Beginning with the Ubume Bird

Chapter 37: Chapter 37: Fierce Tiger!
Editor: Larbre Studio

Li Yan looked around; the room was so spartan that he couldn’t even find a vase. The only thing of quality was the hard shower head.

Blocking the doorway was Li Jiangyu, with the Serpent dancing around his body.

Li Yan shook off the dust from his body, his toes plowing the ground, his back slightly hunched.

The Serpent’s body moved with tension, its black Scales flowing like water.

The two men silently faced each other.

A full water drop trembled on the edge of the still-wet metal shower head, before falling.

“Plop!”

As the snake moved, the man moved!

A ghastly white fang came straight at him. Li Yan twisted his left foot, turned his body within the Bagua Palm’s mother stance and dodged the snake’s head—instead of following up with the usual covering palm, he kicked off the ground with powerful calves, stabbing forward with the ‘picking’ technique from the ‘lying down child’ stance, his foot aiming for the side of the Serpent’s head.

To Li Yan’s chagrin, it felt as though his foot had kicked a piece of resilient cement block. Reacting quickly, within a single breath, he changed from kicking to leaping away using the momentum.

Li Jiangyu, seemingly frightened by Li Yan’s ferocity in the corridor just moments earlier, commanded the Serpent to slither back and protect him without a second thought when Li Yan dodged the snake’s head again.

The ground was pockmarked with a large area, as if a smooth cement surface had been scooped out with a shovel.

The Serpent twisted irritably, casting an unsatisfied glance at its host.

It had almost swallowed his calf a moment ago…

The snake’s mouth only had four teeth, but the pit on the ground clearly couldn’t have been made by just four teeth.

It seemed the Serpent’s teeth possessed some special power that could swallow a piece of whatever they touched.

“The straight charge is quick, but turning is not as agile. Moreover, the farther it is from the master, the slower it becomes…”

Li Yan analyzed coolly, as if he hadn’t almost lost a leg just moments before.

The Serpent in front of him was fierce and swift in its lunge and bite, but its dodging was quite rigid, lacking the agility typical of snakes. Of course, only Li Yan had the license to belittle the Serpent’s dodging speed; ordinary people had no chance of evading it.

Li Yan thought of Zhang Mingyuan, whose pupils burned with an Exotic Beast.

The Eyes of the Enlightened Beast do not make one an Enlightened Beast.

The fangs of the Serpent are not the Serpent itself.

It’s just a part of it.

With a “swish” of his step, Li Yan surprisingly took the initiative to close in!

Li Jiangyu, sensing this, did not release the Serpent coiling around him, but instead met Li Yan head-on!

“You understand, don’t you?”

Although he wasn’t very impressed with Li Jiangyu’s overly passive and weak tactics, his response at this moment was undoubtedly the correct one.

A Serpent that protected Li Jiangyu could even block bullets, so naturally, he wouldn’t be afraid of the unarmed Li Yan. On the other hand, if he released the Serpent, he would give Li Yan an opportunity to exploit.

“How can one capture tiger cubs without entering the tiger’s lair?”

Li Yan mantraed inwardly, a fierce glint flashing briefly in his eyes.

He twisted his knee and waist, his instep taut as a drawn bow, bursting forward like a sharpened sword—Li Jiangyu’s vision blurred, and Li Yan had vanished, approaching rapidly with a violent whistling noise by his ears.

“Sss!”

Li Jiangyu lost sight of Li Yan’s figure, but the Serpent did not!

Coiling like a chain, the Serpent’s head struck like lightning, biting towards the back of Li Yan’s incoming fist.

Its triangular eyes were filled with a bloodthirsty intent, chilling to the bone.

“What will you do now?”

Li Yan didn’t flinch. His upper arm rose slightly, changing his fist into a palm. With a swing of his forearm, the Serpent’s head, as it arrived to bite, slipped past like an eel to the right.

“Smack!”

Bullets are fast, but they are inanimate.

Li Yan’s fist was slower, but it was alive.

The four sharp fangs closed together in vain, as the palm before the Serpent’s eyes slid rightwards like a slippery fish.

Blood sprayed everywhere!

Li Yan seemed oblivious as he flipped over, bending at the waist, left hand supporting on the ground, and his right foot raised high, kicking towards Li Jiangyu’s head.

Stomping kick! Crushing stone into powder.

The hissing Serpent, whose taste had not passed, let out a furious hiss. Its head launched forward to swallow Li Yan’s right foot, but its neck stiffened, slowing by a fraction. It was Li Yan’s right hand, supposed to be swallowed whole by it, that stopped it!

Bagua Palm, Concealed Flower under the Leaf.

Die!

His foot struck Li Jiangyu’s temple squarely. His vision darkened, a buzzing sound rang in his head, and a fiery, salty taste crazily surged from his mouth and nose!

The Serpent, as if struck by thunderclap, wildly writhed in the air, beyond control.

“Thud.” Li Yan’s arm went limp, and he fell to the ground, sweating profusely, his whole body soaked.

A prompt from A Fleeting Glimpse sent a chill through his heart.

“Target has activated the Yellow Turban Talisman: Healing Charm!”

“Healing Charm: Activates when receiving potentially fatal injuries, forcibly freezing the injury at a level that won’t cause immediate death. Slowly restores to 30% of the original state of injury.” (Permanent disabilities cannot be healed.)

Behind Li Jiangyu, the figure of a middle-aged man with a clear face, a crane robe, and a purple crown suddenly shattered. He spat out several mouthfuls of black blood and staggered towards the outside of the house.

Li Yan bit his teeth and rolled up to his feet. With a couple of leaps, he caught a glimpse of the disgraced Li Jiangyu climbing up the stairs.

Li Yan looked down at his right hand.

His little finger and ring finger were gone. Blood spurted from the twitching wounds like a child’s water gun… A large piece of flesh was missing from his palm, and the bare bones were exposed.

He tore off his clothes to make a bandage for his right hand, the intense pain making him inhale sharply. Suddenly, he touched his nose.

His left hand was covered in red.

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Li Yan cracked a smile, then suddenly, he laughed aloud, his masculine voice echoing through the entire apartment.

…

“Madman, monster, how can there be such a person…”

Blood drops speckled the ground. Li Jiangyu’s face was filled with terror.

“Timing, location, harmony, I calculated them all, why, why?”

A Fleeting Glimpse clearly showed that man was a novice, with no legacy upon him. The only remarkable thing was his specialization level over 80%. Li Jiangyu, having been through several Yan Fu incidents, had only seen one Esteemed Walker with a specialization as high as 79%. That person’s strength was indeed far above his own…

Li Jiangyu’s vision flickered between light and dark, as if a hand were stirring inside his skull.

“That woman, he cares so much about that woman, there are two guns on the corpse, I still have a chance!”

“Bang.”

Li Jiangyu burst through the door, his eyes threaded with blood as he scanned left and right.

Li, still dazed and bewildered, looked at the man whose mouth and nose were bleeding, a Crooked Leg Knife protruding from his shoulder, and blood dripping steadily to the floor. The large snake was nowhere to be seen.

“Where are they? Where!”

He roared at Li, who was crouched on the ground.

“Ask your mother!”

The cracked-lipped Li sneered.

“Damn it!”

The furious Li Jiangyu kicked Li’s wound.

Li groaned in pain, coughing up a string of pinkish blood froth, her face pale as death.

Li Jiangyu glanced at the loose hemp rope and the open window, his face a picture of madness. He picked up a handgun from the ground and dragged Li up by her collar, intending to leave.

A tall and lean figure blocked the door firmly, Li Yan’s hand on the door frame.

The man’s clothes were ragged, his tense muscles barely concealed, his right hand wrapped in a bloody bandage. Yet his eyes were filled with a soaring fighting spirit, and his demeanor radiated an air of defiance.

“So eager to run off, not going to entertain your daddy a bit longer?”