Shi Hou didn't hesitate.
His right hand brushed his ear, and the Black Pot settled upside down on his back. His left hand grabbed Shi Hao by the back of his collar, and he kicked off the ground and ran.
Shi Hao's legs flailed in midair as he slapped the bottom of the pot.
"Put me down! Skinny Monkey, hear me out first!"
Shi Hou didn't let go. He only ran faster.
Behind them, the Five-Colored Peacock's piercing cry split the sky, and the ground shook with it.
"Hear you out, my ass! I cut clean through its neck-I felt the bone-and it joined itself back together! It's immortal, and you still want to fight?"
Shi Hao stopped struggling.
After dangling for two more steps, he reached out and clamped a hand over Shi Hou's wrist.
The force wasn't great, but it was precise.
That deft tug checked Shi Hou's stride.
"It's bluffing."
His voice was utterly certain.
Shi Hou stopped, set Shi Hao on the ground, and turned around.
Deep in the dust, the Five-Colored Peacock had already risen. The wound on its neck had closed, multicolored runes flowed again, and its aura had grown even more ferocious.
Nothing about it looked like a bluff.
"There's a passage in the primordial true explanation called 'Source Insight.'" Shi Hao crouched and quickly scratched a circle in the dirt with a twig, then marked a dot in its center. "Don't look at the runes or the flesh. Look at the flow of vital essence."
The twig pointed toward the Five-Colored Peacock's chest and belly.
"The wound on its neck really has closed, but all its vital essence is surging toward its chest. The rear half of its body is practically empty."
Shi Hou followed Shi Hao's pointing hand.
Its left wing