My Journey to Immortality Begins with Hunting-Chapter 685 – Four Maids, One Realm - Part 1

Ever since becoming the head of the Tang Sect, Li Yuan found himself suddenly swamped with all kinds of trivial matters.

In the past, this had never happened.

Most of the time, he either stayed hidden in the shadows or played the role of the hands-off leader, never personally handling affairs.

In the distant past, he had been an emperor, but a sickly, bedridden one in name only. It was Xie Wei who truly ran the empire. He’d once been the leader of the Immortal Alliance, but that title was mostly ornamental; he took the resources and left the actual governance to elders of the Immortal Domain.

But that was then. This was now.

Back then, he had to stay low-profile. He had to let the name Li Yuan vanish from the world. So it wasn’t until much later that his name resurfaced, like a monster rising from the deep sea, shocking all who beheld it.

But now? Now, he couldn’t afford to be low-profile. A man who seized mountains and rivers couldn’t be some nameless nobody.

And so, he began managing affairs in earnest.

He took to it with genuine interest and surprising joy, handling the minutiae as if he truly were the patriarch of the Tang Sect. He thought only of the sect’s prosperity, even going so far as to treat it like a budding family enterprise.

No one could guess his real intention. All anyone saw was the brilliant, ambitious new leader of the Tang Sect.

But in truth, what Li Yuan really wanted was to bring his heart back down to earth. And he found a strange comfort in being bogged down by daily responsibilities. It made him feel human again, touched by the dust and din of the mortal world.

He’d had enough of feeling nothing.

The lands and people of the world had passed before him like shadows. He’d walked alone, like a giant stumbling through an unfamiliar city. All he ever heard were the voices of the weak. All he ever saw were passing strangers. He watched others love and grieve, meet and part, but he was never part of any of it.

That kind of life was truly lonely. In the end, the only way to endure it was to embrace a philosophy of supreme detachment, to forget emotion entirely.

But supreme detachment...those words sounded lofty, didn’t they? Strip them down, and what did they really mean? Just a complete shutdown of feeling. Numbness. Self-imposed isolation.

Immortality, Li Yuan believed, required more than just living forever. It required a way to live forever.

He still sought the second rank. He still wanted to live a good life. But at the same time, he had to guard against the mysterious powers lurking behind this new era, waiting to seize control from the shadows.

He had no room for arrogance. In fact, he was currently weaker than the Northern Dipper and Polaris had been at the beginning of the last era.

And yet, look how that turned out. Ants devoured elephants, and snakes swallowed whales. Even monsters like the Northern Dipper and Polaris fell in the end.

In other words, he could very well be taken down in this era too.

He just hadn’t figured out who might be capable of killing him or how. And some part of him couldn’t help but marvel at the idea. Could someone in this new age truly be strong enough to kill him? It was hard to believe. Just as the Northern Dipper, back then, had never imagined that while locked in a death match with Polaris, a nobody would swoop in from nowhere and reap the spoils.

As these thoughts drifted through his mind, Li Yuan looked down at the memorial in front of him.

It was written by a Tang Sect disciple, modeled after the imperial tradition of ministers submitting reports to the emperor.

Li Yuan skimmed it. Hidden among the formalities was a proper letter, one sent on behalf of the Ji Clan.

The memorial spoke in vague terms about the affairs of the Ji Clan, but the real message lay in the attached letter.

The letter had not bypassed the local Tang Sect branch. It had gone through all the proper channels. That alone made it clear. The Ji Clan still respected the authority of the Tang Sect.

In the letter, the Ji Clan’s patriarch expressed his admiration and extended a formal invitation for Li Yuan to visit as a guest.

It was a reciprocal gesture, a reply to the invitation Li Yuan had sent when he succeeded the position of Sect Master and hosted a banquet in celebration. But more than that, it was a subtle maneuver, a political olive branch: an invitation for Li Yuan to begin touring the lands under Tang Sect control.

Decades ago, the Ji Clan, the remnants of the previous royal dynasty, had been like a fish flung from water, barely clinging to life. After fleeing the imperial capital and relocating to Westgorge Province, they still found themselves under heavy surveillance by a powerful general from the Ministry of War.

Back then, almost no one dared to associate with them. The Ji Clan could only swallow their pride and scrape by, keeping their heads low and pretending to be insignificant just to survive.

Everything changed because of a love story.

A young outer disciple of the Ji Clan named Ji Xing had fallen in love with a core disciple of the Tang Sect. He traveled again and again to the mountain to profess his feelings, only to be turned away without even catching a glimpse of the one he loved. But Ji Xing was persistent. He refused to marry anyone else. Year after year, he climbed the mountain and begged the sect master to bless the union.

This went on until Lady Yu took the reins of power.

Lady Yu had ambitions to dominate the martial world. She saw opportunity in Ji Xing’s relentless pursuit. So she granted the match, and in doing so, forged an alliance with the Ji Clan.

At that time, the world still trembled at the memory of Tang Eleven, who cowed both the Emperor and Divine Sovereign with the two blades of Lord Yu. Even though Tang Eleven was no longer able to fight, her reputation alone was still enough to keep enemies at bay.

The Ji Clan, once rulers of the realm, had always claimed the mandate of heaven. Now, through their marriage alliance with the Tang Sect, they activated that dormant authority.

The martial world feared the Tang Sect’s might. But the common people didn’t necessarily accept the sect’s rule as legitimate.

The Ji Clan, however, had legitimacy, and Lady Yu took it from them.

Soon after, the Tang Sect eliminated the powerful general who had been keeping tabs on the Ji Clan. With him gone, there were no more dissenters in the region.

That battle had been a brutal one. At the time, Lady Yu hadn’t yet attained supernatural power, and Tang Eleven was already in the process of burning herself out as fuel to keep Tang Nian alive.

But in the end, the general was killed. The Ji Clan was bound tightly to the Tang Sect from then on, and they played a major role in the sect’s eventual domination.

Once Lady Yu reached transcendence and became a true hegemon, the Ji Clan wisely chose to bow their heads and position themselves as a vassal state.

For an imperial clan to serve a local sect, especially one with ancestral bloodlines that once held the title of Human Emperor, was on paper a disgrace to their forebears. But the Ji Clan clearly no longer cared about such empty pride.

Tang Leyang stood by Li Yuan’s side, casually explaining the historical context.

“The Ji Clan is inviting because they want you to promote your people into key positions. They’re hoping to attach your name to the Ji Clan moving forward, cutting ties with Lady Yu’s legacy and realigning themselves with yours.”

The maid smiled, voice calm and knowing. “New emperor, new court. If the throne changes hands and the ministers don’t...well, disaster isn’t far behind. The Ji Clan knows this. That’s why these old ministers are asking you to come and replace them.”

“...” Li Yuan said nothing, eyes drifting to the next memorial on his desk.

Clearly, the Ji Clan wasn’t keeping their intentions hidden. This was no secret plot. It was an open strategy. A political gambit laid bare, designed to help Li Yuan take control of the Tang Sect’s entire network.

After all, if the Ji Clan was willing to make the first move, which of the other major powers under the Tang Sect would dare hold back now?

The Tang Sect's influence now stretched far and wide, vast and tangled, with quality and loyalty varying wildly throughout. And within such a sprawling structure, it was almost inevitable that spies from rival powers had slipped in unnoticed.

Those rivals, at least the ones showing their faces, included the Divine Dominion of the Western Capital, the Great Zhou of the Jade Capital, the Golden Tent Nomads, and the enigmatic Huyan Clan, who could command terrifying wolf riders.

These powers were spread across the land, from south to north.

The Tang Sect dominated the far south, reigning as undisputed overlord. The Huyan Clan, cloaked in mystery, made their home in the farthest north.

And in between, right at the heart of the continent, sat the other three powers.

Nearly sixty years had passed since those two long blades were once suspended above the heads of the Emperor and Divine Sovereign alike.

Transcendence had emerged. And with it, the undercurrents of unrest now stirred across the realm.

Lady Yu had been the first to step into the realm of the transcendent, but who could say for sure that others hadn’t followed suit in the shadows, somewhere in this boundless land?

After all, Lady Yu had already held that power for over 20 years. Every action she took, every breath, every move, would’ve been quietly observed, studied, analyzed, and likely replicated behind closed doors by other forces.

She may have been obsessive. But was she really the only obsessive one in the world?

Yes, the path of receiving the blessing of Heaven and Earth to break through was unimaginably difficult. But in the end, it was still just a thin membrane. Once pierced, it could all fall into place in an instant.

And the method to enter this new era of transcendence? It was written clearly at the very end of the Human Emperor Martial Canon, a copy of which every major faction without exception had obtained by now.

Li Yuan wasn’t arrogant. He wasn’t reckless. If he were, he’d have died in the last era before it even truly began.

True, he could unleash his true form, become a walking apocalypse, a living nuclear weapon, capable of razing the world.

But if he did that, he’d need to go into hibernation afterward. And it was during such slumber that chaos and power shifts could erupt unchecked. Just like in the past, when the Northern Dipper devoured the Southern Dipper, and Polaris consumed Valley Obscura, the two titans reached a deadlock, only for him to suddenly emerge and claim the prize while they were caught in their struggle.

So as far as Li Yuan was concerned...if sleep could be avoided, it should be.

He gazed at the memorial in his hand for a long while, then gently set it down and picked up the next one.

This one was much like the letter from the Ji Clan, but it had been submitted by the Tang Sect’s Southriver Division, accompanied by a supporting message from a group called the Hundred Sword Sect.

The Hundred Sword Sect had been formed by taking the old Eight Swords faction—originally part of the legendary martial world alliance known as the Seven Blades, Eight Swords, and Nine Hidden Sects—and merging it with various sword-wielding families who had since sworn loyalty to the Tang Sect.

The result was a hodgepodge alliance of swordsmen, their backgrounds and loyalties as varied as the swords they carried. This submission was clearly meant to echo the Ji Clan’s gesture, another sign of allegiance, offered in a wave of public support.

Li Yuan’s rise to power had been explosive and undeniable. His strength terrified them all. No one could afford to ignore him now.

Otherwise, he’d still be wracking his brain over how to consolidate his subordinates or assert authority in front of them. But the fear he inspired had already done that work for him.

He studied the memorial from the Hundred Sword Sect for a while, then suddenly asked, “Have we located the Swift Sword, Liu Long?”

Tang Leyang answered, “We have. Liu Long is the young lady of the Liu Clan in Southriver. She's quite famous in the region now, known for her talent. Despite her age, she’s already a consecrated swordmaster in the Hundred Sword Sect.”

Then she fell silent.

Li Yuan glanced at her. “Are you going to report all of this to Lady Yu?”

Tang Leyang bit her lip gently, then murmured, “You know...if a man wants a woman to shut up, it’s actually very easy.”

She paused briefly, thinking back on what she had gleaned about Li Yuan’s temperament. He wasn’t the kind of man who delighted in cruelty or bloodshed, that much she was sure of. And so, with a sudden motion, she dropped to her knees and declared, “The four of us sisters are willing to give everything to the Sect Master. From this day forward, our lives are yours, to live or die by your side.”

Li Yuan turned his head slightly and looked at the young woman kneeling before him.

Her long black hair flowed down her back. A sheer, pale green veil clung to her fair skin, hinting at the curves beneath. Her figure, while not as commanding as Lady Yu’s, radiated a vibrant health honed through years of cultivation.

She had long served in the inner court as a personal attendant to Lady Yu. That experience had imbued her with a graceful poise, the kind that came from knowing when to advance and when to yield, how to read the room, and how to survive within it.

But layered beneath that polished composure was something darker, a shadowy edge that suggested ruthlessness and calculation. If it weren’t for the soft hue of her clothes lending her a bit of warmth, she would’ve looked every bit the cold-hearted femme fatale.

That, however, was just the mask she wore outside.

Here before Li Yuan, she was simply a woman. A woman with ambitions. A woman who understood that if she could just draw closer to this man, she might catch a sliver of the extraordinary, might climb higher than her station should allow.

In exchange, she and her sisters would fully bind themselves to him.

As for Lady Yu, she was just the previous master, nothing more. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Li Yuan continued to study Tang Leyang, the woman known as Joy of the Four Poisons.

The four maids, Joy, Anger, Sorrow, and Delight, stirred a memory in him. It brought to mind Xue Ning’s four maids who once served him in the distant past, Mei, Lan, Zhu, and Ju.

Of course, the two sets of maids were nothing alike in power, in temperament, in everything.

He closed his eyes, sinking briefly into thought.