Beginning with the Ubume Bird Chapter 101 – Chapter 101: Chapter 7 Tiger Rises

Chapter 101: Chapter 7 Tiger Rises

“General, you're not a man from the Great Ming.”

The She Mountain Woman, wearing Li Yan's blue shirt and paired with black capri pants, looked neat and pure, despite the ill fit. Because the clothes didn't fit quite right, the sleeves of the blue shirt hung loose and partially exposed her ankles, giving this woman, who initially appeared gentle and intoxicating, a clean and refreshing allure.

It could only be said that the knack for pairing clothes is an innate ability for women.

“Strictly speaking, that's indeed not the case.”

Li Yan pushed a lunchbox towards the She Mountain Woman with the back of his hand.

He couldn't gauge the true strength of this Wild God who was rumored to have not stepped off She Mountain for over a hundred years. The fleeting glimpse he had of the She Mountain Woman in the desolate house did not reveal her disguise, and neither could the Nine-Winged Sudu nor Niutou Chantan after their Dragon-Tiger Qi Enhanced states.

However, seeing her again, the She Mountain Woman's demeanor was no different from that of an ordinary woman, except she possessed much greater strength. Otherwise, with the instability she had upon emerging from the gourd, Li Yan would have found it difficult to calm her.

[She Mountain Woman, a Yin God with depleted spiritual power]

“I have a way to send you back, but it will take some time.”

The She Mountain Woman's long eyelashes quivered.

“Go back…”

She looked earnestly at Li Yan: “Can I leave this courtyard?”

“Anytime you want.”

As the She Mountain Woman stood up, Li Yan thought she was going to leave and was contemplating ways to persuade her to stay, but instead, she bent down and pulled out a palm-sized red radio from under the coffee table.

“It doesn't make any noise anymore; it used to work at the beginning.”

She said to Li Yan apologetically.

“The batteries are probably dead,” Li Yan said, taking the radio and pressing the power button. He replaced the old batteries with two new ones from the drawer.

The crackling sound of static came on, and the content seemed to be a live soccer broadcast.

The She Mountain Woman listened to the radio with her ear tilted to one side,

“It was not this person at first.”

She suddenly looked up and asked Li Yan who was drinking water, her eyes clear with distinct black and white.

“Gulp, gulp.”

Li Yan watched the She Mountain Woman while swallowing the boiling water, not taking his eyes off her until he had finished and put down the teacup, at which point he suddenly flashed a forthright smile at the woman.

…

The She Mountain Woman didn't bring up anything else, not about Li Yan, not about Taishuai, nor even about where this place was. She asked nothing, merely read books, listened to the radio, watched television, learned to use the washing machine, and learned to fry food with an electric cooker.

Most of the time, she was quiet. Li Yan practiced spearmanship and swordsmanship in the courtyard while she sometimes watched and sometimes listened to the radio on her own. Li Yan bought her a Blueberry M6 phone, and she started learning to surf the internet. The details, however, were of no concern to Li Yan.

Having an extra woman in the courtyard wasn't as bad as Li Yan initially imagined. In the presence of the She Mountain Woman, Li Yan had no secrets he needed to hide. The residence was large enough, the She Mountain Woman did not need to sleep, and eating was only a hobby, so none of the awkwardness of men and women living together existed.

Since the arrival of a diligent woman to look after things, Li Yan felt that he had become a lot lazier.

His only concern was probably the increase in gossip from the neighbors—it seemed to have spread from the vegetable market the She Mountain Woman frequently visited.

Li Yan had no intention of hiding her presence; in fact, these past two days he had been in contact with an acquaintance trying to get the She Mountain Woman an identification card.

Two weeks later, in the afternoon, at the center of the large courtyard covered with loose earth.

With a crisp sound, Li Yan's fluid muscles delivered forceful energy, and the platinous spearhead struck like a fierce tiger leaping at a stream, the metallic sound appeared out of nowhere and lingered on…

In the list of visualizations before Li Yan's eyes, [Yazi Provoked Killing] had dimmed down, signifying that his comprehension of this skill had reached its upper limit.

Done!

However, Li Yan could feel that the thrusting spear technique he had comprehended differed starkly from Song Yi's style.

Yazi Provoked Killing was a lethal preemptive move that Song Yi had honed over years of horseback fighting, known for its formidable power.

But Li Yan, coming from a military skill background, used the move with an emphasis on speed, not force!

Both were preemptive strikes, but Song Yi's Yazi Provoked Killing aimed for a certain kill, while Li Yan's thrust sought to disrupt the enemy's momentum, expose their vulnerabilities, and then follow up with a tide-like offensive that was the real killer move.

This move, Li Yan named Tiger Rises.

Having extracted [Tiger Rises] from the 500-point [Yazi Provoked Killing], Li Yan only spent three hundred Yan Fu points.

Perhaps it was his childhood love for Double Dragon and The King of Fighters that gave rise to this guilty pleasure, but Li Yan was already eager to try out his own “combo moves.”

Blood Dip + Tiger Rises + Demonic Eighty Strikes + Blood Dip Damage Burst!

However, the visualization of “Forty Strikes”, and even “Demonic Eighty Strikes” was not successful.

Li Yan had already invested a thousand Yan Fu points in these two skills, enough to acquire both. The option for Forty Strikes had also grayed out, preventing further comprehension.

Yet the progress did not satisfy Li Yan. At the moment, he could barely execute Honda Tadakatsu's astonishingly continuous spear techniques from just before his death, reminiscent of freshly broken starch syrup. However, the strain on his physical and mental stamina was too great. Using it just once gave Li Yan a throbbing pain at his temples, which greatly displeased him.

He was just one step away from success, but Li Yan had no idea in which direction to kick.

Li Yan's practice session came to an end, and he also finalized his shopping list.

Adding up his expenditures this time, and combining the return reward with the remaining points, he had a total of 6550 points. Solidifying his horsemanship specialization cost 700 points, enhancing his weapon cost 1000 points, acquiring universal military skill cost 500 points, five pieces of Gold kobans cost 1000 points,

Visualization skill cost 1300 points, buying the six coins cost 1500 points, and the Great Ming black Dragon Flag took another 500 points, leaving him with 50 Yan Fu points.

At the same time, aside from Demonic Eighty Strikes, Li Yan put all the privileges he had on the auction house. Surprisingly, most privileges sold at 10% of the purchase price, which netted him over seven hundred Yan Fu points.

This indirectly confirmed Li Yan's thoughts that for those going it alone, at least half the privileges would have no demand. If everyone within Yan Fu was like Li Yan, it would certainly lead to unsold privileges. But in reality, as long as they were practical, the privileges were hot sellers at the auction. Li Yan saw a dan pellet for reattaching limbs selling for two thousand points just for the privilege. Given the functionality in Yan Fu to heal external injuries with points, this pellet was surely for someone else's use.

Furthermore, with a thirty-count maximum of Dragon Tiger Qi, Li Yan used twenty counts to draw the Nine Phoenix Talisman. In the two months before the next Yan Fu event, he would gain another ten counts of Dragon Tiger Qi. Twenty counts were enough for Li Yan to break through the first peak of the Gu Huo Bird's awakening.

After that, every four months, Li Yan would gain twenty counts of Dragon Tiger Qi, enough for him to draw another Nine Phoenix Talisman. This meant that every two Yan Fu events, even if he did nothing, Li Yan would achieve a 10% increase in awakening!

From having less than half the strength of “Ten Cities,” to reaching “Ten Cities” just with the 39% awakening degree of the Gu Huo Bird and ensuring a smooth progression to the next peak bottleneck of 69% awakening, the gains from the Renchen battle were evident.

Lastly, there was the red calabash that the She Mountain Woman “accidentally” broke while cleaning up. Within it, Yu Shu had left behind a piece of silver metal.

Barrett's Trigger

Category: Yan Fu Talisman

It can initiate a specific Yan Fu event once.

You can also sacrifice it to enhance your initial identity in any Yan Fu event.

Note: I've left some old trinkets in this pellet that I don't use anymore. You might want to check them out, but don't do it within at least two Yan Fu events.

Thinking of these, Li Yan put away his Tiger Head Great Spear and went inside to sit on the balcony beside the She Mountain Woman listening to the radio.

“The title ‘Lady She Mountain' sounds too distant. Do you have another name?”

The She Mountain Woman turned her head to look at the sweat-drenched Li Yan and shook her head gently.

“Let me think.”

The She Mountain Woman took out her phone and seemed to be looking up something like a dictionary on the screen.

Li Yan wiped the sweat from his cheek with his finger and watched Yingying's focused gaze on the screen. His mind was filled with a myriad of thoughts when he suddenly remembered Yu Shiqie's words to look after himself.

He unconsciously curled his lips into a smirk.

All the outrage of the Yan Fu walkers was just nonsense; not to mention others, the attitude of that Yu Shiqie towards Li Yan was quite ambiguous.

But it seemed true that he had indeed incurred the wrath of some of the more experienced walkers, and these people held certain “privileges” that could cause him trouble.

Deal with the soldiers that come, and cover the water that flows.

The road ahead had to be walked by oneself.

The radio timely broadcasted the man's deep recitation, Nietzsche's “Twilight of the Idols.”

“What does not kill me, makes me stronger.”

“How do you feel about the name Wen Yan?”

The She Mountain Woman looked up.

“Wen Yan? It doesn't quite suit you.”

“Is that so? I like something with a bit of heroism. Let me think again…”

The She Mountain Woman lowered her head again, seriously flipping through the screen while Li Yan blurted out.

“How about calling you Lady Dan?”

The woman's finger paused, and her eyes reflected the splendor of the setting sun.

“Alright.”

Chapter end