Deep in the shadowy void of the True Realm of the Ancient Gods, Rosen slowly withdrew his eternal will that had already transformed into the world's will.
Under the reversal of eternal will, the divine essence that had been abandoned in the memory world rapidly recovered within a short time.
It even surpassed its previous limits, further elevating the divine essence.
Restoring the life essence was easier. By absorbing and plundering the corpses of eternal life creatures taken from the cosmic forbidden zones through the Miracle Star Sea, Rosen effortlessly restored his life essence to its peak and then broke through the peak to continue growing.
Only a few months had passed since Rosen left the memory world, yet his attributes had undergone earth-shaking changes.
Yet, looking at his own attributes, he did not hesitate to continue sublimating his eternal will.
He transformed all of his eternal will into nourishment for the growth of his undying will.
Having escaped the memory world, even if he poured all his eternal will into the undying will, he had no fear of permanent loss to his essence. He could fully transfer essence that the undying will could not fuse into his avatars.
Then, once the undying will had fully absorbed the eternal will, he would transfer the essence back.
Because the divine essence was unharmed during the transfer, the restoration of eternal will derived from divine essence was very efficient.
However, several years passed in reality, and Rosen still could not convert eternal will into undying will. Even with one unit of undying will already present, he was unable to transform the eternal will into new undying will.
If it weren't for having successfully done so inside the memory world, he would have thought the method he discovered was fake.
The same conversion method succeeded in the memory world but failed in the real universe.
If the method was not wrong, then the real-world environment simply did not meet the conditions for the eternal will to ascend to undying will.
There had to be something else involved in the transformation from eternal will to undying will that he hadn't discovered yet.
To find out what the real world lacked, the simplest way was to ask the Moonshade Holy God.
If he couldn't get answers from the Moonshade Holy God, then he would have to repeatedly return to the memory world to elevate his eternal will.
Inside the ruins of the Sacred God Temple's main hall, the Moonshade Holy God was carefully repairing the shattered temple remains.
The Moonshade Holy God looked toward the entrance—no visitor came without cause, so the old fisherman's sudden arrival must mean something had happened.
"I found traces of the Heavenly-Earth Holy God's avatar. After all these years hiding, I finally found him."
The old fisherman laughed heartily, carrying his fishing rod on his shoulder.
The Moonshade Holy God was pleased to hear this news. The Heavenly-Earth Holy God's true form had been trapped and killed in the memory world. All his avatars had hidden for hundreds of years without a trace, but now they had finally appeared. Capturing the avatars of the Heavenly-Earth Holy God would bring the natural symphony of joy.
"Where did you find the traces?"
Suppressing joy, the Moonshade Holy God asked somewhat skeptically.
The avatars of the Heavenly-Earth Holy God had captured many cosmic forbidden zones over the centuries, never once leaving a trace behind. Why would the old fisherman suddenly find their traces? Was it a trap targeting him?
"You are really suspicious…"
The old fisherman explained impatiently, "When I fish in the void, I often test those evil beings. I found one of those evil beings acting strangely. I suspect the avatar of the Heavenly-Earth Holy God is secretly purifying that evil being."
"Where did you discover this?"
The Moonshade Holy God asked with doubt.
The old fisherman manifested a three-dimensional cosmic map inside the main hall and quickly marked the exact location.
The Moonshade Holy God immediately dispatched a moonlight avatar and slipped into the void to investigate the marked evil being. Sure enough, the destruction speed of that evil being on the universe was significantly reduced—highly likely someone was secretly purifying it.
The Moonshade Holy God hesitated briefly, then decided to gather allies and lie in wait.
Soon, the Moonshade Holy God and the Ancient Gods had already hidden deep within the void, the old fisherman and the Particle Holy God positioned farther away in support, while the Yellow Springs Holy God remained at the temple to guard against possible infiltration attempts.
The four members from between universes might fail to kill the true Heavenly-Earth Holy God, but capturing his avatars was absolutely impossible to fail.
If they failed at that, the four of them might as well have lived for nothing.
This ambush lasted half a month before the avatars of the Heavenly-Earth Holy God, who had been sought for centuries, finally appeared.
Rosen carefully controlled his primordial avatar to approach, shaking the Bell of Compassion gently, quietly transmitting the Natural Symphony of Compassion.
The transmission spanned tens of thousands of light years, and the strength of the Natural Symphony of Joy was extremely weak.
The entire process could be likened to boiling a frog slowly. The evil beings shrouded by the Natural Symphony of Joy showed no resistance whatsoever.
But the four Moonshade Holy Gods hiding in the depths of the void sensed the anomaly and simultaneously activated cosmic fields to seal off tens of thousands of light years of spacetime, almost simultaneously appearing around the primordial avatar and surrounding it.
"Heavenly-Earth Holy God, today you cannot escape even if you try to fly."
The Moonshade Holy God was about to strike but discovered the old fisherman and Particle Holy God acted faster.
They unleashed their cosmic domain, instantly enveloping the Ancient God. Before the Ancient God could resist, countless Nightshade Parasitic Flowers appeared in the void. These flowers connected to the Memory World, locked onto the Ancient God, and forcibly pulled the Ancient God into the Memory World.
Once sent in, the Ancient God could not emerge for a short time—after all, the Ancient God also controlled the Cosmic Seed.
Realizing it was a trap, the Moonshade Holy God immediately escaped. However, Rosen had already wrapped the cosmic domain from the outskirts, merged with the Miracle Star Sea's realm. The Moonshade Holy God tore through space-time but did not return to the Holy God Sanctuary; instead, they appeared deep within the Miracle Star Sea, trapped and unable to escape.
The Moonshade Holy God's teeth were nearly shattered from biting so hard. All these years, so much effort had been spent repairing the sanctuary ruins. Yet the sanctuary was still not restored. In contrast, the Earth-Heaven Holy God had not only stolen their Moonshade Splendor but also possessed the primordial relic composed of countless star seas before them. Why did an eternal life as insignificant as an ant have the right to possess these?
The Moonshade Holy God, having fought countless battles, understood very clearly that when two powers clash, the strong always defeats the weak.
A weak one defeating the strong was nothing but a joke that existed only in dreams.
Between civilizations, strength was measured by the military's combat power, logistics, scientific research, the number of top-tier experts within the civilization, the civilization's fortune, and future potential—all combined. Without external interference, the stronger civilization would inevitably win.
But for beings like them, civilizations were just ants.
Their strength was compared by eternal will, eternal sacred laws, extraordinary artifacts, and eternal worlds. If there was any gap in these aspects, the outcome was almost predetermined.
In the contest of eternal will, the Moonshade Holy God was confident they would absolutely surpass the Earth-Heaven Holy God.
In eternal sacred laws, the Moonshade Holy God was even more certain.
But in extraordinary artifacts, the Moonshade Holy God knew they would be utterly defeated.
Because the Earth-Heaven Holy God controlled at least two primordial relics, enough to even out the difference in eternal will and eternal sacred laws between them.
In the contest of eternal worlds, the Moonshade Holy God was even more completely defeated.
Their eternal world had already merged into the small cosmos of the Holy God Sanctuary, which was now beyond reach. In contrast, the Earth-Heaven Holy God's eternal world was fused with the primordial relic before them—no matter how much they exhausted themselves, they could never surpass that.
So even before a true decisive battle began, the Moonshade Holy God had already judged that victory was impossible.
Even escaping was out of the question unless someone outside cooperated with them to break the seal of the primordial relic before them.
The Moonshade Holy God immediately prepared for a desperate defense and counterattack, then contacted the Ancient God through the cosmic connections, even attempting to reach the Dimension Holy God and Chaos Holy God. If none of them could provide external reinforcements, then this time they were truly trapped with no way out.
The Chaos Holy God and Dimension Holy God still had no response; the Ancient God, now trapped in the Memory World, was barely able to manage themselves.
The Moonshade Holy God could not contact the Ancient God's true form, at best only the Ancient God's Dark Sun avatar.
The Ancient God's avatar could only return to the Holy God Sanctuary as quickly as possible.
Then lead the eternal lives of the sanctuary to rescue the Moonshade Holy God.
But before the Dark Sun avatar could return, Rosen had already sought it out proactively.
Knowing the Moonshade Holy God was trapped deep within the Miracle Star Sea and unlikely to escape soon, Rosen understood that without external interference, the Moonshade Holy God was doomed. So his goal was not to struggle with the Moonshade Holy God inside the Miracle Star Sea but to cut off all their retreat paths completely.
Leaving the Primordial Avatar to hold the Miracle Star Sea, Rosen directly moved to hunt down the Ancient God's Dark Sun avatar.
He and the Ancient God had a long-standing grudge, and from today onward, the Ancient God would fear him.
Rosen had left all of his eternal will with the Primordial Avatar, otherwise he couldn't have controlled the Miracle Star Sea to trap the Moonshade Holy God.
At this moment, his true body only held the undying will—not in peak condition but still no difficulty in dealing with an avatar.
Especially since he controlled the Primordial Organ Dark Sun Heavenly Eye, dealing with the Dark Sun avatar was extraordinarily easy.
The Dark Sun avatar was traveling through the void, still hurrying along. The moment the spatial jump ended, the light in the surrounding universe suddenly vanished, leaving only black radiance. Although the universe was mostly dark, there was still plenty of light.
The Ancient God knew very well what force caused this.
Activating both Dark Sun Heavenly Eyes, they tried to seize control of the black light.
But their Dark Sun Heavenly Eyes could not budge it at all. Endless darkness surged like tides. The Dark Sun power the Ancient God wielded was overwhelmingly crushed, making them realize the enemy wielded the higher-ranked primordial dark sun power of eternal dark sun.
The Ancient God avatar realized their path was sealed and resolutely decided to sacrifice themselves to inflict as much damage on the enemy as possible.
Holding the Eternal Artifact Dark Sun Death Star, the Cosmic Seed obtained from the Earth-Heaven Holy God, combined with refined materials from multiple cosmic forbidden zones, the Dark Sun Death Star instantly transformed into a small cosmos, then self-destructed, forming an endless world-ending torrent attempting to break through the darkness.
However, just as the Cosmic Seed's power was triggered, it suddenly transformed into a sealing seed.
The Dark Sun Death Star failed to form the small cosmos and was instead sealed and interfered with by the sealing seed's power.
The Ancient God avatar tried to struggle and use other methods but suddenly saw scarlet bloodlight appearing in the endless dark sun black light.
This red radiance pierced the darkness, illuminating the surroundings, then spontaneously transformed into clusters of Nightshade Parasitic Flowers that vanished without a trace.
The Ancient God avatar immediately sensed that their eternal will was infested with Nightshade Parasitic Flowers.
These things were sealing their memories. If this continued, once the memories were sealed and altered, they might become a puppet controlled by the enemy, with a fabricated personality—a fate far worse than death.
The Ancient God avatar instantly decided to self-destruct, having abandoned any hope of severely damaging the enemy.
In the current situation, dying was already a blessing. The greatest fear was being captured alive by the enemy, unable to die even if they wanted to.
With a single thought, the Ancient God avatar's eternal will self-destructed. Their life essence and divine essence within self-annihilated, compressing and concentrating all power inside, leaving no chance for enemy interference, instantly self-destructing completely and turning to dust on the spot.
Rosen appeared under the glow of the Nightshade Moonlight, seizing the nearly destroyed Dark Sun Death Star.
The core of this artifact was the sun. Countless suns combined with several eternal worlds formed this eternal artifact.
In terms of the eternal level, this was undoubtedly a top-tier eternal sacred artifact.
It seemed the ancient gods had not come away empty-handed over these past centuries. Otherwise, they couldn't have equipped even their incarnations with such priceless treasures.
Under the shroud of the Wheel of Time and Reincarnation, the primordial temporal power Rosen had accumulated was being consumed at a frenzied pace.
Very soon, the Dark Sun Death Star was fully restored. Judging by its value, such a restoration was a losing proposition.
But he needed a fully intact Dark Sun Death Star—because he was preparing a great surprise for the ancient god.
Rosen plucked a Night Curtain Parasitic Flower that had appeared from the moonlight of the night curtain. It had been formed from the memories of the Dark Sun Incarnation it had parasitized and contained all of that incarnation's memories. With these, he could become the ancient god's Dark Sun Incarnation.
The Night Curtain Parasitic Flower was the most powerful known force in controlling memory. It was clearly impossible to seize the ancient god's main body's memories through parasitism.
However, obtaining an incarnation's memories was trivially easy, since the main body would not infuse its incarnations with too many memories. Apart from a small amount of basic knowledge and common sense, the majority of the Dark Sun Incarnation's memories were composed of eternal sacred arts and combat experience.
After copying all these memories, Rosen began to use the Myriad Transformation Sacred Art to turn into the ancient god's Dark Sun Incarnation.
From the origin of life to the essence of divinity, from eternal will to memory, from the eternal sacred artifact it wielded to its behavioral habits—everything became exactly identical to the ancient god's Dark Sun Incarnation. Even the ancient god's true body wouldn't be able to tell he was a fake.
Of course, Rosen could only accomplish this thanks to the Myriad Transformation Sacred Art—and the indispensable Eye of the Night Curtain.
Because he controlled the Cosmic Source Seed, the ancient god's main body and incarnation could communicate in real time across the entire universe.
Everything that happened to the incarnation would be instantly known to the main body.
So, to pull off a substitution, the key was severing the real-time link between the ancient god's main body and its incarnation.
The World of Memory was enough to sever part of the connection, and the concealing power of the Night Curtain Parasitic Flower was more than sufficient to completely cut off the link.
Once Rosen had become the Dark Sun Incarnation, the first thing he did was return to the Holy Divine Palace.
And the very first thing he did upon returning was engage in a fierce battle with the Holy God of the Yellow Springs.
The Holy God of the Yellow Springs was attacking the ruined remnants of the palace. The immortal incarnation of the Holy God of the Moonshade, left behind to guard the Holy Divine Palace, could barely hold on. At this moment, with the reinforcement of the Dark Sun Incarnation, the two coordinated from inside and out, yet still couldn't overcome the Holy God of the Yellow Springs.
With no other choice, the Moonshade Holy God's incarnation seized an opportunity to send the Dark Sun Incarnation into the palace ruins.
The immortal incarnation could not fully unleash the power of the palace remnants. With no other options, the Moonshade Holy God could only transfer the control of the palace ruins to the ancient god's Dark Sun Incarnation. Though it might not be enough to defeat the Holy God of the Yellow Springs, it was more than enough to guarantee survival.
As long as the other eternal beings of the Holy Divine Palace arrived one after another, she would naturally be able to persuade them to band together and kill the Holy God of the Yellow Springs.
However, at the very moment control of the palace remnants was handed over, the Moonshade Holy God's incarnation was instantly subdued by the Dark Sun Incarnation.
And at the same time, he unleashed the Night Curtain Moonlight, cutting off the real-time connection between the Moonshade Holy God's true body and her incarnation.
By the time the moonlight dissipated, Rosen's bronze dragon incarnation had already used the Myriad Transformation Sacred Art to turn into the incarnation of the Moonshade Holy God.
Trapped in the Sea of Miracles, the true body of the Moonshade Holy God anxiously asked her incarnation what had just happened.
"There was a sudden attack of some kind of red moonlight earlier. Fortunately, it was blocked by the ancient god's dark sun power…" replied the incarnation, transformed from the bronze dragon, with a flawless imitation.
The Moonshade Holy God immediately thought of the Night Curtain Moonlight. She hadn't expected the Divine God of Heaven and Earth to have mastered it. It seemed his entrapment in the World of Memory had turned into a blessing in disguise, allowing him to grasp the power of the Night Curtain Moonlight. If it hadn't been suppressed by dark sun power, her incarnation would've been in grave danger just now.
Successfully deceiving the Moonshade Holy God's true body, Rosen now had complete control of everything within the Holy Divine Palace.
Killing the Moonshade Holy God—with no one around to interfere—was no longer a difficult task.
However, the Moonshade Holy God, even in her worst state, could not allow herself to die by suicide. It was impossible to obtain her complete memories.
So Rosen's original plan was to trap the Moonshade Holy God's true body, leaving her with not even a sliver of hope for survival. Then, he would quietly replace her incarnation and give it a path to survival.
If the true body was doomed, but the incarnation could live, the Moonshade Holy God's only choice would be to resurrect herself through that incarnation.
Thus, the true body of the Moonshade Holy God would very likely, in her final moments, use the Cosmic Source Seed to transmit her memories to the incarnation, allowing the surviving incarnation to become the new main body and ultimately revive her.
This was the only path to life Rosen left for her. As long as she still wanted to live, she had no other choice.
But what she didn't know was that the incarnation she placed her hope in had already been replaced. Transmitting her memories would only seal her fate. Ironically, if she had kept her memories closely guarded and refused to let them leak, Rosen might have had to hesitate and wouldn't dare kill her true body.
Within the microcosm of the Holy Divine Palace, everyone was acting—and not a single eternal being stood on the side of the ancient god or the Moonshade Holy God.
Because every eternal being who had once entered the World of Memory already harbored a latent Night Curtain Parasitic Flower inside them. Not to mention, the Night Curtain Moonlight had sealed off the entire area around the palace ruins. Under its concealment, even eternal beings in the same world had no idea what was happening here.
Such was the terrifying power of the Night Curtain Parasitic Flower to obscure all things—there was simply no chance any eternal being could appear on the battlefield.
With the performance nearing its end, the Moonshade Holy God's true body also realized that no reinforcements would arrive for her incarnation.
Left with no choice, she issued the order to break out.
The two incarnations stationed at the palace ruins did all they could. Relying on the palace remnants and partial control of the palace microcosm, they finally broke through the Holy God of the Yellow Springs' blockade and escaped into the void, fleeing in desperation.
Once the Moonshade Holy God's true body confirmed her incarnation had escaped pursuit, she didn't hesitate to transmit her memories across time and space to it.
As long as the incarnation lived, there was still hope for resurrection. As long as it lived, there was still hope for revenge.
She simply didn't know—the last path to survival had already been cut off by her own hand.
(End of Chapter)