Bai Tou let out a strange hooting laugh.

"Hoo hoo! Let's not involve dogs in this."

"Hmph! Dogs are but wolves that submitted to humans, letting them twist their lineage into mockeries. Is there not an insult more apt?" the monkey snorted.

"That in itself is proof of their unwavering loyalty, putting their trust in humans-"

"Hah! And a lot of loyalty you have, betraying the residents of the mountains. Perhaps a cockroach is a better way to describe you!"

"Cockroaches are the epitome of resistance. Even under the worst conditions, they won't be wiped-"

"Shut it! I'm not here to argue with you about animals! You piece of dog shit! Trash! Better?"

"Hoo hoo hoo hoo!" Bai Tou laughed. "I suppose even I can't turn that around."

Monkey glared at the owl before hopping backwards, increasing the distance between them. He quickly focused and in a second, a set of brown light armour cloaked his body. A pure white mask with a red jade on its forehead appeared on his face, the only other detail being the shadows over where the eyes would be.

Seeing that, Bai Tou didn't attack but summoned equipment from her storage ring as well. A set of metal gauntlets fitted with gemstones appeared over her talons, tipped with deadly sharp curved blades. Alongside 2 chakrams, 2 teardrop-shaped shields followed, with engravings that made them resemble owl wings, their pointed ends honed deadly sharp.

Monkey held a plain staff, and from his storage ring, sent out a barrage of rock bullets.

"Tsk, are you trying to kill the human?"

Bai Tou quickly formed a shield of wind around the unconscious Mei and her basket.

"Hmph."

Monkey hit the ground with his staff, and accompanied by the ground shaking and a loud rumbling sound, earth began to form around him, taking the shape of a monkey.

Bai Tou shot blades of wind at it, but the dirt construct was surprisingly nimble and dodged most of them as it grew, reforming where the parts did hit. In a breath of time, the earth monkey had reached 10 metres tall, towering over the owl.

"Oooh, I see you've learnt a new trump card. Not bad." Bai Tou commented.

"Hah. I was being literal when I called you a cockroach." a deep voice came out of the golem's mouth.

"Well-"

"Except the part where they are hard to kill!"

Before the owl could retort, Monkey stomped where she stood. Bai Tou took off into the air in annoyance. By this point, with the earth it took to build the golem, there was only a crater left on the ground. Mei bounced around awkwardly in the bubble of wind as it floated off to somewhere safe. By the time it landed, she was in a weird position, her face planted to the ground.

Meanwhile, Monkey repeatedly clapped his hands, trying to hit the nimble bird.

"You're as annoying as a mosquito! But let's see how you deal with this!"

All over the massive golem, thousands of pore-like holes appeared. It took in a giant breath, the force sucking in all sorts of debris, and causing the poor rootless trees to tumble around. In the next moment, from every pore, clouds of fine dirt shot out violently.

Unprepared, Bai Tou was hit by it directly, though it didn't do much. Just as the owl was about to comment on how weak the attack was, she realised the dirt was insanely sticky and heavy! All her feathers were coated in it, hindering her ability to generate lift. Now, she could only fly with the power of qi, reducing her speed to a quarter of what it was.

That speed, however, was still more than enough to dodge the hands of the golem.

But Monkey was not done yet. Runic patterns began to appear all over the golem's abdomen, nearly a hundred cannons forming. Not even a second later, the sound of many overlapping "BANG"s sounded out, as a hail of condensed rock shot towards the owl.

Previously, Bai Tou would have been able to dodge it with ease, but now, she had no choice but to block it with her weapons. A horrible sound rang out, like that of a hammer hitting metal, but a hundred times louder. Every single rock exploded into dust, intensifying the already huge dust cloud.

Monkey couldn't really tell if the owl was hurt, as by now, enough dirt had clumped on her that she was just a flying ball of dirt. But despite taking the blunt of the force, the weapons were fine, only covered in nasty looking scratches.

"You stinking ape! Are you actually trying to kill me?" the vaguely owl-shaped dirt hooted angrily.

Its energy used up in the attack, the golem fell backwards onto the ground. It scratched its head and looked away.

"Ah. I forgot to consider that," said Monkey. "Sorry, I was just too caught up in trying to actually hit you."

"You little shit!"

The weapons flew off towards the golem and sliced out a huge chunk of it. Monkey screeched as he was extracted from the golem, which promptly fell face-first to the ground with a loud thud. With his qi wastefully depleted, he was now defenceless.

"Mercy! Mercy!"

"No mercy!"

With the flat of the shields, Bai Tou spanked the screaming monkey repeatedly.

"Stop screaming so loudly! You sound like a dying pig!"

"AAAAAAA!" Monkey screeched. "Wait... you actually stopped?"

The owl smacked him again in annoyance, squeezing out another yelp.

"My first time visiting this mountain in decades, and the first thing that greets me is this sorry sight!"

Luye, along with a rather frightened Su Qing descended gracefully. Monkey immediately realised why the owl stopped.

"Greeting, master." Bai Tou said respectfully.

"Master!" Monkey kowtowed, a hand covering his swollen buttocks.

"Hmm? Who are you?" the crow tilted her head as she looked to him.

"Master!" Monkey cried.

"Kakaka! I'm just messing around with you. I would never forget one of my students, Hou Er!"

"Master... that is my sister."

"Ah, my bad, Hou Jian."

That was his brother... but Monkey was too dispirited to point that out. Bai Tou snickered at him, much to his fury.

This was the worst day ever.