The silent monastery was almost completely devoid of any sound. After completing their daily confessions, all vampires could only return to their respective rooms to rest. Although the noble vampires were permitted to retain their personal properties, these houses weren't for them to live in—they were for their families to reside in. They could only be kept within the Church like ascetic acolytes, spending decades as if they were single days, gradually eroding all their thoughts and desires. For the Church personnel, this lifestyle had long become habitual, presenting no issues whatsoever. But for the various nobles who had been forcibly confined here, the ascetic life within the Church couldn't compare even slightly to their previous wonderful existence! Forget about freedom issues—just the absence of women alone had them scratching their heads in frustration, wishing they could die on the spot. If it weren't for being constantly suppressed by Norton's Aura Pressure during daily confessions, making them increasingly fearful of Norton internally, this group might have directly rebelled against Progenitor Norton. The departure of the Church vampires finally allowed Norton to shed his cold facade. "Gulp..." Norton drained the blood from his wine glass in one go, then released a long, comfortable sigh. Norton felt it was probably the latter, since the so-called advancement of vampires seemed more like a process of evolving from a corpse into a genuine vampire. He was gradually transforming into a real vampire, so naturally the taste of blood would improve. After finishing the blood, Norton sank back into troubled thoughts. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝✦𝘧𝙞𝙧𝙚✦𝕟𝕖𝕥 The Vatican could sense the life and death of the Holy Knights—this was what he had learned from Abraham. So while Norton had enjoyed consuming two Holy Knights, the pleasure came with complications that would be difficult to handle next. Once the Church learned of the Holy Knights' deaths, they would definitely send people to demand explanations. Whether he killed the messengers sent by the Church or turned them into vampires too, the Church would inevitably conclude that something was wrong with Rino City. Norton didn't care whether the Church knew about the vampires in Rino City. After all, he wasn't some earth-bound spirit—if the Church sent troops to attack, Norton could simply pack up and leave. Unlike before, he now possessed Aura Pressure, which was enough to ensure his comfort even in the wilderness. So Norton wasn't worried about the Church discovering all this; he just felt he might need to change how the new-style vampire concept was being spread. After the Church realized something was wrong with Rino City, they would continuously send people to investigate, and the issue of Church personnel turning into vampires would inevitably be exposed. Since it couldn't be hidden, he might as well not bother hiding it. By directly lifting restrictions on new-style vampire reproduction and allowing them to spontaneously develop minions, these vampires would definitely vigorously expand their subordinate numbers to build up their forces sufficiently to face the Church's suppression. During this process, the concept of new-style vampires would naturally spread. This didn't contradict his original purpose—the only drawback was that he might soon have to completely abandon Rino City's Church and power structure. "Sigh, it was better when I was a beggar—completely worry-free!" Norton felt he really knew how to create troubles for himself. As for whether too many new-style vampires would leave him without food to consume? That was completely unnecessary to worry about. If you were a vampire, would you create more vampires for no reason? Absolutely impossible. Being a vampire was all about uniqueness, about superiority. If you were a vampire, I was a vampire, and he was a vampire too, how could I maintain my sense of superiority as a vampire? If vampires were everywhere, how could one use their vampire abilities to attain lofty status? However, Norton felt this was far from sufficient. He wanted to pursue both the first plan and the second plan, so he decided to implement a two-pronged approach! Vampires in Rino City would be strictly controlled, while vampires outside Rino City could develop freely. This way, the Pope would find it difficult to quickly mobilize large forces to attack Rino City while maintaining stability elsewhere. Meanwhile, Norton could continue being the emperor of Rino City, using this time to develop his Crimson Empire and see if there was any opportunity to use these new-style vampires to confront the Church! As for those who would die in this vampire chaos? "Surviving in such a dark world is more painful than hell—death is actually a release for them. Besides, this world has Heaven and Hell—these people die in reality but can still enjoy blessings in Heaven! I'm practically doing good deeds!" Norton felt he was truly benevolent, actually considering the lives of this world's common people. He, Norton, truly possessed excellent moral character! Comparatively speaking, Norton wasn't wrong—although his human morality was gradually diminishing, it still far surpassed everyone in the Church. No, not just the Church—perhaps few people in this entire world could match Norton's level of human morality. Because Norton at least considered the poor who would be indirectly affected by his actions before doing bad things, while other nobles or even the poor themselves—forget about considering others—not stabbing someone in the back when interests were involved would already make them exceptionally kind people. Currently, only the young, innocent Carl due to his age, and Bishop Doxia, who maintained ideals despite witnessing darkness, could compete with Norton intellectually. Unfortunately, both of them were currently at the Vatican.