Vampire Cultivation Notes

Chapter 166 Settling Down in Black Mountain

The journey took three months, with stops and starts along the way.

Before a dark, towering mountain, Li Jieqing stopped and looked up at its terrain.

Since entering the Blood Heart Cave Heaven, this mountain was one of the tallest he had ever seen, standing on the earth like a city wall that stretched to the sky, blocking his way.

The entire mountain is barren, with only moss and clumps of thorny shrubs hanging on its slopes.

The dark mountain exuded an ominous aura, its spiritual energy chaotic. Bats would occasionally swarm around the mountain, searching for food before flying into the deep caves within.

Not only is it inauspicious, but its spiritual energy is also lacking, remaining only within the first tier.

The chaotic spiritual energy made even powerful demons unwilling to stay here, and the ominous mountain also deterred some first-tier demon beasts from foraging here. Only a few groups of bat demons stayed in the mountains, dividing up their territories.

"Let's leave it here; it's a blessed place made in heaven."

Li Jieqing circled the Black Mountain several times and found no trace of any powerful demons who had recently set foot there, which greatly pleased him.

His perspective differed from ordinary people. He didn't care if the spiritual energy of the cultivation blessed land was lacking, since the Ruyi Green Lotus had the effect of gathering spiritual energy, and a first-order spiritual vein was barely usable. The main thing was to ensure safety.

After traveling for several months, the caves they found were either poorly concealed or inconvenient to escape from.

This place is quite nice, with towering mountains that can't be destroyed by ordinary means. It's bordered by a river on one side and wilderness on the other, so I don't have to worry about being blocked when I run away someday.

"Strange... why am I starting to worry about someone blocking my door again?"

Li Jieqing descended from the sky with his hands behind his back, nodding to himself.

Without a doubt, a cultivator as cautious as him is probably not far from achieving enlightenment.

The jade bracelet's space opened, releasing the yellow insect.

A few years ago, this creature was less than twenty feet tall. After consuming a bottle of great demon blood recently, it has grown for a while and successfully broke through to twenty feet. Moreover, the demonic energy on its body fluctuates and is difficult to control, making it somewhat suffocating for people standing next to it.

He's about to break through to the peak of the first tier.

Come to think of it, no other Moon Gazing Eel has such advantages. In the past thirty years or so, Huang Chong has been raised by Li Jieqing. He eats spirit rice and jade dew every day, and has white corn that is hundreds of years old as a side dish. His physique is much stronger than others of the same level. Logically speaking, he should have broken through long ago, but he is just missing a bit of demonic energy and cannot break through because he has not accumulated enough.

Now that he has consumed the blood of a second-tier demon, it seems that his deficiencies have been made up, and his breakthrough is a natural progression.

"The way to raise demons is still to let demons eat demons."

Li Jieqing was jolted back half a step by the uncontrollable demonic energy of the yellow worms. He pointed to a spot in the foothills ahead and said, "Go, find a place with more spiritual energy and dig a new cave. We won't leave this time. We'll start planting herbs and raising rice again."

The yellow worm was about to break through, and it was originally drowsy, with its scales itching and about to fall off.

But upon hearing Li Jieqing's words, he raised his head, immediately mustered his spirits, carefully suppressed his demonic aura, and excitedly went to dig the cave.

During the Qi Refining period, they lived underground.

Even though they've reached the Foundation Establishment stage, they still live underground.

However, neither Huang Chong nor Li Jieqing found anything strange or inappropriate about it.

Li Jieqing followed behind, took out an array plate from his storage bag, disguised the entrance to the Yellow Worm Cave, glanced back at the sky after arriving at Blood Heart Cave Heaven for a season, and nodded slightly.

Hmm... It's autumn, and the sky is cloudless.

They settled down in Yi'an.

It is advisable to practice meditation in seclusion.

……

……

Time passes unnoticed in the mountains, but as evening turns to morning, faces remain unchanged.

Within the Blood Heart Cave Heaven, there is a Tongtian River that runs east to west. Downstream of the Tongtian River lies Black Mountain, which divides the land into north and south.

Hidden within the foothills of Black Mountain is a cave dwelling.

This cave dwelling is located inside the mountain, its entrance concealed by an array that can fool birds and beasts, and keep out snakes, insects, rats, and ants.

After passing through the magic array, there is a real mountain path leading to the cave in the mountains. At first, it is extremely narrow, barely wide enough for one person to pass through. After walking for several miles, it suddenly opens up into a bright and spacious place.

A stone gate stood within another array of light. This array was unlike the outer concealment array; it was a near-second-tier Forest Sea Life-Giving Array, capable of withstanding even the pressure of a powerful demon.

On either side of the main gate, there were paper figures with their heads bowed and sleeves tucked in, standing guard.

Although the paper figure was not activated, it appeared quite eerie in this dark, rocky cave.

There was no plaque above the gate. Once inside, one would find a maze of interconnected passages and a hidden world, instantly dispelling the eeriness of the outside.

Before your eyes is a field of white jade spirit rice, with white corn growing in season. Corridors are left on the left and right, and a passageway is left in the middle. A demon with horns on its head, scales on its body, and the head and tail of an eel walks through the middle passageway. Its body is twenty-three feet long, and a sun-absorbing pearl is dragged by the demonic aura on its horn. It is diligently taking care of the rice field.

Beyond the rice paddies, corridors on both sides connect eleven rooms of varying sizes. The interior of each room is filled with clay that resembles glass, and includes two alchemy rooms, two meditation rooms, and a number of miscellaneous shops.

There are also three interconnected halls, each brightly lit and covering several acres.

At the very center is the herb cultivation hall, where the Sun Essence Light-Absorbing Pearl and the Moon Essence Light-Absorbing Pearl are rotated day and night without fail.

A Ruyi Blue Lotus took root and grew in the pool in the center of the hall. As the lotus petals stretched out, they released a fragrance, which helped to ripen the spiritual herbs in the increasingly large medicinal garden outside the pool. At the same time, the small pool where the Ruyi Blue Lotus lived was also the array eye of the entire Forest Sea Life Array, where the gathered spiritual energy maintained the operation of the array.

There is another large hall, which is slightly smaller and is specifically used to grow herbs such as star grass that require special growing conditions.

The third hall is the largest and is used for repairing magical artifacts and spirit objects.

Inside, a coiled black iron chain occupies most of the hall. The cave owner often comes here to tinker and repair the magical artifact's restrictions.

However, the master of the cave did not arrive today; instead, he was meditating and contemplating in another part of the cave.

In the meditation room, there was no furniture, only a floor covered with bluestone. In the center of the bluestone floor, a meditation cushion was placed among scattered papers. The papers were covered with countless messy scribbles, which were not in any particular order, indicating that the person who wrote them was also confused during their meditation.

At one point, Li Jieqing opened his eyes from the futon, his crimson pupils illuminating the entire quiet room. He then pretended to do some calculations with his fingers.

"The white corn has ripened ten times; judging by that, three years have passed..."

If the Ruyi Qinglian (a type of medicinal herb) is fully accelerated to ripen, white corn can ripen once every two months. However, as the medicinal herb garden expands, the planting of white corn can only be carried outwards, so the speed at which it can be accelerated to ripen decreases.

The yellow worms were self-sufficient, sowing and harvesting seeds outside. They harvested ten times in total during this period, which took exactly three years.

Li Jieqing emerged from his meditative state, stepped onto the cool ground, put his hands behind his back, left the meditation room, and arrived at the central medicine garden hall.

When Huang Chong'er saw Li Jieqing emerge from the pass, he came over with a light-absorbing pearl on his head and let out a few soft roars.

Li Jieqing waved his hand, telling it to leave, and went straight to the small pond in the central hall.

Beside the small pond stands a set of table and chairs made of an unknown spirit wood, a gift from the collection of Master Baocheng.

Li Jieqing lay down on the chair, picked up the Senhai Shengxi Array Disc from the table, and after a few strokes, revealed the image of the foothills outside.

"Recently, not many monsters have approached this place... How strange."

Li Jieqing put down the array plate, his expression somewhat puzzled.

Apart from the bats on the mountaintop, almost no monsters have appeared in this Black Mountain area in the past three years. It is common to not see a single monster for ten days or half a month. The only major monster that has ever passed through here is a single one that climbs the mountain, stays for a while, eats some bats, and then leaves immediately.

This situation was completely different from what he had seen and heard in the mountains and forests before he came from the east.

While it's true that the fewer demonic beasts there are, the more secure the Black Mountain Cave will be, Li Jieqing was also worried that this place might be some kind of dangerous place, which is why the demons had to retreat. Yet, he, a person who didn't know the dangers, had ventured here and made his home here.

"I checked several times, both inside and outside the mountains, and even in the sky, but I didn't find anything wrong."

"So...the problem might lie underground?"

Li Jieqing lived here for three years, but he still couldn't find the source of the ominous aura emanating from the Black Mountain. If it was evil energy, it was too scattered and too faint, and didn't seem quite right.

Having settled here for so long without any external threats, Li Jieqing has little desire to move.

Therefore, it's best to figure out the origin of this strange Black Mountain before he can feel at ease.

"Yellow Worm, come here."

Li Jieqing beckoned Huang Chong'er over by the pool and instructed him, "From today onwards, go to that unused room over there and dig. Dig down, dig deeper, but don't rush. Take a break after digging for a while, and stop immediately if you encounter any unusual situations."

Having been raised for a long time, the yellow worm immediately understood what Li Jieqing meant by pointing and gesturing. It looked back at the newly planted white corn outside the hall, afraid of neglecting its care, and reluctantly nodded to the great demon after some hesitation.

"You good-for-nothing! You've grown so fat and all you think about is farming. I haven't seen you ever thought about serving your master. Get out of here!"

Li Jieqing laughed and scolded, telling Huang Chong to hurry up and get to work in that empty room.

The Forest Sea Life-Giving Array also opened a gap, allowing the yellow worms to dig in and out.

After observing for a while and finding nothing unusual, Li Jieqing handed over the task of investigating the strange source of the Black Mountain to Huang Chong.

Actually, the area to the east, which is considered the lower reaches of the great river, already has a much sparser number of monsters, so it's normal that there aren't many monsters around Black Mountain.

Li Jieqing's suspicions are making him uneasy; he won't feel at ease without taking some action.

Anyway, apart from wearing the Light-Gazing Pearl in two shifts every day, loosening the soil in the medicine garden, pulling the iron chains in the repair hall, harvesting and planting white corn during the busy farming season, and cleaning the cave, Huang Chong has nothing else to do.

With Huang Chong gone to dig underground, Li Jieqing felt much more at ease. He sat by the small pond, took out a cup of cultivator's blood, lit a fire to warm it up, and drank it.

"Tsk~ Food and sex are human nature. I'm all alone in this desolate wilderness, and I haven't tasted any food for many years. The only thing I can enjoy is this cup of blood... I'll try using it to brew wine another day."

Li Jieqing remembered that among the treasures of Master Baocheng, there seemed to be a recipe for a rather superior spirit wine.

Brewing spirit wine is easier than alchemy, and Li Jieqing's success rate in refining Jade Toad Pills is getting higher and higher. After studying for a while, he is confident that he can make a Blood Wine recipe.

The key to spiritual practice lies in perseverance, but also in striking a balance between exertion and relaxation.