In the Mysterious Study Room, Rosen handed the universe seed to his Primeval Avatar, then transformed that avatar into the Sacred God of Blazing Heavens.
Holding a universe seed would draw the holder into the "Inter-Universal Realm." Unless the Inter-Universal Realm could detect the connection between the Blazing Heavens Sacred God and his true body, the avatar in this new form would completely qualify to become a new member of that realm.
However, after leaving the Mysterious Study Room, the Sacred God of Blazing Heavens felt no attraction from the Inter-Universal Realm.
Not only that, but the universe seed in his possession couldn't sense the presence of any other universe seeds.
Only then did Rosen realize that although the Root Seed could transform into any type of seed, the seeds it created, while powerful, lacked something essential at their core. This deficiency meant that the transformed universe seeds could not perfectly pass as the real thing.
It seemed that to join the Inter-Universal Realm under a new identity, he would need a genuine universe seed directly separated from the Heart of the Universe.
Rosen had previously obtained an ascended version of the Root Seed and had thus stopped valuing other innate seeds. After all, acquired seeds could be consumed and then converted into innate seeds at will. But now it seemed that innate seeds still held critical value—and perhaps still hid secrets he had yet to uncover.
Since adopting a new identity would be difficult for the time being, it would be best to lie low and wait for the right moment.
But before hiding away, he intended to strike a deal with the Ancient God.
Although the Ancient God had dissolved His embodiment into all things, that didn't mean the Ancient God's world had vanished completely.
Only the Astral Realm and the surface world were gone; the Spirit Realm still remained, enveloping the Ancient God's sea of consciousness and sheltering His divine origin.
Within one of the Spirit Realms, an Eternal Avatar of Rosen's that had been lying dormant was suddenly activated.
Bursting out from the Spirit Realm, it self-immolated, drawing attention while leaving behind a message.
The Ancient God sensed something and projected His Eternal Will into the Spirit Realm.
But even with control over time and reincarnation, He couldn't revive the self-immolated Eternal Avatar. The self-destruction was merely a façade—Rosen had actually used his Myriad Transformation Divine Art to convert the avatar into the ambient spirituality of the Spirit Realm, allowing it to merge directly with it and become part of the Realm itself.
To rewind time and restore that avatar, the Ancient God would need to reverse time across the entire Spirit Realm.
"He actually managed to plant an avatar in the Spirit Realm..." the Ancient God murmured, somewhat astonished. Following the coordinates left in the message, He tore open space and sent a clone.
Rosen's avatar was already waiting. The moment the Ancient God's clone appeared, Rosen took out a universe seed.
It was a transformed universe seed created from his Root Seed. Although it wasn't a genuine seed split off from the Heart of the Universe, it looked and functioned identically—aside from being unrecognized by the Inter-Universal Realm.
The Ancient God couldn't tell it was a fake. Even if He could, the imitation was so close to the real thing that He might still accept it.
"I want to trade this universe seed for your Miracle Seed," Rosen stated plainly.
He laid his intentions bare, knowing any lie would be easily exposed.
After all, this trade was no trick—it was open and aboveboard. He was the one getting the short end of the deal. The Ancient God stood to gain and had no reason to refuse.
And this way, Rosen could also sneak a transformed Root Seed into the Ancient God's hands. On the surface, it looked like the Ancient God held power over the universe seed—but Rosen could, at any moment, use the Root Seed's core to transform the fake seed into any other type.
If the Ancient God used the seed in battle, he would absolutely suffer at a critical moment.
If not for the risk of arousing suspicion, Rosen would have gladly gifted a few more fake seeds to the Ancient God.
The Ancient God examined the seed in Rosen's hand and was startled to sense that it felt like a genuine universe seed.
He recalled the Lunar Sacred God had once claimed that Rosen had seized one-tenth of her Eternal Will.
But this felt like far more than one-tenth—otherwise, Rosen couldn't have used the Heart of the Universe to acquire a second Miracle Seed.
Yet, from what the Ancient God knew, those other Miracle Seeds had fallen into Rosen's hands.
Why would the Celestial Sacred God be so fixated on a Miracle Seed? Though Miracle Seeds were top-tier innate seeds, they were still a tier below universe seeds. Why trade down like this and offer such a generous gift?
"What's your relationship with Rosen?" the Ancient God probed.
"He tried to kill me and got himself killed instead."
As Rosen spoke, he took out three Root Seeds, ten Time Seeds, and one Space Seed.
The Ancient God stared in surprise. Back when Rosen had set a trap to ambush the Celestial Sacred God, most had assumed the Sacred God had vanished at Rosen's hands. But now it seemed that Rosen may have been the one killed—perhaps the "Rosen" that appeared afterward was the Sacred God in disguise.
"Why don't you trade those other seeds for the Miracle Seed instead?" the Ancient God asked, voicing his final doubt. "If you want a Miracle Seed, why not just convert the universe seed into one? Or is there something wrong with your universe seed? If you can't resolve my doubts, this deal is off the table."
"You got me. There's indeed something off with this universe seed."
Rosen hesitated a moment before admitting, "I noticed that this universe seed feels different from the one I obtained last time. While it can still be converted into various seeds, its power is significantly weaker than the universe seed I had before.
"I suspect it's because the amount of Eternal Will I fused into the Heart of the Universe this time was too low.
So strictly speaking, this flawed cosmic origin seed is not much more precious than a miracle origin seed. In fact, this cosmic origin seed might even have hidden risks. I know too little about the Heart of the Universe to take that risk. That's the full explanation I can give—whether to trade or not is up to you."
The ancient god fell into deep thought. Although he had never heard of a cosmic origin seed having defects, he could easily check to see if it was true or false. If it really was a cosmic origin seed, even if flawed or risky, it would still be worth obtaining for study.
Of course, the most important point was that the miracle origin seed he possessed was incomplete and had not shown great value in his hands. So this trade wouldn't cause him any real loss. Thinking this, the ancient god summoned his true form to deliver the miracle origin seed.
Rosen and the ancient god both inspected the items many times before finally completing the trade through their avatars.
In the Mysterious Study Room, Rosen summoned the Star Sea Ladybug and fed it the remaining miracle origin seeds.
With the assistance of compatibility, assimilation, and fusion from the root origin seed's transformations, the Star Sea Ladybug quickly digested all the miracle origin seeds.
[Miracle Star Sea: Miracle Sequence]
[Rank: Primordial Relic]
[Miracle Attributes: capable of stripping away, absorbing, suppressing, decomposing, assimilating, symbiosis, fusion, transformation, strengthening, and sublimation of all things]
[Miracle Trait: Immortal Miracle]
[Origin Seed: Root Origin Seed]
Rosen knew the miracle origin seed was special, but he hadn't expected that a complete miracle origin seed could elevate the Miracle Star Sea to the rank of a Primordial Relic.
Now its miracle attributes were more comprehensive, encompassing almost everything and being omnipotent.
But the greatest change was the Immortal Miracle trait formed upon the perfection of the miracle origin seed. The Miracle Star Sea that mastered this miracle would possess an immortal special power equivalent to the immortal will, and could also bestow this miracle trait upon its owner.
As long as Rosen fused with this Immortal Miracle trait, his eternal will could immediately be elevated to an immortal will.
From then on, to ascend to a primordial life, all he needed was to accumulate immortal will.
However, doing so had a drawback: once he mastered the Immortal Miracle, he would no longer be able to control the Heart of the Universe. This was because the complete miracle origin seed contained, besides the Heart of the Universe left by the cosmic will, another legacy.
The universe was the corpse of the cosmic will, and the Heart of the Universe was the core source of the entire cosmos.
The Heart of the Universe represented order and stability, and was the orthodox inheritance and legacy of the cosmic will.
The miracle origin seed was different. Strictly speaking, it was also a corpse of the cosmic will.
But while the universe was a corpse transformed from life, the miracle origin seed was the corpse left by the spiritual will of the cosmic will. It contained the cosmic will's last hope and expectation, possessing the power to rewrite order and turn all impossibilities into possibilities.
The miracle origin seed was far less powerful than the Heart of the Universe but naturally countered it.
This was the cosmic will's last relic and also its final mercy toward primordial life.
If primordial life transcended the universe and left a way out—did not annihilate it completely, giving the cosmic will endless time to use the Heart of the Universe to be reborn—then the miracle origin seed would never have been born, and the cosmic will would have relinquished its resentment toward primordial life.
This was a mother's last chance for her child, but obviously primordial life showed no sign of repentance.
So the miracle origin seed was born. By using its restraint on the Heart of the Universe, it could maximally suppress competitors and seize the Heart of the Universe first, then the miracle origin seed, thereby becoming the new cosmic will and forging a new universe.
Whoever ultimately inherited all this would become a thorn in the side, a flesh wound to primordial life.
The hostility between the two sides was inevitable. If the inheritor died, everything ended; if primordial life died, it was equivalent to revenge for the cosmic will.
Only now did Rosen understand that breaking through the postnatal limits with the root origin seed was not the key to gaining recognition from the Heart of the Universe. His possession of the miracle origin seed was also one of the hidden reasons the Heart of the Universe recognized him.
Therefore, for now, he could not fuse the Immortal Miracle trait—he could only use the various fundamental attributes of the miracle origin seed.
Stripping, absorbing, suppressing, decomposing, assimilating, symbiosis, fusion, transformation, strengthening, and sublimation.
There were ten fundamental attributes in total, each able to reach the primordial level in priority.
Using these fundamental attributes, the Miracle Star Sea could, through absorption and fusion, gradually grow into a new embryonic universe in the future. Of course, since Rosen already possessed the Heart of the Universe, the existing cosmic seed, there was no need to cultivate the Miracle Star Sea into a new universe.
Deep within the Miracle Star Sea, Rosen summoned the Omniscient Bookworm with a thought.
This was a bookworm transformed from the omniscient origin seed through the myriad root transformations. Over the years of reading the Book of Fate and Creation, it had grown considerably.
But it was still far from enough. Rosen planned to carefully cultivate the Omniscient Bookworm.
He continued to take out the prepared Secret Brass Book and Creator's Album, as well as fragments of the Book of Fate and Creation, then transformed wisdom origin seeds, fate origin seeds, time origin seeds, and causality origin seeds, and so on, gradually converting them into new bookworms.
Finally, he enveloped all the bookworms under the assimilation and fusion traits of the Miracle Star Sea.
As time passed day by day, the several bookworms fused and assimilated until only one remained.
The bookworm transformed from a mere insect into a physical entity, and all the materials fused together to form a new miracle treasure.
[Book of Fate Bronze: Miracle Sequence]
[Rank: Primordial]
[Miracle Attribute: The Book of Fate Bronze can control fate and secretly record the fate trajectories of almost all things in the universe]
[Miracle Trait: Root Key]
The bookworm that survived the final fusion was actually the Secret Brass Book, the one with the weakest foundation, becoming the last winner.
Rosen opened the Book of Fate Bronze, and immediately the fates of all living beings in the universe appeared.
In the universe, some source seeds could interfere with fate, and even eternal beings themselves could disrupt the course of destiny. Therefore, in the past, the Book of Fate and Fortune could only allow eternal beings to view their own fate; it was simply impossible to see the fates of others like them.
But now, Rosen discovered that aside from the Chaos Holy God, the Dimensional Holy God, the Lunar Holy God, and the Ancient God, the fates of all other eternal beings could no longer escape the records of the Bronze Book of Fate. He could even manipulate the fates of eternal beings through it.
Of course, manipulating fate came at a price—targeting an eternal being required an immense amount of primal miracle power.
If he wanted to manipulate the fates of two eternal beings and have them kill each other on the spot, the cost in miracle power would probably take the Miracle Star Sea tens of thousands of years to accumulate. So that level of fate manipulation was simply unaffordable.
However, if he guided fate indirectly instead of exerting direct control, the miracle power consumed would be much less.
Although he still couldn't control the fates of eternal beings at will, when used wisely, it was enough to determine their life or death.
Currently, Rosen possessed four primal artifacts: the Miracle Star Sea, the Bronze Book of Fate, the Glorious Moonlit Scene, and the Bell of Mercy.
With these four primal artifacts combined, he now had enough confidence to hunt down sinful beings.
Of course, that didn't mean he was stronger than the Chaos Holy God—only that two of the primal artifacts he wielded specifically countered sinful beings.
So, while the Chaos Holy God couldn't kill a sinful being with an immortal will, Rosen already could.
His first target was the Old Fisherman. After all, this was a sinful being that had been transformed from his eternal clone. If the Old Fisherman were left alive, he would sooner or later become a hidden threat, so Rosen planned to eliminate him first.
In the fifth stellar ring of the universe, while the Holy Hall had been besieging the Lunar Holy God for these past years, the fourth stellar ring was already on the verge of collapse.
Under the devastation of nearly a hundred sinful beings, the fourth stellar ring had been completely destroyed.
The moment Rosen stepped out of the space-time gateway, he expanded his law domain. Since his domain was fused with the Miracle Star Sea, the Old Fisherman—who was fishing in the void—was instantly pulled into the Miracle Star Sea. In the void, the joyful symphony of nature began to echo through heaven and earth.
The Immortal Monument assimilated by the Miracle Star Sea was just a transcendent item at the eternal level.
It could suppress the Old Fisherman, but not easily.
Rosen guided the Miracle Star Sea's enhancement property. If sublimation permanently raised the quality of all things, enhancement only temporarily boosted their level. However, compared to sublimation of the same grade, enhancement consumed far less power.
He couldn't sublimate the Immortal Monument into a primal artifact, but temporarily enhancing it to that level was not difficult.
The Old Fisherman still tried to use the Hook of Causality to fish out Rosen's heart, but under the terrifying time suspension of the Miracle Star Sea—although the Old Fisherman's immortal will quickly broke free—there was still enough of a delay for the Immortal Monument to slam down and pin him.
As the Old Fisherman was suppressed beneath the monument, the waters of the Miracle Star Sea began seeping into him from every direction.
Soon after, the joyful symphony of nature began to merge into the Old Fisherman's body. As the music purified his negative mental state, the Miracle Star Sea began stripping those negative elements from his immortal will. Gradually, the Old Fisherman regained clarity and consciousness.
Just as the Lunar Holy God had recovered his memories and become the current Lunar Holy God with control of a cosmic source seed…
The Old Fisherman, now restored, once again became an eternal clone under Rosen's control.
Rosen then directed the Old Fisherman to pass through the space-time gateway and head toward the Sea of Cosmic Origin. Like the Lunar Holy God, he merged his immortal will into the Heart of the Universe, received a new cosmic source seed, and earned recognition from the cosmic laws.
Within the Heart of the Universe, the Old Fisherman made no effort to conceal himself and directly dispersed the surrounding black mist.
The startled Chaos Holy God and others rushed to the Heart of the Universe, and their first reaction was to look at the Holy God of Heaven and Earth.
Only he possessed the Joyful Symphony of Nature and had the ability to restore the Old Fisherman's true self.
If the Holy God of Heaven and Earth continued like this, more and more beings in the Heart of the Universe would gain cosmic source seeds. They had long been wary of him stirring up trouble, but they hadn't expected it would take him over a decade to purify the Lunar Holy God, while the Old Fisherman had been cleansed swiftly and silently.
The Chaos Holy God and the Dimensional Holy God exchanged glances, confirming their shared thoughts.
They could not allow the Holy God of Heaven and Earth to continue unchallenged—they had to do whatever it took to hunt him down and kill him.
The Chaos Holy God didn't want more newcomers threatening his position. The Dimensional Holy God also felt unable to suppress the Holy God of Heaven and Earth. Since they already had the Old Fisherman as a new ally, the Holy God of Heaven and Earth had become redundant.
"I propose we use the Heart of the Universe to erase the Holy God of Heaven and Earth..." the Chaos Holy God suddenly declared.
"I second it," said the Dimensional Holy God and the Ancient God simultaneously.
"I don't know what that means exactly, but I oppose it. I don't want to be the next target..." the Old Fisherman shook his head and vetoed the proposal.
The three immediately looked to the Lunar Holy God, confident that he would support them.
"I veto it too," the Lunar Holy God said unexpectedly. "The Heart of the Universe is the highest-level primal artifact forged jointly by the Original Lives. It has the power to forcibly control part of the universe's authority. That's why it can summon the holders of cosmic source seeds and even erase them.
But this kind of action isn't without cost. First, the approvals must outnumber the vetoes. Second, the approvers must pay a great price.
I'm not willing to bear that cost, so I also veto it."
"I know you want to kill me. So what cost made you veto too?" Rosen asked, still in the identity of the Holy God of Heaven and Earth.
"Because I don't want someone to propose my erasure someday," the Lunar Holy God replied with a cold laugh.
Rosen was sure the Lunar Holy God wasn't telling the whole truth. If he wanted to uncover more secrets of the Heart of the Universe, it seemed he would have to consider another deal with the Ancient God. Moreover, he needed to send more people like the Old Fisherman into the Heart of the Universe—he had to make sure the power of erasure stayed under his control.
(End of chapter)