After years of preparation, Rosen quietly infiltrated the Primordial Holy Court through data transmission.
After careful filtering, he ultimately chose the Primordial Holy Court as his target.
The reason was that the Primordial Holy Emperor could, strictly speaking, be considered an acquaintance. In the fragmented memories of Yinglong, there were traces of the Primordial Holy Emperor. Back then, this individual had been one of the Celestial Immortals of the Primordial Civilization. Although the Primordial Civilization had failed to survive the Tenth Cataclysm, it seemed that its Celestial Immortals had managed to survive.
Rosen even suspected that Yinglong might have been betrayed by the Primordial Civilization back then.
Unlike the Cosmic Holy Emperor, who hailed from the New World, the Primordial Holy Emperor was a native of the Old World.
Among the Great True Gods of the Old World, the Primordial Holy Emperor's seniority was exceptionally high.
Therefore, the Primordial Holy Emperor undoubtedly knew many secrets. More importantly, the Primordial Holy Emperor still owed Yinglong a karmic debt.
When Yinglong fell, regardless of whether the Primordial Civilization had played a role, they certainly owed Yinglong.
Don't underestimate karma. In the world of the Ancient Gods, it was even more formidable than fate.
Conventionally, fate should surpass karma, and often karma is seen as a subset of fate.
However, precisely because fate's potential was too powerful, neither the New World nor the Old World allowed the Law of Fate to exist. Rosen's ability to grasp the Old World's Law of Fate was merely due to taking advantage of the Old World's lack of a world will. Even so, his Law of Fate was only obtained through clever manipulation of the Small World Tree.
To this day, the Law of Fate couldn't encompass the entire Old World.
The only area where it could truly exert influence was the Dragon-Tiger Dynasty, which Rosen fully controlled.
If the Law of Fate dared to extend into territories controlled by the various Holy Courts, the Great True Gods would intervene in an instant.
Thus, the Law of Fate Rosen had mastered remained in its embryonic form.
While fate was suppressed everywhere in both the New and Old Worlds, the Law of Karma was far more dominant.
This was because it was a law heavily promoted by the Ancient Gods. All Extraordinary Life, by drawing resources from the world to cultivate, would inevitably incur karma with the world itself. One of the core powers the world will used to control all Extraordinary Life was the Law of Karma.
If the world will controlled the Law of Karma, why didn't it simply control the Law of Fate as well?
If it mastered the Law of Fate, wouldn't it be able to manipulate the destinies of all living beings, leaving no room for the emergence of Forbidden True Demons?
The reason the world will didn't control the Law of Fate was simple. While Great True Gods were indeed a cancer, they were also the most bountiful fruits. Great True Gods could pose a certain threat to the Ancient Gods, but they were also the best nourishment for the Ancient Gods' growth.
If the world will controlled the Law of Fate, it would be difficult for True Gods to break free from fate and ascend to become Great True Gods.
Therefore, whether in the New World or the Old World, the Law of Karma was the third most important law, second only to the Law of the World and the Law of Origin.
The Primordial Holy Emperor owed Yinglong a karmic debt, and Rosen had inherited Yinglong's legacy.
This karmic debt gave him the right to demand repayment from the Primordial Holy Emperor.
The Primordial Cave Heaven, a Celestial Immortal-level cave heaven treasure.
Not all Great True Gods could create worlds on the level of the Dragon Realm.
At the very least, among the Great True Gods of the Old World's various Holy Courts, Rosen hadn't found anyone who controlled a world similar to the Dragon Realm.
Clearly, even among Great True Gods, there were significant differences in strength.
Although the Primordial Cave Heaven couldn't compare to the Dragon Realm, Rosen was discovered the moment he set foot inside.
However, he had never intended to hide in the first place. Burning his divine essence, he fully harnessed the spiritual essence of the Miracle Stone Golem, instantly elevating his divine power into Immortal Will. Without any attempt to conceal it, he unleashed a staggering 164 points of true Immortal Will.
Although the Primordial Holy Emperor's true body was in slumber to reduce consumption, that didn't mean its Avatar would also be asleep.
All Holy Emperors left behind a True God-level Avatar to oversee their Holy Courts.
Typically, a True God Avatar was enough to handle any trouble.
But faced with the sudden appearance of an unfamiliar Great True God, the Primordial Holy Emperor's True God Avatar immediately awakened its true body.
By the time Rosen arrived at the Primordial Holy Emperor's cave dwelling, the true body had already awakened.
In the garden of the cave dwelling, Rosen appeared under the pavilion by the water, and the Primordial Holy Emperor's Avatar followed shortly after.
An unfamiliar Great True God—that was the Primordial Holy Emperor's first impression.
It knew every Celestial Immortal in the Old World, so was this a Forbidden God or Demon from some unknown civilization in the New World?
But that seemed unlikely. The Old World could no longer accommodate the survival needs of more Forbidden Gods and Demons.
As for the New World, how could this person have remained hidden and unknown?
Or perhaps, the person before it wasn't showing their true face.
"A guest is always welcome. Please, have a seat!"
As the Primordial Holy Emperor spoke, several plates of rare and exotic fruits exuding rich divine essence appeared on the stone table in the pavilion.
"This is a gift for my visit."
As Rosen sat down, he took out a long wooden box and pushed it toward the Primordial Holy Emperor. The lid of the box opened automatically.
The Primordial Holy Emperor saw that it was a painting. With a thought, the scroll floated in the air and unfurled on one side of the pavilion.
At first glance, it seemed unremarkable, but upon closer inspection, the Primordial Holy Emperor was momentarily stunned.
The painting depicted the Primordial Celestial Palace, the seat of power that ruled the three realms and six paths during the peak of the Primordial Civilization. It had long since turned to dust and ceased to exist in the endless passage of time. The Primordial Holy Emperor never expected to see the Primordial Celestial Palace again in a painting.
Upon closer inspection, this wasn't an ordinary painting.
Within this painting was a self-contained world. By infusing one's own laws, it could be elevated into a cave heaven treasure not much inferior to the Primordial Cave Heaven.
"This gift is too valuable."
The Primordial Holy Emperor reluctantly placed the painting back.
"When one has a request, it's only right to offer a generous gift."
Rosen got straight to the point. "Due to certain fortuitous encounters, I've become a Forbidden God and Demon. However, I know very little about Forbidden Gods and Demons or the New and Old Worlds. Having once inherited Yinglong's legacy, I've come to seek your guidance."
"Yinglong… No wonder you were able to create this painting."
The Primordial Holy Emperor pondered for a moment before storing the painting away.
It owed Yinglong a karmic debt. Though Yinglong was dead, the legacy remained, and the karmic debt couldn't be completely severed. The visitor's intention was clear: to exchange this painting and Yinglong's karmic debt for its guidance.
The final great era was approaching, and in such times, it was better to have one more friend than one more enemy.
Moreover, it truly cherished this gift.
Over the next few days, Rosen and the Primordial Holy Emperor engaged in a question-and-answer session, during which Rosen learned a great deal of common knowledge about Forbidden Gods and Demons.
At the same time, the Primordial Holy Emperor shared many secrets that didn't involve its own interests, holding nothing back.
It was only then that Rosen realized the waters of the New and Old Worlds were far deeper than he had imagined.
This made the effort worthwhile. He had expended a significant portion of his divine essence upper limit, combined the Primordial Stone Sculpting of the Miracle Stone Golem with his own painting skills, and spent years creating the woodblock printing of the Primordial Celestial Palace. The effort was immense, but compared to what he gained, it was more than worth it.
However, this didn't mean he would feel grateful to the Primordial Holy Emperor.
Despite Yinglong's karmic debt and the generous gift, the Primordial Holy Emperor still couldn't resist scheming against him.
Almost everything the Primordial Holy Emperor said was true, but a very small portion of it was a mix of truth and lies.
This was clearly not an unintentional mistake on the Primordial Holy Emperor's part but a carefully laid trap.
If it weren't for Rosen's mastery of the Law of Fate and the Apocalypse Eye, which constantly verified the truth of the information, he wouldn't have noticed the Primordial Holy Emperor's subtle scheming. As for what it was plotting, he could more or less guess some of the truth.
The Primordial Civilization had more than one Celestial Immortal, and the Primordial Holy Emperor wasn't the strongest among them.
If it had survived, it was possible that the other Celestial Immortals hadn't truly perished.
If the Primordial Holy Emperor had survived by sheer luck, how had the Cosmic Holy Emperor also managed to survive?
After all, in the Cosmic Civilization, the Cosmic Holy Emperor had been the weakest.
As for the strongest Forbidden Gods and Demons in history, Rosen hadn't found a single one in the Old World.
In the past, Rosen had thought that the Abyss World was a cancer to the New World.
But after learning about Forbidden Gods and Demons, he realized that the creator of the Abyss World had followed the path of a Forbidden True God.
Those of the same level, such as the masters of Heaven and the Dragon Realm, had already perished. As for the top-tier Forbidden Gods and Demons from civilizations like the Cosmic Civilization and the Primordial Civilization, they had likely successfully transcended the New World.
Did the Primordial Holy Emperor not want to transcend? Of course it did, but it simply couldn't achieve it.
If a group of unarmed ordinary people encountered a hungry tiger, how could they escape being hunted?
The answer was that they didn't need to outrun the tiger—they just needed to outrun the others. Once the tiger killed and ate the slowest person, the rest would be safe.
If we apply this scenario to Forbidden Gods and Demons, the Primordial Holy Emperor certainly wasn't among the fastest runners.
It also wasn't among the slowest, like Yinglong. It was somewhere in the middle.
If a new opportunity for transcendence arose, the Primordial Holy Emperor would undoubtedly do everything in its power to become one of the fastest.
As the Dark Sun's power in the Old World grew stronger and the New World continued to drain the Old World's essence, Forbidden Gods and Demons could no longer hide in the Old World and barely survive. In such times, the Primordial Holy Emperor would stop at nothing to ensure it was among the first to escape.
All other Forbidden Gods and Demons were, by nature, potential enemies of the Primordial Holy Emperor.
Therefore, no matter how much goodwill Rosen showed, the Primordial Holy Emperor would inevitably exploit his ignorance to trap him.
However, with so much verified information and the few false details eventually revealed through the Apocalypse Eye, Rosen might be able to turn the tables at a critical moment at the Primordial Holy Emperor.
As for matters beyond the New and Old Worlds, the Primordial Holy Emperor actually knew very little.
Because once one transcended, no one had ever returned to the world of the Ancient Gods.
Some of the information Rosen had previously heard—about certain Great True Gods being unwilling to accept their fate and wanting to return to the New World to harm the Ancient Gods while they slept—was entirely false. In reality, those unwilling Great True Gods weren't the ones who had transcended but the ones hiding in the Old World.
Thus, Forbidden Gods and Demons wouldn't dare to confront the Ancient Gods, even if it meant their deaths.
Rosen had underestimated the Ancient Gods and overestimated the strength of the Great True Gods.
At the end of the last Ancient God era, the Primordial Holy Emperor had personally witnessed a Celestial Immortal challenging an Ancient God.
At that time, the Ancient God hadn't even awakened yet, but it instantly annihilated that Celestial Immortal.
The laws mastered by the Celestial Immortal could only exert a fraction of their power if they were self-created. The rest, which originated from the Old World, were as ineffective as a gentle breeze against the Ancient God. The Law of the World mastered by the Ancient God could easily suppress all other laws.
Then, the Celestial Immortal's body disintegrated in an instant, eventually turning into a drop of blood that merged into the Ancient God's body.
The Celestial Immortal's primordial spirit, which was the divine core fused with divine essence, also disintegrated instantly and merged into the Ancient God's reconstructed soul.
As the Golden Pharaoh had said, the Main World was the body of the Ancient Gods, the Spirit Realm was their consciousness, the Deep Sea of the Spirit Realm was their soul, and the spiritual essence of the Ancient Gods was the essence of all living beings. Conversely, when the Ancient Gods awakened, all living beings would have no ability to resist.
Therefore, the World Government's goal had never been to confront the Ancient Gods but rather to delay their awakening.
Even the expansion of the Spirit Realm across the entire Main World was intended to further disperse the Ancient Gods' consciousness and spiritual essence, thereby delaying the reconstruction of their souls and the reassembly of their spiritual essence. This bought more preparation time for the Forbidden True Demons operating in the shadows.
Rosen also learned that the current New and Old Worlds were roughly divided into three factions.
The strongest faction consisted of most of the Forbidden True Gods with ulterior motives. The Forbidden True Demons, on the other hand, were split into two factions.
One faction was made up of Forbidden True Demons from the New World, while the other was composed of those from the Old World.
Relatively speaking, the former faction was actually stronger overall.
This was because the older Forbidden True Demons of the Old World had suffered far greater losses under the threat of the Dark Sun.
Moreover, these Forbidden True Demons had attempted to transcend multiple times, and each failure had cost them some of their background.
Thus, even though the Old World had more Forbidden True Demons, their faction was the weakest among the three.
Rosen gained a lot from his time with the Primordial Holy Emperor, but he found no information about the Bloodline Divine Core.
Under the scrutiny of the Apocalypse Eye, the Primordial Holy Emperor couldn't lie—it truly had no idea what the Bloodline Divine Core was.
After all, divine cores were a product of the New World's divine system, which shared similarities with the Old World's divine position system. To uncover the secrets of the Bloodline Divine Core, Rosen would either need to search in the New World or seek guidance from the Forbidden Gods and Demons there.
Unable to obtain valuable clues from external sources, Rosen could only study the Dark Sun Slime on his own.
In the Ancient God's True Realm, hundreds of thousands of Doctor Sequence individuals and millions of Wizard Sequence individuals began researching the Dark Sun Slime.
As for Rosen, he was already preparing to harvest the seven affiliated Celestial Empires of the Cosmic Holy Court.
After several years without any danger, the Cosmic Holy Emperor's true body had finally fallen into slumber.
Rosen quietly set up spatial-temporal traps that, at a critical moment, could blockade the wormhole generators of the seven Celestial Empires.
He then prepared paintings of the seven Celestial Empires in advance and began simultaneously attacking them through data transmission and Manifestation of the Painted World.
In the Ascension Dynasty, which was still in the process of rebuilding, countless Death Angels appeared through the Manifestation of the Painted World.
The other Celestial Empires were attacked in various ways: some by Abyssal Shadow Demons, some by Dragon-Blooded Naga, some by Necrotic Insectoids, some by the Dark Sun Slime leading Dark Sun Children, and others by Death God Avatars commanding Ash Wasps and Mummy Troops.
Rosen didn't even need to deploy his true body. He was already attacking five of the Celestial Empires simultaneously through the Manifestation of the Painted World.
As for the remaining two Celestial Empires, Rosen and his remaining pets split into two groups to launch their attacks.
If he had confronted the seven Celestial Empires head-on, facing over twenty True Gods at once—even if these divine position holders were somewhat weak—Rosen would have had no chance of winning. However, he had never planned to face the True Gods directly. His goal was simply to hunt the Dark Sun Descendants who didn't hold divine positions.
Whenever a divine position holder came after him, he would immediately use data transmission to relocate in advance.
In the end, the seven Celestial Empires were left in rivers of blood, with only a handful of survivors. The over twenty divine position holders hadn't even caught a glimpse of their enemy's true face, being led on a wild chase by the elusive foe. By the time the Cosmic Holy Emperor arrived at the Ascension Dynasty, all it saw was endless ruins and corpses.
And just as the Cosmic Holy Emperor's true body arrived at the Ascension Dynasty, Rosen had already made his way to the Cosmic Holy Court.
Compared to the seven Celestial Empires, the Cosmic Holy Court was the place with the largest number of Dark Sun Descendants.
Rosen directly used data transmission to arrive at the capital of the Cosmic Holy Court, intending to take away the Solar Essence of the Cosmic Holy Court.
Without the Solar Essence, the dark corruption of the Dark Sun would engulf the Cosmic Holy Court.
This level of undermining the pot would undoubtedly bring him a massive amount of Hunter Points.
If he couldn't figure out the Bloodline Divine Core, Rosen would have to rely on the Hunter's Map to prepare his final escape route.
To take the Solar Essence, Rosen had to face the Cosmic Holy Emperor's True God Avatar.
Although it was just an Avatar, it was undoubtedly more powerful than the Coin True God's true body.
Rosen burned his divine essence and fused with the Miracle Stone Golem. Then, using a pre-carved stone painting of the Cosmic Holy Court, he activated the Manifestation of the Painted World, descending from the sky to appear before the artificial sun that contained the Solar Essence.
He then activated his Spatial-Temporal Domain, embraced the artificial sun, and forcibly carried it toward his divine territory.
After being refined by the Cosmic Holy Emperor for countless ages, this artificial sun had essentially become a Great True God-level extraordinary objects.
The Cosmic Holy Emperor's left-behind Avatar immediately activated the power of the artificial sun.
Countless arrays appeared throughout the Cosmic Holy Court, capable of temporarily resisting the darkness in the absence of sunlight.
The artificial sun stopped releasing the sunlight that enveloped the Cosmic Holy Court. Instead, all its light and heat concentrated into Solar Divine Flames at the Great True God level, burning Rosen's body. Any other Great True God would have been forced to let go of the artificial sun.
However, Rosen relied on the Primordial Stone Law to withstand the Solar Divine Flames and the furious attacks from the Cosmic Holy Emperor's Avatar from behind.
Step by step, he entered his divine territory, then used the power of the Small World Tree to transfer the artificial sun into the Origin World Fruit. Without hesitation, he soared into the sky, with the Cosmic Holy Emperor's Avatar in hot pursuit. The true body also used a special method to teleport back to its Avatar.
Under the Cosmic Holy Emperor's relentless pursuit, Rosen fled wildly across the surface world.
Fighting was definitely out of the question, and even escaping was proving difficult.
Data transmission relied on the Main God Network, and the stability of the Main God Network depended on the Law of Origin.
Yet, with a mere gesture, a Great True God could disrupt the stability of the Law of Origin.
Rosen personally experienced the terrifying power of a Great True God. If he hadn't fused with the Miracle Stone Golem, he would have had no chance of survival against a Great True God. Even with the power of the Miracle Stone Golem unleashed by burning his divine essence, he could only endure more punishment and avoid being easily killed.
Finally, Rosen couldn't take it anymore. He directly charged into a Dark Sun Forbidden Zone on the surface world.
When Dark Sun Children killed each other, they formed Dark Sun Nests, and when a large number of Dark Sun Nests gathered, they created Dark Sun Forbidden Zones. No one knew what dangers lurked in these zones, as even Great True Gods dared only to linger on the outskirts.
If it weren't for the Dark Sun Slime, Rosen wouldn't have dared to use a Dark Sun Forbidden Zone to escape the Cosmic Holy Emperor's pursuit.
Sure enough, after he ventured deep into the Dark Sun Forbidden Zone, the Cosmic Holy Emperor stopped its pursuit and halted at the outskirts.
(End of Chapter)