Bone Spear Blocks the Way, Sage Body Reaches Critical Evolution

"Take your foot off."

Bai Ye swung his bone sword, and broken bones beneath Chiba's shoe soles grew upward.

Hardening Vine wrapped around his ankles, blocking the first wave of bone spikes, but its woody surface was continuously forced upward, cracks crawling all the way to his knees.

"Afraid I'll drain your chakra?"

Chiba stepped back, separating his shoe soles from the broken bones.

"You can't drain it."

Bai Ye raised a hand, and the bone fragments scattered across the forest floor changed direction at once.

"They'll only burrow into your flesh."

Broken bones rose one after another from beneath the soil, turning every area once covered by vines into an attack point.

Chiba controlled Scorch Vine to sweep across the ground. The moment the vines touched the bone spikes, new tips drilled out beside them.

Cut one down, and several more replaced it.

"Your Shikotsumyaku has gone out of control."

"As long as it kills you, that's enough."

Bai Ye stepped through the forest of bones, blood dripping from the surface of his bone armor.

The wound beneath his ribs could no longer close. Bone growth was stealing the strength needed for recovery, yet he did not retract a single bone plate.

Chiba retreated behind a tree. Paralysis Vine wound around the roots and launched a binding attack from behind Bai Ye.

"Still using poison?"

Bai Ye swung his sword backward, severing the trunk and Poison Vine together.

"I told you, it can't touch me."

The falling trunk blocked his vision, and Chiba had already pressed his palm against the soil.

Roots extended deeper, searching for an underground water vein.

[Root System Water Absorption activated.]

[Chakra recovery speed is increasing.]

Moisture entered the vine roots, replenishing the gaps in his chakra pathways. The wound on his arm began to close as well.

Bai Ye did not cross the fallen tree.

His bone sword stabbed through the other side of the trunk, its tip stopping beside Chiba's palm.

"Found you."

Chiba pulled back his hand. The bone sword immediately cut downward, slicing apart the water-absorbing roots buried in the soil.

"You can see underground?"

"I can't."

Bai Ye kicked aside the fallen trunk, his gaze settling on the moist severed ends of the vine roots.

"Whenever you're about to run out of strength, your wood crawls toward water."

"Good observation."

"The person beside the jar said the same thing."

The bone armor on Bai Ye's leg extended outward as he raised his foot and stomped the ground.

Bone nails pierced the mud. Before the remaining roots could move away, they were crushed between the broken bones.

The connection between the underground water vein and Chiba was completely severed.

[Root System Water Absorption has failed.]

"And now?"

Bai Ye withdrew his foot. The bone armor around his knee had cracked open, exposing bloody flesh without a patch of intact skin.

"Where else can your wood drink water from?"

Chiba clenched his right hand, but only a short vine grew beside his palm.

With his chakra replenishment cut off, Poison Vine's regeneration could no longer keep up with the cutting.

"From you."

"Then come take it."

Bai Ye pulled a bone spike from his waist and crossed it with the bone sword in his hand as he swung.

Every path ahead was sealed off, leaving Chiba no choice but to retreat.

The short vine snapped after taking the first strike. The second bone spike swept past his abdomen, tearing open both cloth and skin.

By the time blood flowed down, Bai Ye had already closed in.

"Didn't you want to see the limit of Shikotsumyaku just now?"

The bone armor on Bai Ye's shoulder slammed into Chiba's chest.

Chiba raised an arm to block, but his feet were still driven backward across the ground.

"Do you see it clearly now?"

"Not quite."

"Still talking tough."

Bai Ye grabbed Chiba's wrist. A bone blade flipped out from the outside of his elbow and slashed directly toward the chakra pathways in his arm.

Chiba let a thin vine drill out from his sleeve and wrap around the base of the bone blade.

The instant the vine tightened, Bai Ye twisted his elbow and shredded it.

Chiba took the chance to pull his arm free, his fist striking Bai Ye's bone-armored face.

The bone plate blocked most of the force, but Bai Ye's head still snapped to the side.

"Again."

Before Chiba could throw his second punch, Bai Ye's kneecap had already slammed into his abdomen.

The Sage Body dispersed the impact, but his stomach still churned.

"You're slower."

The bone sword came down from beside his shoulder.

Chiba raised both arms. The remaining Hardening Vine grew in a cross, blocking the blade.

The woody layers were sawed apart one by one.

Every time a layer broke, new vines burst out from within.

His chakra kept dwindling with the regeneration, until all Chiba could hear was blood flowing through his chakra pathways.

"Keep growing."

Bai Ye pressed down on the bone sword with both hands, forcing the blade lower.

"Let's see whether your wood runs dry first, or my bones break first."

"Your bones are already breaking."

Chiba looked at the hand gripping the sword.

Several cracks had appeared across the bone-armored knuckles. His body had extracted too much calcium, and the newly formed bones could no longer maintain their original density.

"Enough to kill you."

Bai Ye released one hand. A short bone extended from his palm and stabbed toward Chiba's chest.

Chiba dismissed Hardening Vine and twisted his body aside.

Without resistance, the bone sword plunged into the mud, but the short bone slashed across Chiba's ribs, forcing him to retreat again.

His heel struck stone.

There were no more trees behind him.

The cliff wall blocked every path of retreat. The rock contained too little moisture for his roots to burrow any deeper.

Bai Ye looked up at the stone wall.

"You picked a good spot."

"Good for burying you."

"You go in first."

Bai Ye threw away the bone sword and reached his right hand toward the back of his neck.

The bone armor on his back opened outward piece by piece, revealing pale vertebrae growing along his spine.

His fingers hooked around the uppermost bone ring, and he began pulling out his entire spine.

Blood ran down the armor plates. Once the vertebrae left his body, they rapidly thickened, the front condensing into a spearhead while the rear remained connected to several bloodied bone branches.

"This is Shikotsumyaku too?"

"They said this move isn't finished yet."

Bai Ye gripped the bone spear. New supporting bones had already grown from the wound in his back.

"Bracken Dance requires planting bones into the earth."

The bone spear pointed at Chiba's chest, its branches unfolding one by one.

"I can only plant them in one person."

Chiba tried to force out one last Hardening Vine.

The vine bud only emerged from his palm before it stopped growing.

[Chakra is nearing depletion.]

"Still have poison?"

"Yes."

"Spread it out."

Bai Ye dragged the bone spear forward. With every step he took, the spear tip left a bony protrusion in the ground.

"Let me walk over it."

Chiba's breathing grew heavy. Every rise and fall of his chest pulled at the wound along his ribs.

Sweat ran down from his temple, tracing faint golden markings as it passed his eyes.

Natural energy was drawing near from the plants beyond the cliff, yet it could not find a stable path into his body.

[Sage Body is actively absorbing natural energy.]

[Balance failed.]

Bai Ye stopped within the bone spear's stabbing range.

"The color around your eyes changed."

"You can see it?"

"I'm not blind."

"Then watch carefully."

Chiba adjusted his breathing, trying to direct the natural energy flooding into his chest toward the empty chakra pathways.

The golden markings had barely reached his temples before dimming, then lighting up again.

His heart beat again and again.

The tip of the bone spear was already pressed against his clothes.

"You still want to grow wood?"

"Yes."

"Too late."

Bai Ye thrust the bone spear forward.

Chiba raised his hand to grab the spearhead. The Hardening Vine in his palm formed only a thin layer.

The bone pierced through the wood and stabbed into his skin.

[Host's life is under extreme threat.]

[Emergency evolution conditions fulfilled.]

[Initiate evolution during battle?]

[Cost: combat strength will decrease by fifty percent for twenty-four hours after evolution.]

Bai Ye continued exerting force, driving the spearhead deeper into Chiba's palm bone.

"Why aren't you dodging?"

"Nowhere to go."

"Then die."

Golden markings passed beyond Chiba's eyes, falling with the blood from his palm onto the bone spear.

Every dark-white branch in the system panel lit up.

Chiba's five fingers clamped around the spearhead as he raised his eyes to Bai Ye.

"Evolve."