Leaving Desert City! An Uninvited Guest!

Now that the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King had made its move, and against two Dou Emperors at that, it had clearly realized that these two were after its disciple.

As for Hai Bo Dong's aura, Qin Hao had not sensed it. Barring any surprises, Hai Bo Dong had likely remained behind to protect Xiao Yan and the others.

Without hesitation, Qin Hao violently flapped the Dou Qi wings on his back. His speed instantly increased severalfold as he shot toward the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King.

At full speed, Qin Hao reached the battlefield in no time.

Two figures were fleeing frantically ahead, looking utterly miserable, while the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King pursued them relentlessly from behind.

Qin Hao could sense the auras of the two figures ahead. Both were Dou Emperors—one a five-star Dou Emperor, the other a six-star Dou Emperor.

Under normal circumstances, opponents of this level would clearly not have stood a chance against the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King.

However, the two Dou Emperors were obviously working together, and their coordination was extremely seamless. That was the only reason they had barely held on until now.

Still, they had clearly reached their limit. If this continued, they would certainly lose within a minute.

"Is that... the Eight-Winged Black Serpent Emperor?"

Qin Hao's gaze fixed on one of the two figures ahead.

It was a massive serpent nearly a hundred feet long. Its entire body was pitch-black, and four pairs of wings grew from its back. When fully spread, the wings possessed the texture of black metal.

At its head was a blurred crown-shaped pattern formed from colorful markings. Qin Hao recognized it almost instantly—it was the Eight-Winged Black Serpent Emperor.

The moment he identified it, Qin Hao understood where they had come from. If nothing unexpected had happened, they were both from the Heavenly Serpent Palace, and the woman in green must have been Green Barbarian from the original story.

Since they had appeared here and were being pursued by the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King, Qin Hao could easily guess their earlier intentions.

He had never expected that even after taking Qinglin away two or three years early and leaving Stone Desert City, he would still encounter people from the Heavenly Serpent Palace here in Desert City.

He did not know whether it was coincidence or the inertia of the plot...

"No matter the reason, since you dared set your sights on Qinglin, I cannot spare you!"

Cold light flickered in Qin Hao's eyes. Though they had powerful backing, he had no fear of them whatsoever.

The next instant, Qin Hao appeared directly on the battlefield.

When Qin Hao appeared, both sides' eyes lit up. White Fang and Green Barbarian wore excited expressions, as though they had seized a lifeline in the depths of despair.

As for the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King, a mocking look appeared in its eyes as it stared at them as though they were already dead.

"Young Master, please help us. We are from the Heavenly Serpent Palace. If you lend us a hand, the Heavenly Serpent Palace will certainly reward you generously!"

Green Barbarian's voice rang out at once, carrying a seductive undertone.

At the same time, the two of them shot rapidly toward Qin Hao.

Seeing the movements of the two Heavenly Serpent Palace members, Qin Hao curled his lips in ridicule. Then the Dou Qi within his body began to churn violently.

"Crimson Flame Profound Heaven Finger!"

The mid-tier Earth-rank Dou Technique activated instantly. It was the Dou Technique returned from the Crimson Flame Finger, and its power was more than a hundred times greater than the original.

A terrifying giant finger of flame materialized out of thin air in the sky, carrying an overwhelming aura that crushed everything as it descended upon Green Barbarian and White Fang.

Under the cover of that terrifying flaming finger, even the surrounding space began to twist violently, as though the entire area would be torn apart by its horrifying power.

"What!? How dare you?"

"We are from the Heavenly Serpent Palace! How dare you attack us!?"

Green Barbarian and White Fang's faces instantly turned pale, their eyes filled with disbelief.

They had clearly never expected Qin Hao not only to refuse to help them, but to attack them without hesitation.

The Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King alone had already driven them into such a miserable state. With another terrifying existence like Qin Hao added to the mix, their predicament was obvious.

"Idiots! You actually asked my master to help you deal with me? Did a donkey kick you both in the head?"

The Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King grinned mockingly, its tone full of ridicule.

"What!? Master?"

"Damn it! You are working together!"

After hearing the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King's words, their expressions became even uglier.

The Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King alone was already so terrifying. One could only imagine how frightening Qin Hao, its master, truly was.

"Damn it, let's risk everything!"

The next moment, madness flashed through both their eyes. Their auras instantly became incomparably violent, clearly indicating that they had used some forbidden technique to temporarily increase their strength.

Two terrifying Dou Techniques met Qin Hao's attack head-on.

"Trying to stop a chariot with a mantis's arm! You overestimate yourselves!"

Qin Hao's expression grew even more contemptuous.

Qin Hao was now a six-star Dou Emperor. He cultivated the Chaotic Heaven-Devouring Art, which far surpassed Heaven-rank techniques, and his physique had evolved into the Pure Yang Sacred Body. Coupled with this Earth-rank Dou Technique—

At this moment, even ordinary Dou Zongs would not have dared casually withstand Qin Hao's attack, much less these two Dou Emperors.

"Boom! Boom! Boom..."

In an instant, deafening explosions rang out as the terrifying giant flaming finger collided with their Dou Techniques. Yet in the blink of an eye, both techniques were crushed by that single finger.

Then, without losing any momentum, the terrifying giant finger continued down toward them.

"Bang! Bang!"

With two dull impacts, Green Barbarian and White Fang were instantly blasted away like kites with snapped strings.

Their bodies smashed brutally into the ground, leaving behind two enormous craters.

Green Barbarian, dressed in green, twitched twice on the ground before falling still. Her aura rapidly dissipated, and she clearly had no chance of surviving.

As for the Eight-Winged Black Serpent Emperor beside her, its true form was a sixth-tier magical beast, so its physical body was much stronger than Green Barbarian's.

Thus, it had not died immediately.

However, although the Eight-Winged Black Serpent Emperor had survived, it looked utterly miserable. Its massive hundred-foot body was covered in mangled flesh, with pale bones exposed in many places.

The four pairs of wings on its back had exploded apart. Its huge body twitched constantly, and its aura had become extremely weak.

With a casual strike, Qin Hao had killed one mid-level Dou Emperor and severely injured the other.

Moreover, the reason the Eight-Winged Black Serpent Emperor had survived was not only because its magical beast body was formidable, but more because Qin Hao had held back.

Of course, Qin Hao had not held back because he intended to spare it. He simply did not want to kill it so easily.

After all, the Eight-Winged Black Serpent Emperor was a serpent-type magical beast, while his disciple Qinglin possessed the Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils. He intended to let the Eight-Winged Black Serpent Emperor keep the Twin-Headed Fire Spirit Serpent company, then hand them all over to Qinglin's control once the time was right.

Qin Hao then casually sealed the Dou Qi within the Eight-Winged Black Serpent Emperor. With a thought, he suppressed it in a corner of the World Ring, where it temporarily joined the Twin-Headed Fire Spirit Serpent.

Seeing this, the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King's face also showed deep shock. It had clearly been stunned by the terrifying strength Qin Hao had displayed.

When it had first met Qin Hao, Qin Hao had only been at the Dou Wang level. He had only managed to subdue it by relying on favorable timing, terrain, and circumstances.

Yet in less than two months, Qin Hao's strength had risen to such a terrifying degree. How could it not have been shocked?

Even if it had been the one facing that attack just now, its outcome likely would not have been much better.

"Greetings, Master!"

The Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King quickly suppressed the shock in its heart and hurried over to Qin Hao.

To it, the stronger Qin Hao was, the greater the benefits it would receive.

"Mm. What happened earlier? How did you end up fighting them?"

Although Qin Hao had already made some guesses, he still asked.

"They came looking for us on their own. Their target was Young Master Qinglin. They seemed to have some special sense of Young Master Qinglin's Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils bloodline.

"They broke into Young Master Qinglin's room and tried to take her away by force, saying they would bring her to the Heavenly Serpent Palace to cultivate. The Ice Emperor and I stopped them. Once they sensed my strength, they began to flee.

"To prevent them from luring us away from the mountain, I came after these two, while the Ice Emperor stayed behind with the young masters!"

The Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King briefly explained what had happened.

"So that's how it is... Heavenly Serpent Palace... Hmph! You truly are impossible to get rid of. You dared target my disciple—I'll remember this debt. One day, I will make you pay the price!"

Qin Hao spoke coldly.

The Heavenly Serpent Palace had not appeared much in the original story, but it was clearly no weak force. It might even have had Dou Zun-level experts within it.

Leaving Desert City! An Uninvited Guest!

A force like that was absolutely hegemonic in a place like the Northwestern Region. Although Qin Hao's strength had greatly increased, he did not think much of Dou Zong experts now.

But when it came to Dou Zuns, he was clearly not very confident.

In the Dou Qi Continent, the Dou Zong realm was a dividing line. Before reaching Dou Zong, the gap between major realms was not that absurd. For some sufficiently talented cultivators, challenging opponents above their level was nothing unusual.

But once one entered the Dou Zong realm, everything became completely different. After stepping into Dou Zong, one began to come into contact with the use of spatial power, gaining abilities such as walking through the air, distorting space, and spatial sealing.

Dou Zongs possessed absolute suppression over those below the Dou Zong realm. Qin Hao could only fight a Dou Zong across an entire major realm because he had cheats.

Even Xiao Yan from the original story, at the same realm, would have been far from Qin Hao's current combat power even if he unleashed his ultimate Buddha's Fury Lotus.

As for Dou Zuns... if Dou Zongs had only begun to manipulate spatial power, then Dou Zuns truly controlled it.

Dou Zun experts could tear open space, travel through space, use spatial strangulation, set spatial locks and spatial prisons, establish spatial wormholes, and withstand spatial storms—operations of an entirely higher level.

Compared with Dou Zongs, this was another enormous transformation.

Thus, after reaching Dou Zong, the gap between every realm far exceeded the gaps before. Moreover, the further one advanced, the more terrifying the difference between realms became.

At present, Qin Hao truly had little confidence in defeating a Dou Zun, much less killing one.

Therefore, Qin Hao only marked down this debt with the Heavenly Serpent Palace for now. Once his strength was sufficient, he would seek an explanation.

After removing Green Barbarian's storage ring, Qin Hao's crimson-gold flames instantly enveloped her corpse. Before long, she was reduced to ashes.

"Not bad at all!"

After examining Green Barbarian's storage ring, Qin Hao revealed a satisfied expression. As a Dou Emperor expert of the Heavenly Serpent Palace, Green Barbarian naturally had some wealth.

Among its contents, Qin Hao even found quite a few secret cultivation techniques and Dou Techniques of the Heavenly Serpent Palace.

Although these cultivation techniques and Dou Techniques were of little use to Qin Hao, they would be quite suitable to bestow upon Qinglin in the future.