The Future of Painters and Soul Parasites

In the main world, the total number of individuals in the Painter Sequence had surpassed ten billion.

Half of them were humans, while the other half belonged to various other races.

The World Government had previously restricted the Painter Sequence to nobles. This was because, in the past, there was no true Tree of Law for Painting, and relying solely on the power of the Tree of the Artist Sequence, it was impossible to support too many individuals transitioning into the Painter Sequence.

However, ever since the Law of Painting was born and the Painter Sequence separated from the Artist Sequence, the number of individuals transferring into the sequence had skyrocketed. Not only did a large number of ordinary people with artistic talent transition into painters, but various talented non-human races also embraced the Painter Sequence with the support of their respective communities. This directly led to an exponential increase in Spirit Realm Paintings within the main world.

The total number of painters kept rising, which, in the short term, was highly beneficial for the growth of the Tree of Law for the Painter Sequence. Even Rosen's Painting World Fruit was nearing maturity.

However, from a long-term perspective, the Painter Sequence was inevitably headed toward the fate of flourishing to its peak before declining.

The reason was simple: as the number of painters continued to grow, the extraordinary resources essential for them would eventually become insufficient. The materials required to create Spirit Realm Paintings had already more than doubled in value compared to before the Painter Sequence boom. Many painters from ordinary backgrounds could no longer afford to paint.

Everything even remotely related to art was becoming increasingly expensive, moving further out of reach for the common people.

The only way to prevent the Painter Sequence from rising to its peak and then declining was to increase sources and reduce consumption.

Reducing consumption meant restricting the number of people transitioning into the Painter Sequence. However, that would inevitably weaken the growth of the Law of Painting.

For now, Rosen had no intention of considering restriction.

That left only increasing sources, and his first step toward that goal was the Law Codex.

As long as painters could master more authorities and laws, they would rely less on Painter-specific resources and instead tap into the extraordinary resources of other sequences. This would significantly alleviate the resource crisis within the Painter Sequence.

Rosen's Dimensional Canvas could transform anything into canvas, and his Divine Pigments could convert anything into paint.

By leveraging these miracle skills, he was determined to free himself from dependency on a single type of extraordinary resource.

As long as something was a high-level extraordinary resource, once it landed in his hands, he could convert it into something usable for the Painter Sequence.

Thus, aside from the Law Codex, the second Painter skill that Rosen created was Primordial Imprint.

This skill had two parts: a primary and a secondary.

The secondary part functioned similarly to the mimicry skill of the Actor Sequence, allowing the user to copy the skills embedded in its primary part. For example, if Rosen infused his Divine Pigments into Primordial Imprint, any painter who mastered the skill would gain access to a weaker version of Divine Pigments.

If he wished, he could weaken and share any skill he possessed with all painters.

Although Primordial Imprint might seem detrimental to himself while benefiting others in the short term, in the long run, strengthening the Painter Sequence would also strengthen the Law of Painting. And once the Law of Painting grew stronger, all Painter Sequence skills that Rosen controlled would receive a massive power boost.

Moreover, the Law Codex and Primordial Imprint could be combined for greater synergy.

If he fused the Actor Sequence's "Roleplay Authority" into the Law Codex, then Primordial Imprint wouldn't just be able to copy his own skills—it could also replicate various skills from the Actor Sequence.

Although it could only imprint one skill at a time, its ability to switch skills at will made Primordial Imprint vastly superior to traditional Body Painting techniques.

Through the Tree of Law for the Painter Sequence, Rosen quickly shared the sub-skills of Law Codex and Primordial Imprint with all painters.

All painters in the main world who received this skill information automatically began mastering the two skills upon reaching Sequence 7. Even Demigods started wiping their Sequence 7 skill slots to replace their old abilities with these new ones.

Rosen's self-created Law Codex and Primordial Imprint were skills that could be directly constructed and mastered by linking with the Tree of Law for the Painter Sequence. They even allowed painters to replace outdated lower-sequence skills that could no longer keep up, essentially granting them two chances to "undo" their past skill choices.

Most other Extraordinary Sequences simply did not have the ability to continuously enhance their skills the way Rosen did. Ordinary skills, through sheer refinement, could be elevated into Special Skills, then Law Skills, and finally even Miracle Skills. Just the ability to redo skill choices twice was already enough to make members of other sequences envious.

However, even the strongest figures at the pinnacle of other sequences lacked the ability to create miracles that benefited their entire sequence. Rosen was only able to grant this two-time skill reset to all painters because of his mastery over the Laws of Origin and History.

[Law Codex: Law Skill]

[Skill Attribute: Generates a master copy of the Law Codex, sharing Authority and Law-based spiritual paintings with all Law Painting copies.]

...

[Primordial Imprint: Law Skill]

[Skill Attribute: Imprints extraordinary skills and shares them with all Primordial Imprint sub-bodies.]

Both Law Skills required no manual activation from Rosen. Once he spread the copies and sub-skills of these abilities, they began naturally manifesting as core runes inside his Simulated Divinity as more painters mastered them.

However, the final skill of the Painter Sequence 1 was not as easy for Rosen to obtain as the previous two.

There were inherent limitations in painter-based abilities.

For example, an ordinary person looking at a phoenix, without any painting skills, might end up drawing something that resembled a chicken pecking at grains. A skilled painter, however, could paint a phoenix so vividly that it would fly out of the canvas as a real, living entity.

Yet, even among painters, their expertise varied greatly. A Sequence 7 Painter drawing a rabbit might not be able to manifest it as realistically as a Sequence 9 Painter.

The reason was simple: the Sequence 7 Painter had never truly studied rabbits in depth, while the Sequence 9 Painter had spent their entire life painting rabbits, understanding all of their habits, internal structures, and even their genetic makeup. Because the Sequence 9 Painter had a deep understanding of rabbits, the rabbits they painted were far more lifelike than those created by a Sequence 7 Painter.

If two painters were of the same sequence level, this difference would become even more pronounced. Thus, paradoxically, the more powerful a painter became, the narrower their artistic range. Lower-sequence painters could easily grasp the details of many subjects, but higher-sequence painters found it increasingly difficult to gain comprehensive knowledge of every possible entity.

Rosen was no exception to this rule. He understood angels and shadow demons thoroughly, so the ones he painted were even stronger than their real counterparts. However, he knew little about Abyssal Serpent Demons, so no matter how hard he tried, the ones he painted would at most possess 50–60% of the original's strength.

This is the inherent limitation of the Painter Sequence—how could one perfectly replicate something without fully understanding it?

The world contained countless creatures and objects. Unless a painter lived for billions or even trillions of years, and unless no new things were ever created, there was no way for a single painter to comprehend everything and truly become an omniscient artist. Of course, this was theoretically possible, but in reality, no painter could ever reach such a level.

Since becoming an omniscient painter was impossible, Rosen chose a different path. Instead of trying to learn everything himself, he would find people who already understood these subjects and let them paint for him.

By lending his Painter Sequence to others, they could use his power to create perfect paintings.

Even if he exhausted himself, he would never be able to paint a completely realistic Void Destroyer Battleship.

However, if he lent his Painter Sequence to a mechanic and let that mechanic paint the Void Destroyer Battleship, they would be able to create an indistinguishable replica. All Rosen had to do was stand behind the mechanic and reap the benefits.

Rosen was treating the Painter Sequence like a kingdom, shaping its development while positioning himself as its sole ruler.

He did not need to be omniscient and omnipotent. A ruler of a glorious kingdom did not need to master everything personally. As long as he could recognize and utilize talent effectively, he could indirectly become an all-knowing, all-powerful painter, creating spiritual paintings that would be unparalleled in history.

Thus, Law Codex and Primordial Imprint were merely preliminary foundation skills for this greater ability.

In fact, this skill was not even exclusive to the Painter Sequence.

It was the result of combining the powers of multiple sequences, forming a unique Law Skill.

...

In the deep layers of the Spirit Realm, many areas lacked even the concepts of time and space.

Within these depths, anything was possible—long-lost civilizations erased from history, fallen powerhouses from ages past. The World Government's greatest responsibility was to suppress any disturbances emerging from these hidden depths.

For a full twenty thousand years, this defensive line had remained impenetrable.

However, ever since the Spirit Realm expanded across the entire main world, the frontline had stretched beyond just human territory to encompass all of existence.

The World Government no longer had the capability to defend every newly expanded frontline. While the gods of various races had long anticipated this crisis, they were unable to guard every weak point.

For top-tier extraordinary races such as angels and titans, they were still powerful enough to block awakened threats from the deep Spirit Realm.

But the weaker races had gradually lost their footing over the years.

The Starshatter Archipelago was a vast cluster of islands, remnants of a once-mighty continent.

Though fractured into islands, it was still highly valuable.

In the past, two True Gods from rival extraordinary races had fought over control of this land. Yet, in the end, both sides chose to abandon it.

The official reasoning was that continued fighting would bring more loss than gain. Instead, they decided to leave the archipelago to their vassal races, using it as a buffer zone for ceasefire negotiations.

Over a dozen vassal races occupied the Starshatter Archipelago. Though there was constant conflict, they remained restrained.

If they lost, their race faced annihilation.

If they won, could they really unify the entire Starshatter Archipelago?

Strong extraordinary races never protected weaker ones for free.

Weaker races had to pay tribute in treasures, provide fodder soldiers through their superior reproduction rates, and even develop different paths of civilization. Any significant discovery they made in their pursuit of advancement would ultimately be seized by the stronger races.

For weak races, the only way to turn their fate around in the main world was the miraculous birth of a True God within their ranks.

The Starshatter Archipelago had little room for development, but for weaker races, it was at least relatively safe.

However, that was a situation of the past.

Now, the Starshatter Archipelago was overrun by death and terror.

The powerful backers that once protected the weaker races could no longer spare their attention for this place.

Amidst the endless storms covering the Starshatter Archipelago, a silent and massive door, towering thousands of meters high, suddenly appeared.

This was the Temporal Gate of Boya.

Originally, Rosen had been unable to control this True God-level extraordinary artifact. However, ever since he mastered the Laws of Time and Space, the gate had fallen completely under his command.

In the main world, there were very few places that this gate could not reach.

In the Starshatter Archipelago, where the Five Major Networks had no coverage, Boya's Temporal Gate was even more convenient than data transmission.

Rosen put away the shrunken Temporal Gate, his divine perception spreading across the Starshatter Archipelago.

Since the Starshatter Archipelago was once a continent, many civilizations had risen and unified the land throughout history. Over the long years, these civilizations had all been wiped out for various reasons.

Now, some of them had resurrected in the depths of the Spirit Realm, forcefully breaking through the Spirit Realm defense line around the Starshatter Archipelago and occupying the shallow layers of the Spirit Realm.

Through their growing influence over the Spirit Realm, they were even able to briefly merge the Spirit Realm with reality.

The resurrected Spirit Realm civilizations directly invaded the real world, sweeping through every civilization on the Starshatter Archipelago.

They did not slaughter indiscriminately. On each island, they only killed a few elderly members of every race.

The message was clear—they intended to raise the extraordinary races of the Starshatter Archipelago like livestock, harvesting them at regular intervals.

For beings of the Spirit Realm, the only way to truly resurrect and return to the real world was to massacre living beings from the main world. The more they killed, the closer they came to true resurrection. The entire population of the Starshatter Archipelago had already become a stockpile of sacrificial offerings.

Even the two powerful extraordinary races that had once ruled over them had publicly abandoned their vassals.

Rosen flipped open his Void Sketchbook—the Fate Prophecy Painting he had drawn pointed directly to this place.

To obtain the final skill of Painter Sequence 1, he needed certain special materials. There were many possible substitutes, but among them, the most effective material was the one indicated by his Fate Prophecy Painting—the Starshatter Archipelago.

Rosen quickly arrived at the nearest island. This island lay ten meters below sea level, completely submerged.

The inhabitants of this island were the Anemone People, a sea-dwelling race that preferred to live in shallow waters.

Rosen did not act rashly. Instead, he carefully observed his surroundings.

On the surface, the island appeared civilized, but in reality, its civilization's fate had long since collapsed.

A civilization without fate energy was one that had already been destroyed.

The Anemone People still moving around on the island were, in truth, all dead.

Yet, these Anemone People had no idea they were dead. They continued their daily lives as if nothing had changed—they had children, took potions, advanced through extraordinary sequences, and continued their cultivation. Other than the absence of fate energy, everything seemed completely normal.

"The Starshatter Archipelago really does have Soul Parasites..."

Hidden within the storm, Rosen observed the Anemone People beneath the sea, his eyes gleaming with excitement.

The Soul Parasite was a legendary type of special lifeform. It lacked intelligence, possessing only pure survival instincts, yet its power reached the level of a True God. It had destroyed countless civilizations throughout history, including some that had once been protected by True Gods.

A living Soul Parasite looked like a gigantic spirit-form snail.

Though it had divine-level resistance, its lack of intelligence meant that any True God could easily hunt and kill it.

However, after a Soul Parasite died, its corpse would break apart into countless "soul cells."

These soul cells, once they parasitized a living organism, would devour its spiritual essence. After consumption, the soul cells would perfectly disguise themselves as spiritual essence, inheriting the memories of the deceased.

Rosen's flesh avatars functioned by replacing bodies, while the Soul Parasite directly replaced the soul's core essence.

The Anemone People on this island had no idea they were actually corpses.

Even if they somehow realized the truth, they might not believe it.

Even if they believed it, they would not willingly accept their fate.

Put yourself in their place—if someone suddenly ran up to Rosen and said he was dead, that he wasn't really himself anymore, and that his only true release was death... regardless of whether it was true or not, the first thing he would do is kill that person.

Since Soul Parasites could not be permanently eradicated, killing them would only result in their soul cells spreading uncontrollably.

Thus, the best method to deal with a Soul Parasite was sealing it away. However, throughout history, these seals had been broken multiple times.

The reason was simple—Soul Parasites could produce Soul Cores, one of the rarest and most valuable extraordinary resources related to souls and spirituality. There were always people willing to deliberately unseal a trapped Soul Parasite just to obtain a Soul Core.

If Rosen's guess was correct, the Soul Parasite had originally been sealed within this continent.

The ones who broke the seal were none other than the two True Gods backing the vassal races of the Starshatter Archipelago.

Under normal circumstances, True Gods would never engage in open warfare on the surface world.

There was almost no deep-seated hatred between them—over the course of countless years, any grudges they might have had were already resolved. If True Gods clashed, it was always for profit. And if it was about profit, they wouldn't recklessly shatter entire continents just to fight.

So why was the continent shattered, turning it into the Starshatter Archipelago?

The real goal was to release the sealed Soul Parasite.

A Soul Parasite that had already been killed once had already produced a Soul Core.

But since only one had formed, the two True Gods couldn't split it evenly.

Thus, they relocated their vassal races here to speed up the Soul Parasite's resurrection. Once it revived, it would produce two Soul Cores, making it easy for both of them to take one each without conflict.

"Sky Eagle Civilization and Sea Serpent Civilization…"

On Rosen's retina, information about these two civilizations was projected.

Each had only one True God. Sky Eagle Civilization was slightly stronger, boasting eleven deities in total.

Both of their True Gods resided deep in the Spirit Realm, leaving only their deities to guard the Starshatter Archipelago.

Rosen activated his God-Hunting Magic Eye, scanning through his gathered information to spy on the gods of both civilizations one by one.

Some were deep in the Spirit Realm, while others remained in their main world strongholds.

Only two deities were present on the Starshatter Archipelago, belonging to different races yet stationed together in the same Spirit Domain.

Rosen dove into the sea without hesitation. As a natural-born water deity, an Azure Dragon moved through the ocean like a fish in water.

Before long, he reached the deep waters near the center of the Starshatter Archipelago, where a hidden Spirit Domain was concealed.

Under the enhancement of Time-Space Laws, Void Blink allowed him to phase directly through the world's barrier, entering the Spirit Domain's interior.

At a glance, Rosen saw an enormous arcane magic array at the very heart of the Spirit Domain—a True God-level arcane formation.

At the formation's core was likely a Soul Core, used as bait to lure the Soul Parasite.

(End of Chapter)