Chapter 153: The Terrifying Might of the Progenitor of the Blood Race

Inside a conference room at Qilin's headquarters, Yu Lie sat at the head of the table. Xiao Cheng sat beside him, followed by department chiefs such as Hua Qiang, Xu Hebai, and Cheng Caitian.

Around the middle of the conference table, the younger generation sat in a row with Gong Qian at their head. Yu Xian sat beside her. Gan Jiang and Mo Ye were across from him, and Dubhe was on his left.

Xiao Cheng gravely said, "According to the latest intelligence, Edward, the progenitor of the Blood Race, has formally declared the founding of a nation. Romulus Dominion has officially been renamed the Dragonblood Ancestral Court. Over the next ten days, it will also hold the Black Sky Blood Feast. Any civilian who holds citizenship in Romulus Dominion may apply to be turned into a vampire."

Hua Qiang sucked in a sharp breath. "Romulus Dominion has a population of more than five hundred million. If they are all turned into vampires, even draining the blood of every living creature on the Blue Planet probably wouldn't sustain them for more than a few days."

Cheng Caitian frowned. "There's another problem. The progenitor's breakthrough is highly suspicious. Long-lived races normally advance very slowly. The progenitor is only a little over five hundred years old. According to Qilin's think tank, he should not have had any chance of reaching Dragon rank until he was at least seven hundred years old."

Xu Hebai glanced at Yu Xian. "Furthermore, after advancing to Dragon rank, Edward must have awakened a new ability. It may even be an ability unique to him among the entire Blood Race. We must find a way to determine exactly what that ability is."

Everyone in the room felt a headache coming on. The balance of power would not have been broken as long as the strongest figures of the various nations remained one rank above the progenitor of the Blood Race.

Normally, by the time the Blood Race's progenitor reached seven hundred years of age, which would have been two centuries later, the other factions would have most likely already possessed God-rank powerhouses. Then, he would not have been able to cause much of a stir even after advancing to Dragon rank. The progenitor secretly breaking through right now had caught every nation completely off guard.

Now, no one knew what ability he had awakened. So, they did not dare act rashly. They could only watch helplessly as he founded his nation.

Once the nation was established, the progenitor would no longer be merely the leader of a supernatural race. He would become the head of a sovereign state, and many matters could no longer be handled openly.

Ordinarily, it would not matter much even if a supernatural race founded its own nation. In the Blood Race's case, however, they possessed far too much wealth and influence. Even within Huaxia, many wealthy merchants were affiliated with the Blood Race. If all of them took their fortunes and defected to the Dragonblood Ancestral Court, it would be a considerable loss for Huaxia.

At that moment, the conference room door flew open. A researcher rushed in, drenched in sweat. "Something's wrong! Bat suddenly died!"

Everyone froze. Some wondered who Bat was, while those who knew him were all shocked. While Bat appeared cold and impersonal, he was genuinely dependable. Whenever someone went to him with a problem, he could usually solve it.

Yu Lie stood up. "Let's go take a look!"

He led the way out of the conference room, and everyone else hurried after him. When they arrived at Bat's laboratory, Yu Xian spotted Bat's body through the crowd. It had shriveled up, as though some creature had drained every last drop of blood from him while he was still alive.

Yu Lie examined the corpse and asked the researcher beside him. "Has anyone entered this room?"

The researcher shook his head. "We generally avoid entering Bat's laboratory. I only came here to deliver some materials, and that's when I discovered he was dead."

Yu Lie took out a Qilin-made tablet and turned to Xiao Cheng. "Check the surveillance footage. Have the monitoring room send it over."

Xiao Cheng nodded and immediately contacted the monitoring room with his phone. A moment later, footage from the laboratory played on the tablet.

In the recording, Bat was conducting an experiment as usual, his hands moving all over a corpse. Suddenly, he frowned, clutched his chest, and staggered two steps backward. He immediately raised his head toward the surveillance camera and moved his lips. In the next second, he rapidly shriveled into a desiccated corpse before crashing to the floor.

Xiao Cheng, who could read lips, turned grave. "He said... Progenitor!"

Yu Lie immediately realized what that meant. He immediately turned toward Yu Xian and ordered, "Quickly, activate Qilin's central barrier. Protect Little Fish!"

Clearly, the progenitor of the Blood Race no longer feared Huaxia. He had even dared to openly target a vampire within Qilin itself.

Yu Lie was worried that Yu Xian could be the next victim. Sure, Yu Xian was powerful, but some abilities defied reason, striking their targets at the very source of their existence.

The Blood Race's progenitor was the origin of all vampires. If he had awakened some means of attacking other vampires through that origin, then the members of the Blood Race would have virtually no way to defend themselves.

Ten minutes later, a formation completely enveloped Qilin's headquarters. Everyone at the scene stared at Yu Xian, afraid that he would turn into a desiccated corpse in the very next second.

Influenced by the tense atmosphere, Yu Xian turned to Eternal Purity. "Auntie, am I going to turn into a dried-up corpse?"

She indifferently replied, "Why don't you cast Appraisal and find out yourself?"

"Oh, right."

Yu Xian immediately did so. When he saw the long string of numbers on the attributes screen, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Gong Qian had remained beside Yu Xian out of concern. Seeing him seemingly speaking to someone, she immediately asked, "Salted Fish, who are you talking to?"

Yu Xian could not be bothered to explain Eternal Purity's existence, so he made up an excuse. "It's one of my new abilities. It's called Imaginary Auntie. She can answer any question I ask. Apparently, I won't be affected by the progenitor of the Blood Race's new ability."

Yu Xian guiltily glanced at Eternal Purity, but she merely smiled without saying anything.

Gong Qian asked, "Then can you ask what ability the progenitor has awakened?"

Yu Xian looked at Eternal Purity. "Auntie, can you tell us?"

"The ability Edward Vlad Stoker has newly awakened is called True Progenitor of Blood. It allows him to control every vampire who traces their origin back to him. Their lives and deaths are entirely at his mercy. Through this ability, he can reclaim the blood within every vampire and use it to strengthen himself.

"Right now, only naturally born mixed-blood vampires and mutated vampires, like you, fall outside his control. However, he can acquire the abilities of special vampires like you by consuming your blood. You and Nora may become his greatest targets. Furthermore, the more vampires he turns by First Bite, the more power the True Progenitor of Blood will grant him. If he transforms every resident of Romulus Dominion into a vampire, he will become this world's first native Star-rank powerhouse."

Yu Xian sucked in a sharp breath. A Star-rank powerhouse!

Among everyone present here, Yu Lie was the strongest, yet his Power had only just reached 0.9. Even the weakest Star-rank being had a Power of at least 100.

If the Blood Race's progenitor truly reached Star-rank, Yu Xian and Nora would likely have only one path left, which was to flee to another world. Remaining on the Blue Planet would mean certain death.

He hurriedly relayed Eternal Purity's words to everyone. Soon, every person in the room grew more solemn than ever before.