Forbidden Secrets and the Historical Camera

"I think I might have figured out the secret of the Lost Nation," Rosen said as he opened the Arcane Brass Book, attempting to record his speculations within it. 

The Arcane Brass Book could only record secrets—those that could not exist in the world, that must not be known, and that carried powerful curses. This meant that if certain things didn't meet these conditions, they couldn't be recorded in the Arcane Brass Book. 

Therefore, in some cases, the Arcane Brass Book could determine whether something was sufficiently secretive. 

Rosen looked at the secrets recorded in the book and confirmed that his speculations were correct. 

In fact, from the Old Continent, it was evident that the true gods of the World Government, along with the inevitably existing Great True Gods behind them and many alien true gods, while superficially divided into various factions fighting over interests, in reality cooperated with each other. 

When it came to their individual interests, the true gods would not hold back and would fight to the death. 

But when it involved common interests of the gods, such as sealing the World Will or escaping the main world, the true gods of all races stood on the same front, closely cooperating. 

However, even with common interests, the true gods of each race still harbored selfish motives. 

This was similar to the past Ark of the Apocalypse. Because tickets were limited, not all true gods could board the ark. Only one deity luckily managed to get on. Therefore, in addition to the collective plans of the gods, the true gods of each race certainly prepared their own backup plans in secret. 

The World Government's cultivation of barbaric ember was nothing more than a tool to deal with civilizational ember. 

Initially, Rosen thought the World Government was preparing to use barbaric ember as a weapon against alien civilizations. 

But upon further reflection, barbaric ember was something universally despised. In small quantities, it couldn't handle a few alien civilizations and would instead attract collective targeting from other alien civilizations. In large quantities, even if the Lost Nation expanded a hundredfold, it wouldn't be enough. 

So he considered another possibility: could barbaric ember be used to weaken themselves? 

Using the barbaric ember cultivated in the Lost Nation to weaken the World Government's civilizational ember on a one-to-one basis. 

It sounded ridiculous. The World Government valued civilizational ember so much that, for the growth of human civilizational ember, it had established numerous laws restricting transcendent sequences against ordinary people and implemented many strategies beneficial to the growth of civilizational ember. 

Under such circumstances, why would the World Government bother cultivating barbaric ember to weaken its own civilizational ember? 

During normal times, doing so would definitely be idiotic. But what about special times? 

Through the Arcane Brass Book, Rosen learned that civilizational calamities occurred once every ten thousand years, and the intensity of the calamity was equivalent to the strength of the civilizational ember. The stronger the civilization, the stronger the calamity. If civilizational ember were weakened, theoretically the calamity brought upon by the main world could also be weakened. 

By controlling the intensity of the civilizational calamity within the tolerable limits of the World Government, becoming a six-calamity civilization through clever means would be without difficulty. 

In fact, the more Rosen learned about history, the more he realized that the civilizational calamities endured by the World Government were somewhat too intense. 

The World Government had only endured its second civilizational calamity, yet true gods had already fallen. 

This was truly unbelievable. The overall strength of the World Government was not weak compared to historical hegemonic civilizations. For other hegemonic civilizations, true gods typically only fell during the third calamity or later. 

The World Government had two calamities ahead of schedule, yet true gods had already fallen.

If this continued, by the time it reached the fourth calamity, the difficulty would likely skyrocket to the level of the sixth calamity. It was worth noting that the sixth calamity already met the conditions for the birth of a Great True God. From this, one could see just how strong the World Government was.

Relying solely on the surface-level true gods, no matter how strong they were, shouldn't have attracted such a massive civilizational calamity.

This clearly abnormal situation might have been due to the World Government's involvement in sealing the World Will. It was also possible that the main world had included the Great True Gods behind the World Government in its calculations, which led to the birth of barbaric ember.

Of course, the existence of the Lost Nation wasn't solely for the production of barbaric ember.

Those extremely evil second personalities sent to the Spirit Realm were also one of the values of the Lost Nation's existence.

It was even possible that both the extremely evil personalities and barbaric ember were just byproducts. The true secret of the Lost Nation might be hidden within the ancient city at the center of the Central Continent—a secret absolutely forbidden for outsiders to know, except for true gods.

On this day, Rosen made his preparations and arrived at the base of the World Tree.

The growth of the World Tree and his control over the World Authority had reached 63% during this period.

However, from this point onward, the rate of growth would slow down.

This was because Anatole, the vice-lord of the Abyss, had placed multiple layers of seals on the Greed Curse within the World Tree's trunk. Once the miracle trait Cycle of Life and Death of the Forbidden Curse was formed, the only way to destroy the Greed Curse was to destroy the curse painting.

But being unable to destroy it didn't mean it couldn't be sealed. The Greed Curse itself wasn't a highly lethal forbidden curse.

After some time of research, Anatole had targeted the Greed Curse with multiple layers of seals. While it couldn't completely prevent the greedy plundering of the world's essence, it had significantly reduced the rate of loss.

Relying on the Greed Curse to grow the World Tree to 70% would basically be impossible without at least a hundred years.

Rosen communicated with the World Tree's miracle sequence and began to integrate the miracle treasure Austin had left behind into the transcendent essence of the miracle sequence.

[Historical Camera: Miracle Sequence]

[Level: Sequence 5]

[Miracle Attribute: The Historical Camera can capture past history across time and has a chance to capture a brief glimpse of the future.]

[Miracle Trait: Historical Replay]

This Historical Camera directly caused historians and photographers to become estranged.

Because this miracle treasure was too precious, it was extremely valuable for both historians and photographers.

In the past, there had been countless overt and covert struggles over the possession of the Historical Camera.

After integrating it into the miracle sequence, the Historical Camera, which originally could only capture past history, now had a chance to capture glimpses of the future. Although it was only a brief history and the future it could capture was limited, combined with the miracle trait Historical Replay, it could still unleash unimaginable value.

In truth, judging solely by its miracle attribute, the Historical Camera wasn't a unique treasure.

At least for photographers, it wasn't that important. Photographers weren't particularly interested in capturing past history.

Similarly, while it was quite valuable for historians, it was, after all, only a Sequence 5 miracle treasure. Even if a deity who controlled the authority of history used it, it would at most capture history from a few hundred years ago. Historians had many other means to learn about history from a few hundred years ago.

The real key that caused historians and photographers to fight tooth and nail was the miracle trait Historical Replay.

This miracle trait could integrate into video tapes, then consume spiritual energy to transform the video tapes into spirit realm master tapes.

Creating a spirit realm master tape was a significant cost for photographers.

Moreover, not all video tapes could be transformed into spirit realm master tapes, and the content filmed also had specific requirements.

But Historical Replay completely ignored these limitations. As long as spiritual energy was consumed, it could generate spirit realm master tapes.

It could be said that with the Historical Camera, one could have an endless supply of spirit realm worlds.

Rosen materialized a steampunk-style camera in his hand and flashed to the highest point of Glorious Royal Palace, overlooking the entire Glorious Royal City. At the same time, he zoomed in the camera lens and began his first photography session.

Through the camera lens, Rosen saw ubiquitous writhing flesh.

This was before the establishment of Glorious Kingdom, when the entire continent was still tainted by the power of the Mother of Flesh.

Using data transfer, Rosen arrived at Redstone City in the Duchy of Flaming Shadow.

The camera lens continued to zoom in, and the time within the lens also began to reverse.

He really wanted to see how he had originally appeared.

He also wanted to try if he could film a spirit realm master tape.

Rosen controlled the authority of time and a bit of the world's laws, and one of the core components of the world's laws was time. Therefore, his mastery of the authority of time was extremely strong. Combined with the bloodline of the Bronze Dragon, the power of a historian, and the Archaeological Sequence Ancient Tree he had obtained from Qínong, these various powers combined allowed him to film history as far back as a thousand years.

As the time within the camera lens moved forward to the day Little Rosen died, and as the lens captured Rosen appearing out of thin air, the Historical Camera suddenly exploded. If Rosen hadn't quickly flashed away, he might have been disfigured on the spot.

Rosen reached out, and the fragments of the Historical Camera reassembled.

Miracle treasures integrated into the miracle sequence no longer had the miracle traits of One and Only and Eternal and Indestructible from an attribute perspective.

In reality, these two miracle traits weren't gone but had been absorbed by the miracle sequence's transcendent essence.

Now that the transcendent essence had fused five miracle treasures, the miracle trait Eternal and Indestructible could be said to have stacked five entries, equivalent to a minimum fivefold increase in recovery ability. Thus, the Historical Camera quickly restored itself.

As expected, the filming failed. A Sequence 5 Historical Camera wasn't yet capable of capturing that segment of the past.

Because his transmigration itself was also an untouchable forbidden secret.

Over the years, Rosen had tried to find demigods skilled in divination and deduction to deduce his origins.

The results were either the demigods weren't skilled enough and only deduced Little Rosen, or when they tried to deduce him, they were instantly struck by backlash. At best, they forgot the memories of deducing his past; at worst, their transcendent essence was damaged. Conservatively estimating, his rebirth involved taboos at the level of a Great True God.

However, just because it wasn't possible now didn't mean the Historical Camera wouldn't be able to do it in the future.

The miracle sequence wasn't just about fully controlling miracle treasures and adding a few entries to their attributes.

When a Sequence 9 miracle treasure was integrated into the miracle sequence, its power would synchronously increase as the miracle sequence leveled up. Now that the miracle sequence had reached Sequence 5, miracle treasures like the Ancient God's Sacred Bell and the Arcane Brass Book had already been strengthened to Sequence 5.

Rosen continued filming and finally captured a historical scene of Little Rosen's parents disappearing.

If he were to transform the video tape into a spirit realm master tape now, Little Rosen's deceased parents wouldn't come back to life.

This was the only flaw of the Historical Camera. It could capture past history and turn it into spirit realm master tapes, but these spirit realms were different from the true spirit realms created by painters. They were more akin to the artificial spirit realms filmed by photographers.

So even if a spirit realm master tape were generated, what appeared inside would only be actors who looked and had the same memories as Little Rosen's parents.

Everything within the spirit realm was artificially fabricated, which was the only flaw of the Historical Camera.

However, this was normal. If it didn't have this flaw, the Historical Camera could easily mass-resurrect ancient people. In fact, when it came to resurrecting life, painters were the most skilled, while photographers were always best at recording reality and filming fictional things.

Rosen handed the Historical Camera to his Bronze Dragon avatar and casually took out another treasure, the Historical Treasure Chest.

The Historical Treasure Chest was also a miracle treasure, a Sequence 2 miracle treasure left behind by Austin.

This miracle treasure could hide things in the historical timelines of the past. Even a true god couldn't find what was hidden in the Historical Treasure Chest. Only historians could open it, and even then, a special key was required.

This key was the fragment of Austin's Eternal History Book. Upon opening it, what was stored inside were the spirit realm master tapes Austin had filmed.

These were spirit realm master tapes capturing the past history of the Central Continent. If these were leaked, they would become irrefutable evidence of the Lost Nation's enslavement of tens of trillions of people, enough to completely shake the public trust of the World Government among humans.

Rosen opened the King's Treasury and integrated the Historical Treasure Chest into it.

As expected, the power of the King's Treasury was strengthened. Although the King's Treasury could seal and refine treasures, its sealing strength was only at Sequence 2. Higher-level treasures could potentially break free from the seals of the King's Treasury.

Now, after fusing with the Historical Treasure Chest, the sealing strength of the King's Treasury had increased by more than tenfold.

Having successfully digested Austin's legacy, Rosen turned his attention to Austin's inheritance.

The inheritance might contain miracle skills created by Austin. After all, miracle skills were eternal and indestructible. Even if Austin died, the miracle skills would form miracle skill crystals, which could either form within the corpse or within the inheritance.

Through data transfer, Rosen quietly arrived at Austin's hometown, the Red Sun Continent.

Near a small city, Rosen found a deeply hidden spirit realm.

Within the spirit realm stood a castle that had existed for many years. Many of the mechanical puppets responsible for automatic maintenance in the castle had already broken down, and the castle itself was dilapidated. However, the library inside the castle was intact, well taken care of by the few remaining mechanical puppets.

In the study next to the library, Rosen found Austin's inheritance.

Aside from a study filled with extremely valuable historical rare books, there was also Austin's research on the historian sequence.

These were undoubtedly treasures for the Bronze Dragon avatar, allowing it to maximally grow its historian sequence.

In the end, there were indeed three miracle skill inheritances, but only one had turned into a skill crystal. The other two were only inheritance materials for weakened versions of miracle skills. Clearly, these two skills had turned into skill crystals within Austin's corpse after his death.

Rosen casually handed this miracle skill to the Bronze Dragon avatar. This skill would likely have no chance of being used publicly in the future.

Because if discovered, the secrets of the Lost Nation would no longer be kept hidden.

After returning to the glorious palace, Rosen continued to create skills day after day, year after year. He managed his time very clearly, focusing entirely on learning and research when it was time to work, and resting properly when he was truly tired. Although creating skills was difficult, he didn't feel overly burdened.

On this day, Rosen, as usual, felt tired and prepared to take a good rest. He enjoyed spiritual delicacies, listened to music played and sung by musicians, watched dances performed by dancers, and was constantly attended to by angel and succubus maids who fed him. If his willpower weren't strong enough, it would have been hard for him to pull away and continue creating skills. Just as he was in a pleasant mood, Rosen suddenly felt a sense of foreboding.

Moments later, Rosen once again met the nervous Jason Thompson. The director of the Intelligence Bureau was even more anxious than the last time they met. This time, it wasn't about conscription but about summoning him, the king, to venture deep into the Old Continent. However, this wasn't a mandatory summons but rather an enticing offer.

The World Government needed a group of the most elite demigods to complete a mission in the Old Continent. Regardless of whether the mission could be completed, simply agreeing to it would grant them a one-time exchange privilege for the World Government's Miracle Treasury. If the mission was completed, they could even become permanent members of the Noble Council.

One of the Sequence 4 miracle treasures that Rosen had his eye on was currently stored in the World Government's Miracle Treasury. Moreover, permanent members held significant power within the World Government. Although a kingdom's king could also become a member of the Noble Council, such members only had basic voting rights, while permanent members could truly wield partial authority within the council.

If this were anywhere else, Rosen would have agreed immediately. But the Old Continent—he knew why he had left it in the first place. For the World Government to offer such a hefty reward, it was clear that something new and significant had happened there. While the benefits were great, the danger was equally high, potentially costing him his life.

After careful consideration, Rosen decided to take the risk. He would leave at the first sign of致命 danger, but he would secure the miracle treasure first. As for the position of permanent member, it would be great if he could obtain it, but he wouldn't regret it if he couldn't.

After Rosen agreed, Jason happily reported it to the World Government. Soon, his exchange privilege was granted. This privilege allowed him to exchange for any miracle treasure stored in the Miracle Treasury, provided he had enough merit. He spent almost all the merit he had earned as a Calamity Apostle over the years to successfully obtain the Sequence 4 Fate Coin.

For now, he couldn't refine the miracle sequence, and this miracle treasure came with terrifying side effects. So Rosen temporarily sealed the Fate Coin inside the historical treasure chest of the Royal Treasury.

After settling matters in the Glorious Kingdom, Rosen stepped onto the teleportation array and returned to the Old Continent camp.

But this time, there were barely any people left. All ordinary demigods had already been sent away. The weakest demigod he saw upon stepping out of the teleportation array was already at the level of a Titled Demigod. Some even had broken past the limits of both their bodies and divinity—they were Taboo Sequence beings, just like him.

It had to be said—a Taboo Sequence was essentially a reserve True God. For such beings to gather here in numbers, it was evident that something monumental had occurred in the Old Continent.

(End of Chapter)