Chapter 346 – Explosion, Nine Suns, Year-End Gathering, Ghost Domain Expansion, Wolfmother’s Warning - Part 3

Winter drew to a close.

Li Yuan packed up and took Snow east, out of the permafrost.

“I’m taking you to meet Yan Yu and Xue Ning.”

Usually a carefree girl, Snow blushed scarlet. She had guessed this day would come and fervently hoped for it. Her husband was no hunter’s son but a man of consequence; bringing her into

his

world meant true acceptance. The only shadow on her joy was that, after all this time, she still hadn’t given him a child.

The family soon gathered together.

Li Yuan, Yan Yu, Xue Ning, Tang Nian, Sheng'er, Snow, and the Tang Qiu puppet sat at a round table placed half in the outside world, half in the black market ghost domain.

“B-big sisters...” Snow could barely breathe for nerves; in matters of subtlety she ranked dead last among them.

Xue Ning sensed it at once, squeezed her hand, and began chatting. She started first with compliments, then light, roaming talk.

The blue robed Yan Yu sat quietly on the western side; Li Yuan on the east. Unseen to outsiders, Yin and Yang domains pressed together like two soap bubbles that refused to merge.

𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Both hosts pretended not to notice and kept the conversation on everyday matters. Eventually, the topic shifted to the relations between the people of the Cloudpeak Province and Nine Flames.

Tang Nian said, “After the first snows melted, Eightlinks, Splinterholt, and Fallenwood again drew hordes of demonic beasts. In past years, that meant chaos and casualties; this year the local Ice Folk hunted them down and...well, ate them.

“They’ve even started guarding the fields so they can learn farming from the townsfolk.

“But the ordinary people are terrified. They duck into their houses the moment Ice Folk appear. Wandering martial artists keep watch on them, too. Integration is...slow.”

Li Yuan nodded. “I’ve already seen some pregnant women from Cloudpeak Province living in the Trueflame Tribe.”

Tang Nian explained, “Money and safety guarantees did it. A total of 132 pregnant women agreed to join the Ice Folk in the first group; all of them are settled among the different tribes.

“Everyone else is waiting to see if anything goes wrong. If those women stay safe, more will go once the snow melts. Some are timing their cycles, planning ahead.

“They need the silver, after all.”

Li Yuan nodded. “Old grudges don’t wash away. The townsfolk who were invaded will never forgive the Ice Folk. But if their children and grandchildren one day wield the same power the Ice Folk do, attitudes will start to shift.”

Tang Nian frowned. “Pops, that might spark an even bigger clash.”

“Then the parents and the children should all join the Nine Flames,” Li Yuan replied. “They can keep living in Eightlinks, Splinterholt, and Fallenwood if they like but side-by-side with the tribes.

“Remember, Nian Nian. In this world, there’s nowhere to run. The Ice Folk and the Western Extremes are the very last ground we can still fall back to. I don’t care what anyone else thinks, but I only have one wish—” His gaze swept around the table, lingering on every face. “That’s for all of you to stay alive.”

When his eyes stopped on Xue Ning, he asked, “How’s Ping’an doing?”

Xue Ning gave a soft cough. Thanks to the rejuvenation pills, her face looked unchanged. But her eyes were clouded with illness, fatigue—age she would never admit to.

“He’s safe for now. The Lotus Cult and Emperor are waiting for something; the provincial governors are keeping one foot out the door. The Five Elements Alliance, Buddhists, and Daoists still can’t punch into the Central Plains.”

“Hmm.” Li Yuan’s brow creased.

Xue Ning went on, “There’s word that the Emperor has opened part of the Great Zhou Treasury. The powerhouses of the Lotus Cult and his own retainers have begun emerging as monsters.”

“What exactly sits in that treasury?” Li Yuan wondered aloud.

She shook her head. “I’m lucky to hear even these scraps inside Cloudpeak Province. I know nothing of the front lines.”

The talk drifted on.

Tang Nian mentioned refugees east of Sword Mountain forming some new power bloc and probing the Tang Sect’s strength.

Then, the conversation lightened up into whether Sheng'er had found any boys she liked yet and when Snow might give her a little brother or sister.

At last, the meal broke up.

The Tang Qiu puppet carried Tang Nian, Xue Ning, and Sheng'er away in his palanquin.

Snow, knowing her place, waited at a distance, leaving Li Yuan and Yan Yu before the wavering crimson and black membrane where the living world met the black market ghost domain.

“I’ve gathered quite a few undying husks,” Yan Yu said suddenly. “Officially Miss Pang manages them. The ancient ghost street out here still lacks anything like Happyland or the Exotic Beast Park. Oh, and I devoured another ghost domain.”

As she spoke, a blurred silhouette rose behind her—a three-meter tall specter, skeletal thin, shambling like a dried corpse. In its hand hung a pair of long, rust-flecked iron tongs, scraping the ground with a shrill, skin-crawling scratching as it walked.

Yan Yu nodded toward the shambling specter. “It loathes liars. Anyone who tells an untruth inside its territory has their tongue yanked out, slowly until every shred of flesh is gone.”

Then she laughed. “If one of

us

slips up, don’t worry. I’ll hustle you to the junk stall on ghost street marketplace and pay for a curse to break its hold. It stocks a few lie-detection trinkets, useless to you right now. But once I’ve finished developing the general store’s special wares, I’ll set one aside for you.”

Li Yuan said, “I’ve united the Nine Flames. When the moment’s right, I’m stepping into the background. The Khagan’s Axe has to pass from hand to hand for the system to take root.”

His voice dropped. “I don’t know when the Central Plains war will blow open, or where it will lead. But this world is a cage; none of us can break out. Leave the ghost domain in Gemhill alone for now. Stirring it would only draw unnecessary attention. Once all these warring powers are at each other’s throats,

then

we fish in troubled waters.”

“I understand,” Yan Yu said softly.

Silence fell. Li Yuan lowered his head. Yan Yu reached out to embrace him, only to feel the violent clash of her Yin domain against his Yang domain and let her hand drop.

“Sheng’er is doing well outside,” she said after a moment. “I keep telling her not to come back. But...” She smiled. “Have a child, Husband. I’m the eldest wife now, full of human warmth. I can help raise the baby with Snow.”

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Li Yuan and Snow returned to the Trueflame Tribe. All around the bonfires, pregnant women from the east strolled for warmth. At first they had been terrified; now, seeing the Ice Folk treat them with scrupulous respect, they were at ease.

Li Yuan and Snow tried again and again for a child. Every attempt failed.

Suljagar, ever shrewd, had guessed Li Yuan’s troubles. Together with several tribe chieftains he dug through ancient Nine Flames texts and found a secret ritual. It was said that the most powerful Arikkhan of the Nine Flames had fathered a child with a common woman using this ritual.

Soon a vial of black-gold medicine lay before Li Yuan.

While Li Yuan wavered about whether to drink thin concoction, the Wolfmother appeared without warning and whispered a private warning, “Khagan, you must not sire a child.”

“Why?”

“My memories say any child of yours would be unimaginably strong, but burn out in an instant. He would be like neither you nor your wife. He would be a monster.”