Vampire Cultivation Notes

With great difficulty, he managed to suppress the sudden urge to kill.

Li Jieqing smiled and said, "You offer me a useless martial arts technique in exchange for another, and then expect me to protect you and heal your injuries? What kind of good deal is that?"

"This humble servant is of humble appearance, but if the alchemist does not despise me, I am willing to serve you day and night!" Scorpion Lady said solemnly, "I only ask that the alchemist provide some resources for my cultivation, so that I may not stray from the path to immortality!"

Scorpion Lady's fame spread throughout Taipingfang, and she herself was at the eighth level of Qi Refining, a level higher than Li Jieqing's own.

During the beast tide, Scorpion Lady earned her reputation by killing demonic beasts. Later, she dragged a group of female cultivators at the mid-stage of Qi Refining down the group, yet she was still able to survive for a year in this perilous ruined market.

Having such a beautiful and capable woman at your service is truly a delightful thing.

But Li Jieqing refused.

"I'm not one to kick someone when they're down. To take your body in this dire situation would be taking advantage of you. Of course, I also don't trust a dignified Scorpion Lady like you in bed. Let's drop this matter. I'll just give you some spirit stones, spirit rice, and spirit pills as payment for the cultivation technique. You may go now—"

"Wait a minute!"

Scorpion Lady looked up and saw that Li Jieqing was about to refuse, but she could no longer care about anything else.

She naturally wanted resources like spirit stones and spirit rice, but after a year of spending without any income, she was almost starving.

But more importantly, one must find a foundation-building technique that suits oneself.

Moreover, Li Jieqing's previous righteous and stern words, coupled with his generally good reputation, made her more willing to believe him.

"—I still have a priceless treasure!"

Li Jieqing was about to say something definitive, but he didn't expect to gain something unexpected. He couldn't help but look at him sideways after hearing this.

Hmm, there's even a treasure?!

The Scorpion Lady hurriedly opened her storage bag and took out a chessboard, but she couldn't hold it and it fell into the hall with a thud.

The chessboard that suddenly appeared was like a square boulder cast in stone, with sides measuring seven feet and seven inches. Eighty-one vertical and horizontal lines were engraved on the top to form a chessboard. The center of the chessboard was concave, making it low in the center and high on the sides.

It looks like a strange rock, but it feels like a big rock when you touch it.

Li Jieqing probed the magic power.

Hmm... it's still a big rock.

"...What is this?"

Li Jieqing turned his head and looked, wondering if they were trying to take advantage of his blood-stained heart.

Upon seeing this, Scorpion Lady quickly explained, "I picked this up in Moon Gazing Valley. At first glance, it seemed ordinary, and the cultivators who went with me to dig pits to search for treasure all overlooked it. Later, I picked it up by chance and realized that it was extraordinary. Even if I tried my best, I couldn't destroy even a tiny bit of this four-fold trap chessboard."

Ding!

Li Jieqing drew his Qingshui sword and slashed fiercely at the chessboard that occupied the largest area in front of him.

The sword hummed for a moment, then the spiritual light dissipated, revealing the undamaged chessboard beneath the sword.

"This treasure would be perfect for self-defense!" Seeing this, Scorpion Lady breathed a sigh of relief and quickly began to boast about the power of the stubborn stone chessboard.

"Did it come from Moon Gazing Valley?"

Li Jieqing sheathed the Qingshui Sword and once again probed the chessboard with his magic power, this time more carefully, trying to find any magical artifacts or restrictions within it.

Speaking of Wangyue Valley, one cannot help but mention the Ruyi Green Lotus and the "Invisible Heavenly Sword" sword technique.

The Ruyi Green Lotus, a treasure of creation, can not only accelerate the growth of plants, but also gather spiritual energy. Li Jieqing felt that he benefited a lot just by cultivating around the Green Lotus and absorbing some spiritual energy, not to mention the continuous support after accelerating the growth of spiritual herbs.

However, the general chapter of "The Invisible Heavenly Sword" helped Li Jieqing overcome the limitations of the Blood Heart Freedom Technique in remote release, even before he had mastered the basics, and created the unprecedented Blood Heart Child.

Finally, there's this four-sided chessboard before me.

Li Jieqing probed with his magic power again and again, but in the end, he still couldn't find any restrictions related to the magic artifact, nor could he find even a trace of spiritual light that matched the spirit of heaven and earth.

It looked just like an ordinary, stubborn rock.

The fact that nothing can be found is the most abnormal thing.

Li Jieqing was beginning to believe that it came from Wangyue Valley. Otherwise, in such a remote and impoverished place as Taipingfang, who could possibly refine such a strange thing? Even Master Baozhou probably couldn't.

It's likely that when Jiang Ping'er and the others were fighting with the demon tiger in the Wangyue Valley cave, they each grabbed the most conspicuous treasures, but overlooked this ordinary, stubborn rock in front of them.

"A four-sided chessboard, four traps, four moves up?"

Li Jieqing stared intently at the indentation in the center of the chessboard, when suddenly he noticed a detail.

The center of this four-sided chessboard seems to be just the right spot to place something.

For example, a certain unnamed lotus platform...

"It's a bit too heavy for self-defense."

Li Jieqing remained expressionless, grabbed the four-sided chessboard, and turned to speak with Scorpion Lady.

He picked up the chessboard, which was only seven feet seven inches in size, and even with his physical cultivation, he still felt its weight. No wonder Scorpion Lady couldn't lift it earlier.

"It probably has other uses. This thing is too ordinary. I put it in the wilderness, and even though I remember it, it is extremely difficult to find it again when I look for it," said Scorpion Lady.

"Oh, it can even hide on its own?"

"No, but if you don't pay close attention to it, it's easy to overlook it."

"Well... it's still a good thing after all."

Li Jieqing put away the four-sided chessboard and composed himself slightly.

Looking again at the Scorpion Lady beside him, who was restless and trying to explain the strangeness of the Four Trapped Chessboard, his eyes couldn't help but become somewhat gloomy and complicated.

The cave in Wangyue Valley has so many good things.

Jiang Wei took the "Treasure Cultivation Technique" and the Green Lotus Seed, while Jiang Ping'er took the Green Lotus and the "Invisible Heavenly Sword." The demon tiger ate a whole pool of Green Lotus Seeds, and perhaps something else as well, and broke through to the second tier in one fell swoop.

The Scorpion Lady before us, after her cave dwelling had been created and destroyed, boldly went to Moon Gazing Valley to search for treasure and even managed to retrieve a huge, stubborn stone chessboard whose depths were unknown.

Moreover, this stubborn stone chessboard seems to be a perfect match for the Qinglian Terrace.

As Xingniang of the Former Wanbaoge once said, a Golden Core cultivator can act on behalf of Heaven with his own mind and calculate the cause and effect of the world with his fingers.

The second-grade Ruyi Green Lotus was hidden in Wangyue Valley. Hundreds of years later, even Jiang Wei and his wife were able to find the location to enter that cave, but the Golden Core cultivators of the Ruyi Sect were unable to calculate it.

I wonder if the reason for this is because of the stubborn, rock-like chessboard?

"A treasure that conceals the secrets of heaven..."

Recalling a treasure that Xingniang had casually mentioned during their chat at Wanbaoge in the desolate mountains a while ago, Li Jieqing fell into deep thought.

When Scorpion Lady noticed Li Jieqing's gaze, she was startled. She gritted her teeth, took off her storage bag, and took out the items inside to place in the hall.

"This is truly all I have left that can be called a treasure; I possess nothing else of value!"

Not daring to hide it, she took off her gold hairpin, the silk ribbon around her waist, and even the silk stockings on her feet, and folded them neatly to the side.

It looks like a defeat cutscene.

Upon seeing this, Li Jieqing couldn't help but chuckle.

"Fellow Daoist Scorpion Lady, you are indeed clever..."