Third Evolution: Bone Wood Pierces White Armor

[Combat evolution activated.]

The bone spear continued forward, but no more blood flowed from Chiba's palm.

A dense layer of wood grew from the wound, wrapping around the spear tip. It was harder than the original mineralized vines.

Bai Ye pulled the bone spear back.

The spear tip was locked within the wooden layer and did not come free immediately.

"What did you do?"

"Made a choice."

The World Tree skill map unfolded within Chiba's mind.

Three branches grew from above the pale nodes, representing different evolution paths.

[Option One: Wood Release: Skeletal Reinforcement.]

[Integrate the Shikotsumyaku support structure into Wood Release, increasing internal hardness and impact resistance.]

[Option Two: Wood Release: Thorn Armor.]

[Cover the host's entire body with a wooden structure, increasing frontal defense.]

[Option Three: Wood Release: Bone Devouring.]

[Absorb the target's bone matter and convert it into nourishment for Wood Release growth.]

Bai Ye twisted the bone spear again. Branching barbs along the shaft scraped across Chiba's palm, trying to cut an opening through the wooden wrapping.

"Let go."

"Getting nervous?"

"I'll tear your hand off with it."

"Try it."

The bone spear pulled backward, dragging Chiba's arm straight, but his feet did not move.

Support branches grew inside the wooden layer around the spear tip. Tiny structures interlocked, dispersing the external force across his entire arm.

[Please select an evolution path.]

Thorn Armor could block the current attack, but it would only leave him trapped in a battle of attrition against Bai Ye.

Bone Devouring could replenish his strength, but against a bone spear still connected to Bai Ye's body, its absorption speed might not outpace the spear's thrust.

Chiba looked at the already-cracked Hardening Vine.

The outer layer did not lack hardness.

What it truly lacked was the ordinary wooden core within.

"Choose one."

[Wood Release: Skeletal Reinforcement confirmed.]

[Evolution is irreversible.]

[Beginning integration of Shikotsumyaku structure.]

The broken bones wrapped in Hardening Vine changed first.

The chakra remaining within them separated from the marrow and entered Chiba's palm through wooden conduits.

White patterns spread from between his fingers to his wrist. After crossing his arm, they scattered from his chest into his chakra pathways.

Bai Ye tightened his grip on the bone spear.

"That's my chakra."

"It's mine now."

"Wood Release can't consume Shikotsumyaku."

"It couldn't before."

The first new vine emerged beside Chiba's palm.

Its surface was still dark brown wood, but continuous sounds of bone joints locking together came from inside.

White patterns extended along the vine. Every time they passed a bend, a section of pale framework formed within it.

The new vine no longer swayed softly.

Like a growing bone spear, it shot straight out from the outer side of Chiba's wrist.

Bai Ye swung his bone spear to meet it.

The two collided in midair.

A crack appeared at the front of the bone spear. The Bone Wood Vine Spear lost only a little outer bark, while the white skeleton inside did not bend.

"How is that possible?"

"Your bones aren't as hard as you claimed."

Chiba twisted his wrist, and the Bone Wood Vine Spear pressed down on the spear shaft.

More vines grew from beside his palm. Their white patterns linked into rings, and every layer of wood now contained an interwoven skeleton.

Bai Ye tried to sever one of them.

His bone blade cut through the bark, only to be caught by the internal supports.

The vine seized the chance to coil around his wrist.

"Poison won't work."

"Who said I was trying to poison you?"

The Bone Wood Vine tightened.

Cracking sounds came from Bai Ye's wrist armor. The edges of its bone plates were crushed inward and shifted out of place.

He raised his other hand, driving the bone blade from his elbow toward the knot of vines.

A second Bone Wood Vine burst out from below. After knocking aside the bone blade, it coiled around his elbow.

"Your bones regenerate."

Chiba stepped forward.

"So does my wood."

Bai Ye released the bone spear. Long spikes grew from the outsides of his shoulders as he rammed toward Chiba.

Bone armor covered his entire body. The frontal impact was enough to shatter the Hardening Vines from before.

Chiba did not retreat.

Several Bone Wood Vines rose from the ground. Their tips no longer aimed for joints; all of them targeted the bone plate over Bai Ye's chest.

"Useless."

Bai Ye met the vine spears with his shoulder.

"You can't pierce it."

The first Bone Wood Vine struck the bone armor. Its wooden bark cracked, and the white inner bone immediately pushed to the tip.

A tiny hole was punched through the bone armor.

The second vine thrust into that hole. Its inner framework spread apart, forcibly widening the crack in the armor plate.

Bai Ye stopped walking.

"You..."

The third Bone Wood Vine followed immediately after.

Its tip pierced the chest armor and stopped just before the skin beneath.

Purple poison markings lit up at the end of the vine, finally passing through the defense that isolated poison.

Chiba did not thrust any farther.

"Now I've touched you."

Bai Ye grabbed the vine in his chest, and the bone armor along the outsides of his fingers kept closing in.

"How can your Wood Release contain the power of the Kaguya bone bloodline?"

"You gave it to me."

"A few broken bones can't alter a Kekkei Genkai."

"That's why you can't understand."

Chiba swept the vine spear sideways, tearing away a huge section of Bai Ye's chest armor.

With the armor layer gone, the wound beneath his ribs was exposed again.

Paralysis Vines branched from the Bone Wood trunk. Their thin tips pierced the skin along the wound's edges.

Bai Ye immediately snapped off that section of bone armor, tearing away the vines that had already touched his body along with it.

Blood splashed across the vine roots.

"You want the poison to get inside?"

"It already has."

"The bone marrow will block it."

Bai Ye stepped back half a step, but his right leg failed to follow.

Purple poison patterns were flowing with the chakra around his wound. The outer bone armor could no longer stop them.

"Your bone armor needs chakra to maintain itself."

Chiba pulled the spear tip from his palm. The wound was quickly sealed by wood.

"The poison follows it. It's faster than entering through the skin."

Bai Ye slapped his hand against his ribs. Bone plates contracted inward, trying to seal the nearby chakra pathways.

The paralysis had already crossed his waist and abdomen.

The bone armor on his right leg went out of control, and several plates fell from his knee.

"You used this on Neji."

"He was smarter than you."

"He lost."

"So will you."

Bai Ye thrust his hand into the crack in his chest armor and gripped a rib beneath it.

"Then I'll replace every poisoned bone."

He forcibly tore out the rib and threw it to the ground with flesh and blood still attached.

New bone immediately grew from deep within the wound, trying to expel the invading poison along with it.

Chiba controlled a Bone Wood Vine and pierced the rib on the ground.

The white patterns along the vine deepened again.

[Active bone matter continuously absorbed.]

[Skeletal Reinforcement completion increased.]

Bai Ye looked at the rib he had torn out.

"You're still taking them."

"Pull out a few more."

"You want to eat my bones?"

"They taste average."

Bai Ye clutched his wound, laughter emerging from beneath the bone armor.

"Even the Senju eat people."

"I only eat enemies."

Chiba raised his right hand, and every Bone Wood Vine rose from around the forest clearing.

The stumps Bai Ye had severed earlier had already completed their evolution.

Their broken ends no longer contained soft wooden cores. Every vine possessed an independent skeleton and could rise again from the mud.

Bai Ye surveyed his surroundings as the bone armor on his arms gradually retracted.

If he continued maintaining full-body defense, he would only give the Bone Wood Vines more samples.

"You're not fighting anymore?"

Chiba had the vine tips seal off his retreat.

"After evolving, your strength is dropping."

Bai Ye stared at the golden markings fading from the corners of Chiba's eyes.

"That chakra from before is already gone."

[The cost of evolution has begun to take effect.]

[Host combat power reduced by fifty percent.]

The Bone Wood patterns on Chiba's arms did not vanish, but his breathing had become heavier than before.

"It's enough to kill you."

"Maybe not."

Bai Ye suddenly tore away the remaining bone armor over his chest, exposing a black mark buried beneath his collarbone.

Several old holes left by thin needles connected to the edges of the mark, while another cold chakra lingered at its center.

"The people who wanted to put me in a jar left something in my bones long ago."

The broken bones on the ground were stained with black patterns at the same time.

Chiba controlled the vines to sever the connection, but the black mark had already entered the Bone Wood framework through the absorbed bone matter.

[Unknown parasitic chakra detected.]

[Evolution sample contaminated.]

Bai Ye pressed his hand against the mark on his chest. The flesh beneath his bone armor began growing outward uncontrollably.

"You swallowed my bones. Now it has found you too."

Deep within the vines piercing Bai Ye's bone armor, a black Cursed Seal crawled along the bone patterns toward Chiba's palm.