The very moment he saw him, Baotian discreetly activated the escape formations of the cave. Their principle was simple: a one-time use escape at the speed of a late stage Nascent Soul cultivator. Unfortunately for him, these took a certain time to activate, and so, he would have to buy enough time.
'But how am I supposed to do this when I already feel like dying just being near him!'
Forcing himself to calm down, he managed to regain a bit of composure:
"Well, I must say, it's a surprise to see you, Zhenyun" he said, beads of sweat rolling down his forehead. "Did you come to congratulate your dull senior brother about his advancement?"
Zhenyun, hearing him, shook his head slightly as he extended his hand, and a medaillon flew from Liu Jiaoshi's remains directly into his hand.
'Shit, the tracking medaillons! I forgot these existed!' Baotian mentally swore.
Of course, Zhenyun managed to find him, even in the Blood Wood Cave Forest!
Matter of fact, he probably found him a good while ago and was just waiting for him to advance, to force his way in when his guard was lowered!
Ignoring Baotian's shock, Zhenyun looked around the cave, his expression becoming progressively darker.
"Back then, when I saw you shed tears, sweat, and even blood to try and force your way into the Qi Building stage, I was already worried for you, senior brother" he said. "But I never imagined that one day, even out of despair, you'd end up shedding the blood of others to reach your goal"
"Is that your way of saying you don't want to be my junior brother anymore? Ah, well, it's only natural that the stronger one obtain seniority in the cultivation world, so I understa-"
"Stop it now"
Baotian docilely obliged, shutting up.
"You know, senior brother, even when I was blocked at the Qi Condensation realm, and everyone mocked me by comparison with you, I never hated you, not even when you tricked me into taking master's wrath instead of you. The strange but somehow delicious dishes you made when we snuck in the kitchen, your habit of always trying to find tricks for everything, even when you didn't need it... even this condescendance that you tried to hide, as if deep inside, for some reason, you considered yourself better than everyone"
He shook his head:
"Senior brother, I never hated or resented you, not even once. In fact, I always looked up to how you navigated through life, always finding your own way to do things. Even when our positions were reversed and I became a genius, I looked up to your perseverance" he continued. "So why, senior brother, why Baotian… why did you do this!!!"
Clenching his teeth, his started shooting, making the cave shake around him:
"Why did you kill so many mortals! Why did you kill the cultivators who tried stopping you too? I can understand killing Liu Jiaoshi to defend yourself, but what did you do to his body? Why is the stench of blood coming from you along with this demonic aura? Just… why did you do that, senior brother?"
While scared, Baotian also felt relieved. So many questions… if he took his time to answer them all one by one, he would definitely buy enough time to activate the escape formation.
And yet, despite his plans, what came out of his mouth was a single sentence:
"I just didn't want to die"
Zhenyun looked at him, pity surpassing anger in his eyes:
"I see, senior brother… no, demon cultivator Baotian" he said. "In this case, if that is your wish, rather than kill you for your crimes, I will seal you, allowing you to live the hundred years you just gained in a place where you won't be able to hurt anyone else"
Swords surrounded Baotian and began dancing around him, threads of spiritual energy appearing between them, tying them into an intricate net. With horror, Baotian realized it was a sealing formation!
"Liu Sword's Sword Sealing Net, a formation created by the current patriarch, specially for capturing cultivators" Zhenyun explained, looking away to not see the pitiful scene. "That is my last mercy toward you"
'No, no, no!' Baotian panicked, frantically trying to use the escape formation.
But even if the wait time had ended, his escape was mercilessly blocked by the sword formation. If he didn't find a flaw, everything he did to defy his fate would be meaningless. But how would he find a flaw in such a perfect formation? He needed to create one, and his strength wouldn't do the trick.
'In this case, let's take the bet' he decided.
He took a large inspiration, and then:
"I'm a transmigrator!" he shouted loudly.
He saw a certain reaction in Zhenyun's eyes, perplexity and… maybe something else? Perhaps if he looked at it a bit more, he could deduce if he too came from his world… just a second, it wouldn't hurt…
But in the end, he decided to be cautious. Instead, he kept shouting, spitting out what he had kept for himself in the last hundred years:
"I'm a transmigrator, a man reincarnated into this world, but my true homeland is named the Earth, a world of civilisation where cultivation doesn't exist! That is right, I am a civilised earthling, different from all those narrow-minded persons! And, Zhenyun, I know that you too are one! Admit it, junior brother, you too come from another world!"
And as he finished shouting, the desired outcome happened: in the Sword Sealing Net, a breach appeared!
Baotian didn't hesitate even a split second, immediately using the escape formation, propelling himself out of the wooden cave inside a giant blood torpedo!
'It's… a shame' he thought.
He couldn't learn if Zhenyun truly was a transmigrator, even though it was probably his last chance to do so. Next time they met, there wouldn't be any occasion to ask, as they would be enemies.
Truly a shame.
As he thought so, Baotian suddenly felt chills into his back as the torpedo kept propelling him: Zhenyun was following him!
"Insane lunatic!" he exclaimed, shocked.
Of course, Zhenyun was slowly getting outrunned, and eventually disappeared into the horizon. The fact remained that for a moment, this monster had managed to keep up with a Grand Perfection Nascent Soul movement technique, a whole realm above him!
"Indeed, there is not the slightest hope of ever catching up to him" Baotian thought as the torpedo progressively lost its energy.
He didn't even feel anger anymore. He already came to terms with the fact he would never be able to keep up with even the more 'normal' geniuses of his generation. Right now, Zhenyun was no different from a natural disaster to him, so there wasn't enough ground for comparison to feel bad about it.
"At least, I managed to reach Qi Building" Baotian cheered himself up. "Let's try flying a bit, now, I've wanted to do that for decades!"
As the torpedo, having exhausted its power, dissipated into a blood mist, Baotion used the Crazed Demonic Blood Burial Mantra to condense the mist below his feet, allowing him to glide in the air. Euphoric, Baotian began laughing and shooting as he executed acrobatic figures in the sky:
"Haha, I'm skating in the sky! Liu clan's Qi Building cultivators always bragged about riding swords being the most dignified way to fly, but they clearly couldn't see Mount Tai! That's so, so much better! Haha, haha, hahaha!"
A fifty years old-looking man acting like a child like this was probably disgraceful, but Baotian didn't care: originally a mischievous person, he had suffered from incessant training for thirty years, was banned from the clan and wandered like trash for almost six years, went through several life or death trials before losing his cultivation and training for another fourteen years!
And then, he had to face this infamously monstrous junior brother of his, which would definitely end up as him being declared a notary demonic cultivator once the righteous clans and sects discovered he was Zhang Ming's successor. Chances were that, to get the inheritance, even demonic cultivators would target him!
So of course, now that he could have the slightest moment of fun, he would jump on the opportunity!
"Haha, haha. I'm flying, I'm really flying! I'm-"
However, fun never lasted long for him. Even late stage Qi Building can't fly for too long, and for an early stage one that just advanced and couldn't even properly master his spiritual energy yet, the duration was nothing but too short. Baotian learned it the hard way as he suddenly began to fall down, unable to stay afloat as his spiritual energy reached a critically low level.
He desperately used what he had left to use force control and wind spells to slow down, and indeed managed to reduce his falling speed, but couldn't completely stop the fall.
"Ah, this dogshit world, why can't I just have anything goo-"
Baotian's words were cut off as he crashed down.