Chapter 36: Chapter Thirty-Five: Ancestral Source Blood

After changing into a new set of clothes in his room, Su Qing went out; just as they had parted, he had already agreed with Selinna to go look at Victor's coffin.

Walking straight along the route, they soon met Selinna at the corner; without speaking, they headed together toward the tomb chamber.

Soon, the two arrived again before that iron door.

Luduxiu still looked like a door god, standing there expressionless and motionless.

Su Qing stepped forward and said bluntly, "We want to go in."

This time Luduxiu didn't waste words; after giving Su Qing and Selinna a deep look, he stepped aside and opened the iron door himself.

Seeing this, Su Qing and Selinna didn't hesitate and walked straight in.

Beyond the iron door lay a long corridor; at its end stood a large door carved with exquisite patterns. Pushing it open revealed a vast, dim hall.

The two exchanged a glance and entered together.

After advancing several steps, they saw three circular metal discs in the center of the hall's floor.

The three metal discs were engraved with the huge letters V, M, and A, each representing the coffin belonging to one of the Blood Clan's three great elders: the large V stood for Victor, M for Marcus, and A for Amelia.

Su Qing approached the disc representing Victor, peered into the gap, but saw no information displayed; it seemed the Golden Finger would only trigger upon direct visual contact.

"Victor is sleeping down here!" Selinna said, eyes full of hatred as she stared at the V on the floor, almost ready to strike and kill Victor right then.

Su Qing grabbed her hand and soothed, "Don't rush; wait until we're ready to act."

The slumbering Victor had desiccated flesh, no consciousness, and was hardly different from an ordinary corpse, incapable of resistance.

Killing him would be almost too easy.

Now, if the coffin were raised, Su Qing could with one hand pluck Victor's head and use it as a ball for Selinna to kick.

But that was not what Su Qing wanted.

He was still thinking about Marcus's bloodline.

If they killed Victor now, the vampires inside the manor would soon detect them, leading to endless pursuit, making any further plot against Marcus's bloodline extremely difficult.

So they needed to wait a bit longer—at least until they had downloaded Marcus's bloodline before taking action.

"Mm!" Selinna nodded lightly, though her spirits were a bit low.

After gently comforting Selinna for a while and waiting for her emotions to settle, Su Qing approached Marcus's metal disc, reached in, and twisted it.

The next second, Marcus's metal disc shrank and lowered, revealing the coffin beneath.

Then came the sound of mechanisms moving, and a fine iron coffin rose slowly upright.

"Burying ancestors upright ensures descendants will be outstanding!"

Looking at the upright coffin, Su Qing couldn't help recalling a departed acquaintance, sighing inwardly: "The red glutinous-rice rope remains today, but Master Lin of old is nowhere to be seen!"

After a brief moment of remembrance, he went to the coffin's sides and twisted the mechanisms; the upright coffin immediately began to lower and lay flat.

Then he leaned his head in to take a look inside.

Inside lay a terrifyingly desiccated corpse, resting peacefully.

He focused his gaze; after four or five seconds, familiar information appeared, with the top entry being his current objective: Ancestral Vampire Source Blood.

Both ancestral and source blood—no wonder it's the forefather of all vampires.

He swallowed, ignored the other skills, and began the download directly.

In just an instant, Su Qing weakened, his face turning deathly pale, his eyes devoid of light.

Had he not still been standing and breathing, he would be hardly different from a fresh corpse.

"What's wrong?" Selinna appeared at his side, grabbed his arm, and looked worried at his breathless, exhaling-but-not-inhaling state.

"I'm fine, I… I'm okay… you… rest assured!" Su Qing said, mouth open, struggling to get the words out.

"You're not fine looking like that." Selinna didn't believe him, rolled up her sleeve, and offered her pale wrist to his mouth, urging, "Your condition is terrible—quickly drink my blood."

At that point, Su Qing lacked the strength to refuse; he opened his mouth, revealed his fangs, and bit hard into Selinna's wrist.

In an instant, Selinna's skin and vessels were torn, a surge of blood gushed out, and before it could spray, Su Qing sucked it into his stomach.

Thus, after merely a minute of feeding, Su Qing stopped.

It wasn't that he couldn't continue, but further drinking would cause Selinna to collapse.

Moreover, he knew his own state; at his consumption rate, draining all of Selinna's blood would be a drop in the bucket.

Having drunk blood, he at least regained some spirit; Su Qing rose and asked Selinna, "I recall the tomb chamber stores some blood, right?"

"That's only stored during elder successions, to replenish the awakened elder's strength; since the next elder swap is still far off, there's no blood stored at all."

Selinna explained quickly while restoring Marcus's coffin to its original state, then lifted Su Qing and headed out.

This time Su Qing didn't refuse—not because he didn't want to, but because the little while ago, the energy from the blood he'd just absorbed had already been mostly spent; he could barely speak now.

Fortunately, as they neared the ten-meter limit around Marcus's coffin, he managed to say, "Put me down here; you just go fetch the blood."

Hearing that, Selinna halted, frowned at Su Qing in her arms, wondering why he wanted to stay there.

But having long known Su Qing, she trusted him, didn't press further, set him down bluntly, then flashed out of the tomb chamber to get blood.

…………

Ten minutes later, in the corridor outside the tomb chamber.

Su Qing, feeling refreshed, clung to a vase, mouth at its rim, gulping the blood inside with gusto.

Fortunately Selinna knew his appetite; she grabbed a large flower vase from the hall, used it as a container, and filled it with a full seven or eight kilograms of blood.

Otherwise his recovery wouldn't have been so swift.

Between belches, he opened the light screen and saw that under the download tasks, the progress for Marcus's Ancestral Vampire Source Blood had reached one percent.

Truly absurd—fifteen minutes have passed, yet it's still stuck at one percent.

Suddenly he felt the time required for this download bore no resemblance to the planned six days.

This download would take a long time, as he had anticipated; after all, the ancestral bloodline's lofty status sits right here.

To that end, he had even calculated that the time needed for a master‑level skill would be doubled.

But he never expected it to be this slow, truly stuck and unable to move.

Forget it, let's just slowly get through it.

Su Qing closed the light curtain, picked up the flower vase, and continued crafting.

Glug… glug…

Soon, the blood in the flower vase was drunk dry.

Without fresh blood flowing in, Su Qing immediately felt weakness wash over him.

Holy cow, that fast!

So he hastily turned to Selinna beside him.

"I still want more blood..."