Golden Eye

"If we run into one around a hundred years old, I'll haul it onto the deck. If it's over two thousand years old, then that's just my bad luck—we'll head straight back to shore." Ye Lan agreed to the fisherman, silently praying that they would encounter a suitable soul beast this time.

Dressed in black, Ye Lan sat quietly in a corner of the deck, where he could clearly see all of the catch.

The moment anything among the catch on deck moved, Ye Lan would receive the information immediately.

Splash! Splash! Splash!

At night in the Black Sea, aside from the rolling sound of the waves, everything was deathly quiet.

A black sea beneath a black sky.

On the fishing boat in the middle of the sea, there was no illumination apart from a sliver of moonlight in the sky.

Ye Lan's black pupils glimmered with a faint golden hue.

This was the new Soul Skill Ye Lan had developed after his Martial Soul Evolution, which he had named Golden Eye.

By using the Martial Soul Evolution to unlock the neural pathways in his brain, Ye Lan had successfully developed this eye-based Soul Skill.

Golden Eye could enhance reaction speed, dynamic vision, and control over color perception.

It allowed him to instantly adapt to both bright and dim environments. Now, after activating Golden Eye, Ye Lan could stare directly at the sun without harming his eyes.

Beyond its adaptability to light, what Ye Lan prized most about Golden Eye was its enhancement of reaction speed and dynamic vision.

After activating Golden Eye, his reaction speed was several times faster than before, more than sufficient until Ye Lan became a Titled Douluo.

Ye Lan had sat motionlessly on the deck for several hours. At the slightest movement, he would activate Golden Eye to observe the situation on deck.

Meanwhile, the fisherman hid in the captain's cabin on the second floor, so Ye Lan did not need to worry about Old Fisherman's safety.

Ye Lan would undoubtedly be the main force against the soul beasts. He would not ask an ordinary person to help him fight them.

Suddenly, Ye Lan heard the sound of some creature crawling.

Scrape... scrape...

It was the sound of wet slime rubbing against the wooden boards. Without sharp hearing, it would have been impossible to detect.

Through Golden Eye, Ye Lan saw several dark Octopus Tentacles slowly wriggling over the railing of the fishing boat, covered in black suckers of varying sizes.

With Golden Eye, Ye Lan could make out extremely tiny serrations lining the suckers.

Gradually, the black octopus climbed onto the deck.

Ye Lan recognized it as Ancient Beast's Touch, though for some reason, this one was slightly different—its eyes were red.

Ancient Beast's Touch raised its oval brain and surveyed its surroundings.

The dozens of red eyeballs on its head looked especially terrifying beneath the moonlight.

This Ancient Beast's Touch, over twenty meters long, wrapped its tentacles around the catch and fed with its mouthparts.

Looking at the enormous monster before him, Ye Lan swallowed instinctively.

It was Ye Lan's first time seeing such a massive sea beast. Compared to his own one-meter-eighty frame, he seemed like nothing more than a snack to Ancient Beast's Touch.

Ye Lan rose to his feet, no longer observing as he prepared to fight.

If he waited any longer, Ancient Beast's Touch would finish eating the entire catch.

Ye Lan estimated that the Ancient Beast's Touch before him was between twelve hundred and fourteen hundred years old.

Compared to the seventeen-hundred-year limit his second Soul Ring could absorb, Ye Lan was not picky.

Sea Soul Beasts were different from land soul beasts; acquiring them was far too troublesome.

Besides, Ye Lan could choose his own Soul Skills, so he was not worried about the strength of the Soul Skill.

Ye Lan crept to within fifteen meters of Ancient Beast's Touch, golden light swirling around his body.

In the dark, streaks of pale golden light suddenly emerged. They were the dozen or so Blue Silver Grass strands Ye Lan had released from his body.

The Blue Silver Grass shot toward Ancient Beast's Touch. Through its red eyes, Ancient Beast's Touch sensed the sudden change, stopped feeding, and fixed its gaze on the golden light.

Having never seen Golden Blue Silver Grass before, Ancient Beast's Touch had no idea what it was.

It merely stopped feeding and became alert, choosing not to attack rashly.

Ye Lan had expected Ancient Beast's Touch to react to his attack. After all, the Blue Silver Grass was making far too much commotion now.

Unless it was blind, there was no way it could fail to react.

Yet he had not expected Ancient Beast's Touch to be so cautious that it did not move at all.

If Ancient Beast's Touch would not attack first, Ye Lan would not let this opportunity slip away.

The dozen streaks of golden light twisted toward Ancient Beast's Touch like a giant net. Just as the Blue Silver Grass came within several meters of it, Ancient Beast's Touch extended eight tentacles to meet Ye Lan's attack.

The black tentacles tangled with two strands of Blue Silver Grass. The Blue Silver Grass stalks, more than twenty centimeters thick, appeared somewhat slender before the enormous tentacles of Ancient Beast's Touch.

Ancient Beast's Touch possessed a body over twenty meters long, and the thickest parts of each tentacle were several times thicker than the Blue Silver Grass.

Even the thinner tips of its tentacles were almost thicker than the Blue Silver Grass.

Yet despite their thickness, the tentacles were unexpectedly locked in a stalemate with the Blue Silver Grass.

Based on their size difference, the Blue Silver Grass should have been crushed outright by the tentacles of the Ancient Beast's Touch.

But the Blue Silver Grass now had a sixfold vitality boost, so being able to hold its ground was not strange.

From the feedback of the Blue Silver Grass, Ye Lan discovered that the Ancient Beast's Touch's tentacles were not the soft tissue he had imagined. Instead, they were extremely hard, like bones!

Although the Blue Silver Grass was now exceptionally tough and possessed a sixfold vitality boost, Ye Lan could still feel the Blue Silver Grass's vitality rapidly draining away.

Just as the battle reached a deadlock, with over a dozen strands of Blue Silver Grass locked in a mutual struggle against the Ancient Beast's Touch's eight tentacles, the Blue Silver Grass suddenly collapsed, constantly being severed by the black tentacles.

Broken strands of Blue Silver Grass scattered across the fishing boat's deck.

Inside the cabin, the fisherman heard the commotion and watched Ye Lan's battle with the Ancient Beast's Touch through the window.

Beads of sweat soaked the fisherman's entire body. He gripped the wheel tightly and muttered, "I shouldn't have come here. This is too terrifying. How could I have believed that a Soul Grandmaster could defeat a Thousand-Year Ancient Beast's Touch?"

"Oh no, he's going to lose!"

On the deck, the Ancient Beast's Touch finally dealt with all the Blue Silver Grass.

The Ancient Beast's Touch sensed a hint of threat from the human before it and had no intention of letting him go.

Eight tentacles shot toward the Golden-Haired Man at tremendous speed. To the Ancient Beast's Touch's surprise, more than a dozen golden vines emerged from the Golden-Haired Man's body once again, blocking its attack.

Ye Lan remained calm as the Blue Silver Grass was crushed by the Ancient Beast's Touch. He did not panic simply because the Blue Silver Grass had been shredded.

That was because of an overpowered trait that Ultimate Life bestowed upon the Blue Silver Grass.

Besides giving Blue Silver Grass—Living Form an extremely high base vitality, Ultimate Life also granted it the ability to regenerate at tremendous speed.

In just a few seconds, Ye Lan could regrow the damaged Blue Silver Grass.

Thus, the Ancient Beast's Touch failed in its attempt to attack Ye Lan's actual body, as Ye Lan blocked every strike.

The Ancient Beast's Touch kept crushing the Blue Silver Grass, gradually realizing that the golden vines released by the Golden-Haired Man seemed endless.

The Ancient Beast's Touch did not intend to keep wasting its strength. It chose to withdraw half its tentacles to help itself rapidly approach the Golden-Haired Man.

It intended to deal with Ye Lan directly. These golden vines were extremely troublesome to it.

The Ancient Beast's Touch had made the correct choice. The Blue Silver Grass had a vitality boost, but Ye Lan did not.