The Dark Sun Old World and the Sun-Shooting Celestial Dynasty
In the darkness far from the city, Rosen began conducting experiments on spiritual contamination.
In addition to the angels and shadow demons he had initially released, he also set free several prisoners from the Void Divine Prison, ranging from abyssal demons to humans. He then began observing how these different extraordinary beings changed in the darkness.
As expected, the lower the sequence level, the faster their spiritual consciousness became contaminated.
Several Sequence 9 human extraordinary beings quickly began exhibiting abnormal changes.
Rosen ordered the shadow demons to kill some and spare others. He observed that the extraordinary essence of the deceased began to rapidly dissolve in the darkness, eventually vanishing without a trace. Meanwhile, the surviving Sequence 9 assassin grew increasingly bizarre.
Rosen listened to the strange language spoken by the assassin, which he couldn't understand at all.
Thus, he used the Ancient God's Holy Bell to record it, planning to decipher it later.
As the spiritual contamination worsened, the Sequence 9 assassin became increasingly erratic.
In the end, the experimental subjects broke their own limbs, held hands, and formed a pattern symbolizing the sun on the ground. At the center of the pattern was a vertical eye made of blood. The moment the pattern was completed, a terrifying aura suddenly descended from the sky.
Rosen looked up at the sky through the World Window. His vision pierced the darkness, revealing a black sun in the sky.
The black sun had a vertical eye on its surface, from which endless black light radiated.
At that moment, all the extraordinary beings with contaminated spiritual consciousness suddenly turned to ash. Then, a black egg appeared out of nowhere, pulsating and absorbing all the surrounding darkness. The disappearance of the darkness caused light to return.
Through the light, Rosen saw a golden sun in the sky.
That was the sun of the daytime. It hadn't disappeared but had been completely covered by the black sun's black light. This situation lasted only a moment before the black egg, having absorbed enough darkness, began to crack open.
From it emerged a black eyeball covered in dense black tendrils.
The eyeball had a vertical pupil and immediately began burrowing into the ground.
The shadow demon, which hadn't yet lost control, followed it underground, digging deep for several days until it passed through the thick earth and reached an underground world. Unlike the surface, which was completely enveloped in darkness, this underground world was filled with endless sunlight.
The black eyeball struggled in the sunlight, its body emitting black smoke.
At that moment, an arrow materialized out of the void and shot toward the black eyeball.
Just as the black eyeball was about to be pierced, its vertical pupil erupted with terrifying spiritual fluctuations. At that moment, the black eyeball acted like a conduit, becoming a relay point for the black light emitted by the black sun in the sky.
The arrow from the void was instantly erased by the endless darkness.
However, soon after, a golden arrow pierced through the darkness, striking and piercing the black eyeball in a single shot.
The arrow, passing through the black eyeball, unleashed endless sunlight, dispersing all the darkness.
The moment the black eyeball collapsed, two figures materialized out of the void.
Both were humans, one a deity and the other at least a True God.
This strange world still had extraordinary beings surviving, but they didn't live on the surface—they lived in the underground world deep beneath the earth.
Rosen knew the shadow demon had been discovered. A Sequence 2 shadow demon couldn't escape the detection of a True God.
So, he directly controlled the shadow demon to reveal itself. The young deity immediately tensed, drawing his bow and aiming an arrow at the shadow demon.
The other figure, an elderly True God, reached out to stop the young man and twisted a golden ring on his finger.
The ring instantly erupted with endless sunlight, which the elderly True God compressed and enveloped around the shadow demon. Visible to the naked eye, the shadow demon, as well as the contaminated angels and shadow demons in the shadow world, all had countless traces of darkness within them, which were gradually purified.
"Friend from the new world, welcome to the old world..."
The elderly True God directly exposed the shadow demon's origins and spoke kindly with a smile.
"I have many questions right now," Rosen probed through the shadow demon.
"I know what you're wondering about. I can tell you everything you want to know..."
The elderly True God replied without hesitation. "But shouldn't you tell me your name first?"
"Richard Phoenix..."
Rosen casually gave a former alias.
"You're lying. This isn't a foundation for friendly communication," the elderly True God said, displeased.
"Wilton Wagner Reinhardt Stuart Rad McKinley..."
Rosen controlled the shadow demon to speak his true name as an abyssal demon without hesitation.
The name was a full thousands of characters long, causing the elderly True God's eyelids to twitch with regret.
If he had known the name would be this long, he wouldn't have exposed the fake name.
"I'll just call you Richard. You can call me Houming," the elderly True God couldn't help but interrupt.
"Alright! Could you please tell me about the old and new worlds?" Rosen respectfully asked.
"Houfeng, you explain it to him. We'll talk as we walk..."
Houming said to the young man beside him. A golden auspicious cloud appeared beneath their feet, emitting golden light that enveloped the three of them.
The golden cloud soared away, and Houfeng began to explain the information he knew to Rosen.
This world was indeed a remnant of the main world from the previous Ancient God Era.
This world was called the old world, while the world created by the reincarnated Ancient God, the second-generation Ancient God, was called the new world.
The new world parasitized the old world, growing larger as the old world grew smaller.
Over countless years, the old world was now roughly twice the size of the new world.
This wasn't because the new world was weak, but because the old world at its peak had been unimaginably vast.
On the other hand, the new world found it difficult to consume the old world.
The forces in the old world were primarily composed of civilizations left behind from the previous Ancient God Era, as well as some civilizations originating from the new world. By passing through certain special dark regions in the new world, extraordinary beings from the new world could travel through the darkness to the old world.
Thus, over countless years, it wasn't just the World Government that had sent people here.
Great True Gods from the new world, as well as civilizations that couldn't survive calamities, had mostly risked escaping to the old world.
Because the old world had no world will and no threat from the Ancient God, it could be said that the old world was dying, but due to unknown reasons, it had undergone a form of reanimation, giving rise to various bizarre dangers that even Great True Gods couldn't resist.
At present, the surface of the Old World had almost completely fallen. Regardless of whether it was day or night, only Great True Gods could barely protect a fragment of civilization from extinction.
The city Rosen had discovered on the surface, sheltered within a divine domain, might have seemed like a safe haven where over ten thousand people still lived. However, in reality, those people had long ceased to be human. They were merely humanoid creatures—things that were unaware they had already changed, struggling to survive in the darkness.
Today, nearly all civilizations of the New World had migrated underground countless years ago.
The She-ri Tianchao, where Hou Ming and Hou Feng belonged, was considered one of the more powerful factions in the Old World, aside from Great True Gods.
Major forces like the She-ri Tianchao guarded various dark passageways that connected the New and Old Worlds. However, this was not done to welcome visitors from the New World—there simply weren't enough resources in the Old World to constantly monitor these passages.
More often than not, the inhabitants of the Old World would wait until visitors from the New World were exposed to the Dark Sun's—also known as the Black Sun's—corruption, turning them into its offspring, the Children of the Dark Sun. It was only when these corrupted beings attempted to invade the underground world that the She-ri Tianchao would act swiftly, shooting them down to eliminate the threat.
Of course, if a visitor from the New World managed to survive long enough to reach the underground world, Hou Ming and the others wouldn't mind offering some assistance.
The civilizations of the Old World were extremely interested in the New World. The Old World was doomed to destruction—it was only a matter of time. Thus, its people had always been gathering intelligence on the New World, searching for ways to escape from the Old World and reach the New.
After Hou Feng had finished explaining the basics of the Old World, he began questioning Rosen about the New World.
Rosen did not conceal much—after all, what he revealed was only basic information.
During their exchange, Rosen made a disturbing discovery.
Hou Feng was actually younger than him. Even Hou Ming was merely approaching three thousand years old.
It turned out that the Old World's laws were incomplete—many of the fundamental rules set by the Ancient God had been corrupted by the Dark Sun.
Because of this, the Old World's Daoist cultivation system had nearly collapsed. Only the divine path remained somewhat intact.
Thus, the strength Hou Ming and Hou Feng wielded mostly came from external sources. Their divine power was largely derived from the national destiny of the She-ri Tianchao, through which they were granted their divine positions. It was only by borrowing this external force that they had achieved godhood at such a young age.
However, judging from Hou Ming's aged appearance, the price of such power was steep.
The stronger one's power, the faster one's lifespan would drain away.
Ironically, those who were weaker often lived longer.
If one imagined a true god having a shorter lifespan than a mere Sequence 4 transcendent, one could roughly grasp why civilizations in the Old World longed for the New World so desperately. However, it was known that only Great True Gods were immune to this curse—only they could return from the Old World to the New.
"It seems the Old World is far more advanced in utilizing national destiny than the New World," Rosen remarked thoughtfully.
"You underestimate the powerhouses of your world," Hou Feng immediately countered. "It's not that your world failed to develop more advanced uses of national destiny—it's simply that the Ancient God is still sleeping over there. The New and Old Worlds each have their own difficulties. Any power that risks provoking the Ancient God hasn't been studied deeply."
"You have a high opinion of the New World?" Rosen asked, somewhat surprised.
"Not quite," Hou Feng shook his head and casually explained, "Civilizations in both the New and Old Worlds developed because they had strengths and weaknesses of their own. Only seeing one's own strengths while focusing on others' weaknesses is meaningless. The real goal is to learn from each other and turn weaknesses into advantages."
Rosen nodded in agreement, though he had his own perspective on the matter.
Learning from others was important, but actually doing so was easier said than done.
Of course, the ideal way for a civilization to develop was by integrating strengths and compensating for weaknesses. However, the flaws of any civilization would always exist and could never be completely eradicated—only continuously suppressed. Since weaknesses could never truly disappear, the most effective approach was not to waste effort on eliminating them but rather to focus on strengthening one's own advantages while exploiting the enemy's flaws.
Hou Feng's perspective was more in line with peaceful times, emphasizing balanced development.
Rosen's view was far more practical, suited for an era where enemies lurked on all sides, prioritizing maximum self-strengthening and the absolute annihilation of threats.
And if the civilizations of the Old World ever found a way to enter the New World, an unprecedented war between civilizations would inevitably erupt.
Hou Ming's golden cloud moved at astonishing speed, swiftly crossing hundreds of thousands of miles before arriving at the capital of the She-ri Tianchao.
Rosen had assumed that a capital belonging to a True God civilization would be densely populated, yet it barely held a little over ten million people.
Moreover, the majority of the population consisted of ordinary humans, with fewer than ten thousand transcendents.
The reason for such a small number of transcendents was likely the limited availability of divine positions. Fewer divine positions meant fewer transcendents; fewer transcendents meant fewer people could be protected; fewer protected people meant a weaker national destiny, making it difficult to increase the number of divine positions.
At Honglu Temple, the She-ri Tianchao's designated location for receiving foreign guests, Rosen was settled in.
He had expected to meet the ruler of the She-ri Tianchao, yet from beginning to end, the only person who actively engaged with him was Hou Feng.
Over time, through subtle probing, Rosen gradually understood the reason.
The ruler of the She-ri Tianchao possessed only the equivalent strength of a Sequence 4 transcendent—not because they couldn't be stronger, but because they deliberately restrained their power in order to prolong their lifespan.
Despite only having the strength of a Sequence 4, the ruler held absolute control over all divine positions within the She-ri Tianchao.
Even someone like Hou Ming, a True God, dared not defy them.
However, Rosen, as an outsider, was different. The ruler could not use divine positions to control him, which meant there was no reason to meet with him directly. If Rosen harbored ill intentions, he could potentially threaten the ruler's safety, so they simply chose to avoid him altogether.
After spending some time in the capital, Rosen lost interest in staying any longer.
Once he had gathered all publicly available information regarding the Dark Sun and obtained a general understanding of the surrounding civilizations, he immediately prepared to leave. No one tried to stop him—instead, he received a gift from the ruler.
It was a ring with a golden crystal the size of a soybean embedded in its center.
This was a fragment of the Sun's Origin—not only could it resist and purify the Dark Sun's corruption, but it also allowed the wielder to gain a slight degree of control over the Sun's laws.
The underground world was currently bathed in endless sunlight, and this was made possible through the power of Sun Origin Fragments.
The range of sunlight coverage essentially defined the territory of a civilization.
Beyond the reach of the sunlight, the underground world had already fallen to the Children of the Dark Sun. At present, less than two-thirds of the underground world remained under the control of various civilizations, while the remaining one-third had gradually succumbed to corruption.
Because Sun Origin Fragments had no source of replenishment, their power would only diminish over time.
Despite only receiving a tiny piece, the sincerity of this gift was undeniable.
After leaving the She-ri Tianchao, Rosen set his sights on the closest destination—the Holy Court, Wan Dao Sheng Ting.
This was a faction with a Great True God at its helm, and more importantly, it housed the only Immortal Ruins among the nearby civilizations.
These Immortal Ruins were unique, akin to a fragment of the Dragon Realm.
They could slow down the rapid aging of transcendents in the Old World, which had led to many powerful figures nearing the end of their lifespan choosing to enter deep slumber within them.
Because of this, the Immortal Ruins had also become the primary hub for transcendents from all surrounding civilizations to interact and trade extraordinary resources.
Now that Rosen had gained a general understanding of the Old World, he had no intention of staying here for too long.
The extraordinary system of this place did not suit him, nor was he interested in provoking the Dark Sun at this time.
He suspected that the Ancient God, after being hunted down by the World Tree, had encountered the Dark Sun somewhere in the cosmos, which ultimately allowed the Ancient God to turn the tables and slay the World Tree instead. However, the Ancient God must have paid a heavy price—after all, the Old World had not been fully assimilated into the New World.
If both the Old and New Worlds were parts of the Ancient God's transformed body, then it was evident that the Ancient God's power had been split in two.
The portion of the Old World's origin left behind was something the Ancient God no longer had the strength to reclaim.
Both the World Tree and the Ancient God had suffered setbacks, and even if the Dark Sun had also been wounded, it was still not an existence Rosen could afford to provoke.
Thus, the greatest value of staying in the Old World was to obtain its extraordinary resources.
With the Mysterious Study Room, Rosen might even be able to establish himself as a two-worlds merchant.
Of course, he would have to exercise extreme caution—if anyone discovered his ability to travel between worlds, it would surely attract the covetous eyes of Great True Gods.
After leaving the borders of the She-ri Tianchao, the underground world was once again shrouded in endless darkness.
His divine senses could not extend beyond his body—if they did, they would become corrupted.
As a result, navigating in the dark was possible only through ocular arts, but even then, their effectiveness was barely one percent of what it should be.
With no better alternative, Rosen could only rely on his map and painstakingly fumble his way forward.
His slow progress was one issue; the ambushes from the Children of the Dark Sun were another.
Sensing imminent danger, Rosen had already locked onto an approaching Child of the Dark Sun with his God-Hunting Devil's Eye by the time their distance had shrunk to less than ten miles. At that range, even the weakest among these creatures, possessing godly power, could close the gap in an instant.
Fortunately, his World Domain was fast enough to expand in an instant, forcibly stretching the distance between them.
However, even though space had been distorted, forcing the Child of the Dark Sun a thousand miles away, the massive eye of the creature still managed to unleash a beam of black light—traveling faster than light itself—to collide head-on with the golden rays of the Radiant Lighthouse.
Ordinarily, a Sequence 3 Radiant Lighthouse would not have been able to pose a threat to a Sequence 0 entity.
But after careful deliberation, Rosen had fed the Solar Jellyfish Form of the Radiant Lighthouse with the Sun Origin Fragment embedded in his ring. This had allowed the Radiant Lighthouse to successfully ascend to a Sequence 2 divine structure, barely capable of endangering the Child of the Dark Sun.
In the short term, the Radiant Lighthouse was weaker than the Sun Origin Fragment.
But the fragment was a consumable resource, while the lighthouse could continuously function as long as it was fueled by divine essence crystals.
At the start, the Radiant Lighthouse's Solar Jellyfish Form was at an overwhelming disadvantage. However, thanks to the World Domain, which severed the Child of the Dark Sun's connection to the Dark Sun, the creature was unable to replenish its power.
Before long, it began to falter.
After what felt like several years of attrition inside the Time-Space World Fruit, Rosen had finally weakened the Child of the Dark Sun to a manageable level.
Seizing the opportunity, he activated his Original Painting Sealing Art and successfully sealed the entity within a palm-sized art card.
[Child of the Dark Sun: Spirit Painting][Rank: Sequence 0][Property: Summons a Sequence 0 Child of the Dark Sun (Uncontrollable)][Traits: Unknown]
Capturing a Child of the Dark Sun was not an unprecedented feat—after all, the She-ri Empire had captured countless such entities before.
Yet to this day, no one had managed to uncover the true form of the Children of the Dark Sun, nor had anyone deciphered the true nature of the Dark Sun itself. The only certainty was that it possessed terrifying capabilities in corrupting spiritual consciousness.
As for whether this captured specimen would be of any use… even Rosen wasn't sure.
Either way, he had the ability to capture one first—whether it would prove useful or not was a matter for the future.