The rumor had spread all around the northern part of Xuanhe: some mad demonic cultivator had attempted the Core Formation advancement at the center of a Void Hurricane, and had actually succeeded.
However, following her advancement, the valiant righteous cultivators led by Wu Leihao, to stop her from killing everyone in, teamed up, and managed to defeat her at the end of a great fight, saving those inside the Void Hurricane from a blood bath, showing the worth of one of the six geniuses. The demonic cultivator, full of cowardice, had used a strong artifact to create a barrier around her, and used some demonic art to fuse it with part of the hurricane's strong winds, secluding herself in this makeshift barrier.
"What a load of crap!" Baotian exclaimed, furious.
Killing everyone? Great fight? Zi Moyan had just gone through one of the worst possible Core Formation level tribulations,and had definitely been exhausted to the bone afterwards. Baotian was certain that these bastards had ambushed her as she was trying to exit the hurricane, ganged up on her and forced her to use some desperate move to turn her defensive artifact into a long-term barrier, with the downside of entrapping herself in it.
"Damn it, I'm almost out of blood essence, I can't go now!"
But every hour he waited would diminish his chance to save Zi Moyan. He knew that when the Void Hurricane dissipated, every demonic cultivator would fly away as fast as they could, leaving only Wu Leihao and his goons. Chances were, since apparently, Zi Moyan's mutated barrier was using the hurricane's power, it would disappear too, leaving her defenseless among the hyenas.
What was worse, he couldn't even hope for help from a stronger cultivator, like this Bai Zisheng she told him about: even if he knew how to contact him, the situation wasn't one where a mere hierarchical superior, even one with a good relationship, would help. Zi Moyan was currently a Core Formation cultivator inside of a Void Hurricane and, even if the rules of the three nations technically concerned Core Formation 'entering' one, Baotian was sure that it still didn't make anyone much happy. Anyone helping her would likely lose quantities of support and good opinions, and so it was natural that no one would volunteer to help.
Even so, Baotian refused to leave her here. He just… couldn't.
"No matter what… I'll free senior sister no matter what!" he declared.
He quickly formulated a plan. It was a rough, crazy one, nowhere near perfection, and yet he decided to stick with it.
'Judging by its current appearance, the Void Hurricane will be mostly dissipated in approximately two days. To be sure that I don't arrive too late, I mustn't wait more than one day!'
Baotian decided that he would execute his plan the next day. For now, however, he had urging problems he should solve.
'The blood essence I collected… is almost gone now'
He then started moving opposite to the Hurricane, trying to fight a spot where there wasn't too many cultivators. Fortunately, he didn't have to wait too much to find just the perfect spot:
"Did you hear about it? Apparently, some crazy demoness bitch tried to advance to Core Formation inside of the Void Hurricane!"
"Haha, is this confirmed? I can't imagine anyone stupid enough to do that, demonic cultivators sure deserve their madmen reputation if they all have such peebles for brains"
"I cannot disapprove, brother Wi, these poor things truly are ready to do everything to increase their cultivation by a percent! Haha, what do you think, would one accept to be my concubine for a pill or two?"
"Hah, definitely, brother Tu!"
The two that were talking seemed to barely be at the Qi Refining stage. They were watching over a mortal village along with approximately eighty mortal men wearing armors and swords, likely leading the guards that protected the village, a mission that Qi Refining cultivators of the righteous path were often given by their clan or chose on their own as a living.
'And by the view of it, there doesn't seem to be any other cultivator among the guard'
Seeing this, Baotian smiled coldly, and walked up to them.
"Uh, who are you? What are you doing here?"
"Hey wait… this sinister aura… he's a Qi Building demonic cultivator!"
Baotian, seeing their faces lose all color, asked:
"Well, I heard you two say quite a lot of interesting things about my senior sister. Sadly, my ears aren't what they were when I was only a hundred years old, would you mind repeating what you said?"
Hearing this, the two paled and immediately tried to run away. Baotian's smile became even colder as he launched his spells.
A few minutes later, without anyone from the village noticing it, the entire guard of the village was dead. Baotian calmly left, now having a generous thirty liters of blood essence into his storage bag. Quickly leaving the horrifying scene, he returned near the Void Hurricane. All in all, he still had around twenty hours to spend and, while looking at the details of his plan, he decided to try assembling the last part of his Qi Cube.
'I… I start to understand how it should be!'
Even though he still didn't find the exact combination that would allow him to add his remaining Qi Pieces to assemble his cube, he understood more and more what it should be like. Progressively, in several hours, he eliminated most possible combinations. Ten more hours passed, and he could almost see what combination would be the correct one. And after twenty hours, he was certain: if he kept going, it would only take him three days at most to complete his Qi Cube and reach the mid stage.
'A shame I don't have such time on my hands'
Sighing, he spent his last few hours recovering his energy, before finally getting into action.
Entering through one of the gaps, in the Void Hurricane's strong winds, Baotian quickly flew toward a bunch of debris, hiding among them, one that he had memorized from his last passage. Then, moving from hiding spot to hiding spot, he kept steadily approaching the spot where Zi Moyan was.
"Look! It's the one who was helping the demoness hiding her tribulation, and killed our fellows!"
"He's back to try and free her! Quick, stop him!"
Baotian, realizing he had been noticed, didn't panic: it was expected, after all. Instead, he kindly waved at them, his gesture full of irony, and resumed flying toward the place where Zi Moyan was, completely ignoring the several righteous cultivators that were chasing after him.
"There he is! It's the demonic filth that young master Wu told us to capture!"
Baotian smirked: the one who had talked was one of the two grand perfection Qi Building cultivators that were with Wu Leihao, and he was surrounded by a bunch of cultivators ranging from early to late stage.
'How nice, I was precisely searching for one of these guys' he cheered mentally.
However, on the outside, he showed a hateful expression with a point of fear, and turned around, using the Golden Owl Bow to fire a blood projectile, attaching it to himself to fly away at the speed of the grand perfect stage.
"You dare, running away like a wet chicken!" Wu Leihao's guard said, pursuing him, along the rest.
Baotian, still calm inside as he showed a panicked exterior, proceeded to use the same process repeatedly to keep his speed up and, after a while, the only remaining cultivator among his pursuers was Wu Leihao's guard. Clearly, if he kept following him, it was because he didn't consider Baotian a serious threat.
'Works for me' Baotian thought as he stopped in his tracks, creating a blood ribbon.
He did not know if the cultivators from the last time told Wu Leihao about his new move or not but if they did, this guy clearly did not care, thinking that three minor realms of difference made him untouchable.
'A shame that, in the same realm, nobody is completely untouchable'
Blood Burial Mantra original move: Shooting Blood Dancing Armor!
Brutally directing himself toward his opponent, like a missile guided by a blood projectile. Wu Leihao's guard, surprised by the brutal change of behavior, hastily deflected the projectile, which split his attention, enough so that he couldn't avoid the bloody-mud-armored Baotian that was dragged by it:
"You… courting death!" he exclaimed, forced into close-combat.
As most disciples of the Divine Storm Sect cultivated wind-related scriptures, their main strengths were their speed, their agility, their range and their versatility. Close combat was by far their biggest weakness.
And it just happened to be Baotian's greatest strength as well!
"What, I thought you wanted me to stop running? Is there a problem? Is your memory that of a dog? Yet you still chose to duel me, arrogant brat, you're courting death!"
Creating several blood swords to cover offense while his blood-mud armor covered defense, Baotian was launching a devastating offensive on Wu Leihao's guard, who was desperately trying to create distance between them. Due to the proximity, his actual combat power had dropped to below the average mid stage, while Baotian's had surged to the late stage.
'I must create distance, quick!'
He dodged a vertical cut, barely blocked a heavy kick with his forearm, clenching his teeth as he felt his arm crack, and twisted his weight, turning what should've been a deadly injury into a mere injury, though still serious enough to cause him to bleed profusely.
But as he wondered if he would be able to hold on long enough, the guard finally saw an opening in his attacks, and readily used it, putting as much distance as he could between them.
'Yes, thanks to the heavens, I managed to survive!'
Now that he put distance between them, he would definitely regain the advantage!
'Even if he has another ace up his sleeve, I can just temporize until the others join me to beat up this trash'
Just as he thought that, he felt something wrap up around him, and looked down to see chains rolled around his body. Shocked, he looked up, and only then realized he had been tricked!
Baotian had only allowed him to back down so he would drop his guard, allowing him to use one of the talismans he had harvested in the hurricane!
"Got you" he said, grinning as he threw away the consumed talisman and took the Golden Owl Bow again.
Creating a new blood arrow, he aimed it at his opponent and fired.