"They should be about to notice the anomaly by now!"
Rosen sat in a tea house in the imperial city, feeling the oppressive atmosphere outside.
Although the Eternal Dreamworld was vast due to its nature as a dream, it ultimately depended on the spirit world.
The will of the world controlled the spirit world and would certainly not allow the Eternal Dreamworld to draw its origin from it.
Thus, the only way for the Eternal Dreamworld's origin to be replenished was through the Dream Seed, which directly absorbed the world's origin from the void of the cosmos. Therefore, the source of energy for the Eternal Dreamworld was quite singular, but the consumption of this energy was handled by five Immortal Godfiends.
Essentially, all the origin drawn by the Dream Seed was divided among the five Immortal Godfiends.
The remaining beings in the Eternal Dreamworld were not qualified to share in the origin.
As a result, apart from the five Immortal Godfiends, the most terrifying supernatural beings in the Eternal Dreamworld did not exceed Sequence 1.
For humans, even the supernatural beings within the imperial city could only live for a century at most. After death, everything would return to the heavens and earth and fall into a self-sustaining cycle. The number of lives that the entire Eternal Dreamworld could carry was fixed from the start and could neither increase nor decrease.
Rosen was secretly siphoning the power of the Eternal Dreamworld, causing human lifespans to skyrocket and the number of supernatural beings to increase.
In the short term, humanity had risen and flourished, but the Eternal Dreamworld simply could not sustain so many beings.
To maintain the ongoing self-circulation of the Eternal Dreamworld, the Immortal Godfiends would have to forcibly intervene.
However, if given a choice, very few intelligent beings would willingly allow others to decide their life and death.
The Immortal Godfiends could prevent certain people from living, but even though they couldn't resist, these people's resentment could not be suppressed.
The resentment of the ancient god world's beings was even capable of threatening the ancient gods.
If the resentment of the beings in the Eternal Dreamworld were to accumulate too deeply, it would directly threaten the five Immortal Godfiends.
The dream monsters born from the night's darkness, which were the mortal enemies of humanity, had their origin in the collective resentment of these beings.
Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, the Immortal Godfiends would avoid forcibly intervening in the large-scale extinction of intelligent life.
Even if they did ruthlessly exterminate, it would only be a temporary solution.
Unless the Root Insect Mothers were eradicated, the collapse of the entire Eternal Dreamworld was simply a matter of time.
...
In the Celestial Realm of the Eternal Dreamworld, grand celestial palaces stood in the cloud-filled celestial lands.
Unlike the limited lifespans of human beings, the immortals in the Celestial Realm enjoyed infinite lifespans and eternal youth.
With no external enemies and no future paths to pursue, naturally, there was no longer any motivation.
As a result, for countless years, the five Immortal Celestial Emperors who ruled the Celestial Realm had not cast their gaze upon the human world.
By the time the five Immortal Celestial Emperors noticed the loss of the Eternal Dreamworld's origin, they had already gradually lost their control over the human realm.
In the Yuanling Celestial Palace, the head of the Immortal Celestial Emperors, the Yuanling Celestial Emperor, was the first to feel the bitterness of his favorite celestial brew.
The other four Immortal Celestial Emperors, who had not gathered for many years, also shared the same feeling.
To the beings of the Eternal Dreamworld, they saw the Immortal Celestial Emperors as exalted and untouchable.
However, in their own eyes, they were merely prisoners trapped in the ancient god's spirit world. As long as the ancient gods had not fully awakened, it was fine; but once the ancient gods awoke completely, it would be the end for them. The Eternal Dreamworld did not meet the conditions for the birth of eternal life, and they would be unable to maintain the power of the Immortal Godfiends after leaving the Eternal Dreamworld.
Thus, for them, the entire Eternal Dreamworld was just a prison.
Sooner or later, they would die within the Eternal Dreamworld.
Because they could not see any hope, they gradually became addicted to indulgence.
Of course, they were not willing to wait for death, and even less willing to die early. They had more than once worked together to resist the invasion of the will of the world. But despite all their defenses, they still failed to prevent it. Even worse, this time it was clearly not the work of the will of the world.
If other Immortal Godfiends got involved, they might not be able to hold off the Will of the World.
If they ended up alarming the Ancient Gods, what awaited them would be a dead end.
Now, all they hoped for was to find a way to survive.
In the Mortal Realm, Rosen peered into the Primordial Spirit Immortal Palace with the Creator's Eye, his expression odd.
He realized that both he and the Will of the World had made a mistake in their judgment. The Will of the World didn't dare press too hard, worried that the five Immortal Emperors of the Eternal Dream would resist desperately and awaken the Ancient Gods. Yet these five Immortal Emperors were actually even more afraid of awakening the Ancient Gods than the Will of the World.
Thinking about it carefully, it wasn't surprising. After all, these Immortal Emperors didn't know that the Will of the World intended to betray the Ancient Gods.
So naturally, they wouldn't realize that their fears had been misplaced from the start.
What the Will of the World hadn't expected was that these five Immortal Emperors were so afraid of death.
Normally speaking, let alone Immortal Godfiends—even Great True Gods rarely feared death or clung to life.
That was because divine consciousness would have already been sublimated into Immortal Will or even Eternal Will. Their personalities and sense of self had mostly solidified, and it was hard for them to be shaken. Unless something on the scale of Eternal Depravity occurred, it was difficult for them to fall into indulgence or cowardice.
These five Immortal Emperors were likely frauds who had relied on external power to ascend.
No wonder the Will of the World, while unable to seize control of the Eternal Dream, didn't view these five Immortal Emperors as a threat either.
It never tried to forcibly remove them—they really owed their continued existence to the Ancient Gods they had feared all their lives.
Although he knew these Immortal Emperors feared death, Rosen never considered trying to subdue them.
First of all, he wasn't the Will of the World. Even if they feared death, that didn't mean they would bow to just anyone. He wasn't the Will of the World, so he couldn't inspire fear in them. If he wanted them to yield, he would have to fight and prove superiority.
But the problem was, he couldn't win a one-against-five. And if he could win, then there would be no point in recruiting them.
Because once they left the Eternal Dream, these Immortal Emperors would be more than half-crippled. It would be better to just kill them and use their corpses and divine essence as cultivation resources. Right now, he was calculating how to kill a lone Immortal Emperor in the shortest possible time.
At the very beginning, Rosen hadn't even thought of hunting these Immortal Emperors.
Aside from knowing they were hard to deal with, he also didn't want to benefit the Will of the World.
At first, he genuinely believed the Will of the World was showing goodwill by guiding him here.
But after investigating for a while, he discovered that although entering the Eternal Dream was easy, leaving it was a different story. Even Inter-World Gates and data transmission couldn't get him out.
So the real intention of the Will of the World must have included keeping him trapped in the Eternal Dream for some time.
Currently, Rosen had confirmed only three possible ways to leave the Eternal Dream.
The first was to weaken the Eternal Dream as a whole—if it was weakened enough, leaving would naturally become easier.
The second was to kill one of the Immortal Emperors. The five of them had essentially divided control over the Dream Source Seed. Killing one of them, even if he couldn't seize a full fifth of the authority, would still create a massive gap in the Eternal Dream's blockade.
The last option was to force his way out using the Doomsday Ark.
The first method took too long. The third would alert the Will of the World that the Doomsday Ark was in his hands.
So the second method was the first choice—it would also further accelerate his cultivation.
If he truly managed to fully take over the Eternal Dream, his difficulty in advancing to Immortal Godfiend would drastically decrease.
In the Mysterious Study Room, Rosen laid out miracle artifacts one by one on the table.
With the birth of the Miracle Source Seed, his true self had also advanced to Great True God.
The Miracle Sequence could surpass his current level, so he had already met the requirements to fuse with an Immortal Godfiend-level miracle artifact.
However, such artifacts were extremely rare, even in his knowledge.
The one Rosen most wanted to fuse with was the Fate Slab. But seizing the Fate Slab meant completely falling out with the Will of the World and the Old Fisherman.
Even if he managed to steal it, tearing ties might not be worth it—he wasn't even sure he could get it in the end.
Setting aside the Fate Slab, he currently had the Miracle World Mysterious Study Room, the Ancient God Sacrificial Artifact, the Main God Computer, the Fallen Paradise painting, and the Immortal Emperor Tarot Card.
They were all excellent—no matter which one he fused with, it wouldn't be a loss.
So choosing exactly which one to fuse with became the hardest part.
After some thought, Rosen first ruled out the Mysterious Study Room.
He had already fused the Doomsday Ark, and the Ark's miracle trait—Doomsday Survival—allowed it to assimilate other miracle artifacts, provided the artifact shared a functional similarity with a part of the Ark.
The Mysterious Study Room could be integrated into the Ark's captain's quarters without needing to be added into the Miracle Sequence.
The Ancient God Sacrificial Relic was the second to be eliminated. As good as it was, it had too many issues.
Rosen had already obtained the Miracle Origin Seed. With the help of the Miracle Sequence and Eternal Radiance, he had incinerated all the unique and eternal traits of the miracle artifacts in his possession. Through the Origin Seed, he also came to understand that these two miracle traits indeed had problems.
In the universe, the only known truly eternal existences were the creators of the Origin Seeds.
Even the Ancient Gods couldn't destroy the World Tree, and the Eternal Serpent Mother had yet to completely fall in the true sense.
Though Revelation had fallen, as long as the Omniscient Origin Seed remained, Revelation could not be truly extinguished.
This was because, at the moment of their birth, Origin Seeds had formed the most direct bond with the cosmic source sea.
Unless the universe itself was destroyed, the Origin Seeds would not perish.
Miracle artifacts, while imbued with the power of the Origin Seed, ultimately did not contain a complete seed.
So why were miracle artifacts said to be eternal and indestructible? The answer was simple—when a miracle artifact was destroyed, it was truly destroyed. The so-called eternal rebirth was in fact a process that consumed the Origin Seed's power to reproduce a new miracle artifact.
Hence, these two miracle traits essentially caused the Origin Seed to grow progressively weaker.
The rebirth process of a miracle artifact also followed a principle of proximity in consuming energy.
If Rosen's Doomsday Ark were to be destroyed, then during its rebirth, it would first draw power from the Miracle Origin Seed in his possession.
Why did his Miracle Origin Seed once shatter? Most likely, it had been implicated by the artifacts.
Moreover, generating those two miracle traits required consuming a portion of the Origin Seed's power. Without those traits, the overall power of the miracle artifacts would grow significantly. In that case, Rosen naturally would not continue retaining them.
Especially since his Miracle Origin Seed's core was the Miracle Sequence—then what was the core power of the other Origin Seeds?It was certain that one of the Origin Seeds had the power to bestow those two traits upon miracle artifacts.
If someone had control over that Origin Seed, they might use those traits to gain higher authority over the miracle artifacts.
Rosen would never allow such a hidden threat to remain, so Eternal Radiance had been continuously incinerating those two traits.
However, while other miracle artifacts had successfully lost the traits, the ones on the Ancient God Sacrificial Relic showed no signs of being burned away.
Rosen immediately realized he likely wasn't the true owner of the Ancient God Sacrificial Relic.
Someone else who possessed an Origin Seed was using those two miracle traits to control it.
Given such a risk, Rosen naturally could not fuse the Ancient God Sacrificial Relic into the Miracle Sequence.
Next was the possibility of fusing the Main God Computer, which could grant stronger computational power to assist cultivation.
But just like the Mysterious Study Room, the Main God Computer could actually be directly integrated into the quantum brain of the Doomsday Ark.
As for the Fallen Paradise, it contained a Fallen Origin Seed, making it an ill-suited choice.
So the best remaining option was the Miracle Tarot—Immortal Emperor.
[Immortal Emperor: Miracle Sequence]
[Rank: Immortal Godfiend]
[Miracle Attribute: The Immortal Emperor can wield imperial law to create and command all Tarot cards]
[Miracle Traits: Immortal Crown, Immortal Scepter, Immortal Sacred Sword, Immortal Holy Grail, Immortal Star Coin, Immortal Dominion, Miracle Game, Miracle Origin Seed]
Fusing the Immortal Emperor into the Miracle Sequence was unlike any previous fusion with a miracle artifact.
Because the Origin Seed fused into the Miracle Sequence was now further embedded into this Miracle Tarot card.
As a result, even the power of the Immortal Emperor underwent a dramatic transformation.
The King's Game evolved into the Miracle Game. If the former allowed only the king and their subjects to participate, then the Miracle Game allowed any lifeform to enter. With the power of the Game Origin Seed, the upper limit of the Miracle Game rose to the level of Immortal Godfiends.
In the past, the King's Game at most could affect Great True Gods.
So during the King's Game on the King's Continent, not a single Immortal Godfiend ever took the field personally.
But now, things were different—when Rosen activated the Miracle Game, even Immortal Godfiends would find it difficult to defy the game rules he established.
Just like before, upon ascending to the Immortal Godfiend level, the Miracle Sequence granted new exclusive abilities.
Exclusive Ability 1: All Miracle Artifacts grow in sync!Exclusive Ability 2: All Miracle Traits of Miracle Artifacts fused into the Miracle Sequence can be transferred!Exclusive Ability 3: Generates Miracle Divine Power, which can further be converted into Eternal Miracle Origin!Exclusive Ability 4: All Miracle Artifacts of the Miracle Sequence can be integrated into the Doomsday Ark!Exclusive Ability 5: Grants different Miracle Traits to the exclusive treasures of the Immortal Emperor!
The Immortal Emperor had five exclusive treasures, which meant Rosen could gain five additional Miracle Traits.
This granting could be done randomly, or through plundering Miracle Traits from other Miracle Artifacts and fusing them into the exclusive ones.
The uncertainty of randomness was too great—Rosen, without a doubt, chose to plunder and then grant.
Rosen took out the Anarchic Pointer, and with the circulation of Eternal Miracle Origin in his hand, forcibly destroyed it.
Then he extracted the Miracle Trait [Order Breaker] and fused it into the Immortal Holy Sword.
From now on, the Immortal Holy Sword could both establish order and destroy it.
The latent power of this sword would, in the truest sense, be comparable to weapons on the Immortal Godfiend level.
Next, Rosen took out the God's Cross. After destroying it, he fused its unique Miracle Trait [God's True Blood] into the Immortal Holy Grail.
During the fusion process, [God's True Blood] evolved into the [Immortal True Blood] Miracle Trait.
Since the essence of this Miracle Trait was True Blood—whether it came from a God or an Old God—there was no essential difference as long as the rank was the same.
Rosen then continued by taking out the Lucky Twin Heart Lock, destroying this once-cherished Miracle Artifact, and fusing its Miracle Trait [Heaven Favors the Willing] into the Immortal Crown.
[Heaven Favors the Willing] could consume innate fate to bring about a blessing of great fortune.
Although the Ember Origin Seed could manipulate fate, fate and luck were not exactly the same. A strong fate did not necessarily guarantee strong luck, because fate fluctuates. The Ember Seed could influence luck, but not guarantee absolute fortune.
But [Heaven Favors the Willing] could—albeit at a high cost—and the Lucky Twin Heart Lock was too low in rank.
Now that [Heaven Favors the Willing] was fused into the Immortal Crown, the terrifying luck it brought provided immeasurable support.
Next came the Immortal Scepter. Rosen brought out the Territory Structure [Hero Altar].
This Miracle Structure's greatest utility was to canonize Wood Elves as heroes and convert them into various exclusive troop types.
As his power grew, the Hero Altar's usefulness had long diminished.
Strictly speaking, after the Noble Sequence merged into the True Creator Sequence, many territory structures of the Divine Realm Territory became obsolete. Even destroying them wouldn't be a loss—it was better to repurpose the Hero Altar.
After burning the Hero Altar, Rosen fused the Miracle Trait [Troop Conversion] into the Immortal Scepter.
The Immortal Scepter was already capable of converting both friendly and enemy corpses into Immortal Troops. These Immortal Troops had the advantage of being able to resurrect through the Immortal Kingdom's altars, but the downside was that their growth potential disappeared, and they had to rely on monster hunting to level up.
That process only created cannon fodder; true elite troops couldn't be produced this way.
But now, with the fusion of [Troop Conversion] and enhancement from the Miracle Origin Seed, the Immortal Scepter could convert living troops into Immortal Troops without destroying their growth potential. Of course, if an Immortal Troop were to die and be resurrected, there would still be some slight decrease in potential.
Finally, Rosen burned the Greedy Wallet and fused its Miracle Trait [Greedy Transaction] into the Immortal Star Coin.
This exclusive treasure's purpose was to convert resources into Star Coins, which then sustained most of the Immortal Kingdom's functionality.
Now that it had merged with [Greedy Transaction], it gained the ability of forced "zero-cost purchase."
The original Greedy Wallet was only a True God-level Miracle Artifact, capable of affecting only Greater True Gods at most.
But now the Immortal Star Coin could influence even Immortal Godfiends and potentially affect Eternal Beings as well.
Moreover, the Miracle Sequence enhanced [Greedy Transaction]—in the past, its zero-cost purchase effect only worked on publicly sold items. Now, as long as the target was under the Immortal Kingdom's domain, [Greedy Transaction] could consume Star Coin reserves to forcibly enact a zero-cost acquisition.
The five Miracle Traits fused into the five exclusive treasures brought Rosen an immense power boost.
Now, the difficulty of taking the Eternal Dream Realm—for Rosen—was practically zero.
(End of Chapter)