Hidden Killing Intent

Endless wild sands stretched beneath the scorching sun.

Violent heat waves ravaged the Tagor Desert. The air warped by the heat blurred one's vision, making it impossible to see the road behind or find the path ahead.

What had existed only in film and television from his previous life was now something Su Heng was experiencing firsthand.

When he had first left home, Su Heng had worn a brown robe. Now, after less than two days on the road, he was bare-chested and wearing only a pair of shorts.

The desert weather was simply too hot. Even a body tempered through long-term Dou Qi cultivation had little resistance to such heat. At least, Su Heng could not sit inside the carriage wearing a robe.

He felt as though he had entered a sauna lit by seven or eight braziers. Even breathing felt like breathing fire.

The two Su Clan guards beside him, however, remained calm and composed, with even a faint hint of comfort in their expressions.

For Su Heng, whose Dou Qi had yet to be converted into an attribute, the dryness and blazing heat of the desert were unbearable.

But for the Su Clan members, whose Dou Qi was already earth-attributed, the desert was actually an exceptionally comfortable environment.

The desert air was filled with earth- and fire-attributed energy. For those cultivating these two types of Dou Qi, the desert was practically the most perfect natural environment.

After learning this from the Su Clan guards, Su Heng immediately began cultivating the fire-attributed technique his father had given him.

With a technique of the appropriate attribute guiding him, along with the additional boost from the natural environment, a faint yellow tint soon appeared at the center of the milky-white Dou Qi Whirlpool within Su Heng's body.

This was the signature color of a low-tier fire-attributed technique. As the technique's grade increased, the color of fire-attributed Dou Qi would gradually deepen as well.

The faint pale-yellow vortex rapidly spread outward from the center of the whirlpool. Once the entire Dou Qi Whirlpool had been dyed a bright pale yellow, the conversion of his Dou Qi attribute would be complete.

Cultivating a technique that matched one's own attribute gave one the added benefits of both body and soul power, allowing twice the result with half the effort.

Su Heng's soul power, far surpassing that of ordinary people, played an exceptionally important role at this moment.

When observing his whirlpool internally, Su Heng could see tiny flaws that ordinary people could not detect.

Over the past several years, Su Heng had repeatedly purified and compressed his Dou Qi. The milky-white Dou Qi within his body was thick and dense, and his foundation was extremely solid.

In only three days, Su Heng completed the conversion of his Dou Qi attribute. At the same time, he successfully advanced from a one-star Dou Practitioner to a two-star one.

Once the attribute conversion was complete, the scorching sensation in the air instantly vanished without a trace.

In its place was an extremely comfortable warmth, as though he had suddenly stepped from thirty-degree sauna weather into an air-conditioned room set to twenty-six degrees.

"Ha! It really is much more comfortable. Looking at the desert now, it actually feels rather familiar."

At that moment, Su Heng was walking through the desert in his shorts while admiring its unique scenery.

Among the travelers walking through the desert, men generally went bare-chested, while women wore tight leather tops paired with short skirts, exposing their fragrant shoulders, flat stomachs, and long legs.

Their graceful waists and firm, slender legs, honed through long-term cultivation, were undoubtedly the most beautiful sight in the desert.

On the Dou Qi Continent, both men and women could cultivate, and talent showed no obvious difference due to gender. This resulted in a fairly balanced ratio of men to women within mercenary groups.

"The girls of the Dou Qi Continent really do have amazing figures. I rarely went out back in Salt City, so I never noticed it. Now that I'm in this desert, I've finally had a proper feast for the eyes!"

At seventeen, he was at the age when his blood ran hot. How could such wonderful sights fail to make him linger?

Watching the female mercenaries traveling with them, Su Heng could not help but sigh inwardly. Traveling alongside so many pleasing beauties was truly a blessing.

For several days in a row, Su Heng immersed himself in the joy of appreciating beautiful things.

But joy was always fleeting...

Xiao Li, the second commander of the Desert Iron Mercenary Group, was a seasoned and capable veteran. Having spent many years making his way through the desert, he knew full well that this was no scenic attraction, but a graveyard for the ignorant.

The more comfortable the environment, the more quickly one needed to leave it behind. He directed everyone onward at high speed, barely stopping at all.

In only ten days, Su Heng and the Desert Iron Mercenary Group neared the border of the Tagor Desert.

At most, another two days of travel would see them safely out of the desert and into the border city of Desert City.

Desert City was the closest city in the Gama Empire to the Tagor Desert. From there, they could switch to a flying Magic Beast, a Thick-Winged Bird, and travel directly to Black Rock City.

In other words, once they entered Desert City, ninety percent of this journey would be over.

But the last stretch was always the hardest. The final two days of travel would be the most dangerous.

A skilled hunter would not strike when its prey was full of energy. It would wait until the prey was exhausted and had lowered its guard before suddenly attacking.

The Snake-People Tribe was a group of skilled hunters!

They constantly lingered around the desert border, ambushing travelers about to leave the desert. When those travelers believed themselves safe, that was precisely when they were in the greatest danger.

Xiao Li had fought the Snake-People Tribe many times and understood this better than anyone. Thus, as they neared the border, he altered their itinerary.

"Young Master Su Heng, the second commander asked me to tell you that we won't make camp tonight. We'll travel through the night. If you're sleepy, get some rest while you can."

A petite girl pushed aside the carriage curtain and poked her porcelain-doll-like little head inside, speaking softly.

"Qing Lin, I'm not sleepy. Haven't I told you not to call me Young Master? Just call me Brother Su Heng or Su Heng."

Whenever Su Heng looked at the girl before him, his heart could not help but ache for her.

This girl named Qing Lin was a mixed-blood child of a snake-person and a human.

When the two had first met, Qing Lin had accidentally exposed the green snake scales on her arm. At the time, she had been so frightened that she fell to her knees and repeatedly apologized to Su Heng.

What kind of life had she lived through to become so timid and cowardly, so fearful and uneasy?

Su Heng came from another world, and he was also a well-mannered person. Naturally, he held not the slightest prejudice toward Qing Lin.

Su Heng comforted Qing Lin gently, without revealing even the faintest sign of anything unusual.

Qing Lin had a body constitution of yin-coldness. While traveling through the desert, she had to keep drinking water, or the extreme heat would cause her to suffer heatstroke and faint.

Although everyone in the Desert Iron Mercenary Group took good care of her, she still occasionally fainted from heatstroke.

After learning of this, Su Heng gave half of his fresh water to Qing Lin.

He also had Qing Lin travel in the same carriage as him, so that if anything happened to her, he could notice it immediately and react at once.

After more than ten days together, the two gradually grew familiar with one another. Yet no matter how Su Heng encouraged her, Qing Lin remained cautious and timid.

"Qing Lin, if I'm not mistaken, there should be snake-people active nearby. Over these next two days, Brother Xiao Li and the others will be under a lot of pressure. Stay by my side tonight. I'll protect you."

"Yes, thank you, Young Master Su Heng."

Qing Lin nodded obediently, and a faint mist of tears rose in her emerald-green eyes.

Su Heng was only a two-star Dou Practitioner, making him second weakest in the entire group.

Yet Qing Lin did not know why, but whenever she was with him, she always felt safe.

The desert in the dead of night no longer held the daytime heat. The piercing cold made people shiver, and Su Heng estimated the temperature was only barely above freezing.

For Su Heng's group, they had to choose the lesser of two evils. If they camped where they were, snake-person scouts might discover them and bring a large number of snake-people down upon them.

Traveling through the night, on the other hand, might still bring them into contact with scattered snake-person scouts. But with the strength of Xiao Li and the Desert Iron Mercenary Group, they could swiftly deal with a few isolated snake-people and ensure that none escaped to report back.

The icy wind swept across the entire desert. Everyone in the mercenary group wore black robes that blended into the night, while the horses' hooves were wrapped in thick black cloth, producing only faint sounds as they traveled.

"Everyone, stay alert. The moment you see snake-people, do not hesitate. Kill them immediately, and do not let a single one leave!"

Xiao Li's expression was ruthless as he vigilantly watched everything around them. He repeatedly emphasized the same order: upon seeing snake-people, kill without mercy.

Humans treated snake-people this way, and snake-people treated humans the same way.

Several hundred meters behind the caravan, several swiftly slithering figures silently followed.

Several gaunt snake-people hid within the darkness. Their faces were haggard, like withered old trees. Only their leader was powerfully built and ferocious-looking, clearly seeming to possess considerable strength.

"Hiss... Have you notified the brothers lying in ambush ahead?"

The leading snake-person lightly tapped another with his black snake tail and asked in an almost inaudible whisper.

"Don't worry, Boss. This little one has watched this group for three days. Nothing can go wrong."

The emaciated snake-person replied in a hoarse voice. He had drunk only two flasks of water over the past three days, and his throat was now so dry that he could barely speak.

Three days earlier, this snake-person had discovered Su Heng's group. His aura was so faint that it was nearly indistinguishable from that of a corpse, allowing Xiao Li to overlook his presence.

After narrowly escaping disaster, the snake-person had reported the mercenary group's movements to the nearest snake-person tribe while they made camp.

This small tribe had dispatched fourteen snake-people. Five suppressed their auras and followed behind, while nine lay in ambush along the mercenary group's unavoidable path. Xiao Li, however, remained completely unaware of all this.