At the edge of the Endless Abyss, Rosen lightly tapped the Ancient God's Sacrificial Artifact within his heart.
Rolling black mist surged forth, and within the mist, a narrow path appeared.
Stepping onto the Ancient God's Staircase once more, he no longer felt the fear he once had, but his caution remained undiminished.
In less than a month, Rosen had traversed a distance that had taken him three years in the past.
The path ahead was broken—this was where he had once discovered the severed palm of the Great True God of the Ancient God Sequence and retreated.
But this time, he intended to cross the fractured staircase and continue onward.
Spatial Law extended forward, slowly reconstructing the shattered steps.
Rosen soon resumed his journey, though he frequently encountered more broken sections of the staircase. Each time, he repaired them with Spatial Law, turning what should have been a journey of just over a month into one that lasted more than a year before he finally neared the staircase's end.
Only the last hundred miles remained.
Up until now, none of the broken sections had posed any danger.
But from this point onward, Rosen noticed that the staircase was stained with blood.
The blood of the Great True God of the Ancient God Sequence—the same as that within the severed palm he had obtained.
Yet this blood carried a trace of something eerie.
Rosen could sense the terrifying curse within it—one that would inevitably afflict anyone who drew near.
And this curse was one-sided: moving forward wouldn't activate it, but retreating would.
It felt as though the Ancient God Sequence that had left this curse was trying to prevent anyone from leaving the staircase.
Undeterred, Rosen stepped onto the bloodstained path and pressed forward, soon passing through the final stretch to reach the end.
Behind him, the churning black mist and the staircase vanished. Before him now stood a magnificent, multicolored altar.
This altar spanned over ten thousand miles in diameter, and he stood at its very edge.
At its center lay a limbless corpse.
Even without its arms and legs, the body towered over two thousand miles tall.
Its eyes were wide open, filled with hatred as they stared diagonally upward—as if someone had stood before it and severed its limbs. Yet this clearly wasn't the cause of death.
The true fatal wounds were the missing heart and a gaping hole in the forehead where the brain should have been.
It seemed that along with the brain, the Sea of Consciousness had also been gouged out.
Finally, every drop of its Primordial Bloodline had been drained, ensuring this Great True God of the Ancient God Sequence was utterly slain.
Rosen felt a flicker of fear.
This Great True God bore almost no other injuries—meaning the battle had been completely one-sided. There had been little resistance before it was effortlessly executed.
Circling the corpse, Rosen found no immediate threats.
He moved closer to inspect the remains. This limbless, mutilated body was indeed the owner of the severed palm he had once bonded with. It seemed the curses this being had laid down had failed to stop its enemy, who had ultimately chased it down the Ancient God's Staircase, dragged it back to the altar, and slaughtered it.
With its Primordial Bloodline completely drained, the corpse held little value for collection.
Rosen walked along the altar's edge, soon spotting a descending staircase on one side.
Following it down, he found himself standing on a dried-up river of blood.
Tracing the river upstream, he soon came across a second corpse.
Another Great True God of the Ancient God Sequence.
Outwardly, this body appeared intact, but from its orifices grew withered, unknown flowers. The corpse itself was nothing more than an empty husk.
Carefully bypassing it, Rosen continued forward.
Far ahead, he glimpsed a third corpse.
In this narrow space where the altar and blood river resided, only the altar emitted light.
The farther one moved from the altar, the dimmer the light became, swallowed by encroaching darkness.
The third corpse was completely shrouded in this darkness—only Rosen's Apocalyptic Demon Eye allowed him to barely make it out.
A colossal body stretching tens of thousands of miles high. In the past, Rosen might have mistaken it for the corpse of an Ancient God.
But based on his current understanding of Eternal Lifeforms, an Ancient God's corpse wouldn't be so small. The Ancient God had left no corpse behind—his remains were the old world itself, while his new body had become the new world, which spanned at least one light-year in diameter.
A body tens of thousands of miles tall might seem enormous, but compared to an Eternal Lifeform, it was insignificant.
Cautiously skirting around the corpse, Rosen pressed onward until he reached the world's edge.
The spacetime density in this realm, accessible only via the Ancient God's Staircase, was terrifyingly high. Even with his mastery of Spatial Law, he could only manage short-range teleportation. This was a world of higher order than even the Dragon Realm or the Abyss—otherwise, Spatial Law wouldn't be suppressed to such an extent.
Through Spatial Law, Rosen sensed that beyond this point lay the world's boundary.
It was also the source of the dried-up blood river. Whether this source led to the miracle world formed by the Ancient God's heart, however, remained unknown.
Following the desiccated river to its origin, Rosen arrived at a vast, parched sea of blood.
At its center lay a dull golden, withered membrane, thousands of miles in diameter.
His Apocalyptic Demon Eye failed to analyze it—clearly, this too was an entity beyond the level of a Great True God.
Yet as he gazed at the membrane, his Ancient God's heart stirred with an instinctive craving.
Since arriving in this world, none of Rosen's abilities had remained idle.
The Sacred Bell of the Ancient God continuously listened for any trace of sound.
The Hidden Tome of Brass ensured he would never forget what he saw.
The Relic of Wisdom guarded his sanity against all external corruption.
Meanwhile, the Historical Camera tirelessly attempted to capture glimpses of the past.
So far, it had failed to produce even a single image.
It seemed the events that had transpired here were so ancient that even his grasp of Historical Law couldn't reconstruct them.
Rosen also activated the Coin of Fate, flipping it to heads to seize absolute control over his fortune.
But most crucial were the Miracle Pocket and the Apocalyptic Treasure Map. The former sought treasures, while the latter generated maps. Though no map had appeared, the Equivalent Exchange-enhanced treasure-hunting ability allowed Rosen to determine with absolute certainty whether his discoveries held value.
The altar was a treasure—one that surpassed the level of a Great True God.
The corpses atop it, however, were worthless husks.
The second corpse along the dried blood river was also hollow, but the withered flowers sprouting from its orifices were at least Great True God-tier treasures. Yet sensing their danger, he refrained from collecting them.
As for the final corpse—despite its staggering size—it too was an empty shell.
Something precious lay within it, even more valuable than the withered flowers, but the risks were far greater.
Yet none of these three discoveries could compare to the dried membrane at the blood sea's center.
Rosen summoned the Golden Divine Bull, sending it flying into the sea's depths. As a miracle lifeform, the bull feared no death.
It soon reached the membrane but found itself unable to tear away even a fragment, no matter what it tried.
However, through the Merchant Sequence skills of the Golden Divine Bull, Rosen discerned the membrane's true nature: it was a dried blood vessel—most likely from the heart region.
This section of the vessel might have once connected to the miracle world formed by the Ancient God's heart.
But it had been severed, leaving the sea and river to dry up.
The Golden Divine Bull expanded its Domain of Wealth and stored away the section of dried blood vessel.
Rosen then used the treasure-seeking ability of his Miracle Pocket to thoroughly comb through the blood sea. After searching for over half a month, he found some dried, coagulated blood clots that still retained a trace of vitality—enough to extract a small amount of Ancient God's Blood.
During this search, Rosen also employed the Secret Compass to confirm there were no hidden spaces.
Only after ensuring nothing was missed did he turn his attention to the second corpse.
Once again, he sent the Golden Divine Bull to collect the withered flowers. Surprisingly, it completed the task without encountering any danger.
But just as the bull was returning, Rosen suddenly sensed approaching peril.
He immediately ordered the bull to halt and released a Sequence 5 Land Dragon to approach it.
The moment the dragon drew near, it withered into a desiccated husk.
From its orifices sprouted vibrant, bizarre flowers—their stamens lined with serrated edges, emitting powerful divine and life energy fluctuations.
"Pollen capable of parasitizing flesh-and-blood lifeforms..."
Rosen's Apocalyptic Demon Eye identified them accurately.
These living flowers, at most, only reached Sequence 5 in strength.
Evidently, the flowers' level matched that of their host.
As for the withered flowers from the Great True God's corpse—since his eye couldn't analyze them, they likely weren't naturally grown but artificially controlled, surpassing even a Great True God's level. That would explain how they had killed one.
The Golden Divine Bull meticulously cleansed itself inside and out, sealing every withered flower in multiple layers of containment.
Only after confirming no danger by testing with another Land Dragon did Rosen recall the bull.
According to the Apocalyptic Demon Eye, the flowers growing from the dragon's orifices were called Nightshade Parasitic Blooms.
Their pollen wasn't plant-based but consisted of microscopic insectoid lifeforms. Once they parasitized a flesh-and-blood creature, they rapidly multiplied, draining all nutrients before finally maturing into seeds that sprouted new Nightshade Parasitic Blooms.
If these flowers were incinerated, their ashes could disperse supernatural energy of equivalent rank.
Rosen remotely gathered some of the blooms and burned them with Solar Divine Flame, reducing them to ashes.
He then released another Sequence 5 Land Dragon. The moment the ashes touched it, the dragon's supernatural power was completely nullified—instantly regressing from a Sequence 5 entity to a mere beast.
This made him wonder: would the ashes from the withered Nightshade Parasitic Blooms he'd collected earlier have the same effect?
He immediately ordered the Golden Divine Bull to burn a portion of the dried flowers and tested the ashes on a flesh puppet produced by the Flesh Primordial Nest. Indeed, they could disperse supernatural energy—but only up to the level of a True God.
After eons of decay, the flowers' potency had drastically diminished.
All the ashes from the withered blooms harvested from the Great True God's corpse might, at best, strip a single True God of their power. If used sparingly, they could revert three to five True Gods to mere deities.
With great anticipation, Rosen approached the third corpse. Its sheer size alone indicated it was far more powerful than the second.
Again, the Golden Divine Bull advanced, tearing through the desiccated flesh at the head to enter the body.
No Nightshade Parasitic Blooms were found—they had already been harvested.
But the exploration wasn't fruitless. Deep inside the hollow shell, the bull discovered a bell identical to the Ancient God's Sacrificial Artifact.
However, this artifact radiated such terrifying malice that even the Golden Divine Bull dared not approach.
Rosen retrieved the Ancient God's Sacrificial Artifact from his heart and handed it to the Golden Divine Bull, intending to test whether the identical bell would trigger any special reaction. The moment the artifact emitted a faint chime, the two bells flashed and merged into one.
Simultaneously, the massive, decayed shell of the tens-of-thousands-miles-tall giant began to crumble.
Taking back the fused artifact from the bull, Rosen noticed it had changed.
The original artifact could activate his latent Ancient God Bloodline and temporarily boost his Spirit Attribute by 9 points when chimed within his heart.
The new version not only retained this ability but also temporarily increased his Life Origin by 9 points.
Moreover, it had gained an entirely new function: performing a ritual with it would grant access to the Miracle World—the Ancient God's Heartfield.
Rosen immediately realized this Heartfield might be the Ancient God's Heart he had been searching for.
That place could very well be the origin of the Ancient God Sequence itself.
As he further attuned to the artifact's changes, he also discovered a dormant Tenfold Annihilation concealed within it.
A single release of this power, he sensed, could instantly obliterate a Great True God.
It was now clear that the Ancient God's Sacrificial Artifact wasn't unique—the one he'd initially obtained was merely a fragment of the complete artifact.
Even with two fragments merged, it likely still wasn't whole.
Rosen was now certain: the tens-of-thousands-miles-tall entity of the Ancient God Sequence wasn't a Forbidden Divine Demon but something beyond that—a transitional being stronger than Forbidden Divine Demons yet falling short of a true Eternal Lifeform. Perhaps "Immortal" would be a fitting term.
The Tenfold Annihilation residual within the artifact had already weakened over endless eons.
Yet it could still annihilate a Great True God effortlessly. How terrifying must its full, unweakened power have been?
Rosen considered scouring the current world further before venturing to the Heartfield.
He dispatched hordes of Abyssal Shadowfiends—creatures that thrived in darkness—to conduct a thorough, thirty-mile-deep search across the entire realm. Meanwhile, he returned to the radiant, multicolored altar.
Attempts to refine the altar proved futile; it wouldn't budge. Clearly, this too was a treasure transcending the Great True God tier.
Though the altar couldn't be taken, the shadowfiends brought back other discoveries.
Higher-tier worlds typically bred superior supernatural resources within their soil.
This world surpassed even the Dragon Realm in rank, so theoretically, its earth should've been rich with such materials.
Yet the shadowfiends found nothing of value—all resources had been drained of energy, reduced to mundanity. Traces indicated the altar had absorbed every last drop of power.
Amidst this barrenness, the fiends retrieved a faintly gold-glowing orb from the surface.
On it, Rosen detected a wisp of Tenfold Annihilation's aura—identical in origin to the power within his artifact.
This revelation made Rosen realize that the enemy who had killed the previous owner of the Ancient God's Sacrificial Artifact—the master of the Nightshade Parasitic Blooms—likely hadn't achieved victory, but had instead perished together with that Ancient God Sequence entity. The Tenfold Annihilation within the artifact was merely residual power from that battle.
If this were true, the combatants' strength far exceeded what he had previously imagined.
Though Rosen couldn't analyze the orb's information, the fact that it had survived a direct hit from Tenfold Annihilation without being compressed into zero dimensions and completely annihilated spoke volumes about its hidden value.
After carefully sealing the golden orb, Rosen incinerated the limbless corpse at the altar's center into ashes.
Then, the flesh over his heart split open as his heart emerged from his chest cavity, growing larger and pulsating violently in midair.
With each heartbeat, the connected blood vessels sprayed Ancient God's Blood.
Finally, after nearly exhausting all the blood accumulated in his Ancient God's Heart and its chambers, he managed to cover the entire altar.
Rosen guided his heart back into his chest and then chimed the Ancient God's Sacrificial Artifact fused within it.
The altar's ritual activated immediately. Amidst the violent pounding of his heart, Rosen vanished from the altar.
When the teleportation ended, he found himself in a golden world.
The sunlight was golden, the clouds were golden, the wind was golden, the surrounding soil and rocks were golden, even the rivers were golden—everything in this world was golden except for the multicolored altar beneath his feet.
The altar beneath him wasn't the same one he had used for the ritual.
This one was only ten meters in diameter, giving him the impression it was a subsidiary of the larger altar.
Extending his divine perception over the small altar, he discovered that chiming the Ancient God's Sacrificial Artifact while standing on it would teleport him back to the main altar.
With an escape route secured, Rosen began exploring this miracle world—the Ancient God's Heartfield.
Contrary to expectations, this miracle world wasn't large, spanning only three thousand miles in radius.
The main world formed by the Ancient God's true body was measured in light-years. Strictly speaking, the Ancient God's actual size should be somewhat smaller.
After all, the new world was a "paper-thin" world one light-year in diameter but only a million miles thick. The Ancient God's form must have been greatly compressed. Yet even with such compression, a world formed from its heart shouldn't be this small—meaning the Heartfield's size was absolutely abnormal.
While Rosen couldn't refine the main altar, he found he could use the Ancient God's Sacrificial Artifact to refine the smaller one.
As he refined it, he discovered research records left behind by the Ancient God civilization about the Heartfield.
The Heartfield wasn't the entirety of the Ancient God's heart, but rather its most core and essential part. Beyond it lay an endless sea of blood, with the Heartfield floating atop this sea as a miracle world.
The Heartfield could cultivate all things—plant anything, and it would grow an identical copy.
There were records of an Ancient God Sequence member planting a True God, which ultimately yielded two identical True Gods.
From body to bloodline, from soul to divinity, even their memories were completely indistinguishable.
In the beginning, the Ancient God civilization went mad with planting, harvesting endless resources.
Had it not been for the limitation that each item could only be planted once without repetition,
the civilization could have created infinite copies through the Heartfield.
Even with only one duplication allowed, it still enabled the Ancient God civilization to double their existing resources.
Some fanatical Ancient God Sequence members even planted themselves, harvesting two identical versions.
The Heartfield created the Ancient God civilization, birthed the Ancient God Sequence, and forged their glorious era.
But at the very peak of their civilization, the Heartfield underwent an uncontrollable transformation...
(End of Chapter)