Lord: Sequence Master

"Are you confident?" Rosen asked, standing beside Sonia, unable to suppress his unease.

According to the original plan, Sonia and Wendy's true bodies were supposed to join forces to attack Chinon's true body. However, Chinon had unexpectedly come to God Painting City, forcing Sonia and Wendy to change their strategy.

With the Painter Sequence Ancient Tree and the many spiritual artworks of the city's painters as support, Sonia and Wendy decided not to descend in their true bodies. Instead, they opted to use their avatars to deal with Chinon's true body while their true bodies assaulted Chinon's divine kingdom.

Rosen wasn't worried about holding Chinon's true body in God Painting City—that wouldn't be an issue for the short term. But he was deeply concerned about the situation in Chinon's divine kingdom.

Sonia had only recently become a Sequence 0, and her divine kingdom lacked the foundation that Chinon's had. Even though Chinon's Sequence 1 divine avatar was holding the fort in the divine kingdom, the home-field advantage might still make it difficult for Sonia and Wendy to achieve their desired results.

Also, couldn't they send him out of the city before the gods started their brawl?

"Don't underestimate a Painter who's ascended to Sequence 0," Sonia replied with a roll of her eyes.

She then took out a painting, which depicted a scene of a deity's downfall.

Rosen stared at it for a moment and then recognized it—it was a depiction of the public execution of the previous True God of the Doctor Sequence, who had betrayed the World Government.

The painting appeared to be a Sequence 1 spiritual artwork based on its quality.

However, using it against a Sequence 0 like Chinon seemed to be a stretch.

It wasn't surprising though—Sonia, having only recently reached Sequence 0, likely hadn't yet painted any Sequence 0 spiritual artworks.

But in the next moment, Sonia truly surprised Rosen.

Although she hadn't mastered the Art of Dimensions, she had another method to layer spiritual artworks.

She proceeded to take out over a hundred paintings, all depicting the suffering of gods. Using an unknown Painter skill, she instantly replaced the depicted deities with Chinon in each painting.

In an instant, Chinon's divine essence and divine body began enduring unimaginable torment.

If one painting wasn't enough, then a hundred would suffice.

Rosen was stunned—how did Sonia manage to paint over a hundred Sequence 1 spiritual artworks?

He had painted over a thousand spiritual artworks in thirty years, but all of them were Sequence 4.

Starting from Sequence 3, the difficulty of creating spiritual artworks or extraordinary artifacts increased exponentially. Even a Sequence 1 Painter would typically require a century to complete a single Sequence 1 spiritual artwork.

If it were a Sequence 1 spiritual realm painting, it might take up to five hundred years.

And yet, Sonia's divine avatar had already inflicted tremendous damage on Chinon's true body.

On the other side, Wendy was even more ruthless than Sonia.

Wendy lacked a self-portrait avatar but had her divine avatar, which, though it shared her Sequence level, excelled in utilizing the extraordinary essence of the integrated alien races.

She transformed directly into an Abyssal Executioner, a rare type of Abyssal Demon known for its expertise in pain and torment.

Wendy amplified Chinon's pain to unimaginable levels. The proud deity, Chinon, was reduced to gritting his teeth so hard that they shattered. Unable to control his own body, he slowly fell to his knees under the unbearable agony.

At that moment, a spectral image of the Archaeological Museum appeared behind Chinon.

A bloodied nail on one of the museum's exhibits descended and pierced through Chinon's head, directly into his sea of consciousness.

All the pain vanished in an instant, suppressed by the mysterious nail.

Chinon retrieved a broken spearhead from the museum, and in the next moment, it reverted to a complete spear, wrapped in terrifying golden lightning.

The spear locked onto Rosen, who was hiding deep within the domain, and was hurled instantly.

The spear tore through the domain, and before Rosen could react, it pierced his heart.

Recognizing the weapon's origin, Wendy glanced at Rosen with guilt and pity.

The Pale Spear—once a True God-level extraordinary artifact—had been destroyed in a divine battle, leaving only this fragment in Chinon's possession. Through artifact restoration, Chinon had partially revived the Pale Spear's power.

The spear's most unique trait was its ability to conceptually erase whatever it struck.

Although the spear had struck Rosen's heart, Chinon's true target wasn't merely his physical heart.

Losing a heart could be resolved with countless extraordinary methods.

The heart was merely symbolic—what Chinon truly aimed to erase was Rosen's spiritual essence. With a portion of his spiritual essence permanently obliterated, Rosen would never advance from Sequence 4 to Sequence 3 in this lifetime.

Rosen gave Chinon a deep look, then grabbed the spear embedded in his heart and took a step back, vanishing into the Mysterious Study Room.

The battle between the three deities had only just begun and raged on for three months.

Though Chinon's true body remained relatively unharmed, his divine kingdom was nearly dismantled.

Sonia, through this battle, firmly established her standing as a Sequence 0 and even upgraded her divine kingdom to Sequence 0 by plundering Chinon's. Wendy also used the opportunity to suppress the Archaeological Sequence.

Chinon not only suffered defeat but also bore the brunt of the blame afterward.

For the next thousand years, he would be exiled to the front lines to atone for his mistakes.

No one paid attention to the small Sequence 4 who had been the catalyst for the clash of gods. Nor did anyone notice his whereabouts.

The only ones who cared about Rosen's disappearance were a few observant individuals, but by this time, Rosen had completely vanished from the public eye.

Three years later, in the Endless Abyss of the Human World.

This was a massive chasm leading to the deepest depths of the Earth's core. Even True Gods found it nearly impossible to reach the very bottom of the Endless Abyss. Legend had it that only Great True Gods could truly delve into its depths.

Since the region lacked resources, no extraordinary beings gathered near the Endless Abyss. Over time, however, several empires from the surrounding continents found other uses for it. They began dumping hazardous, unrecyclable waste into the abyss, as well as sending death row convicts to their final plunge. This led to the construction of teleportation gates and small watchtowers to guard them around the edges of the abyss.

Near the Endless Abyss, there was no light. All light seemed to be devoured by the darkness of the chasm. Only the lighthouses, serving as solitary beacons, illuminated the massive, gaping mouth of the abyss, which spanned hundreds of thousands of miles in diameter.

At one of the lighthouses, a shriveled old man placed several storage rings into a void launcher. These rings, containing dangerous waste that would soon corrode and shatter their own spatial structures, were promptly fired like cannonballs into the Endless Abyss, disappearing into the darkness.

Finishing his task for the day, the withered old man dispelled his act of roleplay and poured himself a cup of red tea.

Rosen savored the tea slowly, reflecting on the past three years.

After retreating into a time domain and using data transmission to escape Eternal Continent, he had entered God Painting City full of confidence, only to leave utterly humiliated.

He had believed Chinon to be his true enemy, only to discover that his real adversary was Sonia.

He had helped Sonia ascend to Sequence 0, and according to their Eternal Bond contract, Sonia was forbidden from harming him in any way and was obligated to protect his safety to the best of her abilities. The contract was extremely lenient. However, to Sonia, it was a humiliating shackle.

Thus, the trap set for Chinon had also been a trap for him.

From the very beginning, Sonia had used her self-portrait avatar to unleash over a hundred Sequence 1 spiritual artworks. This act had left her in a weakened state. When Chinon attacked him under these conditions, Sonia, despite her best efforts, was incapable of ensuring his safety. In this way, Sonia had exploited a loophole to circumvent part of the Eternal Bond.

Of course, Rosen had considered whether he was overthinking it—perhaps Sonia had no such intention.

After all, while she had bypassed part of the contract, there was another clause stating that Sonia could not harm him, either directly or through proxy. Doing so would trigger the Eternal Bond's backlash.

From this perspective, being pierced through the heart by the Pale Spear might have simply been an accident. If Sonia had truly harbored malicious intent toward him, she would have faced the contract's retribution within the past three years.

But in the end, Rosen concluded that Sonia had indeed intended to harm him.

This conclusion came from Wendy's gaze at the very end—it was one of pity, not surprise. Wendy had clearly known all along what the outcome would be.

Three years ago, Rosen had believed Sonia was someone he could trust absolutely, but he had overlooked one thing: for every spear, there is a shield. If there existed something as binding as the Eternal Bond, which even gods couldn't escape, then there naturally existed forces capable of suppressing or even breaking such contracts.

After leaving Eternal Continent, Rosen spent half a year uncovering the origins of the Pale Spear.

Even now, the fragment of the spearhead remained lodged in his heart, impossible to remove.

Nine points of his spiritual essence had been permanently obliterated by the Pale Spear.

If not for the Ancient God's Relic, he wouldn't have been able to maintain his Sequence 4 level.

Anyone else in his position would have given up and waited for death. But for Rosen, these injuries were far from enough to make him despair.

The Ancient God Sequence had another unique ability besides the Ancient God's Divine Body: Ancient God Divinity.

Ancient God Divinity could reconstruct one's spiritual essence, raising the upper limit of spiritual essence for each Sequence to 13 points.

According to the Ancient God legacy, 13 points of spiritual essence represented the true limit of each Sequence.

Only by reaching 13 points of spiritual essence could one hope to transcend the level of a Great True God.

However, mastering Ancient God Divinity wasn't easy. In the early stages of the Ancient God Sequence, one could only achieve it through a special ritual when advancing from Sequence 1 to Sequence 0.

Later, a new method was developed, allowing individuals to master Ancient God Divinity as early as Sequence 3.

That is, at Sequence 3, one could directly come into contact with the Ancient God and use the power of the Ancient God to bring about the ultimate sublimation of one's spiritual essence.

This was precisely why Rosen had come to the Endless Abyss. According to his knowledge, the body of the First Ancient God was still slumbering at the very bottom of the abyss.

Though the First Ancient God had fallen, giving rise to the Second Ancient God, theories about this process varied.

Some researchers believed that the Second Ancient God was the offspring born from the corpse of the First Ancient God. Others proposed that the First Ancient God could not truly die but instead shed its form to be reborn into a second existence. Yet another theory posited that the Second Ancient God was merely an incarnation or avatar of the First Ancient God.

These were not mere conjectures but hypotheses supported by compelling evidence. One such piece of evidence was the slumbering body of the First Ancient God at the depths of the Endless Abyss, which lent weight to the third theory.

To reach the bottom of the Endless Abyss and approach the body of the First Ancient God, the initial requirement was to become a Great True God.

Later, however, the Great True Gods of the Ancient God civilization, to enable lower-ranked practitioners of the Ancient God Sequence to master Ancient God Divinity early, pooled the collective strength of their civilization to carve out the Ancient God Staircase in the Endless Abyss—a path that only those in the Ancient God Sequence could tread.

Through the Ancient God Staircase, even a Sequence 3 could delve deep into the abyss and approach the First Ancient God.

However, Rosen's Ancient God Sequence was incomplete. Yet, he possessed the Ancient God's Divine Body.

For two years, he had been cautiously testing the Ancient God Staircase. If his Ancient God's Divine Body alone was insufficient to gain the staircase's recognition, entering rashly could mean a struggle to escape.

After two years of probing, Rosen had confirmed that the Ancient God Staircase did not reject him for having an incomplete Ancient God Sequence.

The staircase recognized Ancient God bloodlines and the Ancient God's Divine Body.

These two attributes were the fundamental requirements for qualifying to master Ancient God Divinity.

Now that all preparations were complete, it was time to step onto the Ancient God Staircase.

Standing at the edge of the Endless Abyss, Rosen activated the Ancient God's Divine Body. He merged the bloodline of his primitive human origins into his noble superhuman essence, fully releasing the Ancient God bloodline to permeate his entire body. He then activated the Ancient God Relic lodged in his heart, which also imprisoned the shard of the Pale Spear.

Silently, a path wrapped in swirling black mist appeared before him.

Rosen stepped onto the path and vanished along with the Ancient God Staircase.

The Ancient God Staircase, in essence, resembled a wormhole.

It folded space, creating a much shorter and safer passage.

This path posed no tests or dangers.

The very act of stepping onto the staircase meant the individual already met the Ancient God civilization's standards for selecting talent. Under such conditions, further trials would be unnecessary. Moreover, creating a path capable of folding and twisting the abyss's space was already a formidable task; adding tests would only overcomplicate matters.

Of course, one might say there was still one test—the ability to master Ancient God Divinity.

The Ancient God Staircase did not allow high-speed travel or the use of extraordinary powers.

Its structure was externally strong but internally fragile. Most of its strength was dedicated to resisting the spatial corrections exerted by the Endless Abyss, leaving little capacity to shield against internal damage. As a result, all extraordinary powers of those entering were sealed.

Fortunately, the path wasn't too long. According to records, the Ancient God Staircase stretched approximately 30 million miles.

If Rosen took his time, he estimated it would take about seven years to reach the end.

After three years of walking, Rosen stopped.

The path ahead was broken. At the edge of the fracture, a hand shrouded in swirling black mist was faintly visible, as though it were gripping the ledge of the Ancient God Staircase like a climber clinging to a cliff.

The moment Rosen laid eyes on the hand, an immense terror arose from the very depths of his bloodline.

"An Ancient God… This is an Ancient God's hand…"

Rosen muttered in shock, momentarily losing his senses.

After some time, he snapped out of it and realized something odd—the hand was far too small.

The Ancient God Staircase was no more than ten meters wide.

The hand's width was less than ten meters, yet according to what Rosen knew, the body of a true Main God was roughly the size of an entire world.

The discrepancy was staggering. But if it wasn't an Ancient God's hand, what other being could possess such a presence that even the sight of its hand would instill such overwhelming dread?

Whether it is or not, attempting to master Ancient God Divinity would reveal the truth.

The essence of mastering Ancient God Divinity lies in continuously approaching the Ancient God and using the pressure exerted by the Ancient God to temper the Ancient God bloodline within oneself. When the bloodline's awakening reaches 50%, the Ancient God's Divine Body would naturally provide feedback to the soul, allowing the spiritual essence to ascend and transform.

Under this immense pressure, Rosen pressed forward step by step, and as expected, his bloodline awakening began to progress.

Over the years, Paradise Pharmaceuticals had consistently supplied him with Godblood Awakening Potions, allowing his bloodline awakening to reach nearly 29%. Later, when the Ancient God's Divine Body awakened, the bloodline reached 40%, though no new Ancient God Sequence skills were unlocked.

At 30% and 40%, Rosen had only obtained more of the Ancient God civilization's inherited memories from his bloodline.

It was through these memories that he learned about the Endless Abyss.

For more than a decade, his Ancient God bloodline had shown no signs of growth. Now, finally, it began advancing again.

Confirming that the hand gripping the Ancient God Staircase showed no signs of movement, Rosen cautiously continued forward, step by step.

Behind him, by the window of the Mysterious Study Room, his self-portrait clone was ready at any moment to pull him back inside.

Finally, after two more years, Rosen's bloodline awakening reached 49%.

However, the final 1% seemed to have hit a wall—it wouldn't budge at all.

Rosen was now less than ten meters away from the hand, yet his bloodline awakening showed no signs of further progress.

He couldn't risk stepping directly onto the hand. According to inherited memories, even Great True Gods couldn't directly touch the body of the Ancient God. They could only indirectly extract some of the Ancient God's original bloodline, which led to the later emergence of the Ancient God Sequence.

Rosen didn't dare to approach further, so he retreated into the Mysterious Study Room and released the network cables of the Main God Computer.

The moment the cables touched the hand, nine-colored light shot out from them, wrapping around the hand. To Rosen's astonishment, the hand began to shrink—it was a severed hand clutching the broken edge of the Ancient God Staircase.

As the severed hand was drawn into the Mysterious Study Room by the cables, the Ancient God Staircase began collapsing from the point where the hand had been gripping it.

Rosen was forced to leave the Mysterious Study Room and ran back along the staircase with all his might.

He tried using other methods, but even Data Transmission was unusable on the Ancient God Staircase.

Using the last of his strength, Rosen managed to escape the staircase in less than a year.

Two days after he got out, the Ancient God Staircase completely collapsed.

Finally safe, Rosen returned to the Mysterious Study Room and waited for the Main God Computer to fully suppress the severed hand.

He waited three years. When the severed hand finally disappeared, sealed within the Ancient God Computer, Rosen discovered its true origin.

This was not the severed hand of an Ancient God but rather the severed hand of the Great True God of the Ancient God civilization.

It is widely known that the Great True God of the Main God civilization was ultimately destroyed by other True Gods of the same civilization, along with the Tablets of Fate.

However, no trace of the Ancient God civilization's Great True God existed, even in inherited memories.

Rosen had long suspected that the will of the Abyss might be the Ancient God civilization's Great True God.

But now, it seemed more likely that the Great True God of the Ancient God civilization had fallen deep within the Endless Abyss. In its final moments, it had reached for the broken Ancient God Staircase, but its hand was severed by some unknown force, preventing it from climbing back up.

Of course, this was only speculation—the full truth remained a mystery.

The severed hand gripping the broken edge of the Ancient God Staircase had sustained the staircase, which should have collapsed long ago. The shared power within the severed hand barely held it together.

But after countless years, the residual power within the severed hand had nearly been depleted.

Had it been at full strength, the current Ancient God Computer would not have been capable of suppressing or sealing the severed hand of a Great True God at its peak.

Even in its diminished state, the severed hand of a Great True God remained immensely potent.

The Main God Computer was extracting the remaining Ancient God bloodline from the hand, which would be enough to push Rosen's Ancient God bloodline awakening to 50%.

As for the severed hand itself, it remained unusable for now—at least until Rosen became a deity. Only then would he be qualified to make use of the severed hand of a Great True God.