Chapter 288: The Woes of Research Personnel

The Butterfly Speaker frowned at the tentacles' appearance, his movements clearly disrupted, no longer flowing as before; within just a few seconds, Bai Mu Yun had sliced several gashes into his body.

One tentacle tip curled around a highly compressed dark-red energy ball, howling as it smashed toward Min Tianyou and the others, forcing Min Tianyou to scatter wildly to dodge.

Meanwhile, another tentacle whipped like a lash toward the watchful Shen Zexi a short distance away, producing a piercing sonic boom and forcing Shen Zexi to retreat again; the lightning arcs at his fingertips flickered erratically.

Fortunately, the tentacles' main focus was not on them, so they could still cope.

Shen Zexi could only lead Ying Duo away from those tentacles; this was no longer a battle they could engage in, and self-preservation was paramount.

At this moment, he had to keep a close eye on Ying Duo, who loved to poke his nose into everything.

Although Chi Jinan's eyes held disgust, he was clearly more enthusiastic than before.

Blood crystals flew about, the assault surging like a tide.

He enjoyed the thrill of driving his opponent into desperation, and also the feeling of power from his own blood boiling and burning.

Lu Mu's disheveled state and fresh blood further stimulated his fighting spirit; his strikes grew ever more vicious, as if the next blow could utterly tear apart that hateful raven before him.

Suddenly, he twisted his body sharply; an azure-blue tentacle spine originally aimed at his back grazed his ribs, scattering a spray of blood while a chilling cold seeped into his interior.

Immediately after, the second and third attacks followed in quick succession, their angles more treacherous and their speed greater.

Chi Jinan could only temporarily give up chasing Lu Mu; blood crystals whirled wildly around him, forming an impenetrable defensive layer that barely blocked the ensuing tentacle attacks.

He was not only unafraid; the blood crystals encircling him turned into a blood mist, emitting a 'hiss' of corrosion, to some extent counteracting that eerie sluggish sensation.

Fang Zhiyan's attacks seemed indiscriminate, yet at least seventy percent landed on him.

Those tentacle phantoms clung like a bone-deep ulcer, always appearing on the crucial paths of his evasion or counterattack; worse still, the slick, icy mental erosion made his whole body feel weak.

The tentacle attacks around him were violent and precise, sealing off most of his dodging space; Lu Mu had already withdrawn completely, acting as a summoner, with the ravens circling nearby occasionally seizing chances to harass.

"Tsk." Chi Jinan couldn't help clicking his tongue; the blood mist around him condensed into blood crystals, yet no matter how he attacked those tentacles, he couldn't make them disappear.

He needed to find a way to locate the source of those tentacles, but the blood he had now was clearly insufficient.

Chi Jinan considered himself to be cooperating adequately with the Heresy Tribunal's work, at least the blood he used had been processed by specialists.

The blood he used was mostly taken from live aberrant species caught in the wild, then drained; most of the mutagenic factors in the blood had been purged, but this also reduced its purity.

Therefore, when on missions, Chi Jinan generally preferred to use the enemy's blood.

But he now couldn't even locate where the enemy was.

Chi Jinan licked his lips, unaware when they had become stained with his own fresh blood,

"Looks like if I don't get serious, I won't be able to enjoy myself today."

He raised his hand and, without hesitation, grabbed his left arm.

"Screech—!"

The sound of flesh tearing was especially clear; thicker blood, imbued with high-intensity energy, spurted from his own wound.

As soon as this blood appeared, under Chi Jinan's will it rapidly took shape like a living creature.

Centered on Chi Jinan, countless dark-red blood spines of varying lengths, congealed from his own blood, grew wildly in all directions.

Wherever the blood spines passed, even the air seemed to be gnawed away, leaving a brief vacuum distortion.

"Boom—boom—boom!!"

The blood spines collided with the azure-blue tentacles; dark-red and bright-red energies clashed wildly, the shockwave plowing the surrounding ruins once more.

Lu Mu had long since seen the situation turn dire and fled farther away, gaping in shock; the Butterfly Speaker and Min Tianyou were also forced to retreat again, raising stronger defenses.

Fang Zhiyan's tentacle phantoms, under the impact of the blood spines, began to show signs of dissipating.

【Fang Zhiyan: Oh? It seems his aberrant arts are also strengthened by the quality of his blood; the energy activity in his blood is astonishing, and its self-corrosive nature is extremely strong...... truly a crazy way of using it.

【Fang Zhiyan: What a pity, bound by the Church's strictures, his blood must have undergone purification, removing the aberrant components; otherwise its lethality could increase by two more levels, tsk tsk, such a waste of heavenly gifts.】

Although Fang Zhiyan had joined the fray, he still appeared leisurely, even taking the leisure to comment from the sidelines.

Several tentacles were pierced straight through by the blood spines, while many more grew faint and lost their killing power under the blood spines' corrosive force.

"Found you."

Just as the blood spines temporarily repelled the tentacle phantoms, Chi Jinan's face showed a hint of near-fiendish satisfaction.

His perception locked onto a discordant shadow of a broken wall where the tentacles had been damaged.

Before the words faded, he swung his right hand.

Several blood spines shot toward that shadow like poisonous snakes scenting blood, with far greater speed and force than before.

The next moment, that shadow rippled open like water.

"Sigh, really not letting anyone rest easy." Fang Zhiyan's voice remained gentle, yet clearly reached every ear on the battlefield.

"Can't we let the researchers quietly watch the show for a while and make some observation records?"

"Hum!"

Fang Zhiyan's back rippled with concentric waves; immediately, eight tentacles thicker than his body unfolded, elegant and silver-white, large and spreading outward.

These eight silver-white tentacles differed starkly from the earlier phantoms; they were solid and heavy, their surfaces smooth like jade, and when faced with the incoming dark-red blood spines, three of them did not dodge but instead advanced to meet them.

The tentacles, like independent-willed pythons, resembled the slickest deep-sea creatures slowly coiling around the blood spines.

"Hiss—!"

A piercing corrosive sound rang out, but this time, the thing being corroded was none other than that dark-red blood spine.

The tentacles secreted a transparent mucous; upon contact, the energy on the blood spines' surface quickly grew dim and unstable, even beginning to disintegrate from the tip.

At the same time, two more tentacles probed out from Fang Zhiyan's rear side, their tips instantly hardening to stab directly at the energy node linking the blood spines to Chi Jinan's main body.

Chi Jinan's pupils contracted sharply; he had to create more wounds on himself, condensing a new blood-crystal shield on his flank while simultaneously directing other blood spines to reinforce.

"Bang! Crack!"

The blood-crystal shield held against the silver-white tentacles' thrust for less than half a second before shattering, yet it ultimately bought Chi Jinan a brief respite, allowing him to avoid vital spots.

However, the cost was another mouthful of blood spraying out, his face growing even paler.

Fang Zhiyan remained standing in place, the tentacles behind him gracefully dancing—blocking, entwining, or thrusting—to neutralize Chi Jinan's frenzied counterattacks one by one.

His movements looked not fast, even somewhat leisurely; the strength and flexibility shown by those tentacles were far beyond what the previous illusions could match.

"The woes of research personnel, ah........"