Inside the Soul-Binding World within the Heaven-Scorching Sacred Serpent, Rosen took down the Bell of Mercy hanging from the mast of the Doomsday Ark.
The bell was palm-sized, and the moment it swayed, a natural hymn of joy began to ring out.
Because the melody was cast with a self-lock, his consciousness was instantly pulled into the spiritual world formed by the music.
This natural hymn of joy echoing through the spiritual world could at any time be transformed into a hymn of mercy. The strain on his consciousness was similar to what one would suffer in the Heavenly Sound Forbidden Zone. However, since he relied on the Bell of Mercy to release the melody, the effect fell short of that of the actual Forbidden Zone.
The reason was simple: the two hymns in the Heavenly Sound Forbidden Zone were performed by the Sacred God of Melody.
Rosen, on the other hand, was merely an immortal god-devil, and he had not yet grasped any eternal-level skills that resonated with the Heavenly Sound source seed. Naturally, he could not exhibit the same melody effect capable of trapping and killing eternal beings as the Sacred God of Melody. At most, he could only entrap and kill immortal god-devils.
Moreover, each use consumed an enormous amount of Eternal Heavenly Sound source essence.
The exact cost remained unclear, as maintaining the spiritual world that generated the melody required continuous consumption of that source. In the Forbidden Zone, the source could recover on its own. The critical factor behind the exhaustion of that source was likely the enormous toll required to trap and kill two eternal beings.
Rosen put away the Bell of Mercy—it was powerful enough to serve as a new trump card.
Just as he was becoming familiar with the Bell of Mercy, something strange suddenly happened to the two eternal beings' corpses.
They were already dead—their eternal wills had been worn away by the hymns.
Only a sliver of origin source remained in the corpses. Could they really come back to life and jump out of their coffins?
Rosen immediately opened a Gate Between Realms to inform the All-Knowing Bookworm. Before long, the Bookworm had already learned the identities of the two eternal beings, along with the six immortal god-devils who had also perished in the Forbidden Zone, via the Book of Fate and Fortune.
The two eternal beings were the Sacred God of Ancient Corpses and the Sacred God of Tomb Illusion.
They had been lovers. The Sacred God of Ancient Corpses was an eternal being formed from the remains of a primordial lifeform, while the Sacred God of Tomb Illusion was an eternal being formed from the tomb that had buried that primordial lifeform. Their bond was incredibly deep—thus, they had perished together in the Heavenly Sound Forbidden Zone.
At the time, the Sacred God of Ancient Corpses had been the first to enter and ended up trapped inside.
Ordinarily, without figuring out how the first had fallen, the others would never have risked entering. But the Sacred God of Tomb Illusion hadn't cared—he rushed in recklessly to try to save his companion, only to end up dead himself.
Because both eternal beings had died silently, without causing any disturbance whatsoever, the incident terrified the others. To this day, no one dared approach the Heavenly Sound Forbidden Zone.
As for the six immortal god-devils, only one of them—the Immortal Corpse God—had left behind a source seed. He was the offspring of the two eternal beings. It was because he recklessly charged into the Forbidden Zone that the Sacred God of Ancient Corpses tried to save him and died.
The remaining five were all recently advanced immortal god-devils.
They had not condensed any source seeds and weren't courting death by entering the Forbidden Zone. They had simply been thrown in as test subjects.
The Sacred God of Ancient Corpses held the Ancient Corpse Source Seed, and the Sacred God of Tomb Illusion held the Burial Source Seed.
With those two corpses, there was indeed a chance of resurrection.
Rosen released his Stellar Ladybug. At that moment, the corpses of the two eternal beings began to merge.
The Sacred God of Tomb Illusion's corpse transformed into a tombstone, falling onto the body of the Sacred God of Ancient Corpses and turning it into a grave.
Rosen was about to forcefully destroy the grave when he suddenly felt a lingering sense of danger.
The Tome of Temporal Foresight normally couldn't affect eternal beings—but these were merely the remains of two dead ones.
Just barely, Rosen managed to sketch out the consequences of acting rashly.
Though the Sacred Gods of Ancient Corpses and Tomb Illusion were dead, they had prepared posthumous trump cards to drag enemies down with them. These techniques were tied to their Eternal Relics. While the two were dead and couldn't activate them themselves, their Eternal Relics had triggered them automatically.
These two weren't completely dead. Their source seeds still contained traces of eternal will that hadn't been fully erased.
Now that they had merged into an Eternal Tomb, it was only a matter of time before they resurrected inside.
If anyone forcibly broke open the tomb, they would be dragged inside and die along with it.
Had it been two intact eternal corpses forming an Eternal Tomb, Rosen wouldn't have dared touch it. But since it was formed from two partial remains, reversing time to before the tomb was created through temporal reincarnation wasn't out of reach.
Under the shroud of temporal reincarnation, the already-formed tomb slowly unraveled and split apart into two separate corpses.
Rosen used elemental armament to transform the Heavenly Frost Sacred Serpent into an ice coffin, sealing the body of the Sacred God of Ancient Corpses layer by layer in frost. Only then did he send an eternal clone to dissect the corpse bit by bit using a blade transformed from the Heaven-Scorching Sacred Serpent.
The Sacred God of Ancient Corpses had less than 20% of his life source remaining—this was the main reason the temporal reincarnation had worked so easily.
Though little was left, what remained was the most refined portion of his body.
After all, having nearly been drained by two different hymns, only the most essential essence could have resisted the melodic forces and survived.
All of the Ancient Corpse Holy Deity's essence was concentrated in the heart.
Even the Ancient Corpse source seed had completely fused into the heart, and Rosen immediately grafted the Root Insect Queen onto it.
He planned to use the heart of the Ancient Corpse Holy Deity to repair and strengthen the Eternal Relic that once belonged to it.
After handling the Ancient Corpse Holy Deity's corpse, he moved on to dissecting the corpse of the Tomb Wraith Holy Deity.
The Ancient Corpse Holy Deity had been a flesh-and-blood lifeform, while the Tomb Wraith Holy Deity had been a spiritual one.
Though a spirit, as an Eternal lifeform its spiritual body had long attained the permanence and durability of flesh.
Rosen directly sent the leftover spirit corpse into the Eternal Hell to serve as the best material for creating spiritual vitality there. Ultimately, the most refined part of the Tomb Wraith Holy Deity's body was the soul orb within the brain. Refining this orb could even directly enhance one's divine essence.
Rosen kept the soul orb as a treasured item—it would greatly assist his future ascension to an Eternal lifeform.
As for the Burial source seed—whether burial by earth or by water, all were forms of burial—it could be perfectly integrated into the Miracle Star Sea to enhance its ability to suppress all things. As for the Tomb Wraith Holy Deity's Eternal Relic, the Immortal Stele, its specific properties would only be revealed once it was refined with Eternal will.
Rosen finally turned to the zombie source seed of the Undying Corpse Deity. Strictly speaking, this was a subordinate source seed under the Ancient Corpse source seed.
It held little value and wasn't worth the effort to refine. Its greatest utility lay in manipulating corpses.
Under accelerated time, several months passed swiftly. The Root Insect Queen, rooted in the heart of the Ancient Corpse Holy Deity, successfully sprouted, blossomed, and bore fruit. While using the heart as a base to repair the Eternal Relic, it also altered its properties to some degree.
With this Eternal Relic, dealing with the corpses of dead Eternal lifeforms would become much simpler.
Rosen extended his hand, and the Root Fruit cracked open. The reborn Eternal Relic fell into his palm.
Thanks to its reconstruction through the Root Source, it had already been refined by his Eternal will at the moment of its rebirth.
[Immortal Heavenly Coffin: Transcendent Relic]
[Grade: Eternal Relic]
[Properties: Can store corpses, nurture corpses, control corpses, and resurrect corpses]
[Traits: Heaven-Sealing Earth-Burying, Ancient Corpse Source Seed]
In the current universe, only the Sea of Universal Origin and a very limited number of Eternal origin behemoths could produce fresh Eternal resources.
The only remaining way to obtain Eternal resources was by exploring Eternal forbidden zones.
As long as it was a flesh-and-blood lifeform, a corpse could remain.
And as long as there was a corpse, it would be inherently suppressed and weakened by the Immortal Heavenly Coffin and the Ancient Corpse source seed, making it far easier to harvest Eternal resources.
Rosen stowed away the Immortal Heavenly Coffin and brought out the Immortal Stele, the Eternal Relic he had already refined.
[Immortal Stele: Transcendent Relic]
[Grade: Eternal Relic]
[Properties: Can suppress all things, record all things, and gather all things]
[Traits: Immortal Inscription]
From the moment the Immortal Heavenly Coffin was born, he had already grasped how to use it.
But despite having refined the Immortal Stele some time ago, he still hadn't fully mastered it.
The idea of "suppressing all things" was easy enough to understand, but its effect wasn't especially impressive.
This was likely because he hadn't matched it with a sealing-type source seed compatible with the Immortal Stele. As for recording all things, gathering all things, and the trait of Immortal Inscription—no matter how he studied them, he couldn't fully unlock their secrets. It felt as if the Immortal Stele was still missing something.
On the surface, "recording all things" seemed to imply writing or engraving on the stele.
But writing had no effect. Neither did carving.
At this point, he could only hope the Omniscient Bookworm would bring good news.
By using the Book of Fate and Fortune to investigate the Tomb Wraith Holy Deity's past life, figuring out the full use of the Immortal Stele was just a matter of time.
But he could no longer wait. After mastering the Immortal Heavenly Coffin, Rosen was already impatient to head to other universal forbidden zones.
Opening the World-Crossing Gate, Rosen arrived at the Plague Supercluster.
Though the cosmic starry sky was suffused with energy and didn't render life extinct due to being a vacuum, the truth was that 99% of all life in the universe existed on life-bearing planets. True lifeforms that lived directly in space were exceedingly rare.
The Plague Supercluster was different. The cosmic expanse here was filled with plague creatures.
These plague creatures came in all shapes and sizes, composed entirely of bacterial and viral amalgamations. The smaller ones enveloped meteors, the larger ones wrapped around entire stars. In fact, all the plague creatures within the Plague Supercluster originated from the corpse of the Plague Sacred God buried deep within the Plague Forbidden Zone.
Because the environment was far too hostile, no one dared to approach the Plague Supercluster.
Rosen released the Miracle Star Sea, and as it expanded slightly to envelop the Plague Supercluster, all plague creatures were assimilated by it. Before long, the Miracle Star Sea had turned into a Plague Dead Sea, brimming with endless viruses and bacteria.
However, as the Miracle Star Sea transformed into the Star Sea Ladybug, and the Star Sea Ladybug activated its Root Mother Hive form—
All the bacteria and viruses began to be captured by the power of the Myriad-Transforming Root, ultimately producing tiny ladybugs imbued with the power of plague. These little ladybugs enhanced the Miracle Star Sea's offensive capability, gradually evolving it from a support-type into a versatile force.
After burying the Plague Supercluster, the Doomsday Ark carried Rosen into the entrance of the forbidden zone spewing plague.
There was no resistance whatsoever. As the Doomsday Ark penetrated deeper, what appeared before them was a corpse lying within the Eternal World.
This corpse was obviously a trap, as beside it lay a severed arm belonging to an Eternal Lifeform.
It was clear that an Eternal Lifeform had once attempted to claim the corpse, only to be infected by the plague within and forced to sever its arm to escape. For a corpse to force an Eternal Lifeform to such a state… If it weren't for the Immortal Heavenly Coffin, Rosen wouldn't even consider touching it.
The Immortal Heavenly Coffin shot forth, rapidly expanding until it grew larger than the corpse of the Plague Sacred God, then flipped over and came crashing down.
The "Heaven-Sealing, Earth-Burying" trait activated, and the corpse gradually shrank and was drawn into the coffin.
The Star Sea Ladybug expanded once more, enveloping the Plague Forbidden Zone from the outside and absorbing it completely. It even gained additional rewards from the Origin Dark Sea—countless Origin Beasts that had succumbed to plague over the eons were all broken down by the Miracle Star Sea into nourishment.
This nourishment was then funneled into the Immortal Heavenly Coffin to refine the corpse of the Plague Sacred God.
Once the corpse was successfully hidden, nurtured, and refined, Rosen would be able to control the resurrected Eternal Lifeform's body.
Although it would certainly fall short of its power while alive, the reanimated corpse would still be more than a match for reincarnated Eternal Lifeforms like the Old Fisherman.
Burying the Plague Forbidden Zone through the Miracle Star Sea was clearly not something that could be done in a day or two.
While that side was still being dealt with, the All-Knowing Bookworm had already brought good news.
First, it was important to understand that, strictly speaking, no Eternal Lifeform had truly died.
Because their source seeds still remained, and within them lingered remnants of Eternal Will.
Since fragments of Eternal Will still existed, why hadn't they reincarnated like the Old Fisherman and the others?
The reason lay in the insufficiency of Eternal Will—because Eternal Will originates from divine essence and is constructed from memories and self-awareness. If the Eternal Will of a living Eternal Lifeform was equivalent to a server, then what remained in the source seed was, at most, a USB flash drive.
Clearly, such a small capacity could never hold the full memories of an Eternal Lifeform.
Not even the key memories would make the cut. In such a case, attempting resurrection would only result in a complete loss of memory.
Yet a completely amnesiac Eternal Lifeform, even if reincarnated, would eventually develop new memories and a new will. At that point, the reincarnated version would be extremely unlikely to willingly sacrifice its current memories to embrace its past self and resurrect as the former being.
This was no different from the relationship between a main body and its avatar. No one would willingly allow their sense of self to be replaced.
Therefore, it was better for the Eternal Will to remain hidden deep within the source seed, waiting for a future opportunity to reincarnate or revive.
Since relying on the Eternal Will within the source seed for reincarnation wasn't feasible, any Eternal Lifeform who left behind a fallback plan for resurrection would not merely leave behind an avatar—because hostile Eternal Lifeforms definitely had the means to utterly destroy even those.
Thus, to avoid being wiped out completely, Eternal Lifeforms chose to utilize avatars to facilitate reincarnation and revival.
First, they would split off a portion of Eternal Will sufficient to enable a reincarnation with at least the power of an Immortal God-Demon. And to prevent this portion from being targeted and destroyed, it had to be endlessly divided.
Ideally, these fragments would be merged into ordinary lifeforms, scattering across the universe in countless incarnations.
The Eternal Will within these ordinary lives would then reincarnate endlessly after each death. As these lives advanced into transcendents and grew stronger, the fragments of Eternal Will would grow alongside them. Eventually, whichever avatar was lucky enough to evolve into an Immortal God-Demon would become aware of all the fragments sharing its origin.
Once all fragments were recalled, all Eternal Will and the scattered memories within could be recovered.
The Immortal Star Gods had used this exact method to reincarnate and return.
And the greatest value of the Immortal Monument was precisely this—it could capture the Eternal Will of an Eternal Lifeform, use it to write a biographical record of their life, and through that biography, forcibly recall the dispersed Eternal Will throughout the universe, allowing an Eternal Lifeform to be quickly reincarnated and revived.
As the owner of the Immortal Monument, Rosen would have no difficulty seizing the opportunity to enslave the reincarnation of an Eternal Lifeform.
Although the Immortal Monument was merely an Eternal Relic, it had clearly been created by a Primordial Lifeform.
So even though it hadn't fused with a source seed, it was undoubtedly among the highest tier of Eternal Relics.
It was no wonder Rosen had yet to fully master the Immortal Monument.
Because to fully control it, one would at least require Eternal Will at the strength level of an Eternal Lifeform.
(End of Chapter)