The 21st Layer of the Abyss and the Demon Arcanist

Rosen took out Flesh Mother's Divine Core and activated Origin Star Core to seal it.

Multiple law-based energies emerged in his palm, layering upon one another until they fully enclosed the Divine Core in a prismatic crystalline seal. The surface of this orb-like crystal shimmered with countless intricate, glowing patterns, appearing and disappearing in a mesmerizing rhythm.

He then activated Chaotic Star Core, and in that instant, he unexpectedly gained the ability to channel the Flesh Mother's Sequence abilities.

The Origin Star Core was incredibly durable, and its strength was influenced by both the power of the sealed object and Rosen's own Transcendent Sequence.

With a True God's Divine Core sealed inside, this particular Star Core possessed a hardness that rivaled even True God-tier Transcendent Relics.

Moreover, the Star Core could change in size at will. It orbited around Rosen, shifting its shape midair, suddenly transforming into a floating eyeball—one that radiated a sinister Flesh Curse.

As soon as this eye locked onto a nearby mountain, the entire landmass began to squirm and pulsate, mutating into a grotesque structure of living flesh.

Rosen dispelled the Origin Star Core—as powerful as it was, there was a major drawback.

At sub-divine levels, only one Star Core could be created at a time.

At the Deity level, this number increased to two.

At the True God level, it reached three.

Even Great True Gods could only maintain nine simultaneously.

Had there been no limit on how many Star Cores he could make, this one skill alone would have been truly unstoppable.

While Rosen had spent several real-world years refining the severed hand of a Great True God, Bruno and his team had already fully recovered from their injuries.

They had played a crucial role in hunting Flesh Mother, and although they had agreed beforehand that all spoils from this operation would serve as repayment for Rosen funding their ascension to divinity, he couldn't simply give them nothing.

If he wanted their continued cooperation in hunting future targets, he needed to offer some rewards.

Thus, he decided to gift each of them:

One Flesh Essence Fruit

One Sequence 0

Transcendent Relic

The relics included:

Decayed Flesh

Flesh Puppet

Flesh Veil

All three were high-quality relics originating from the High Priests of the Flesh Mother Church. However, due to their sinister nature, Rosen himself had no real use for them.

For Bruno and the others, however, they were priceless treasures.

Receiving these rewards, the trio was greatly pleased.

Rosen then turned his attention to the other Forbidden Sequences, planning to subjugate them with Cursed Paintings.

Out of the ten remaining Forbidden Sequences, nine submitted under the dual pressure of threat and reward.

Only one refused—but before Rosen even had to act, the other Forbidden Sequences joined forces to eliminate him.

With the Forbidden Sequences under control, the next step was to bring the Titled Demi-Gods into submission.

A few chose to resist to the death, but the majority ultimately yielded, allowing Rosen to paint their Cursed Portraits.

Their willingness was due to several factors.

Bruno and the others had personally testified about Rosen's strength and methods, but more importantly, the pressure from the True Gods of the World Government was simply too overwhelming.

Not everyone had the confidence to survive the missions assigned by the True Gods, let alone escape their pursuit afterward.

Thus, by forming a unified front under the protection of Cursed Paintings, they at least had a fighting chance.

Even though their lives were now in Rosen's hands, they could still use life-sacrificing curses as a last resort, ensuring some level of leverage over him.

This way, the alliance was undeniably led by Rosen, but its members did not feel like mere slaves.

With an unbreakable coalition now in place, they could communicate in secret using the Main God Network, leveraging their Great Fortune status to remain undetected.

In the real world, however, everyone went into deep hiding, avoiding all unnecessary interactions.

Even if they did meet, they never mentioned anything that could reveal the alliance's existence.

The deaths of the few unyielding Demi-Gods had already drawn the attention of the True Gods.

Rosen had originally planned to enter seclusion and refine Flesh Mother's Divine Essence Crystals, using them to awaken his Ancient God Bloodline.

However, before he could begin, he discovered a far better use for them.

Directly refining Transcendent materials was clearly the most wasteful approach—alchemy was the key to maximizing their value.

As it happened, Abyssal Demons, the greatest enemies of Flesh Mother's Church, possessed a special potion formula specifically designed to counteract Flesh Mother.

The further one advanced in awakening the Ancient God Bloodline, the harder it became.

The upper limit of Flesh Essence Fruits was 79% awakening.

If he simply refined Flesh Mother's Divine Essence Crystals, his bloodline awakening would likely cap at 89%.

However, if he processed them into a potion, there was a high probability he could surpass the 90% threshold.

And that threshold was essentially the limit for Ancient God Bloodline Awakening.

Beyond 90%, the process entered the domain of True Gods.

To achieve 100% bloodline awakening, Rosen would likely need Transcendent materials of Great True God-tier or higher—something powerful enough to completely perfect his Ancient God Bloodline.

The Abyssal Battlefield had been engulfed in war for years.

Both the Abyssal World and the World Government had suffered heavy casualties.

Usually, whenever the Abyss launched large-scale invasions, it was either to cull the excessive number of Abyssal Demons or to appease the Abyssal Will by indulging in slaughter and destruction.

Typically, once casualties reached a certain threshold, the war would gradually subside.

However, this time was different—the Abyssal World was completely relentless, acting as if it would never rest until the World Government was utterly destroyed.

When Human True Gods tried to negotiate with Abyssal Lords, the only response they received was:

"Lift the curse."

As long as the curse remained, the war would not stop.

Yet when asked what curse they were referring to, the Abyssal Lords could not explain.

This greatly frustrated the True Gods of the World Government.

They quickly realized that someone within the Human race had cursed a powerful Abyssal existence—but since even the Abyssal Lords themselves could not identify who, they had resorted to all-out war, hoping to force the culprit to step forward and break the curse.

However, if even the directly affected Abyssal Lords had no way of determining who was responsible, then the World Government was even less capable of finding them.

Thus, the conflict remained at a deadlock, forcing the World Government to continually reinforce the frontlines.

A battlefield was the easiest place to die—but it was also the fastest place to rise.

The Calamity Legion, an elite army from the Radiant Kingdom, was among the most feared forces in the war.

It was commanded by a Sequence 1 Abyssal Shadowfiend Hero.

With an intimate understanding of Abyssal Demons, an elusive mastery of Shadowfiend Space, and the terrifying power of Calamity Curses, the Calamity Legion had achieved unparalleled battlefield success, so much so that Abyssal Lords had launched multiple surprise attacks against them.

Yet each ambush had ended in failure—and in one particularly stunning reversal, the Calamity Legion had even slain a Sequence 0 Abyssal Demon.

When Rosen arrived at the Calamity Legion, the army was currently stationed behind the defensive line, undergoing recovery and resupply.

Prolonged slaughter, combined with Abyssal corruption, made it impossible for Human legions to invade deep into the Abyss—periodic withdrawals were necessary to prevent complete spiritual contamination.

At this moment, Musicians dispatched by the World Government were performing soothing songs, enveloping the entire camp in a healing melody.

Although Rosen had been keeping an eye on the war's overall situation, he had never delved too deeply into its specifics.

Now, with Hunter's Divine Eye, he peered into the Abyssal Lords' war councils and quickly pieced together the truth.

Not all Abyssal Lords supported the war.

However, Anatole, Deputy Abyssal Lord of the First Abyssal Layer, had personally issued the total war decree through the Abyssal Will, forcing the reluctant Abyssal Lords to commit their forces.

Even so, many Abyssal Lords were simply going through the motions, having no intention of truly risking their lives against Human True Gods.

In fact, quite a few Abyssal Lords were already scheming ways to escape the Abyssal World entirely.

Rosen flipped open the Eternal Chronicle, once again reviewing intelligence on Flesh Mother's Church.

After becoming an Evil God, Flesh Mother had one instinct—to corrupt everything into flesh.

If not for its habit of hibernating after feeding, it would have been one of the most troublesome Evil Gods in existence.

The sole purpose of Flesh Mother's Church was to continuously provide it with fresh sustenance.

That sustenance could be supplied in vast quantities, but quality could also substitute for volume.

And in Flesh Mother's eyes, quality meant diverse bloodlines—which was precisely why Flesh Mother's Church had set its sights on the Abyssal World.

Deep within the Abyssal Blood River, Abyssal Demons were constantly being born.

While most of these demons belonged to fixed species with set evolutionary paths, a small percentage underwent random mutations, leading to new Abyssal species emerging every moment.

Occasionally, a rare few of these new species would survive due to exceptional potential or sheer luck.

The rest would simply die off soon after birth.

Every existing species of Abyssal Demon had been naturally selected through this process of mutation and survival of the fittest.

This was why Flesh Mother found newly evolved Abyssal Demons to be the most delicious.

However, Flesh Mother did not dare to descend into the Abyssal World in person.

Instead, it relied on its Church to infiltrate the Abyss, construct sacrificial altars, and summon its avatars to feed.

Most of the time, Flesh Mother could feast through its avatars and then flee safely.

But on rare occasions, it would become too engrossed in eating, momentarily neglecting danger, and would end up captured by Abyssal Lords.

Over the years, countless of its avatars had been seized—most of them thrown into the Abyssal Blood River as offerings.

Among the Abyssal Lords, Eugene Hughes, ruler of the 21st Abyssal Layer, stood among the top ten, despite only being Sequence 0.

This was because, in addition to being an Abyssal Lord, Eugene was also an Arcanist.

His mastery over potion crafting was ranked among the top three in the entire Main World.

As a result, virtually all Abyssal Lords were reluctant to make an enemy of him.

Many even owed him favors.

If Phantom Lord needed to pull strings just to leave the Abyss, then Eugene, should he ever choose to depart, would be welcomed as an honored guest wherever he went.

One of Flesh Mother's avatars had once fallen into Eugene's hands—he had promptly processed it into a series of invaluable potions.

Some of these potions had even been offered as bounties on Flesh Mother's avatars.

For a time, Flesh Mother's Church had been pushed to the brink of annihilation due to this bounty.

It was only when Eugene finally rescinded the offer that the Church managed to survive.

Thus, if Rosen wanted to obtain the potion formula, he had to meet Eugene.

At present, the war between humanity and the Abyss was still raging.

Attempting to visit Eugene as a human would be impossible.

After careful deliberation, Rosen decided to disguise himself as a Dragon God to approach Eugene.

Over one-fifth of all Arcanists in the Main World were dragons.

Visiting Eugene as an Arcanist would greatly reduce complications.

As for his safety, that was not a concern—Eugene followed a strict principle of equivalent exchange.

He had even constructed a Twin Sky City on the Main World's side of the Abyssal Rift.

Rosen had originally planned to go straight to Twin Sky City, but after reconsideration, he decided to make a stop at the Abyssal Battlefield first.

After all, he wasn't sure if Eugene would agree to trade the potion formula.

So, he opted for a two-pronged approach, using the opportunity to reinforce the Scourge Legion with fresh troops.

Merits were something one could never have too much of.

As the King of the Radiant Kingdom, Rosen, given his nation's sheer size and influence, already had no issues qualifying as a Sequence 0 Noble.

However, the path to becoming a True God Noble was still a distant dream.

Even Coin True God couldn't provide the necessary merits, as he himself wasn't a Noble True God.

It wasn't that True Gods were incapable of earning that level of merit, but rather, becoming a Noble True God required more than just enough merit.

So far, no one in the entire World Government had ever managed to fulfill all the requirements.

After staying with the Scourge Legion for a few days, Rosen quietly infiltrated the Abyssal Battlefield.

He used Flesh Coalescence to devour the corpse of a Sequence 2 Abyssal Demon, instantly inheriting the supernatural abilities of this Abyssal Mirage Demon.

Unlike Abyssal Shapeshifters, who excelled at transforming into various supernatural beings, Abyssal Mirage Demons specialized in creating real illusions.

A Shapeshifter altered itself, while a Mirage Demon altered everything but itself.

Compared to the vast number of Shapeshifters, Mirage Demons were extremely rare.

Rosen had only managed to find one thanks to his Prophetic Painting of Fate.

After narrowly avoiding danger and making his way through the Abyssal Battlefield, he used his Mirage Demon identity to accumulate enough war merits, securing the right to travel to the 21st Abyssal Layer.

His official reason—he wasn't entirely confident about advancing to Sequence 1 and wanted better potions to assist with his breakthrough.

Through an interdimensional teleportation array, Rosen arrived at the 21st Abyssal Layer—a place that didn't look like the Abyss at all.

Everywhere he looked, there were Arcane Gardens shielding the land from Abyssal corruption.

These gardens cultivated various magical plants and nurtured supernatural creatures, all within an orderly society, where even the Abyssal Demons abided by the rules set by Eugene.

A few days later, Rosen reached High Tower City, home to the Tower of Order.

The Tower of Order was Eugene's personal Arcane Tower, a Sequence 0 supernatural structure.

With its power, Eugene was capable of fighting True Gods head-on even outside the Abyssal World.

And if he combined that with his authority as an Abyssal Lord within his own domain, Eugene's power in the 21st Abyssal Layer was on par with top-tier True Gods.

If the deal at Twin Sky City fell through, Rosen would have no choice but to infiltrate the Tower of Order.

After scouting the city for a few days, Rosen successfully locked onto a particular Abyssal Demon who could freely enter and exit the Tower.

Stella Hughes—the one Eugene publicly acknowledged as his only daughter.

However, Rosen was certain that her relationship with Eugene was extremely strained—because Stella feared him like the plague.

That, in itself, wasn't surprising.

After all, what Abyssal Lord was ever a decent person?

Even though he had a deep grudge against the True Gods of the World Government, Rosen had to admit—compared to these Abyssal Lords, those True Gods seemed practically saintly.

Everything was relative—what was good or evil depended entirely on the point of comparison.

Although the gods weren't strictly divided into good and evil factions, there was still a general distinction.

The deities of various races, at least, could be considered benevolent True Gods.

Even if these so-called "benevolent" gods only saw their own followers as tools, they still protected them—because as long as the "tools" remained useful, they ensured the survival of their respective civilizations.

Without the protection of these True Gods, many species wouldn't even have the privilege of being exploited—they would simply be wiped out altogether.

Then there was the Demon God faction—a group composed of beings with absolutely no moral bottom line.

The current Abyssal Lords, the former Hellish Demon Gods, and even certain rogue True Gods who had no ties to any race and simply wandered around wreaking havoc—all of them fell under this category.

Just look at the Phantom Lord—he literally auctioned off his own children as slaves.

As for Eugene's rule over the 21st Abyssal Layer, it might appear to be an orderly realm with little bloodshed, but in reality, it was nothing more than absolute dictatorship.

Eugene saw every living being in his domain as his personal property—and naturally, he wouldn't allow his own assets to kill each other.

Rosen had spent a few days observing Stella through the Divine Hunter's Eye and discovered that she was merely Eugene's most successful artificial demon.

One of the biggest reasons Abyssal Lords found it difficult to escape the Abyss was their bloodline's connection to the Abyssal Blood River.

It didn't take a genius to realize that this connection must have hidden dangers deep in their very essence.

That was why Abyssal Lords seeking to leave the Abyss often rebuilt their bodies using the flesh of other species.

But Eugene clearly had a different approach.

He loved his Abyssal Demon body.

Yet at the same time, he refused to let the Abyssal Will control his fate through the hidden curse in his bloodline.

So he experimented with creating a new breed of Abyssal Demon, one that was completely independent and free from all external control.

Stella was the result of this experiment.

She was closer to a human with Abyssal Demon blood than a true demon.

That day, as Stella left the tower again, Rosen stealthily followed her.

Her task today was to gather specific supernatural materials from an Arcane Garden—a privilege she had earned through tireless efforts to appease Eugene.

Rosen waited on her return route, then suddenly unleashed his World Domain, completely enveloping Stella.

His movements were frighteningly swift.

Using the Death Sentence technique through his Cursed Painting, he plunged his hand into Stella's Consciousness Sea, forcibly extracted her Divine Source, sealed it inside a Star Core, and devoured her body using Flesh Coalescence.

After transforming into Stella, Rosen used the Star Core's power to mask his own Divine Source.

This disguise was so flawless that even a True God wouldn't be able to see through it.

While Rosen's main body returned to the Tower of Order, his Azure Dragon Avatar had arrived at Twin Sky City.

Twin Sky City was built across an Abyssal Rift—half of it was in the Abyss, while the other half was in the Main World.

Not just anyone could request an audience with Eugene.

Rosen had to go through the Arcane Web, assuming the identity of a Draconic Arcanist to get in touch with Eugene.

He had brought along a collection of precious supernatural materials, many of which had been thought extinct in the Main World.

If the deal went smoothly, then his main body wouldn't even need to take action.

In an Arcane Garden within Twin Sky City, the air was filled with the aura of life and nature.

When Rosen arrived, he was led by an Arcane Construct to meet Eugene—who was carefully tending to the plants in the garden.

At first glance, he looked just like a diligent old farmer.

Who would have thought that this gentle-looking man was actually an Abyssal Lord devoid of humanity or morality?

"A Sequence 0 Divine Incarnation? When did the Dragon Race gain another Dragon God?" Eugene asked in surprise as he looked at Rosen.

"You're joking. My true body is still missing a final bloodline transformation before I can ascend," Rosen replied casually.

Although he spoke modestly, his self-confidence and arrogance were undeniable.

That was simply the nature of the Dragon Race.

Eugene didn't find anything unusual about it.

If anything, he simply marveled at how deep the foundation of the Dragon Race truly was—even after being forced back to their homeland, they still had the resources to nurture new True Gods.

To Eugene, this was nothing short of a golden opportunity falling right into his lap.

This mysterious Dragon Race newcomer had arrived at the perfect time.

(End of Chapter)