Chương 34: Jackpot

"What is that?" Quinhue asked as we walked inside the room. I didn't know, but Tian did.

"It's an Emerald Soul Cauldron. A Tier 5 Artifact." I managed to say, looking up at the 10-meters tall cauldron, glowing green with embedded soul gems and a Strange Fire trapped inside a transparent box at the base. My wife realized at once what this meant.

"A Soul Transformation cauldron?" she asked in awe.

"... More or less. In this case much less. Someone has been trying to compensate their lack of cultivation with external power. Such as extra souls. It didn't work right, but it did do something." I said with a shrug. Tian was indeed horrified at this blasphemy to sacred Alchemy, but I was more rational. Power was not good or evil. It was just power.

"I see. So do you really have to fuck Fenghue?" my wife asked in a tangent. I turned and raised her veil.

"Do you want your friend and lover to wither away and die so young? That blood curse is not something that can be treated with healing pills, not even Tier 4 pills. The other Venerable with this illness... was she struck by Teshan as well?" I asked gently, then stole a sweet kiss. Quinhue moaned in my mouth, and her hands moved skillfully to fondle my ass and balls. After a minute, I drew back and moved on towards the back of the Alchemy room. Demonic Alchemy was still alchemy, if somewhat more crude and bloody.

As I expected, on the far wall there was a demon altar, and books bound in skin, as well as skulls and other gruesome proofs of blood magic. Using my sword I opened one book to get some idea what was the purpose of this research. Bloodlines? A fairly common topic among cultivators. Yoink! I opened another book. Raising the dead. Mostly used for corpse puppeting. Take! Another book, reincarnation. I kept that book too in my storage bag, mostly to compare practical research with my own theoretical explorations.

I knew that reincarnation worked, but not the mechanism. Dark Father and I were more similar than I knew at first.

"Any idea what that monster was trying to do?" Quinhue asked with a wary voice.

"In general yes. Many cultivators, even on the Central Continent, research such topics. Bloodline transfer, reincarnation into a descendant, puppet armies... although orthodox sects use metal or wood puppets instead of corpses. Same purpose though, more combat power." I explained patiently, and kept looking, letting Pef try out his game mechanics by tugging on levers and pushing stones to open a secret passage. I doubted such primitive methods were used here though.

Cultivators may look like medieval monks from Pef's world, but they were not. Any illness known to Pef could be cured with a single Tier 1 pill. The lack of qi did force humans on his world to explore other methods, like engines and electricity and lasers, for example. But anything they could do, a cultivator could do it too, and often better and faster. No, if Pef was to be of use, his theoretical knowledge was the real gold. Alternate timelines, parallel worlds, time travel...

things that were myths here but were common knowledge and movie themes on his world. Maybe that's why Pef was now a flower in my head. His perspective was special, and could save my ass where a normal cultivator would be overmatched. Tian surely wasn't equipped with such knowledge, but combat power and a wealth of experience with cultivator techniques was priceless too. Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators! And lastly, Pef Tian and his milkman body.

A hero beloved by the Heavens, just as I proved with my wives taking their oaths, and getting the Heavens to work for me. The Bodhi Lotus has chosen this next incarnation well. Too bad that Pef Tian wasn't the one in control, but me.

"Try to sense around, Quinhue. False walls, secret doors..." I asked with a sad voice, then held out the jade plate to do the same via the Formation. The plate remained inert here. Perhaps I lacked the bloodline access? My wife flew around the room, and returned with a bored face after using her Nascent Soul to search for secrets.

"I can't find anything."

"Go and bring Mei then. She has the right bloodline." I asked while flying over the green cauldron to peek inside. Some kind of hard blood-red crystals remained on the bottom, so I scooped them out. These might be small babies, baked into a crystal. Hmmm. Lifespan extension pills? A baby's lifespan was the longest right after birth. Barely a Tier 3 pill, but possibly worth a lot for a senescent Nascent Soul. I did a count, 49 such crystals. I would need a strong life source herb...

like that Blue Lotus I found in my sect. On a whim, I began testing this, with a single blood crystal and one petal from the Blue Lotus. Quinhue returned with Mei and stood behind me as I fired up the cauldron. To make a single pill, in a Tier 5 cauldron took only one minute. I held the new pill out and rotated it between my fingers. Low-grade life extension pill, adding 50 years of lifespan and bit too many toxins and impure gunk to the meridians.

Although someone desperate enough to use it wasn't worried about their meridians. Inventing a new pill recipe was hard, and I lacked other Tier 3 herbs to make it better, so the quality was low, but give me a year and some testing and I can make a High-grade pill. Tian was good.

"What is that pill, Pef Tian?" Mei asked curious. Should I tell Mei this was her little brother, cooked into a pill? Let's not be cruel.

"Tier 3 Life extension pill, 50 more years. Probably only 10 years for a Nascent Soul. They need Tier 4 pills and I don't have the realm to make Tier 4 pills yet."

"Is this what my father was doing here? Trying to live longer?" Mei asked with a curious voice. Hmmm, desperate people lacking cultivation talent tried all sorts of things to live longer.

"The pills help, but they are not a permanent solution. Your Dark Father was trying to find a way to jump bodies, preferably a young body with the same bloodline." I explained with a grin, then handed her the jade plate, and accidentally poked a hole in her fingertip to let a drop of blood out. The green jade plate lit up strongly, reacting to an authorized bloodline.

"Find the treasury first, Mei. Leave the Formations alone." I demanded and poked Mei in the forehead, as she was lost exploring the wonders of an advanced Formation a few realms higher.

"... Right! Treasury... this way. Let me disarm the traps too, and the blood guardians, whatever those are..." Mei muttered spoke in a daze, and walked right into a wall. And didn't bounce back, simply phasing through the solid stone. Yeah, I was not going to find the right lever for that secret passage, not in this game. I followed Mei and held Quinhue's hand, walking into solid walls a few times, then past some old corpses wearing bloody armors and rusted weapons. Those might be the guardians.

Nascent Soul puppets. Someone took vault security very seriously.

"Four Nascent Soul puppets? If Teshan had brought these with him..." Quinhue noted in a scared voice. Yeah, they barely managed to take down Teshan while he was alone and outnumbered five to one. With even numbers... it would have been bad. However, the Blood cultivator only expected to bully three weak Nascent Souls, not being ambushed from behind by the extra two ice fairies.

"On the other hand, Mei will have quite a powerful force under her control. Well, after we wash and clean up the corpses first. Maybe give them new armors." I was saying when we entered the real treasury. One side of the treasury was a line of halls with books and scrolls, going for a mile by my senses. The other side was the actual treasury, boxes with gold and gems, jewelry and jade ornaments, weapons and armors, and a small wooden stand with a pair of storage rings, laid on a silk cushion.

"Go check those rings for traps, Quinhue. Carefully." I asked while pumping my fist inward. Jackpot!