In the Mysterious Study Room, Rosen stood by the window, watching the retreating galaxy clusters of the supercluster beyond.
His deal with the Immortal Star God had both good and bad outcomes.
The Stellar Source Seed had already been placed in the True Realm of the Ancient Gods after being sealed off in layers.
Although its core control ultimately belonged to the Immortal Star God, that didn't prevent Rosen from utilizing its power.
It was hard to say who got the better deal.
Because Blue Star turned out to be far more important than he had imagined.
The secrets of Blue Star were tied to the origin of eternal lifeforms.
Eternal lifeforms were born at the dawn of the universe. In the very beginning, there was no starry sky, no endless void—only the Primordial Dark Sea. Naturally, eternal life emerged from the Dark Sea. But no one knew why the Dark Sea could give birth to such beings.
If the universe did not arise from nothing, then there must be something—or someone—that created it.
Whether created by a higher intelligence or by nature, there should be a broader world beyond this universe.
Yet eternal lifeforms were bound to the universe and couldn't leave it. All their innate source seeds were linked to the Sea of Origin. If they strayed too far from it toward the universe's edge, they would weaken—and might even completely perish.
And not just temporarily die—perish without the possibility of resurrection, their eternal wills within the source seeds erased.
The universe was vast, and even for immortal gods and demons, it would take hundreds of millions of years to explore.
But for eternal beings, billions of years had passed—leaving almost no secrets left in the universe.
To them, a universe without secrets was nothing more than a prison.
Therefore, all eternal lifeforms spared no effort in probing the universe's origin—and the existence beyond it.
The more they searched, the more clues they uncovered.
The Eternal Soulbinding Horn was likely the greatest discovery of the Eternal Soulbinding Wolf.
And the Ancient Gods' greatest discovery was Blue Star, a uniquely special planet they found in the universe.
Blue Star was a living planet, one that barely qualified as a transcendental star—and even that status was extremely weak.
Across the entire planet, the emergence of a Sequence 9 individual was nearly impossible.
Yet paradoxically, Blue Star had been rated as the only transcendental star of eternal level in the entire universe.
That was because it had a natural time loop, cycling from birth to destruction.
Even more astonishing, this time loop naturally carried time acceleration, and that acceleration could even affect eternal lifeforms.
The Ancient Gods once worked with some eternal beings to study Blue Star—but none could determine what energy source it used to maintain this acceleration.
The Immortal Star God had once been among the researchers invited to study Blue Star.
He coveted Blue Star—and that was why he had been slain by the Ancient Gods in the Ancient God World.
But the Immortal Star God wasn't entirely unprepared. During his research, he had secretly stolen a small portion of Blue Star's stellar source, which allowed him to locate it even after the Ancient Gods had hidden it.
Sword True God was merely a pawn of the Immortal Star God in his reincarnation—a foot soldier helping him reclaim Blue Star.
But unexpectedly, even with the Starshooter Ballista, things fell apart—and the item ended up in Rosen's hands by sheer coincidence.
At least, it was supposedly by coincidence.
But Rosen didn't buy it.
He suspected the Immortal Star God had been watching him for a long time, and had used the Sword True God to deliver the Ballista to him. The goal was to use him to find the hidden Blue Star.
Whatever the Immortal Star God was planning—Rosen still couldn't see through it.
But he was certain of one thing: the Immortal Star God knew far more about Blue Star's origin and secrets than he let on.
He simply wasn't saying—and Rosen couldn't force him to talk.
The Doomsday Ark was now on its return voyage to the Ancient God World.
The Flame-Heaven Sacred Serpent wrapped around the Ark, ramming through the Primordial Dark Sea, breaking through the blockade of primordial beasts.
The primordial beasts of the Tenth Star Ring were mostly equivalent to True Gods. A few matched the strength of Great True Gods. But those who could grow to the level of immortal gods and demons were exceptionally rare. Otherwise, the Great True Gods who escaped the Ancient God World would have had no chance of advancing to that level.
When Rosen had departed before, he had to use Tenfold Oblivion to clear out the primordial beasts at the gate of the Ancient God World.
By the time Rosen returned, he was already able to charge through by brute force and slaughter his way back.
Before crossing the boundary of the world wall, Rosen retracted the Flame-Heaven Sacred Serpent to avoid alerting the slumbering Ancient Gods.
The Doomsday Ark continued to descend and soon arrived at the Star Realm, then further descended to land atop Mount Myriad Gods.
Although he had done everything possible to conceal the Doomsday Ark's movements, it still couldn't escape the World Will's perception. As soon as he arrived, the World Will had already descended from the Spirit Realm to the peak of Mount Myriad Gods.
After the Doomsday Ark entered the Ancient God World, Rosen reconnected with his true body and his avatar, whose link had previously been severed by the Ancient God World's blockade.
He had only been gone a few years, but the Ancient God World had already declined from prosperity into total apocalyptic collapse.
At first, the various races faced only natural disasters and man-made calamities.
Natural disasters could be endured, and man-made crises could be avoided through unity.
The civilizations of each race were all highly developed transcendental societies, educated and not ignorant.
So, while the beginning was indeed chaotic, chaos brought casualties, and casualties brought pain. Moreover, the death of transcendents not only ceased their consumption of resources, but their bodies themselves became resources. Once the resource shortages were alleviated, the chaos gradually settled.
But clearly, this wasn't the outcome the World Will desired. So next, the gods began to intervene. The followers of every god began, under divine instructions, to quietly incite war.
However, the number of followers was always a minority among the populations of each race.
In the past, for the sake of civilization's development, no gods would attempt to convert their entire populations into believers.
And those who had received higher education found it difficult to believe in gods with their whole hearts unless indoctrinated from childhood. When divine belief conflicted with survival, hostility toward the gods naturally emerged.
With no other choice, the gods had to stop manipulating their followers to start wars.
Because what the World Will and the gods needed was for all living beings to hate the world, to hate the Ancient Gods—not to turn their hatred against the gods themselves.
Rosen was absolutely sure the World Will had read some of those survival novels written by fiction authors.
After the gods failed, the World Will staged a full-blown Ragnarök.
All the gods and evil deities in the Star Realm enacted a grand drama of divine annihilation right before the eyes of all sentient races.
The result of this performance was that all gods either fell or entered slumber. Transcendents above Sequence 1 vanished entirely from the Ancient God World. The Star Realm was completely sealed off. Mortal churches lost contact with their gods, and evil god cultists also lost their support.
Without the interference of gods, the lives of mortals were bitter but safe.
Yet at this very moment, the World Will launched an apocalyptic catastrophe that engulfed the entire world—in the name of the Ancient Gods.
The Spirit Realm was once again connected to reality, and this time, it was a complete merger.
Endless spirit realm creatures surged into reality. The races united and received a "Survival System" granted by the World Will.
In the system's explanation, the World Tree was the creator of the world, the World Tree was the maker of all things. The Ancient Gods were foreign, eternal evil deities who killed the World Tree and seized the world. Now the Ancient Gods were awakening, and the World Tree, along with the World Will, had used the last of their strength to grant the races the Survival System so they could resist the Ancient Gods.
It was all a lie, treating all mortals like fools.
But without reaching a certain level, one could never access information about the Ancient Gods or the World Tree.
People's understanding of the world depends on how the powerful define the world.
If a country's laws say that killing is innocent and saving people is a crime, then over time, the people of that country will truly believe that killing is good and saving is bad. The definitions of good and evil have never been things common people have the right to decide.
Many had read Water Margin, and the story of Wu Dalang and Pan Jinlian was widely known.
But in history, the real Wu Dalang had been an upright and just magistrate, and Pan Jinlian was a noblewoman deeply in love with him.
Because of a single novel, Wu Dalang and Pan Jinlian's reputations were utterly ruined.
It's easy to spread rumors, but clearing one's name can never erase the misunderstanding in people's hearts.
Even though many now knew that Wu Dalang and Pan Jinlian were falsely accused, which respectable family would dare name their daughter Pan Jinlian?
So even if the World Will and the gods were acting, deceiving all sentient beings, no one had the power to expose these lies.
The appearance of the Survival System gave mortals a chance to breathe and something to rely on.
But it was just like boiling a frog in warm water—the Survival System turned all those painful trials that should have led to swift and certain death into a drawn-out torment, where death constantly loomed just behind. For the sake of their loved ones, people had no choice but to struggle for survival, making even the desire to die a kind of chronic suffering.
Under the torment of such suffering, intelligent beings were most prone to resentment—and even more so to the birth of evil thoughts.
Thus, morality had completely collapsed, and all beings now lived under a suffocating shroud of despair and hatred, caught in a state where they could neither survive peacefully nor die easily.
And the Ancient Gods, who were made scapegoats, naturally became the focus of hatred for all the races.
Even if the Ancient Gods were to step forward now and try to clear their names, the various races would absolutely refuse to believe them.
Because the judgment had already taken root. Because hatred for the Ancient Gods had already taken root in their hearts.
All of that hatred surged into the Spirit Realm, polluting the spirit realm formed from the sea of consciousness of the Ancient Gods.
As time went on, the deep sea of the Spirit Realm—the manifestation of the Ancient Gods' souls—would also become corrupted.
As for the divine essence origin of the Ancient Gods, that was even more susceptible to corruption. The divine origin of the Ancient Gods had manifested into all sentient life. And in order to survive, the races had to regard one another with hostility and fight for resources. All beings, immersed in this great vat of filth, continually polluted their own divine origins with the evil in their hearts.
"Looks like you've gained quite a lot from your journey through the stars."
The World Will studied Rosen with a mix of shock and uncertainty.
In the past, every time it met with Rosen, it could sense Rosen's cautious vigilance toward it.
That was the uncontrollable, genuine instinct of a weaker being in the presence of a stronger one.
But this time, it noticed Rosen no longer showed the same wariness as before. Clearly, Rosen had grown much stronger during the years he'd been away.
"I did gain quite a bit. On my return, I discovered that the true identity of the Immortal Star God is actually the Eternal Star God."
As Rosen spoke, he threw the Immortal Star God under the bus, diverting the World Will's attention.
Sure enough, the World Will immediately stopped focusing on Rosen. Compared to Rosen—still a Great True God—the Immortal Star God, as the reincarnation of the Eternal Star God, was a far greater threat. With the Immortal Star God's power, he could ruin their plans at any time and place.
"I'll find a way to deal with the Immortal Star God..." the World Will said after some contemplation. "You've seen the current state of the Ancient God World yourself. The resentment directed toward the Ancient Gods is still far from enough. So I want to borrow the Seed of Corruption to accelerate the descent of malice into the hearts of all living beings in the Ancient God World."
Rosen instinctively wanted to refuse, because lending out the Seed of Corruption was all harm and no benefit to him.
He already regretted giving away the Fertility Seed he had once drawn.
The beings of the Ancient God World had become what they were today—and the ones who suffered the most were clearly the Ancient Gods, followed by the tormented sentient races. As for the instigators like themselves, they could forget about staying uninvolved. The deeper they were involved, the more karmic entanglements would cling to them.
Rosen could now clearly feel how terrifyingly strong the karmic connection was between himself and the beings of the Ancient God World.
And the vast majority of that karma came from the Fertility Seed he had painted.
Though unwilling, after weighing the pros and cons, Rosen opened the Creator's Sketchbook and began painting on the spot.
He consumed a vast amount of Eternal Corruption Essence and drew a counterfeit Seed of Corruption.
Rosen had more karma tangled around him than most—but the World Will and Old Fisherman had even more on their shoulders.
That karma was certainly a hidden danger, but it was also the proof of their commitment to the cause.
If they wanted to sit back and contribute nothing, just waiting for others to finish the job...
Then when it came time to divide the spoils, why should they get a share?
"What exactly is your plan?" Rosen asked as he painted.
"You'll only know once you become an Immortal God-Demon," the World Will answered casually.
"I've already mastered Eternal Will," Rosen said as he released his Eternal Will. "I'm afraid I won't be able to ascend to Immortal God-Demon anytime soon. Both my Life Origin and Divinity Origin have reached 15 points. I used Tenfold Oblivion to devour a massive number of Origin Beasts, and still, I'm nowhere near a breakthrough."
The World Will stared at Rosen in shock. Only now did it realize that Rosen was far more terrifying than it had originally estimated.
It had thought, at most, Rosen's Life Origin had reached the Eternal Sequence. It hadn't expected even his Divinity Origin to reach the Eternal Sequence as well.
No wonder Rosen had such power even while still just a Great True God.
If Rosen truly managed to ascend to Immortal God-Demon, the World Will might not even be able to defeat him.
However, having such deep foundations wasn't necessarily a good thing for Rosen.For him, ascending to Immortal God-Demon was nearly impossible.
The Ancient God World lacked the resources needed for that breakthrough—only the Forbidden Zones of the universe might offer him the opportunity to progress further.
But seeing as Rosen had returned after just a few years, it was clear he had met with failure and retreated from the universe.
"Give me the Secret Brass Book."
The World Will no longer refused to disclose the full plan to Rosen.
Rosen took out the Secret Brass Book and handed it over. Soon after, the World Will left detailed records of the plan upon its pages.
After reading it, Rosen felt a chill run down his spine.
It wasn't that their plan was too good—on the contrary, it was far too flawed.
All the hatred of sentient beings had been concentrated on the Ancient Gods, which would only prolong the Ancient Gods' slumber.
Because if the Ancient Gods awakened under such conditions—if they wiped out all life to reclaim their divine essence—then all the evil thoughts of those beings would fuse into the Ancient Gods' divine origin. In such a scenario, even their Eternal Will would be tainted and turn malevolent.
Faced with such corrupting influence, the Ancient Gods would instinctively resist awakening.
But even in slumber, the Ancient Gods were not completely passive. They would instinctively seek self-preservation. Among the living beings of the Ancient God World, heroes were bound to emerge—favored by the Ancient Gods, rising with divine guidance, unstoppable like protagonists in a story.
Once those heroes righted the chaos in the Ancient God World, that would be the moment the Ancient Gods fully awakened.
During this window, while the Ancient Gods instinctively resisted awakening, they needed to be deliberately provoked into waking up.
The complete Eternal Will of the Ancient Gods—having been scattered among all life—could not awaken under such circumstances.
But the avatars of the Ancient Gods would not be affected by the masses.
Historically, the few times the Ancient Gods had been momentarily roused, it had never been their true bodies—but only their avatars.
And even these avatars carried the terrifying power to slay Eternal beings within the Ancient God World.
The World Will's plan was to bait and kill one of these Ancient God avatars, then seize the Plunder Seed and break it into fragments to divide among themselves.
Then, before the true Ancient God awakened, they would use the Plunder Seed fragments to rob the corpses of Eternal beings hidden in the Forbidden Zones of the universe.
After that, before the Ancient God fully awoke, they would return the fragments of the Plunder Seed back to the Ancient God World.
Finally, they would all go into hiding—gambling that the awakened Ancient God would neither find them, nor care enough to deal with them.
If that gamble failed, the outcome would be death at the hands of the awakened Ancient God, somewhere in the vast universe.
The hardest part of the entire plan was how to kill the Ancient God's avatar after provoking it.
It was only then that Rosen realized—Old Fisherman and the others were, without exception, all reincarnations of Eternal beings. Each held an Eternal-level trump card in hand. That was the only reason they dared to conspire with the World Will against an avatar of the Ancient God.
The method for dealing with the Immortal Star God was nothing more than recruiting him into their group.
But whether the Immortal Star God would agree was uncertain, since the Immortal Will had set its sights on Blue Star.
Of course, it wasn't out of the question either—because only if the Ancient God's avatar died would the Immortal Star God get a chance to seize Blue Star.
I really was trying to skin a tiger alive, Rosen mocked himself inwardly.
He had never imagined before that Old Fisherman and the others were all reincarnations of Eternal beings.
Now he understood why the World Will had never revealed the plan to him in the past.
When an ant climbs onto an elephant, the elephant doesn't even notice.
No matter how deep the evil thoughts of the beings in the Ancient God World ran, they posed no threat to the Ancient Gods as individuals. They couldn't cause true harm, so while the Ancient Gods might instinctively delay their awakening, their avatars wouldn't be provoked into awakening.
Because even the Ancient Gods were wary of their own avatars—afraid they might become a threat to their true selves.
But these people—they weren't ants. They were real threats to the Ancient Gods, capable of posing fatal danger even to an avatar. Their evil thoughts might genuinely stimulate the avatar into awakening. That was why the World Will had refused to share the plan earlier.
Only those who had mastered Eternal Will—capable of perfectly sealing off all their malice so none of it leaked—were qualified to know the plan, and to hunt an Ancient God's avatar.
(End of chapter)