Within the Sea of Cosmic Origins, Rosen's faint eternal will quietly made contact with the Dimensional Divine.
He knew very well that the one most gravely offended this time wasn't the Chaotic Divine or the Dimensional Divine, but the Ancient God.
The greatest impact on the Dimensional Divine was merely that the Dimensional Forbidden Zone had to be relocated and hidden.
As for the Chaotic Divine, even though losing the Divine Hall meant losing the ability to command most of the eternal beings from the shadows, this loss wasn't enough to harm them directly. With the Dimensional Divine standing between them, it was difficult for the Chaotic Divine to find a chance to kill him.
The Ancient God, however, was in a completely different situation—besieged internally by newly ascended eternal beings and externally by the Divine Hall.
With two hundred eternal beings suddenly learning that above them stood four entities who wielded the universe's source seeds, no one was willing to be crushed under four massive mountains. They were bound to seize the opportunity to probe for weaknesses and at the very least try to understand the true gap in power between them.
And now, the other three beings were nowhere to be found, making the Ancient God—who had integrated into the world and couldn't withdraw—the only viable target to test.
In this situation, the Ancient God had no chance of continuing to slumber.
Rosen knew well that among all the divine beings, the one most pleased to see him fall out with the Ancient God was certainly the Dimensional Divine.
The Dimensional Divine clearly understood that once they joined forces to eliminate the Chaotic Divine, Rosen and the Ancient God would very likely ally to resist them.
Given this, now that Rosen had become enemies with the Ancient God, how could the Dimensional Divine not be delighted?
Although neither the Chaotic Divine nor the Dimensional Divine had died, the chance of the Ancient God outright turning on him was not particularly high.
But Rosen was not the Ancient God—he couldn't precisely discern the thoughts of that entity.
If, by any chance, the Ancient God's emotions outweighed logic, and they chose to eliminate him at all costs—even sacrificing an alliance—then with both the Chaotic Divine and Ancient God wanting him dead, the only way to increase his chances of survival was by relying on the Dimensional Divine.
That was why he came to secretly form an alliance with the Dimensional Divine—so that even if the Ancient God went berserk, he wouldn't have to fear it.
…..
At the same time in the Ancient God's world, a small portion of the immortal godfiends had yet to ascend to eternal life.
So, for now, no one had yet made a move to jointly test the Ancient God's strength.
But the Ancient God, having learned what the Fourth Mysterious Person had done, already wished to grind that being's bones to dust.
Reason, however, ultimately prevailed. The Ancient God was fully aware that it wasn't yet the time to tear things open with the Fourth Mysterious Person.
Still, that grudge was firmly remembered. Grinding their bones would be too merciful—the Ancient God wanted that person to be trapped between life and death, unable to live or die.
The Ancient God knew that once all the immortal godfiends ascended to eternal life, the eternal beings within the Divine Hall who knew the truth would undoubtedly seize the opportunity to test Him. And since He had fused with all things, unable to easily separate from the world, conflict with the other eternal beings would be unavoidable.
Even with His strength, breaking free of such a siege would come at a tremendous cost.
The Ancient God kept pondering how to reduce these losses, and after much thought, His gaze inevitably fell on the Fourth Mysterious Person.
If the Fourth Mysterious Person could betray their information to gain benefits, then He could also force the Chaotic Divine and others to help Him out of this crisis. And if they dared hide in the shadows to watch, then He would expose even more of their unspeakable secrets.
The Fourth Mysterious Person hadn't been around long—what little they knew could, at most, reveal the existence of the four beings.
In contrast, the Ancient God had interacted with the other two divine beings for countless years. His knowledge of them and their schemes far surpassed what the Fourth Mysterious Person could ever uncover. If He wanted to betray His allies, the damage would be exponentially greater.
Between the cosmos, the Ancient God used the power of the universe source seed to summon the others.
Soon, the eternal wills of Rosen and the other two divine beings arrived in the space between universes. Seeing the undisguised resentment in the Ancient God's expression, even the Chaotic Divine felt less displeased toward the Fourth Mysterious Person. After a moment's thought, He immediately understood why the Ancient God had called them together.
Clearly, He was following the same tactic—forcing them to help Him out of trouble.
"This mess is your doing. You're responsible for helping the Ancient God get out of it," the Chaotic Divine quickly said, pushing the problem onto Rosen.
"I don't have the power to stand against two hundred eternal beings," Rosen deflected without hesitation.
"If you want us to take action, fine—then share with us the source seeds you gained by selling our information," said the Dimensional Divine, who had only just recently formed a secret alliance with Rosen and now seized the opportunity to fleece him.
Of course, this didn't mean the Dimensional Divine intended to sever their covert alliance—it was just extortion while the chance presented itself. If the Ancient God and the Chaotic Divine truly stood united, the Dimensional Divine would still intervene to help.
"I refuse. I can only provide a list of eternal beings who still hold source seeds," Rosen said as he released a prepared list toward the three divine beings.
If they wanted to freeload off his intelligence and potentially become the Chaotic Divine's prey in the future, that would be the price they had to pay.
"Even if we're in the same boat, that doesn't give you the right to manipulate us," said the Chaotic Divine, dispersing the black mist that had cloaked His true form in the space between universes.
Seeing this, both the Dimensional Divine and the Ancient God fell silent, tacitly agreeing with the Chaotic Divine's statement and ceasing their support of the Fourth Mysterious Person.
Rosen understood that this was the Chaotic Divine's way of pressuring him to reveal his hidden identity.
And this was something both the Dimensional Divine and the Ancient God were highly interested in as well, so they unhesitatingly sided with the Chaotic Divine.
"Finding out who I am won't be that easy," Rosen rejected firmly. "As someone from a later generation, once you've met me, it's not difficult for you to investigate my background and learn everything about me. But my understanding of you is minimal. If you want to know my identity, then figure it out yourselves."
"You'll pay for your greed," the Chaotic Divine warned, then left in fury when the Fourth Mysterious Person remained completely unmoved.
With the Chaotic Divine gone, the Ancient God had no choice but to turn to the Dimensional Divine for help.
As the one responsible for this entire mess, Rosen couldn't escape blame either. He had no choice but to agree to join forces with the Dimensional Divine to help the Ancient God break free.
In the Ancient God's world, Rosen and the Dimensional Divine appeared almost simultaneously, traversing the void with ease.
By wielding the power of the universe source seeds, they could reach virtually any place in the universe unimpeded and instantaneously.
The power of their two universe source seeds seeped almost simultaneously into the supermassive eternal world.
Years passed, one after another, and finally, the last of the immortal godfiends succeeded in ascending to eternal life.
Before the nearly two hundred eternal beings could mount a coordinated effort inside and out, the universe source seed Rosen had planted within the world had already transformed into a split seed. Using the power of ten split seeds, he separated the partially merged supermassive eternal world from the Ancient God's world.
Then the Dimensional Divine acted with full force, freezing the time and space of the entire supermassive eternal world.
Finally, the Ancient God poured all His power into spatial transference, flinging the separated supermassive eternal world out of His own domain.
Immediately after, He lifted His state of embodiment-with-all-things without hesitation, preparing for His eternal sacred body to be reconstructed—so He could finally escape.
The supermassive eternal world was relocated to the far end of the universe. The newly ascended eternal beings needed time to return.
At this moment, the only ones who could stop the Ancient God from escaping were those in the Divine Hall. A full 92 eternal beings simultaneously surrounded the Ancient God's world and launched an all-out assault.
They hadn't planned to go all-in and risk mutual destruction—they just wanted to test how powerful the Ancient God truly was now that He wielded a universe source seed.
If they could seriously wound the Ancient God in the process, they would have eliminated a major threat.
But just as they struck, the Dimensional Divine unfolded His dimensional domain, instantly covering more than half of the eternal beings. Using His domain alone, He suppressed over fifty others, giving them no opportunity to threaten the Ancient God.
Facing the remaining forty eternal beings, Rosen also unfolded his domain, drawing them in.
At the same time, his root source seed transformed into a combination of time-space source seed, speed source seed, and other movement-enhancing seeds. And each one of these seeds had reached perfection—ten in total. Stacked together, they pushed the speed of Rosen's transformed form—the Eternal Mantis—to levels that even other eternal beings couldn't evade.
Before the forty eternal beings could even react, Rosen's dual blade-arms had already slashed each of them once.
The Eternal Mantis' blade-arms didn't possess the terrifying, all-cleaving destructive power of the Nightfall Guardian.
That kind of power came from a primordial sacred artifact crafted from the remains of another primordial lifeform.
The Eternal Mantis' blades carried the Curse of Eternity. This curse inflicted no harm on living beings, but it brought terrifying, lasting destruction to worlds—any world entangled by the Curse of Eternity would fall into endless collapse.
Rosen was simultaneously manipulating too many source seeds, and the massive consumption from unleashing forty Eternal Calamity Curses in a row left him feeling an unprecedented weakness, even after ascending to eternal life.
He twisted space-time and vanished without a trace, showing no intention of dragging the fight out.
Although it had only been a brief exchange and neither the essence of life nor divine origin had been harmed, the Eternal beings who had fought Rosen immediately realized their Eternal Worlds were collapsing. They had no choice but to abandon the siege on the Ancient God and return to their respective micro-universes within the Divine Temple.
If their Eternal Worlds were to completely collapse, their strength would take a substantial hit.
They were unwilling to sacrifice their own Eternal Worlds just to probe the Ancient God, nor would they help others capture the Ancient God at the cost of their own power.
The Dimensional Holy God had initially planned to apply pressure and take the opportunity to probe the Fourth Enigma's identity. But after witnessing him repel his opponents in an instant, the Holy God was so shocked that he abandoned all restraint and unleashed his full power.
Weaving the Laws of Dimension into a domain, the Dimensional Holy God created an endlessly looping multidimensional labyrinth.
All Eternal beings were scattered across different dimensions. At any given moment, the Dimensional Holy God would only be facing one Eternal being at a time. In mere moments, the Eternal Worlds of three Eternal beings were torn apart—they were utterly defeated and captured alive.
Only after this considerable exertion did the Dimensional Holy God relocate the remaining Eternal beings to the other side of the universe and make his retreat.
Fifty-two Eternal beings had faced a single Dimensional Holy God. In that short time, three had been captured alive.
The forty-nine survivors were keenly aware of everything that happened. Though they were trapped in different dimensions, their eternal wills were not restrained. The Dimensional Holy God wanted them to witness the crushing defeats of the three who had been captured—up close and personal.
If he had chosen any of them instead, their fate would have been the same.
Ninety-two Eternal beings of the Divine Temple—some had their Eternal Worlds severely damaged by Rosen, and most were suppressed and warned by the Dimensional Holy God. No longer did they carry the invincible arrogance that once marked them. Without exception, they retreated to the Divine Temple to lay low.
At the same time, the newly ascended Eternal beings suffered an equally brutal blow.
There were over a hundred of them. Compared to the ninety-two veteran Eternals, their strength was nearly halved. But they had an advantage: they jointly controlled a massive Eternal World, making it difficult for anyone to isolate and defeat them one by one.
However, their opponent was even more terrifying. The Chaos Holy God, despite claiming not to help the Ancient God, ended up going all out.
Unlike the Divine Temple's Eternal beings who were picked off individually, the Chaos Holy God overwhelmed all the new Eternals head-on. He killed five of them and withdrew unscathed, leaving the rest deeply shaken and their morale shattered.
In the Mysterious Study Room, Rosen sensed the steadily growing power of the Eternal Calamity within him and was quite satisfied.
They had helped the Ancient God fend off the threat of the Eternal beings—not for free, of course. They would not lift a finger without some benefit.
The strength of any force in the universe was not only affected by innate factors but also shaped by recognition and belief.
If countless beings across the universe acknowledged, appreciated, or feared painting, then the laws and source seeds related to painting would grow stronger. Conversely, if beings disregarded or rejected it, those powers would weaken.
And the recognition of a single Eternal being outweighed that of countless lesser lives.
Having dealt heavy damage to the Eternal Worlds of forty Eternal beings in an instant, Rosen had ensured they would harbor a deep and unforgettable fear of the Eternal Calamity Curse. That fear would cause the power of the Calamity to grow stronger over time.
The same applied to the Dimensional and Chaos Holy Gods. They had seized the opportunity to make the Eternals deeply fear their power.
Previously, the three of them were obscure in the universe. Even though the Eternal beings knew they held source seeds, they were only mildly wary. But this painful lesson would etch itself into their memory. Under the looming threat posed by these three, the Eternal beings would be forced to band together for survival.
As for why they had helped the Immortal Divine Demons ascend to Eternal life—Rosen had figured it out through the Dimensional Holy God.
Eternal beings were currently the universe's greatest parasites. The more of them there were, the greater the threat to the Heart of the Universe. When too many Eternal beings existed, the Heart weakened. If it grew too weak, some of the Eternals had to be culled to restore balance.
The collapse of the universe wasn't meant to happen just yet. If the Heart became too weak, it would cause a premature end to the universe.
At that point, a weakened Heart of the Universe would be unable to provide the foundation for beings like the Chaos Holy God to open up a new cosmos.
But if the Heart was too strong, they wouldn't be able to control it either.
Thus, the newly ascended Eternal beings were merely weights on the cosmic scale, used to balance the strength and weakness of the Heart.
By demonstrating their power now and forcing the Eternal beings to form alliances, they were merely improving their odds of survival.
Otherwise, once the seal deep within the Nightfall Society was broken and the ensuing calamity burst forth, it could pose a lethal threat to even Eternal beings. If too many of them died, the hard-won balance of the cosmic scale would be lost.
A few days later, all newly ascended Eternal beings joined the Divine Temple, more than doubling its Eternal member count.
All Eternal beings who joined merged their Eternal Worlds into the Divine Temple's micro-universe, attempting to create a world that surpassed eternity and reached the level of the Primordial—something capable of resisting the threats posed by the universe's four Great Holy Gods.
And at this very moment, the Chaos and Dimensional Holy Gods were already close to fully tearing open the seal of the Cosmic Graveyard.
(End of Chapter)