Has the Moonshade Holy God recovered?
The Chaos Holy God approached the Dimension Holy God and looked at the Dimension Cube with suspicion.
"That shouldn't be possible."
The Dimension Holy God hesitated before giving His opinion.
The Moonshade Holy God had never undergone a normal reincarnation. Though She had narrowly revived with the help of the Natural Hymn of Joy, She had nearly perished ten thousand years ago after being attacked by the Heaven and Earth Holy God. Simply recovering from that near-death state was already a miracle—how could She possibly have the means to fully sublimate Her Eternal Will into an Immortal Will?
But without a full score of one thousand in Immortal Will, how was Her primordial sacred art still able to continually weaken dozens of sinful lives?
If this continued, how long would it take Them to destroy the Sacred Hall?
With each passing day, the Sacred Hall's favorability with the Heart of the Universe continued to rise. In contrast, Their own already-negative favorability kept dropping. The lower Their favorability, the harder it would be to take control of the new universe in the future.
If it wasn't because They had underestimated the Moonshade Holy God, then the Sacred Hall must have had additional help.
"Where is the Heaven and Earth Holy God?"
Chaos Holy God and Dimension Holy God turned to each other and asked in unison.
The Heaven and Earth Holy God had vanished without a trace for the past ten thousand years. They had assumed He was in seclusion, attempting to sublimate His Eternal Will. But now it seemed likely that He had joined forces with the Moonshade Holy God. Although They had been enemies, mutual interests could suppress hatred.
The Chaos Holy God immediately sent out a summons across the universe, but aside from the Dimension Holy God and the Ancient God, no one responded.
They understood at once—the Moonshade Holy God and Heaven and Earth Holy God had already allied.
And it was obvious that their goal was to stall for time. Unsurprisingly, They were delaying in order to sublimate Their Eternal Will.
The Heaven and Earth Holy God, aside from trying to obtain Immortal Will, was likely also stalling to create a Primordial Sacred Art.
Once They understood the Heaven and Earth Holy God's intent, both the Chaos and Dimension Holy Gods actually felt a sense of relief.
They weren't afraid of a delay. What They feared was interference with the cycle of universal destruction and rebirth.
Of course, They couldn't let things drag on indefinitely either—delaying too long would still be to Their disadvantage.
The Dimension Holy God manipulated the Dimension Cube to release the Burning Heaven Star Palace, dispersing all sinful lives across various parts of the Fourteenth Star Ring.
Deep within the Burning Heaven Star Palace, the Moonshade Holy God witnessed this scene and understood that the Dimension Holy God was making a concession.
The next step would be to negotiate a timeframe. The longer the delay, the more advantageous it would be for Her true body. But the Chaos Holy God and the others would never allow an endless delay. His bottom line was five thousand years, so negotiations would start from thirty thousand.
Within the interstellar void, the Moonshade Holy God finally responded to the Chaos Holy God's summons.
"I need thirty thousand years to sublimate my Eternal Will..."
The Moonshade Holy God took the initiative to state Her condition.
"That's impossible. In thirty thousand years, the Heart of the Universe could very well give birth to a Universal Will."
The Chaos Holy God rejected Her furiously.
"But if my Eternal Will cannot be fully sublimated, then I won't even have a chance in the new universe after the old one is destroyed..."
The Moonshade Holy God sneered. "If I have no chance to compete with you all in the new universe, then I'm dead either way. Why should I help you succeed? If thirty thousand years isn't acceptable, then make it twenty-five thousand. That's my bottom line."
"Twenty-five thousand years is absolutely out of the question..."
The Chaos Holy God resolutely opposed Her, arguing with reason.
All things had spirit. Theoretically, any inanimate object could develop sentience and become a living being.
The Universal Will was the result of the universe giving rise to spirit and nurturing intelligence—the first and oldest lifeform born from the primordial universe.
Its fall, later on, was merely the loss of self-awareness formed by memory. That didn't mean the Universal Will truly ceased to exist. Because the Universal Will transcended even the Immortal Will, it could not be erased. It could only be dispersed and then reintegrated into the universe, giving birth to all things and all living beings.
All current eternal lifeforms and cosmic civilizations—strictly speaking, every sentient being—was a part of the Universal Will.
Since the Universal Will could be dispersed, it could naturally be reassembled.
The sinful lives had destroyed countless universes and civilizations, which in truth had already fulfilled the conditions for the reformation of the Universal Will. However, the stronger the existence, the harder it was to resurrect.
Theoretically, it would take at least a hundred thousand years for the Universal Will to reassemble.
But let alone a hundred thousand years—Chaos Holy God and the others were already growing impatient after just ten thousand, and were preparing to seriously wound the Sacred Hall.
The reason was that variables often surpassed theoretical limits. One hundred thousand years was merely the estimation of the primordial beings, but no one knew whether there were aspects of the Universal Will that even primordial lifeforms didn't understand. It was entirely possible that the actual process of reformation and resurrection could drastically shorten the expected timeframe.
On another front, the Dusk Covenant was a contingency left behind by those transcendent primordial beings.
Now that the seal had been broken ahead of time, those transcendent beings were very likely already aware.
If they didn't return, that would be fine. But if they intended to compete for the new universe and chose to return, then Chaos Holy God and the others would have no chance at seizing the new universe. Therefore, before the transcendent beings returned—before the Universal Will could reassemble and revive—the old universe had to be destroyed.
Only then would They have a chance to obtain the new universe.
The Moonshade Holy God also understood that Chaos Holy God and the others weren't wrong, but His true body truly needed more time to perfect the Primordial Sacred Art.
So He had no choice but to stubbornly stall, dragging things out for six thousand years.
But Chaos Holy God refused to yield even a single year more, so the Moonshade Holy God had no choice but to quit while He was ahead and come to an agreement.
Although a ceasefire had been reached, the effects of this clash continued to linger.
The eternal beings of the Sacred Hall had witnessed the true power of Chaos Holy God and the others. Some regretted not siding with Them, but others found within themselves the resolve to fight to the bitter end, and began forging deeper understanding among themselves.
If in the past these many eternal lives had only been like grains of sand forming earth, now they were beginning to compress together like solid rock.
The destruction of the Fourteenth Star Ring by the sinful lives was progressing as expected, and would be completed in just two thousand years.
Thus, the Sacred Hall only needed to interfere with the sinful lives' dismantling of the universe, and delay for another four thousand years—it would be enough.
.....
In the blink of an eye, four thousand years passed, and the Sacred Hall completely gave up trying to seal the sinful lives.
No one stood in their way anymore. The destruction of the old universe was now set in stone.
The First Star Ring of the universe—there was no energy, no matter, only the most basic concepts of space and time.
When the sinful lives had first appeared, the universe hadn't even expanded to the First Star Ring. In fact, even the Second Star Ring hadn't fully formed.
The universe's destruction began from the Third Star Ring, and would end at the Sea of Universal Origins.
By logic, the collapse of a universe should lead to contraction. But in reality, it was only the contents of the universe that were crumbling. The universe itself astonishingly continued to expand, to the point that even the First Star Ring, which once had no signs of formation, had now manifested.
Rosen had studied the First Star Ring but found nothing of value. He chose to go into seclusion here purely for the sake of tranquility.
At a thought, countless invisible fragments of Immortal Will appeared in the void.
These seeds were fragments of Immortal Will—disassembled portions. Originally, a single unit of Immortal Will would be fused with one unit of divinity origin and one unit of life origin. Now, Rosen had split a single unit of Immortal Will into 129,600 fragments.
The greatest benefit of disassembling Immortal Will was reducing the harm that enemies could inflict upon his memory.
Dust could not break stone, but neither could stone easily shatter dust.
This wasn't a Primordial Sacred Art—it was simply the result of countless uses of Immortal Will, gradually refined into an extraordinary level of control. He could split Immortal Will to its limit, and he could also compress a thousand units of Immortal Will into one.
Then, using a fully condensed unit of Immortal Will, he could cast a Primordial Sacred Art—not merely ten times stronger, but easily a hundred or even a thousand times more powerful.
Over the years, Rosen had created multiple Primordial Sacred Arts through countless simulations, using dozens of primordial arts from the Sea of Universal Origins as models. Among them, the most core and most vital was the one that enhanced willpower.
Opening his attribute panel, Rosen looked over several Primordial Sacred Arts.
Source of Myriad Transformations: it allowed him to use Immortal Will to transform anything fused with a source into an insect. This had originally been an Eternal Sacred Art, now sublimated into a Primordial one. The efficiency of transformation had vastly improved—virtually everything he controlled had already been transformed into insects. He was even attempting to convert other Primordial Sacred Arts into insects.
Sacred Art of All Transformations: it allowed him to freely convert Immortal Will into anything. Immortal Will's power of self-conception could transform anything he believed into reality. This ability alone could turn the self into all things. The Sacred Art of All Transformations greatly enhanced the efficiency of that conversion, allowing him to do it even mid-battle.
Aside from these two, all other innate skills had already been enhanced and sublimated into Primordial Sacred Arts.
Rosen was very satisfied with these skills, but none of them could compare to the final skill on his attribute panel.
[Immortal Origin: Primordial Sacred Law]
[Attribute: Converts source into origin]
It was an extremely simple attribute—just the pure conversion of divine origin and life origin into primordial origin.
If the Immortal Will believed something to be true, then it became true. If it believed he was the Primordial Sacred Relic "Mercy Bell," then he could indeed transform into the Mercy Bell. However, even if the transformed bell possessed immortal properties, it still couldn't truly replace the original Mercy Bell.
The reason was simple: transformation by Immortal Will wasn't without cost.
Assume the Immortal Will had a maximum of 1,000 units. If transforming into the Mercy Bell consumed 300 units, then only 700 units would remain available to execute a Primordial Sacred Law. Naturally, the same law performed with 1,000 units would be more powerful than with only 700.
That's why, even though Primordial Lifeforms could morph into any primordial relic, they still needed to obtain actual, ready-made ones.
Originally, Immortal Will could only fuse with 1,000 units of divine origin and 1,000 units of life origin.
But through the Primordial Sacred Law "Immortal Origin," Rosen could now convert those into 1,000 units of primordial origin. The divine and life origin within Immortal Will would vanish, allowing new divine and life origin to be fused again.
This meant Rosen had effectively doubled the fusion capacity of Immortal Will compared to before.
This wasn't an invention of his alone—it was inspired by insights gained from the Dark Sun Eye and the Eye of Nightfall.
Primordial organs were not simply organs of a Primordial Lifeform; they were new immortal sources created by converting fused divine and life origin into unique power via Immortal Will. Only through these new immortal sources could primordial organs be born.
From the pineal gland at the center of his brow, Rosen had nurtured a new primordial organ using Immortal Origin.
[Origin Eye: Primordial Organ]
[Attribute: Sees the origin of all things]
[Trait: Immortal Seed Source]
The Origin Eye in his brow was the greatest reward Rosen had obtained over more than 10,000 years.
Ever since the birth of the Origin Eye, his Eternal Sacred Body had started to undergo changes.
Because the life origin within the Origin Eye naturally suppressed Immortal Will, the evolution from Eternal Sacred Body to Primordial Sacred Body was now just a matter of time.
A Primordial Sacred Body would inevitably produce primordial organs, and conversely, a Primordial Sacred Body could also help nurture primordial organs.
Although Rosen possessed the Dark Sun Eye and Eye of Nightfall—both primordial organs—if these external organs were used to transform his body, he would end up becoming a vessel for the resurrection of the original Dark Sun or Nightfall entities.
Primordial organs, as the core of the Primordial Sacred Body, were inherently resurrection mediums for their original owners.
During his study of the Primordial Sacred Laws, Rosen had discovered the hidden danger of these organs. That was what led to the ultimate birth of Immortal Origin.
With a single thought, Immortal Will activated the trait of the Origin Eye: Immortal Seed Source.
Two units of immortal origin instantly formed into two undetectable immortal seed sources.
These seeds had a parasitic capability similar to the Nightfall Parasitic Flower. They could latch onto anything the Origin Eye could see. Once parasitism succeeded, Rosen could gain full control over the target.
In the blink of an eye, the two immortal seeds merged into the pupils and took root in the two foreign primordial organs.
The immortal seeds took root like ordinary seeds, spreading countless tendrils into every cell and every speck of source power within the organs. Using the seeds as a medium, Rosen fully seized control of the two organs. From then on, they would never again go rogue or backfire.
Rosen continued to generate more immortal seed sources and embedded them into the primordial sacred relics he controlled.
Previously, unleashing the full power of the Miracle Starsea required at least dozens of units of Immortal Will. But now, by embedding just a single immortal seed formed from one unit of immortal origin, he could control the Miracle Starsea completely.
The reason immortal seed sources could accomplish this lay in the essence of "root" and "origin."
After parasitizing, the immortal seeds would root themselves into all things. At the same time, they would transform into those very things. Because they had become one and the same—sharing origin and nature—there was no resistance to the process. Eventually, the seeds and their hosts would become entirely inseparable.
At that point, the seeds would begin to return to their root essence.
Anything successfully parasitized and assimilated would be converted into immortal origin and come under the absolute control of the Origin Eye.
Given a bit of time, Rosen could implant immortal seeds into every Eternal Lifeform in the Holy God Palace. But after some thought, he decided against it—he could only produce up to 1,000 immortal seed sources. Using them on ordinary Eternal Lifeforms would be a waste.
After weighing his options, Rosen instead implanted immortal seed sources into the Burning Heaven Star Palace.
Then, using the Gate of Spacetime Transit, he sent those seeds out to secretly parasitize the Sinful Lifeforms who were actively destroying the universe.
These immortal seeds directly parasitized their memories. Through them, Rosen could gain access to their memories, convert negative spiritual energy into positive, and alter their recollections at will—thus taking control of their Immortal Will.
Lastly, Rosen sent out a few immortal seeds in an attempt to parasitize and seize control of the Heart of the Universe.
This attempt failed. The Heart of the Universe detected the intrusion and suppressed the seeds.
However, due to their immortal nature, the seeds couldn't be destroyed—only instinctively suppressed. And as the universe neared its end and the Heart of the Universe approached collapse, the immortal seeds would eventually escape suppression and get their chance to take root.
End of Chapter