My Journey to Immortality Begins with Hunting-Chapter 745 – A Gourd from Beyond, Tilting Worlds into a Lake - Part 1

Chapter 745 – A Gourd from Beyond, Tilting Worlds into a Lake - Part 1

Another winter came and went.

Li Yuan returned from the stars once more.

This time, he still hadn’t found a trace of the Hall of Life, but he did come across something remarkable. Floating out near the edge of the expanse, a distance so vast it took his voidship eighty years to cross, he saw a stellar wreckage.

But these were no ordinary meteorites scattered across empty space. These remnants were dense and cold, not fragments of stone but cores, the very hearts of stars.

Li Yuan remembered that star cores like these were never found exposed. They normally fused into monstrous celestial bodies, never lying around like discarded seeds.

Curious, he tested them, and stopped cold.

These cores...they felt eerily familiar. The same aura as the material from the ancient halls. The same as that from the Deathless Tomb.

That led, naturally, to a chilling question.

Could a world like the realm of reincarnation truly have formed on its own?

His thoughts swirling, Li Yuan reappeared at the rear of Everpeak. In his hand was a black, spherical stone. It was no larger than an infant, but unimaginably heavy and exuding a frigid stillness. With his World Sealing Armanenting Creation, he could craft a weapon that could anchor worlds.

He decided to test the waters. See what kind of artifact a single star core could yield.

Meanwhile, the mortal world had entered a golden age. Compared to centuries ago, peace truly reigned. Smiles lit the faces of common folk, and martial cultivators brimmed with virtuous strength, pursuing their paths with vigor.

But they had no idea.

No one could see that beyond the Ancestral Land, the vast starry sky had become a graveyard.

The Ancestral Land was just the last surviving island of life in a cosmic cemetery.

While Yan Yu busied himself reconstructing the fabric of the world, Li Yuan was planning an escape.

If, one day, the universe itself began to fail, could he sever his ties to it and sail into the endless, mysterious voidveil aboard his voidship.

A voidship couldn’t carry many. But it could carry worlds.

These new worlds, when launched into the voidveil, might encounter unspeakable dangers. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

But Li Yuan had a plan. If he could seed enough worlds, each equipped with their own anchoring artifacts, then when danger came, he could sacrifice the outer ones like discarded limbs, shields to buffer the blow.

At the heart of it all, a core world filled with mountains and rivers and bound tightly to the voidship could survive.

And so, fleeing the universe became something else entirely, escaping a flood by setting sail before the waters rose.

The idea was the same. But the power needed was on a whole other scale.

Fortunately, Li Yuan now had that power.

"First, I’ll need a forge," he muttered.

He scanned the Everpeak. It was just an ordinary range. If he dared forge a world-anchoring artifact here using World Sealing Armament Creation, the backlash would almost certainly trigger disasters, earthquakes, landslides, worse.

"Next is the fire."

Ordinary flames forged ordinary weapons. But to create a weapon capable of anchoring worlds? That demanded a true flame, a great flame.

And once that kind of flame was unleashed, the surrounding area would be engulfed in blazing Yang energy. Any living creature nearby would likely be roasted alive, then charred into ash.

"Then comes the matter of lifespan."

The World Sealing Armanent Creation skill made it clear. Feeding lifespan into a world-anchoring weapon could elevate it to a whole new level. The creator of this skill had once walked the path with his body, offering up his own lifespan to forge a single artifact, just so he could pass it on to another peak second rank powerhouse, someone capable of patching the Heavens.

That memory now belonged to Li Yuan.

And alongside the shock of it, he came to understand just how desperate, how terrifying the situation must have been in that bygone age of gods and immortals, when peak second rank beings roamed the land like stars in the sky.

If it hadn’t been an absolute catastrophe, why would those mighty beings sacrifice themselves one after another just to repair the Heavens?

All of it, it seemed, had started with the Great Shattering.

The Great Shattering didn’t just break the Heavens, punching a hole right through the sky, it shattered everything. Starkin were driven to devour each other, fighting to survive. All were trying to leap free, using the Ancestral Land as their final springboard.

Would the world have been better if the Great Shattering had never happened?

That idle thought passed like a drifting cloud. Li Yuan focused again on the matter at hand, the forging.

“In the past, I had the Ghost Hammer and Northern Dipper Hammer...but those are long gone.”

He paused, then said to himself, “But Yan Yu will have one.”

Now, Yan Yu had fused her body into the Underworld itself, just as Polaris had once fused with the Dragon Vein.

Polaris couldn’t leave the Dragon Vein, because he was the Dragon Vein.

And now, Yan Yu couldn’t leave the Underworld either because she was the Underworld.

Still, if anyone had some kind of hellish tool capable of converting lifespan into power, it’d be her.

"As for the location..." Li Yuan thought for a moment, then murmured, “The Outer Region, or maybe the Black Buddha Realm”

The Black Buddha Realm was a fragile world propped up by a jet-black buddha statue. That statue was its world anchor.

But the world itself? Too unstable.

After some thought, Li Yuan settled on the Outer Region.

Having made up his mind, he stowed the star core, turned, and climbed to the summit of the Everpeak. He stood at the edge of the forbidden grounds behind the main temple, let out a wisp of his aura, then looked down at the mountain below.

The Everpeak was no longer the humble place it had once been, back when it was just a row of simple wooden lodges tucked into the woods.

After all, it had been more than a hundred years since Li Yuan had dragged Wu Mei up this mountain.

Now, elegant towers and ornate pavilions rose along the slopes. Painted beams, carved pillars, gleaming jade rooftops. Wherever the eye fell, the Everpeak had grown into a secluded yet sprawling sanctuary, a true hidden power.

A long staircase wound its way down the mountain. Here and there, one could glimpse young disciples with blades strapped to their backs moving purposefully to and fro.

Farther down, ox carts rolled in, some bringing supplies bought from beyond the mountain, others carrying noble guests and powerful officials who had come to pay their respects.

At the foot of the mountain, the atmosphere was electric. A crowd had gathered, bustling with energy, and amidst the din, one could faintly hear announcements like:

“So-and-so, reached ninth rank in seven months, excellent.”

“So-and-so, one year to reach ninth rank, passable.”

“So-and-so, still not at ninth rank after more than a year, disqualified. Memory to be wiped, and returned to the mortal world.”

Then came the reactions, teenage boys and girls, some grinning ear to ear, others sighing in defeat, still others clenching their fists, unwilling to accept the outcome.

Those selected couldn’t hide their joy, no matter how hard they tried. Their faces beamed, as if the path ahead was paved in gold, as if from this moment on, they were no longer ordinary people.

Li Yuan stood watching these children, and for a fleeting moment, memories of his own youth stirred within him.

Compared to him, these kids were starting from a much higher rung.

He shook his head with a smile.

It was a shame, really. At this very moment, if he didn’t wish to be seen, then no one on all of the Everpeak could see him. Not even with the most powerful skills or clairvoyant spells.

Suddenly, a whimsical thought crept into his heart.

What if he turned himself into a youth, who had travelled from a far off land, seeking to join the sect on the Everpeak and take part in the entrance trials alongside these youths?

Then, at just the right moment, he could reveal a hint of his strength, become the mountain’s rising star, outshine his fellow disciples, and earn the title of Senior Brother whispered in admiration.

He could descend once more into the bustle of the mortal world. Live a century of carefree days. Then one day, wander off into the distance again.

In that stretch of time, he’d make new friends. Maybe meet a woman who’d become dear to him.

He could quiet this weary heart of his, let go of caution and restraint. For once, ride with the wind in bright robes, be bold and unrestrained, live out a chapter of youthful recklessness, just to unwind.

And wasn’t that the true joy of eternal youth?

Especially for someone who constantly wandered the starry seas, forever brushing against silence and solitude, such a fantasy felt like a heady drink, and he could almost taste the sweetness on his lips.

It reminded him of a myth from his pre-transmigration world, Zeus.

But Zeus never seemed interested in actually living among mortals. He just seduced them. Honestly, Li Yuan sometimes wondered if Zeus wasn’t just a dressed-up version of that infamous scoundrel Cao Cao.

He wasn’t about to become some Cao-like rogue. But still, he thought, couldn’t he meet those people with a shred of sincerity? Friends. Maybe even a wife?

Li Yuan mused on the idea for a long while.

He realized that this wasn’t something he could figure out just by thinking.

“I’ll forge the world-anchor first,” he murmured. “Then check on Ping’an’s whereabouts. After that, we’ll see.”

Just then, a voice called out respectfully behind him.

“Greetings, Master.”

Li Yuan turned his head. The man bowing beside him was the very image of celestial grace. He was refined with a blade on his back and his hair tied in a scholar’s crown. It was Wang Yunzhi.

As expected, Wang Yunzhi had eventually taken Li Yuan as his master. Over the past 80 years, he and Wu Mei had trained diligently on the Everpeak. They later opened the sect’s gates, welcoming new disciples, and that was how the Everpeak had grown into the thriving force it was today.

Over the course of 80 years, plus the occasional guidance from Li Yuan, Wang Yunzhi had advanced from a humble seventh rank to fourth rank. On top of that, his cultivation in the Qi of the Mountains and Rivers had reached the Greater Insight Realm.

Following in the footsteps of pioneers is always easier than blazing the trail yourself.

Thanks to its ties with the Bladeseekers, the Everpeak maintained friendly relations with the Church of Light. Many elite disciples now qualified annually to participate in the royal bestowal ceremony, which allowed them to pay tribute to the mountains and rivers, and gain access to the Church of Light’s teachings.

Normally, a powerful organization like the Church of Light would guard its secrets tightly. But Li Yuan had long broken with that tradition in the name of prosperity for all under heaven.

Besides, the Church of Light’s path was rooted in benevolence. Those trained in its methods often walked the true righteous path.

Of course, such wide dissemination came with a downside, a scarcity of true insight.

But that, Li Yuan figured, could be dealt with later.

“Mei’er is in closed-door cultivation,” Wang Yunzhi reported. “She’s found deep connections between the Sutra of Light and Diagram of Light, which is key to reaching third rank. She’s made more progress than most of the disciples.”

“I’ll be traveling for a while. You’re in charge of the Everpeak.” Li Yuan nodded. He gave a pause, then said calmly, “Always hold kindness in your heart. Treat the world with compassion. If chaos ever sweeps across the mortal world, do not shut the gates of the mountain. You must descend and help.”

“Understood, Master,” Wang Yunzhi replied with a respectful bow.

With that, Li Yuan tossed him a scroll titled Path to Third Rank and turned to leave.

He made his way to the Underworld and sought out Yan Yu, stating his purpose clearly.

As expected, Yan Yu, who’d fused with both the Southern and Northern Dippers, had long crafted a terrifying tool of the Underworld, a ghost item that could manipulate lifespan.

Moments later, Li Yuan saw a new entry appear in his Equipment Box:

Yearscribe +1 +1 +1...

And in no time at all, he had a full hundred Yearscribes.

Their function was brutally simple. Whoever held one could see a person’s lifespan, and with a mere stroke of the pen, add or subtract years from it at will.

Of course, lifespan didn’t just vanish or appear from nowhere. Shortening was straightforward enough. But increasing lifespan drew power directly from the Ancestral Land itself.

They were essentially single-use items, but their potential was horrifying.

Should someone decide to tack on 100,000 years to their life, they might very well trigger a catastrophe somewhere in the cosmos. It was a taboo known as stealing from the heavens to nurture man.

Yan Yu had never entrusted this taboo creation to anyone. But to her own man? She gave a hundred of them without blinking, partly out of trust, partly out of curiosity, perhaps to see what would happen when he put them to use.