Beginning with the Ubume Bird - Chapter 103 - Chapter 103: Chapter 2 Boiling Midnight

Chapter 103: Chapter 2 Boiling Midnight

“`

The dim streetlights flickered on and off.

Two shadows faced each other.

One was a terrifying boy with a bloody and ferocious face, splattered with blood.

The other was a young blue-collar worker with a blue uniform draped over his shoulders, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

Li Yan’s toe tapped the ground, his right foot, which had crushed a skull and left bits of flesh and bone on the ground, pulled up a trail of red silks…

“Hm?”

Realizing he couldn’t lift his foot, Li Yan looked down and a gust of wind hit his face; it was a round head wearing a melon hat, with closed eyes and a grey goatee beard. Yet another head!

Li Yan tilted his head to dodge, but the old man’s head flying past Li Yan’s ear suddenly opened its eyes and then violently exploded!

[Head Ghost]

Threat level: Light red

Just as the black blood and scattered flesh were about to splatter, Li Yan shook off the blue work clothes on his body, wrapping up the detonated head in them, then flung them away along with the clothes.

The shirt wrapped around the head collided with a fat, silly, bald head, both exploding simultaneously, and seven or eight round black shadows flew toward Li Yan!

Li Yan tried to pull his feet off the ground, the wet sticky sounds lasting a while, but he still couldn’t tear off the red silks on the ground.

Meanwhile, one after another, the ferocious heads with their blood and salty smell were closing in!

Li Yan looked up, and a delicate head with blood-rimmed eyes almost bumped into his nose!

“Tss~”

Several heads rolled on the ground, the long red filaments snapping, the bloodstained boy’s chilling eyes wide open, but the blue-collar youth was indeed gone. The boy looked around blankly, his view suddenly lowered, and the surroundings shot up rapidly.

The last thing those bulging white eyes saw was a blood-covered duck on a child’s shirt…

The head fell to the ground.

Li Yan lowered his Ring Dragon Sword, letting the dark brown blood slide down the blade.

After visualizing the Demonic Eighty Strikes for over ten days, Li Yan’s speed had reached an inhuman level; his ordinary leaping slashes were like tearing through dark clouds with lightning speed.

He used his sword to play with the fallen bodies. It seemed that the creature, with a head like a mix of human and ghost, was decapitated and possibly dead, but who could be sure of such things?

Suppressing his impulse to mutilate the corpse, Li Yan left the scene.

The real show of the Yan Fu Fruit were the other beings roaming in Yan Fu, these creatures were just a diversion. And since they wouldn’t drop keys, why bother fighting them to the bitter end?

Li Yan’s shadow slowly receded, and the boy with the severed head under the streetlight lay askew, his white membrane-covered eye grotesquely rotating in its socket.

A rush of black gunk emerged from his neck, and the boy got up on his knees, kicking his own head away.

“Haha haha haha…”

Flailing his arms and legs, the boy kicked the heads at his feet and ran off in the opposite direction of Li Yan.

…

“The strength isn’t really high, the thrown heads might be tricky, probably corrosive or poisonous, but they’re inherently fragile. Probably about the same as an average Japanese soldier, or even less.”

Right, one permission within “Ten Cities” I haven’t used yet.

Li Yan smacked his forehead.

[Worldview Acquisition]

Gain the basic exploration notes of all Yan Fu beings without the need to explore. Also, one may use Yan Fu points to obtain some high-value exploration note content.

Name: Li Yan

Acting: None

Completed Yan Fu events: 3

Recorded Yan Fu Fruits:

Judy

Yu Shu

Divine Jiazi Nine Hundred and Eighty-Four (Yan Fu event in progress)

Let’s see what’s strange about this Yan Capital City.

The crisp turning sound arose, and the withered black bamboo slips slowly unfolded before his eyes.

“`

“It was quite thrilling. At the stroke of midnight, in the time it took to light a cigarette, all the workers in the factory disappeared, only to emerge again from nowhere once the machines buzzed to life at six a.m.”

——Anonymous

“That’s nothing, I was hauling heavy loads when, in the blink of an eye, the person was gone.”

——Anonymous

“Those who vanished were not of this world, it was us. Crossing the boundary of midnight, we stepped into two worlds.”

——Anonymous

“Although many places are malevolent, they won’t harass you to death, so don’t act impulsively.”

——Anonymous

“The repressive objects after midnight, they really make you love and hate them…”

——Anonymous

“It doesn’t matter during the day. At night, find a temple to hide in and you can survive. Staying alive isn’t hard—if you’re careful. Just make sure you’re picking the right temple to enter…”

——Kui

Be careful as you walk.

Spent a hundred Yan Fu points to acquire an advanced memo record: [Locations of all the repressive objects in Yan Capital City and their attributes, accompanied by a map of Yan Capital.]

Recorder: Kui

If the contents of the Yan Fu incident were a free hunt, then spending the money was unavoidable. After all, a better understanding of this world meant a greater chance of defeating the enemy. Unless necessary, Li Yan still preferred to stay far away from entities like the Dong Yue Archway.

“You have spent a hundred Yan Fu points. You have obtained Kui’s record.”

A complicated map appeared in Li Yan’s mind, arranged like staggered ink cartridges, marked with countless red dots.

“According to the map, my location is…”

At the moment, he was walking through a winding alley with grey eaves stretching as far as the eye could see.

At the turn of the alley, two red lanterns hung on either side of peachwood doors adorned with door gods.

Langfang Main Street Alley.

The old peachwood doors creaked open with the wind, and Li Yan, like a lone wolf, tensed every pore on his body, his senses heightened, as he peered towards the doorway.

A gentle light flickered inside, while the buzzing of lively voices struck Li Yan’s face like a tidal wave; there seemed to be endless people shoulder to shoulder inside the gate.

It was a cacophony of vendors selling sunflower seeds, peanuts, hawthorn berries, and walnuts in paper-thin red skin, their pitches rising and falling in melody.

As seconds ticked by, the noise from within continued unabated, but nothing happened. The flames inside the two red lanterns burned bright, without a hint of anything terrifying occurring.

It was as if those people couldn’t see Li Yan at all, and he had no intention of approaching. Just as he was about to step away, he felt a chill on his brow, and, almost instinctively, he twisted his waist, a searing, slimy sensation grazing his forehead.

“Bang~” “Ting~”

The former sound was of something smashing into a stone step, shards scattering everywhere; the latter was of something being sliced away by Li Yan.

“Damn it!”

Around the corner in the alley, someone cursed angrily, ready to flee.

Li Yan felt an agonizing pain in his wrist, and fury surged within him. Holding the Ring Dragon Sword, he went straight towards the source.

In the pitch-black night, the lively hawking and the flickering lantern lights spilled out from the door.

Short, erratic footsteps; red lanterns shaken and jolted; moss crushed underfoot; straw baskets knocked asunder; disordered roof tiles; stifled groans, angry shouts, and the sudden gleam of a sword, followed by a spark that went out as quickly as it had appeared, ended with a scream.

The pistol in that person’s hand was shattered by the Ring Dragon Sword, springs, butt, and bullets scattering across the ground, along with two severed fingers.

“Die!”

Li Yan’s sword cut across the waist but only sliced through water. The assailant’s clothing collapsed softly to the ground as a black stream of water swiftly flowed away through the gutter.

“Tsk!”

Li Yan’s ferocity subsided, and a red lantern then leisurely crashed to the ground; it had been accidentally severed during their close melee.

The lively voices of vendors came to a sudden stop…

Young and old inside the door turned their necks to glare outside, their faces deathly pale.

Li Yan spared only a glance before running off without a second thought.