My Journey to Immortality Begins with Hunting-Chapter 127 - At the Door to the Life Chronicle, a Dream, a Girl, and a Crow - Part 3

Chapter 127 - At the Door to the Life Chronicle, a Dream, a Girl, and a Crow - Part 3

About a month later.

Biting cold winds howled. This was Li Yuan’s third winter since transmigrating to this world.

That day, a sudden realization swept over him. A surge of exquisite sensation rushed through his body, and one of his two shadow blood pearls abruptly swelled and then split apart, forming separate beads—not many, but enough to begin a rudimentary full-body coverage, creating a simple shadow blood veil.

Checking his status window, Li Yuan saw—

NEW! Unnamed Cultivation Technique - Rank 8 (1/300)

He wasted no time, immediately pouring in 299 points. Instantly, a flood of strange but distinctly personal memories tore through his mind.

Cultivation, after all, meant repeating breakthroughs. Compressing his blood, ingesting flesh and blood, constantly intensifying the pressure—yet surviving it.

In the next moment, his self-created unnamed technique hit peak eighth rank.

Within him, the shadow blood beads expanded again, splitting into even more droplets that coursed throughout his bloodstream. Occasionally, they collided with his bones, only to bounce away, unable to fuse.

He picked up his Dragon-Fanged Spear and took note of his overall combat power—305~705!

“I’ve already surpassed General Mammoth. But that 705 definitely requires me to ignite all the shadow blood droplets at once to achieve it.”

Sensing the tension in his body, Li Yuan realized that unleashing all his shadow blood beads in one go would cause recoil. He’d likely be injured and left weakened afterward. Definitely not something to use lightly.

“Next up is seventh rank. But that requires swapping out the shadow bones. Normally, you can’t replace it. However, since three types of shadow blood can coexist within me, why not?”

After immersing himself in the Spirit-Release Technique for so long, Li Yuan knew the standard method for advancing to seventh rank and planned to combine it with the Earthfire Roaming Technique.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Another month or so passed.

Caught up in cultivation, Li Yuan seldom ventured outside. He shut out the outside world, devoting himself to training. The emotion spurring him on was, to his surprise, fear. He felt unsafe. This world gave him no sense of security. Whether it was the ghost domain or the Central Plains, both loomed like enormous mountains over him.

One day, a violent tremor coursed through his body, an indescribable shudder of pain. Li Yuan sensed what was happening. He rushed to the inner residence, his expression gentle as he gazed at Yan Yu, who was cuddling their daughter to sleep and at Xue Ning feeding their son.

“Yan Yu, Xue Ning, I’m heading to the secret chamber to break through. Don’t worry about me.”

As soon as he said this, his heart gave a loud thud, and it felt as though a blade was slicing into his bones. Despite the agony, he forced a smile, acting nonchalant for the sake of his wives and children, refusing to show any sign of suffering.

He had never experienced the pain of exchanging shadow blood with a new type—his multiple shadow blood types coexisted. But...no one in this world had ever faced the possibility of replacing shadow bones.

If that replacement was happening, the pain would be unimaginable.

Xue Ning had no idea, but Yan Yu observed him closely.

“We’ll be here waiting for you,” she said.

Xue Ning also coaxed her baby, the little Ping’an, saying, “Say goodbye to Daddy.”

Ping’an cried out, “Waah!”

She waved his tiny hand. “Say, ‘Go, Daddy, go!’”

The boy just bawled, “Waa waa waa!”

Yan Yu glanced down. In her arms, her eldest daughter slept quietly. Aside from crying a little at birth, the child rarely fussed, wearing a little smile most of the time, as if innately calm. But anyone with sense would know that if your whole world was darkness, you wouldn’t be so quiet. The thought pained Yan Yu.

Lately, she’d been having strange dreams again, always returning to that eerie little house. The sun outside the window was so near it could scorch one’s soul with its blazing light. By the window stood a white-clothed figure, hair hanging limply as if immersed in dead water, surreal and unsettling, yet not frightening to her.

In the dream, she couldn’t move or speak. But this time, a tiny hand clutched hers. The baby girl, still swaddled, stood there in the dream, giggling in her sweet baby voice. It melted her heart.

The door closed softly.

Li Yuan hurried into the inner chamber and locked it from inside. He collapsed to the floor in pain, tore off his clothes, stuffed a piece of fabric in his mouth, and let out a muffled, anguished roar.

The legendary Guan Yu had once scraped poison from his bone; this felt like a hundred blades slicing Li Yuan’s bones over and over again, far worse by comparison. Fortunately, his body at peak seventh rank was extremely tough; otherwise, the pain alone might have killed him.

Before long, blood started oozing from his body. At times, it merely trickled; at others, it spurted in thin lines. Inside the sealed chamber, the young man lifted his head to the sky and howled in agony.

“Aghhh! GAHHH!”

He understood he was undergoing a complete bone replacement. To replace the bone, it first had to be flayed.

This path was one he had chosen himself. Better to endure the pain in a secret room than suffer it unprepared somewhere else.

BAM! He slapped the ground, sending blood splattering. Rolling over, he forced himself into a seated position, crossing his legs in a dignified posture. His entire body spasmed, and he tried to distract himself from the pain by focusing his thoughts elsewhere.

So he told himself, It’s not me who hurts; it’s this chamber that hurts. It’s not me. I’m not in pain.

But as he repeated it, the idea evolved into, Heaven and I are one. If I hurt, then the world hurts.

Then further still, All creation is mine. The lightning in the sky, the fire in the earth, the raging sea. These are simply normal occurrences. Why speak of pain?

Yet no matter how he rationalized, the real pain cut through his thoughts. Li Yuan cursed, “Damn it!” and continued muttering his make-believe pain-transference method.

The torment lasted three full days and nights before it finally subsided. By then, the cross-legged youth was soaked in blood. Not only blood, but fragments of bone littered his body.

He had truly been scraped raw. Now his new shadow bones belonged to his unnamed technique rather than his old Spirit-Release Technique. But the worst had passed.

Li Yuan lifted a trembling hand to wipe away the blood from his eyes, then checked his status window. In his techniques list, he saw—

NEW! Unnamed Cultivation Technique - Rank 7 (1/500)

He immediately dumped in 499 stat points. The next instant, his unnamed technique hit peak seventh rank.

He glanced at his stats. They were unchanged at 305~705. This puzzled him, but a closer look made it clear.

The Spirit-Release Technique shadow bones were gone, so the corresponding power had also disappeared. Others couldn’t replace their shadow bones; even though Li Yuan could, it didn’t mean he’d reap any further advantage.

“Well, that’s fine. This will do.

“Next is the life chronicle. This time, I’m going to draw out the life chronicle stroke by stroke.

“But first, I need to recover.”

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

A couple weeks later.

Li Yuan emerged once more. He sat on a stone step while a heavy snowfall blanketed the entire scene in white silence. Snow piled high, muffling all sounds.

Tap, tap, tap... A gentle, tapping noise broke the stillness.

Glancing sideways, Li Yuan saw Yan Yu beneath the eaves, supporting Sheng’er as she tried to walk. The baby girl gripped a small, adorable cane, and that tapping sound was the sound of it striking the ground.

“Yan Yu, Sheng’er...”

He walked over and crouched in front of the three-month-old child. She had only taken a couple of steps when she tipped forward, her plump little hand smacking against Li Yuan’s face. Losing her balance, she clutched at Li Yuan’s head.

He chuckled and scooped her up.

All of a sudden, a strange feeling came over him. Turning his head, he spotted a crow perched on a branch in the swirling snow, watching him intently. Where had it come from?

Li Yuan stiffened, about to hand the child back to Yan Yu, when the crow hopped down from the branch and landed in front of him. Now he could see it clearly. Its pupils had a bizarre, chaotic look, and hovering above its head were the numbers 0~3.

It was no ordinary crow.

Li Yuan tried to communicate, cooing, “Caw? Caw?”

The crow cawed, “Aba ababa....”

“Huh?” Li Yuan was bewildered.

Then the crow hopped onto his shoulder, then onto Sheng’er’s shoulder, tilting its head at him alongside the child. The crow’s eyes were wild with madness, while the baby’s eyes were milky-white glass. Together, they formed an odd, mysterious pair.

Li Yuan gaped at Yan Yu. She stared back, equally shocked. Then both turned their gaze toward the child.

Squatting down, Yan Yu gently held the baby.

“Sheng’er,” she asked softly, “can...can you control that crow?”

The crow squawked, “Ababa, aba, baba, aba...”

Li Yuan asked, “C-can you see your father and mother?”

The little girl giggled happily, as if delighted.

Xue Ning appeared in the distance, carrying her own child. She hadn’t noticed the crow and called out, “Yan Yu, your Sheng’er can already walk a few steps, huh? That’s much better than my Ping’an.”

“Waah! Waaah! Waah!”

Suddenly, Ping’an started crying, and Xue Ning hurried to calm him.

Li Yuan’s expression shifted. He said quietly to Yan Yu, “We should tell Xue Ning about this at some point, but no outsiders can know.”

He gently raised the little girl’s hand, unsure if she understood him, and stressed again, “Don’t let anyone else find out.”

The crow answered, “Aba, aba!”

Li Yuan had never encountered anything like this. What had caused his firstborn daughter to possess such a strange power?

That night, Sheng’er slept in the innermost spot. Li Yuan lay on the outer edge, hugging her mother. Pressing against Yan Yu’s warm body, he asked, “Yan Yu, have you noticed anything unusual? I suspect Sheng’er’s eyes and her abilities are connected.”

Yan Yu pondered. “Dreams. I keep having that same dream about the little house and the figure in white at the window. I only see her back, and I can’t move or speak. Judging by her long hair, I think she’s a woman.”

“Anything else?” Li Yuan asked after a moment’s thought.

She continued, “Sheng’er appears in the dream, too. She’s holding my hand and giggling, not frightened at all.”

Li Yuan was silent for a while. Then he said, “If anything feels off, tell me immediately.”

She nodded gently, snuggling closer to her husband. After a moment, she turned and put an arm around the sleeping baby girl. Li Yuan embraced them both.

He didn’t play favorites. He alternated nights between Yan Yu and Xue Ning. As for his daughter’s odd changes, he could only wait and see.

For now, it didn’t seem dangerous. If anything, the mystery only fueled his drive to become stronger. With enough strength, many problems could be solved, and he’d find answers to many mysteries.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

The next morning.

He began studying how to create his own life chronicle. Such study required hypotheses and experiments. From creating his own technique, Li Yuan had concluded one simple assumption. To grow stronger, first he had to have a healthy body, and second, he had to raise his blood pressure.

Basically, his body had to withstand the intense pressure. Since ninth, eighth, and seventh ranks were all about compressing blood to produce a new quality, the life chronicle was likely the next step in that progression.

It probably wasn’t that simple, but it certainly wasn’t wrong to proceed in that direction.

Li Yuan prepared to train in multiple skills to boost his physique and planned to try eating the more potent seventh rank demonic beast meat.

By his calculations, the Red Ant Guild should be arriving again this year.