Tagor Desert

Ahead lay a boundless desert stretching beyond sight.

"Tagor Desert, I've finally arrived."

Wei Yang hovered in the air, a pair of black wings behind him gently beating.

With Wei Yang's current strength as a one-star Dou Ling, flying with his wings had long since reached the point where expenditure and recovery were balanced.

Moreover, because they were a Profound Tier High-Grade Flight Dou Technique and due to the wings' materials, their speed and maneuverability far surpassed the ordinary Dou Qi Wings of a Dou Wang, making them much faster and more agile.

Even so, Wei Yang had flown for a full seven days before finally reaching the great desert at the empire's eastern border.

A cute little head peeked out from his arms, curiously looking over the endless sea of sand outside. A scorching gust of wind blew past, and the little head quickly withdrew again.

Wei Yang smiled at the sight. A layer of crimson Dou Qi Shield spread out, protecting the little beauty in his arms.

After entering the desert, the surrounding temperature had clearly risen considerably.

The sun in the desert was especially fierce. The blazing sun hung high overhead, baking the land and making the daytime desert temperatures extraordinarily high.

Yet Wei Yang found it rather comfortable. He felt refreshed in body and mind, while the Dou Qi within him became especially active. The natural energy he could draw upon far exceeded what it had been before.

After sensing it carefully, he could not help but smile. "Fire Attribute and earth-attribute energy make up more than eighty percent of the energy here. If I fought someone here, my combat strength would increase by thirty percent out of thin air!"

"If I lived here, my cultivation speed would probably be a bit faster as well."

Whoosh~

With a beat of his wings, Wei Yang flew through the air. Seeing nearly identical scenery in every direction, he felt somewhat speechless.

He suddenly realized that he seemed to be lost.

Well, not exactly lost. He could still tell the directions apart.

It was just that he did not know where Shimo City was.

"Let's see if there's anyone nearby."

Wei Yang shook his head. With a flick of his wings, his entire body turned into a streak of black-crimson light and shot forward.

"Hmm?"

Before long, he faintly sensed a vague fluctuation from a battle.

His gaze turned toward a certain direction. "Over there."

His wings shook as he changed direction and swiftly flew toward the source of the battle fluctuations.

As the distance gradually closed, he could see a group of mercenaries fighting a group of snake people several miles ahead.

As the two sides battled, Dou Qi energies of various colors collided, kicking up sand and dust that filled the sky.

"Snake people?"

Soon, Wei Yang arrived in the air near the battle and looked down.

The little girl in his arms also poked her head out, curiously peering below.

In the desert below, more than a dozen mercenaries wielded weapons as they fought a group of around twenty snake people. Or rather, they were surrounded by the snake people.

These snake people had human upper bodies but snake tails below the waist, their scales varying in color.

"Hiss hiss~"

Their snake tails swished with a rustling sound. They were the snake people unique to Tagor Desert.

"So these are snake people?"

His gaze swept over the twenty-odd snake people. The men wore vicious expressions, cold glints in their pupils, while the women had seductive figures, their curves rising and falling in alluring beauty.

Wei Yang could not help sighing in amazement, feeling that his horizons had been broadened. This was the first time he had seen snake people, and his gaze could not help lingering a few moments longer on the ample, full chests of several female snake people.

"Hiss~"

At that moment, a little hand pinched the soft flesh at his waist and twisted, making Wei Yang suck in a sharp breath as he hurriedly averted his gaze.

"Hmph." A dissatisfied snort came from his arms.

"I was just curious. I was only looking," Wei Yang quickly explained.

His gaze swept over the mercenaries. There were fifteen in total, ten men and five women.

These mercenaries dressed very differently from those within the empire.

Most of the male mercenaries were bare-chested. Two had even stripped naked from the waist up, exposing dark or bronze-colored skin. Their muscles bulged, making them appear filled with strength.

The first impression they gave was one of ruggedness and boldness.

The five women, meanwhile, had healthy wheat-colored skin and athletic figures.

Unlike the reserved women of the empire's interior, these women who lived in the desert appeared rather bold.

Their tight leather outfits covered only the crucial parts of their bodies, exposing large stretches of upper chest and lower abdomen, as well as their round, straight legs.

At this moment, both sides below also noticed Wei Yang's arrival.

"A Dou Wang expert?"

The pair of black wings spanning more than twenty feet startled both sides. They stopped fighting in unspoken agreement and quickly separated into distinct camps, each watching the other warily.

Whoosh!

Wei Yang landed, retracted his wings, dispersed the Dou Qi enveloping his body, and set down the little beauty in his arms.

"This!?"

Once they saw the newcomers clearly, both sides were stunned.

The man wore black brocade robes embroidered with gold patterns, his features handsome. The woman wore a plain white dress, beautiful as an immortal and possessed of a clear, ethereal temperament.

But the key was!

They were too young!

The man looked no older than sixteen or seventeen, while the woman looked even younger, no more than fourteen or fifteen.

Their auras were restrained, and not a trace of great power could be sensed from them. They looked just like ordinary people.

Yet no one present was foolish enough to truly believe that these two were ordinary people.

At the very least, that youth in black brocade was definitely no ordinary person.

What a joke. He had already formed Dou Qi Wings.

A Dou Wang expert at sixteen or seventeen?!

That was hard to accept.

But that seemed to be the truth.

Unlike the snake people, though the human mercenaries were nervous, they were secretly delighted.

Because the newcomers were obviously human.

The snake people frowned. Though they were more nervous, they were not overly afraid.

This was because the higher-ups among both humans and the Snake People Race had an understanding: the strong would not casually slaughter the weak.

So long as one did not deliberately court death, the strong of both sides generally would not massacre the weak.

Wei Yang's gaze swept over both sides before finally settling on the human mercenaries.

Suddenly, Wei Yang frowned. Ye Xian'er, whose hand he held, also showed a look of disgust.

Among the snake people, several lewd gazes had discreetly swept over Ye Xian'er's slender waist, though they quickly moved away.

Wei Yang nearly laughed in anger.

They said snake people were lustful and often captured human women for that sort of thing, but this was a little too bold.

Relying on his powerful Soul Perception, his gaze instantly locked onto those male snake people.

Sensing Wei Yang's gaze, the snake people who had been secretly peeking were immediately startled, fear appearing on their faces.

Damn, they had not kept their eyes in check!

"Hmph!" With a casual wave of his hand, five rapidly spinning streaks of scorching crimson light shot from Wei Yang's fingertips.

Blazing Fire Stab!

It had been revised and improved from the Yellow Tier High-Grade Dou Technique Gale Stab, its power reaching that of a Profound Tier Low-Grade Dou Technique.

"My lord, spare—"

Splat! Splat! Splat!

The snake people had barely opened their mouths to beg for mercy when the crimson streaks pierced through their foreheads.

Looking at the snake people whose foreheads had been pierced through by egg-sized holes, light visible straight through them as they slowly fell, Wei Yang said softly, "You don't know your place!"

Silence!

Everyone watched this scene with fear on their faces.

One of the leading snake people, his triangular pupils filled with fear and suppressed fury, slightly opened his mouth and flicked out his scarlet tongue. In a cold, hoarse voice, he said, "My lord, you have gone too far. Slaughtering members of my Snake People Race like this, are you not afraid that our Queen—"

"Oh? Are you threatening me?" Wei Yang interrupted him, his voice indifferent as his eyes turned cold.

Since they could not control their eyes, killing them was no great matter. So what if Medusa came?

"...I would not dare." Feeling himself locked onto by a dangerous gaze, the leading snake person felt as though a bucket of icy water had been poured over his head. The fury in his heart instantly extinguished, and he lowered his head.

All the snake people lowered their heads as well. In that instant just now, they had felt a chill rise from the soles of their feet, travel up their spines, and reach their brains, leaving their entire bodies ice-cold.

Wei Yang withdrew his gaze and ignored them, turning his attention back to the human mercenaries.

When Wei Yang looked over, the dozen or so human mercenaries all shuddered.

"Can anyone tell me how to get to Shimo City?" Wei Yang asked with a smile.