Rosen observed the spirit lifeform before him through the eyes of his Psychic Soul Butterfly. The being emitted no hostility.
It had no flesh or organs—its body was a headless humanoid skeleton formed entirely of glowing blue psychic substance.
From the outside, the Primordial Ruin resembled a giant skull. It wasn't hard to guess whether this psychic lifeform might have been the owner of that skull in life.
Just now, this being had appeared without warning, using a speed and power imperceptible even to the Heavenly Coffin Beetle to swat it into the ground.
Now, Rosen watched as the psychic lifeform gently cupped the Psychic Soul Butterfly, then carefully raised both hands and placed it where its neck would be.
A terrifying psychic force surged from within, wrapping around the butterfly to form a skull.
Psychic power poured continuously into the butterfly, actively feeding it to absorb and fuse.
However, this was just a sub-butterfly—the eternal will within it was limited.
In the blink of an eye, the sub-butterfly was overstuffed and had to transfer the psychic energy to the queen butterfly. But soon even the queen was overwhelmed. If it continued, the Psychic Soul Butterfly would collapse, and Rosen's Eternal Divinity would be the first to suffer.
Rosen began reversing the Source of Myriad Transformations, converting the previously absorbed psychic energy back into Life Source and Divinity Source.
Soon, his Source was restored to 195 units. Yet the psychic energy still surged forth endlessly.
When it was about to reach 195 units again, Rosen felt his Eternal Will faltering.
There was simply too much Primordial Power—his Eternal Will couldn't control it all.
With no other choice, Rosen transferred the excess psychic energy to the Dark Sun Slime.
Unfortunately, the Root Ancestor Tree's avatar wasn't present. Otherwise, as an Eternal Avatar, it could have helped bear some of the burden.
Even so, the psychic energy continued to swell beyond limits despite the Dark Sun Slime sharing the load.
Left with no alternative, Rosen transformed the Psychic Soul Butterfly into a Source Hive Queen. It began consuming the psychic energy, combining it with the psychic matter previously gathered from the treasure space within the supercluster, and continuously birthed butterfly sub-creatures imbued with psychic power.
In the end, he produced nearly 3,000 butterfly offspring, each carrying one unit of psychic energy.
Only then did the headless skeleton-form psychic lifeform finally exhaust all of its psychic power.
Its body, composed of psychic matter, remained as inert bones, completely unresponsive—like a dead object.
Rosen had the Psychic Soul Butterfly devour the headless skeleton and examined it carefully, finding it astonishingly compatible with himself.
He merely needed to inject his Eternal Will into it, and he could control the skeleton like a secondary body.
Of course, since his Eternal Will had quality but little quantity, the amount of psychic power he could wield was limited. It would be impossible to unleash the devastating strength that could suppress the World Tree. But controlling this skeleton to battle ordinary Eternal lifeforms would likely yield more wins than losses.
Delighted, Rosen stored the skeleton away, intending to refine it into a clone once he left.
It would be even better to convert it using the Source of Myriad Transformations—after turning it into an insect form, it would consume much less Eternal Will.
For now, Rosen directed the Psychic Soul Butterfly to delve into the deepest part of the ruin, a place no one had yet reached.
With the skeleton no longer guarding it, the deepest part of the ruin was safe for the moment. But if too much time passed, the Elemental Holy Gods and others outside would sense something wrong. If they entered, any treasure hidden in the deepest depths would no longer be his.
The heart of the ruin was shrouded in a psychic storm. All perception, including vision, was distorted here.
Even psychic power couldn't extend far from the user's body, or it would be scattered by the constant psychic storm.
However, for the Psychic Soul Butterfly, while not exactly swimming effortlessly through water, it could still traverse the storm with ease.
After crossing hundreds of thousands of miles through the psychic storm, Rosen sensed a mountain sitting on a barren land.
This mountain, entirely blue and made of psychic matter, was the source of the storm.
In the past, when the World Tree tried to approach, it was forced to retreat by relentless psychic assaults before it even saw the skeleton.
Rosen used his psychic power to manifest a Creator's Domain to envelop the mountain, but before he could examine it in detail, the mountain shrank of its own accord. What had been visible on the surface was only a part of it—there was more buried underground. Once fully contracted, it was no longer a mountain at all, but a crystalline heart.
After a moment's hesitation, he released the skeleton. The heart instantly shrank and embedded itself into the skeleton's chest cavity.
However, with the heart now embedded, he could no longer store the skeleton.
Through the skeleton, Rosen attempted to control the heart and discovered that it allowed him to govern the entire ruin-world.
The heart acted as a relay. Through it, and using the Psychic Core, he could control the massive skull that housed the ruin-world.
By fusing the Psychic Core with the crystal heart, he could easily command the entire Primordial Ruin.
The moment Rosen willed it, a terrifying spatial-temporal repulsion rippled through the Primordial Ruin.
Outside, the Elemental Holy Gods were still watching when the ruin expelled them with overwhelming force.
Then, in the dark sea of Source, the shrunken skull entered a spatial-transversal gate that had appeared from nowhere and vanished.
In the Mysterious Study Room, Rosen placed the miniature skull onto the neck joint of the skeleton.
Then the Psychic Soul Butterfly regressed into the Psychic Core and merged into the skull's cranial cavity. The crystal heart in the chest began to resonate, releasing a torrent of psychic matter that wrapped around the skeleton and formed various organs, muscles, and skin.
Aside from being composed entirely of spiritual matter from the inside out, this blue, translucent lifeform closely resembled a human being.
Through the already-refined spiritual core, Rosen encountered no resistance in refining the entire skeleton and crystal heart.
If the World Tree had realized the value of the spiritual core back then and chosen to master spiritual power instead of the power of the Stone Realm, it might have already refined this skeleton—and would never have lost to the ancient god. Oftentimes, the line between success and failure is razor-thin.
With the complete refinement of the skeleton, Rosen learned of its origins.
It was the remains of a fallen Primordial Sapient, refined by another primordial lifeform into a masterless Primordial Incarnation.
The materials used to forge this Primordial Incarnation had come from the primordial essence of the Primordial Sapient itself.
It wasn't yet a finished product. Only when everything except the Primordial Core had been transformed into flesh and blood would this Incarnation become complete. Because it was still only half-finished, the primordial lifeform hadn't taken it, choosing instead to leave it behind.
As long as one could master spiritual power, they could control the Primordial Core; and with the Core, they could control the Primordial Incarnation.
The World Tree had failed to master spiritual power and thus missed the opportunity. Though the Elemental Holy God had mastered spiritual power, the Primordial Core had already been taken away by the World Tree. As a result, this half-completed Primordial Incarnation remained until now, ending up in Rosen's hands.
Though Rosen had control of the Primordial Incarnation, there was a difference between superficial control and complete mastery.
The Primordial Incarnation was made up of four parts, and what he currently controlled was only the Primordial Core.
As for the soulbone skeleton composed of spiritual matter, the spiritual furnace heart made from the same material, and the final component—the fragment of a Primordial World attached to both—the rest he had merely grasped on a surface level.
Only by fully mastering the soulbone skeleton could he gain complete access to the various spiritual skills branded into its structure.
Only by fully mastering the spiritual furnace heart could he refine the spirit of life into pure spiritual power.
However, these two were not his current priority. What Rosen needed to focus on first was the fragment of the Primordial World.
A lean camel is still bigger than a horse. Even if it was just a fragment, once fully mastered—if his Eternal Will could become the World Will of that fragment—it could dramatically accelerate the growth of his Eternal Will and greatly lower the difficulty of becoming an Eternal Lifeform.
Just as Rosen was preparing to send the Primordial Incarnation into the Sea of Miracles for refinement, the spiritual soul butterfly transformed from the Primordial Core made a new discovery.
It turned out that inside the skull, the creator of the Primordial Incarnation had left behind a legacy.
This legacy mainly explained the function of each part of the Incarnation, and it also mentioned that under the current conditions of the universe, it was nearly impossible for a complete Primordial Incarnation to be born. Hence, at the end of the legacy, a conceptual plan was proposed.
The lifeforms in the universe can generally be divided into three categories:
The first are spiritual lifeforms, the second are material lifeforms, and the third are flesh-and-blood lifeforms.
Spiritual lifeforms are defined by their innately powerful souls and extraordinary spiritual acuity.
Although they lack strong bodies in the beginning, in the end—just like everything else in the universe—lifeforms must converge to the same path. Even spiritual lifeforms must ultimately rely on spiritual matter to construct a strong enough physical form to become truly flawless.
By contrast, material lifeforms—like the mechanical race—are the exact opposite of spiritual beings.
Flesh-and-blood lifeforms are neither skewed toward the body nor the soul. They are the most balanced—and by the same token, the most mediocre.
These three lifeform types represent two extremes and one balance.
Regardless of the type, however, to evolve from Eternal Life to Primordial Life, one must reach the absolute peak of that path.
But this is extremely difficult, because the universe no longer has the necessary resources or conditions.
Thus, a new path must be taken—and this Primordial Incarnation is just such a shortcut.
If the Primordial Incarnation is fully fused with the soul, the soul could be elevated in one leap to its extreme limit.
Then, he would need to find the remains of a material-type Primordial Lifeform and fuse those remains with his physical body to reach its own limit.
Only by achieving this dual extremity would it be possible to evolve into a Primordial Lifeform.
Rosen hesitated as he stared at the Primordial Incarnation in front of him, worried that it might contain traps left behind by the Primordial Lifeform who created it.
Even if it was just paranoia, it was better to overthink than to blindly gamble on the creator's mercy.
So, after some consideration, he decided to send the Primordial Incarnation into the interior of the Sea of Miracles. He would first use the Source of Myriad Transformations to completely transform the Incarnation into an insect. Even if the creator had left behind traps, they would be useless in the face of this miracle ability derived from the Heart of the Universe.
Although the Incarnation could not yet be fused with the soul, Rosen believed the final part of the legacy was genuine.
To become a Primordial Lifeform, both one's essence of life and essence of divinity must exceed the limits of Eternal Life.
He already had the divine essence in the form of the soul-fusible Primordial Incarnation, but he still lacked the physical remains of a material-type Primordial Lifeform to complete the essence of life.
As much as he wanted to find it right away, Rosen also knew that was unrealistic ambition.
He wasn't even an Eternal Lifeform yet—thinking that far ahead was premature.
By comparison, another part of the legacy was much more valuable to him at this stage.
The legacy mentioned Primordial Powers. Each type of Primordial Power was as unique as a Source Seed. The spiritual core was the heart and origin of spiritual power, and the Stone Realm Source Stone was the heart and origin of the Stone Realm's power.
Only by mastering such a heart and origin could one truly wield a Primordial Power.
Otherwise, such power was like a rootless source—unable to self-generate and only able to be replenished by plundering power from others of the same origin.
If the Primordial Core was so crucial, why had the World Tree shown no concern for the Stone Realm Source Stone?
Unless... the one in Rosen's hands wasn't genuine, but a counterfeit.
Perhaps even if the World Tree hadn't unexpectedly discovered a new offshoot within the treasure vault, it would have still found a way to deliver that counterfeit Source Stone into Rosen's hands. If Rosen had refined it, he would undoubtedly have fallen into a trap that the World Tree laid eons ago.
As expected, allies are meant to be betrayed. Even though they're still cooperating for now, someone's already digging a pit in advance, preparing to turn on him in the future.
Rosen took out the Primordial Stone of the Stone Realm and used the Root of Myriad Transformations to wield the Origin of Eternity, continuously converting the Primordial Stone with the laws of origin. Once he transformed this item into an insect as well, he wondered if the trap left behind by the World Tree would still work.
While Rosen was tirelessly occupied day after day, year after year, his Eternal Avatar in charge of gathering intelligence brought back some bad news.
He had been placed on the most-wanted list across the entire universe. The Holy Divine Hall, the Starfire Palace, and the Sea of Chaos had all issued warrants for his capture.
The one orchestrating all this was the Elemental Holy Deity—along with someone familiar to him: the Old Fisherman.
The Old Fisherman knew Rosen possessed powerful time-space abilities. So, when the Holy Divine Hall offered a bounty to find the mysterious being who held such powers, the Old Fisherman was the first to send an avatar and claim the reward—selling every bit of information he knew about Rosen.
This was clearly an act of revenge by the Old Fisherman, and it brought Rosen quite a bit of trouble.
Several of his Eternal Avatars had already gone missing.
Although Eternal Avatars were merely tools, and Rosen had only instilled basic knowledge into them, if enough were captured, they could still pose a threat to his true self. Therefore, the top priority now was to eliminate witnesses.
Rosen released a Dark Sun Queen Insect, created from a Dark Sun Slime via the Root of Myriad Transformations, then used it to sense the eggs implanted in his Eternal Avatars.
In an instant, all the insect eggs were activated. The missing Eternal Avatars were immediately transformed into Dark Sun Spawn by the Dark Sun larvae within them.
Even if sealed, the Dark Sun Spawn inherited the Eternal Dark Sun ability from their Queen. One after another, they transformed into miniature Dark Suns, and within a blink, they burned away everything—releasing an immensely corruptive Dark Sun radiance.
Though the immediate crisis was resolved, its source remained.
The Elemental Holy Deity was not someone Rosen could afford to provoke for now—but the Old Fisherman had outlived his usefulness.
It was the perfect time to eliminate him—and maybe also learn the truth behind the alliance he once had with the Will of the World and the World Tree.
Otherwise, if Rosen only listened to what the World Tree told him, he might not be hearing the whole truth.
The Book of Fate and Fortune couldn't precisely lock onto the Old Fisherman, who possessed a source seed of causality. The Time Foresight Painting also failed to work—clearly, the Old Fisherman had found some way to shield himself from temporal prediction. But Rosen had other ways of finding him.
He connected to the Heart of the Universe and carefully sensed all the source seeds that were continuously siphoning energy from it.
Most of the immortal godfiends had already been parasitized by Queen Insect eggs from the Dark Sun Queen he embedded within the universe's origin. These eggs, merged into the universal source, were drawn out through the godfiends' source seeds and embedded themselves within their cells—lying dormant.
As for those few immortal godfiends who hadn't been parasitized, it was either because they were reincarnated eternal beings or lacked physical bodies suitable for infestation.
Although the Old Fisherman hadn't been parasitized, Rosen could still trace him by locking onto the Fishing source seed through the Heart of the Universe.
The Old Fisherman was no longer in the Starfire Palace. He had already relocated to the Holy Divine Hall, situated within the Sea of the Universe's Origin.
Just selling Rosen's information wouldn't be enough to earn his way back into the Holy Divine Hall. That meant the Old Fisherman must've also sold out the World Tree and the Will of the World. The World Tree and the Will of the World had abandoned him to form a new alliance with Rosen instead, but when it came to betraying allies, the Old Fisherman was no less ruthless than them.
Rosen fell into thought. Assassinating the Old Fisherman inside the Holy Divine Hall was absolutely impossible.
From what he knew, the world housing the Holy Divine Hall was also a fragment of the Primordial World.
A regular eternal world would never be qualified to harbor hundreds of eternal beings. The fragment of the Primordial World containing the Holy Divine Hall was once a primeval ruin that countless eternal beings had fought over. It was only after all the valuable things had been looted that the Holy Divine Hall was built upon the remaining world fragment.
According to the World Tree, the Ancient Gods never fell out completely with the Holy Divine Hall because they were wary of what the eternal beings there might have discovered.
No one could say for certain what relics were left behind by the Primordial Beings in those ruins—it was impossible to guess.
What the Ancient Gods feared most was that the eternal beings in the Holy Divine Hall might find a superweapon left behind by a Primordial Being.
That said, the gains from the Primordial World fragment probably weren't great. Otherwise, the eternal beings wouldn't be so fearful of the Ancient Gods.
Both sides weren't afraid of each other—they feared the relics of the Primordial Beings that the other might be hiding.
Since Rosen couldn't infiltrate the Holy Divine Hall, he had to figure out a way to lure the Old Fisherman out.
But even the Elemental Holy Deity had failed to capture him—clearly, the Old Fisherman had realized that Rosen's strength had surpassed his and was now so frightened he refused to leave the Holy Divine Hall. Unless Rosen could make him feel completely unthreatened, the Old Fisherman would never come out.
The Holy Divine Hall had been modified into a mini-universe.
Inside this miniature universe, countless eternal worlds floated in space, all orbiting the ruins of a Primordial Temple.
Even though only ruins remained of this structure—originally a transcendental construct of primordial level—it still emanated power surpassing eternity.
And there, on the edge of the ruined temple, stood a humble little tent.
Within the tent lay a small eternal world. The tent itself had been conjured from that world.
The Old Fisherman sat inside, fishing. However, his Void source seed couldn't cross the world barriers of the Holy Divine Hall.
Thus, he was unable to fish for treasures from the wider universe—only for things within his own eternal world, essentially passing items from one hand to the other.
This kind of stifling life was something the Old Fisherman couldn't stand even one more day.
He wanted to leave the Holy Divine Hall—but he was afraid Rosen would find him.
However, staying here was no better. Since he was no longer an eternal being, and even had grudges with some of those inside the Hall, they didn't recognize him as an official member. They wouldn't even allow him to expand his eternal world in this miniature universe.
Eventually, after much effort, he was granted permission to stay on the fringes of the temple ruins—but wasn't even allowed to build a wooden hut.
Left with no choice, he was forced to humiliate himself by shrinking his eternal world and disguising it as a tent.
Without power, there was no such thing as fair treatment.
(End of Chapter)