Rosen sat on the sofa, sipping juice, his eyes unwavering as he stared at the Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf through the World Window.
He had been observing for half a month, and finally, he started to notice some gains.
The Eternal Essence around the wounds and the residual Eternal Will inside — why do these Eternal Wills only have instincts? Where did the memories and sense of self go? The answer lay in the Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf's unique horn.
Every once in a while, the power from the horn would cover all the wounds.
As a result, the Eternal Wills clinging to the wounds could never recover their memories or sense of self. They could only grow stronger by relying on instinct, continuously strengthening the Eternal Essence they controlled. The Eternal beings responsible for these wounds in the past couldn't revive by relying on these remnants of Eternal Will.
The Origin Mother Worms couldn't do anything about these Eternal Wills, and Rosen couldn't act rashly, as it would awaken the Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf.
He had almost given up, but then the Origin Mother Worms made a new discovery.
Some of the Origin Mother Worms that had entered through the gaps in the wounds found that the Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf's heart had been removed. There was a faint trace of Eternal Mechanical Essence near the heart's wound, clearly indicating that it had been the work of the Eternal Mechanical Race.
This portion of the Eternal Essence had no Eternal Will remnants because the Eternal being who had acted was still alive.
The other wounds, whose Eternal Wills likely perished, allowed the unique horn of the Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf to easily erase the memories of these remaining Eternal Wills. The wolf then used its own body to nourish these fading Wills.
Why did the Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf do this before its death? Rosen suspected it was trying to enslave these Eternal beings.
According to his analysis, the enslavement source seed should be inside the horn. If left for countless years, the enslavement source seed could fully dominate these remaining Eternal Wills. If the Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf were to revive, it could use these remaining Wills to resurrect the corresponding Eternal beings.
If that happened, the Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf could enslave dozens of Eternal beings by itself, making it potentially stronger than ancient gods.
Thus, Rosen suspected that the Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf had left behind a revival contingency plan.
However, the Eternal Mechanical Race had come and taken the heart, cutting off its future.
As for why they didn't take the entire body, it couldn't be that the Eternal Mechanical Race didn't value the Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf. After all, many cosmic forbidden zones had preserved its remains, untouched by the living Eternal beings. It was clear that the body must contain some method related to Eternal life.
Death was not the end; many powers did not weaken after death but instead grew stronger.
If Rosen were an Eternal being, he would understand that if he didn't want his body to be used as nourishment after death, he would leave behind methods to ensure anyone trying to seize his remains would be dragged down with him.
Eternal beings could do nothing to the Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf's body, and Rosen realized he had been too naive.
Using his Origin Mother Worms, he couldn't harm the body of the Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf.
However, he didn't walk away empty-handed. Rosen manipulated the Origin Mother Worms to focus on the heart area of the Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf. The mechanical essence here wouldn't harm the Origin Mother Worms, and the damaged cells presented a chance to try parasitism.
Sure enough, this time, he succeeded. The Origin Mother Worms burrowed into the damaged cells and began to root.
Once rooted, there were two choices: to split new Origin Mother Worms or to let them bloom and bear fruit.
Rosen chose to have the parasitic Origin Mother Worm, which had settled into a damaged cell, quickly sprout, bloom, and bear fruit, resulting in an Origin Fruit.
When the Origin Fruit split open, it revealed a core covered in countless black lines.
Using the Eternal Omniscience through other Origin Mother Worms, he carefully identified the properties of the core.
[Soul-Binding Fruit Core: Extraordinary Item]
[Level: Sequence 0]
[Attributes: It can consume the Soul-Binding Fruit Core to forcibly extract the soul of Sequence 0 and enslave its Divine Essence.]
The attributes weren't great, and it was a one-time use extraordinary item.
However, it was important to note that this was only the result of the Origin Mother Worms absorbing nutrients from a single damaged cell.
Soon, all the damaged cells of the Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf had been parasitized by the Origin Mother Worms.
But Rosen didn't continue having the Origin Mother Worms bloom and bear fruit. Instead, he had them gather more nutrients by expanding the roots and then joined all the roots together to eat each other. Only then did the fruit begin to sprout, bloom, and bear fruit.
This time, the growth wasn't natural. Instead, it was directed and shaped by Eternal Genesis.
As the Origin Fruit grew and cracked open, a miniature version of the Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf emerged, resembling a tiny Origin Mother Worm.
Although it was tiny, it was undoubtedly of the same origin as the Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf.
Under Rosen's control, this little creature successfully bit into the normal body cells of the Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf.
Using the plan to consume the Eternal Life's corpse with the Eternal Essence of the roots, it succeeded.
However, the efficiency was slow. It would probably take hundreds or even thousands of years to consume just a single piece of flesh from the Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf.
If Rosen hoped to use this to ascend to become an Immortal Godfiend, it would likely take tens of thousands of years.
For a Great True God, this time wasn't considered short, but it was certainly not unbearable.
However, compared to the awakening period of the Ancient Gods, this time is far too long.Therefore, Rosen now needs to make a decision: return to the Ancient God World to retrieve the plundered source fragments and speed up the consumption of the Eternal Soulbinding Wolf's corpse, or stay here in the Soulbinding Forbidden Zone and ignore the Ancient God World, remaining dormant for several hundred thousand years?Choosing the former means both danger and opportunity, while the latter almost has no risk but a long reward time.
If it weren't for the World Intentions, Rosen would choose the latter.
But if the World Intentions succeed, they might target the Soulbinding Forbidden Zone.Even if there were no subsequent conflict between both sides, the Soulbinding Forbidden Zone is too close to the Ancient God World.
If the Ancient Gods awaken and come knocking, wouldn't he be waiting to die here?
After considering, Rosen decided to return to the Ancient God World.
However, he wouldn't abandon the Soulbinding Forbidden Zone entirely. He would leave behind the Rootworm Mother. If his main body falls in the Ancient God World, these Rootworm Mothers will serve as his resurrection and rebirth backup. The more such backups, the better, so he cannot neglect other cosmic forbidden zones.
Although he was preparing to leave, Rosen still planned to make one last move before departure.
There are many Immortal Godfiends trapped on the floating continents within the Soulbinding Forbidden Zone.None of these Immortal Godfiends were born locally; they were all swallowed by the Eternal Soulbinding Wolf when it was still alive, and thus have been alive for countless years. They could significantly speed up his progress to become an Immortal Godfiend.
After careful selection, Rosen identified the most suitable target for action.
This target was the farthest from the Eternal Soulbinding Wolf's corpse and the closest to the World Barrier of the Eternal World.
Even if he woke the Eternal Soulbinding Wolf, he would have enough time to slip into the Void Soul Realm formed by the World Barrier.
...
The continent floating in the void for millions of miles, with a square and round sky, was named Butterfly Dance Continent by Rosen the moment he saw it.
In the sky, countless floating islands were scattered like stars. On the ground, endless seas of flowers competed in beauty.
Countless butterflies fluttered among the flowers, and when they rose with the wind, their scattered scales gave the invisible breeze a color. The sunlight refracted through this breeze, painting the world in dazzling, multicolored hues.
When Rosen saw the Butterfly Dance Continent for the first time, he hesitated for a moment, unwilling to destroy such beauty.
His left hand manifested the Creator's Sketchbook, flipping it open and taking the Creator's Divine Pen to start drawing.Soon, Butterfly Dance Continent appeared on the page, forming a spiritual masterpiece that reached the level of a true god.
After finishing the last stroke, Rosen did not hesitate to mark the center of the painting.
The source of Eternal Primordial Energy immediately filled the entire painting, then transformed into countless Rootworm Mothers descending from the painting into reality.
More and more butterflies were parasitized by the Rootworm Mothers, their nutrients drained and transformed into colorful ashes, which then provided the nutrients for the Rootworm Mothers to split, allowing them to parasitize more butterflies in the world.
In just a few moments, one-tenth of the butterflies on Butterfly Dance Continent had perished, and the dust left behind completely blocked the sunlight.
This attack finally alerted the Immortal Godfiends trapped on Butterfly Dance Continent.
Countless butterflies, like numerous cells, scattered and reformed at will. In the blink of an eye, they merged into a massive, multicolored butterfly that blocked out the sky. The awakened Eternal Will immediately enveloped the entire Butterfly Dance Continent and gathered the light from the continent.
The Butterfly Dance Continent was instantly plunged into eternal night, with only a thin line of five-colored radiance piercing through the darkness.
Despite his preparations, Rosen couldn't evade it. The Butterfly Dance painting he had detached from the Creator's Sketchbook was instantly torn apart, and the power remained undiminished, striking between his brows like a laser, slowly burning through his skin and cracking his skull.
Just as the skull was about to be cleaved open by the five-colored radiance, the Immortal Crown finally appeared above his head, blocking the subsequent damage.
Rosen was both startled and overjoyed. He had chosen Butterfly Dance Continent because the Immortal Godfiend trapped here was one of the three Immortal Godfiends in the Soulbinding Forbidden Zone who had mastered source kinds. The stronger the power, the stronger the source kind they controlled.
He drew the Celestial Bow, nocking a Divine Arrow of Apocalypse and locking onto the Immortal Soulbinding Butterfly, ready to shoot.
However, faced with the Divine Arrow of Apocalypse, the Immortal Soulbinding Butterfly instantly scattered and transformed into trillions of butterflies, dispersing into the Butterfly Dance Continent.
The Divine Arrow lost its target, splitting into countless arrow shadows and transforming into a rain of arrows that enveloped the Butterfly Dance Continent.
Yet, just as the Divine Arrow's power dispersed, the Immortal Soulbinding Butterfly, having transformed into trillions of butterflies, quickly reassembled into a massive butterfly that blocked the arrows effortlessly.
Rosen had never encountered such a situation where the Divine Arrow of Apocalypse was so easily neutralized.
However, he now knew what source kind the Immortal Soulbinding Butterfly had mastered.
It was the Source of Aggregation and Dispersal, which explained why the butterfly's body could be scattered into countless butterflies or aggregated back into its true form at such high speed. Only someone who mastered the Aggregation-Dispersal Source could achieve such feats.
Previously, it was the compression of the entire continent's light into a line that almost pierced through the Immortal World's skull he had formed.
The Divine Arrow of Apocalypse's fatal lock was also dispersed by the Immortal Soulbinding Butterfly through the Aggregation-Dispersal Source. If the Divine Arrow didn't split into arrow rain, it would only kill a few insignificant butterflies.
And as the Divine Arrow dispersed, the Immortal Soulbinding Butterfly reformed its true body and easily blocked the damage from the arrow rain.
The Immortal Soulbinding Butterfly, having mastered the Aggregation-Dispersal Source, could freely scatter and aggregate like water, making it nearly immune to all damage on the material plane.
The scales on the Immortal Soulbinding Butterfly's wings instantly shed and then gathered into a speck of dust-sized, five-colored powder. It then fused with the countless rays of light scattered across the world, and once again, the world plunged into eternal night. The five-colored powder, infused with light, locked onto Rosen once more.
The Immortal Crown blocked the five-colored light, but when faced with the five-colored powder, it melted like butter in molten iron.
Almost instantly, the Immortal Crown nearly melted, and Rosen could only summon the Glorious Throne to block the counterattack of the Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly. Unable to resist, he had no choice but to activate the Root Mother to strike back. He had believed that the Root Mother, which had already fused with every cell of the Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly, would seriously injure his opponent.
However, an unexpected scene unfolded. The Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly instantly scattered into countless butterflies before dispersing further.
Each minuscule butterfly broke down into fundamental particles, many times smaller than a cell.
The Root Mother had been parasitizing cells, but now that the cells had dispersed into particles, the Root Mother lost its host.
At this moment, the particles reformed into the Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly. Its size had decreased slightly, but it had completely broken free from the Root Mother.
The counterattack from the Root Mother was easily defeated, and a more terrifying retaliation from the Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly arrived.
The Eternal Will that had shrouded the Butterfly Dance Continent compressed in an instant, forcefully shattering the Creator Domain that Rosen had already set up, even penetrating the defenses of the Glorious Throne and the Immortal Crown, directly smashing through the walls of the Divine Book Room and entering the Sea of Consciousness.
Inside the Sea of Consciousness, the Eternal Will dispersed into countless will butterflies, spreading across every corner of the Sea of Consciousness and gnawing away at Rosen's consciousness.
If it weren't for the fusion between the Divine Book Room and the Sea of Consciousness, this blow would have severely damaged his Sea of Consciousness.
It was only then that Rosen realized he might have chosen the wrong opponent.
This Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly was undoubtedly the strongest immortal godfiend he had ever faced in direct combat.
It was likely that only the World Will could overpower the Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly.
The Eternal Omniscience's incorrect judgment of the Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly's strength was entirely due to how thoroughly the butterfly had dispersed its power, causing the initial strength estimation to be wrong. Continuing the battle and disturbing the Eternal Soul Devouring Wolf was almost inevitable.
Rosen was already considering retreat, but the Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly did not let him go.
The space around him began to warp and condense, shrinking the distance of countless miles to just a single inch.
In an instant, Rosen appeared in the mouth of the Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly.
He had expected to be swallowed, but instead, the butterfly instantly scattered. By the time it reformed, it had settled upon his body, forming a beautiful butterfly tattoo that fused into his skin through the power of "Condensation and Dispersion."
The most terrifying ability of the Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly, Soul Devour, after being enhanced by Condensation and Dispersion, began to forcibly drain his divinity.
If this continued, his life essence would be polluted, and his divinity drained.
Escape was no longer an option. Both sides had reached a point where one would surely die.
Rosen immediately dove into the Snake Mother's Gourd. The right eyelid of the Eternal Soul Devouring Wolf, which had almost opened, fell back into silence.
Any greater movement would awaken the Eternal Soul Devouring Wolf.
Inside the Snake Mother's Gourd, the Eternal Immortal Vine merged with the Ancient God Chains to seal Rosen in layers.
At that moment, the Compatible Source Seed, which he had not planned to use, also merged with his body, forcing his skin to adapt and integrate with the Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly. Through this compatibility, combined with the terrifying learning ability of the Creator Scholar, he quickly acquired some of the Condensation and Dispersion ability.
While it was weaker than the Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly's, it was enough to suppress it to some degree.
The Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly continued to devour Rosen's divinity, and even the butterfly tattoos that had fused into his skin released countless scales and powder, polluting his body. But Rosen fought back by using the Root Mother transformed from his cells to reverse parasitize, while also integrating the Eternal Fallen Origin into his divinity.
If the Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly dared to devour his divinity, then let's see who dies first—the Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly or himself.
Both sides began a brutal battle at the cellular and divinity levels, with each trying to destroy the other's core.
At the start, Rosen was almost completely at a disadvantage.
The Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly could gather all its power into a single point and effortlessly break through the surface with that point.
But Rosen wasn't defenseless. The Eternal Wisdom suppressed the wisdom of the Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly, Eternal Information disrupted its control over the scales and powder, Eternal Flames gathered national luck to strengthen him, and Eternal Omniscience was constantly seeking weaknesses.
Then, Eternal Corruption gradually caused the Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly's instincts to overpower its reason, and combined with the intelligence suppression of Eternal Wisdom, the Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly began to lose its intelligence, becoming more and more like a wild beast driven purely by instinct.
Rosen even turned into a mechanical lifeform, using it to suppress the damage done by the scales and powder to his body.
He also merged the Dream Origin Seed into the Sea of Consciousness, using the Dream to neutralize most of the damage aimed at his consciousness.
Thus, starting from an absolute disadvantage, Rosen slowly began to turn the tide.
The Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly sensed something was wrong and tried to break free from the battle.
However, the seal of the Eternal Immortal Vine could not be underestimated, and the compatibility made it nearly impossible for them to separate. With the suppression of the Snake Mother's Gourd, the Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly found itself trapped in a situation where it could neither escape nor fight back.
In the short term, Rosen couldn't overcome the Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly because its defense was too formidable.
Anything, even air, became indestructible after being compressed by the Condensation Source Seed.
But using the Source Seed's power consumed an enormous amount of Eternal Origin.
The Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly, trapped for countless years, had only a limited supply of Eternal Condensation Origin.
Once the Eternal Origin could no longer keep up with the consumption, the Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly would be left defenseless.
With the Snake Mother's Gourd accelerating time by a factor of a thousand, Rosen began to engage in a war of attrition with the Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly.
After hundreds of years of stalemate, the Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly finally couldn't hold on anymore.
The Root Mother began reverse-parasitizing, and the Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly could only watch helplessly as it was slowly consumed.
As death loomed, the Immortal Soul Devouring Butterfly gave up the fight entirely.
Rather than being consumed bit by bit, it preferred a quick and painless death to avoid further torment.
In the end, total destruction was a form of release after being trapped for so many years.
(End of Chapter)