John felt a wave of fatigue wash over him as he stood at the edge of the massive crater he had created.
'I guess I need to be more careful in the future when using this battle art. It allows me to make it as powerful as possible, but doing so will leave me quite weakened afterwards. However, using my body dantian and my Supreme Battle Art should be able to get me out of most of the trouble afterwards. Having two dantians sure is helpful.'
The more he cultivated, the more John came to appreciate his unique dantian situation. Any cultivator in his situation would be weakened and defenseless after using such a battle art, but by relying on his body dantian, John would still have incredible fighting strength.
"Come on Kirii, let's go claim our prize for this battle," John said out loud as he suddenly hopped into the crater and slid to the bottom. Kirii followed closely behind, and the two arrived before the Fire Falcon, who laid there motionlessly.
The Fire Falcon was quite large, and John's body was about the size of the Falcons head. John inspected the Falcon, and sighed in disappointment as even the blood had been charred by the attack. He had been hoping to harvest its blood essence, but just about everything was damaged beyond salvation.
"A pity…perhaps I should have held back a bit more, but I never expected this battle art to be so impressive," John sighed. John turned to Kirii, and a smile appeared on his face as he patted Kirii on the head several times.
"You did even better than I expected against the Fire Falcon…great Job, Kirii," John said.
"Haha, praise me more!" Kirii replied through their soul connection, seeking praise like a small child would.
"Yes yes, you did amazing. In fact, you were the star of the battle," John replied while patting Kirii.
Chirp!
Chirp!
Before Kirii could reply, an incredibly faint series of chirps sounded out, barely audible to John and Kirii. John's divine sense swept out towards the source of the sound while he moved in that direction as well, and soon he spotted the source of the chirps.
At the top of the mountain where the Fire Falcon had nested, a massive nest over a dozen yards wide contained three fledgling birds. The birds had clearly just hatched a few days ago, as they were no larger than a foot across in size.
John frowned as he saw this, as he finally realized why the Fire Falcon had been so defensive around this territory. A wave of guilt washed over him for a brief moment, which was a rare feeling for John.
"Ahhh, shit," John sighed as the hatchlings kept chirping, clearly hungry and calling out for their mother.
"What should I do? Should I take them with me? Or…and where is the father anyways?" John mused as he stared at the hatchlings.
Screech!
A loud screech suddenly boomed over the land from above, although its power was diminished so as to not harm the hatchlings. John's gaze shifted up into the sky, where he noticed another Fire Falcon hovering above them.
The Fire Falcon was also in the Late Heaven Tribulation Realm, and was clearly the missing father John had just been talking about. A large insect which had been killed was held in its beak, as the father had clearly gone out on a search for food, leaving the mother behind.
The male Fire Falcon noticed the dead corpse of its mate, and screeched out once again. Its fire-filled eyes stared at John menacingly, but it didn't dare take any rash actions as John was right next to the hatchlings. Any attack it made would kill its offspring, and on top of that, John was clearly strong enough to kill his mate.
"Well, I guess that solves my issue," John said out loud as he patted Kirii on the head and turned to leave. Kirii followed closely behind, and the Fire Falcon landed at the nest shortly after, dropping the dead insect for its offspring.
Its saddened eyes inspected the corpse of the other Fire Falcon for a moment, before it went back to tending to the hatchlings.
Flying away from the sight of the battle, John didn't know how to feel about the outcome of the battle with the Fire Falcon.
"If I had been able to harvest the corpse's blood for refinement, then everything would be worth it. But with my basically destroying the body, I killed the Fire Falcon for no reason other than to test my strength…"
John sighed once again, but wiped away the negative thoughts after feeling regret for a short moment. The cultivation world was a cruel place, and there was no room for hesitation, compassion, or regret.
"I've got everything I wanted to get from this journey. Let's head back to the sect, Kirii."
John suddenly increased his speed and shot off into the distance with Kirii following closely behind. It had been over two weeks since he had left, and it was about time to return per his master's instructions.
…
A week later, John and Kirii arrived back at the Heavenly Lightning Sect. Although the journey would normally only take a day at most, John decided to spend some time visiting some of the smaller cities and villages along the way as he learned more about the Divine Martial Continent.
He arrived at the sect three weeks after departing, and decided to sneak in as unnoticed as possible, as there was still another week until he had to meet with his master for training. Kirii had returned to John's soul space, and John was weared a hooded robe, doing his best to shroud his face and features.
He had already entered the main entrance and showed the guards his badge, and was now working his way back to his home as discreetly as possible.
'I really pissed her off last time, so if she finds out I've returned, she'll no doubt increase my training from four weeks to five. I need to lay low until a week from no-"
"So you think you can hide from me?" a familiar voice suddenly boomed out from above John, causing him to groan and look up into the sky above him.
'How the fuck did she find me already?' John grumbled internally. 'Its the guards. She must have told them to alert her when I returned. Damnit.'
John put such thoughts aside and pushed back the hood of his robe while smiling at his master.
"Hide from you? I would never," John replied.
"Hiding…and now lying?" Lilian replied calmly while raising an eyebrow. "It seems as though I will need to increase the intensity of our training once again."
An object suddenly appeared in her hands, which John instantly recognized. His face grimaced as he stared at the familiar wooden stick, which his face had once become accustomed to.
"Follow me," Lilian instructed as she turned around and sped off into the distance.
John grumbled begrudgingly as he followed behind his master and prepared for the hellish month to come.