoed below, and the trapdoor in the center of the room swung open. One after another, the wall sconces flared to life, illuminating the downward path.

“Go on,” Tie Sha said with a hint of a grin. “Those demonic beasts can be terrifying. Just make sure you don’t let them loose so easily.”

“Thank you for the warning, Sect Master,” Li Yuan replied politely. “I’ll be careful.”

Reassured by his answer, Tie Sha left him to it.

Li Yuan descended the stone stairs alone, each step echoing off the cold walls. The gentle draft made the lamp flames dance and twist, so that his shadow grew, shrank, and distorted in turns.

Soon, he reached the underground hall. He lit a small torch for extra light, turning his gaze on the menacing demonic beasts confined in their cages.

The blackrock mastiffs, oddstrider hounds, and the massive ebony marquises all stirred at his arrival. Some stepped toward the iron bars, their eerie green eyes fixed on him, tails wagging softly with a low, whimpering sound like dogs hoping for favor.