Searching for Treasure Chests at the Back Part of the Castle

"Open it!" replied Ye Ming without hesitation the moment the system notification concluded.

Little did Ye Ming expect he would find a treasure chest in the study.

And it was even a golden treasure chest.

He must have left in such a hurry last night that he did not even notice the chest.

But another reason was because the chest was simply too well hidden. It was actually sitting under the desk out of view. If he had not accidentally glanced that way just now, he would never have discovered it.

*Ding* [Treasure chest successfully opened. Congratulations, you have obtained a drop of Count Blood Essence and the {Ancient Blood Refining Technique} manual.]

Seeing the two new items in his mental space, Ye Ming's heart nearly burst with ecstasy.

There were actually two items in this treasure chest! And they both seemed like really awesome items!

The Count Blood Essence was naturally amazing, that goes without saying. Even the Viscount Blood Essence he devoured last night had such a great effect. The Count Blood Essence, being one level higher, must contain even more energy than that.

As for the {Ancient Blood Refining Technique}, it sounded like a training method. He had no idea how effective it was, but the name itself sounded quite powerful.

Ye Ming did not stay any longer in the study; he hurried back to his room.

After locking the door, he first took out the {Ancient Blood Refining Technique} manual and quickly read through it.

Ye Ming then followed the method written on the manual step by step to try and condense the Vitae in his body.

(T/L note: Vitae, or Blood Energy, is a form of energy that the Vampires use.)

An hour passed. Ye Ming could sense that the Vitae in his body had obviously gotten a hair stronger.

But more importantly, his mental power had also increased slightly alongside his Vitae.

(TL: The mental power here might be referring to MP or mana. There's not enough information right now to tell for sure, so just keep that in mind.)

The increase was not too significant, but the effect was definitely there.

This made Ye Ming value the {Ancient Blood Refining Technique} even more.

After that, Ye Ming did not hastily try to absorb the Count Blood Essence sitting in his mental space, but concentrated on training with the {Ancient Blood Refining Technique} first instead.

Two hours later, Ye Ming could already feel that the Vitae in his body had become much more solid.

Last night, after he had become a Traditional Vampire, the Vitae in his body was still very restless.

But now, instead of the feeling of restlessness, there was a hint of growth instead.

This was all thanks to the {Ancient Blood Refining Technique}.

Sometime in the afternoon, Ye Ming awoke from his cultivation. And now, he finally took out the Count Blood Essence.

Feeling the immense power of Vitae within, he stuffed the Blood Essence in his mouth whole without any hesitation.

Now that he had the {Ancient Blood Refining Technique}, he was not at all worried that his body would not be able to contain the Count Blood Essence.

As the Vitae in the Count Blood Essence permeated every inch of him, Ye Ming immediately started circulating the {Ancient Blood Refining Technique}.

Time passed little by little.

The aura in Ye Ming's body started flaring up.

With the help of the {Ancient Blood Refining Technique}, all the Vitae in the Count Blood Essence turned into nutrients that made his power grow.

It was night-time before he realized it.

The surging Vitae had been fully refined by Ye Ming.

The fangs on either side of his lips had grown a little longer, and so had his sharp fingernails.

The blood in his body was now only one step away from undergoing the metamorphosis to turn him into a Baron!

This only made Ye Ming even more determined to get stronger.

With the Treasure Chest System in his arsenal, he was now even more unwilling to just stay at the Count's castle as a servant.

　　...

A week passed.

During this time, Ye Ming had visited every nook and cranny of the Count's castle that he could visit and had found three bronze treasure chests, a silver treasure chest and a golden treasure chest.

His yield was two drops of Baron Blood Essence, a drop of Viscount Blood Essence, and a drop of Count Blood Essence.

While doing that, Ye Ming had discovered a rule of the Treasure Chest System -- the level of the treasure chest he found would vary based on the location.

For example, the one he found in a corner of the courtyard was a bronze treasure chest, while the one he found behind the main seat in the main hall was a golden treasure chest.

Of course, he would need a bigger sample size to prove whether this speculation was true.

He had now finish scouring the front part of the castle. The back part was the Count's residence, and Ye Ming did not have the authority to go there.

He could not go there even if his intuition told him that there must be a treasure chest or three back there as well.

He did not yet have the courage to make mischief right under the very nose of Count Osrhein.

He could only put off searching the back for the time being and wait for a suitable opportunity to present itself.

Even so, the harvest from opening treasure chests found in the front part of the castle so far was already enough to turn Ye Ming into a Vampire Baron. The blood in his body had undergone a qualitative change. In addition to that, his physical body had also become much stronger.

Besides Blood Essences, Ye Ming had also found two Viscount Claws and a Baron Fang.

These three objects were not that useful to Ye Ming, but if he were to sell them in the city of Lahmia, he should be able to get a fair few gold coins for them.

During this period, Ye Ming had not stopped reading every day to absorb as much knowledge as he could from the books. Every morning, after cleaning the study, he would take the opportunity to read there for a while.

It let him gain more knowledge about this world.

For example, he knew that he could do a lot of things with gold coins. Not only could he buy a variety of materials, he could also buy Blood Coffins that the Vampires used for self enhancement, and various types of blood.

The most important thing here was the Blood Coffin!

It was something indispensable for a Vampire. A Blood Coffin of superior quality could speed up a Vampire's cultivation process significantly.

"I must find a chance to go to the city," muttered Ye Ming to himself.

　　...

On the evening two days later, Ye Ming received a piece of good news.

Count Osrhein had left for the Gudela Mountain Range to join the fight against the Beastmen. It was unknown when he would return.

Many a Vampire had died fighting in the Gudela Mountain Range. Who knew if the Count would even come back.

The butler and dozens of servants were the only ones left in the Count's castle.

For Ye Ming, this was a perfect opportunity to infiltrate the back.

At midnight, Ye Ming awoke from his cultivation. He quietly left his room, and his figure quickly disappeared into the darkness.

The castle was deathly silent under the night veil.

The back part of the castle was the private residence of Count Osrhein. Even the butler was not allowed there.

Occasionally, a servant would go there to clean up, but he would have to leave right afterwards and was not allowed to stay for long.

Not long ago, a new servant had gone to the back part of the castle by accident and was consequently given a public execution by Count Osrhein. From then on, all the servants looked at the gate to the back part of the castle with fear in their eyes.

But now that Count Osrhein was absent, Ye Ming could quietly sneak in without anyone noticing.

Ye Ming propelled himself over the high wall and landed lightly on the lawn. He quickly looked around but discovered no treasure chests. He then moved towards the ancient castle.

As soon as Ye Ming stepped foot inside the living room on the first floor of the ancient castle, he already saw a golden treasure chest.

Ye Ming's face immediately broke into a smile.

He knew there would be treasure chests here in the back of the castle too!

And it was even a golden treasure chest.

The ancient castle had two storeys, so there might be more treasure chests here besides this one.

Suppressing his excitement, Ye Ming walked over to the golden treasure chest and opened it without any hesitation.

*Ding* [Treasure chest successfully opened. Congratulations, you have obtained the {Eyes of Terror}.]