Chapter 218: The Duke’s Secret
On the northern slopes of the Alps in early spring, the white snow and green fields intertwine, with blue and white helicopters weaving through the winding, rugged peaks. Upon crossing a mountain pass, a picturesque emerald valley adorned with lakes, pastures, forests, and castles unfolds.
The helicopter lands slowly, and before the engine completely shuts down, Elvin steps off the aircraft accompanied by his private secretary Emma and bodyguard Frank.
“Sir, the Duke is already aware of your arrival.”
A few people have been waiting on the helipad, and a middle-aged woman of European descent quickly approaches.
Casting a glance at the distant gray ancient castle, Elvin adjusts his suit slightly and smiles, extending his hand to his bodyguard Frank: “Hand me the documents. Miss Emma, come with me. Frank, you wait here.”
Under the guidance of the family’s head maid, Elvin carries a small black suitcase and strolls leisurely towards the castle.
Inside the ancient castle, modern civilization has illuminated what was once a dark and dreary interior; natural sunlight and artificial lighting harmoniously blend, revealing the luxurious details hidden beneath the minimalist style.
In the sunlit corridor of the castle, an elderly man with pale white hair, a face full of wrinkles and age spots, sits quietly in a wheelchair, holding a cane, waiting patiently.
“Elvin, my child…”
As the tall blond youth appears at the end of the corridor, the old man in the wheelchair finally smiles and raises a hand.
“Otto, you look much better than the last time we met, but you should still be resting in a warmer room.”
Elvin approaches his great-grandfather, gives a slight bow, and with a glance signals Emma, who quickly steps behind the elderly man to push the wheelchair.
Soon, the two are in a spacious study with a crackling fireplace.
The old man in the wheelchair quietly examines the information booklet in his hands, while Elvin casually walks in front of the bookshelves, occasionally pulling out a book and flipping through a few pages.
“…Incredible growth. From the blood test results, this lovely queen is already completely different from before. She is the most perfect and stable queen I have seen in over two hundred years.”
After a dozen minutes, the old man closes the booklet and removes his glasses.
“There is another test result that is currently classified; I did not include it in the booklet.”
Elvin turns from the bookshelf, walks over to the old man’s side, and crouches down: “The bloodline pedigree test of my wife Yao is no longer any of the familiar ancestral lines we know.”
The old man’s eyes light up, and he tightens his frail hand on Elvin’s shoulder, remaining silent for a good ten seconds before gently saying, “Then it’s true; the Sophia lineage is meant to return to the world.”
After speaking, the old man releases his great-grandson’s shoulder and exhales a long sigh of relief with a smile: “Elvin, my child, I have at most ten years left to live, but I am comforted to hear this news.”
Elvin’s expression darkens as he looks back at Emma, who is demurely standing in the corner of the study. She understands and quietly exits the room.
“Otto, we now have various cutting-edge medicines and dormancy technologies; you can…”
Elvin holds his great-grandfather’s frail hands firmly, speaking calmly.
“No, my child, I have long since ceased to cherish life. I have lived long enough; don’t tempt me further.”
The old man smiles, withdrawing his hand from Elvin’s and gently pats the booklet: “The Ancestor Program has come this far; I can return to the embrace of God without any regrets.”
In the soft light, the old duke of the Engel family now resembles an ordinary old man nearing the end of his days, who has seen through the ups and downs of life, carrying a faint smile and stable emotions.
“Ha, there’s no need for sadness. I have enjoyed a lifespan that most creatures on this planet can hardly imagine. Even over a century ago, I attempted to forget the past to avoid being overwhelmed by too many memories.”
The old man laughs again, tapping his head lightly: “You know, I am not one for organizing thoughts; the new things that come with time have piled up so much that I can hardly keep them in my head.”
“I believe that the eastern Duchess will reach a similar state in a hundred years. And for the James family in North America, that young wolf king is just beginning to experience the penalties of time; he has a lot more enthusiasm to interact with this world.”
After speaking, the old duke wheels himself to the bookshelf, scanning the rows of books slowly as if reviewing soldiers.
“The James family… They have been coveting the results of the Ancestor Program, becoming increasingly direct.”
Thinking of the countess and chief steward from the James family who forcefully “visited” the Eden base days ago, Elvin shows a slight frown.
“Elvin, do you know why I took over the baton of the Ancestor Program from the James family?”
Ignoring his great-grandson’s opinion on the James family, the old man suddenly turns around, fixing his gaze on Elvin: “Back then, no one could force me to do anything, not even the James family.”
Elvin stands straight, his expression solemn: “The Engel family has always pursued the realm of God!”
“The realm of God?”
The old man chuckles in disbelief, shaking his head repeatedly after a few seconds: “No, Elvin, that’s only something we say to others in the family, but you must not believe it.”
Elvin falls silent, moving behind his great-grandfather with some confusion.
Over a hundred years ago, I once had afternoon tea with Duke Goebbels, Duke Tanaka, and the Duchess of the Wang family; that was the last gathering without any distractions. By the way, back then, the James family member was still just a marquis, so they weren’t qualified to participate.
The old man pauses as if recalling that unique bloodline gathering of the four prominent clans over a century ago.
“Duke Goebbels, the Duchess of Wang, and I reached a unanimous conclusion: over the past few hundred years, all bloodlines worldwide have experienced a decline in quality. In fact, even earlier, the Goebbels family began their most reckless actions.”
“You can hardly imagine that the composed and elegant Duchess of Wang almost fought Duke Goebbels right before my eyes, ha ha!”
“Duke Tanaka still had some doubts about this conclusion, but it isn’t his fault; he was too young at the time. Only through experiencing centuries can one uncover these details.”
“You should remember that for the past forty years, I have had you conduct similar investigations to see if modern science can validate my and other dukes’ viewpoints.”
“However, now, both the Tanaka and Goebbels families have been annihilated, and only our family, the James family, and the Wang family remain among the duke houses in the world.”
The old man turns the wheelchair around to face Elvin directly, the smile on his face fading to reveal a serious expression.
“Yes, the Eden Experiment Center has not ceased sampling bloodline data for major lineages worldwide over the past forty years.”
Elvin nods, though he finds it a bit unremarkable, initially thinking it was merely his great-grandfather’s data comparison experiment for the Ancestor Program.
“In fact, I could guess a factual result without looking at your data investigation results. The number of bloodlines born above the rank of baron has decreased by at least a quarter compared to two hundred years ago. As for the counts among counts, it has halved. So, Elvin, you are fortunate.”
Hearing this, Elvin cannot help but nod, for he knows better than anyone the final outcomes of this global bloodline census.
Elvin attributes this conclusion to the Second World War that swept through almost the entire world eight decades ago. Not only did ordinary people suffer casualties in the millions, but various bloodlines were also deeply affected, with many bloodline powers facing a disruption in talent continuity, thus leading to generational gaps.
Thus, Elvin does not entirely agree with his great-grandfather’s viewpoint, believing this should not serve as evidence of a decline in the entire bloodline world.
“What? You do not believe in my and Duke Goebbels’ and the Eastern Duchess’ viewpoint? Just attributing it all to the devastation of war?”
The old man sighs, gesturing for Elvin to return to his side.
“Elvin, my child, you cannot yet comprehend the significance of a duke’s long life. To dukes, it is no longer the highest glory in the pursuit of realms; it simply gives us the opportunity to observe the truth of this world.”
“In reality, this conclusion has not only emerged a hundred years ago; as early as the fourteenth century, my ancestors had noticed some clues. Back then, I was still just a little viscount.”
“For the past few hundred years, nearly all orthodox bloodline noble families have accepted the fact that it takes an average of fifteen to thirty blood servants to produce a knight. However, that was not the case before the tenth century.”
“Back then, blood servants were nowhere near as fragile as they are now. The so-called curse of decline was not as severe as it is today; these are all signs of bloodline degeneration, and even signs of bloodline stability slowly collapsing.”
Elvin is taken aback, turning his gaze to the side bookshelf, as if recalling the secrets of bloodline history he has read. However, back then, he was just a child and mostly viewed the grand ancient history of bloodlines depicted in the books as artistic exaggeration.
As he grew older, he perceived the gradual weakening of overall bloodline strength as a simple progression of the mortal world, resulting in the explosive development of war technologies that countered the bloodlines, thus suppressing their growth.
“Elvin, for over two thousand years, the decline of bloodlines has been a fact, a hardly perceptible secret—only when one reaches the level of duke can one truly feel it.”
The old man’s expression grows increasingly mysterious, even cracking a self-deprecating smile.
Elvin squats down again, resting his hand on his great-grandfather’s knee, his face full of skepticism.
“Elvin, my child, do you aspire to become a duke?”
The old man’s laughter fades, suddenly posing the question.
Elvin nods without hesitation: “This is the necessary path to continue the family’s glory, and it is also one of the prerequisites for becoming a god. Otto, you told me this since childhood.”
“No, no, no, child, you must remember what I just told you; the pursuit of the realm of God is simply a way to fool people.”
The old man gently pats his great-grandson’s head, turning to brush his hand along the bookshelf.
A second later, the bookshelf shifts, revealing a small space the size of a safe, inside which lies an old diary.
Elvin is astonished; having grown up in this castle, he had no idea there was a secret space behind the bookshelf.
“This is a diary I have kept for hundreds of years. I stopped writing it two hundred years ago, actually having rewritten it several times.”
The old man retrieves the diary and places it in Elvin’s hands: “Elvin, the secret I want to tell you lies within: Once a bloodline is elevated to a duke, they lose all abilities.”
“Though a duke possesses the ability to control an aura that other bloodlines can never reach, from the day I was elevated to duke, I lost the ability to boil blood, as well as the powers of blood transformation and blood blade. Compared to you, I have longevity but have become more like an ordinary person.”
The progenitor is, in fact, the aberration of the Sophia bloodline’s king… They once indiscriminately consumed the eight major lineages to find a way to stabilize their own bloodline, claiming this was a return of bloodlines, ultimately resulting in this monster.
“This was the reason the Sophia bloodline was exterminated. At that time, all the ducal families of Europe’s lineages united to eradicate the Sophia bloodline, hoping to find a way to resolve their own degeneration through the Sophia bloodline…”
Elvin’s pupils constrict, and he freezes, feeling the temperature in the study drop significantly.
Aside from the crackling sound of burning wood in the fireplace, the study becomes eerily silent.
Minutes later, Elvin slowly raises his head, a shocked expression on his face: “The progenitor is the royal family of Sophia… not something cultivated by the Goebbels family?”
Ha ha, this is a wartime trophy that old Goebbels had secretly kept from all the ducal families in Europe.
The old man in the wheelchair nods with a smile, gripping Elvin’s hand tightly: “Sophia is the first ancestral lineage, powerful yet unstable, but paradoxically possessing a longer lifespan. The other eight lineages may seem stable but face a future of gradual collapse.”
“This is the reason the Ancestor Program was initiated over two hundred years ago.”
“Elvin, you must remember, for the bloodlines of the entire world to escape the fate of being eliminated by history, we must create a perfect bloodline that surpasses the Sophia lineage!”
“That is not becoming a god; it is merely us seeking a glimmer of hope. We, after all, are just!”
After speaking, the old man gestures at the old diary in Elvin’s hands, then wheels himself out of the study.
An hour later, Elvin emerges from the castle, his mind swirling with shock.
……
……
The Sophia bloodline, much like the queen, can be considered a collection of the eight major ancestral lineages—envied, yet unstable, leading to subsequent lineage diversification.
The other eight lineages derived from the Sophia bloodline each inherit only a small portion of its abilities; on the surface, they gained significant stability and are no longer prone to transforming into monsters easily.
The hierarchy of bloodlines only emerged after the eight major lineages appeared; within the Sophia bloodline, there were no distinctions of hierarchy—just the concept of “perfection.”
However, so-called stability is merely superficial. After the diversification, just a few hundred years later, the eight bloodline lineages already experienced subtle signs of bloodline deterioration and decline, leading to the emergence of the black bloodlines.
The speed of this change is very slow and difficult for people to perceive, even giving rise to individual differences akin to the concept of “bloodline qualifications.”
This deterioration occurs not only across generations but also within hierarchies. One can imagine the emotional turmoil that must have accompanied the first bloodline duke when discovering they had lost the ability to boil blood; even with long life and high status henceforth, what sort of despair must have filled their heart?
When Otto of the Engel family became a duke, maybe he foresaw the future of all bloodlines—the inevitable decline and ultimate extinction of the species.
The curse of decline and the birth of black bloodlines may perhaps reflect the hidden unwillingness at the genetic level within the eight major lineages.
Thus, the so-called Ancestor Program is designed to seek solutions to prevent degeneration based on the progenitor; otherwise, as time passes, perhaps all bloodlines will self-destruct, even if they are not trampled upon by ordinary people.
Secondary projects are codenamed “Holy Grail,” aimed at altering the innate qualifications of bloodlines to increase the probability of rising to higher realms.
Primary projects are codenamed “Crown,” intended to extend the lifespan of bloodlines, even achieving immortality.
These are the initial plans of the Goebbels family and later the Engel family, to prevent the bloodline from completely disappearing due to degeneration.
Other projects are merely the derivative outcomes of these two initiatives.
The mad old duke of the Goebbels family chose an entirely selfish path. He leveraged the Ancestor Program to collaborate with the Third Reich, launching projects like the “Vanguard” that enabled ordinary people to wield bloodline powers, and the “Frankenstein” project that demonized low-level bloodlines.
The former helped the Third Reich establish global dominance, while the latter allowed the Goebbels family to claim the ultimate hegemony over bloodlines. Coupled with the “Crown” project to resolve the crises of degeneration and decline, the Goebbels family evidently crazily stood against both the ordinary world and the bloodline world.
Allowing ordinary people to possess bloodline powers or granting low-level bloodlines the ability to counter high-level bloodlines—whether ultimately successful or not—was almost a mad act of destroying two millennia of bloodline heritage, thus meeting with opposition and suppression from bloodlines worldwide.
And Otto, the old duke of the Engel family, evidently thought further ahead than the Goebbels family. His first thought after becoming a duke was to change the future of bloodlines.
A special project, codenamed “Divine Blood,” aims to create the legendary perfect bloodline—one that is not only completely stable but also free from the curse of decline, possessing abilities comparable to the entire Sophia bloodline.
This is not simply about making the Engel family divine; it is about forging an entirely new lineage and, through intermarriage, ultimately reuniting the world’s eight major bloodline lineages to surpass the ancient Sophia bloodline, achieving the final path to escape bloodline degeneration!
As for the Eastern Duchess, her choices bewildered the Western bloodlines even more; her vision was to unify with the world of ordinary people—or rather, to merge with that ancient land and civilization—without being concerned about the fate of bloodlines themselves.
Meanwhile, the James family, which only rose to prominence in the 1930s, had great ambitions but employed entirely opposite methods and were smarter in leveraging the full development of bloodline technology to envelop the entire world, establishing a hidden and supreme power.
These are the three different ideals of three millennia-old ducal families…
Sitting in the helicopter, amidst the dull and uncomfortable engine noise, Elvin clutches the old diary in his hand, lost in prolonged contemplation.
“Sir, Lady Catherine of the James family has sent a message, hoping we will increase the research intensity of the primary project, Crown…”
Sitting opposite him, Emma closes her laptop and watches the family heir who has been inexplicably distracted since leaving the castle, hesitating for several seconds before speaking softly.
Interrupted from his thoughts, Elvin shifts his gaze back from the window, smiles slightly, and waves his hand gently: “As long as they can guarantee the supply of materials and funding, Eden can increase the research weight of the ‘Crown’ project.”
At this point, Elvin suddenly glances at Emma’s alluring figure and smiles: “Emma, do you need to take Sodorcaine and Yuheng Dan to accelerate your growth?”
Emma blinks, then shakes her head repeatedly after a few seconds: “No, sir, I still want to cultivate myself. I believe in my abilities.”
“Is that so…”
Elvin remains noncommittal, turning his head back to look out the window.
“Otto, my great-grandfather, he is warning me today… Ha ha, Otto, the great idea of saving all bloodlines worldwide probably does not belong to me.”
“Otto, you are old… not all bloodlines are qualified to share the blood of God with the Engel family; what must be eliminated will ultimately be eliminated.”
Elvin closes the diary, a cold gleam flashing in his eyes.
The snow-white Alps slowly recede in the helicopter’s window, and the modern air transportation easily overcomes the shackles that nature has imposed on humanity for millions or even tens of millions of years.
