My Journey to Immortality Begins with Hunting-Chapter 592 – Reunion - Part 1

It was early winter. A light snow covered the Central Plains.

A total of 13 years had passed since the death of the Human Emperor. Yet in that short span of time, the imperial throne in the Central Capital had changed hands once again, and all the once-glorious flourish of the martial world had been scrubbed away.

A convoy of ox carts rolled along the road, surrounded by mounted guards. The carts jingled with hanging bells, hauling trade goods from distant lands. Pedestrians hurried aside, then gathered at a safe distance to whisper and point, speculating about the origins of the wares.

“Just mundane jewelry,” Meng Xingxian said from the driver’s seat, barely sparing the carts a glance.

Inside the carriage, Ying Zhuoyao tilted her head. “How can you tell?”

She was asking on behalf of Li Yuan.

After all, with her master present, it wouldn’t be proper for him to speak up for something so trivial. Even if he knew the answer, it made sense for her to ask. That was her role.

Ying Zhuoyao knew her place well. She was to be her master’s eyes, his voice, his hands, whatever he needed.

Meng Xingxian shrugged. “I guessed.”

“You guessed?”

“If this were before, I could’ve linked to the ox and skimmed through its short-term memory. But this land’s completely devoid of Yin energy now. My powers don’t work anymore.”

As she spoke, she glanced at the oxen pulling the carts.

Originally, they’d used direwolves. But not long after passing through Sword Mountain Pass, they’d swapped to horses.

It was bound to happen sooner or later anyway. After all, Li Yuan couldn’t just waltz into the capital riding a wolf carriage, an icon of the Nine Flames Tribe. That’d be like strolling in with a sign telling everyone he was an enemy.

So the wolf carriage became a horse-drawn one. And Meng Xingxian, who had previously controlled the direwolves with a wisp of Yin energy, now had to take the reins herself.

Meanwhile, Han Feng had fallen into deep slumber.

In this place, drained of all Yin energy, she could only curl up within Li Yuan’s soul, unreachable and unawake.

Since leaving the Western Extremes, since seeing all those new lands, it seemed the Wolfmother had begun to remember.

Li Yuan noticed something shift in her eyes. That once-sacred gleam of walking with the gods had faded, replaced by a quiet, searching confusion.

Sometimes, she would lift a corner of the carriage curtain and gaze out at the sun, at villages flying past in reverse, at the twilight sky. She would watch for a long, long time. Who knew what she was trying to recall?

They were all like this, these jade husk children. The Wolfmother was relatively lucky, just a stray picked up along the way. But the truly unfortunate ones were people like Peng Mingyi and Ying Zhuoyao.

Peng Mingyi had chosen to leave after learning the truth. He turned to farming, to penance, to a quiet life.

As for Ying Zhuoyao, Li Yuan didn’t believe for a second that she had been sleepwalking through these past years. She had moments of clarity. Surely, she knew. And yet, even awake, she chose to stay. She clung to life with ferocious desperation. Death terrified her beyond reason. After losing the Northern Dipper, her former master, she devoted herself entirely to pleasing Li Yuan.

He reached over and ruffled the woman’s hair.

Ying Zhuoyao, like a pampered cat, leaned into his hand and purred. Her soft, flirtatious gaze shimmered, docile, inviting, and ready to be picked.

Inside the carriage, silence reigned.

Then suddenly, commotion outside broke the quiet.

A guard’s voice rang out, sharp and suspicious. “Missy, you don’t have a travel permit? Speak up, are you one of those mountain bandits trying to sneak in?”

Just as the words left his mouth, the curtain lifted. Li Yuan handed a booklet to Meng Xingxian.

If they were entering the Central Capital, naturally he’d done his homework along the way.

And travel permits? He could easily forge one.

The guard squinted at the document, clearly looking for any excuse to pick it apart. But no matter how hard he stared, everything checked out. Still, when his eyes landed on the beautiful woman holding the reins, he couldn’t help feeling indignant, as if letting her pass would be some kind of personal loss.

Seeing that the origin listed was from another province and that her status was merely that of a commoner, one guard’s eyes gleamed with a plan. His voice turned harsh.

“Pull over to the side. Wait here for a moment.”

Without another word, he turned and jogged off toward a small garrison building behind the gate.

This was his shot at making a name for himself.

The powerful clans in the Central Capital were constantly finding new ways to flaunt their status. The year before last it was cricket fights, last year it was courtesans, and this year? Competing to see who could snatch the prettiest commoner girl off the street.

Once, there had been someone from the Prince of Star’s household to keep them in check. But now? Restraint had vanished. The nobles treated the entire land as their private playground.

Whether it was land or women, if it was here, it was theirs.

The commander on duty happened to be some distant relative of the Emperor’s cousin. And that distant relative knew exactly how to butter up the local young lordling. The guard, in turn, had to curry favor with his commander.

And that woman driving the cart? Just one glance had made his skin itch. A night with her would be better than immortality. She’d be the perfect gift to win over his boss, who would then pass her on to the noble heir.

Excuses? Who needed a real reason? With bandits running wild in the region, who could say she wasn’t a spy? And why would the bandits send a spy? Who cared? That wasn’t his job to figure out.

But the moment the guard ran off, Li Yuan quietly followed his presence with a flicker of spiritual sense. Before long, he heard cries from a woman in the barracks, along with the oily voices of men murmuring.

“Now don’t panic, sweetheart. If you’re no bandit, we’ll find out soon enough.”

In an instant, Li Yuan understood everything, and his expression cooled.

A whisper of power stirred from his domain, lifting dust from the ground and condensing it midair into the shape of a hand. With a soft whap, it slapped the back of the guard’s head.

The man let out a muffled grunt, collapsed unconscious, and slumped sideways into the moat. He never resurfaced.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

A little while later.

“We’ve been waiting long enough. Are you letting us in or not?” Meng Xingxian called out.

The remaining guard snapped, irritated, “What’s the rush? Got something to hide, do you? Just wait!”

Meng Xingxian shot him a glare.

But the guard, clearly used to throwing his weight around, sneered back with a mocking tone. Then, he drew his sword with a theatrical wave.

Li Yuan casually flicked a gold ingot through the air. It landed with a clink.

The guard caught it, eyes gleaming with greed. After a beat, he huffed and backed down.

“Fine,” he muttered. “Wait quietly.”

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Even later.

While the remaining guard was inspecting travel permits from other travelers, he lost his patience. He drew his sword again, ready to intimidate someone trying to enter the capital.

But before he could even finish the motion, a terrible force wrapped around him like an invisible net.

With a smooth, fluid gesture, as if guided by invisible strings, he raised the sword to his own throat and drew it across.

The sword cut deep. Blood gushed out in choking spurts. The guard collapsed heavily to the ground, eyes wide, frozen in the raw terror of his final moment.

Chaos erupted at the gate.

Screams and shouts mingled into a frantic uproar. In the distance, more patrol guards were rushing toward the scene.

Li Yuan tapped lightly on the carriage window. His voice was calm, almost lazy, “Let’s go.”

Meng Xingxian flicked the reins and the carriage rolled forward, passing through the gate.

She adjusted her hat and pulled down a veil over her face, suddenly aware that her looks might be more trouble than they were worth. Glancing at Li Yuan, she said softly, “I’m sorry, Young Master.”

“No need. I wanted you to show your face, anyway.” Li Yuan replied.

However, a chill had settled in his heart. 13 years...it had only been 13 years since he’d last visited the Central Capital.

Had the capital really fallen this far?

Sheng'er had told him many stories about what the Central Capital had become. But hearing about it was one thing. Seeing it with his own eyes was something else entirely.

Once, this had been the heart of the empire, a place of order, where martial prestige flourished and discipline reigned.

Now it was a cesspit of corruption and cruelty. Thugs in armor bullying the weak. Greed written on every face. Even lowly gatekeepers were woven into the rot of power and profit.

He remembered one story in particular.

A general from the prestigious Wen Clan had wanted a promotion. But promotions required merit. So he took a unit of soldiers and wiped out a small village, declaring it a den of violent bandits. A pure fabrication. Everyone knew the Wen and He Clans were closely allied. Even those who saw through the lie said nothing. The general got his promotion.

The Emperor this year was barely 12 years old. A child, eyes blindfolded, nothing more than a puppet on the throne.

What Sheng'er had seen was likely only a fraction of the full decay. Who knew how much filth remained hidden?

In the past, Li Yuan might’ve taken this as just another opportunity to clean house while passing through.

But things were different now.

Zhen'er seemed to be pushing back against the aristocracy’s grip. And behind her, there was a small group of principled officials, the last of the Clear Stream. They wanted to make a difference. But their power was tiny, almost negligible.

Still, Li Yuan remembered the Human Emperor. He had used the Emperor. And the Emperor had allowed himself to be used willingly.

Even setting aside blood ties between father and son, that alone was a debt owed.

Li Yuan wasn’t about to stand by and watch the golden age Ji Hu built get eaten alive by maggots.

He had insisted on entering through the main gate because he wanted to see the truth of the Central Capital for himself. He hadn’t expected that truth to slap him in the face before he even got past the threshold.

That guards could ogle a woman and then run off to report to their superiors just so they could find some absurd excuse to claim her.

He wouldn’t have blinked at that kind of conduct in some backwater town, but this was the very heart of the Great Zhou.

“This is the Central Capital,” he murmured darkly. Then, he looked at Meng Xingxian and said, “Take us to the Star Manor.”