"What a powerful Immortal Godfiend..." Rosen felt lingering fear as he sensed the eternal will of the Immortal Soul-Devouring Butterfly dissipate.
He had originally thought that below the Eternal level, there would be no true opponents. Now it seemed that it was only because the Immortal Godfiends he had encountered before weren't strong enough.
If it hadn't been trapped for countless years and lacked Eternal origin, he and the Immortal Soul-Devouring Butterfly might have been locked in battle for tens of thousands of years without being able to determine life or death.
Although the Immortal Soul-Devouring Butterfly was now dead, the enslaving will within its body had landed on him.
According to his original plan, he would have beaten the trapped Immortal Godfiend to the brink of death, then manipulated a manufactured mechanical lifeform to deliver the final blow. The mechanical lifeform would have taken the place of the Immortal Godfiend, remaining trapped within the Soul-Binding Forbidden Zone, while he escaped with the spoils.
He hadn't expected the Immortal Soul-Devouring Butterfly to be so entangled with him, leaving no chance for anyone else to land the killing blow.
Now, the enslaving will of the Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf had already started to seep into his divine origin.
Although it was currently being suppressed by the power of other origin seeds, the enslaving will was growing stronger and increasingly harder to contain.
After thinking for a moment, Rosen released an Eternal clone, Zhu Rong, to bear the brunt of the enslaving will's imprisonment.
The enslaving will tried to flow from the Eternal clone back to the main body, but Rosen used the power of Eternal compatibility to forcibly fuse the enslaving will deep into the Eternal clone. Then, the main body boarded the Doomsday Ark and set off to leave the Soul-Binding Forbidden Zone.
The farther the main body moved from the Eternal clone, the harder it became for the enslaving will to affect him.
On the way back, the Black Wolf King boarded the ship and handed over a considerable number of Source Soul Crystals.
Since the Black Wolf King had killed far too many and was now beyond redemption, Rosen sent him through the Interdimensional Gate to the Eternal clone. He tasked him with guarding the Eternal clone, which only had the strength of a deity. He didn't want the Eternal clone to be devoured by the Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf.
When he was nearing the exit of the Soul-Binding Forbidden Zone, Rosen put away the Doomsday Ark and transformed into the Black Wolf King.
The entrance to the Soul-Binding Forbidden Zone had been heavily guarded, but there were no inspections when leaving.
Rosen easily left the Soul-Binding Forbidden Zone. Once he had moved far away, he boarded the Doomsday Ark again and headed toward an adjacent cosmic forbidden zone.
Under a thousandfold time acceleration, with the assistance of compatible origin seeds, he quickly digested all the gains from hunting the Immortal Soul-Devouring Butterfly.
First was his divine origin. Although there was no qualitative change, its quantity had nearly doubled.
Next, Rosen voluntarily shed a layer of skin. This layer merged with the Immortal Soul-Devouring Butterfly's body to form an extraordinary artifact.
化蝶羽衣 (Butterfly Metamorphosis Robe): Extraordinary Artifact.
Level: Immortal Godfiend.
Immortal Attribute: Can disperse and offset all damage borne by the Butterfly Metamorphosis Robe.
Immortal Trait: Immortal Metamorphosis.
Rosen put on the Butterfly Metamorphosis Robe and tested its defense— even an Apocalypse Bone Arrow couldn't break through it.
Moreover, its unique miracle trait, Immortal Metamorphosis, allowed the Butterfly Metamorphosis Robe to merge into his skin, transforming his very life essence into that of the Immortal Soul-Devouring Butterfly. Not only did he gain the innate abilities of the Immortal Soul-Devouring Butterfly, but the robe also acquired a living, evolving quality.
If he one day ascended to Eternal life, the Butterfly Metamorphosis Robe would evolve with him into an Eternal Relic.
Aside from the Butterfly Metamorphosis Robe, Rosen's greatest gain was the Aggregation-Diffusion origin seed.
He had thought it would be like giving wings to a tiger, but it turned out to be mere embellishment.
Though he also possessed the Aggregation-Diffusion origin seed, the Immortal Soul-Devouring Butterfly could disperse into particles, while he could only disperse into cells, already pushing himself to the limit.
This made Rosen realize that merely possessing an origin seed was just the foundation. How long had he even mastered this origin seed? Compared to the Immortal Soul-Devouring Butterfly, he was clearly overestimating himself a bit. He understood this clearly, which was why he aimed to compensate with quantity over quality.
Of course, quantity could only make his path smoother in the short term; how far he could truly go would still depend on quality.
As time passed, the more Rosen mastered the Aggregation-Diffusion origin seed, the more satisfied he became.
Although his application was inferior to that of the Immortal Soul-Devouring Butterfly, the other origin seeds he had mastered could all synergize with the Aggregation-Diffusion seed, greatly enhancing the strength of all his abilities.
This wasn't because he was lucky, but because the Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf had excellent judgment.
To the peak Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf, Immortal Godfiends were probably only good as food.
An Immortal Godfiend personally imprisoned by the Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf would certainly have had some remarkable aspects in its mastered origin seeds.
It was just that the source seeds of ordinary immortal godfiends might not have as strong an effect on the Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf.
That was why he raised an Immortal Soul-Devouring Butterfly. After all, once the original owner of an acquired source seed perished, the upper limit of the acquired source seed's power would be locked. This was something Rosen had learned when comparing it with the Root Source Seed. Among the source seeds he currently controlled, only the Root Source Seed was continuously growing stronger.
As for the other source seeds, although their powers were increasing, there was no sign that their upper limits had changed at all.
Rosen sensed the Eternal Clone far away in the Soul-Binding Forbidden Zone. Due to the barrier of the Eternal World, their connection had already been cut off.
This was not exactly a good thing. If the original and the clone were disconnected, it was possible for the clone to turn against him and take control.
Rosen integrated the Gather-Scatter Source Seed into the Eternal Godhood. Then, using the Gather-Scatter Source Seed to strengthen and gather all things, he combined it with the Compatibility Source Seed, merging the power of the Information Source Seed and the Dream Source Seed to sense the state of his Eternal Clone.
Sure enough, the previously severed connection was now intermittently reestablished.
With that, he no longer had to worry about being unaware of any incidents in the Soul-Binding Forbidden Zone, nor did he have to worry about the Eternal Clone encountering problems.
Through the dream, he could even transfer some of the Gather-Scatter Source Seed's power over there, allowing the Root Source Motherworm lurking inside the Eternal Soul-Binding Wolf to further gather and compress the originally united power through the Gather-Scatter Source Seed.
...
In the blink of an eye, the Doomsday Ark had been traveling through the cosmic void for two months and finally arrived at the Icefeather Supercluster.
Dominating this supercluster were the Icefeather Clan, who also resided in the Twelfth Star Ring.
All the stars in the entire supercluster had been frozen and extinguished. This was a forbidden zone for flesh-and-blood lifeforms, but a holy land for ice-element energy beings. Although the Icefeather Clan's ability to wage external wars was not as strong as the Skywolf Clan's, their internal defensive capabilities far surpassed the Skywolf Clan's.
The Icefeather Clan had never built transcendent star systems; their home base was located in the Frostsky Forbidden Zone.
Over ninety percent of the Eternal Worlds within the Frostsky Forbidden Zone were under the control of the Icefeather Clan.
Rosen originally planned to bypass the Frostsky Forbidden Zone. After all, with the Icefeather Clan so close, it would be difficult to lay down any contingencies here.
However, since he had to pass by on his way to another cosmic forbidden zone anyway, he figured he might as well take a look. It wouldn't delay anything.
He was especially curious as to why the Icefeather Clan dared to dwell inside the Frostsky Forbidden Zone.
Since almost all of the Icefeather Clan was inside the Frostsky Forbidden Zone, the entrances and exits were heavily guarded.
Passing through the main road was out of the question, so he had to find another path.
Just like the Ancient God World, the Frostsky Forbidden Zone constantly absorbed the world source from the Origin Dark Sea. As a result, there was an astonishing amount of world source energy gathered around the world barriers, naturally attracting many Origin Beasts to live nearby.
The entrances and exits of cosmic forbidden zones were relatively safe only because they were located in the cosmic starry sky, not in the Origin Dark Sea.
World source energy was thin there, and Origin Beasts would not leave the Origin Dark Sea.
If Rosen wanted to enter or exit from another place on the world barrier, he would have to fight his way through the Origin Beasts along the route.
He never considered sneaking past, because no one could guarantee what abilities the Origin Beasts they encountered might possess.
If he were discovered, he would be surrounded and trapped with no way out.
It was better to directly fight through. If he couldn't, then he would simply have to gamble with his life.
The life of an immortal godfiend was incomparably precious. That was also why the Skywolf Clan and Icefeather Clan only needed to guard the entrances and exits of the cosmic forbidden zones.
Rosen intended to force his way through the Origin Beast blockade, but such actions would cause considerable commotion.
If the Icefeather Clan was prepared for this, entering would be walking into a trap.
So charging through recklessly was definitely not an option. After weighing his options for a long time, Rosen finally brought out all the True Blood he had on hand.
The most precious among them was the Ancient God True Blood condensed from the Tenfold Annihilation and the Heart of the Ancient God. Then came the Immortal True Blood extracted from Origin Beasts by the Immortal Holy Grail. He took all the True Blood he had accumulated and merged it into the Dark Sun Slime.
As his earliest pet to become a god, the Dark Sun Slime's strength had stalled ever since it became a true god in the King's Game.
The reason was simple. The Dark Sun Slime was an Eternal Follower. Its growth requirements were as high as those of the Eternal Sequence, with a growth potential of 15 points. The resources it needed for advancement were almost as much as what Rosen himself required. Therefore, even though the Dark Sun Slime had immense potential, it could only stagnate at the true god level.
Rosen fused the Gather-Scatter Source Seed into the Dark Sun Slime and parasitized every one of its cells with a Root Source Motherworm.
He then used his consciousness to possess the Dark Sun Slime and transform it into his own appearance, instantly dispersing into countless Dark Sun Slimes at the cellular level.
The number of Dark Sun Slimes was uncountable, and individually, their strength was far inferior even to a Sequence 9.
Normally, Dark Sun Slimes of such strength wouldn't be able to survive in the Origin Dark Sea at all.
So Rosen used Eternal Compatibility to assimilate all the Dark Sun Slimes into the world source.
Only then did he stir up a tidal wave of energy that swept all the Dark Sun Slimes toward the Frostsky Forbidden Zone.
Along the way, most of the Dark Sun Slimes that had merged into the world source were swallowed by the Origin Beasts they encountered.
Inside the bodies of these Origin Beasts, the Dark Sun Slimes recombined and, together with the Root Source Motherworms, parasitized the Origin Beasts from within.
In this manner, almost all the Origin Beasts along the way were parasitized by the Dark Sun Slimes.
The less than ten percent of Dark Sun Slimes that remained eventually, driven by the surging world source energy, managed to enter the world barrier of the Frostsky Forbidden Zone.
The reformed Dark Sun Slime had only the strength of a mere deity realm left.Temporarily abandoning ninety percent of its body, it had finally managed to infiltrate successfully.
Rosen had considered not using the Scatter Source Seed to disperse into countless fragments, but without doing so, it would have been extremely difficult to deceive the Primordial Behemoth. Only by becoming weak enough could he pass unnoticed. As long as the Dark Sun Slime remained whole, it would have been impossible to sneak in silently.
At this moment, the Eternal Will attached to the Dark Sun Slime's sea of consciousness began to manipulate it into a deep sleep.
Then, using it as a coordinate, Rosen constructed a bridge through the Information Source Seed and the Dream Source Seed.
This bridge was extremely fragile and weak, after all, it needed to cross the world barrier of the Eternal World to be effective.
If Rosen's true body had tried to cross this bridge directly, it would have been impossible in the past.
But now, with the Scatter Source Seed, he could split into countless clones at the cellular level. Countless cell clones slowly made their way along the bridge into the Dark Sun Slime's dreamscape. It took over half a month for all the clones to fully arrive.
Rosen then gathered all the cell clones, reconstructed his true body, and silently infiltrated the Frostfall Forbidden Zone.
The temperature near the world barrier wasn't low, because the world's origin energy needed to pass through the barrier to integrate into the Frostfall Forbidden Zone.
However, once the Doomsday Ark crossed the endless void of the world barrier and truly entered the interior of the Eternal World, the temperature immediately dropped to a level that could freeze all things. Yet, the Frostfall Forbidden Zone was not frozen over. Instead, it was a pure water world, with no other matter visible aside from water.
Rosen tested it and found that no liquid would freeze within the Frostfall Forbidden Zone.
The entire Eternal World had a diameter of less than 0.1 light-years, and its total area was less than one percent of the Ancient God World.
Compared to the Soulbinding Forbidden Zone, its size was even more insignificant. However, the Frostfall Forbidden Zone was a material world with substance. It was not like the Ancient God World, which resembled a flattened paper world. The Frostfall Forbidden Zone was more like a water droplet, with the upper half being water clouds and the lower half being ocean.
Even though the temperature was lower than absolute zero, there were no conditions for seawater to evaporate and form clouds.
Yet the Icefeather Clan actively decomposed seawater and blew it into the sky, creating water clouds.
Countless Icefeather Clan members lived in this simple and pure environment.
The Icefeather Clan's civilization, by the standards of the universe, was undoubtedly among the most primitive.
Rosen used the Eye of the Creator to observe for several days but could not find the corpse of the Frostfall Holy God.
Unable to locate it, he prepared to leave behind some Origin Broodmothers before departing.
Even his Eternal Avatars couldn't stay, because he discovered they couldn't transform into members of the Icefeather Clan.
However, just as he was about to leave, he realized he had already become trapped within the Frostfall Forbidden Zone.
The further he moved away from the inner world toward the world barrier, the more terrifying the low temperatures became.
The Doomsday Ark hadn't even completely left and was already frozen solid in the void.
Rosen's blood froze, each cell frozen stiff. His body, transformed from his Immortal World, couldn't resist the freezing temperature. Even his sea of consciousness had begun to freeze bit by bit.
When he retreated back into the Frostfall Forbidden Zone, the freezing force gradually weakened.
Rosen already understood where the Frostfall Holy God's corpse was.
Unlike the Eternal Soulbinding Wolf, an eternal being with flesh and blood, the Frostfall Holy God was likely a naturally born elemental lifeform. The cold that shrouded the entire Frostfall Forbidden Zone was probably the corpse of the Frostfall Holy God itself. Because the corpse was omnipresent, it was nearly impossible to detect.
To escape, he needed to use the Scatter Source Seed to gather the cold energy together.
Once gathered, the cold would no longer be omnipresent and could no longer block his departure from the Frostfall Forbidden Zone.
However, doing so would undoubtedly alarm the Icefeather Clan.
Facing the Icefeather Clan's immortal gods and demons in such an environment would be several times more troublesome than facing the Immortal Soul-devouring Butterfly.
Moreover, the immortal gods and demons of the Icefeather Clan would have no fear of a war of attrition in such an environment.
Rosen could hardly imagine how he could possibly defeat the progenitor of the Icefeather Clan.
Yet it seemed that avoiding battle would be impossible. He suspected he had already been discovered by the progenitor. After all, through the Eye of the Creator, he hadn't detected any sign that the progenitor had an independent Immortal World. It was highly likely that the entire Frostfall Forbidden Zone itself was the progenitor's Immortal World.
He should have realized it earlier. After all, when hunting the Immortal Soul-devouring Butterfly, he had not obtained an Immortal World either.
Lacking an Immortal World had been one of the reasons why the Immortal Soul-devouring Butterfly had been defeated so quickly.
In the case of the Soulbinding Wolf, it made sense—the wolf had already fused its Immortal World into the Soulbinding Forbidden Zone when imprisoning the Immortal Soul-devouring Butterfly. But the progenitor of the Icefeather Clan similarly had no Immortal World. The most likely explanation was that it had voluntarily merged with the Frostfall Forbidden Zone.
Since he had already been discovered, the only reason there had been no immediate attack must be because the Icefeather Clan's progenitor was preparing in secret.
Rosen couldn't afford to wait until the progenitor was fully prepared. Without hesitation, he borrowed the Eternal Shapeshift from the Dark Sun Slime, transforming himself into a three-legged Golden Crow, unleashing an endless torrent of sunlight to illuminate the pitch-black Frostfall Forbidden Zone.
(End of Chapter)