"Let me know when it's time to act," Rosen reminded as he saw the World Will off.
The World Will nodded and returned to the spirit realm. It still needed to guide the resentment of sentient beings into the spirit realm to deceive the true Ancient God and delay its awakening.
After seeing the World Will off, Rosen pondered for a long time before crossing the endless darkness and arriving at the Old World.
At this point, the Old World was barren and shrouded in darkness. Even the countless followers of the Dark Sun that had once filled the heavens and earth had all vanished.
All life had long ago been slaughtered to extinction by the Celestial Race.
Rosen opened the gate between realms and stepped onto the surface of the Dark Sun. With a thought, he released a sprouting mass of root tendrils.
These root tendrils transformed into Rootworm Mothers, which began to spread and grow toward the mysterious shell-like substance deep within the Dark Sun.
These Rootworm Mothers had absorbed the corpse of the Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf—Rosen didn't believe this shell could stop them.
Yet the impossible occurred: the tendrils still couldn't penetrate that shell.
Rosen immediately retracted all the Rootworm Mothers and reverted them to tendrils. For something that even tendrils formed from the corpse of an Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf couldn't affect, that shell deep within the Dark Sun had to be left behind by either an Ancient God, a peak-era World Tree, or the origin of the Dark Sun itself.
Whichever it was, he wouldn't return unless he became an Eternal lifeform himself.
This attempt had already pushed the limits of what he could do below the Eternal level.
Rosen turned and left the Old World. After returning to the New World, he quietly made his way to the world's reverse side.
Though he had returned the disassembled materials of the Star-Shooting Crossbow to the Immortal Star God, he had secretly kept a small amount of Blue Star's world origin. That was more than enough to guide him toward Blue Star. Now that he knew how important Blue Star was, he naturally wanted to plant more of his own backups there.
But something unexpected happened—Rosen couldn't find Blue Star.
More accurately, it wasn't that Blue Star couldn't be found—it simply wasn't in its original location anymore. When he followed the world origin's guidance to Blue Star's new place of existence, it was as though something blocked his sight—he couldn't see Blue Star at all.
Rosen had come full of anticipation, only to leave in disappointment.
After returning to the New World again, he began to think over the two times he had tried to find Blue Star. Was there some difference?
Why had he found it before, but couldn't now?
Rosen tried everything—he even went as far as stripping himself down to the exact same state and gear as before. He succeeded in locating Blue Star again, yet he still couldn't touch it despite it being right there in front of him.
Temporarily giving up on the search for Blue Star, Rosen reluctantly focused all his energy on the Rootworm Mothers.
Only when the corpse of the Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf completely took root, sprouted, blossomed, and bore fruit would he be able to gain the power necessary to ascend to Immortal God-Demon.
Only after becoming an Immortal God-Demon could he truly rival reincarnated Eternal beings like the Immortal Star God.
Having faced the Immortal Star God head-on and felt the difference between them, he now clearly understood how far behind he still was compared to Old Fisherman and the others.
That gap left him uneasy, so he had to grow even stronger.
Rosen enveloped his Eternal Godhood in the Soulflame of Heaven's Blaze, slowly burning and refining his divine essence.
Although the upper limit of his divine essence had fallen from 180 points to 179 points, the quantity had decreased while the quality had improved.
Rosen continued burning his physical body with the Soulflame of Heaven's Blaze, but the effect was no longer as effective.
If he had Heavenfire—the Sacred Flame of Heaven's Blaze—it would've been much better suited to refining his body.
But it was impossible for him to go to the Furnace of Heaven's Creation to cultivate now, so he had to look for a substitute for the Sacred Flame of Heaven's Blaze.
Ultimately, the Sacred Flame of Heaven's Blaze was born from the Soulflame of Heaven's Blaze, refined through the fusion of various extraordinary flame sources.
There were countless extraordinary flame sources in the Ancient God World, and Rosen still had the Eternal Kindling and the Eternal Holy Radiance.
However, ordinary extraordinary flames were probably unworthy to be fused with the Soulflame of Heaven's Blaze. After thinking it over, Rosen considered the divine flames of the gods.
Each god possessed their own divine flame—an extraordinary flame unique in all the heavens and earth.
If he could obtain enough divine flames, he could definitely rely on the Soulflame of Heaven's Blaze to transform it into a unique Heavenblaze Divine Flame of his own.
However, divine flames were second only to godhood in importance to a god. To seize a god's flame was essentially to cripple them.
Rosen even suspected that the gods currently in the Astral Realm might not be numerous enough.
After a moment of contemplation, Rosen came up with an idea.
The Eye of the Creator projected into the Astral Realm, gazing down upon the pantheon of gods.
There were tens of thousands of divine spirits, over a thousand true gods, and several Great True Gods.
All the gods were obediently staying in the Astral Realm.
Now that the gods of the World Government had fully withdrawn into the Astral Realm, the World Government had completely collapsed. Its remnants had merged entirely into the Astral Realm faction, and all the gods were simply waiting for the real Twilight of the Gods to begin—when the Tablet of Fate would activate.
Through Eternal Omniscience, Rosen was able to see into the sea of consciousness of all gods, including the Great True Gods.Then, with the Divine Pen of the Creator in hand, he painted image after image in the Creator's Sketchbook.
Immediately afterward, he quietly sent a Rootworm Mother into a god's divine flame through the painting.
Then, channeling the power of Eternal Birth through the Rootworm Mother, the god whose divine flame was parasitized could only watch helplessly as their divine flame birthed a small divine flame. The weakened divine flame then surged with some strange energy, recovered slightly, and soon birthed another small divine flame.
There was no way to resist the process—only trembling in silence, not even daring to ask for help.
Because it was obvious: any mysterious being capable of such a thing could easily take their life if they so wished.
Through the paintings in his hand, Rosen reached across the void and took the small divine flames from the gods' consciousness.
The Soulflame of Heaven's Blaze began absorbing the small divine flames, stopping only when no more benefit could be drawn from them.
Rosen then moved on to another god to produce more small divine flames. Almost none of the gods spoke out afterward—not only had they lost nothing, their divine flames had actually benefited from the refinement. More importantly, their flames had been tampered with so casually—what if speaking up got them killed?
Of course, there were a few who were stubborn and unafraid of death. Each time, Rosen used Prophetic Paintings to foresee and eliminate them in advance.
Once all the divine flames had been fused, Rosen set his sights on the True Gods.
It was a bit more troublesome, but at this point, even the True Gods were unable to resist him.
Once the harvesting of True Gods was complete, the Great True Gods would be much harder to deal with.
The Great True Gods of the Astral Realm were all ancient and powerful—most had already reached the end of their tier, and two of them even had the qualifications to ascend to Immortal God-Demon, lacking only the necessary resources.
Killing these Great True Gods wouldn't be hard for Rosen—but getting them to obediently produce small divine flames? Impossible.
In the depths of the Sun of the Astral Realm, Rosen opened a gate between realms and, with a thought, shrouded the surroundings in Soulflame of Heaven's Blaze.
All surrounding solar divine flames were isolated. Deep within the endless solar fire, a golden, radiant crystal floated.
It was only palm-sized—but it was a complete Eternal World in itself.
Immortal Dawn—the reincarnation of Eternal Dawn.
Eternal Dawn naturally possessed the Seed of Dawn and controlled the most powerful light energy in the universe.
Like the Holy God of Heaven's Blaze, it was an elemental lifeform without a physical body.
However, while the Holy Gods of Heaven's Blaze and Frost were serpent-shaped elemental lifeforms, the Holy God of Dawn was a humanoid elemental lifeform.
Within the world of Dawn, a glimmer of light appeared, and the boundless solar fire of the sun instantly dimmed.
All the radiance was drawn behind the emerging Immortal Dawn, merging into her flowing golden hair.
The solar divine flame condensed into a throne of fire. Once Immortal Dawn sat upon it, her brilliant golden eyes studied Rosen intently. It was her first time meeting this ally recognized by the World Will. The fact that he had inherited the relics of that mad serpent from Heaven's Blaze proved he was no ordinary being.
"You're here for the divine flames of the forbidden god-demons," Immortal Dawn said bluntly.
"That's right," Rosen replied, also studying Immortal Dawn, trying to gauge her strength.
"You intend to refine your life essence..." Immortal Dawn continued."The Soulflame of Heaven's Blaze evolving by absorbing divine flames can refine your life essence. But if you don't have enough life essence to replenish what's lost in the process, the discarded essence will cause more harm than good.
You're not the type to act carelessly, so you must already have the corpse of an eternal lifeform.
The closest and most likely target you could have succeeded with—I can only think of the Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf.
I know that cunning lone wolf well. He surely wants you to help him retrieve the heart stolen by the Mechanical Holy God.
He probably also intends for you to use the Seed of Birth to help nurture and regenerate his heart."
"..."
Rosen gave Immortal Dawn a surprised look.
He hadn't expected Immortal Dawn to understand him even better than the World Will. Not only did she easily see through his intentions, she had even deduced the secret transaction he and the Soul-Binding Wolf had made.
"So it seems my guess was right..." Immortal Dawn smiled gently."The Eternal Binding Horn must've fallen into your hands. If you're willing to trade me that Eternal organ, I can offer you a Dawn Fireseed of Eternal grade, and even help accelerate your ascension to Immortal God-Demon."
"I can ascend to Immortal God-Demon without any of that," Rosen rejected without hesitation.
"A shame. For now, the gods of the Astral Realm cannot die. As long as you leave them one life, do as you please with the rest."
Immortal Dawn stood and faded into the sunlight, disappointed.
Rosen had no idea what Immortal Dawn was thinking—why had she let him go so easily, without pressing the deal?
If she truly wanted a transaction, some negotiation or bargaining should have followed.
Upon further thought, it wasn't surprising—many eternal beings had died in the world of the Old Gods, but very few had managed to preserve their Eternal Will, lie dormant, reincarnate in the Old God World, and then gradually grow and return to life.
To have already died once and still dare to covet the Plunder Seed of the Old Gods—these Immortal God-Demons were all extremely troublesome.
With Immortal Dawn's permission, Rosen passed through the Realm Gate and arrived at the Hall of the Gods.
The Main God Network forcefully hacked into the Gods' Network, and soon, eight Great True Gods, including the Crystal Sovereign and the Card Sovereign, appeared in the Hall of the Gods.
"I need to borrow your divine flames briefly," Rosen said in an unquestionable tone.
The Crystal Sovereign was slightly angered. He knew about Rosen—he knew Rosen was powerful, far more powerful than himself, and even qualified to be taken seriously by the Immortal God-Demons behind the major factions.But Rosen was still just a Great True God—why should he act high and mighty in front of him?
Yet before the Crystal Sovereign could even voice a doubt, the Creator's Domain had already enveloped them.
The terrifying Heaven-Frost Chill made even the silicon-based Crystal Sovereign feel a cold that pierced to the very core of his divinity.
The divine flame within his sea of consciousness dimmed significantly under the pressure of the chill.
He still had some ability to resist—but it was already pointless.
Because the Crystal Sovereign had realized the vast gap between himself and Rosen. If that terrifying cold had targeted him alone rather than all eight of them, it could've instantly stripped away most of his ability to resist.
The Crystal Sovereign resigned himself and released his Crystal Divine Flame, allowing a white line in the void to fall into the flame.
Rosen quickly harvested one small divine flame after another—yet the Soulflame of Heaven's Blaze was still not full.
With no other choice, he had to approach the Great True Gods of the World Government.
The World Government had absorbed some Great True Gods from the old world. In recent years, the three Immortal God-Demons behind the World Government had gradually placed more Great True Gods within the organization—now totaling nineteen.
For Rosen, summoning them all to the Hall of the Gods and coercing them into submission through sheer strength wasn't difficult.
However, these gods did have masters—he couldn't just go around bullying them under their masters' watchful eyes.
And besides, Rosen wanted to use this opportunity to make contact with other Immortal God-Demons besides the Old Fisherman.
Near the sun of the Astral Realm, the Eternal Continent floated alongside many divine kingdoms in the sky.
Above those divine kingdoms floated three colossal entities:
The first was an Immortal World, backed by an Immortal God-Demon reincarnated into the Old God Civilization.
The second was an Immortal Transcendent Star, home to an Immortal God-Demon reborn into the Cosmic Civilization.
The third was a massive Sphere of Light, concealing an Immortal God-Demon reincarnated in the Main God Civilization.
These were Immortal God-Demons from three different eras.Had the World Will not informed him, Rosen would never have realized that these three Immortal God-Demons were, in essence, the same being—each a reincarnation of the Particle Holy God, an eternal lifeform.
The Particle Holy God held the Particle Seed—one of the top-tier eternal beings in the universe.
Compared to the Old Fisherman and Immortal Dawn, the Particle Holy God had been even more powerful at his peak.
Now, though reincarnated as three separate Immortal God-Demons, each was individually weaker than the Old Fisherman or Immortal Dawn—but together, they might be stronger than even the World Will.This could be inferred from how detailed the World Will's intelligence on them was—it clearly held some fear of the Particle Holy God.
The moment Rosen set foot on the Eternal Continent, the Immortal Main God had already sensed him.
A terrifying stream of particle information descended from the void, breaking through all barriers and directly invading the Main God Network.
Rosen now understood that the Immortal Main God was the actual creator of the Main God Civilization. In fact, both the Cosmic and Old God Civilizations were his doing—it's just that he always remained hidden, manipulating others to become Great True Gods and serve as his shields.
As the hidden founder of the Main God Civilization, it was only natural for him to be able to forcibly invade the Main God Network.
In the Virtual Source Realm, Rosen saw the Immortal Main God, a being made entirely of endless streams of data.
"I know why you've come. I'll inform them to cooperate with you,"the Immortal Main God said in a mechanical, emotionless voice."You rejected Immortal Dawn's offer. I'd also like to make a deal. After you become an Immortal God-Demon, I want to borrow your Compatible Seed for a time. I'll offer a price that you'll find satisfactory."
"Agreed."
After weighing his options, Rosen accepted the deal.
Soon, the 19 Great True Gods of the World Government arrived one after another in the Virtual Source Realm via the Main God Network. Each one obediently offered up their divine flame to birth small divine flames.
After the Soulflame of Heaven's Blaze absorbed this final batch of small divine flames, it finally met the conditions to evolve into the Godflame of Heaven's Blaze.
(End of Chapter)