Lord: Sequence Master

"So this is the Secret Flower?"

Rosen stood on the head of a Heavy Armored Boar, looking at a small black flower growing from its skull.

It appeared unremarkable, but the boar had been dead for less than an hour, and this incredibly resilient creature, whose tough hide couldn't even be pierced by explosives, had somehow sprouted a delicate flower from its head. The Secret Flower was an exceedingly rare transcendent plant, and a single blossom at an auction could fetch a million spiritual crystals.

Of course, don't misunderstand—the actual value of the Secret Flower was at most 500,000 spiritual crystals. The remaining value came from the container used to preserve it, which was worth another 500,000 crystals.

The flower bloomed and withered in less than a minute. If not harvested and preserved immediately, it would quickly decay.

With a click, Rosen's right eye snapped open. He captured an image of the Mystic Flower, uploading it to the Main God Computer.

As expected, time passed, but the flower didn't wither—the Main God Computer could indeed preserve the Secret Flower.

Rosen summoned 35 Ash Bees, instructing them to scatter and freely hunt other boar-type transcendent lifeforms. If any signs of a Secret Flower appeared, they were to notify him immediately for collection.

Over the next two months, nearly all the boar-type transcendent lifeforms within a thousand-mile radius were either dead or had fled.

Rosen had slain over a thousand transcendent creatures, ranging from Sequence 7 to Sequence 5, yet when he tallied his gains, he found himself at a slight loss.

More than a few Sequence 8 Ash Bees had died—of the original batch of pet Ash Bees, only one remained.

He noticed that recently, higher-sequence transcendent lifeforms had been appearing more frequently in the area. Randomly, Sequence 5 or even Sequence 4 beings would wander through. On one occasion, facing a Sequence 4 transcendent lifeform, he lost more than a dozen Ash Bees and barely managed to escape into the Mysterious Study Room.

"It feels like this rainforest is starting to turn against me," Rosen muttered, standing by the window of the Mysterious Study Room, watching the storm shroud the forest outside.

When in doubt, search the web. Sure enough, Rosen found the answer on the Main God Network.

Everything in existence possesses spirituality, although the strength of it varies widely. All miracles stem from spirituality—without it, there would be no miracles, no life. Even all matter and the world itself would eventually fade. Theoretically, anything can awaken spirituality.

History itself can transform into spirit realms through spirituality, and even abstract concepts can become contract gods due to spirituality. 

Naturally, the natural world can as well. What Rosen had encountered seemed to be an extremely rare phenomenon: Natural Will.

If an area has particularly abundant natural resources and a thriving ecosystem, there's a small chance it could give birth to a Natural Will. However, in reality, this chance is one in a billion.

If the Natural Rainforest had developed a Natural Will, there's no way the Thunder Empire wouldn't have known about it.

Continuing his research into Natural Wills in the Thunder Empire's archives, Rosen discovered that the Natural Rainforest had indeed given birth to one in the past. It had caused quite a stir because controlling a Natural Will meant controlling the entire natural ecosystem.

However, power attracts enemies, and when the Natural Will appeared, it caught the attention of foreign deities. Two foreign gods joined forces and invaded the Thunder Empire, destroying the Natural Will. 

The emperor of the Thunder Empire at the time, who was also the second owner of the Golden Apple Tree, died in that battle.

Logically, with the destruction of the Natural Will, no new one should have appeared in the Natural Rainforest.

But Rosen's recent encounters suggested he had indeed come across something similar to a Natural Will.

However, if it truly were a Natural Will, it would likely be at least Sequence 3, and his current predicament would have been much worse. 

Could it be that the previous Natural Will hadn't been fully destroyed, or was this something similar to a Natural Will?

Rosen couldn't figure out why it was targeting him. Was it because he had killed too many creatures, disrupting the ecosystem? Yet, the number of transcendents he had slain was insignificant compared to the vastness of the rainforest. Even when countless Hydra perished in the Muddy Marshlands, no Natural Will had appeared.

So the reason for this could only be narrowed down to two possibilities: either he had hunted too many boars, or he had harvested too many Secret Flowers.

Could there be something about the Secret Flower that no one knew about?

The Secret Flower, as a transcendent plant, was valuable for concocting potions that enhanced intelligence. Beyond that, it had the potential to evolve into a Mystic Flower.

Rosen opened the Main God Computer and began the synthesis of the Secret Flowers he had photographed and uploaded over the past few months.

He had over 200 Secret Flowers in total. After keeping some in reserve, he combined the rest into 96 pairs. 

On the second round of synthesis, 48 pairs remained.

On the third round, 24.

On the fourth, only 11 Secret Flowers were left.

Rosen watched as one of the flowers transformed from black to multicolored, immediately realizing that he had successfully synthesized a Mystic Flower.

This miraculous transcendent plant was so rare that historical records only mentioned its appearance a few times.

On two of those occasions, the Mystic Flower ended up in the hands of painters, who, after studying it, used its power to enhance their Soul Canvases.

Excitedly, Rosen retrieved the Mystic Flower from the Main God Computer and swallowed it, sending it to his Devourer Stomach.

As soon as the Soul Canvas absorbed the Mystic Flower's power, it swiftly evolved to LV4.

Soul Canvas LV4: (400/400)

Ability: The painter can use their eyes and spiritual perception to project everything they see into their own spirit and consciousness, and also into the spirits and consciousnesses of others.

Enhanced Feature: Spiritual Projection—The Soul Canvas can project its contents into both reality and the spiritual realm.

Miraculous Feature: Ashen Curtain—The Soul Canvas can transform into an Ashen Curtain, reflecting the afterglow of civilization's ashes.

Miraculous Feature: Mysterious Reflection—The Soul Canvas can replicate a miraculous trait from another miracle.

Seeing the final miraculous trait, Rosen found himself torn with indecision.

He had several miracle items at his disposal, giving him a wide range of choices.

The first thing to rule out was the Ash Bees. Although they were miraculous creatures, like the Mystic Flower, they didn't possess the traits of world uniqueness and eternal indestructibility.

Every true miracle must have these two traits.

However, Rosen had done some research on the Ash Bees. Despite having many of them, each bee was identical, down to the patterns on their wings and the exact number of hairs on their bodies. 

This led Rosen to believe that the Ash Bees he controlled might not be the original miraculous Ash Bees. They were likely copies created by the true miracle Ash Bee, whose miraculous trait might be the ability to replicate itself into numerous identical individuals. Therefore, neither the Ash Bees nor his Sea God's Residual Ring could be considered complete miracles—they lacked the defining traits of world uniqueness and eternal indestructibility.

Because they were incomplete, their miraculous traits might also be incomplete.

Historically, the two painters who had obtained the Mystic Flower both chose to replicate the eternal indestructibility trait, which is common to all miracle items.

This trait was incredibly enticing—if his Soul Canvas had it, it would become impossible to completely destroy. Even a Sequence 0 being wouldn't be able to erase the Soul Canvas from their spiritual consciousness. Unless they killed the painter, the canvas would be forever rooted in their spirit.

However, while eternal indestructibility was powerful, there were many ways to counter it.

One could simply extract the Soul Canvas along with the spirit, or if it couldn't be destroyed, it could be sealed away.

Both methods would effectively neutralize the Soul Canvas' eternal trait. At best, the indestructibility would allow it to function two levels higher than the user's current Sequence. If a Sequence 7 painter used it against a Sequence 4 opponent, it would provide limited advantage.

After much hesitation, Rosen decided to choose the world uniqueness trait.

If this trait could truly be replicated, his Soul Canvas would become the only Soul Canvas in existence.

This didn't mean other painters' Soul Canvases would disappear. Rather, they would become like copies of the original Ash Bee—his canvas would be the authentic original, while all others would become replicas.

As soon as the replication process finished, Rosen felt his Soul Canvas undergo a second fundamental

 transformation.

Through his canvas, he could now sense every Soul Canvas in the world.

There were exactly 356,190 Soul Canvases, residing in the spiritual consciousness of 356,190 painters.

If he wanted, he could destroy these canvases at any time.

Should he do so, it was possible that his Soul Canvas could even become a true miracle.

Rosen was well aware of the gravity of his actions.

Surely, the two painters who previously obtained the Mystic Flower had also considered replicating the world uniqueness trait?

But they weren't foolish enough to do it.

Imagine if one painter had control over the very core skill of countless other painters. Those painters would go mad and hunt the offending painter down without mercy, willing to sacrifice anything to kill this rogue.

The only reason Rosen dared to take such a dangerous gamble was his confidence in the Mysterious Study Room.

As expected, half a day passed, and he was still safe and sound.

However, on the Spiritual Web of the World Government, the Artist Guild had already publicly abolished the Soul Canvas skill. They warned all painters who had mastered the skill to use it with caution and forbade any painters who hadn't learned it yet from doing so.

Clearly, the World Government's various methods had failed to trace the source of the Soul Canvas.

Rosen understood that if he left the Mysterious Study Room now, he would certainly be doomed.

Countless painters would hunt him down the moment he revealed himself, and they would pulverize him to set an example.

His only chance of survival was to leave his Soul Canvas inside the Mysterious Study Room whenever he ventured out, keeping it safe within.

Having made such a major sacrifice, Rosen could only hope it would be worth it.

He soon discovered that, through his Soul Canvas, not only could he sense every other Soul Canvas and destroy them at will, but his canvas could also absorb power from all other canvases in the world.

As his painter sequence level rose, his Soul Canvas would instantly reach the maximum skill level allowed for that sequence.

When he advanced to Sequence 6, his Soul Canvas would immediately be at LV5 peak level.

Moreover, every painter's Soul Canvas could now transmit their spiritual paintings directly to his own canvas.

Rosen tested this by targeting the Soul Canvas of a Sequence 7 painter in the Thunder Empire.

In an instant, he had copied one of the paintings stored in the painter's Soul Canvas, claiming it as his own.

This ability to copy the spiritual paintings of other painters was, without a doubt, the greatest benefit of having a world-unique Soul Canvas.

With this power, Rosen could rapidly accelerate his progress through the painter sequence by borrowing the works of others.

He could even copy the works of high-sequence painters and pass them on to those at lower sequences.

Which low-sequence painter could refuse the opportunity to learn Soul Paintings from a high-sequence painter?

This meant that Rosen could potentially influence 356,190 painters through his Soul Canvas.

For example, he could offer high-level Soul Paintings as rewards and assign tasks to low-sequence painters. Even though some might resist, there would always be struggling painters who could be swayed by such temptations.

Of course, Rosen also discovered that transmitting and copying Soul Paintings wasn't without a cost.

He needed to expend his divine power to do so. Thus, controlling all 356,190 painters would have to be a gradual process.

Rosen opened the door of the Mysterious Study Room, preparing to test one last thing.

While his Soul Canvas had become the only one of its kind, granting him significant influence over the painters, the fact that he couldn't take the canvas outside the Mysterious Study Room meant a permanent limitation on his painter sequence powers.

Rosen transformed the Soul Canvas into the Ashen Curtain, and as he expected, the Ashen Curtain didn't inherit the world-unique trait. The Mysterious Reflection ability allowed the Soul Canvas to copy a miracle trait, but the Ashen Curtain, though derived from the Soul Canvas, was fundamentally different. Therefore, when the Soul Canvas transformed into the Ashen Curtain, it couldn't retain the same level of miracle properties.

Rosen stepped out of the Mysterious Study Room, waiting for high-sequence painters to come for retribution, but nothing happened.

Since that was the case, the Ashen Curtain would now serve as the substitute for the Soul Canvas outside the Mysterious Study Room. 

The Ashen Curtain could still project Soul Paintings, but it couldn't create them. It could only display the afterglow of civilization's ashes. To create new Soul Paintings, he would have to transform the Ashen Curtain back into the Soul Canvas and work within the safety of the Mysterious Study Room.

This wasn't a major hindrance, as Rosen could multitask and had his self-portrait clone.

The clone could remain in the Mysterious Study Room to create new Soul Paintings, while his real self used the Ashen Curtain to project them outside. This division of labor posed no significant negative effects on him.

The reason Rosen dared to take such a risk was because he had discovered a secret on the Main God Network.

Everyone on the network was a greatly fortunate individual from various races. Many of these foreign fortunate ones had conducted extensive research on humanity's nine major sequences, and they had reached a conclusion that many foreign races knew: the four great civilization sequences couldn't independently ascend to become True Gods.

The World Government, using the four civilization sequences, had restricted any path to godhood through these sequences. 

This was because if a True God were to emerge from any of these four, they would undoubtedly become the strongest True Gods among humanity.

However, there could only be one True God for each sequence, and there were multiple Sequence 0s within each of the four civilization sequences.

Unless a Sequence 0 could conquer all other Sequence 0s within the same sequence, becoming a True God was impossible.

As a newcomer, if Rosen ever wanted to compete for the sole True God positions within the Noble or Painter sequences, he needed to establish his influence early among both the noble and painter communities.

Now, the only skill Rosen had left to improve was his Glory Seal, which needed to be advanced to LV4.

As for upgrading his noble sequence territory buildings, that would take time, but it wouldn't hinder the progression of his noble sequence.

The core of the Glory Seal was noble bloodline, and Rosen's noble bloodline had already reached the status of a hereditary duke, making it the perfect enhancement material.

However, there was another crucial aspect of the Glory Seal: the family crest. The Howard Family Crest was tied to his previous title as a hereditary baron, but now that he had become a hereditary duke, it was time to change the family crest.

A noble's crest serves not only as a personal identification but also as an extension of their noble sequence powers.

In addition to possessing citizens and troops, a Divine Domain would eventually feature heroes as well. The crest plays a pivotal role in this—it serves as a medium through which a domain lord can confer hero status, transferring part of the domain's power to the hero and bestowing them with talents and abilities.

By his calculations, the family crest he had commissioned should be nearly finished.

Rosen tore a Return Scroll and soon found himself back in Natural Sky City.

Using the Mage Tower there, he teleported directly to Thunder Imperial City, the capital of the Thunder Empire.

At the Artist Guild, Rosen retrieved a package from the World Government, which had been sent to him after he officially became a hereditary duke. Opening it, he found blueprints for creating his ducal family crest.

All he needed were the right materials to craft the physical crest, and the blueprints would automatically transform the materials into a real-life crest.

The quality of the materials used as the crest's base had a huge impact on the final product.

Almost all hereditary dukes chose to use at least Sequence 3 materials for their crests.

Rosen took out a section of the Golden Apple Tree's heartwood, spread the blueprint over it, and watched as the blueprint dissolved into a multicolored glow that enveloped the heartwood. Moments later, the blueprint vanished, leaving behind two extraordinary items.

One was a crest ring, and the other, was a palm-sized badge.

Crest Ring: Extraordinary Item 

Level: Sequence 3 

Attribute: Proof of identity as a hereditary duke; doubles the effectiveness of crest-related abilities. 

Unique Trait: Golden Shield—activating this shield provides immunity to nearly all Sequence 2-level damage and below.

Crest Badge: Extraordinary Item 

Level: Sequence 4 

Attribute: Can be used to confer the title of hero on a unit, up to a maximum of Sequence 4. 

Unique Trait: Hero's Guard

Rosen pocketed the crest badge and slipped the crest ring onto his finger.

As per his request, the crest's design was that of a golden, five-clawed dragon, a nod to his previous life.

Rosen channeled the power of the crest ring into his painter sequence's transcendent essence, and the Glory Seal skill immediately advanced to LV4.

Glory Seal LV4: (1/400)

Ability: Imbue noble bloodline into a Soul Painting, engraving a crest imprint on it, enhancing the painting's compatibility with the Divine Domain and boosting the painting's attributes by 40%. 

Enhanced Feature: The crest imprint gains an enhanced sealing effect.

Enhanced Feature: The crest imprint provides LV4 Golden Shield protection.

The Golden Shield ability granted by the crest ring was at least LV8 in power.

Although the Glory Seal could only apply LV4 Golden Shield, the crest imprint could be mass-produced. Every Soul Painting that bore the crest imprint would gain a powerful defensive skill, one that even Sequence 6 beings would struggle to breach for some time.

Now, everything was in place—Rosen just needed to raise his spiritual strength to 36 points in order to advance to Sequence 6.

However, Rosen's immediate concern wasn't advancing his spiritual strength but the Natural Will-like entity that had piqued his interest.

He activated his Hunter's God Eye in his right eye and teleported high above the Natural Rainforest, several kilometers in the air.

Through the Hunter's God Eye, he surveyed the rainforest below.

He activated the Ashen Curtain, projecting a painting of a natural wonder he had previously drawn on his Soul Canvas.

It depicted fire that burned in water, with flames that grew fiercer the more water they encountered.

This fire possessed destructive properties—after it burned, the land it touched would be utterly barren.

Although the Soul Canvas could only replicate a fraction of the natural wonder's essence, it was more than enough to burn some ordinary trees in the rainforest.

In an instant, thousands of meters of forest were engulfed in white, transparent flames. The falling rain acted as fuel, and tall trees became kindling. Soon, the fire spread, expanding its reach.

Suddenly, the rain stopped, the clouds cleared, and sunlight poured down. 

This only slowed the fire's spread, but did not stop it. The fire-covered land began to collapse, and burning trees fell into the resulting sinkhole, buried underground.

Using his Sixth Sense and Insight, Rosen quickly pinpointed the source of the spiritual power responsible for both the rain and the earthquake.

Even for a Natural Will, such feats required spiritual energy.

Wherever spiritual energy was used, there was always a source.

Rosen melded into the shadow of a nearby tree, using his Void Shadow Leap to instantly teleport to

 the edge of the sinkhole.

Looking up, he saw a tiny nature fairy, stomping its feet in frustration.

Typically, nature fairies were born from plants, according to the records. While they could influence plants to some extent, their abilities weren't particularly strong.

But the nature fairy before him was no more than a Sequence 8, so how could it control such a vast swath of nature with ease?

Rosen teleported into the tree, appearing right in front of the nature fairy and locking eyes with her.

In an instant, the Ashen Curtain projected an image of a tree into the fairy's spiritual consciousness.

The anger on the nature fairy's face vanished, and she stood motionless, as if she had become a tree herself.

Rosen picked up the palm-sized fairy, placing her in a time barrier within the Time Tower.

Using his Sixth Sense's Mind Reading ability, he began to extract her thoughts bit by bit.

It turned out that this little fairy was no ordinary nature spirit. She was a miracle being born from the remnants of a Sequence 1 God Tree, which had once served as the vessel for a Natural Will. 

She naturally possessed nature's divine authority.

Moreover, within the Natural Rainforest, this fairy could use divine power with almost no cost.

Her miraculous nature was both a blessing and a curse.

While she had existed for hundreds of years, she had only grown from Sequence 9 to Sequence 8.

But the advantage was that she possessed the two traits of world uniqueness and eternal indestructibility. Even if she were killed, she would reincarnate somewhere else in the Natural Rainforest.

(End of Chapter)