Ten-Thousandfold Returns for Taking Disciples: Starting from Battle Through the Heavens

However, Qin Hao did not take it. Just as with the Earth Core Body-Tempering Milk before, he was leaving behind a sliver of hope.

With this thing remaining, perhaps after another thousand years, a second Green Lotus Core Flame could be nurtured here.

Having obtained what he wanted, Qin Hao did not linger any longer. He returned the way he had come, preparing to leave.

"Hmm?"

Just as Qin Hao was about to pass through the passage and return to the surface, he suddenly sensed over a hundred auras aboveground. Clearly, someone had approached this place.

In an instant, Qin Hao understood. Someone had evidently discovered this place and had likely been drawn here by the commotion from his earlier attack. This was something Qin Hao had not considered before.

After only a moment, Qin Hao regained his calm and paid it little mind. Even if he had been discovered, he did not care in the slightest.

Though there were quite a few of them, the strongest aura among them was merely at the Great Dou Master level. To Qin Hao, beings of that level were no different from ants.

"Stop!"

The moment Qin Hao emerged from the passage, the people waiting outside noticed him. In an instant, they surrounded him.

After glancing over them, Qin Hao understood their identities. They were a group of mercenaries, and every one of them bore the same insignia. Clearly, they all belonged to the same mercenary group.

In Stone Desert City, the only mercenary group capable of gathering so many people at once, including Great Dou Master-level experts, was the Sand Mercenary Group.

"Who are you? Why are you here?"

Soon, the leading figure stepped out from the crowd. His gaze settled on Qin Hao as he looked him over from head to toe, his eyes filled with scrutiny and his expression constantly shifting.

"Commander, why waste words on him? Just capture him. Delays breed trouble. There are clearly treasures here, perhaps even a ruin left behind by some powerful expert. We absolutely cannot let word get out!"

Before Qin Hao could speak, a sinister-looking middle-aged man at the side suddenly spoke. His gaze toward Qin Hao flashed with ferocity and greed.

Sure enough, after hearing the middle-aged man's words, the expression on the leading figure's face turned cold.

In their eyes, the terrifying commotion from before had most likely been caused by the appearance of some treasure or the emergence of a ruin.

As for it being caused by someone's attack, that possibility had never even crossed their minds. In their view, such a powerful expert could not possibly appear in a place like Stone Desert City.

Furthermore, Qin Hao looked so young that they could not possibly connect him to what had happened here.

The only explanation was that Qin Hao had been lucky enough to arrive before them.

"Attack! Take him down!"

The leading figure waved his hand, and the surrounding mercenaries immediately charged at Qin Hao.

"You're courting death!"

Seeing this, a cold glint appeared in Qin Hao's eyes as killing intent flickered within them.

Then, amid the horrified gazes of the crowd, Dou Qi wings materialized behind his back out of thin air, and his body rose directly into the sky.

"Heavenfire Incineration!"

The Dou Qi within his body surged madly. The next moment, flames filled the sky out of nowhere, forming an endless sea of fire that swept down upon the crowd.

It was the mid-Xuan-tier Dou Technique, Heavenfire Incineration, one of the few area-of-effect Dou Techniques Qin Hao had mastered.

"D-Dou Qi wings!?"

"A-Dou King expert!? H-How is that possible!?"

"We're finished!"

The mercenaries, who had been baring savage expressions moments ago, now turned deathly pale as if they had seen a ghost. The terror in their eyes could not be concealed.

Especially Luo Bu, the commander, and the sinister middle-aged man who had spoken earlier. Their guts had turned green with regret. They had never imagined that this harmless-looking young man was actually a terrifying Dou King expert.

"Run!"

"Mercy, my lord!"

The scene instantly descended into chaos. Those who reacted quickly scattered in all directions, while some were so terrified that they collapsed to their knees with a thud and begged Qin Hao for mercy.

Yet Qin Hao's expression did not change at all. He had originally been too lazy to bother with them, but since they had chosen to seek death themselves, he naturally would not show mercy.

The moment anyone touched the sea of fire overhead, they were swallowed almost immediately. Miserable screams rose one after another before they were reduced to ash, leaving not even bones behind!

"Y-You can't kill me! The Sand Mercenary Group is backed by the Mo Clan! The Mo Clan's Great Elder is from the Misty Cloud Sect!"

Seeing that Qin Hao had no intention of holding back, Luo Bu could only invoke powerful names, hoping that the Mo Clan or the Misty Cloud Sect would make Qin Hao hesitate.

"The mere Mo Clan? What a joke! You truly don't know your place!"

Qin Hao looked even more disdainful after hearing that. He lightly pointed a finger, and a fierce, tyrannical burst of force tore through the air.

Before Luo Bu could react, his head exploded like a watermelon. He was clearly dead beyond any doubt.

Several breaths later, the flames filling the sky gradually dispersed. The more than one hundred mercenaries who had filled the area had all been completely reduced to ashes.

These had been the elite forces of the Sand Mercenary Group. With so many men lost and their commander killed by Qin Hao, the Sand Mercenary Group was practically finished in all but name.

Naturally, Qin Hao did not care in the slightest about the future of the Sand Mercenary Group. After withdrawing his gaze, he immediately headed toward Stone Desert City.

"Master, you're finally back!"

When Qinglin saw Qin Hao upon his return to the inn, she hurriedly spoke. The tension and worry on her face vanished without a trace.

"Mm, not bad. You've already reached the first stage of Dou Qi."

Qin Hao nodded, then turned his gaze toward Qinglin.

Under normal circumstances, after just beginning to cultivate Dou Qi, it would take at least ten days to half a month, if not longer, to truly reach the first stage of Dou Qi.

However, Qinglin possessed the Green Serpent Three-Flower Eyes, and she also had the Marrow-Washing Spirit Liquid prepared by Qin Hao. That was why she had reached the first stage of Dou Qi so quickly.

"It is all thanks to Master's help!"

Qinglin hurriedly said.

Over the next few days, Qin Hao did not immediately leave Stone Desert City with Qinglin.

Although he had already achieved his goals during this trip to Stone Desert City—taking Qinglin as his disciple and obtaining the Green Lotus Core Flame—Qinglin had only just begun cultivating and was still somewhat unaccustomed to it.

"It's about time. We should leave."

Only after staying for a full ten days did Qin Hao prepare to depart.

By then, Qinglin had completely adapted to cultivation. Moreover, with ample medicinal baths supporting her, Qinglin's cultivation had already reached the second stage of Dou Qi.

Qin Hao did not give Qinglin the Twin-Headed Fire Spirit Serpent he had subdued in the lava world just yet.

Although Qinglin had forcibly subdued the Twin-Headed Fire Spirit Serpent while still at the Dou Qi stage in the original story, the process had clearly been extremely dangerous, and she had nearly suffered a backlash.

Therefore, Qin Hao planned to let Qinglin subdue the Twin-Headed Fire Spirit Serpent only after she reached the Dou Practitioner realm.

After packing their things and checking out of the room, Qin Hao took Qinglin directly toward the outskirts of Stone Desert City.

"Hmm?"

Just as the two were about to leave through the city gates, Qin Hao suddenly keenly sensed a probing presence settle upon them. More precisely, it had settled upon Qinglin beside him.

An ordinary person would naturally be unable to detect such a probing presence, but Qin Hao possessed a Spiritual Realm soul. His perception was extraordinarily sharp, so he noticed the anomaly immediately.

Glancing in the direction from which the aura came, he saw an old man in gray robes with grizzled hair slowly following behind them. His body emitted an aura mixed with coldness, savagery, and bloodlust.

At that moment, the old man's gaze was fixed firmly on Qinglin beside Qin Hao. His pair of emerald-green eyes shone with burning greed, as though he were looking at some peerless treasure.

"This aura..."

The instant Qin Hao sensed the aura on the other man's body, his brows furrowed slightly, because that aura was simply too mixed and impure.

Apart from a human aura, Qin Hao could sense the bloodline auras of at least several Magic Beasts from him.

"Could he be the offspring of a human and a Magic Beast?"

However, the moment that thought arose, Qin Hao rejected it. The Magic Beast bloodlines on the other man's body carried wild, untamed auras. They were clearly the auras of pure Magic Beasts.

They did not resemble the aura produced by the fusion of human and Magic Beast bloodlines. Instead, they seemed more like something that had been forcibly grafted on.

"Hmm? Wait, forcibly grafted... Could it be..."

At that moment, a flash of inspiration struck Qin Hao, and a thought emerged in his mind.

He recalled a notorious name from the early part of the original story. It was none other than Mo Cheng, the Great Elder of the Mo Clan in Salt City.

Mo Cheng was an outer sect deacon of the Misty Cloud Sect. Somehow, he had obtained an incomplete and evil inheritance and had begun conducting "biological experiments."

To increase his own strength, he transplanted the organs of various Magic Beasts into his own body.

In the original story, he had set his sights on Qinglin, who possessed the Green Serpent Three-Flower Eyes, intending to transplant Qinglin's Green Serpent Three-Flower Eyes onto himself.

Qin Hao had not expected that, even though he had encountered Qinglin roughly three years earlier than in the original story, Mo Cheng would still set his sights on her.

What he did not know was that this had something to do with him as well.

The Sand Mercenary Group was an outer force supported by the Mo Clan and regularly paid tribute to them.

A few days earlier, Mo Cheng had been out on business and happened to pass through Stone Desert City. He had intended to rest at the Sand Mercenary Group's base.

However, after arriving there, he learned that the Sand Mercenary Group had suffered a tremendous upheaval. More than half of its core elites had been lost, and even Luo Bu, their Great Dou Master-level commander, had died.

This result naturally enraged Mo Cheng, so he began investigating the culprit until he encountered Qin Hao and Qinglin.

As someone who had become obsessed with "organ transplantation," Mo Cheng was exceptionally knowledgeable about all sorts of Magic Beasts and special constitutions.

Therefore, the instant he saw Qinglin, he noticed that she possessed the legendary, heaven-defying constitution known as the Green Serpent Three-Flower Eyes.

To Mo Cheng, Qinglin's appearance was as irresistible as a Heavenly Flame to an alchemist. He immediately fixed his sights on Qin Hao and Qinglin.

"Something that doesn't know its place!"

Qin Hao had clearly realized the other man's intentions. Cold light flickered in his eyes. The fact that Mo Cheng had set his sights on his disciple had clearly touched Qin Hao's reverse scale.

Soon, the two left Stone Desert City. After walking for a while, Qin Hao stopped and slowly turned around, his gaze falling toward a certain direction behind him.

"You've followed us for so long. Are you still not going to show yourself?"

Qin Hao spoke coldly. He could clearly sense Mo Cheng's aura right there.

Mo Cheng must have transplanted the organ of some Magic Beast skilled in concealment, granting him powerful hiding and camouflage abilities. Ordinary people truly would not be able to detect him.