In the Burning Heaven Supercluster, one after another, spatial wormholes flickered around the Burning Heaven Star Palace.
Immortal Gods and Devils from all corners of the universe continuously emerged through these spatial wormholes and arrived at the Burning Heaven Star Palace.
While the Immortal Gods and Devils of the Burning Heaven Star Palace could not say all of them had arrived, at least seven to eight out of ten had gathered.
Moreover, the Old Fisherman and the Immortal Particles had quietly appeared as well, since they too were part of the Burning Heaven Star Palace.
However, at this moment, they were hidden in corners, feeling heavy-hearted, for an uncontrollable anomaly had occurred in the Ancient God World.
The Ancient God had awakened. Though the awakening was brief, it had transferred all the resentment from the beings to the Ancient God's avatar.
They had not expected that the Ancient God's true form would be willing to sacrifice its avatar.
They also never imagined the Ancient God's avatar would break free from the Ancient God World and head straight toward the Burning Heaven Supercluster.
On its path, all superclusters were crushed by the Ancient God's avatar.
Now entangled in the resentment of all beings, the Ancient God's avatar had lost all rationality and was left with only the pure instinct for destruction.
What they didn't know was why the Ancient God's avatar was targeting the Burning Heaven Star Palace?
In just a few hours, the Ancient God's avatar had reached the outskirts of the Burning Heaven Supercluster.
In the void, the Ancient God's avatar crushed the Eternal World in its left hand with bare hands, transforming the entire Eternal World into Eternal Source and seizing it. Then, it awakened the Ancient God's divine powers and unleashed the celestial transformation of Heaven and Earth. Its already enormous form grew even larger, reaching several tens of thousands of light-years high.
The Sky-Cutting Axe in its hand simultaneously grew larger, locking onto the Burning Heaven Furnace, and it swung down with force.
No matter the reason the Ancient God came, the Burning Heaven Star Palace had no room for retreat.
For the Eternal Lifeforms who had come from the Holy Shrine to support, they were now hidden inside the Burning Heaven Star Palace, watching them.
At this moment, anyone who dared to retreat would either die at the hands of the Ancient God's avatar or be killed by another Eternal Lifeform.
Over 1,200 Immortal Gods and Devils simultaneously locked onto the Ancient God's avatar and unleashed their most powerful forces.
The clash between the two sides had yet to meet, but it had already obliterated half of the Burning Heaven Supercluster.
However, this still didn't stop the Sky-Cutting Axe of the Ancient God's avatar. The ultimate destructive force could annihilate all things and laws—no one could stop it.
With the Ancient God's avatar, even wielding the Sky-Cutting Axe, it shouldn't have been this strong.
The truth was, the Ancient God's true form had infused even more power into its avatar.
The blow from the Ancient God's avatar might have already been on par with that of its true form.
Seeing the Sky-Cutting Axe fall, many Immortal Gods and Devils felt an overwhelming despair.
At this moment, a young man wrapped in fire dragons stepped out from the Burning Heaven Star Palace.
The young man casually grabbed the tail of the fire dragon, and with a flash, he wielded the fire dragon like a whip, striking at the Sky-Cutting Axe. Wherever it passed, the Eternal Fire of the Burning Heaven Supercluster was drained, and the fire that could burn anything was used to block the Sky-Cutting Axe, turning the seemingly unyielding force into a flexible defense.
Though the fire dragon let out a mournful cry, it still wrapped itself around the Sky-Cutting Axe and fought against the Ancient God's avatar.
However, the Ancient God's avatar merely raised its hand, and the Sky-Cutting Axe disappeared into the dragon's coils.
The Ancient God's avatar raised the Sky-Cutting Axe above its head, shifting from one hand to two hands to grasp the axe, locking onto the Burning Heaven Furnace and swinging down again. This strike bypassed the Burning Heaven Star Palace and struck the surface of the Burning Heaven Furnace.
From top to bottom, the Burning Heaven Furnace was split in two by the Sky-Cutting Axe.
However, the Ancient God's avatar had exhausted all its power at this point. As it disintegrated into dust in the void, it released the Sky-Cutting Axe, which shattered the void and returned to the Ancient God World, leaving behind the completely destroyed Burning Heaven Supercluster.
In a corner of the Burning Heaven Star Palace, Rosen let out a sigh of relief, still deeply shaken.
He, too, only realized the danger after the Ancient God's avatar had left the Ancient God World. It was only then that his Time Prediction Diagram foresaw the threat.
The Ancient God's avatar had come for him. Even with the Space Source and Time Source fused into the Spacetime Source, and despite other sources like Time Source obscuring his presence, the Ancient God had still managed to pinpoint his location through the core of the Space Source.
It had then directly destroyed the Burning Heaven Furnace, cutting off his path of rapidly refining cosmic materials.
Although the Time Source had hidden his destiny, it didn't mean the Ancient God couldn't detect him.
There were many superclusters stripped from the universe, and it wouldn't be hard for someone with a keen mind to figure out their purpose.
The Ancient God might not know his exact location, but through the Fate Creation Book, it could deduce that he was most likely hiding in the Burning Heaven Furnace. It seemed that the Time Source, which had been taken from Blue Star, had crossed the Ancient God's line, forcing the Ancient God to break the balance and take action.
As the Eternal Will merged with the Root Source and entered the Universe Heart, Rosen also gained a bit of control over the Universe Heart.
Through the Universe Heart, he could directly sense the state of the Cosmic Source Sea.
Rosen had originally thought that the Eternal Lifeforms in the Holy Shrine wouldn't be many.
But to his surprise, at least a hundred Eternal Lifeforms were still alive, each with frightening strength.
Rosen suddenly realized something: though the chaos among the Eternal Lifeforms had led to the fall of many, the ones who survived must have grown stronger, just like the Ancient God, who had drastically increased in power after plundering the World Tree's energy.
These victorious Eternal Lifeforms were now doing everything they could to protect the Ancient God's Heart in the Cosmic Source Sea.
It was clear that these Eternal Lifeforms were desperately trying to delay the destruction of the universe.
While the Primordial Lifeforms might transcend the universe, Eternal Lifeforms might not be able to survive once they step away from the protection of the universe.
Even if the arrangements left behind by the Primordial Lifeform could potentially give rise to a new universe, it was unlikely that the new universe would have any space for these Eternal Beings to survive. Thus, it was understandable that they would seek to preserve the Heart of the Universe. The only question was whether they were secretly harboring other schemes.
From the corner of his eye, Rosen's gaze silently swept past the Eternal Being who had failed to stop the Ancient God's avatar.
If he hadn't seen wrong, that was the Divine Flame Lord—an Eternal Being who wielded the Flame Source Seed. The fire-dragon-like whip in his hand was likely forged from the corpse of the Immortal Flame Dragon, who had once wielded the Inextinguishable Source Seed. It was an Eternal Holy Artifact.
With such a holy artifact, with the Flame Source Seed, and situated in an environment like the Blazing Heaven Supercluster, the Divine Flame Lord held overwhelming power.
Though the Ancient God's avatar was indeed formidable, it was obvious the Divine Flame Lord had not unleashed his full strength.
Which meant, clearly, the Divine Flame Lord had never intended to protect the Blazing Heaven Creation Furnace.
He only wanted to safeguard the Blazing Heaven Star Palace—or rather, to take control of it.
Sure enough, just as Rosen had anticipated, once the Divine Flame Lord arrived at the Blazing Heaven Star Palace, he had no intention of leaving.
He outright occupied the palace, gathered all the Solar Divine Flames from the entire Blazing Heaven Supercluster, infused them into the palace, and used them to construct the largest chamber. Then he stayed there, leaving all the immortal gods and devils feeling as though a bone were stuck in their throats—deeply vexed, yet unable to oppose him.
First of all, they lacked the strength to resist him. Not to mention how many would die just trying to kill the Divine Flame Lord.
Behind the Divine Flame Lord stood the Holy Hall of the Saints. Meanwhile, the Blazing Heaven Star Palace's many immortal gods and devils still had to face the threat of the Ancient Gods.
Under such circumstances, all they could do was tacitly accept the Divine Flame Lord's usurpation.
Of course, tacit acceptance was one thing—expecting all the immortals to submit to the Divine Flame Lord was simply delusional.
Better to be a rooster's head than a phoenix's tail—very few immortals were willing to bow and serve under another.
The fragments of the Blazing Heaven Creation Furnace, along with the countless fire seeds within it, were all seized and divided among the immortals of the Blazing Heaven Star Palace.
Even the Divine Flame Lord couldn't help but take action, personally seizing one Blazing Heaven Sacred Flame seed of immortal-god level.
As for the only Eternal-level Blazing Heaven Sacred Flame seed—it had already been taken in advance by Rosen.
No matter how hard the Divine Flame Lord searched, he couldn't find it. In the end, he could only assume that the fire seed had been destroyed by the Heaven-Opening Divine Axe.
Although Rosen had managed to preserve the Eternal Blazing Heaven Sacred Flame seed, without the Blazing Heaven Creation Furnace, the rate at which he could refine cosmic matter had dropped by a hundredfold. Even though the Ancient Gods couldn't clearly see his fate, they had still managed to sever his future through indirect understanding.
Without sufficient cosmic matter, his Immortal World would never grow into an Eternal World with hundredfold strength.
And without that, his Eternal Will couldn't undergo a qualitative leap, and his divine essence couldn't break through its limits.
Unable to become an Eternal Being, he would always be nothing more than a jumping flea in the eyes of the Ancient Gods.
He might cause them some trouble, but he could never truly threaten them.
Within the Mysterious Study Room, Rosen entered the Ancient God's true realm and released the Sea of Miracles.
At this moment, within the Sea of Miracles, the Immortal Star God was undergoing his final death throes.
After the Ancient God awakened, he had used the Space Source Seed to sever the resonance between the Immortal Star God and Blue Star. Without the ability to transform into Blue Star and gain the protection of spacetime reincarnation, and with only a bit of Eternal Star Essence remaining, the Immortal Star God could only become a lamb awaiting slaughter.
Rosen released a swarm of Root Broodmothers, which were now far more powerful than before.
All the Root Broodmothers pierced through the void and landed on the Immortal Star God's surface, embedding themselves instantly and completely. In a short span of time, they drained the Immortal Star God dry, reducing him to nourishment. All of the harvested nutrients fused into the Sea of Miracles—restoring the energy consumed in hunting the Immortal Ancient Tree and even bringing a substantial gain.
Rosen extended his hand, and five Star Source Seeds broke through the surface of the sea and landed in his palm.
Together with the one he already had, he now possessed six Star Source Seeds. The remaining three were in the hands of the Immortal Golden Crow, but since his six included the core Source Seeds, the Star Source Seeds were essentially his now.
Rosen continued sensing the changes in the Sea of Miracles. It was now in the process of fusing the Miracle Source Seed that had belonged to the Immortal Star God.
[Sea of Miracles: Miracle Sequence]
[Grade: Eternal Holy Artifact]
[Miracle Attribute: Capable of decomposing, assimilating, symbiotically fusing with, and sublimating all things]
[Miracle Trait: Miracle Source Seeds (5)]
Including the one he had absorbed from the Immortal Emperor, the Sea of Miracles now wielded the power of five Miracle Source Seeds.
Rosen carefully examined the decomposition power of the Miracle Source Seeds. This ability allowed him to decompose all things.
In that case, the Sea of Miracles might serve as a substitute for the Blazing Heaven Creation Furnace.
It could directly decompose cosmic matter and integrate it into the Sea of Miracles for sublimation.
Although its efficiency wasn't quite on par with the Blazing Heaven Creation Furnace, the gap wasn't too large.
With this new method for rapidly refining cosmic matter, Rosen decided to continue his secluded cultivation.
The Blazing Heaven Star Palace was safe, and he lacked no resources.
Unless a suitable prey appeared, the priority was to create extension skills for the Root Broodmothers.
Otherwise, having ever more powerful Root Source Seeds but no way to unleash their full power would be a joke.
Years passed under a thousandfold time acceleration. Rosen's creation of extension skills for the Root Broodmothers progressed with unusual smoothness.
Ordinarily, with just his own abilities, it would have been impossible to create a satisfactory skill in such a short time.
However, the birth of this skill also greatly benefited the Heart of the Universe, so it instinctively helped him perfect it. During the process, it even triggered the power of the Miracle Source Seeds, successfully transforming the derivative skill into a Miracle Skill.
[Universal Root Genesis: Miracle Skill]
[Grade: Eternal God-Devil]
[Miracle Attribute: Capable of transforming all things infused with the Root into insects using Eternal Will]
[Miracle Trait: Root Brood Nest, Universal Polymorph Universe]
Rosen's eternal will permeated every corner of the Sea of Miracles, naturally fulfilling the conditions required to activate the Myriad Metamorphosis Source.
As the Eternal Source Essence merged into the Sea of Miracles, its form began to change.
The ever-shrinking Sea of Miracles transformed in his hand into a ladybug composed of countless starlights.
After mastering the Myriad Metamorphosis Source, the Source Broodmother was no longer a thread-like worm resembling a root, but rather a lifeform that primarily took the form of a threadworm while being capable of transforming into any form within the five biological types: luo, lin, mao, yu, and kun.
Through the Myriad Metamorphosis Source, Rosen could convert all things into lifeforms within the scope of luo, lin, mao, yu, and kun.
Among them, luo referred to creatures like humans and frogs—those without fur or scales.
Although humans had body hair, it was insufficient to cover the body.
Lin referred to scaled creatures like snakes and dragons; mao referred to mammals with abundant body hair capable of covering their forms, like lions and qilin; yu referred to feathered creatures like phoenixes and birds; and kun referred to shelled creatures such as black tortoises and beetles.
Luo, lin, mao, yu, and kun encompassed all flesh-and-blood lifeforms in the universe.
The Myriad Metamorphosis Source could transform all things into one of the five types, enabling them to unleash even greater power.
Once the Sea of Miracles was transformed into the Starsea Ladybug, it could gain basic life functions akin to a Primordial Behemoth.
This ability to grant life to inanimate objects actually originated from the method the universe used to create Primordial Behemoths.
With the help of the Heart of the Universe, Rosen had also gained access to this ability.
Although the Starsea Ladybug was a low-level lifeform with no intelligence, Rosen's eternal will could inhabit it and command it perfectly in battle. As a low-level, unintelligent being on the eternal level, the Starsea Ladybug could even hunt independently, just like a Primordial Behemoth.
Being self-sufficient would save Rosen an unthinkable amount of effort.
Moreover, now that the Starsea Ladybug had been transformed into a living being via the Myriad Metamorphosis Source, the eternal will required to control it had been drastically reduced.
Whereas Rosen's eternal will could previously only fully control one eternal sacred artifact at a time, he could now simultaneously wield three or five in battle.
Rosen activated the miraculous trait "Source Broodmother." The Starsea Ladybug in his hand instantly evolved from an individual insect into a queen bug.
The queen bug possessed the ability to reproduce, and the Source Broodmother trait allowed the Sea of Miracles to gain the power to breed offspring.
Soon, the Starsea Ladybug gave birth to numerous small ladybugs. These offspring inherited almost all of the Starsea Ladybug's abilities, albeit at a reduced level—only equivalent to True God level. However, they were still true lifeforms and, like Primordial Behemoths, capable of further growth.
As more and more small ladybugs were born, the Starsea Ladybug grew weaker.
But once these small ladybugs matured and were reabsorbed and fused back into the Starsea Ladybug, returning to their source—
Whatever the Starsea Ladybug lost now, it would earn back a hundredfold or a thousandfold in the future.
Due to the massive energy consumption required to convert all things into insects, Rosen didn't recklessly transform everything.
The next thing he intended to transform was none other than the Spatial Source Seed.
With a continuous infusion of Eternal Source Essence, the Spatial Source Seed became a mosquito the size of a thumb.
Like the Starsea Ladybug, this mosquito simultaneously possessed the powers of the Spatial Source Seed and the Source Broodmother. Its proboscis could pierce targets while ignoring space and defenses, and then absorb and convert the enemy into source essence using the power of the Source.
In this form, the Spatial Source Seed could also further reduce the perception between the core seed and its sub-seeds.
Rosen soon split off a sub-body from every Source Seed he possessed, transforming each into a different form of Source Broodmother.
Gazing at the Myriad Metamorphosis Source's other miraculous trait—Myriad Cosmos—Rosen forcefully suppressed the urge to activate it.
Because once Myriad Cosmos was activated, his body, his power, all his pets and avatars, every treasure he owned, even every Source Seed under his control—would be transformed and recomposed into a miniature universe under his complete command.
The fact that this miraculous trait came into being was quite unexpected for Rosen.
This miraculous trait was entirely bestowed by the Heart of the Universe.
If he ever became an eternal lifeform, the miniature universe created by Myriad Cosmos could even exist permanently.
The Source Seeds integrated into Myriad Cosmos could potentially be used to recreate a new Heart of the Universe within the miniature universe.
If the Heart of the Universe were ever truly destroyed, then his Myriad Cosmos would be the best means to restart a new cosmos.
Precisely because Myriad Cosmos had the power to open up a new universe, Rosen dared not casually use it.
Since the Heart of the Universe had not yet perished, using this ability—even though it was granted by the Heart—would not be recognized by it. It would be like a crown prince trying to take the throne while the emperor was still alive—such an act would only lead to a bloody power struggle rather than an orderly succession.
Therefore, Myriad Cosmos could not be used lightly; even if it had to be activated under duress, it must not be maintained for long.
Now that the transformed Starsea Ladybug led countless offspring to absorb and convert cosmic matter, its efficiency had skyrocketed.
Even the Heaven-Searing Furnace of Creation couldn't come close to matching the Starsea Ladybug's efficiency.
But the greatest surprise to Rosen wasn't the Starsea Ladybug—it was the Dark Sun Slime transformed into the Dark Sun Broodmother.
Due to its own ever-shifting nature, the Dark Sun Slime's new form, the Dark Sun Broodmother, had no fixed shape.
It could morph into any of the luo, lin, mao, yu, kun lifeforms. On the high end, it could transform into a Golden Crow or a Qilin; on the low end, a parasitic worm. It could even lay perfectly mimetic eggs that disguised themselves as cells, using the Source Broodmother's ability, and then fuse these eggs with source energy.
Any being that possessed a Source Seed could draw cosmic essence from the Heart of the Universe.
Rosen fused the eggs of the Dark Sun Broodmother into the cosmic essence within the Heart of the Universe. Anyone absorbing that essence via a Source Seed would also unwittingly absorb these eggs into their body—eggs that could parasitize them, even disguising themselves as ordinary cells and lying dormant inside the bodies of immortal gods and demons.
In the short term, nothing would seem amiss—after all, a single egg was incredibly weak.
However, the greatest trait of the Source Broodmother was its ability to divide and replicate. The parasitic egg could continuously devour old cells and turn into new ones. Over time, it could completely replace all the cells of an immortal god or demon.
By then, Rosen could control the life or death of an immortal god with a mere thought.
He could even, in an instant, turn an immortal god into a Dark Sun Thrall.
From this moment on, every immortal god or demon in the universe with a physical body was in for a world of misfortune.
(End of Chapter)