High above the Spirit Domain, thousands of giant eagles circled the skies, standing guard over the entire realm.
Amidst the clouds, a sky city floated in the air. Within its towering structures, the Sky Eagle Civilization's divine eagle was watching a deathmatch unfold in the arena—a brutal fight to the death between Sea Serpent clansmen.
At the same time, deep underground, within a vast subterranean lake, a Sea Serpent deity was feasting on a screaming, roasting giant eagle skewered over an open fire.
Freshly torn wings were not only delicious but could also regrow repeatedly, making the hunt even more enjoyable.
In the eyes of the Sea Serpent deity, the giant eagle race of the Sky Eagle Civilization were born to be roasted.
While the two True Gods of their civilizations held no personal blood feuds, their civilizations had long become mortal enemies.
Now, with these two deities trapped together in the confined space of a small Spirit Domain, unable to leave, their hostility festered. They were enemies, yet forbidden from fighting directly, and over time, their hatred only grew stronger.
Eventually, they found another way to compete—by torturing and slaughtering each other's people, waiting to see who would lose control and attack first.
The Sky Eagle deity was not difficult to deal with, as he only had a single divine incarnation.
This was a common choice among deities. While divine incarnations were powerful, they required a portion of the god's core divine essence to maintain. The more incarnations a god created, the weaker their true form would become at Sequence 0, and the weaker each individual incarnation would be.
Typically, a god would create one incarnation, ensuring that either the true form or the incarnation remained in their Divine Kingdom at all times.
After all, a Divine Kingdom was a god's stronghold. If they belonged to a larger divine pantheon, their kingdoms would often be linked, allowing gods to watch over one another.
Back then, if the Radiant Angel True God had been just a little more cautious—if he had not recklessly left his Divine Kingdom, if he had at least one more incarnation, he wouldn't have been instantly annihilated by the Tenfold Obliteration. Now, he could only rely on the faith of his followers to slowly resurrect over countless years.
Rosen was confident he could instantly eliminate the Sky Eagle deity.
The key was that the Sky Eagle deity's Divine Kingdom was located in the Astral Realm, under the coverage of the Gods' Network.
This meant Rosen could bypass defenses using data transmission, allowing him to strike both the Sky Eagle deity's true form and his incarnation simultaneously.
However, the Sea Serpent deity was a much bigger problem.
This Sea Serpent deity had a total of eight divine incarnations.
By standard calculations—where each incarnation consumed one portion of the divine core essence—this meant the Sea Serpent deity had used almost all of his Sequence 0 divine essence to create incarnations, leaving his true form incredibly weak.
Among all gods in the main world, this Sea Serpent deity was likely one of the weakest True Gods in terms of direct combat ability.
But in exchange, his survivability was off the charts.
Using the God-Hunting Magic Eye, Rosen spied on the Sea Serpent deity's incarnations one by one.
Some were hidden within his own Divine Kingdom.
Some were sheltered within the Sea Serpent True God's Divine Kingdom.
Some had fled to the Abyss.
And some had even sealed themselves at the edges of various forbidden zones, hiding in absolute isolation.
Just how afraid of death is he?
To kill the Sea Serpent deity before he could send a warning to the Sea Serpent True God, Rosen had to eliminate all nine targets at once—his true form and eight divine incarnations.
Even data transmission wouldn't be enough, because some of the incarnations were outside the coverage of the Five Major Networks.
"Looks like I'll have to put in some effort…"
Rosen transmitted his strongest combat forces to different locations.
His Azure Dragon avatar, Reaper avatar, Scourge Apostle, Gluttony Mind Beast, Seven Deadly Sins Mind Beast, Imagination Dragon, a Sequence 1 Angel wielding the Radiant Angel True God's artifact, the leader of the Death Angels, and the newly ascended Sequence 1 Necro Empress—
The nine strike teams moved into position, preparing to take down all nine divine incarnations of the Sea Serpent deity and the Sky Eagle deity simultaneously.
As for their true forms, Rosen had to personally handle them.
Half a month later, all forces had successfully reached their targets and were lying in wait, ready to strike at a moment's notice.
Everything was in place—only the final harvest remained.
Royal Authority Divine Kingdom—the Spirit Domain beneath his feet was now his personal divine kingdom.
Royal Authority Decree—all information within the divine kingdom was sealed.
Royal Authority War Declaration—anyone who attempted to flee would have their fate suppressed.
Royal Authority Law—any attack against the king was punishable by death.
Royal Authority Will—all life within the Royal Authority Divine Kingdom suffered spiritual suppression, significantly weakening their combat strength.
Rosen took out the Glorious Map. Since the Spirit Domain had been temporarily transformed into his Royal Authority Divine Kingdom, the Glorious Map now displayed a fully detailed layout of the realm.
Activating Royal Authority Judgment, he fused it with the Law of Death, locking onto the Sea Serpent deity and initiating judgment.
Different laws altered the execution method of Royal Authority Judgment.
If fused with the Law of Thunder, the target would be struck down by lightning.
If fused with the Law of Flame, the target would be burned alive.
If fused with the Law of Death, it would strip away the target's life force and divine essence simultaneously.
Deep underground, the Sea Serpent deity was feasting on roasted giant eagle meat when, before he could even react, he sensed his life essence flickering out.
His divine essence was collapsing.
Even a Royal Authority Judgment of this level couldn't instantly kill the Sea Serpent deity.
After all, weak as he was, he was still a god, possessing countless life-saving and death-avoidance abilities.
The Sea Serpent deity's shield might not have been as strong as Rosen's spear, but it still offered some resistance, giving him a small window to counteract the judgment.
However, within one or two seconds, the Sea Serpent deity realized something terrifying—
He couldn't stop his own death.
Realizing he was doomed, the Sea Serpent deity abandoned all attempts to delay death with sequence abilities. Instead, he activated every burst-type skill at his disposal, pushing his strength to the absolute limit in a desperate attempt to break through the information blockade and warn his divine incarnations.
Although Royal Authority Decree had sealed all communication, the Sea Serpent deity's suicidal struggle managed to tear open a tiny breach in the seal.
But in that moment, his mind went blank—
He could no longer sense any of his divine incarnations.
All eight incarnations were completely out of contact.
In one final act of desperation, the Sea Serpent deity tried to reach out to the Sea Serpent True God—
But Rosen had already torn through every defense the Sea Serpent deity had set up underground.
Facing Rosen's supernatural firearm, two bullets were already fired at his head.
No matter how the Sea Serpent deity tried to control his body, he found himself completely immobilized—trapped in an instant body-locking effect, like a lifeless mannequin.
His divine essence was simply too weak to resist Rosen.
Rosen's 126 points of divine essence strength far exceeded the Sea Serpent deity's 109-point limit.
This is the advantage of a Forbidden Sequence.
Unlike ordinary gods, Forbidden Sequences broke growth limits, increasing divine essence strength by 13 points per sequence rank.
Even though Rosen was only Sequence 1, his raw divine power was already on par with a Sequence 0 ordinary True God.
Not to mention—Rosen still had his Ancient God Relics, allowing him to push even further.
The Ashen Brand inflicted true damage, shattering the passive defensive skills automatically triggered by the Sea Serpent deity's body.
One bullet transformed into Ancient God Shackles, binding the Sea Serpent deity and completely sealing his extraordinary powers.
With all his escape and defensive skills nullified, the full force of Death Judgment exploded within his body.
Just as the Sea Serpent deity was about to be killed by the Death Judgment, the second supernatural bullet pierced through his forehead, entering his sea of consciousness.
The Law of Time activated—
The time freeze, formed by the Law of Time, caused everything within the Sea Serpent deity's sea of consciousness to halt completely.
The Titan's Wrath, which had already begun expanding and was on the verge of detonating, suddenly reversed under the flow of time, returning to its inactive state.
At first, when Rosen discovered that the Sea Serpent deity had eight divine incarnations, it seemed to be a clear sign of his extreme fear of death.
However, through the Prophecy Painting automatically generated by his Mind Canvas, Rosen realized—just before making his move—that he had underestimated the Sea Serpent deity.
The Sea Serpent deity was not afraid of death. On the contrary, both his true body and all of his incarnations were fully prepared to die at any time.
Titan's Wrath was a supreme creation of the Giant Race at their peak. It was a god-capturing weapon—even capable of restraining True Gods—that could modify divine cores and turn them into superbombs.
Back then, the Giant Race had provoked the wrath of all major races by mass-producing Titan's Wrath, leading to a devastating alliance attack that ultimately caused their downfall.
By pure chance, the Sea Serpent deity had obtained nine Titan's Wrath bombs—which was precisely why he had eight divine incarnations.
Each of his incarnations was capable of self-detonation, powerful enough to slay a deity outright or severely wound a True God.
But now, every single Titan's Wrath had become Rosen's spoils of war.
At that moment, as the time freeze weakened slightly, the Sea Serpent deity's divine core was pierced by Death Judgment, completely erasing his divine essence.
Rosen casually sealed the Sea Serpent deity's corpse onto a page of his Void Sketchbook, then blinked through the void, appearing in Sky City.
Even as he had dealt with the Sea Serpent deity, Rosen had not forgotten to eliminate the Sky Eagle deity simultaneously.
Summoning the projection of the Little World Tree, he let it descend upon the battlefield.
The Little World Tree's time freeze was even stronger than Rosen's own, to the extent that even though the Sea Serpent deity was already dead, the Sky Eagle deity in Sky City was still completely immobilized, unable to break free from the time freeze's grasp.
There were many types of time freeze.
The strongest form froze everything indiscriminately, affecting both friend and foe alike.
Weaker versions only affected enemies, allowing the caster to remain free—though this required a portion of the caster's power to maintain mobility.
If Rosen himself had used time freeze, he would have had to completely stop time, immobilizing himself as well, to fully restrain the Sky Eagle deity.
But the Little World Tree was already at the True God level, so even a lesser time freeze was enough to completely lock down the Sky Eagle deity.
Rosen stepped forward in the frozen time, standing before the Sky Eagle deity.
He saw no fear in his enemy's eyes—only a deep, seething fury.
"Those who do not kneel before me shall be condemned…"
In an instant, Rosen distorted the definition of sin, draping the Sky Eagle deity in the shackles of guilt.
He then activated the miracle effect of the Judgment Ring—Sin Judgment.
A golden bolt of lightning burst from the tip of Rosen's outstretched finger, striking the Sky Eagle deity with overwhelming force.
The terrifying Judgment Thunder Punishment, amplified by Sin Judgment's damage boost, pierced directly through his forehead, invading his sea of consciousness and shattering his divine core into pieces.
As Rosen gazed at the fragmented remains of the divine core, he gained a newfound appreciation for the sheer destructive power of Judgment Thunder Punishment.
One by one, the forces Rosen had dispatched to hunt down the divine incarnations began to return.
The most challenging task had been eliminating the Sea Serpent deity's divine incarnation within the Sea Serpent True God's Divine Kingdom.
To accomplish this, Rosen had sent his strongest assassin—the Reaper avatar.
Even now, the Sea Serpent True God remained completely unaware that the Sea Serpent deity had vanished from his Divine Kingdom.
With both deities completely eradicated, eliminating the Sea Serpent Clan and Sky Eagle Clan's remaining extraordinary beings was effortless.
A single deployment of Shadow Demons had been enough to bathe the entire Spirit Domain in blood.
As the Little World Tree's Time-Space Domain expanded, it quietly severed the Spirit Domain's connection to reality. With no one controlling it, the entire Spirit Domain was drawn into the World Domain and relocated to the True Realm of the Ancient Gods.
Rosen activated data transmission, leaving the Starshatter Archipelago without a trace.
The deaths of the two deities did not alarm the True Gods of their respective civilizations. However, the disappearance of the Spirit Domain, along with the arcane magic array, was immediately noticed. Yet, with all clues erased, no amount of investigation through various means led them to the culprit.
In the Dragon Realm, Rosen gathered a considerable number of draconic arcane mages and sent them into the Little World Tree's domain.
As long as they never saw the Little World Tree, there was no need to kill them to keep them silent.
With the combined efforts of the draconic arcane mages, it took several years to gradually unravel the True God-level arcane magic array.
The array itself was of True God rank, but its creator was not a True God.
Moreover, the array had existed for no more than a few thousand years, making it clear that its creator was none other than the legendary Arcane Emperor, the Great True God who had built the Arcane Web—the origin of all arcane mages in myth.
This suggested that behind the two True Gods of the Sky Eagle and Sea Serpent Civilizations, there was a high likelihood that they were supported by the legendary Arcane Emperor.
The Arcane Emperor was the most recent ruler of a Sixth Cataclysm civilization.
Unlike the World Government, which was surrounded by hostile extraordinary races, the Arcane Empire had nearly conquered the entire main world.
The Arcane Empire had no racial discrimination. As long as one studied and embraced arcane magic and followed the laws of the empire, beings of any race could join and be treated as equals.
Then came the Sixth Cataclysm.
The Arcane Emperor successfully ascended as a Great True God.
Shortly after, he constructed the Arcane Web.
But soon after its completion, the Arcane Emperor went insane.
Once a ruler of wisdom and brilliance, he suddenly turned cruel and tyrannical.
The Arcane Emperor believed that individual lives had limited intelligence and strength.
Therefore, he sought to eradicate all life in the main world, merging the spiritual essence of every living being into the Arcane Web.
His vision was for all races to abandon their physical bodies, using the Arcane Web as their new form.
By unifying all intelligence and power within the Arcane Web, he sought to create the ultimate arcane lifeform, surpassing even the Great True Gods.
But unsurprisingly, nobody wanted to die voluntarily—especially not the countless deities and True Gods.
The Arcane Emperor instantly became the greatest enemy of the gods.
In the end, he was besieged by the pantheon, and his divine core was even extracted and fused into the Arcane Web.
But if the Arcane Emperor had not truly perished back then, and if he were to return now, would he still seek to wipe out all living beings?
Rosen pondered for a moment before uploading all information about the arcane magic array to the Gods' Network.
It wasn't long before a True God took notice.
As more gods saw the information, a few ancient True Gods who had lived through the Arcane Emperor's era confirmed its authenticity. They immediately began to persuade other gods to form a crusade against the Arcane Emperor.
However, only a few responded.
After all, very few True Gods had personally experienced the Arcane Emperor's final reign of terror.
If the blade had never cut them before, why would they willingly risk their lives against a Great True God?
But just a few days later, the Sky Eagle Civilization and the Sea Serpent Civilization were annihilated by a coalition of several True God-level arcane mages.
Some True Gods, who had vested interests in these two civilizations and attempted to intervene, nearly lost their lives during the massacre.
They barely escaped back to their Divine Kingdoms, not daring to utter another word.
Rosen, who had been watching silently, confirmed three things through the destruction of both civilizations.
The Arcane Emperor was indeed still alive, and the Arcane Web had already been sealed by the True God arcane mages.
Rosen also confirmed the identity of one of the hidden Great True Gods currently residing in the main world.
Finally, he verified that Great True Gods were indeed capable of traveling between the Old and New Worlds.
During the battle to rescue the two True Gods, several True Gods were severely wounded, and the Great True God who had intervened to repel them had established a Holy Court in the Old World. However, this was likely not his true body returning to the New World, but rather a divine incarnation that had been sent over.
Although this incarnation was far stronger than an ordinary True God, it had yet to reach the full power expected of a Great True God.
With a single report, Rosen had orchestrated the downfall of two civilizations and two True Gods, while simultaneously baiting out a massive hidden force lurking in the main world.
If they were to become enemies in the future, he could now prepare in advance.
Inside the Mysterious Study Room, Rosen retrieved the Soul Core he had taken from the heart of the arcane magic array.
He had only heard of this material before, but seeing it with his own eyes, he immediately confirmed one thing—
The Soul Parasite was a miracle lifeform, truly eternal and indestructible.
This Soul Core was the most crucial part of the Soul Parasite. Losing it would take countless years to regenerate.
The one he held had been nurtured within the seal for hundreds of thousands of years, reaching a quality at the absolute peak of True God-level materials.
Everything was now ready. Rosen began mastering the final skill of Painter Sequence 1.
The most difficult part of the process was the complete refinement of the Soul Core.
The moment the new skill rune was formed, it underwent a further transformation, evolving into a Miracle Skill.
[Soul Doppelganger: Miracle Skill]
[Miracle Attribute: Permanently consumes divine essence to generate a Soul Doppelganger.]
[Miracle Traits: Soul Coexistence, Singular in the World, Eternal and Indestructible.]
Without hesitation, Rosen consumed 21 points of divine essence, initiating the creation of his Soul Doppelganger.
Instantly, his divine essence dropped from Sequence 1 Perfection to Sequence 2.
However, with the aid of his Ancient God Relic, he barely maintained his position in Sequence 1.
This wasn't new to him.
With the Primeval Oil Lamp and the Flesh Secret Fruit, his lost divine essence would recover quickly.
But what intrigued him most was—just how powerful was a Soul Doppelganger created with 21 points of divine essence?
Rosen conducted a quick experiment.
His Soul Doppelganger could merge into any lifeform that had lost the ability to resist.
It would then fuse with the host's soul, silently devouring and replacing the target's spiritual essence.
Once completely replaced, the host wouldn't even realize they were dead.
Rosen only needed to actively awaken the Soul Doppelganger, and the replaced lifeform would instantly become his puppet avatar—
A perfect vessel that unilaterally shared all of his Painter Sequence abilities—everything except the Soul Doppelganger skill itself.
Additionally, the Soul Doppelganger could perfectly inherit the target's memories and powers, making up for the Painter Sequence's inability to be omniscient and omnipotent.
If there was one flaw, it was that he could only have one Soul Doppelganger at a time.
Knowing that this was a one-time opportunity, Rosen had already made up his mind—
He would target a high-ranking figure within the World Government.
If he couldn't replace a True God, then he would settle for an important authority—such as the Chief Justice of the World Government.
Although this individual was only a Sequence 1 Jurist, his status within the World Government was on par with a True God.
However, after painting a Prophecy Painting, Rosen immediately dismissed the idea.
Even though the Chief Justice was merely Sequence 1, he was likely far more terrifying than expected.
At the height of the World Government's power, the Chief Justice, armed with the Noble Codex, was not someone to be underestimated.
Attempting a silent and flawless replacement would be too risky—it would be better to wait until he ascended to a True God before attempting it.
For now, parasitizing various deities across different races was the best course of action.
(End of Chapter)