The orange light pierced through the morning mist, revealing a typical Tyndall effect, before descending and being fragmented into spots, illuminating a delicate, pure white face wearing glasses.
Her full head of white hair cascaded over her pristine white shoulders, then draped down the recliner to the floor.
Behind me, the grapevines were lush and green, and the translucent, emerald-green grapes were casually tossed about by a pale finger, yet no one ate them; they just sat there tempting me.
The tall, Pale God Norton was reclining on a chaise longue, holding a book and engrossed in reading a book from the New Age.
Ever since Norton's resurrection from the hills behind the Holy See, he has changed his old habit of being nocturnal and now prefers to lie in the sun and bask in its warmth.
However, this habit caused Abraham great distress.
"Your Majesty!"
Abraham was burning up, his skin charred like charcoal. He stood with his hands in front of him, enduring the intense heat and pain from the sun, and reported to Norton, who was lying on the recliner.
With his eyes nearly blinded by the burns, Abraham could barely locate Norton's direction. Feeling the terrifying Pressure emanating from the pale monster's body, Abraham cursed inwardly.
"That damned Old Norton, he always finds ways to torment people! A Vampire should just stay in the shadows, why does he have to bask in the sun! And he's always pretending to read with those glasses on, can he even understand that language from a thousand years ago?"
His skin continued to turn to charcoal and fall off, and his injuries did not heal in the blink of an eye like Norton had before. Instead, they continued to penetrate deeper, being charred layer by layer in a very steady manner.
Such pain is beyond the endurance of ordinary people. A normal Vampire would probably cower in the shadows after experiencing this pain and never venture out again.
But it is clear that His Majesty is far more terrifying than the Sun.
Despite his discomfort and inner grumbling, Abraham reported to Norton, who was reclining in a deckchair, with utmost respect.
"Your Majesty, many powerful and influential families in the Southern Continent have sent invitations, wishing to meet with you. These are all the invitations."
Abraham carefully placed the stack of invitations on the table next to Norton. As he did so, some charred flesh fell off, making the scene look disgusting and horrifying.
As he withdrew his hand, he even reached out to pick up the charred flesh and blood that had fallen, so as not to defile His Majesty's eyes.
"Hmph, knowing that I, Norton, am known as God in Sak City and enslave the powerful, these people still rush over here. It seems that the desire for immortality is indeed hard to resist... Today, this moment reminds me of the past. Back then, the royal family of the Boya Empire, Yalian III, also invited me to come, thus starting the Holy War."
These people today, instead of learning from history, want to invite me, Norton, just like Yalian III did back then, wanting to personally send themselves into the ranks of slaves.
It's a pity that now I, Norton, call myself the Pale God, and thus I should release goodness and holiness...
Very well, let's continue our expansion, step by step, according to my previous decrees. As for these powerful and wealthy, let them linger on for now, serving as lambs to the slaughter as my God authority expands!
Norton remained seated in his recliner, yet his words defined the future of the entire Southern Continent.
Looking at the holy and perfect Pale Progenitor lying on the recliner, Abraham felt increasingly horrified.
After the First Ancestor Awakened from his seal, his actions completely exceeded Abraham's comprehension.
He abandoned his past brutal style of not valuing human life and instead resolved to replace God, even going so far as to use various methods to convert the people.
He didn't just want to be the God in people's hearts; he seemed to really want to become God, the truly supreme God!
Abraham grew increasingly terrified, and the source of his fear lay not only in this, but also in the strange changes that the people of Sak City had exhibited during the many Mass held over the past three years.
His Holiness Norton revived the old system of the Papal State, using grand Mass to proclaim God's orthodoxy, a practice that Abraham despised at the time.
It seems this progenitor has run out of ideas and is resorting to his old, outdated methods.
However, as time has passed, the people of Sak City who have attended the Mass three times, and who have eaten the Holy Communion three times, are now all showing unusual changes.
For example, some elderly farmers who should have died of old age are still alive and well, and their physical condition is even better than that of young people.
For example, some strong men have become increasingly powerful, and they can now pull plows that used to require oxen to do so by themselves.
Some women are now even more sensitive, seemingly possessing an enhanced sixth sense, and some have even developed the ability to see in the dark!
So many strange phenomena have occurred that the people of Sak City now believe that the Holy Meal is truly blessed food from God, which can prolong life, strengthen the body, and may even lead to extraordinary lives.
This has led to the further veneration of the Pale God Norton, who is now considered the true God of Sak City, a figure sung by all.
Norton seems to be like God, gradually influencing the bodies of those around him?
Abraham was deeply terrified of this, and his mind was filled with thoughts of the rapidly increasing number of the True Ancestor and their abnormal development.
As a long-time servant who had followed Norton from the beginning, he knew better than anyone that the fifty-odd dragons that existed today were once nothing more than a few ugly bats.
However, he has now been influenced by His Majesty and has become what he is today.
Could it be that His Majesty Norton's aura can influence biological mutations?
No, no, no, that's impossible. If that were the case, it should have been evident back then.
The reason these people are changing now must be due to other reasons... such as the only difference from back then, the Holy Food!
But Abraham knew better than anyone the exact contents of that holy food—wasn't it just a pot of porridge mixed with some of His Majesty Norton's bathwater?
Could it be...?
Abraham recalled His Majesty Norton's previous collection of his shed skin and teeth, and combined with his performance today, a bold conjecture became increasingly apparent.
"Could it be that Your Majesty's body possesses the power to transcend the mundane? If I, Abraham, were to drink some of that holy water, could I undergo a new level of advancement?"
Abraham's eyes gleamed as he stared intently at Norton, who was reclining in the chair reading. His mind raced with all sorts of speculations, completely unaware that Norton had turned his head a full 180 degrees, from in front of him to behind him, watching him in a daze.
" Abraham, do you have any objections?"
As His Majesty Norton's melodious voice rang out, Abraham felt an instant chill run down his spine.
"This old servant has no objection! Your Majesty, this old servant is simply unable to extricate myself from your magnificent appearance!"
With such a beautiful appearance as yours, it's truly...
"Get out!"
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
Before he could finish speaking, Abraham fell to the ground and rolled down the stairs, scattering pieces of his skin all over the floor.
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The blinding sunlight shone into Norton's dark eyes.
Norton stared directly into the light without feeling any discomfort.
"This Southern Continent is almost at the steam age!"
Norton flipped through the book in his hands, muttering to himself.
He was holding a newspaper from the previous year, which contained a report about the steam engine.
This passage describes a factory worker who, not wanting to overwork, used the principle that boiling water produces steam to create a machine that uses coal to continuously boil water, which in turn drives a bearing to push goods upwards.
Although the machine was very rudimentary, and the so-called bearings could only be described as a series of chains joined together, it truly represented scientific progress.
Norton was unaware of the history of the steam engine, but he knew that once something started, the subsequent changes would be very rapid and inevitable.
Just like the technological explosion of the Industrial Age, humanity was trapped in feudal and tribal systems for hundreds of thousands of years, but in just a few hundred years, there was an explosive surge in technological progress.
"Who knows, two hundred years from now, these countries of the Southern Continent might be sending tanks to bombard Norton! Hahahaha..."
Suddenly seeing familiar symbols of his era, witnessing the unfolding of modernity, a sense of wistfulness, as if everything were yesterday, welled up within Norton.
Although he had been traveling through the Southern Continent for countless years, the memory of seeing familiar scenes from the past brought a profound sense of melancholy after all that time had passed.
However, I can never go back to the past, and my mindset has changed from before.
Norton is no longer the Norton of yesteryear.
"Remembering the dried radish of yesteryear..."
Norton softly sang a melody that came to his lips without him even thinking, using words he had almost forgotten. As soon as the words left his mouth, holy tears fell.
I never expected that this old crocodile could shed such heartfelt tears.
Norton feigned shedding two tears, thus casting aside his homesickness.
There was no way around it; Norton's situation in the Southern Continent was no longer what it used to be. Back then, he was oppressed and hunted down, so there was a reason for him to reminisce about the past.
Now that Norton has become the true God of the Southern Continent, only a fool would reminisce about the past.
Currently, the only thing that worries him is whether using his own flesh and blood to cultivate superhumans for experiments might lead to some dangerous consequences.
As for why it's dangerous?
"In the past, God created the Garden of Eden, but was betrayed by his own creation, Kuba."
Later, Kuba created me Norton, only to be betrayed by me Norton.
Will the creatures I, Norton, create today, also be betrayed by my own creations, just like the curse of the Southern Continent?
Norton felt as if he had fallen into the curse of the Southern Continent again, unable to extricate himself.
Although he could control the direction of mutation of these creatures that devoured his bathwater, who knew what new species might be born from their crossbreeding before they were fully mutated?
Especially those products like New-Type Vampire and New-Type Werewolf, which were born before they had fully mutated and affected other species, were even more difficult for Norton to control, since he couldn't be sure who affected which species.
"The flesh and blood creatures from those past experiments are disgusting and terrifying, much like the so-called ancient deities Cthulhu in my memory, and their rate of change is truly astonishing! Fortunately, these products can only mutate in the most complete way, otherwise I really wouldn't dare to try to open this Pandora's Box!"
This is also why Norton had a large pool of bathwater but only used a single golden cup to prepare and distribute Holy Communion.
This method ultimately made him quite wary, and he needed to limit its use.
So that even if problems arise, he can discover them in time and destroy them completely.
Norton lay on a deckchair, basking in the sun.
Abraham, who had already gone downstairs, was already preoccupied with other thoughts.
The hallway was pitch black because it was filled with Vampire, so most of the original windows and doors were sealed off, with only a few candles lit for illumination.
Abraham came down from upstairs, but instead of going directly to Norton's bathing area, he continued downstairs with a slightly serious expression.
"His Holiness Norton flew out from the back mountain of the Holy See, as if sensing something, and flew directly towards the palace across almost half of the Southern Continent... Such a performance almost certainly indicates that he must have a powerful positioning ability."
If I go to the bathhouse to drink water multiple times, it might sense it.
Why not collect a cup of holy water from where it flows at the entrance of the monastery and savor it slowly, to discover its wonders?
Abraham, like a thief, donned a black robe and a hood, risking the scorching sun, and walked past the holy water with a wine cup in hand. He unexpectedly reached out and scooped a cup of the water from the cup before jogging back to his room.
A faint fragrance permeated the water, which remained crystal clear even after God Norton had bathed and urinated in it.
Abraham initially thought that Norton, the progenitor, had added something to it.
Unexpectedly, the water itself was tainted by His Majesty's holiness.
Abraham held the golden goblet, gazing at the clear, fragrant holy water within. After a long period of contemplation, he finally hardened his heart.
" The Fifth-Generation Vampire is created by the Fourth-Generation Vampire, but they can be promoted to the Fourth-Generation Vampire Third-Generation Vampire generation of vampires. The same applies to other Vampire, up to my First-Generation Vampire, Abraham."
Therefore, it is clear that to advance to the True Ancestor, one must obtain Your Majesty's blood... However, Your Majesty has no blood. It is conceivable that the advancement of the True Ancestor may indeed be as I suspect, involving feeding on Your Majesty's flesh and blood, or perhaps, as we are doing today, tasting Your Majesty's bathwater.
Regardless, this is my opportunity, Abraham! I have not progressed for a thousand years, and I also want to True Ancestor!
Only Your Majesty might not be to my liking... I cannot simply enjoy it myself; it should be distributed so that all Vampire may have a taste, thereby diverting Your Majesty's anger and also providing myself with an excuse.
But for now, let's see if it's as I think!
Abraham steeled himself, raised his hand, and drank the holy water in the cup in one gulp!
There was nothing unusual when I first tasted it.
Savor it again, and the aroma lingers in your mouth.
At the same time, a sense of growth, an instinctive feeling, slowly rose within him, instantly making Abraham beam with joy and overjoyed...
Norton, lying on the roof of the monastery basking in the sun, held a newspaper to his face, seemingly wanting to take a break while the sun was shining brightly.
However, he was muttering incoherently.
" Abraham, Abraham, I didn't expect you to find the best way to advance first... But how will you proceed to the next level...?"