NOVEL WEB Chapter 29: Chapter 29: Blood Armor
Join my Patreon to be 30 chapters ahead of the webnovel releases:
patreon.com/ZeroMoney
I would appreciate your help if you could join my Patreon and support me because it would keep me motivated.
******
Ye Lan's greatest weakness right now was undoubtedly his own body—most of his combat strength still resided in his Blue Silver Grass.
In just a few short breaths, the Ancient Beast's Touch, leveraging its massive frame, instantly closed the distance and loomed directly before Ye Lan.
The Blue Silver Grass was utterly incapable of halting the giant's approach.
Several of the beast's tentacles rose ten meters into the air, then came crashing down toward Ye Lan with the weight and momentum of a collapsing mountain.
The crushing pressure made the air around Ye Lan's face ripple—he could feel the sheer force pressing against his skin.
Faced with such a devastating strike, Ye Lan had no intention of taking it head-on.
With a burst of soul power, in the blink of an eye, Ye Lan activated Flash Step.
Timing it perfectly, Ye Lan narrowly dodged the blow by shifting several meters to the side just before the tentacles slammed down.
The Ancient Beast's Touch was briefly confused by Ye Lan's sudden disappearance, but thanks to its dozens of eyes, it quickly located Ye Lan's new position and began closing in once again.
However, after using Flash Step, Ye Lan's legs were sore and hadn't fully recovered.
Instead of relying on Flash Step again, he channeled soul power into his legs and continued dodging the beast's relentless strikes through sheer movement and agility.
While the Ancient Beast attacked with its tentacles as it moved, Ye Lan kept pulling back, maintaining distance while using his Blue Silver Grass to block and counter.
With eight brains operating simultaneously, the creature was highly intelligent—capable of thinking strategically even mid-battle.
It didn't take long for it to realize that the cramped deck of the ship worked in its favor due to its massive size.
Rather than chasing Ye Lan in circles, it stopped moving and anchored itself in the center of the deck. By doing so, it could restrict Ye Lan's movements simply by expanding the reach of its tentacles outward.
With this shift in strategy, Ye Lan found himself with less and less room to maneuver.
The creature's limbs stretched wide like a massive net, poised to swallow him whole.
Eventually, Ye Lan's back was against the railing—with nothing behind him but the pitch-black sea.
He was trapped, with nowhere left to retreat. Jumping into the ocean wasn't an option.
Doing so would be suicide.
Fighting the Ancient Beast's Touch in the water would put Ye Lan at a severe disadvantage.
Back in the captain's quarters, the fisherman had initially thought Ye Lan was doomed when his Blue Silver Grass had been shredded.
But when he saw the vines regenerate and resume fighting the tentacles, his anxiety began to ease.
Just as the old man regained hope that Ye Lan could hold on, he was shocked again to see the young man cornered with no escape route.
His heart leapt into his throat once more.
Yet this time, he didn't lose faith in Ye Lan—instead, he chose to believe the young man could break through this desperate situation.
...
Backed into a dead end, Ye Lan continuously unleashed Blue Silver Grass from his body, trying to stave off the Ancient Beast's assaults.
One after another, the golden vines were slapped away and shredded.
Finally, the creature seized its opportunity—when most of Ye Lan's vines were still regenerating, it launched all eight tentacles directly at him.
Ye Lan, with nowhere to flee, narrowed his eyes. A golden light flashed.
Golden Eyes—activated.
Soul power surged into his eyes, and the golden glow intensified.
His reflexes skyrocketed, and his dynamic vision allowed him to see the full intent behind all eight of the Ancient Beast's attacks.
Nothing could hide from his gaze.
Ye Lan's perception of everything suddenly seemed to slow down by a beat—the Ancient Beast's Touch no longer appeared quite so terrifying.
It was as if Ye Lan had foreseen the beast's attacks in advance. With incredibly subtle footwork and a series of unexpected, unconventional movements, he deftly evaded the strikes.
He constantly sidestepped, ducked, twisted, and shifted with ghost-like agility. The tentacles swiped dangerously close to him again and again, brushing past with hairbreadth precision.
Each failed strike landed heavily on the deck, causing the fishing boat to rock even more violently under the force of the Ancient Beast's barrage.
But the boat's swaying didn't disrupt Ye Lan's movements in the slightest. He keenly spotted a gap in the creature's attack.
Gathering soul power at the soles of his feet—PA!
With a loud boom, Ye Lan activated Sound Shift, leaping to a point four meters above the Ancient Beast's head.
Taking advantage of the explosive momentum from Sound Shift, he channeled soul power into his waist and core—
Soul power infusion: 100%!
With a powerful twist of his torso, Ye Lan swung his right leg toward the beast.
The sheer speed of the move made his leg appear like a black crescent slicing through the air.
THUD.
Ye Lan's instep slammed into the top of the Ancient Beast's Touch with a muffled impact.
The massive creature staggered to the right under the force of the blow. For a moment, Ye Lan thought he had succeeded.
But the Ancient Beast quickly recovered after tilting only two meters. It shook off the momentary stiffness with unsettling ease.
It couldn't understand how, after forcing this golden-haired youth into such a desperate corner, it had still been struck.
Rage surged through its monstrous form. The minuscule creature in front of it had now become intolerably infuriating.
All of its dozens of blood-red eyes twisted grotesquely, as though blazing with distorted flame.
Before Ye Lan could even land, eight thick, pitch-black tentacles were already converging to surround him.
This time, they moved faster than ever. Though Ye Lan's Golden Eyes could still clearly track their attack patterns, he had no footing in mid-air to dodge with.
He could only use his Blue Silver Grass to anchor himself—bracing against the deck and even using the beast's own limbs as leverage to twist and maneuver.
But aerial agility could never compare to ground-based mobility. Within just a few exchanges, Ye Lan's right arm was caught by one of the tentacles near its end.
Even though it was only the tip, the average diameter of that segment was still nearly thirty centimeters wide.
Ye Lan's expression changed instantly. "Not good!"
After all this time battling Ye Lan, the Ancient Beast finally caught a solid opportunity, and the thrill of success caused its enormous body to tremble with excitement.
The tentacle coiled around Ye Lan's arm suddenly tightened with overwhelming force.
Despite being a soft-bodied creature, octopi are deceptively strong—even the most ordinary among them can crush hard-shelled prey.
Let alone this one—a thousand-year-old king among its kind: the Great King's Touch.
Just as the Ancient Beast was reveling in its imminent victory, imagining the crushing of Ye Lan's arm—
A strange feedback surged up from its tentacle: the golden-haired youth's arm… was incredibly hard.
In that split second, Ye Lan had concentrated his soul power into his bloodstream, enhancing his musculature at a rapid pace.
The sudden acceleration of blood flow fortified his arm's muscles dramatically, spiking his defensive strength.
This was a self-created soul skill Ye Lan had developed a year ago—Blood Armor.
Blood Armor allowed him to harden his muscle tissues and significantly boost his physical defense.
If the Ancient Beast had wrapped a thicker part of its tentacle around Ye Lan's torso or neck, even Blood Armor wouldn't have helped.
But since it was only the tip of the tentacle, its crushing force wasn't enough. It only managed to scrape and tear some skin using the jagged suction cups.
As the Ancient Beast froze in shock, Ye Lan's bloodied arm suddenly radiated with golden light.
(End of Chapter)