The panther was undeterred by the failure of its sneak attack and jumped towards the two again. The water from the steam splashed everywhere as the panther leapt from the ground, spittle and hunger covering its face. The two braced themselves as the panther neared, and once it was within striking distance they immediately attacked. Liu Zhu was the first one to launch an attack since his guandao was several feet longer than the other man's sword. He let out a deep breath as he struck out with the strongest move he could muster without wearing becoming incapable of combat - 4 Desires. Since breaking through to Middle Bone and Marrow Tempering he'd become capable of performing 5 Desires, but he was only capable of doing so once before he lost most of the strength in his arms. Unless he could land a fatal blow it was risky to use it here, where his opponent was slightly stronger than him.

The panther's green fur was cut through in multiple places by 4 Desires, small lines of blood spreading out from every spot his guandao came in contact with. Due to the creature's thick pelt he wasn't able to deal any serious damage, but a wound was still a wound- they'd made progress. Unfortunately, even if he'd made progress towards killing the beast, what 4 Desires hadn't made much progress towards was stopping it from shooting towards the two. It'd definitely slowed its momentum, but in a couple seconds it would pounce upon one of the two and tear them apart with its terrifyingly sharp claws and teeth.

At this point the man beside Liu Zhu showed his full strength. He was an Early Blood and Viscera Tempering cultivator, and even if he didn't know many fancy techniques and would be stuck at this level of cultivation for the rest of his life, he was far from useless. He let out a fierce yell as his sword rapidly came into the green panther's field of view, threatening to dive into one of the wounds opened by Liu Zhu's 4 Desires. Realizing how dire the situation would be if the sword pierced through its side and reached its insides, the panther ducked under the attack, turning its attention to the man. Before he could draw back his sword and defend properly the panther managed to land a blow on his arm, leaving behind a deep claw wound near his wrist. The only solace here was that since it was a hasty counterattack, that was all it could do. This wound was much lighter than anything it could've made with the momentum from before.

As the panther threatened to leave a longer-lasting wound on the man beside him, Liu Zhu attacked with 4 Desires yet again. This time the panther moved away, having nothing to gain from taking yet another blow, but as it exited Liu Zhu's range the guandao suddenly shot out farther than expected, leaving behind a single wound near the panther's throat. As this happened Liu Zhu let out a pained groan before shakily pulling his weapon back. His attack was initially going to miss, leaving behind a single unimportant wound in the best case scenario, so he'd taken a gamble. He'd practiced a bit with the "Extended Blow" technique he bought a couple weeks ago, and since it was a rather simple technique he had a good grasp of it. In order to make his attack successful he'd forcefully switched from 4 Desires and dislocated his shoulder in order to extend the range of his blow. This method was similar to the "Extended Blow", but due to the sloppy execution there was a small problem- he hadn't been able to quickly pop the bone he'd dislocated back in. He needed to rely on the man next to him to stall for a few seconds while he did so.

The panther paused for moment as blood began flooding out from its wound. It wasn't going to die from blood loss, but Liu Zhu had clearly left behind more than a minor wound. It let out a furious growl once it processed the situation and then shot towards Liu Zhu, wanting revenge for its wound. In response he rapidly ran away and prepared to pop his shoulder back in. The man next to him responded quickly to the panther's retaliation, trying to block the panther's path and buy him time. Despite the valiant effort the panther was only delayed for a moment, pushing the man to the ground before continuing on its way. He grunted loudly as he stood up and began to rush towards Liu Zhu, who was now only feet away from the panther.

At this point Liu Zhu still hadn't popped his shoulder back in, which was very bad for him. The guandao was a two-handed weapon, and if he couldn't properly use his arms then he was severely handicapped. He had the bead Zhu Chao gave him that he could detonate at the panther in case things became deadly, but he hadn't expected everything to go south so rapidly- by the time he had realized how serious the situation was the panther had gotten so close to him that he'd probably blow himself up if he used it. As the panther leapt towards Liu Zhu, lacking the ability to use his trump cards like 5 Desires or the bead, he just instinctively reacted. His leg violently shot up from the ground, scattering pebbles and soil from the stream bed everywhere, shooting towards the panther's throat as he stumbled backwards.

The panther, surprised and still in motion, wasn't able to get out of the way in time. It got a brutal kick to the throat, adding a burst of blood to the cloud of soil and rocks. At the same time, another burst of blood was added to the mix- Liu Zhu's blood. The panther's claws came in contact with his lower chest, his flesh providing all the resistance of jello as the claws tore away skin and flesh and caused blood to shoot everywhere, dying the stream red. This wound wasn't enough to kill a cultivator, but it was bad.

The panther would have finished off Liu Zhu here, but it wasn't able to- this wasn't a one-verus-one fight- it was a melee. The man who'd accompanied Liu Zhu showed up behind the panther, frantically bringing his sword down towards it. The panther rolled away from this attack, a light path of blood following it across the ground. It glared daggers at the two of them once it go out of the way, letting out a raspy growl from its heavily-injured throat. After doing so it stared at the two of them for a moment longer before darting away into the undergrowth. It'd already been heavily injured after being kicked in its already-wounded throat, and had apparently decided to abandon its prey this time. This decision left the two extremely relived, and the man began to clean and bandage Liu Zhu's wound.

As the man began to treat Liu Zhu's wound, Liu Zhu sat in the stream, quietly panicking. This was the closest he'd personally come to death, and unlike the assassination attempt against him, he hadn't had anyone like Zhu Chao to rely on. If he'd messed up here he would've just been another corpse in the forest, the same as anyone else. When the man began to bandage the wound, Liu Zhu murmured something. The man, concerned, spoke up. "What is it? Injured somewhere else?" Liu Zhu slowly shook his head. "No, it's... it's not... not really that. I... I almost fucking died. I almost died. I didn't even get to show my full strength, and... I almost died like that." This remark was directed at himself as much as the man he was speaking to. "Me too. It's scary but it happens. Just give it a few days." Liu Zhu just nodded his head, getting up to help the man with his wrist once he was done assisting Liu Zhu with his wound.

After the two treated their wounds they carefully returned to the village. They were out of their depth here and needed to get help. They couldn't just leave a beast like that to recover and then wander around the nearby forest, threatening to kill the villagers if it ever got too hungry. They needed to get help from the rest of the group and deal with it. Besides safety concerns, there was one more reason they had to kill it... at this point things were personal.