Ten-Thousandfold Returns for Taking Disciples: Starting from Battle Through the Heavens, Section 9

Qin Hao directly used his Spirit Realm soul power to envelop them both, completely isolating their auras from the surroundings.

Only after doing all this did he cautiously poke his head out and look toward the battlefield.

Two enormous Magic Beasts came into their view.

"It's the Earthshaker Bear King and the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King! It's actually them!"

The moment she saw the two Magic Beasts, Zi Yan could not help but speak up. Clearly, she recognized their origins.

One of the two Magic Beasts was a giant bear over ten meters tall, its entire body pitch-black and its massive frame resembling a small mountain.

The giant bear opened its bloody maw, its sharp fangs gleaming with a blinding light as it let out one soul-shaking roar after another.

Every movement of its legs seemed to make the earth quake and the mountains tremble. Its enormous bear paws swung wildly, producing terrifying sonic booms that made one's scalp go numb.

Opposite it stood another beast more than ten meters long, resembling the fire qilin of myth and legend, except that it had an additional pair of crimson wings on its back.

Its entire body was covered in scarlet scales, and blazing flames enveloped its surface. An aura of scorching heat and destruction radiated from those flames, as though they could burn everything to ashes.

"As expected, it's a battle between two sixth-tier Magic Beasts!"

Qin Hao nodded, his gaze turning toward the battle. The two terrifying Magic Beasts were locked in close combat, and the scene was utterly explosive. Wherever they passed, mountains split and rocks shattered, while everything around them was reduced to ruins by the aftermath of their clash.

Every collision between them carried terrifying destructive force.

"The Earthshaker Bear King actually dared to provoke the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King. Something feels off here!"

After watching for a while, Zi Yan suddenly spoke.

"It is rather abnormal."

Qin Hao nodded.

Qin Hao knew quite a bit about these two Magic Beasts.

Although both were sixth-tier Magic Beasts, there was still a considerable gap between them.

The Earthshaker Bear King was an earth-element Magic Beast. Its strength and defense were outstanding, but it was rather mediocre in other aspects.

Therefore, among sixth-tier Magic Beasts, the Earthshaker Bear King could only be considered above average. It was far from the top tier.

The Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King, however, was different. It was a true pinnacle sixth-tier Magic Beast. Its offense, defense, speed, and other attributes were all top-notch. Among all sixth-tier Magic Beasts, it stood at the very highest level.

Logically speaking, the Earthshaker Bear King should have been no match for the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King. Under normal circumstances, it would not even dare provoke it.

Yet the situation before them was the exact opposite. This seemed to be the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King's territory, while the Earthshaker Bear King was clearly the invader. It was the Earthshaker Bear King that had initiated this battle.

Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin Beast Cub! The Heaven-Defying Blood-Origin Fruit!

Moreover, the battle was not one-sided. Instead, the two sides were evenly matched.

This was clearly highly abnormal, and everything about it seemed strange.

"No, the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King's aura is somewhat unstable!"

Very quickly, Qin Hao's sharp soul perception detected an anomaly. He discovered that the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King seemed strong on the outside but weak within, as if it were injured.

"The Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King is injured? But even an injured Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King isn't someone the Earthshaker Bear King could provoke so easily, right?"

After hearing Qin Hao's words, Zi Yan spoke as well.

"Perhaps there's something here that attracted the Earthshaker Bear King."

Qin Hao guessed.

"Could there be some top-grade heavenly treasure here? Let's go around and take a look!"

Zi Yan's eyes lit up, a fiery gleam flashing through them. An eager expression appeared on her face.

If it truly was because of some heavenly treasure, then anything capable of making two sixth-tier Magic Beasts fight to the death could not possibly be ordinary.

"This... Be careful, and don't get too close!"

Seeing this, Qin Hao nodded. Under normal circumstances, he would never approach the lair of a sixth-tier Magic Beast.

But now that the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King was being held back by the Earthshaker Bear King, he dared to investigate.

The two carefully moved away from the battlefield, took a wide detour, and arrived behind the two battling Magic Beasts. There was a huge valley there, and the instant they approached it, a scorching wave of heat rushed at them.

It was mixed with the dense scent of underground fire and magma.

Qin Hao guessed that somewhere near this valley, there was likely a connection to an underground lava region.

If nothing unexpected happened, this valley should be the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King's nest.

Even so, Qin Hao and Zi Yan did not rush in directly. Who knew whether doing so would attract the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King's attention?

They bypassed the front of the valley and climbed a mountain peak at its side. From there, everything within the valley came into view.

"Huh? There seems to be another Magic Beast in the valley. That aura seems to be... the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King? There's actually another Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King here?"

After cautiously sensing the valley's situation, Zi Yan's gaze sharpened and fell directly on its deepest area, where there was a massive cave.

"It isn't a Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King. It's a newborn Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin Beast cub!"

Qin Hao's soul perception was far stronger than Zi Yan's, so he had obtained more information.

There was no Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King in that cave, but a Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin Beast cub that had only just been born. It had probably been alive for less than a month.

Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin Beasts were third-tier Magic Beasts from birth, but only those that reached the sixth tier could be called Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin Kings.

Qin Hao finally understood why the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King's aura was unstable. It was clearly related to having recently given birth. Like humans, Magic Beasts also went through a period of weakness after childbirth.

Furthermore, the stronger the Magic Beast, the greater the loss of vital energy from giving birth.

In the original story, the Misty Cloud Sect's leader had only the cultivation of a three-star Dou Huang, yet she still dared to provoke the Amethyst Winged Lion King. It was not because the Amethyst Winged Lion King was weak, but because it too was in a weakened state after childbirth.

Otherwise, for Yun Yun, a mere three-star Dou Huang, to provoke the Amethyst Winged Lion King would have been no different from seeking death.

"Huh? Wait, that is... Am I seeing things? Th-that looks like the legendary Blood-Origin Fruit!"

Suddenly, Zi Yan seemed to have noticed something. She cried out in shock, staring fixedly at a spot not far from the cave. Her eyes shone, and even her breathing became somewhat rapid.

"Hmm?"

Qin Hao naturally noticed Zi Yan's strange reaction. Following her gaze, he soon spotted three fruits the size of an infant's fist hanging from a small tree about a meter tall.

The instant he saw them, Qin Hao recognized them. They were the legendary Blood-Origin Fruits.

The moment he saw the Blood-Origin Fruits, he finally understood why the Earthshaker Bear King had taken such a huge risk to attack the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King. If nothing unexpected had happened, the source of it all was clearly these Blood-Origin Fruits.

Blood-Origin Fruits flowered once every hundred years, bore fruit after another hundred years, and only fully ripened after yet another hundred years. Each tree produced only three fruits at a time, and once the ripe fruits were harvested, the tree would instantly wither away.

The reason Blood-Origin Fruits could attract the Earthshaker Bear King was because they had an extraordinarily heaven-defying effect: they could strengthen one's bloodline.

They could increase the purity of a bloodline and even had a certain chance of causing it to evolve.

Unlike humans, Magic Beasts belonged to a group with an extremely rigid bloodline hierarchy. Generally speaking, a Magic Beast's bloodline determined the upper limit of its growth.

Take the Earthshaker Bear King and the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King, for example. As sixth-tier Magic Beasts, their bloodlines meant that the sixth tier was normally their limit.

No matter how long they cultivated or how much energy they accumulated, they could never break through the shackles of the sixth tier.

To break those shackles, there was only one way: complete a bloodline evolution and transformation.

Only after the bloodline transformed could they break through their limits and advance to a higher realm.

It was like Medusa, the Serpent-People Queen from the original story. Normally, the Serpent-People bloodline had the peak of Dou Huang as its limit. No matter how many cultivation-advancing pills they consumed, they could never enter the Dou Zong realm.

Thus, in the original story, in order to break those shackles and change the plight of the Serpent-People, Queen Medusa had staked everything on using the power of a Heavenly Flame to purify and stimulate her bloodline, awakening the potential within it.

This showed just how terrifying the shackles imposed by bloodline rank were upon Magic Beasts.

The Blood-Origin Fruits before them were heavenly treasures capable of strengthening and even evolving bloodlines. One could imagine how terrifyingly attractive they were to Magic Beasts.

Of course, Blood-Origin Fruits were not omnipotent. The higher the bloodline rank, the weaker their effect became, or they might even have no effect at all.

If they were given to an existence at Queen Medusa's level, there was indeed a considerable chance of helping her break through the shackles of her bloodline.

But if they were given to Zi Yan beside Qin Hao, they would at most increase the intensity of the energy within her body. As for strengthening her bloodline, they would have no effect whatsoever.

After all, Zi Yan possessed the bloodline of the Ancient Void Dragon Emperor, which had already nearly reached the peak of this continent.

Only the Dragon-Phoenix Origin Fruit that had appeared in the original story could be effective for Zi Yan.

Compared to the Dragon-Phoenix Origin Fruit, the Blood-Origin Fruit was clearly on an entirely different level.

"Calm down. Don't act rashly! This is the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King's lair. It will definitely have left behind protective measures for such an important heavenly treasure.

It's impossible to obtain this without alerting it. We can't touch it for now. You don't want to be hunted down by two berserk sixth-tier Magic Beasts, do you?

Unless they truly end up mutually wounded, we'll have a chance. Otherwise, don't be impulsive!"

Seeing Zi Yan growing restless, Qin Hao hurriedly reminded her.

"Uh..."

Qin Hao's words were like a bucket of cold water dumped over Zi Yan's head. Just as Qin Hao had expected, if they were discovered touching the Blood-Origin Fruits at this time—

The two sixth-tier Magic Beasts currently fighting would definitely stop immediately and turn their attention toward Qin Hao and Zi Yan.

Earlier, even an ordinary sixth-tier Magic Beast like the Howling-Moon Wolf King had chased them into such a miserable state. Let alone two even more terrifying sixth-tier Magic Beasts.

If it really came to that, unless Qin Hao used his Dou Saint Experience Card trump card, the two of them would undoubtedly die.

Yet while the Blood-Origin Fruits were precious, they were still nowhere near comparable to a Dou Saint Experience Card. Using a Dou Saint Experience Card in exchange for a few Blood-Origin Fruits would truly be an enormous loss.

"Let's go. We should stay as far away as possible, lest they really notice us. For now, we can only wait and see. The only thing we can do is pray that they both end up badly wounded!"

Qin Hao spoke. Now that he knew there were Blood-Origin Fruits here, there was a high chance that the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King was still devoting considerable attention to this place even while fighting.

This was far more likely to expose them than staying on the outskirts of the battlefield. The longer they remained here, the greater the chance of being discovered.

"Mm!"

Zi Yan was no fool. Although reluctant, she understood what mattered most. The two carefully withdrew once again, found a concealed mountain peak, and continued watching the battle between the two Magic Beasts.

More than two hours passed in the blink of an eye, but neither Magic Beast showed the slightest intention of stopping. Instead, they grew increasingly savage. Clearly, both had been driven into a rage and were now truly fighting for their lives.

Judging from their posture, the battle would not end until one of them died, which was exactly what Qin Hao and Zi Yan wanted to see.

Roar!