"Serpent Mother Gourd!"
Rosen knew that refining the Serpent Mother Gourd would very likely involve facing the threat of the Eternal Serpent Mother's remaining traps.
If he were the Eternal Serpent Mother, he would surely leave behind even more contingencies for his resurrection.
So, this might just be a poisonous bait, but the temptation was too great. It was impossible to resist; after all, if the Eternal Serpent Mother couldn't face it, why should he face more powerful Ancient Gods?
Of course, Rosen wouldn't follow the stone slab's instructions exactly to refine and control the Serpent Mother Gourd.
He immediately planted the Eternal Root, generating countless tendrils that penetrated along the cracks of the Serpent Mother Gourd. While refining the gourd using the method on the stone slab, he also integrated the Eternal Root into the Serpent Mother Gourd, using it to suppress any potential hidden dangers.
After being cautious for a long time, he found that there was no danger at all during the refinement process.
Through the tendrils of the Eternal Root growing and spreading, he began to understand what was going on.
The Serpent Mother Gourd indeed contained a contingency for the resurrection of the Eternal Serpent Mother. Hidden within it were countless snake eggs invisible to the naked eye. However, all of these snake eggs were completely dead, clearly, the Ancient Gods' gaze had not only destroyed the Eternal Serpent Mother's followers but also wiped out the contingency for her resurrection.
After entering the Serpent Mother Gourd, Rosen prepared to collect the corpses of the Eternal Serpent Mother's followers.
Upon closer inspection, he found that all the bodies shattered upon contact.
It seemed all the original essences had been absorbed by the Origin Seed.
Rosen quickly refined the Origin Seed. The smooth refinement occurred because he found that the Origin Seed contained many Eternal Plundering Origins—likely the remnants of the Ancient Gods' power. The Eternal Will belonging to the Ancient Gods within the Origin Seed had probably been eroded by the Seed over the long years.
Thus, these Eternal Plundering Origins were left without a master, making it easy for him to absorb and control them through the Eternal Root.
The Serpent Mother Gourd was severely damaged and would hardly have any value without repair.
Rosen directly used the rooting ability of the Eternal Root to decompose the Serpent Mother's cracked Origin Seed into countless fragments, then merged these fragments into the Serpent Mother Gourd using the Eternal Compatibility Origin, utilizing the same-origin power to repair the gourd.
Two years passed in the real world, but time accelerated by two thousand years.
Finally, the Serpent Mother Gourd had been roughly repaired, revealing some of the power it possessed as an Eternal Holy Item.
[Serpent Mother Gourd: Eternal Holy Item][Eternal Property: Can transform all life into Void Serpent Clan through the Serpent Mother's Nest][Eternal Trait: Eternal Immortal Vine, Birth Origin Seed]
Normally, to repair the Serpent Mother Gourd, one would need billions of years to even consider it.
Rosen was able to repair the Serpent Mother Gourd in just two thousand years. This was not only because he integrated the Eternal Serpent Mother's Eternal Birth Origin Seed into the gourd but also because a small portion of the gourd's vine had retained a bit of vitality.
The power of the Eternal Root successfully revived the last vestiges of vitality in the gourd's vine.
Now, on the surface of the Serpent Mother Gourd, a jade vine had started to grow and wrap around the gourd.
This was the Eternal Immortal Vine, not Eternal Life, but an eternal-level plant.
The Serpent Mother Gourd could use the Eternal Immortal Vine to root into everything and absorb nutrients. Moreover, the vine could transform into a vine-snake, gaining the power of birth and producing various gourds. If combined with the Eternal Root, the effect would be even more powerful.
The Eternal Root's tendrils could cause everything to take root, sprout, bloom, and bear fruit.
Meanwhile, Eternal Birth, while similar to the Eternal Root, had its differences.
The Eternal Root focused on directly rooting and breaking down all things, then reorganizing them through sprouting and flowering, while Eternal Birth focused on preserving the existing things and birthing new offspring.
When these two forces were combined, the power of the Eternal Root would become even stronger.
Rosen played with the Serpent Mother Gourd, reluctant to let go, but after his joy passed, his mood grew heavy.
He realized that even though he had given the Ancient Gods the highest regard, it still seemed he had underestimated them.
The Serpent Mother Gourd and the Birth Origin Seed—while the Ancient Gods could have taken them, they did not.
If it was because of some reason that the Ancient Gods didn't have time to take them, that would be one thing, but if the Ancient Gods simply disregarded them and never thought to take them, Rosen couldn't even imagine how powerful the Ancient Gods must be to cast aside these items like trash.
Rosen had once thought that the World Will wanted to take advantage of the Ancient Gods' slumber to harm or even eliminate them.
Now that he thought about it, it seemed absurd. The World Will and the Old Fisherman never considered eliminating the Ancient Gods. All they thought about was how to steal and plunder fragments of the Origin Seed, and after using them, they even considered returning them. It wasn't that they lacked ambition, but they knew just how powerful the Ancient Gods were.
Rosen stored away the Serpent Mother Gourd and passed through the Gate of Worlds to the surface of the Dark Sun in the Old World.
Previously, his Eternal All-Knowing wasn't complete, making it difficult to peer into the inner workings of the Dark Sun.
Now that the All-Knowing Origin Seed was fully refined, he was certain he would understand more about the Dark Sun.
However, it still disappointed him, as he could not see through the interior of the Dark Sun.
But it wasn't without gains. The surface of the Dark Sun was covered by a layer of flesh, beneath which was something resembling an eggshell. The Eternal All-Knowing couldn't reveal the true nature of the eggshell, but the Eternal Birth could confirm that it was indeed an eggshell, and inside, new life was being nurtured.
The weakness of the Dark Sun was not only because the Ancient Gods had drained countless years of its original power.
It was also because the mysterious existence growing inside the Dark Sun had nearly drained all the terrifying power contained within it.
In the end, Rosen discovered the true nature of the outer flesh covering the Dark Sun.
This layer of flesh actually shared the same origin as the Eternal Birth, which meant that the corpse of the Eternal Serpent Mother was very likely absorbed into the Dark Sun by the Ancient Gods. So, the flesh on the surface was actually the body of the Eternal Serpent Mother, drained of its origin.
Thinking back to those Eternal beings that died in the Ancient God's world, their corpses disappeared without a trace…
Rosen strongly suspected that the Ancient Gods had fused the corpses of multiple Eternal beings into the Dark Sun, using them to nurture the mysterious life within. This life could possibly be a manifestation of the Ancient Gods, or even their offspring.
In the past, the Dark Sun seemed harmless, so much so that Rosen had overlooked the fact that it was directly responsible for turning the World Tree's victory into defeat, and for the Ancient Gods' slumber lasting countless years. Relying on the power of the Dark Sun's Celestial Eye, it acted with utter impunity on the Dark Sun's surface, constantly playing with fire on the edge of death.
Rosen's gaze shifted from the Dark Sun down to the Old World. Now, there were very few of the Dark Sun's followers left in the Old World.
However, the three thousand duchies were still far from becoming kingdoms.
Reality wasn't like a game, where a maximum of 108 kings could exist, and even then, they were mostly worthless. For Rosen to rely on the Old World's Dark Sun followers to create three thousand kings, he would need to dismantle the entire Old World.
With a single command, Rosen ordered the three thousand duchies scattered across the Old World to begin gathering.
These duchies then started merging, reducing their number while enhancing their quality.
Initially, the three thousand pureblood Celestial beings had the best qualifications, but they were not puppets.
Each had a different personality and talent. Some liked to control power, others didn't. Some were competent rulers, while others had no talent for it. This process was about eliminating the unqualified pureblood Celestial beings and allowing them to abandon the path of kingship to follow other growth routes.
Soon, the merging of the three thousand duchies was complete, and 333 kingdoms were born.
Almost nine duchies merged to form a single kingdom, with the subjects, territories, and civilizations combining to give birth to one kingdom.
All the kings were promoted to true gods with the creation of their kingdoms.
These were genuine true gods, with no pretenses. If they continued growing and reached the peak of their kingdom, they would be eligible to become Great True Gods.
If they merged further into empires, they would inevitably become Great True Gods.
It was conservatively estimated that the merging of these kingdoms would give birth to twenty to thirty empires and their corresponding mighty true gods.
However, while such rapid mergers could quickly enhance their strength, the power wielded by the new emperors would undoubtedly be diluted.
Therefore, Rosen didn't plan to continue merging for the time being. The 333 true god kings were already ranked first in the middle tier of the major forces, and unless higher-level combatants intervened, they had no challengers.
Once again, Rosen opened the Gate of Worlds and returned to the New World.
He scattered the Celestial Kingdoms across various continents, replacing the former Empires.
These continents were all territories given to him by the World Will and the Old Fisherman.
There was more than enough space to settle the Celestial Kingdoms. Next, he planned to let the Celestial race grow freely.
Since the birth of the Celestial race, he could be said to have been their caretaker the entire time.
Within the Celestial race, some of them already felt this was only natural.
This attitude had to be extinguished. If it weren't for the impending grand event, he would never have pushed the Celestial race to grow so quickly. Up to this point, he had already reached the limit. If he continued to accelerate their growth, they would be ruined. From here on, they would have to rely on their own survival.
Unless another faction unfairly bullied them with overwhelming strength, he would step in to support the Celestial race.
Otherwise, even if the entire Celestial race perished, he wouldn't care. If they couldn't survive, it meant he had created a bunch of failures.
...
In the True Realm of the Ancient Gods, the Glorious Kingdom had ascended from a Kingdom to an Empire.
Rosen waved his hand, and the civilization's embers from the Glorious Empire flew out from the palace and landed in his hand.
At the same time, the civilization's embers of the 333 Celestial Kingdoms also appeared in his hand.
He retrieved the Miracle Ember. At this point, the Miracle Ember was almost extinguished, but it was just a little short of becoming an Origin Seed.
Rosen immediately bound the civilization's embers of the Glorious Empire and the 333 Celestial Kingdoms as affiliates to the Miracle Ember.
He couldn't bear to let the Miracle Ember devour them directly, so they could only become affiliates, sustaining its growth over time.
It was conservatively estimated that in a few decades, the Miracle Ember would evolve into an Origin Seed.
After speeding up time for several decades, the Miracle Ember finally completely extinguished.
But in the blink of an eye, it reignited, burning brighter and stronger than before.
[Eternal Ember: Eternal Sacred Flame]
[Level: Immortal Godfiend]
[Miracle Attribute: Can control all fortunes and transform them into the origin of the Eternal Ember]
[Miracle Traits: Destiny Scales, Mimetic Divine Persona, Ember Transmission, Barbaric Will, Ember Origin Seed]
As the Miracle Ember transformed into the Eternal Sacred Flame, an Ember Origin Seed condensed within the depths of the flame.
Not only that, the Miracle Ember itself contained immense Miracle Power, so the Miracle Ember was not only the core material for forming the Ember Origin Seed but also an auxiliary material for creating Miracle Origin Seeds.
Ordinary Eternal Miracle Origins could be obtained by burning Miracle Artifacts with the Eternal Holy Radiance.
But the Miracle Ember contained more than just the Eternal Miracle Origin. Since the Miracle Ember was initially a Miracle Rule, ordinary Miracle Artifacts might merge with the Eternal Miracle Origin to potentially birth a Miracle Rule. However, for a Miracle Rule to be born, it had to fuse with fragments of the Origin Seed of the Eternal Miracle Origin.
As Rosen transformed the Miracle Ember into the Eternal Sacred Flame, he extracted fragments of the Origin Seed, which condensed together.
He then fused these Origin Seed fragments into the Extraordinary Source Essence of the Miracle Sequence.
Visibly, the Extraordinary Source Essence of the Miracle Sequence that Rosen controlled evolved into the Origin Seed of the Eternal Miracle.
However, sensing this Origin Seed, he was certain that the Miracle Origin Seed was unlike any other Origin Seed he had ever controlled.
Other Origin Seeds were born complete, or at worst, as fragmented pieces.
However, this Eternal Miracle Origin Seed was very unique. Its current state was neither fragmented nor entirely complete.
Rosen carefully refined the Miracle Origin Seed, and gradually, he began to sense other Miracle Origin Seeds.
He had one Miracle Origin Seed, another was in the Heart of the Ancient Gods, a third was seemingly in the hands of the World Will in the Spirit Realm, and even the Old Fisherman and the other four major factions each possessed one. Lastly, there was one that faintly existed in the universe beyond the Ancient God Realm.
Rosen did a quick count, and the total number of Miracle Origin Seeds was surprisingly nine?
These nine Miracle Origin Seeds were all real, and strictly speaking, they were all fragments of Origin Seeds.
As for why the fragments could function just like a complete Origin Seed, it was because the Eternal Miracle Origin Seed was so powerful that even if it split into nine pieces, it could still rival other Origin Seeds. This realization made Rosen understand the World Will's plans.
He had never understood why the World Will would steal fragments of Origin Seeds from the Ancient Gods.
In his past understanding, once an Origin Seed fractured, it would inevitably alert its owner, the Ancient God.
Now, it seemed his understanding was wrong. The fracturing of Origin Seeds depended on the circumstances. Weak Origin Seeds would shatter into fragments, while powerful Origin Seeds could still form independent Origin Seeds even after fracturing. Therefore, the number of stolen Origin Seeds was not limited to just one.
Through the God Network, Rosen directly sent the Little Fairy, the messenger of the Spirit Realm, over.
With her rise, the Little Fairy had already reached Sequence 0.
He sent over a page from the Secret Brass Book, on which he had written his doubts about the Miracle Origin Seed.
The World Will soon left a reply in the Secret Brass Book, and the Little Fairy, trembling with fear, returned as if fleeing with the response.
After Rosen retrieved the page, he found the answer he had been seeking.
The World Will indeed knew about the Miracle Origin Seed, and they did not hide any related information.
It turned out that the Eternal Life form who controlled the Miracle Origin Seed was on par with the Ancient Gods and the World Tree in terms of the first tier of Eternal Life.
This being, while alive, was unknown to anyone, and no one even knew how they died. All that was known was that upon their death, nine Miracle Origin Seeds scattered across the universe. Possessing any one of these Miracle Origin Seeds would allow the holder's power to undergo a miraculous transformation.
Rosen, who controlled the Miracle Sequence, could perfectly master and integrate the Miracle Artifacts within it.
What powers the World Will used to cause such a transformation remained unknown, but this clearly involved the World Will's hidden trump cards.
All who possessed a Miracle Origin Seed were collectively known as the "Children of Miracles."
The Children of Miracles were very difficult to kill because possessing the power of miracles allowed them to find a way out even in the most desperate situations.
Those Immortal Godfiends who had not returned to the Ancient God Realm weren't all hoping to profit in the outside world. Rather, they did not have the courage to face the Ancient Gods because they didn't possess a Miracle Origin Seed. The Miracle Origin Seed was the foundation for why the World Will and the Old Fisherman dared to covet and steal the Origin Seeds.
"The Miracle Origin Seed has nine pieces, and there are probably nine ways to combine or plunder them."
Rosen put away the Secret Brass Book and thought to himself.
He had always wondered why the Ancient Gods had seized the power of the World Tree, but since the Origin Seeds were bound to Eternal Life, and the World Tree had not died completely, it must still possess some compatible Origin Seeds. How could the Ancient Gods steal fragments of compatible Origin Seeds to create a smaller World Tree?
Now, it seemed that when the compatible Origin Seeds split, they didn't become fragments, but rather formed nine smaller Origin Seeds.
What remained uncertain was how many smaller compatible Origin Seeds the World Tree and the Ancient Gods now controlled.
Rosen had always been uneasy about the Miracle Origin Seed, but now he could rest easy.
However, he became even more cautious about the World Will. Since the power of the Miracle Origin Seeds was so strong, possessing nine would certainly be far more powerful than possessing just one. If they were to control all nine complete Miracle Origin Seeds, Rosen believed that the World Will and others would likely betray him at any opportunity.
(End of chapter)