My Journey to Immortality Begins with Hunting-Chapter 154 – Stuck with the Carpenters Workshop, A Dangerous Steward - Part 1
Chapter 154 – Stuck with the Carpenter's Workshop, A Dangerous Steward - Part 1
Li Yuan continued testing his new discovery.
Before long, he realized the wooden doll’s purpose. When he held his own doll, any door he opened led straight into the carpenter's workshop. If he returned the doll to his equipment slot, then the doors he opened returned to normal.
But just because he could open that door didn’t mean the carpenter ghost suddenly had no hostility toward him, nor did it guarantee his safety if he actually stepped into the shop. At least, it was something he couldn’t prove.
Li Yuan suspected his five candareen purchase only covered a one-time curse, not immunity from all future curses. If he ever broke the rules again, odds were high he would get slapped with another carpenter's workshop curse.
“This is such a headache,” he muttered.
Li Yuan couldn’t guarantee he wouldn’t stumble across the carpenter's workshop again, since that carpenter ghost was sitting openly in Flowerpath. And the old notion of nothing bad happening so long as he didn’t actively step into a ghost domain was clearly starting to unravel. No one knew if it had always been a misconception or if something had changed, causing ghost domains to become more active.
After all, the ghost servants in the mass grave had already crossed county lines, and now one could inadvertently open the carpenter's workshop door just about anywhere. Compared to that, the black market ghost domain was practically harmless; ever since that major flare-up two winters ago, it had kept a low profile.
Flowerpath, Gemhill, and Southsky were all right next to each other. If any one county collapsed, the others would inevitably be caught in the fallout. But where could people go? These counties were already out on the frontier, and neighboring ones weren’t much better off.
Although Li Yuan had broken the curse and unlocked his equipment slot, the worry in his heart remained. He forced aside the lingering dread and focused on the nature of equipment and what he was beginning to understand about this world.
“I suspect there are two major powers at work in this world.
One was the martial path. Martial artists mainly relied on shadow blood and ancestral seals, at least up to sixth rank. And meat fields were vital, providing a stable resource.
The other path was that of an undying husk. Far fewer people trod this path. One way to become an undying husk was to survive a lethal curse. Then, by buying your curse back with ghost money, you become a true undying husk.
Li Yuan doubted he was the only one who had ever redeemed his own curse.
In the Central Plains and beyond, others must have done the same, only no one realized it; people simply believed they were still just walking corpses. Those individuals might have gone farther than anyone imagined. He even suspected the mansion master of Clock Mansion and council of elders were all undying husks who had freed themselves from their curses.
“It’s extremely difficult to get started down the path of an undying husk, but once you do, you gain mysterious abilities. An undying husk’s power hinges on special equipment, acquired from the ghost market—by either lifting your own curse or purchasing it. So to grow stronger, an undying husk constantly needs ghost money. That could be why the Clock Mansion’s master and elders remain in the estate, maintaining order.”
Li Yuan let out a heavy sigh. Even his brief glimpse of this hidden world was enough to leave him chilled. It was infinitely more dangerous than he had ever imagined. With martial artists, you could at least guess their strength by common benchmarks. But the power of undying husks operated on an entirely different scale.
He considered a scenario. If an ordinary person became an undying husk and gained the ability to open these doors, what if a sixth rank martial artist charged at him? The moment that fighter was about to land a blow, the undying husk could simply open a door and crouch. If everything happened at just the right moment, the sixth rank fighter might barrel through the door straight into the carpenter's workshop.
In that hypothetical, it would mean someone with 0~1 overall combat power could instantly kill a 400~500 sixth rank martial artist. And many undying husk also had martial arts training of their own.
A shiver ran down Li Yuan’s spine as he looked at the exquisitely carved wooden doll in his palm. It was nearly identical to him, made of some unknown wood that was dull yellow and cold as ice. If he peered closely, he could see thin filaments of red buried in the grain, almost like veins of blood.
“From now on,” he told himself, “if someone’s carrying equipment, I’d better keep my distance no matter how weak they look, unless I’m absolutely sure what that equipment does.”
He etched this new survival rule into his mental notebook.
Not long after Li Yuan arrived in Silver Creek, word reached the upper echelons of the Blood Blade Sect. Tie Sha and his men galloped over to find him alive and unscathed, marveling at his unfathomable abilities.
After sending his subordinates back, Li Yuan returned alone to Hundred Lotus Manor.
He slipped around the front courtyard, passed through the inner courtyard, and was still some distance from the private quarters when he heard laughter.
A spring breeze caressed his face. Looking up, he saw a kite drifting against the backdrop of blue sky and white clouds, its string trailing into the private quarters.
Heading inside, he found the maid Xiao Zhu running about, flying the kite. Ping’an, Xiao Sheng, and Niu Niu stood off to one side, watching with bright smiles. Xue Ning held little Ping’an’s hand, while Yan Yu supported the blind girl. Unlike the others, the blind girl showed no interest in the kite.
The commotion near the private quarters caught everyone’s attention. When they looked up and saw Li Yuan standing in the doorway, most of them froze, except Yan Yu.
Xue Ning ran over in delight. “Dearest, you’re all right?”
Li Yuan nodded with a smile, keeping his worries to himself. He bent down to scoop up little Ping’an. “You’ve gotten so big already?”
“Daddy...” The boy shrank back a little, calling out timidly. Since Li Yuan rarely spent time with him, the child was understandably shy.
Further away, the blind girl waved her cane excitedly. She and Li Yuan had spent plenty of time together. Whenever his finches traveled afar, her crows would sometimes follow, then obediently fly back home after Li Yuan’s word, never causing trouble. At the same time, the gyrfalcon perched on the eaves, and the crows lined up beside it so they could all bask in the midday sun. The birds cast neat silhouettes at dusk and soaked up the moonlight at night.
Seeing his little bundle of joy warmed Li Yuan’s heart. After thinking for a moment, he gently set little Ping’an down—he didn’t want to show favoritism—then strode over and lifted the blind girl, settling her on his right arm. Now he had one child on each side. Yan Yu and Xue Ning came forward with cheerful smiles.
Xiao Zhu hastened to excuse herself. It wasn’t her place to stay while the family reunited. Li Yuan said, “Keep flying the kite. It’s a beautiful day.” So she headed a bit farther off, with Xiao Sheng and Niu Niu trailing after her, well aware of propriety.
After a short while, little Ping’an stretched out his arms, fussing for Xue Ning to take him, so she obliged. The blind girl, though, stayed perfectly content in Li Yuan’s arm and even leaned forward to plant a big kiss on his cheek, nearly melting his heart.
“You’re back?” Yan Yu covered her mouth to hide a quiet chuckle, but there was a new depth in her eyes. In the past few days, she had experienced enough to break a far stronger woman. And she was just a civilian, not even ninth rank.
“Yes, I’m back.” Li Yuan glanced at her, a flicker of concern in his gaze. They found a chance to send the blind girl off to play, then strolled through the manor’s warm courtyard.
Yan Yu didn’t hold anything back, recounting exactly how she had gotten that paper money. Since she was clearly wrapped up in the same ordeal, Li Yuan decided against keeping any secrets. He explained everything—ghost domains, ghost money, the ghost market, the rules he knew, and his own speculations.
They fell silent for a moment.
Yan Yu finally said, “All these ghosts have their own traits. The mass grave ghost domain, for instance, is all about letting the dead return to exact endless vengeance. As for the carpenter workshop ghost domain, it’s rooted in loneliness and suffering. The carpenter, Shen Jiliang, never married, so he carved wooden dolls for companionship. In the end, he wasted away from a strange illness, became paralyzed, and died. That’s why he turned to carving... In death, anyone who enters his shop, he wants to keep forever. And since he knows they’ll never stay willingly, he carves them into wooden dolls and lines them up on his shelves.”
Li Yuan nodded. “But that’s no longer Shen Jiliang himself, just an obsession of his, magnified by some force of heaven and earth, locked into those rules and that killing method.”
Yan Yu sighed softly.
They walked a bit more before she whispered, “I feel like I’ve wronged Feng’er...”
“No, you haven’t. She was betrayed by too many people. And you... You were the person she loved most in a world she’d grown to hate.”
“The one she loved most in a world she hated?” Yan Yu repeated under her breath.
