Beginning with the Ubume Bird

Chapter 42: The Final Game (2)

“Dong!”

“Clang!”

“That’s more like it.”

The blades clashed, giving off an ear-splitting sound of metal rubbing against metal. The sharp blades of the Deer Horn Knife and the Butterfly Knives danced between the two of them. In one moment, the Deer Horn Knife stopped by Xu Tianci’s throat, and in the next moment, the Butterfly Knives brushed past Li Yan’s heart. It was a dangerous battle and sweat dripped off each of their noses.

After four or five exchanges, Li Yan ended up at a disadvantage. With his wrist injured, his handling of the curve blade became more and more sluggish.

Curved, hooked weapons like the Deer Horn Knives were usually large and long, and especially effective at trapping weapons like swords. Against the Butterfly Knives they did not lack anything, but they didn’t have any particular advantages either.

Eight Slashing Knives techniques, such as binding knives, trapping knives, downward chopping knives, and so on, were not foreign to Li Yan. However, now that he faced them he was clearly at a disadvantage.

Using his Swiping Brow technique, he had managed to land a sneak attack when Xu Tianci had charged at him, eager to land a blow. But when it came to a clash between the Eight Slashing Knives technique and his own Deer Horn Knives, Li Yan had to admit that his use of a single Deer Horn Knife put him on the losing end.

The two of them were encountering their opponent’s weapons and techniques for the first time. Even though they were both on roughly equal footing, with Li Yan’s single weapon and Xu Tianci’s half-blinded state, the teenager’s ability to adapt to this tricky battle was clearly quicker than Li Yan’s.

Nineteen years old… how fearsome youth can be.

And to add, Li Yan also had a cut on his wrist. But anyone with experience would know that a horizontal cut was not lethal.

Even so, to use a weapon like the Deer Horn Knives adequately requires a high degree of finger and wrist strength; without it, it would be easy to hurt oneself. To use this weapon in such a state was simply not practical.

After another clash of weapons, Li Yan managed to just avoid Xu Tianci. The next time the teenager closed the distance, Li Yan actually chose to discard his Deer Horn Knife and face the pair of sharp Butterfly Knives with his bare hands.

Li Yan’s actions were shocking. To the audience, the wounds all over Li Yan’s body may have looked bad, but with one of Xu Tianci’s eyes blinded and the other wounded, the victor was still uncertain. Abandoning his weapon at that moment would sabotage his only chance.

Xu Tianci doubled over and charged. He looked painfully through his half-blinded vision to see Li Yan’s face.

His knives went downwards, slashing towards Li Yan’s abdomen as he charged forward.

Li Yan was unarmed, and it would be a joke if he tried to block. All that was left was for him to retreat. The pair of Butterfly Knives slashed at him with unbelievable speed, drawing blood and suddenly putting Li Yan in a deadly situation.

“Why did he abandon his weapon?” Red Ghost turned to ask Grand Duke.

“The thing about fighting is that…” said Yu Shu said with her head tilted. “You have to use your brains.”

In no time at all, more cuts appeared on Li Yan’s body, including one on his chest that gushed blood. With each intense movement, blood was flung off his body like dripping water, making one wonder whether he would die from blood loss.

Xu Tianci’s knives showed no signs of slowing down. Despite the splitting pain that ran from his eyes all the way to his brain, his knives slashed at the highest speed from all angles.

“Let’s see who can last longer!”

The teenager roared bravely.

Li Yan was slowly being forced to the corner of the ring. Soon, the pair of Butterfly Knives would be unavoidable. Xu Tianci pressed on, exuding a strong killing aura, the speed of his knives not slowing at all.

“Chi…”

Li Yan’s foot slid to the edge of the ring. His eyes lit up fiercely. Catching the exact moment where Xu Tianci’s knife chopped downwards, Li Yan charged at him.

Xu Tianci’s knives were in an upright grip. When Li Yan reached out to grab at Xu Tianci’s wrists, his fingers were actually in Xu Tianci’s blind spot. Unable to see Li Yan’s hands, Xu Tianci immediately withdrew his knives to defend himself. Surely, Li Yan wouldn’t dare be reckless with his bare hands against Xu Tianci’s knives.

One of the Butterfly Knives slashed backwards as it was drawn, cutting towards Li Yan’s right arm.

But that wasn’t all. The other knife struck out at the same time, aiming at Li Yan’s lower body. Although the aim of this thrust was not clear, it prevented the possibility of Li Yan raising his legs.

Before, Zhang Mingyuan had lost to Li Yan because of Li Yan’s Chuojiao kicking techniques that Zhang Mingyuan himself specialized in.

“I will not lose where Wu Erlang lost!”

Li Yan shifted his weight to his left, his right shoulder leaning back to avoid the slash to his right arm. Out of nowhere, Xu Tianci suddenly realized that Li Yan’s left hand had already reached the back of his hand!

“Abandoning his weapon for a joint capturing technique?”

Xu Tianci came to the sudden realization that Li Yan was willing to be stabbed in the thigh just to break Xu Tianci’s wrist. Xu Tianci did not bend his wrist to counter Li Yan. Even if Li Yan was experienced in joint capturing techniques, he might still not be able to immediately break his wrist. However, the knife to Li Yan’s thigh was unavoidable.

Then, a sudden inspiration came to him. He pushed off the ground with his foot and retreated, as though saying that he was willing to abandon the knife in his hand just so that his wrist would not be captured. But just as Xu Tianci leaned back with his body, he suddenly raised his foot!

Li Yan was already backed into a corner of the ring, and his balance was already off from twisting his left ankle to avoid the Butterfly Knives. At that moment, Xu Tianci chose to deliver a high kick that didn’t normally appear in Southern Style martial arts, aiming to kick Li Yan right out of the ring!

I’ll return this kick to you!

The audience went into an uproar.

“Something’s wrong!”

As Xu Tianci’s foot made contact with Li Yan’s chest, his heart felt like it was plunged into ice.

“I fell for it!”

He felt no resistance from the kick at all. Li Yan wasn’t sent flying with his kick, but rather had jumped into the air on his own!

A pair of calves locked onto Xu Tianci’s neck like two metal whips. Li Yan twisted his body using the strength of his waist, lifting Xu Tianci into the air!

Li Yan’s upper body arched like a bow as he did a flip. His knee was pressed against Xu Tianci’s head, and his bandaged right hand caught the abandoned Butterfly Knife in mid-air!

Xu Tianci was seeing red. He stabbed upwards with the remaining knife in his hand. But the moment he stabbed, a feeling of regret washed over him.

What am I doing?

The two of them fell to the ground, one at a time.

Xu Tianci landed first.

The two Butterfly Knives crossed each other as they clashed.

Li Yan was looking down at Xu Tianci with fire in his eyes. There was a look in his eyes that hadn’t been seen since he came down with his illness.

He wore a smile on his face. “You are a dishonorable man. You didn’t follow the rules.”

Xu Tianci’s face was bloody, his mangled eyelids shut.

When lifted into the air by Li Yan, if he had resisted, his neck would have snapped. If he did not resist, he would be flipped out of the ring. Faced with either death or loss, although the teenager was brave, he still chose survival out of instinct. However, even in the air, he still stabbed with his knife trying to harm the other party out of rage, though he knew he had already lost.

“I’ve lost.”

“If you go to the hospital now, you might still be able to save your other eye. You’re still young… if you go blind, you’ll be finished as a martial artist.”

Li Yan got to his feet and hobbled away.

Behind him, Xu Tianci continued to lie on the ground.

A crowd of young men and women jumped out of the spectator’s area to the side of the ring, surrounding Xu Tianci. Their expressions were painful.

“Jing,” said the old man, his eyes red and swollen.

The middle-aged man next to him replied immediately.

“Grandmaster.”

“Bring Tianci to the hospital. And from today onwards, every single person in the Shangtian Wing Chun Martial Arts School is forbidden from even stepping into Kowloon Walled City. Do you hear me?”

The middle-aged man gave Li Yan a long look as he retreated from the ringside. He was unwilling to reply.

“I asked, did you hear me?”

The old man’s hair was standing on end, making him look like an angry lion.

“I hear you, Grandmaster,” the man answered bitterly through gritted teeth.

…

“You have completed all of the requirements for this Yanfu Case.”

“You will return in ten minutes after the results are settled.”

Li Yan rejected the doctor who had gone approached him for his wounds. He did some basic first aid and then left for his room. Today, Xiu had gone to school. Would she be sad to see him gone when she returned?

Judy did not seem to be at her place…

As for Red Ghost, forget it.

While thinking about these things on his way back, Li Yan ran into Yu Shu. The two of them walked past each other without even looking the other in the eye.

Now that he thought of it, amongst Mo Tapir, Ubume Bird, and Ba Serpent, Grand Duke did not seem out of place, did she?

Li Yan walked into his room. The first thing he saw was the chest on his bed. He reached for it, only to find that it was locked and needed a code.

Under the chest was a note.

“A hint: the words I said to you when we first went to Victoria Harbor.”

There was a lipstick mark on the note.

Li Yan frowned and thought for a while.

One minute, three minutes, five minutes.

Li Yan picked up his Deer Horn Knife, stuck it under the lid, and heaved.

The chest opened.

It was full of glittering gold ingots.

“Gold, a precious item. Each piece can be exchanged for a hundred Yanfu Points. There is no upper limit.”

It was a chest full of them, twenty pieces in total.

2000 Yanfu Points!

Under the golden ingots was a piece of rice paper adorned in gold foil!

There was no strange mythical beast on it, just messy scrawl.

“You truly are a white elephant, a white elephant indeed.”

“You have found a Yanfu Token!”

“You may use this token to activate a Yanfu Case, or you may use it at the start of any Yanfu Case to elevate your initial identity within the Yanfu Case.”

(Regarding the words on the paper, you can search Baidu for Lu Xun, Lin Yutang, white elephant.)

Out of the corner of Li Yan’s eye, he saw a lunchbox on the table, still giving off steam.

Wanton noodles.

“Hehe.”

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Li Yan reached for it, but his body along with his outstretched hand began slowly dissipating into the air.

All that was left were specks resembling stars, which slowly faded into nothingness…

“You have completed the Yanfu Case. Total Yanfu Cases completed: 1.”

“The grading of your current Yanfu Case is: Great. (There are a total of six grades: Excellent, Great, Good, Above Average, Average, Below Average.)”

“Settlement of the results begins!”