Norton slowly lowered his arm.
His nearly two-meter height and slender physique made him exceptionally conspicuous among the church personnel.
Because of his tall and slender frame, every movement he made seemed to possess a peculiar kind of beauty—bizarre, strange, and mystical.
Abraham even felt that Progenitor Norton had somewhat transcended the category of humanity, with every gesture carrying a sense of noble sanctity.
It was hard to imagine that words like "noble" and "sanctified" could describe Norton, whose skin was withered and who resembled a deformed dried corpse.
Yet he inexplicably carried this very feeling, with sanctity and ugliness intertwined, forming an indescribable, extremely abnormal sense of nobility.
Norton seemed to be stuck between impurity and sanctity, creating an exceptionally contradictory impression.
Growing ten centimeters taller in one go was quite an enjoyable experience.
Norton looked at the tops of the surrounding vampires' heads, never having imagined that he would one day grow this tall.
The increase in height brought with it an amplification of power.But this amplification wasn't simply about increasing strength alone; it felt more like an elevation of his life hierarchy.
Norton had an inkling of this, but because the improvement was so small, this life hierarchy enhancement manifested primarily in strength, creating the illusion that he had merely grown stronger.
However, advancing as a vampire seemed to be becoming increasingly difficult.
Norton recalled what was written in the vampire research books—that third-tier vampires couldn't advance to the fourth tier, seemingly because Kuba's existence suppressed vampires from achieving perfection. This meant Norton's growth was also approaching a dead end.
But Kuba was already dead, so wouldn't Norton be able to advance when the time came?
Advancement could be considered later; what Norton needed most right now was to lay low and reach the third tier.
With a thought from Norton, his aura pressure suddenly activated.
"Hum!"
Norton's magnetic field-like aura pressure instantly covered the entire city.
It had to be said that Norton could completely determine how much he had advanced through this aura pressure.
The aura pressure that previously could only cover the entire Rino City could now radiate to the surrounding forests, expanding the coverage area by more than double.
Additionally, it had gained more refined control capabilities.
He seemed to be starting to control the intensity of the aura pressure, achieving a level where it could become a sensing magnetic field without intimidating effects.
Although he could compress the intensity of the aura pressure to prevent his vampire underlings from being crushed to death on the spot, ultimately, aura pressure was still aura pressure—it would still have a powerful psychological intimidation effect.
This thing was great!
"Now I, Norton, am truly invincible!" Norton almost grinned from ear to ear, activating his aura pressure while watching the increasingly terrified Abraham behind him, feeling completely at ease.
With the aura pressure able to remain active constantly, any unusual behavior within its range would no longer be concealed, and Norton could defend against others' sneak attacks from all angles without any blind spots.
With two Holy Knights consumed by Norton and the aura pressure able to monitor the entire city at any time, there was no longer any existence within Rino City that could threaten Norton.
This allowed him to act without concealment, even initiating reforms within Rino City.
Progenitor Norton of the Vampire Clan, under the name of Blood Ancestor Abraham, summoned all the nobility in Rino City and then forcibly converted them all into third-generation vampires.
When all the ruling and wealthy classes in Rino City were under Norton's control, the city completely became his autocratic domain where his word was law.
And when all the nobility were vampires, this meant that Rino City's wealth transformed from previous commodities like grain and jewelry into something else entirely.
Blood!
If grain was the foundation that maintained human society's operation, then blood was the foundation that maintained the vampire upper class's operation.
The livestock population was too small to meet the growing demands of the vampire clan, so human blood became useful for this purpose.
But the people of Rino City were all skin and bones, anemic and blood-deficient, with foul body odor—they really weren't suitable consumption targets.
To ensure the sustainable development of the vampire clan and to build a beautiful vampire kingdom with sufficient healthy food, Lord Norton decisively confiscated all grain from the nobility of Rino City, then distributed it to the poor according to calculated daily quotas.
This reform instantly made Rino City boil with excitement.
When had the Church ever been this good? Those poor people had never eaten their fill since birth. And now suddenly giving them grain that, while not completely filling, at least prevented starvation, felt like God's manifestation to them, like a dream come true.
But as everyone knows, nothing comes without effort.
Norton didn't confiscate all the nobility's wealth and land just for show—it was meant to be used as means of production for labor!
As grain distribution began, highly concentrated wealth consolidation and forced labor immediately followed!
All nobility who became vampires had their entire wealth and land uniformly confiscated and allocated to the church members' camp. Although they retained free residence in their courtyards, from then on, they no longer had personal wealth or their previous high status and power.
The poor who received grain had just settled into their beautiful new lives for barely two days when the subsequent forced labor shattered their wonderful dreams.
Aside from the vampire class being forcibly assigned as church personnel, all remaining Rino City population, whether wealthy households or merchants, were all classified as 'Blood Slaves'!
All Blood Slaves needed to perform free labor for the church in exchange for the daily grain rations distributed by the church.
Moreover, individual grain quotas were linked to their cultivated land harvests—if you produced less grain, you received less; if you produced more grain, you received more.
The Vampire Church controlled what the Rino City people relied on for survival, thereby achieving complete control over them.
And since Norton had complete control over the Vampire Church members, this meant Norton completely controlled everything in Rino City!
This policy felt like the sky had fallen for a small portion of Rino City's population.
Especially for the middle class and above who previously didn't worry about food and drink.
Wealth confiscation, forced control—the fortunate could still enter the church to become immortal vampires, while the unfortunate might even be directly assigned to Blood Slave groups for forced labor.
This was more unjust than Dou E's case!
For a time, public anger surged, and Rino City's middle class even formed rebel forces.