My Journey to Immortality Begins with Hunting-Chapter 602 - Crushing - Part 1

May arrived.

Li Yuan completed compiling a small booklet. He slowly set down his brush, and on the cover, he carefully wrote the words, Dao Heart Jade Seeding.

The contents of this booklet spanned the cultivation technique for advancing from fifth to fourth rank, and then from fourth to third rank..

It was essentially an expanded version of his original Jade Seeding Method, now enriched with additional insights.

Originally, he had intended to write a standalone Dao Heart chapter to explain the fourth-to-third rank transition. But then he realized that the path from fifth to third rank wasn’t fragmented; it was one continuous journey.

So, he returned to the fifth rank section and made some revisions. He wanted each practitioner, from the very beginning of fifth rank, to first discover their true self. To pause, reflect, and not rush forward blindly. If that foundation were solid, the leap from fourth to third rank would become far less turbulent, sparing them the agony of a fractured identity.

It was because crossing the threshold from fourth to third rank was brutally difficult.

To witness the greater self from within the lesser self, how many could truly do it?

Most relied on arcane methods like the secret art steles, using the Heaven within it to leap from their personal wells. But wasn’t that just another path borrowed from others?

From the moment one stepped into sixth rank, the self was no longer truly oneself. And by the time they reached third rank, the self had all but vanished entirely. If cultivation meant erasing yourself completely...then what was the point?

Li Yuan paused in thought. Then he opened the booklet again. Beneath the title, he wrote—

The well is in the heart, and so is Heaven.

When my heart mirrors Heaven’s heart, then I walk the Dao.

Heaven should dwell within each person.

One's spiritual essence should be sought inward, not out.

Every person is a frog at the bottom of their own well.

But Heaven is not outside that well.

To abandon what’s near in pursuit of what’s far.

To forsake the root and chase the branches.

How can one possibly walk the Dao?

When a person’s heart can match the heart of Heaven,

That’s when faith has reached its peak.

And when the body’s strength is pushed to its absolute limit., 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

That’s the moment they can step into the third rank.

Then setting down the book, Li Yuan picked up his brush and began to paint.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

A month passed.

A painting emerged. It depicted a waning moon swallowed by clouds, darkness smothering the heavens, and a landscape brimming with eerie stillness.

Within the painting was a strange and subtle mystery, a breath of the ineffable.

Next to it, Li Yuan wrote Depiction of Light.

Why was it named Light when darkness blanketed the land? Well...that was for future inheritors to comprehend.

He rolled up the painting and placed Dao Heart Jade Seeding into a box, then handed both to Zhen’er.

“Are you leaving, Father?” she asked.

Li Yuan nodded. Then he asked, “Would you like to come with me? To see the scenery within the Eastern Sea... To meet your mother?”

Zhen'er fell silent. She understood all too well that this wasn’t a small decision. Whichever path she chose, the other would be sealed off forever. There would be no second chance.

After a long pause, she said quietly, “I’m a mother too now.”

Li Yuan remembered the strange celestial phenomenon that had suddenly vanished at her birth. Now he looked at the woman before him, already streaked with strands of white hair, and felt a strange sense of dislocation.

“Very well. Then we’ll follow the plan we made before. Your big sister...she’s different. If there’s ever anything you want to say to me, you can pass the message through her.” He nodded. Then he smiled. “How about this? Why don’t you cook something for your father? Once I’m gone, I won’t get to taste your cooking anymore.”

“I only know how to make vegetarian dishes.” Zhen'er said.

Li Yuan chuckled. “Then we’ll eat vegetarian.”

“I’ll get to cooking then.” She smiled and turned for the kitchen.

“Go ahead,” Li Yuan said, then stepped out from the secluded courtyard of the Star Manor.

It was June. The lotus pond was just beginning to show its first buds.

Zhen'er had always loved sitting by that pond to admire the flowers. Even though summer meant swarms of mosquitoes, there was something serene about the broad lotus leaves basking beneath a flawless sky. It was a view that never grew old.

“What a shame the lotuses haven’t bloomed yet...and Ping’an’s already on the way.”

A small crow landed on Li Yuan’s shoulder.

Li Yuan had long been aware of Ping'an’s movements. Not just his, but that of the entire Immortal Domain as well.

But now, unlike the cautious, hidden self he had once been back in Gemhill County, he felt no fear. What filled him now was a boldness, a calm clarity, and a quiet anticipation for what lay ahead.

The old era was drawing to a close. And he was going to seize this whole age and grind it down into a whetstone, forging the final fire and brilliance he needed to reach true completion. Only then would he be ready to step into the new era.

As he felt the little claws on his shoulder, Li Yuan slowly raised his eyes and gazed at a lotus bud that had yet to bloom.

Then suddenly, he smiled. With a gentle lift of his hand, a brilliant lotus flower blossomed out of nowhere atop a leaf that didn’t even have a flower bud moments ago.

It was tightly closed at first, but dazzling in its radiance, like the sun itself pressed into floral form. Then, with a twist of Li Yuan’s fingers, it began to bloom.

Twelve petals unfurled in a slow, spiraling motion, twelve crimson lotuses, blooming all at once.

Floating on the water, they were astonishingly beautiful, stunningly bright, and suffused with an otherworldly divinity. It was the kind of flower that felt... like it shouldn’t even exist in this world.

The little crow wasn’t some clueless creature.

The moment it laid eyes on that lotus, an instinctive shiver ran through it. A deep, nameless fear.

Because those weren’t petals. That wasn’t a flower.

Flowing just beneath the surface of those red petals was a terrifying, boundless power. A storm of force coiled inward, forming a perfect circle, held together in balance so absolute that not a single drop of energy leaked out.

And that was why it looked like a flower.

“What is that, Papa?” the little crow asked cautiously.

Li Yuan let out a sigh. “It’s a power I couldn’t fully complete.”

“Huh?” That was not the answer she had hoped for. The crow had wanted him to explain why the lotus felt so unnervingly dangerous. But instead, he was sighing like an old man full of regret.

“By a stroke of fortune, I managed to blend the power of the Human Soul and Heaven Soul together, and with that fusion, I birthed the 12-Petal Crimson Lotus,” Li Yuan elaborated.

“Sadly, the strength of my Heaven Soul was the weakest link. If it had been stronger, the lotus would have bloomed with even more petals. And beyond that, I have this faint sense...that my Earth Soul could be added to the mix as well. But here in the Central Plains, there’s no Yin energy, let alone spiritual energy, so I haven’t been able to test the theory.”

“Oh...” the crow said softly after a long while. “Then this journey to the Eastern Sea is the perfect chance for you to find the power you need.”

“That’s exactly what I’m hoping for.” Li Yuan nodded.

“So...how do you plan to deal with the people of the Eastern Sea?” the little crow asked. “The Arcane Supreme Sect, Five Spirits Institute, hidden clans, and even the demonic beast...some of them have cultivators who are right at the peak of third rank. They’ve already cast a great net, just waiting for you to swim into it.”

“Honestly, I haven’t thought about them at all lately.” Li Yuan smiled faintly. He tilted his head back and gazed up at the sky. “I’ve been far too absorbed writing Dao Heart Jade Seeding and painting Depiction of Light. I’ve completely forgotten about them.”

He continued, “But I’ve gained a lot through it, too. Teaching really does teach the teacher as well. Whoever said that wasn’t lying. Writing it all down, passing it on to others...it’s made me feel like I’ve broken through something myself.”

“Papa, you’ve been different lately...” the little crow hesitated, then spoke up anyway. “If it were the you from before...you wouldn’t have used your real name. You would’ve quietly helped Zhen’er solve her problem from the shadows. Then, you’d change your appearance, sneak into the Eastern Sea as just another nameless cultivator, and slowly, step by step, rise through the rabble until you reached the top.”

Li Yuan glanced at the numbers floating beside him, 106k~2.353m.

Roughly speaking, that was three times more than before.

Based on the information he’d gathered earlier, he had a rough estimate of the combat power of most peak third rank cultivators, around one million or so.

Sure, that meant he was only about twice as strong as them, maybe just a little more, which frankly wasn’t all that impressive.

A mere 1.3 million more in combat power wasn’t a wide enough margin to justify risking everything like this. It was reckless.

But he didn’t have much time left. If he kept playing it safe, being cautious, lying low...then the great upheaval of Heaven and Earth might arrive before he was ready.

Before that moment came, he needed at the very least to meet the requirements to practice the Life Star Art. Only then would he have another path to fall back on.

He explained his thoughts to the little crow.

The crow tilted its head. “Well, I’m just holed up in the Deathless Tomb. Even if the sky falls, I’ll be fine as long as the tomb holds, I’ve got nothing to worry about.”

Li Yuan chuckled. “It won’t be that bad. Probably just the disappearance of Yin and Yang...the fading of spiritual energy. But it won’t disappear all at once, and suddenly no one can cultivate at all. The environment will shift. Old powers will die out. New ones will rise up.

“All I want is to climb to the peak of this old era, just once. To see this world clearly for what it really is. So I can truly know what I should do next. There are too many things I have to consider. That means I need to know more. So my decisions...don’t lead us down the wrong path.”

Father and daughter chatted for a while longer, then went to join Zhen'er for dinner.

Meng Xingxian showed up too, unashamedly mooching a meal.

By now, Zhen'er had figured out who she really was.

But even so...she still found it hard to believe her own eyes.

The legendary Khatun of the Nine Flames Tribe, a woman who had quietly ruled the Western Extremes for decades, was now here, nonchalantly fighting over food with chopsticks.

And somehow, this ferocious woman...was her sister-in-law.

“You being unable to cultivate? That’s not normal.” Meng Xingxian shot a glance at Zhen'er and said. Then she looked over at Li Yuan and added, “All of Father’s children are ridiculously powerful.”

“I’m the exception.” Zhen'er said calmly.

“Ehhh~? Poor child...” Meng Xingxian let out a soft sigh.

“I don’t mind.” Zhen'er just smiled.

Meng Xingxian rolled her eyes. “What’s good about it? You’re like an insect, barely out in the sun before night falls and you die. You can’t even witness the rise and fall of a dynasty. How can that be called living?”

Zhen'er answered, “In the face of infinity, all things are small. There are insects that don’t understand dusk or dawn, others that can’t tell spring from autumn. Humans live a hundred years, immortals a thousand, gods maybe ten thousand, and before infinity, they’re all the same. My life has been full and happy. I’ve had everything I could wish for. But what about you, Sister-in-law? Can you say the same for yourself? Have you found fulfillment?”

“Of course I’ve had my share of fulfillment, many times over.” Meng Xingxian laughed.

The little crow couldn’t help but cut in, “You call killing off all your husbands one by one fulfilment?”

“They tried to kill me first. Was I supposed to wait around for that?” Meng Xingxian replied without hesitation,

Zhen'er absorbed this brief exchange in silence, but from those few lines alone, she gleaned an overwhelming amount of information. She didn’t quite know what to say, yet her kind heart still prevailed.

“It seems that you’ve had a hard life, Sister-in-law,” she said softly.

Meng Xingxian was used to all kinds of labels, venomous woman, shameless harlot, or more formal ones like Ancestor, Sect Master, Elder, or even Khatun, but never had anyone called her that.

“Huh?” she softly exclaimed and gave Zhen'er a curious look. Sensing only genuine warmth in her words, she cracked a rare, unguarded smile. Then she turned to the little crow and grinned, “Your little sister is way better than you.”

With that, she stood and scooped up another bite of rice.

After all this time living idly, she’d actually put on a little weight.

When she finished off another large bowl of rice, Meng Xingxian turned to Zhen'er and said, “Little Sis, since Father left you the cultivation technique to pass down...how about...”

She paused briefly, then smiled. “How about you take on one more inheritance, help pass down mine too?”

“Why can’t you do it yourself?” Zhen'er blinked.

“Because once I leave for the Eastern Sea, I don’t plan on coming back,” Meng Xingxian replied. “I’ve made my plans. I haven’t given up. But I’m not sure I’ll be one of the people who makes it into the new world. You, though...you have a real chance.

You’re right, whether a person lives a hundred years, a thousand, or ten thousand, they can’t escape mortality. What we’re really after is fulfillment. And in that...you’ve already surpassed me.”

Zhen'er’s expression turned solemn. “Then I’ll make sure your teachings live on.”

Meng Xingxian smiled. “It’s called The Beast King Sutra. It was once...well, never mind all that. I’ll write it down for you.”

After a moment’s thought, she pulled something from her pocket, a beast’s tooth, about the size of a knuckle, sealed in a glossy amber of beeswax.

She placed it gently in Zhen'er’s hand. “Keep this with you. If you ever find yourself walking through a tide of demonic beasts, they won’t harm you. And if you ever need help...just touch one of the beasts and speak your thoughts aloud. It’ll understand.”