The Carving Sanctuary and the Miracle Stone Golem
The 195th Suspended City of the Suspended Empire was a true holy land for sculptors.
Everywhere one looked, there were masterpieces crafted by Demi-God Sculptors. This city was essentially the Sculptors' Divine Paint City—except far more powerful, because a Sequence 0 Sculptor here possessed battle strength on par with a True God.
A sanctuary of this level should have had a name rather than just a number.
With their overwhelming power, the sculptors here could have easily defied the naming conventions of the Suspended Empire.
And yet, in the end, it was still just called the 195th Suspended City.
The reason was simple: No matter how strong a sculptor was inside the Sky-Piercing Pillar, the moment they left, they reverted to their original state. Any sculptures created from the Pillar's special stone turned into nothing more than ordinary rock once taken outside.
Because of this, many sculptors refused to acknowledge this city as truly theirs.
Most of them preferred to regard the Ten Thousand Gods Grotto on Mount Pantheon as the true headquarters of the Sculptor Sequence.
Even if the Grotto could only be accessed once every hundred years, at least it was a place genuinely under the control of sculptors.
No matter how extraordinary the 195th Suspended City was, it would always be confined within the Suspended Empire.
Still, while many sculptors refused to fully accept the city, very few actively rejected it.
After all, the limitless stone resources here provided them with endless material for sculpting, allowing them to push their skills to greater heights. Even if that power couldn't be taken beyond the Suspended Empire, it still helped sculptors break through their bottlenecks and glimpse the path ahead.
The city remained nameless, serving as a constant reminder that it would never truly belong to them.
Yet despite that, some sculptors chose to stay here for life.
Rosen, now disguised as a Sequence 4 Sculptor, effortlessly blended into the 195th Suspended City.
The Suspended Empire was cut off from external networks, but it did have its own internal virtual network.
For those born within the Suspended Empire, this was normal. But for outsiders—those accustomed to the vast, bustling world beyond—suddenly finding themselves in a place of nothing but stone was suffocating.
As a result, most outsiders lived in various Secret Realms.
Using Teleportation Arrays and the Virtual Network, these Secret Realms were linked together, forming a parallel world exclusive to Supernaturals.
Rosen entered the Virtual Network of the 195th Suspended City's Secret Realm as a Sculptor, quickly gaining access to the Suspended Empire's digital world.
The moment the Mainframe Computer's network cables connected to the Virtual Network, Rosen began hacking the system, scouring for valuable information.
Unfortunately, there was little of value.
At the very least, there were no detailed records of the relic sites excavated within the Sky-Piercing Pillar.
The reason was simple—too many factions of the World Government were operating inside the Suspended Empire.
Whenever a relic site was discovered, the World Government took the lion's share, while the smaller factions claimed whatever remained.
Each faction had its own assigned excavation zones, and whatever treasures they unearthed were kept strictly confidential.
No one would be foolish enough to publicly flaunt their discoveries on the Virtual Network.
Even so, the Virtual Network wasn't completely useless.
Through it, Rosen identified all the major factions within the Suspended Empire, their leaders, and their public profiles.
Knowing what they looked like meant he could monitor them using his God-Slaying Demon Eye.
And if any of them were Sequence 3 or lower, he could use his Psychic Canvas to directly project their minds and pry into their memories.
The Sky-Piercing Pillar stood over a million miles tall, but the Suspended Empire had only developed about three hundred thousand miles of it.
Within this range, all valuable resources had already been dug out.
Whether useful or useless, almost everything had been taken by the World Government.
If he wanted to gain anything valuable, he would have to personally ascend beyond the 300,000-mile mark and excavate uncharted territory.
However, the World Government had spent twenty thousand years digging and had only reached the 300,000-mile depth.
Even with the Miracle Pouch, it was unlikely Rosen could achieve significant results in a short period of time.
The best and most efficient method would be to plunder the Suspended Empire's treasury—but the problem was that a True God resided there.
The 301st Suspended City was the most prosperous and bustling city in the Suspended Empire.
The infrastructure around the vertical shaft was exceptionally crude since the excavation was still ongoing.
If Demi-God Miners detected an area that might contain a civilization's ruins, the site would be immediately hollowed out, making any permanent construction pointless.
In reality, the 301st Suspended City was nothing more than a massive mining zone.
The miners who worked there spent their off-time living in various Secret Realms.
At the very top of the vertical shaft was a floating city, a thousand miles wide, matching the shaft's diameter.
The main purpose of this floating city was to prevent falling debris.
If a piece of rock from above plummeted into the 300,000-mile-deep shaft, it could cause disastrous damage to the lower Suspended Cities.
The True God overseeing the Suspended Empire resided in seclusion within this floating city.
Rosen spent two months in the floating city but failed to locate the Suspended Empire's treasury.
Having no other options, he began searching for alternative ways to acquire the World Tree's origin essence.
This time, instead of disguising himself as a Painter, Rosen used a Miner's supernatural essence to paint a Sequence 4 Miner.
For miners, reaching Sequence 4 was already exceptionally rare.
This allowed him to effortlessly join a 301st Suspended City excavation team without raising any suspicions.
Once he ventured deep into the mines, he selected an abandoned excavation zone and stealthily concealed a small section of it.
Flipping open the Void Sketchbook, Rosen began drawing an image of the Ancient God Chisel.
Since he had personally come into contact with the chisel before, he had gained a certain level of understanding of its properties.
As a tool forged from the heart of the World Tree, the chisel shared an identical essence with the Small World Tree, albeit at a lesser scale.
Thus, the chisel he painted possessed a fraction of the original's divine power.
While he couldn't use it to fully control the Sky-Piercing Pillar's unique stone, he could at least phase through it as if he were swimming through the deep sea.
Holding the painted Ancient God Chisel, Rosen ascended vertically, the solid stone parting around him like water.
His divine perception, now amplified by the chisel, extended dozens of miles outward.
According to historical records, 99% of all discovered ruins were found within a 1,500-mile radius of the Pillar's core.
This was precisely why the shaft had been excavated with a diameter of 1,000 miles—it was simply the most efficient digging zone.
Clearly, the ancient civilizations that had excavated the Sky-Piercing Pillar in the past had not attempted to dig outward excessively.
Instead, nearly all of them had focused on digging upward, attempting to reach the Pillar's peak.
Moreover, the closer one got to the core, the softer the stone became, whereas the outer layers grew increasingly impenetrable.
At the very center, even a Sequence 9 Miner could dig through it.
Beyond 1,500 miles, however, it required at least a Sequence 7 Miner.
Beyond 2,000 miles, only Demi-God Miners could make any progress.
Farther out, only Gods and True Gods could even hope to break the stone.
Thus, the 1,500-mile core zone remained the easiest and most profitable excavation area.
Rosen ascended thousands of miles per day, but his detection radius was only a few dozen miles.
It took him over 2,000 miles of ascent before he finally discovered his first civilization ruins.
Through his divine senses, he detected a cave system, spanning less than 1,000 meters.
All the ruins had been abandoned, unlike the Suspended Empire, which had been systematically excavating and occupying the Sky-Piercing Pillar as it expanded upward.
Rosen noticed one particular statue that hadn't fused with the surrounding rock.
Instead, a one-finger-wide gap surrounded its surface, preventing the stone growth from encroaching upon it.
Without hesitation, Rosen phased through the rock and stored the statue inside his World Domain.
Inside the domain, he used the supernatural abilities of a Sculptor to carefully appraise the stone carving.
At first glance, it was undoubtedly a sculpture of the Small World Tree.
Upon closer examination, he discovered that the interior of the statue had once contained a Secret Realm.
However, that Secret Realm had already collapsed, leaving only the statue itself.
The material of this sculpture was extraordinary.
Having spent some time in the Suspended Empire, particularly blending in as a Sculptor in Suspended City No. 195, Rosen had extensively studied the Sky-Piercing Pillar's stone materials.
The excavated stone had a wide range of uses.
When ground into powder and mixed into soil, it greatly enhanced potion production.
When fed to rock-eating supernatural creatures, it accelerated their growth significantly.
The stone itself was incredibly durable, making it the ideal material for sculpting.
The closer to the core, the lower the stone quality.
The closer to the outer layers, the higher the quality.
Currently, the highest-grade stone that could be extracted reached Sequence 1 quality.
Even higher-quality stone did exist, but it could not be excavated without a Sequence 0 Miner.
If True Gods attempted to mine it through brute force, they would only manage to extract a few fragments.
The statue in Rosen's hands, however, was made of True God-tier stone—and it was completely intact.
Before being sculpted, the original block of stone must have been at least 100 meters in diameter.
The material alone made it as valuable as a Sequence 0 supernatural artifact.
More importantly, Rosen discovered that this statue could be taken out of the Sky-Piercing Pillar without losing its properties.
No wonder the World Government had invested so much in developing the Suspended Empire.
Simply the ancient statues recovered from excavated ruins—made from True God-tier stone that could be taken out of the Pillar—were already worth the investment.
Rosen soon found something even more valuable.
When ground into powder, the statue's stone dust was an exceptionally potent nutrient for plants.
He scattered a small amount beneath the Small World Tree.
As soon as the tree absorbed it, its core essence visibly grew stronger.
At that moment, Rosen realized—
The ancient statues left behind by past civilizations contained the very World Tree essence he was searching for.
For the next several years, he buried himself in the depths of the Sky-Piercing Pillar, tirelessly searching for buried ruins.
He discovered six or seven ruins, recovering over a dozen large and small stone sculptures.
The shattered statues were all converted into nourishment for the Small World Tree.
As a result, the tree's growth soared from 86% to 90%, finally meeting the conditions for advancing the Miracle Sequence to Sequence 2.
However, he found himself struggling to choose an appropriate Miracle Artifact to integrate.
Currently, he possessed two Sequence 2 Miracle Artifacts:
The Apocalypse Treasure Map and The Ecological Celestial Globe.
Both were top-tier supernatural artifacts.
The Treasure Map still held undiscovered secrets—Rosen had yet to determine exactly where it led.
Meanwhile, the Celestial Globe had formidable divination abilities and could alter the fundamental ecological rules of the world.
If he chose the Treasure Map, it would synergize with the Miracle Pouch.
If he chose the Celestial Globe, it would amplify his Authority of Kingship.
The two artifacts were perfectly matched in strength, making the decision exceptionally difficult.
Unless a better alternative emerged, it would be nearly impossible to decide.
Rosen postponed the fusion process, opting instead to continue collecting more statues.
Through his discoveries in various ruins, he had already gained several significant insights beyond the statues themselves.
All the ruins had been abandoned, unlike the Suspended Empire, which had been systematically excavating and occupying the Sky-Piercing Pillar as it expanded upward.
The ancient civilization that once dwelled within the Sky-Piercing Pillar had a small population and relied on the Secret Realms within the stone statues for survival.
Thus, instead of excavating the entire 1,500-li central region of the pillar, they had simply dug diagonally upward in a narrow, continuous path.
Their goal had always been the top of the Sky-Piercing Pillar, so they constantly abandoned temporary settlements after a few years and continued their upward excavation.
It seemed that the Secret Realms within the stone statues were not permanent.
Whenever a statue's Secret Realm collapsed, the civilization would abandon it and move on.
By following this pattern, Rosen concluded that the higher up the ruins, the more valuable their discoveries would be.
Abandoning his previous method of searching in all directions, he focused solely on moving upward as fast as possible.
At a rate of several thousand li per day, he estimated that he could reach the top of the pillar within a year.
Days passed, then months.
More than half a year had already gone by.
One day, Rosen suddenly sensed a strange vibration.
Following the disturbance, he phased through the rock to investigate.
Before long, he arrived at a tunnel—and from its sloping ceiling, he could hear constant tapping sounds.
He approached cautiously, following the source of the noise.
Soon, he saw a humanoid stone statue wielding a mining pick, tirelessly chiseling upward.
On its back, it carried a woven basket, inside which lay a foot-tall sculpture of the Small World Tree.
Rosen was already near the top of the Sky-Piercing Pillar—he never expected to encounter a living being here.
He did not disturb the stone figure.
Despite its seemingly mechanical actions, something about it felt extremely dangerous.
Instead, Rosen phased into the rock wall and explored the surrounding tunnels.
Before long, he discovered that every so often, there was a forged replica of the Ancient God's Stone Chisel embedded deep within the rock.
These imitation chisels seemed to have been deliberately sculpted, and every single one had been driven into the stone walls at regular intervals.
Rosen carefully examined the stone near the chisels—
And immediately discovered that the rock was growing.
It was these imitation chisels that were suppressing the stone's natural growth, preventing the tunnels from sealing themselves off.
For the next two days, Rosen scouted the surrounding 1,000-li area but found no other tunnels or traces of civilization.
The mine shaft and the humanoid stone figure were likely the last remnants of this ancient civilization.
Phasing silently into the tunnel, he approached the stone figure from behind.
Despite radiating an intense sense of danger, the statue's awareness was strangely sluggish.
Rosen had been standing there for quite some time before the stone figure finally noticed him.
It abruptly stopped mining, turned its head slowly, and stared at Rosen with a blank, expressionless gaze.
For a long moment, it remained motionless.
Then, without warning, blood-red tears streamed from its lifeless eyes.
It fell to one knee, its stone joints creaking with age.
"You can speak?" Rosen asked cautiously, sensing no hostility from the stone figure.
The stone figure lifted its head, seemingly deep in thought for a while.
Then, it removed the basket from its back.
Holding the Small World Tree sculpture, it wordlessly offered it to Rosen.
Rosen carefully took the sculpture from its hands.
His divine perception immediately pierced through the statue's surface—
Inside, he sensed an intact Secret Realm.
However, the Secret Realm bore an eerie resemblance to the one within the engraved stone wall.
Its edges were already surrounded by darkness, as if it, too, was on the verge of being devoured.
At the center of this Secret Realm, he saw another Small World Tree sculpture.
Unlike the one he held, this inner statue contained no Secret Realm of its own.
Beneath the stone sculpture lay hundreds of thousands of humanoid stone figures, densely packed together.
All of them had gaping holes where their hearts should have been.
Inside these openings, other internal organs remained intact, yet the hearts were completely absent.
Each stone figure knelt on one knee, facing the Small World Tree sculpture in reverence.
Nestled within the branches of the sculpted Small World Tree, a three-foot-tall stone book rested in place.
Rosen extended his divine perception toward the stone book, flipping through its pages with ease.
The text inscribed upon it matched the language found on Stone Rock's tombstone.
Using the Ancient Scholar ability of his Noble Sequence, he swiftly translated the recorded contents.
These humanoid stone figures originated from the Rock Tribe.
Rosen's earlier suspicions had been correct—after the destruction of the Rock Tribe within the Sky-Piercing Pillar, a new civilization indeed emerged.
And it was Stone Rock himself, using the Ancient God's Stone Chisel, who had sculpted these stone beings into existence.
To these stone people, Stone Rock was revered as their Father God.
After Stone Rock buried himself alive, the stone people initially continued to live in the lower regions of the Sky-Piercing Pillar.
However, at some point, the rock began to grow uncontrollably from below, spreading upward.
Though incredibly powerful, the stone people lacked intelligence and sophistication in their civilization.
At first, they tried to destroy the newly sprouting rock formations.
But their efforts failed to keep up with the relentless growth.
In the end, they were forced to migrate upward, as the higher regions of the pillar had a slower growth rate.
Even though their living space became increasingly compressed, they managed to survive—barely.
After all, stone people sustained themselves by consuming rock, so as long as they had food and shelter, they could continue existing.
More importantly, they possessed the innate ability to activate the latent essence within stone sculptures, allowing them to generate Secret Realms inside these statues.
However, the Secret Realms were constantly being devoured by the surrounding darkness.
To counteract this, the stone people desperately searched for a special type of stone—one strong enough to resist the dark erosion.
Yet the strongest stones, those of True God-tier quality, were located closer to the outer layers of the Sky-Piercing Pillar, where the rock grew at an alarming rate.
Excavating such high-quality stone became exponentially harder.
Eventually, left with no other option, the stone people decided to dig ever upward, believing that the higher they went, the lesser the darkness' influence would be.
But no matter how many countless years passed, their living space only continued to shrink.
Even their innate ability to manipulate stone had weakened over time.
The counterfeit Ancient God's Stone Chisels that Rosen had encountered earlier—
They were crafted from the hearts of these stone people.
The humanoid stone figure standing before him was the last remaining survivor of the stone people.
The others had long perished—
Some had grown too weary after eternities of excavation and simply ended their own lives.
Others had withered away as their spiritual essence depleted over time.
It seemed that while stone people had no physical lifespan, their spiritual longevity was finite.
Rosen and Stone Rock were both flesh-and-blood beings, fundamentally different from the stone people.
Thus, when this final stone being saw him—
His ancient and faded memories instinctively blurred the distinction—
And in that moment, the stone figure mistook Rosen for Stone Rock, his creator.
Overwhelmed with emotion, he fell to one knee—
And offered Rosen his eternal, unwavering loyalty.
Rosen's expression grew complicated.
Stepping forward, he gently lifted the stone figure to its feet and began examining its physical condition.
To his surprise—
The stone person's spiritual essence was exceptionally abundant and powerful.
Although it had not transformed into divine essence, in terms of sheer quantity, it rivaled that of a Great True God.
However, despite its overwhelming spiritual strength, its intellect was shockingly low.
The stone people had never been highly intelligent to begin with.
And now, after countless years of isolation, the last surviving member had become a hollow shell.
Memories of living alongside his kind had long since faded into obscurity—
Leaving behind only primal instincts and a severe state of amnesia.
Finally, Rosen discovered the true reason why this stone being had survived until now.
At some point, without realizing it, this final stone person had transcended into a Miracle Lifeform—
Possessing the immortal characteristic of eternal existence.
(End of Chapter)