Vampiric Dagger

After the notification, Ye Ming gingerly inspected the properties of the {Eyes of Terror}.

[{Eyes of Terror}: Gaze into a target's eyes to instill fear in the target and force them to voice their heart's desire.]

It turned out to be a mental type skill. Ye Ming had a rough idea of what it could do.

Breaking away from his thoughts, Ye Ming headed to the stairs.

After ascending the stairs, Ye Ming now stood on the corridor of the second floor. Count Osrhein was absent, so no light had been lit here. The dark corridor looked like a bottomless abyss, ready to devour him.

Ye Ming felt his way forward carefully. After about a dozen steps, his hand abruptly came into contact with something cold.

"It's a door handle. There's a door here."

Ye Ming slowly twisted the handle. Upon hearing a click, he pushed the door open. Moonlight shone through a glass window, covering the room behind the door in a silvery-white veil.

Ye Ming turned back to close the door, then tiptoed further into the room. There was a fireplace and a large bed. This was obviously the bedchamber of Count Osrhein.

The portrait of Count Osrhein above the fireplace seemed like it was staring right at Ye Ming, making Ye Ming feel an inexplicable fear. He hastily retracted his eyes and tried not to look at it while admonishing himself that it was just a painting.

Reaching the fireplace, he put his head inside and looked up the chimney to see if there was a treasure chest inside. There was none.

He then went to the cupboards and opened them one by one, carefully rummaging through their contents, yet he still did not find any chests.

After that, he moved to the large bed, crouched down and lifted the sheet that drooped to the floor. A dazzling golden glow emerged.

"A treasure chest." Ye Ming gasped in surprise.

And it was another golden treasure chest. Sneaking into the back part of the castle was proving to be an excellent decision.

He instantly heard the system notification:

*Ding* [You have found a golden treasure chest. Would you like to open it?]

Ye Ming pulled the treasure chest out and chose to open it without any hesitation.

*Ding* [Treasure chest successfully opened. Congratulation, you have obtained a drop of Count Blood Essence and a Count Fang.]

Ye Ming picked up the Count Fang and inspected it. It seemed to be of a much higher quality than the Baron Fang. He did not dare to dilly-dally; he quickly left the room after collecting the two items. Then, he groped his way deeper down the corridor and found two more rooms. Unfortunately, there were no treasure chests inside.

Ye Ming decided it was time to leave and took the stairs back down to the first floor. Because there was no light source, he could only rely on the faint moonlight and his memory to find his way back outside.

Suddenly, Ye Ming tripped over the edge of a carpet by accident. His body lost balance and lunged forward towards a wall. Fortunately, he reacted fast enough to grab a chair to stop his momentum.

What he did not expect was for the chair he grabbed to spin around in a circle.

A creaking sound came from somewhere nearby, shocking Ye Ming. He turned his head to trace the source of the sound, only to see a wall rotating.

'A hidden door! There's a hidden door here!' Ye Ming thought in shock as he inched towards the hidden door that was now ajar.

He stood in the doorway and pricked up his ears. Detecting no noise from within, he gathered his courage and went inside. His foot landed on a flight of steps leading down. Holding the wall, Ye Ming carefully descended, step by step.

After turning a corner, he saw light emerge from ahead. In front of him was a large dungeon.

An oil lamp had been left burning to illuminate the dungeon. It was filled with piles of treasure and coins that Count Osrhein had seized from war.

The sight left Ye Ming dumbfounded. He picked up a gold coin and bit down with his teeth.

"So this is the taste of gold."

His other hand reached towards a sapphire that was as big as a duck's egg. The cold touch made him fall in love with it. He really wanted to take these things for himself, but reason told him that now was not the time. He put the gold coin back to its original spot, and walked deeper into the dungeon.

After about twenty meters or so, in a hard-to-notice corner, Ye Ming once again found a treasure chest.

*Ding* [You have found a platinum treasure chest.]

Ye Ming reached the treasure chest as the system notification sounded. "This is what I'm here for."

He dragged the treasure chest out and gave it a kiss.

"A platinum treasure chest. What a surprise."

Without waiting for the system to ask, he already gave the order to open it. He could hardly wait.

*Ding* [Congratulations, you have obtained a Platinum grade weapon, the "Vampiric Dagger".]

"A Platinum grade weapon?" Ye Ming reached for the Vampiric Dagger with glee.

In this world, there were six weapon grades. They were, in order of low to high: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, and Radiant.

Generally, only Marquises were deemed worthy of owning a Platinum grade weapon.

And Ye Ming actually managed to acquire one from a treasure chest.

If news of the Vampiric Dagger got out, it would definitely bring him some unnecessary trouble.

As he thought that, Ye Ming's gaze fell on the Vampiric Dagger.

The strange pattern on the blade as well as its cold glint gave off a chilly vibe.

He raised the dagger and tried performing some stabbing and slashing actions with it.

When he did that, the details of the Vampiric Dagger appeared in his mind:

[Able to absorb the blood of slain enemies and transform it into the power of Vitae to provide energy to the wielder.]

"It could actually absorb the blood of the enemy to replenish my Vitae! This thing is hella OP!" Ye Ming was bursting with joy.

Having found out the properties of the Vampiric Dagger, he carefully put it away.

He inspected the entire dungeon once again to confirm that there were no other treasure chests and left reluctantly.

Outside, he returned the chair to its original position using the same method. The hidden door creaked as it slowly closed.

Ye Ming carefully sneaked out of the ancient castle, climbed the wall and went back to his room carrying his new-found loot.

With much excitement, he laid out all the loot he obtained this time on the table. He first picked up the Count Blood Essence and closed his eyes as he activated the "Ancient Blood Refining Technique".

Refining the Blood Essence, Ye Ming could feel his body slightly heating up as a surging power filled his body.

After a long time, he finally finished refining the Vitae in the Count Blood Essence. The fangs on both sides of his mouth had grown out a bit more, and so had his fingernails.

He had taken another step forward; his bloodline had become even thicker and more refined!

Although it was not enough to let him break through to the strength level of a Viscount, at least he had awakened a new bloodline ability.

Flight!

After inspecting the description of the new ability, Ye Ming could not help muttering, "Can I actually soar free in the sky with this, like a bird?"

He could not wait to check it out.

With just a thought, his body slowly drifted up into the air.

But at the same time, he could clearly feel the Vitae in his body depleting rapidly.

Based on the rate of consumption, he could only fly for a distance of barely a hundred meters.

Of course, that was already decent enough. After all, as his power increased, the distance would certainly increase too.

And with the ability to fly, he could finally be considered a true "noble".