Accepting Disciples with Ten-Thousandfold Returns: Starting from Battle Through the Heavens

At the center of the cave stood a crimson crystal as large as a millstone, radiating dense fire-attributed energy.

Perched atop the crystal was a miniature Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King, barely over a foot long. It was the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin Beast's cub.

"Scarlet Sun Jade!"

Qin Hao merely glanced at the Scarlet Qilin Beast before his gaze was drawn to the crystal beneath it. It was, astonishingly, an exceptionally rare fire-attributed treasure—the Scarlet Sun Jade.

The Scarlet Sun Jade could gather the fire-attributed energy of heaven and earth, greatly increasing the cultivation speed of fire-attributed cultivators. It was a fairly decent heavenly treasure.

However, it was only useful to cultivators below the Dou Zong realm. After reaching the Dou Zong realm, accumulating energy was no longer the main focus of cultivation.

Beyond Dou Zong, what mattered was one's mastery and application of spatial power.

"Master, are you referring to that thing? I found it in the underground magma. If you need it, you can take it directly!"

Seeing this, the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King immediately spoke.

"No need. Leave it for the little one. It isn't of much use to me!"

Qin Hao shook his head.

He was indeed considered a fire-attributed cultivator, but because he cultivated the Chaotic Heaven-Devouring Art, which could devour all things for its own use, the Scarlet Sun Jade's benefits to him were practically negligible.

After surveying the cave, Qin Hao's gaze fell toward a corner, where a pile of miscellaneous items had been stacked. They were clearly the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King's collected treasures.

As a peak sixth-tier magic beast, the quality of the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King's collection far surpassed the hoards he had previously plundered from those fifth-tier magic beasts.

There were plenty of magic cores, medicinal herbs, and all sorts of ores.

Qin Hao naturally did not stand on ceremony. He swept them all up at once.

However, among these spoils, Qin Hao found nothing left behind by human cultivators.

Still, he quickly understood why. This was the depths of the Magic Beast Forest, after all. Unlike the outer region, the interior was truly rarely visited by humans, and few cultivators entered this place.

Thus, compared to the outskirts of the Magic Beast Forest, fewer people actually died here.

"Oh, right, Master. You're an alchemist. I have something here that should be useful to you!"

At that moment, the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King suddenly spoke.

"Hmm? What is it?"

Qin Hao asked curiously.

The Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King did not waste any words. It went directly to another inconspicuous corner of the cave and began digging into the ground with its claws.

Before long, a pit more than three meters deep appeared there.

Then, a simple bundle made from some unknown beast hide was dug out from within.

Qin Hao stepped forward and opened the bundle. A dark storage ring immediately rolled out.

"A high-grade storage ring? I actually failed to sense its aura earlier!"

The instant Qin Hao saw the storage ring, his eyes lit up.

With a single glance, he recognized that it was a high-grade storage ring.

Such high-grade storage rings were incomparably precious, and anyone who possessed one was certainly no ordinary person.

Even the one Qin Hao used was only a mid-grade storage ring. Among the storage rings he had obtained from those magic beast lairs before, the best had likewise only been mid-grade, while most were merely low-grade.

Yet this one was a high-grade storage ring.

Normally, even ordinary Dou Emperors were not qualified to possess such a high-grade storage ring. Only those who had reached the Dou Zong realm would use one.

"That bundle is made from the fur of a Hidden Spirit Fox. It can isolate the aura of a storage ring and block the probing of soul power!"

The Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King explained from the side.

"Hidden Spirit Fox fur... so that's it!"

Qin Hao immediately showed a look of realization. The Hidden Spirit Fox was a fourth-tier magic beast. Its strength was average, but it possessed an extremely powerful innate talent: concealing its aura.

Even fifth-tier magic beasts and ordinary sixth-tier magic beasts found it difficult to detect a Hidden Spirit Fox in hiding.

With the storage ring wrapped in Hidden Spirit Fox fur and buried deep underground, it was no wonder he had failed to detect it earlier.

"This is the storage ring left behind by a Dou Emperor expert I killed. The other party seemed to be an alchemist. I already used the medicinal pills inside, but there is still a medicinal cauldron and some scrolls within. They may be useful to you, Master!"

The Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King's voice rang out again.

"A storage ring left behind by an alchemist!?"

Upon hearing that, Qin Hao's eyes immediately shone.

They were both high-grade storage rings, but if this one had been left behind by an alchemist, its significance to Qin Hao was entirely different.

That meant there was a strong possibility that the ring contained the alchemist's alchemy inheritance.

If that was truly the case, Qin Hao would have struck it rich this time.

In Qin Hao's opinion, an alchemist who could afford a high-grade storage ring had to be at least a sixth-grade, perhaps even a seventh-grade alchemist. Such an alchemy inheritance was exactly what Qin Hao needed most right now.

Although he was confident that he could refine fifth-grade medicinal pills, he did not possess a complete fifth-grade alchemist inheritance. He only had several common fifth-grade pill formulas that he had obtained by chance.

Treasured Cauldron! Ninefold Savage God Force! Mysterious Scroll!

Although his talent was exceptional and he had even undergone a soul transformation before, alchemy inheritance was still a major weakness for him as an alchemist.

Not only him—even in the Alchemy Department of Jia Nan Academy's Inner Academy, Elder Huo, the most skilled in alchemy, was merely a fifth-grade alchemist. In the vast Jia Nan Academy, there was not even a single sixth-grade alchemist.

If Qin Hao could truly obtain a high-grade alchemy inheritance, then with his aptitude, his alchemy rank would surely make a tremendous leap.

With that thought, Qin Hao could no longer wait. He picked up the high-grade storage ring before him, branded it with his soul mark, and sent his spiritual power directly into it.

Very soon, everything inside appeared within his senses.

"What a huge space. It truly deserves to be called a high-grade storage ring!"

Qin Hao's first reaction was that it was enormous. The space inside the ring was incomparably vast, dozens of times larger than that of the mid-grade storage ring in his possession.

Soon, he saw the items stored in a corner of the space. The most conspicuous was an ancient crimson cauldron.

Beside the medicinal cauldron were several scrolls and a few items resembling journals. The rest consisted of a pile of daily necessities.

With a thought, Qin Hao took out the cauldron, scrolls, and journals.

"What a fine cauldron!"

The moment Qin Hao saw the medicinal cauldron, his eyes lit up. As an alchemist, he could naturally tell at a glance whether a cauldron was good or bad.

This medicinal cauldron was undoubtedly a true treasured cauldron, its quality surpassing the one he possessed by far.

He had seen Elder Huo's medicinal cauldron before, but even Elder Huo's cauldron was nowhere close to the treasured cauldron before him.

In his view, even ordinary sixth-grade or seventh-grade alchemists might not possess such a treasured cauldron.

This was absolutely the kind of treasured cauldron countless alchemists dreamed of.

One had to know that, to an alchemist, the importance of a treasured cauldron was not the slightest bit inferior to Heavenly Flames.

A true treasured cauldron could greatly increase both the success rate of alchemy and the quality of the pills produced. Some treasured cauldrons even possessed other wondrous effects.

Only after a long while did Qin Hao finally shift his gaze away from the treasured cauldron and turn to the scrolls and journals.

Qin Hao first examined the scrolls. Just as he had imagined, they contained cultivation techniques and battle skills.

Moreover, there were an astonishing number of them—more than several dozen scrolls of cultivation techniques and battle skills combined.

Qin Hao spent nearly half an hour inspecting every single one of them.

The quality of these cultivation techniques and battle skills varied greatly. The lowest were only yellow-rank high-grade, while the highest had reached earth-rank low-grade.

Of the four earth-rank low-grade scrolls, one was a cultivation technique and three were battle skills.

The cultivation technique was called the Netherworld Profound Flame Art, a powerful fire-attributed cultivation technique.

The battle skills were the Eight Desolations Fire Dragon Slash, Parting Flame Astral Energy, and Ninefold Savage God Force!

The Eight Desolations Fire Dragon Slash was an offensive battle skill that required a sword or saber to wield. It could be used for single-target attacks or group attacks, and its power was considerable.

Parting Flame Astral Energy was a defensive battle skill that could transform into protective astral energy, greatly increasing one's defense. It was countless times stronger than such abilities as forming armor from battle qi.

As for the Ninefold Savage God Force, rather than calling it a battle skill, it was more accurate to call it a technique for circulating and unleashing force.

It could be used alongside close-combat battle skills. When cultivated to the limit, it could unleash nine layers of force.

For example, if Crimson Sun Palm were used together with the Ninefold Savage God Force, nine additional palm forces could be added to the Crimson Sun Palm's attack, causing its power to surge severalfold in an instant.

In Qin Hao's view, the Ninefold Savage God Force was undoubtedly the most valuable among these cultivation techniques and battle skills. To him, its value was even greater than that of ordinary earth-rank mid-grade cultivation techniques and battle skills.

It could even rival earth-rank high-grade.

Among these earth-rank cultivation techniques and battle skills, all except the Netherworld Profound Flame Art were quite useful to Qin Hao. However, if he wanted to unleash the Eight Desolations Fire Dragon Slash's full power, he still lacked a suitable weapon.

As for the Netherworld Profound Flame Art, because he cultivated the Chaotic Heaven-Devouring Art, it naturally had little use to him.

However, his gaze quickly passed over the several earth-rank cultivation techniques and battle skills before finally settling on an ancient, slightly yellowed scroll.

Unlike the cultivation technique and battle skill scrolls beside it, the surface of this scroll was covered in dense, mysterious, ancient secret patterns. It was clearly an incredibly powerful and profound sealing restriction.

Judging from its appearance, the scroll was clearly extremely ancient. Qin Hao could almost conclude that it had not been made by the owner of the storage ring, but had been acquired by that person from somewhere else.

Qin Hao even suspected that not even the storage ring's owner knew what had been sealed inside the scroll.

Qin Hao immediately grabbed the ancient scroll and began examining the sealing restriction upon it.

"Interesting. This isn't a battle qi seal, but a soul sealing restriction!"

After repeatedly studying and testing it, Qin Hao soon discovered that the seal on it was a mysterious method of soul sealing.

This was clearly quite rare. Generally speaking, most seals were formed with battle qi energy. Seals using soul-based methods were almost never seen.

Because of this, Qin Hao's interest was naturally piqued. He wondered what exactly had been sealed inside.

Anything preserved under such a seal was certainly no ordinary object.

With that thought, Qin Hao did not hesitate. His powerful soul force erupted instantly, and his vast, abyss-like soul power completely enveloped the scroll as he continuously studied the seal upon it.

As Qin Hao's soul power poured in without end, the secret patterns on the scroll's surface began flashing continuously, as though each pattern had been activated.

"Now!"