My Journey to Immortality Begins with Hunting-Chapter 022 - A New Skill

Six more days slipped by in a flash.

During this time, Li Yuan took two days off to venture deep into the third ridge of Little Ink Mountain. He extended his usual half-day exploration range to a day and a half. Though he moved slowly to avoid getting lost, he managed to map out a much broader area.

Yet after this latest excursion, he couldn’t help feeling a bit disillusioned. People always say you should go out and see the world. But once you actually do, you might realize there’s not much point in traveling so far.

Trudging back from the rugged depths of the wilderness, Li Yuan suddenly felt that living in seclusion wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. A place with no lights, no electricity, no phones or internet, where every meal was uncertain and you were left using leaves for toilet paper, what sort of life was that? Were you just supposed to make babies all day?

Sure, there was that romantic notion of brewing pine-blossom wine and steeping spring water for tea, but you’d still need to buy yeast for the wine and tea leaves for the brew. Besides, you still have to eat.

On top of that, the mountains teemed with wild beasts and poisonous insects. Yan Yu wouldn’t stand a chance if he left her alone. And it wasn’t like he could haul her around on every trip, treating her like some sort of accessory.

Li Yuan recalled the tale of the Peach Blossom Spring, which mentioned the ancestors of the villagers fleeing the chaos of the Qin era, leading their families and neighbors into this hidden realm, never to return, effectively cutting themselves off from the outside world.

That wasn’t just a man and his wife. It was an entire community moving into the mountains, practically an entire county relocated.

Of course that might work if you satisfied two conditions. One was that you had enough sway and authority in the county for people to follow you. The second was that the majority of folks actually wanted to hide away from society.

Li Yuan had neither. So with a deep sigh, he let go of the full-time hermit idea for now.

Still, he decided to keep scouting Little Ink Mountain. Familiarizing himself with the terrain meant having an escape route if the Red Lotus Rebels pushed into the county.

Maybe he could discover a path leading to another town or region. Then he could plan his next steps accordingly. If that other place turned out to be peaceful, he and Yan Yu could move there under the guise of refugees.

That said, if Gemhill County stabilized, he fully intended to go back. He’d just rough himself up a bit—roll around in the dirt, starve for a few days—then show up claiming he’d been lost in the mountains, barely making it out alive.

Afterward, he’d recuperate, save money, pull some strings, and eventually settle down near Silver Creek, where law and order were better. Then he could keep hunting, earning, and maybe pick up some new cultivation techniques.

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At the moment, Li Yuan was holding Yan Yu in his arms. After their moment of closeness, both lay there, weighed down by worry. He quietly shared his plans with her, step by step.

Yan Yu didn’t know what else to say. After a long pause, she spoke with a hint of sorrow. “About that escape route you mentioned, I’ve got some news.” She hesitated for a moment, then continued, “It seems the government troops have already defeated the Red Lotus Rebels...”

“So soon?” Li Yuan was taken aback. “Where’d you hear that?”

“The county soldiers broke camp. Both the original county troops and the newly conscripted men. Word of this big deployment has already spread through town.

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“Auntie Wang was hoping her husband wouldn’t have to fight, but it looks like he’ll have to go after all. I tried to reassure her that since the troops are supposedly pressing their advantage, nothing bad should happen. But who knows?

“Whether they actually win or not is out of our hands. And if Uncle Wang dies, Auntie Wang is going to fall apart.” Yan Yu’s eyes still held traces of sadness from comforting Auntie Wang earlier that day. “Li Yuan, if we’ve already won, why is the county magistrate still sending troops?”

“It’s precisely because they won,” Li Yuan said. “Getting credit or not is one thing, but if the magistrate is accused of failing to exterminate the rebels wholeheartedly, he could lose his office. And if someone suspects him of colluding with bandits, he could lose his head.”

“You really think so? For such a silly reason?” Yan Yu asked, wide-eyed.

Li Yuan, who wasn’t entirely sure how this world worked either, thought of the stories and history from his past life. “In these remote places, who knows how things really go? Sometimes they need a few scapegoats to satisfy the anger of the common folk.”

“Ah...?” Yan Yu’s eyes went blank with confusion. “Sounds like it’s no different from the petty squabbles we women have here in the village, only with more scheming.”

“Oh, there’s a big difference. You don’t kill each other when you argue. This, on the other hand...a lot of people could end up dead,” Li Yuan said offhandedly.

“Oh...” Yan Yu murmured, suddenly finding herself impressed by how much her husband seemed to know. She imagined the power struggles between officials and realized that lofty business could be dragged right down into the dirt.

“Oh, right. If the Red Lotus Rebels are defeated,” she ventured, “are you going to come back soon then...?”

Li Yuan shook his head. “I’ll wait and see.”

They talked for a bit longer. Li Yuan glanced outside. It was pitch-black, though the moon had already passed its zenith.

“I’d better head out.”

“Be careful on the way.”

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Before dawn, Li Yuan made it back to his cave in the mountains.

By midday, the tiger showed up again for a free meal. After all these days of training, it knew the rules. Even if Li Yuan was in the middle of eating, the tiger only lay on its belly, licking its chops but never crossing the invisible line. It waited for Li Yuan to toss it something. As soon as he did, the beast pounced, snatched its food, and dashed off a safe distance to eat.

Today’s meal was an entire roe deer. Li Yuan spent a good while roasting it until the skin turned a crispy golden brown, sending out a mouthwatering smell. Finally, he cut it up. Half for himself, and the other half he tossed over to the waiting tiger.

The tiger lunged forward like always, snatching half of the roasted deer. But this time, instead of running off, it settled down just at the boundary, gnawing at its meal right there.

Clearly, from its perspective, Li Yuan was no longer a threat who might steal its food, or attack it.

Li Yuan froze for a moment, feeling an unexpected sense of accomplishment. It might not seem like much, but at least he had reached one of his small goals.

Man and tiger tore into their deer, keeping some distance between them, but there was hardly any trace of the old hostility.

Partway through his meal, Li Yuan blinked in surprise. A new line of text had quietly appeared in his status screen.

He couldn’t believe his eyes and double-checked. Sure enough, it was real. A brand-new skill!

All that effort hadn’t been for nothing after all. It was as if even the heavens recognized his hard work.

He glanced at the 95 unspent stat points in his status screen.

“Perfect! Let’s strike while the iron’s hot and push this further!”

He tapped the + sign next to Basic Beast Taming ten times in quick succession.

Memories, day by day, poured into his mind. He saw himself embracing an innate fondness for animals, treating them like friends and observing their behaviors in countless attempts to communicate. He saw his past self struggling to teach them basic commands, to coax them into trusting him.

In the end, all that persistence paid off. Now he could sense an animal’s emotions through even the smallest movements, and in doing so, guide them to follow his lead.

Basic Beast Taming(1/10) ➔ NEW! Intermediate Beast Taming (1/20)

Checking himself again, Li Yuan noticed his overall combat power remained unchanged. This was more of a soft skill, after all. Undeterred, he continued.

“Let’s go for another round.”

He tapped the + sign 20 more times.

Intermediate Beast Taming(1/20) ➔ NEW! Advanced Beast Taming (1/40)

Another wave of memories rushed in. He experienced long hours of extensive training, forging a new ability to read not only an animal’s body language but also the nuances in its calls. It was almost like he could interpret bits of their language.

On top of that, he could mimic some of those sounds himself, allowing for the most basic form of direct communication.

When the influx of knowledge settled, Li Yuan took a deep breath, letting the new expertise sink in. It felt like something he’d practiced for years as if it were natural or second nature.

He turned to the tiger and let out a soft growl, “How's it taste?”

The tiger snapped its head up, stared at him for a moment, then clamped its jaws tight around the roast deer and bolted.

Li Yuan shouted, “Stop!"

The tiger just ran faster.

A twinge of disappointment hit him.

“All right then,” he muttered. “Let's just keep adding points to the skill.”