In the Fourteenth Ring of the Universe, the eternal forbidden zones were rapidly dwindling in number.
In the past, these forbidden zones had been preserved in order to use their eternal worlds to weaken the Sea of Universal Origin and suppress the Heart of the Universe.
But now, with nearly a hundred Evil Lives tearing down the universe from the outermost regions inward, these forbidden zones were no longer necessary.
Allowing them to persist would only further weaken the Heart of the Universe.
Meanwhile, all major factions were now focused on cultivating small universes.
These eternal worlds, which had absorbed the universe's origin for tens of billions of years, were undoubtedly the best materials for growing small universes.
Despite the fact that open hostilities had already broken out between factions—especially the Lunar God, who now led the Pantheon with a singular intent to kill Rosen—Rosen still dispatched his Primordial Incarnation, accompanied by the Sea of Miracles, to capture eternal worlds, and the Pantheon turned a blind eye to it.
For all their anger, rage alone wasn't enough to kill Rosen.
If they dared to disrupt Rosen's capture of eternal worlds, he would no doubt retaliate by sabotaging their own efforts to absorb them.
That would only lead to mutual destruction, handing the advantage to other players.
There were only a few hundred eternal forbidden zones to begin with. Missing this developmental window would mean forfeiting their chance in the competition for the next universe.
The Ancient God transformed into all things and enveloped the Black Iron Forbidden Zone with the World of the Ancient God, while simultaneously refining the corpse of the Black Iron God.
The void split open, and the eternal will projection of the Old Fisherman followed his hook into the Spirit Realm.
The Ancient God sensed this immediately and descended upon the projection. He wasn't surprised by the Old Fisherman's arrival.
When interests clash, the weak must band together to resist the strong—that is the only path to survival.
Of course, the Old Fisherman had more than one option, so it was necessary to offer him some benefit to win him over.
The Ancient God wasn't willing to part with precious resources or treasures, but offering information that didn't compromise his own interests was the most effective method of drawing someone in.
After the two sides formed an alliance on mutual terms, the Old Fisherman immediately asked what secrets the realm "Between Universes" was hiding. The fact that it could directly erase a being who possessed a Universal Source Seed made it impossible for him to rest until he knew the truth.
The Ancient God held nothing back—he believed he understood the Old Fisherman well enough.
It turned out that when the Primordial Lives transcended, they had the power to completely destroy the universe and drain its final remaining resources.
However, no one knew whether they could find a new universe within the endless chaos outside the cosmos.
If they failed to find another universe—a world even greater beyond the heavens—the Primordial Lives might be forced to return to this universe. If it had been destroyed by then, those who had transcended would be left homeless.
Thus, the Primordial Lives decided to use the ruins of the original universe as a foundation and, with the help of the Heart of the Universe, created the current starry cosmos.
As a result, the universe had slowly been recovering over the years, improving in condition bit by bit.
However, since the will of the universe had been killed by the Primordial Lives, the Heart of the Universe developed an instinctive rejection of them. Even an undying will could provoke a direct reaction from the Heart, let alone a living Primordial Life. While they could destroy the universe, they couldn't enslave the Heart of the Universe.
Therefore, the Primordial Lives made a decision: force the old universe to perish and forge a new one.
A newly born Heart of the Universe would naturally not reject them.
The reason the Chaos God and the Dimension God were able to reincarnate and be reborn was because they had been selected by the Primordial Lives as key candidates to assist in the birth of the new universe. The Chaos God could help the universe better absorb energy from the chaotic void to restore itself.
As for the Dimension God, they could ensure the universe expanded smoothly without spiraling out of control.
Of course, the Primordial Lives didn't fully trust them either. Thus, they left behind the realm "Between Universes," which could help these chosen ones control the Heart of the Universe—and eventually, after the new universe was born, replace the Heart and become its new core, while also forging a supreme treasure beyond the Primordial level.
The ability of the realm "Between Universes" to erase holders of Universal Source Seeds was the trump card left by the Primordial Lives.
As long as two of them were united in purpose, they could propose to erase any entity who threatened their control of the Universal Source Seeds.
Only they had the authority to initiate such an erasure, and the rule would never apply to themselves.
The cost of executing the erasure would be the permanent depletion of the undying will that each supporter had infused into the Heart of the Universe.
Had the Chaos God and the Dimension God truly cooperated from the beginning, there would have been no room for the rise of the Ancient God—let alone Rosen or the Lunar God who came after him.
But alas, self-interest corrupted hearts, and neither of them was willing to just be a servant of the Primordial Lives.
Rosen knew the limitations of the erasure ability in the realm Between Universes, and as a result, he wasn't worried about it in the slightest. Because the Universal Source Seed he possessed had already become part of the Root Source Seed, just like the other source seeds, the Universal Source Seed he currently controlled was transformed from the Root Source Seed. Of course, he could transform many Universal Source Seeds, but only one could be recognized by the realm Between Universes.
He only needed to undo the transformation of the Universal Source Seed, and then the realm Between Universes would be unable to lock onto him through the Universal Source Seed.
Naturally, any erasure based on the Universal Source Seed would no longer affect him.
...
The Lunar God and the Old Fisherman both regained control of their Universal Source Seeds one after another, which completely proved the existence of the Natural Joy Symphony.
The Dimension God was forced to split attention to monitor all the Evil Lives, preventing the Heaven and Earth Deities from rescuing them.
However, defense is always harder than offense; there is no perfect defense against a thief who steals every day.
No matter how tightly the Dimension God guarded, there would inevitably be times when something slipped through.
Every day, Rosen only did one thing—opening a spacetime crossing gate to launch surprise attacks on the Evil Lives.
Then, if a strike missed, he would immediately retreat, never giving the Dimension God a chance to catch him. Ever since the Dimension God agreed to erase him, all remaining courtesy between them had vanished. Whenever they got the chance, they would try to kill each other without hesitation.
Days passed, years passed, and the Fifth and Sixth Rings collapsed one after another.
The speed of the universe's collapse slowed gradually with the passage of time.
For one layer of the universe to collapse, the origin dark sea of that star ring's world source had to be completely drained.
The closer to the inner layers of the universe, the more abundant the world source of the origin dark sea.
Naturally, the Evil Lives' pace of demolition slowed down accordingly, giving Rosen more time to play cat and mouse with the Dimension God. Although no Evil Life had been eliminated in all those years, he captured countless super galaxy clusters and world sources.
The universe's collapse and destruction annihilated countless civilizations within numerous super galaxy clusters.
The universe's death is like a whale fall that gives rise to all life: the demise of Primordial Lives created eternal lives, and the death of eternal lives led to the birth of countless civilizations. Why so many eternal lives had yet to reincarnate was because the universe lacked sufficient spiritual power to revive them.
But with the destruction of countless civilizations, more and more eternal lives began to reincarnate.
Although these reincarnations had at most the strength of immortal gods and demons, the Pantheon decided to eradicate them thoroughly.
Because these individuals were all failures from the past, while the victors were the current members of the Pantheon.
Although some new eternal lives who were formerly failures had been promoted within the Pantheon, their small numbers meant their words carried little weight, and they did not want to divide limited resources further. Thus, the entire Pantheon began to ruthlessly kill these gradually awakening eternal life reincarnations.
Nearly two hundred eternal lives were being hunted, with the total number pursued not exceeding a few hundred, all still newly born immortal gods and demons.
Normally, this would pose no difficulty whatsoever.
However, when pushed to the edge, people could do anything. Even though the Nightfall Society had collapsed, all newly awakened eternal lives had come into contact with the Nightfall Parasite Flowers. By fusing with these flowers, they could gain the protection of the Evil Lives.
Because of these Nightfall Parasite Flowers, the Evil Lives seemed to regard these eternal life reincarnations as their own kind.
This discovery made Rosen realize that the Nightfall Parasite Flowers concealed even deeper secrets.
Yet when the Old Fisherman tried to approach the Ancient God, even the Ancient God did not know what value or secrets the Nightfall Parasite Flowers truly hid.
Not even the Dimension God or the Chaos God knew; clearly, the Primordial Lives who had left had concealed many things from them.
From the perspective of the Chaos God and the others, the threat level here even exceeded that posed by the Heaven and Earth Deities.
Because although the Natural Joy Symphony was troublesome, it was at least within their understanding. As long as the Heaven and Earth Deities were not given a chance to target the Evil Lives, the Natural Joy Symphony could not disrupt the balance of the situation. Since it was understood, its threat level was visible to the naked eye.
In contrast, the Nightfall Parasite Flowers, which the Chaos God and others once thought they understood well, turned out to be something they only grasped superficially.
This was something left behind by the Primordial Lives, combined with their deliberate concealment and the Deities' own ignorance, which together brought an enormous sense of threat to the Chaos God and the others—far surpassing the Natural Joy Symphony.
Within just a few days, the Chaos God convened everyone within the realm Between Universes.
"I propose capturing an Evil Life to study the Nightfall Parasite Flowers," the Chaos God suggested.
The Dimension God and the Lunar God immediately agreed, but the Ancient God, Old Fisherman, and Rosen all showed no intention of consenting.
Because there were too many unknowns, having one more or one less thing made little difference to them.
The more one knew, the more complicated the thoughts became; ignorance, on the other hand, made things simpler. The meeting ended in discord. The Dimension God continued to keep a close watch on the Heaven and Earth Deities, while the Chaos God and the Lunar God teamed up to besiege an Evil Life, attempting to capture it alive. After discussing, the Ancient God and the Old Fisherman also prepared to capture one alive for research.
Though they were ignorant, it didn't mean they weren't interested in the Nightfall Parasite Flowers.
It was just that if they joined forces with the Chaos God and the others to capture an Evil Life, they would definitely not be the ones to lead afterward.
Seeing the Chaos God and the others busy with their own affairs, Rosen also grew restless.
He no longer feared the Dimension God, always confident in his ability to retreat unharmed if he couldn't win.
What worried him was being held down by the Dimension God, who would then call the Chaos God and the others to gang up on him.
Now, with only the Dimension God left, Rosen wanted to seize the opportunity to capture an Evil Life alive.
He chose the Particle God. The Particle God's true self had fallen in the Fate War of the Ancient God's world, leaving a fragment in the Nightfall Society that became part of the Evil Lives, giving Rosen sufficient understanding of the Particle God. Capturing it alive would undoubtedly be much easier.
The Chaos God and the others soon launched their assault, and after a few days, the battle grew increasingly intense.
Rosen seized the chance, opened a spacetime crossing gate, and arrived near the Particle God.
He unleashed the domain of laws, instantly trapping the Particle God within the Miracle Star Sea.
However, at that moment, the Dimension God also crossed spacetime to try to stop the Heaven and Earth Deities.
Prepared in advance, the Primordial Incarnation had already converted its essence and spirit into each other.
In the past, Rosen liked transforming spirit into essence, giving the Primordial Incarnation the greatest life source and direct destructive power.
But this time he chose to transform essence into spirit. His body grew so weak it nearly dissipated, but his divine nature source grew beyond two thousand, allowing him to fully unleash the power of the Compassionate Holy Bell's Natural Compassion Symphony.
As the bell's ringing echoed through the void, the Dimension God, upon crossing spacetime, immediately fell into the spirit world.
Only by closing one's perception could one hear the Natural Joy Symphony; opening perception would mean facing the Natural Compassion Symphony directly.
Of course, the Dimension God could not close its perception in advance, so it directly fell into the Natural Compassion Symphony. All of its power was sealed, forced to witness the collapse and destruction of the Primordial Universe with its own eyes, forced to feel the pain and despair of the universe's will.
There were only two known ways to escape this spirit world.
The first was to rely on stronger spiritual power to forcibly destroy the spirit world formed by the Natural Compassion Symphony.
The second was to empathize deeply and experience the universe will's final compassion within the Natural Compassion Symphony.
Either continue down the path of evil until the end, or repent and realize the error of one's ways.
This was the truest power left behind by the two symphonies of the universe will. Even the Dimension God was forcibly trapped.
Rosen took full advantage of the opportunity to suppress the Particle God. Soon, relying on the Miracle Star Sea and the Moonlight Splendor, he successfully subdued his prey.
By then, the Chaos God and the others had noticed the commotion. Although their true selves were busy suppressing the Evil Lives and could not spare time, it did not stop them from delivering a cross-spacetime strike to assist the Dimension God in breaking free from the spirit world.
Once successfully freed, the Dimension God immediately pursued the Heaven and Earth Deities—but could no longer find them.
Before the Dimension God could become furious, it discovered that the Heaven and Earth Deities had reappeared.
Not satisfied with capturing one Evil Life alive, they were actually planning to capture a second?
The Dimension God felt utterly disregarded by the Heaven and Earth Deities and experienced a humiliation it had never felt before.
They were willing to expend the upper limits of their eternal will, forcibly using Primordial Sacred Law beyond their own limits.
An infinitely small, invisible zero-dimensional space appeared between the brows, instantly crossing spacetime to lock onto Rosen and begin elevating his dimension.
In just the blink of an eye, the expanding dimension enveloped Rosen and his domain, forming a dimensional universe.
Then the Primordial Sacred Law's thought of the universe began a cycle of instantaneous creation and destruction. Any life within this dimensional universe could kill eternal life. The Dimension God's madness far exceeded Rosen's expectations—this was no choice of a wise one.
To kill a thousand enemies while losing eight hundred oneself; sacrificing oneself only benefits others.
Rosen never expected the Dimension God to act like this, but luckily, killing him was not so easy.
The Moonlight Splendor reflected part of the damage; the rest was absorbed by the Miracle Star Sea, which then directed it at the Evil Life trapped within it. Although it caused considerable damage to the Miracle Star Sea, Rosen himself remained unharmed under its protection.
When the birth and destruction of the dimensional universe ended, Rosen seized the opportunity and left with the two captured Evil Lives.
Once these two Evil Lives purified their negative spirit and regained clarity, the realm Between Universes would have eight members, three of whom stood on his side. From then on, it would be impossible for the Chaos God and the Dimension God to erase him through the realm Between Universes.
(End of chapter)