The Continent of Kings—three thousand duchies stood proudly upon its lands, thriving and growing strong.
All the dukes of these three thousand duchies were pure-blood Celestials.
Under the influence of a thousandfold time acceleration, the power of game laws that blanketed the Continent of Kings, and the support granted by the player sequence bestowed by Rosen, every one of the pure-blood Celestials ascended to godhood in under a millennium. Without exception, all the mixed-blood Celestials reached the level of demigods.
The mixed-blood Celestial population had also exploded, growing from its initial numbers to tens of billions.
On average, each duchy had around ten million people. While not an enormous figure, more than one-third of the population had bloodlines pure enough to become demigods upon reaching adulthood. The rest could also charge toward demigod status through monster-slaying and levelling up, although the resource consumption required for that path was immense.
Thus, several decades ago, all pure-blood Celestials received a divine oracle from the Father God.
All duchies were to leave the Continent of Kings and head to the Old World. There, they would purge every last Dark Sun Follower, exhaust every resource the Old World had to offer, then elevate their duchies into kingdoms and, at last, follow the Father God to the New World.
As portal after portal opened, the three thousand duchies began migrating en masse.
For ordinary people, this was an unthinkable feat. But for Beyonders, it wasn't difficult at all.
Entire cities could be constructed as massive extraordinary structures. Farmlands and other productive resources could be consolidated within the Spirit Realm. Each city was self-sufficient, capable of sustaining basic life. Most importantly, a single demigod could deploy their domain to relocate an entire city.
So even though there were three thousand duchies, it took less than half a day for them all to withdraw completely from the Continent of Kings.
While the Celestial race was expanding and flourishing in the Continent of Kings, Rosen hadn't been idle in the Old World either.
Relying on his innate skill as a Game Developer from the True Creator Sequence, he directly integrated game law into the Main God Network, spreading it throughout the entire Old World.
Then, using the power of game law, he transformed all the Dark Sun Followers into game monsters.
He turned the entirety of the Old World into a colossal game map.
The process was incredibly difficult—it required restructuring an entire world.
The fact that Rosen was able to complete it in such a short time was thanks in large part to the Rooted Tree of Origins.
After fusing with Eternal Origin, the Rooted Tree of Origins grew rapidly, extending its roots throughout the Old World. The entire Old World became preparatory nourishment for the Rooted Tree. The three thousand duchies draining the Old World was, in essence, a systematic dismantling—breaking it down piece by piece to aid the tree's digestion.
As the three thousand duchies expanded outward, unfazed by the corruption of the Dark Sun, the Celestial race slaughtered Dark Sun Followers in droves.
Skies, earth, mountains, seas—everything was shattered in the Celestials' war of expansion.
This significantly accelerated the digestion speed of the Rooted Tree of Origins. At the same time, countless Celestials rapidly advanced by levelling up through monster kills. In the earlier days of the Continent of Kings, monster respawns had been sufficient, but for the past hundred years or so, many Celestials had found there were no more monsters left to grind.
Now, with the resurgence of Dark Sun Followers, the entire Celestial race was growing stronger by the day.
Just as everything seemed to be going smoothly for the Celestials and the power of Rosen's Imperial Law continued to strengthen...
An envoy from the New World arrived, bearing a warning from the World Will.
The envoy never showed themselves—after delivering the message and causing a stir, they vanished without a trace.
Rosen set up the stone tablet left behind by the envoy. The slab was carved from Eternal-grade raw stone—a material capable of preserving any inscription, even knowledge forbidden at the extraordinary level.
Skimming over the contents, Rosen found it to be a warning letter from the World Will.
He didn't even finish reading it before he ordered the Celestial race to halt their destruction of the Old World.
The reason was simple: according to the letter, the Old World had been preserved as a counterbalance against the Dark Sun. The Dark Sun, in turn, served to suppress an eternal lifeform sealed within it. If the Old World were destroyed, the being sealed inside the Dark Sun would inevitably break free.
This was also the reason why, for countless years, the New World had only siphoned the Old World's essence at a trickling pace.
It wasn't just the threat of Dark Sun corruption—more importantly, they had to maintain the seal over the Dark Sun for as long as possible. Now that the Celestials were attempting to destroy the Old World, the World Will could no longer sit idly by.
If Rosen continued the destruction, the World Will would gather all its power and invade the Old World.
As for the contents of the tablet, Rosen remained somewhat skeptical.
The World Will had not revealed what exactly was sealed within the depths of the Dark Sun. Furthermore, the Dark Sun's power had been steadily weakening. If the goal was to strengthen the seal, why allow that? Clearly, something was being hidden. To uncover the truth, he would have to investigate it himself.
The three thousand Celestial Duchies no longer destroyed the Old World, but the slaughter of Dark Sun's spawn resumed swiftly.Rosen, meanwhile, diverted all of his attention to the Dark Sun.
The suns of both the New and Old Worlds weren't cosmic-level stars, because the two suns were massive physical celestial bodies. Their surfaces burned with infinite solar divine flames, while their physical composition was a highly condensed and materialized essence of the sun itself.
Back when the Old World's sun was polluted by the Dark Sun, it had violently resisted.
A significant portion of the sun was shattered, scattering countless solar origin fragments across the Old World.
The remaining sun, now incomplete, was fully tainted by the Dark Sun, and its surface became encased in a fleshy shell—
causing the entire Dark Sun to resemble a living sphere of meat.
As for what existed inside that meatball, even with the Dark Sun's Celestial Eye, Rosen couldn't peer within.So he brought over the Rootsource Ancient Tree and let its roots dig into the Dark Sun's surface.
Penetrating the surface went smoothly at first, but once they reached a certain depth, they could no longer continue.Inside the outer layer of the Dark Sun, there was something like an unbreakable eggshell.
Rosen tried every method he could think of—he even used the Apocalypse Bone Arrow—but none of them managed to breach or penetrate that eggshell-like defense.With no alternative, he could only temporarily abandon the effort.
Although he had hit a wall with the Dark Sun, on the other side, Rosen received a string of good news.
The memory fragments of the Sword Emperor had been organized.It should've been completed earlier, but before dying, the Sword Emperor not only scrambled his memories, but also deleted and forged many false ones. The Main God Computer spent enormous effort to restore all the fragments.
In addition, the Rootsource Ancient Tree had successfully advanced from Sequence 0 to the rank of a True God.It wouldn't be long before several of his incarnations would also finish digesting the benefits obtained from the King's Game and ascend to True Godhood.
In the Mysterious Study Room, Rosen sat before the Main God Computer, examining the memory fragments of the Sword Emperor.Though incomplete, they still painted a general picture.
To his surprise, the Sword Emperor was originally of the human race.He had accidentally fused with a mysterious gemstone, which altered his race into the unique Star God species.After countless experiences and ultimately becoming a True God, he turned into a rare type of deity—one without a created race.
Later on, he obtained the King's Card and gained many benefits from participating in several King's Games.Past King's Games had also occurred on the King's Continent, but they either took place on the periphery or were restricted to certain kingdoms with fixed storylines, unable to leave the designated game map.Clearly, all prior King's Games were just child's play.
Only this current one was a true King's Game—one that had buried almost all the kingdoms and empires of the King's Continent.
The Sword Emperor's memories were vast. Going through all of them in detail might take centuries.So Rosen focused primarily on all fragments related to the Star-Piercing Crossbow—which, unsurprisingly, were also the most damaged.
On the eve of the King's Game, facing tremendous pressure from Rosen, the Sword Emperor initially planned to defect to the Will of the World for protection.Unexpectedly, his Star God bloodline sensed kin from beyond the New World.
The Father God of the Star God race had transcended both the New and Old Worlds—becoming an Immortal Godfiend.From beyond the New World, this deity sent the Star-Piercing Crossbow into the hands of the Sword Emperor.
At the same time, he gave the Sword Emperor two missions:First, to win the King's Game using the Star-Piercing Crossbow.Second, to locate the Doomsday Ark, board it, and then use the guidance of the crossbow to find Blue Star—and from Blue Star, escape the New World.
"Blue Star..."Rosen furrowed his brows.He never expected that this name buried in memory would be linked to the Immortal Godfiends of the Star God race.
Although much history of the New and Old Worlds had been lost, Rosen still kept a rough mental list of which Ten Calamity Civilizations had transcended, and which great True Gods from history might not have perished and could have ascended to become Immortal Godfiends.
But the Father God of the Star God race?In historical records, he barely even reached True God status.
And yet such a being had become an Immortal Godfiend?
Rosen poured more Eternal Rootsource into the Star-Piercing Crossbow, even allowing the Rootsource Ancient Tree to root itself into it.He was already itching to fully master the artifact.
This object had astonishing self-defense—it not only resisted the refinement of his divine essence, even the Eternal Rootsource's rooting had difficulty affecting it.Without a doubt, aside from the Ancient God Stone Chisel, this was the highest-grade treasure he had ever encountered.
Even the Mysterious Study Room and the King's Game Tarot Cards seemed slightly inferior to the Star-Piercing Crossbow in his view.Rosen was certain—the Sword Emperor was never the true master of the Star-Piercing Crossbow.
Which was why the Sword Emperor had never managed to unleash its true power. Otherwise, there's no way he would've failed to pierce the defenses of the Radiant Throne.
The Star-Piercing Crossbow continued rooting itself under time acceleration, its drip-watering persistence gradually taking effect.Rosen decided to focus on gaining full control of the Doomsday Ark first.
Using the Dimensional Gate to lock onto coordinates, Rosen departed the Old World and appeared inside the cabin of the Doomsday Ark.
Compared to his last visit, the Doomsday Ark had undergone a slight degree of restoration.
But overall, it still remained in tatters—submerged deep within the Spirit World's abyssal sea.He had tried before to collect the Doomsday Ark by enveloping it within his domain, but the horrifying pressure of the Spirit World's deep sea restrained it. Without dispersing that pressure, there was no way to retrieve it.
What had once been nearly impossible was now a simple task.
Rosen's Creator Domain easily unfolded and dispersed the oppressive forces of the abyssal sea, wrapping around the entire Doomsday Ark and collecting it all at once.
Then, through the Dimensional Gate, he returned to the Old World.
The moment he left, the Will of the World appeared.
Over 99% of the Spirit World remained under the Will of the World's control.The few places it couldn't fully control were either the Spirit World's deep sea or restricted zones left behind by ancient gods.Had it known that the Doomsday Ark had sunk here, it would've claimed it no matter the cost.
And now, someone had forcefully taken the Doomsday Ark from this place.The Will of the World began contemplating—who could possibly possess such capability?
.....
Back in the Old World, Rosen began incinerating miracle artifacts one by one using his Eternal Radiance.
Some of these artifacts were looted from various kingdoms and empires during the King's Game. Others were acquired by the Main God Network over the years.Unless a miracle artifact had extremely unique or exceptional properties, he didn't plan on keeping them.
Thousands of miracle artifacts in total—among them, several dozen were of True God level.
The Eternal Radiance rapidly expanded to the size of a tennis ball.The miracle essence it harvested had already become sufficient to elevate the Miracle Sequence to the rank of a Great True God, meaning it was time to prepare miracle artifacts of that level.
Rosen stored away the miracle essence required for his own advancement and poured the remainder directly into the Doomsday Ark.
Then, taking out vast quantities of rare resources, he initiated accelerated time to begin repairs.Under his control, the Doomsday Ark visibly regenerated at astonishing speed.
In less than half a month in real-world time, it was fully restored.
After completing the repairs, Rosen used Eternal Radiance once again to burn away the two miracle traits: Eternal Indestructibility and Heaven and Earth Uniqueness.
Only then did he use the miracle essence infused during the repair process to refine this special miracle construct.
[Doomsday Ark: Miracle Relic][Grade: Taboo Godfiend][Miracle Property: The Doomsday Ark can break free of the Origin Dark Sea and sail through the endless void.][Miracle Traits: Doomsday Barrier, Doomsday Escape, Doomsday Survival]
Rosen carefully examined it—Like the Ring of Glimmer, this was a Miracle Relic.
Miracle Relics were still miracles, but unlike those formed purely by Eternal Miracle Essence, they were of a different origin.
In this case, the Doomsday Ark had clearly been damaged before, and only after fusing with Eternal Miracle Essence had it transformed into a miracle artifact.
Now that the Eternal Indestructibility and Heaven and Earth Uniqueness traits had been erased, the Ark revealed its most primal nature.
Origin Dark Sea—a term Rosen had never heard of before.
If the Ark could break free of the Origin Dark Sea... could this sea be related to the world formed by ancient gods?
Rosen closely studied the miracle traits:
Doomsday Barrier—the Ark's primary defense system.As long as there's sufficient energy, even a Great True God cannot breach it.
Doomsday Escape—once activated, the Doomsday Ark can shift into a random dimension, fleeing the current one.
Doomsday Survival—the Ark's most crucial miracle trait.Using this, one can construct and perfect the Doomsday Ark itself.
First, the Ark could assimilate other miracle artifacts.For example, if there's a radar-type miracle artifact, the Ark could absorb it through Doomsday Survival, thereby enhancing its already formidable detection capabilities.
Moreover, Doomsday Survival could produce derivative items associated with the Ark.
For instance, boarding passes were created using this trait.
Now that the Doomsday Ark was ready, the only thing missing was the Star-Piercing Crossbow's guidance.With that, he could follow the Star God Father's instructions to locate Blue Star.
Rosen immediately channeled Eternal Radiance into the Rootsource Ancient Tree.As expected, the efficiency of rooting into the Star-Piercing Crossbow multiplied dramatically.
With all preparations complete, there was only one last matter to handle before taking full control of the crossbow.
(End of Chapter)