Baotian swung one of his swords at the owl, and briefly thought about his life choices as it easily dodged and counter-attacked with its talon aiming for his head. However, he managed to barely save his life by blocking with his other sword, only ending with a superficial laceration on his arm instead.
'If it was in good shape, it would have probably just blocked it with its body and bit my head off with its beak, instead it chose to defend! I was right, it's truly injured!'
Laughing at the realization, he kept engaging the Core Formation cultivator like a madman without caring that the gap between them was more than a whole major realm:
"What is a one realm difference, uh? You're injured and weakened, so I can fight and not lose, that's all there is to it!" he shouted, not caring for the lacerations that kept appearing on his body. "You think I'm cowardly? Filthy beast, you attacked first, you're the one that has been courting death! Senior sister, you bitch, stop watching me getting turned into minced meat and fry this damn chicken!"
Zi Moyan, though a bit disturbed by this strange attitude, threw the fire circles around the owl and, with a movement of her hands, they quickly retracted around it, turning into fiery fire binds. The golden owl used a wind spell to keep the fire dancing around without binding it, and flew down to escape. However, as the owl did so, Baotian let himself fall down alongside it, his sword crossed as he slashed down.
The owl prepared to block it with its wings but, at the last moment, Baotian used his other secret technique, the only one that already proved effective against cultivators of a higher realm. He dropped his swords, letting them disperse into a blood mist…
And used the moment where the owl was distracted to shove his thumb into its eye with a force control spell, using all his remaining spiritual energy to push it in!
"Aaargh! You… lowly human!" the golden owl screamed in pain, sending him flying with a powerful wind spell.
'Ahh… so that's how I die' Baotian thought, disappointed.
As he felt his blood pouring out and his bones cracking, he knew that he wouldn't survive the fall. However, the latter didn't happen, and instead he felt a small, but hardened body stop him:
"Oof! Stupid junior brother, you really couldn't watch your weight, uh?" Zi Moyan said, gritting her teeth under the pain of the shock.
Baotian, struggling to stay conscious, looked at her face:
"Senior… sister…"
"Shh, if you can talk, then you can keep your mouth open, so eat this"
She shoved a costly Qi Building level healing pill into his mouth, and then deposed him on the ground with surprising carefulness before turning back to the owl:
"Well, would you look at this" she said. "It's only the two of us, now"
"Ahh… ahh, indeed it seems that this fight will end with a clash between women, filthy human" the golden owl said, panting as blood oozed out of its, or rather her eye socket.
Hearing her words, Zi Moyan frowned:
"Women? No, all there is here is a beautiful, talented and charming woman, and a filthy round Spirit Beast that dared to harm her junior!" she replied, preparing her most powerful fire spell.
"Ah… you humans… are truly the best at courting death!" the owl replied, preparing another strong wind spell, much weaker than the first one but still much stronger than any move an average Qi Building cultivator could use.
The two of them mustered everything they had left, and then launched their spell:
"Six Rings Blue Fire Dragon Ascension!"
"Mysterious Bouncing Air Cicada!"
On one side, six rings of blue fire combined to create a ferocious blue dragon, gaining monstrous momentum as its flames became even hotter and, on the other, a torpedo made of compressed air, gaining in size as it bounced on the ground, producing explosion sounds every time. Rapidly, the two spells approached each other, until they finally collided.
The next second, a massive explosion sent both of them flying away. Zi Moyan collided with multiple trees before rolling down the ground over more than twenty meters, and temporarily lost consciousness.
When she regained her consciousness, she tried to get up, but to no avail. She couldn't stand no matter how hard she tried. Still, unwilling to give up, she managed to get on all four, and painfully started crawling toward the place of impact.
"Ba Ke… I need to find… Ba Ke…"
She had made sure to depose him as far from her as possible before using her ultimate move but, considering the damages caused, his safety couldn't be ensured.
"You… worthless junior brother… Please, if you hear me, just say it already"
However, when a figure indeed appeared in front of him, it wasn't Baotian. It was the owl. While her body was roasted in places, emitting a disturbingly good smell, and parts of her wings were missing, seemingly blown away, she was still undoubtedly alive.
"Ah… that's impossible" Zi Moyan said, incredulous. "Even I barely survived, only because the Erratic Phoenix Dance, the scripture I practice, makes me resistant to fire. So how?"
The golden owl, unbothered, replied as she got next to her:
"You shouldn't be that surprised, human. At the Core Formation stage, that vitality is nothing more than the norm" she said. "I admit, you are truly talented, it's a shame that, because you failed to realize the gap between realms, you will die today"
The golden owl raised its talon, ready to deal the final blow but, before she could crush Zi Moyan's head with it, she gasped and looked down. From her throat, the point of a sword had surfaced, a sword that had gone through her entire neck even without spiritual energy, making use of her weak state.
"Ahh… how?" the golden owl asked.
"I was just outside of the explosion range, so I managed to heal without any accident, all thanks to senior sister's pill" Baotian said. "As for the sword… well, I guess the swords made in the Liu clan simply have great quality"
'In the end, even if I could let go of it when it mattered during battle, I could never really throw it away' he thought, as he used the only gift from his master that he had kept, cleanly cutting off the owl's head.
Severed, it fell to the ground in a torrent of blood. Then, with a smile, Baotian turned toward Zi Moyan, with a bit of arrogance on his face:
"Well senior sister, considering my performance, you won't mind doing fifty fifty on the spoils, right?"
Zi Moyan, who was consuming a pill to at least be able to walk again, froze on the spot.
In the end, she couldn't help but chuckle:
"Fine then, but only this time"
They had done it. Even if the golden owl was injured, that didn't change the facts: together, they had won a fight against a Core Formation cultivator!
Baotian quickly absorbed the golden owl's blood essence, and then extracted its Spirit Core.
"Hah… no wonder it was reluctant to fight in close combat!"
The Core Formation cultivators' robustness came from their cores, but this one was covered in cracks, almost ready to break at any time!
'Still… with the Crazed Demonic Blood Burial Mantra, it can definitely prove its use later'
He stored the core in his storage bag, and then took away the owl's bag.
"Since we're not in a state where we can move anyway, we might as well transfer the content into our own bags while we recover, right?"
His comrade nodded, and they started examining their spoils, ready to discover what kind of riches a Core Formation cultivator kept with them.