Beginning with the Ubume Bird - Chapter 44

Chapter 44: Tattoo!

Category: Other Objects, Armament Tattoos!

The first one that came into view was a green, four-clawed dragon that covered the entire shoulder. It was called Coiling Green Dragon. Do you know about Chan Ho-nam?

Effects: Prevention of stray bullet damage 5%. Increased wound healing 5%.

This item costs 20 Yanfu points.

There was another one of two black dragons that intersected across the chest. Its name was Twin Dragons in the River.

Effects: Prevention of stray bullet damage 10%. Increased wound healing 10%. Slight deterrence against Yin creatures.

This item costs 50 Yanfu points.

Li Yan browsed through several more tattoos. He saw tattoos of koi fish, Zhong Kui, a Yasha battling a tiger, tattoos that could ward off hell-demons and hungry ghosts, and so on. One was a full body tattoo of a giant black dragon. It gave a whopping 40% prevention of stray bullet damage, but nothing else.

After looking through all of them, he finally settled on three.

The first was of four green, three-clawed imps carrying a black heavy-looking coffin with ferocious expressions on their faces. Over a dozen black chains crossed each other in all directions, sealing the coffin shut.

Four Demon Pallbearers!

Effects: Prevention of stray bullet damage 25%. Increased wound healing 25%. Additional statuses: Enhanced Luck, Reduced Lifespan.

This item costs 500 Yanfu points. A purchasing limit of 120% or more is required.

The second was a pond with nine black lotus flowers. Some were in full bloom while others were still buds.

Effects: Prevention of stray bullet damage 25%. Increased wound healing 25%. Prevention of vital energy or lifespan loss from decay caused by contact with Yin objects. Additional status: Spirit Channelling (Yin affinity).

This item costs 800 Yanfu points. A purchasing limit of 150% or more is required.

The third was a strange beast bleeding from each of its seven facial orifices. It had four limbs and a pair of wings, and a bear’s head on a wolf’s body.

Effects: Prevention of stray bullet damage 30%. Increased wound healing 20%. Additional status: Ominous! (Repels a hundred ghosts).

This item costs 1100 Yanfu points. A purchasing limit of 180% or more is required.

Only one Armament Tattoo may be in effect at a time.

These three tattoos were the most expensive of all, and they all came with additional permanent status. Even the cheapest of them, the Four Demon Pallbearers, cost 500 points.

Before this, Li Yan had already spent over 400 points on Combat Essence and the pistol.

However, Li Yan had already looked through everything briefly and was confident that his 3000 plus Yanfu points was an excessive amount. He didn’t need to worry about not having enough.

The description of the enhanced luck from The Four Demon Pallbearers was too abstract, and Li Yan felt it was not too reliable. The black lotus tattoo was clearly not suited for a fighter type like himself. Hence, Li Yan chose the last tattoo.

The name of that strange beast was ‘Chaos’.

Category: Skill Scrolls

[A Strong Impression] Description as before.

[Yellow Talisman, Chi Healing]

When used on a wound of low to medium severity that does not cripple the user, after cleaning, this tattoo will cause the wound to gradually heal. When used on a wound above medium severity, it will prevent worsening of the wound’s condition. (Bullets, pellets, metal beads, etc. without any special characteristics will be passed out of the body through muscle or flesh contractions.)

This item cannot be used during combat. This item costs 300 Yanfu points.

Note: This Skill Scroll is part of the additional purchasing limit from killing the Predator. The Predator had only purchased an inferior product with a limited number of uses; therefore, after purchasing this skill, there will be a limit of 20 uses per Yanfu Case.

What had left a strong impression on Li Yan was the Yellow Talisman: Instant Healing that Li Jiangyu had used. The effects were practically cheating, as good as granting the user another life. Unfortunately, it seemed that he could not purchase it.

Even so, Li Yan still felt that this item was very practical. Although its description said ‘gradual healing’, it could at least ensure that a wound would not worsen, and that meant that it could save lives. In many places without modern medicine, one could die from an infection on a mere minor wound. In a long, drawn-out battle, this thing was like a portable combat medic, one that didn’t even require bandages or antiseptics.

[Innumerable Murders: 87/100 (Locked)]

Task-based skill, unlocking to gain a clue to obtain an Inheritance.

This item costs 200 Yanfu points.

Category: Special Items

[Yanfu Story Capsule]: Available when obtaining a grade of “Above Average” or higher. This item costs 50 Yanfu points. Single use only.

Description: Thousands of vast Yanfu encompass all that exist. Anything that is known to be possible in the Yanfu is real. Break this item to be awarded a fantasy item that exists only in stories.

Above is the entirety of your purchasing limit for this Yanfu Case. The time limit for this will last until the start of the next Yanfu Case. The Mo Tapir’s Gift will be renewed for the next Yanfu Case.

That’s it? Li Yan looked at the items listed within his purchasing limit, and then looked at his Yanfu points. Even if he bought all the things that he wanted to twice over, it seemed that he would still have quite a bit left over…

Unspent points? This truly was the trouble of the rich.

Li Yan had not realized that his “Great” evaluation would give him only 500 points. And based on the way the points were calculated, he could only gain a maximum of 600 points with the highest evaluation (an additional 200% of the base points).

And for his purchasing limit, from the excess of 5%, the 59% from killing the predator was the large additional portion that would be very hard to replicate. This meant that after gaining excess limit and points from evaluation, and with the high evaluation that he had gotten completing the requirements of the Yanfu Case, along with with the extra money that he had cheated off He Lian Sheng, minus the costs of the ES Hematopoietic Stem Cell Repair… all of that amounted to only 1204 points. That was barely enough, even if he chose to be thrifty.

On the other hand, the gold bars that Judy had handed to him were worth a total of 2000 points!

Money truly made the world go round.

After strengthening himself, Li Yan’s personal information no longer seemed so blank.

Name: Li Yan

Statuses: The Hooked Star, Ominous!

Specialization: Ancient Martial Arts: 89% +4%

Firearms: 38%

Skills: 1. A Strong Impression

Yellow Talisman: Chi Healing

Innumerable Murders: 87/100 (Locked)

Inheritance: Soul of the Ubume Bird, The Hooked Star

At a glance, after just one Yanfu Case, the amount of text in Li Yan’s personal information had surpassed Li Jiangyu’s. Taking into account that Zhang Mingyuan would have gotten only the most basic reward, it was guaranteed that even if he fully activated the abilities of his Kaiming Tiger, he would be no match for Li Yan.

Li Jiangyu had only gotten so far because he was too passive, only achieving an evaluation of “Average” at best. For this Yanfu Case, he had obtained the Predator status through special means and was sure that he would finally get at least an “Above Average” rating. He never thought he would end up losing his life.

For all of these new items in his information page, Li Yan had spent a little over 2000 points, which meant that he had around 1200 points left over, an amount that a Walker might not even amass from a full Yanfu Case.

Li Yan went back to the different firearms available. In fact, these items had the best value for their price. The cheapest pistol was less than 20 points, and the most expensive ones were below a hundred. With such strong firepower, even a tattoo worth over a thousand points would do you no good…

But on the other hand, these things required large quantities of ammo and were very hard to carry around. In a situation without any support, how many bullets could a fully armed soldier carry? How many guns could he carry? Could he possibly lug around an RPG?

Although this was the case, Li Yan still made up his mind to buy as many firearms as possible before the start of the next Yanfu Case. The more confident a person was with melee combat, the more they understood the benefits of firearms.

Li Yan was just about to return when he remembered the Yanfu Story Capsule with the exaggerated description.

The ability to obtain a fantasy item that only exists in stories… Would it be the Purple Flying Sword from the Shushan Swordsman Chronicles? Or the sacred cloths from Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac? 50 points?

Buy it!

“You have obtained: Yanfu Story Capsule.”

What came into view was a round, column-shaped object, much like a bottle of tea. It was sealed shut. Li Yan twisted it gently with his fingers and the canister split open, scattering fragments all over the ground. A ball of soft light floated in mid-air, growing in size and then shrinking again, before finally landing on Li Yan’s palm. It was half of a torn page, covered completely in dried blood. Not a single word on it was readable.

[Blood-Soaked Page of Black Magic Tome]: When worn, this item slightly reduces resistance to Black Magic.

Remarks: Zhazhasi, zhazhasi, nasitenadazhazhasi…

What the heck is this!?

Confused, Li Yan put the thing in his pocket and opened the half-closed door. There was a long flight of stairs behind it.

He stepped into the dim stairwell. There was only silence all around him.

“Tap, tap, tap.”

One step at a time, he went down the metal stairs. Through his partly covered vision, he could see that it was a mess downstairs. There was an overturned sofa, scattered water, a TV still switched on, and someone had put on Jackie Cheung’s “Born to be Wild” album.

Li Yan pressed pause on the remote, freezing the screen. He then lifted the sofa back into place and tidied up the mess around him. The sky was turning dark. The glass door to his shop was open, letting in a cool breeze.

He laid down on his sofa. Everything seemed like a dream.

“Beep.”

The DVD player swallowed the disc, showing a screen of black and white. After a clear keyboard melody played, accompanied by the sound of drums and bass, Zhou Xiaoou’s rough voice played over the speakers.

I do not know where I am born.

Will I cry after I am born?

I do not know where I want to go.

I sing a song that belongs to no homeland.

I do not know where you are born.

Will anyone cry when you die?

I do not know where you want to go.

Your grave points towards the cold sky.

Li Yan rested his elbows on the table, his head down and his nose on the back of his hand. The increasingly intense, hoarse voice assaulted his eardrums, but he enjoyed the sound of it.

Suddenly, he laughed, laughing harder and harder.

It was the strong, unparalleled feeling of being alive.