Lord: Sequence Master

Blazing Shadow Duchy's Volcano City was the second most prosperous city, just behind the capital.

Nestled atop the duchy's only volcano, the city drew immense wealth from the ever-flowing lava, which supported half the duchy's economy—an exaggeration that was entirely true.

In this boundless world, the earth's crust was incomprehensibly thick. Magma deep underground found it incredibly difficult to reach the surface, and any active volcano would ignite a sea of fire over an area of hundreds of thousands of miles. Without the strength of a demigod, approaching one of this world's active volcanoes was a death wish.

The Blazing Shadow Duchy's volcano, however, was considered dormant. Some even said the entire island on which the duchy sat was formed from a volcanic eruption long ago, giving it exceptionally rich mineral deposits.

Volcano City itself sat in the crater, which appeared only a few hundred miles across from the outside. But entering the crater revealed that the actual space was tens of thousands of miles wide. This discrepancy in size hinted at the volcano's true scale, suggesting either that some immense power had sealed and shrunk the volcano or that the volcano naturally possessed space-altering properties.

The truth? Only the World Government knew, and they had never made it public.

The World Government's office in the duchy had been hidden in Volcano City for two thousand years.

To the World Government, kingdoms and duchies were like countries within countries. As long as they didn't violate the laws of the World Government, duchies like the Blazing Shadow retained significant autonomy. But the government couldn't let them go entirely unchecked, so the scattered offices in various nations operated in secret, monitoring whether these countries followed the laws and whether they did anything detrimental to humanity's destiny.

Since their main job was surveillance, these offices were typically not very powerful. But Rosen could sense immediately that the person scrutinizing him now was a Sequence 4, which was highly unusual—normally, even Sequence 5 would be overkill.

A Sequence 4? The Blazing Grand Duke himself had only reached that level a few years ago.

Rosen opened his eyes and immediately flashed to the side. With a Sequence 4 present, there was no way his feigned unconsciousness would fool anyone.

The masked assassin looked stunned, while the man sitting behind the office desk—a refined-looking middle-aged man with gold-rimmed glasses—watched them calmly.

This man was Gila's superior, Badu Mendi, whom Gila had known as a mere Sequence 5.

"Becoming a hereditary duke certainly requires courage," Badu said, setting down his pen and clapping slowly.

"My courage is nothing compared to yours—you dare plot against a hereditary duke," Rosen retorted coldly.

"I am a historian," Badu said, adjusting his glasses with smug confidence.

Rosen's expression darkened slightly. The historian branch of the scientist profession was notorious for being a "genius killer."

Historians grew more powerful with age and were the bane of young geniuses.

A historian had a unique ability to bind their own timeline with their opponent's, reversing time for both. For example, a talented genius, even if they reached demigod status, could be regressed by a century and weakened to Sequence 9, while the historian's power remained unaffected.

This was why historians were called "genius killers." However, the ability wasn't without its weaknesses.

Geniuses had short cultivation timelines but also often carried strong fortune. The stronger the genius's fortune, the heavier the cost for the historian to reverse their time.

"I've investigated you. You were a nobody before…" Badu continued confidently. "But since your spiritual awakening, you've skyrocketed in strength. In less than a decade, you've become a Sequence 6 and even a hereditary duke. You're hiding something much bigger than Gila."

"So, you've been targeting me all along?" Rosen asked, surprised.

"I've had my eye on you since you returned to the duchy," Badu nodded. "But as a hereditary duke, I needed a good reason to take action. I wasn't confident I could deal with the government's intelligence investigations, so when Gila came to me, I decided to sacrifice him to take care of you."

"And how exactly were you planning to do that?" Rosen sneered.

"Like this." Badu smiled confidently. "You're going to be accused of murdering a World Government official, Gila, and then, after I 'intervene heroically,' I'll capture you alive. Don't worry—I won't kill you. I'll just throw you in prison for a few years. That is, if you hand over your secrets."

"Seems like you don't dare kill a hereditary duke," Rosen mocked.

"Sometimes, living can be worse than dying," Badu said, his expression turning grim as he stood up.

A sand hourglass appeared in his left hand, its grains of sand flowing upward.

In mere moments, Badu's face aged dramatically, wrinkling as if he were on the verge of death. All his previous confidence evaporated, replaced by shock and terror.

Reversing time had caused his lifespan to plummet.

There was only one explanation for this: Rosen's life wasn't flowing forward but backward.

In other words, Rosen was a monster who grew younger as he aged.

Rosen wasted no time. He unleashed the Chains of Nightmare, binding Badu and sending him into the Void Prison.

Seeing the turn of events, the masked assassin attempted to flee. But from within the assassin's own shadow, Rosen's self-portrait avatar, hidden in the void, emerged with the Death God's Mantle, stepping into the assassin's mind.

With a single swing of the Death Scythe, the assassin's spiritual energy was harvested, leaving no survivors.

Rosen sat at Badu's desk, resting his face in his hands, deep in thought.

He wasn't surprised that Badu had failed; Rosen's luck was far stronger than Badu had imagined.

However, he hadn't expected Badu's time reversal to backfire so catastrophically, draining his lifespan until he was on the brink of death.

Now, the real problem was how to explain the death of a historian to the World Government.

Although Badu had tried to manipulate him, the attempt had failed, and under the law, that wasn't necessarily enough to justify killing him. And with Badu's powerful backers, this wasn't a simple matter.

Becoming a historian wasn't easy; it required a deep background. And Badu had acted without any apparent fear, so his backing must have been substantial.

Rosen sighed. It was becoming clear: to avoid being preyed upon, you either had to keep a low profile or fight your way through, leaving a blood-soaked path behind. No wonder so many powerful figures throughout history were followed by endless slaughter.

In the Void Prison, Badu now found himself under the relentless torment of the Tower of Time. Already on the verge of death, Badu's body and spirit couldn't withstand the torture.

Even as his body was slowly broken down, Rosen found no way to weaken Badu's spirit to a controllable level.

Killing him would be easy, but controlling him was impossible.

Left with no choice, Rosen executed Badu in the Mysterious Study Room, ensuring not even a trace of his spirit remained.

He didn't even use Death Judgment to harvest Badu's soul.

It was a necessary precaution—Badu's death couldn't be handled as cleanly as Ford's had been.

Ford had been lured by demonic power and wiped his own tracks before being killed. Even if Ford's actions were revealed, it would have been clear he had deserved his fate, leaving little room for revenge.

But Badu was different. His position within the World Government was much higher, and his background far deeper. If anyone learned that Rosen had killed him, even justified actions could be twisted against him.

By executing Badu in the Mysterious Study Room, Rosen ensured his body was entirely erased. No one, not even the strongest clairvoyants, would be able to confirm whether Badu was alive or dead—only that he had vanished.

Without definitive proof of Badu's death, it would be difficult for his backers to make a move.

Since Badu had been secretly abducted by an assassin, there was no evidence tying him to Rosen.

Rosen threw a few spiritual purification grenades around the office, wiping his traces, then used the Fairy Dragon Pearl's Void Phase to teleport back to the Scorching King's City. There, he retrieved Gila and used the wizard tower's teleportation array to return to Volcano City.

After submitting Gila through the Spirit Realm Dark Web, it took a while for a Sequence 6 agent to arrive and take him into custody.

Badu's disappearance had clearly caused delays in the World Government's system, forcing them to send a deputy to handle the task.

With Gila handed over, Rosen returned to the Scorching King's City, free of obligations.

He had paid off his forced conscription through merit and completed his disciplinary task. The World Government now had no hold over him.

But upon deeper investigation, Rosen found that living quietly might not be so easy.

Purchasing some intel through the Spirit Realm Dark Web, he discovered that Badu's background was indeed formidable. His family had a Sequence 2 titled demigod within five generations.

That meant Badu's backer was someone terrifyingly powerful, with enough influence to easily crush him—if not overtly, then through covert means.

Rosen felt a growing sense of unease in the Scorching King's City. After some thought, he decided to return to the Thunder Empire.

There was nothing keeping him in the Blazing Shadow Duchy, and the Thunder Empire seemed like a much safer place to settle down.

But before he could leave, Volcano City underwent a dramatic transformation.

The city began to expand rapidly, growing larger and larger. More precisely, the shrinking seal around the volcano was breaking, allowing the city to return to its true size.

The Blazing Shadow Duchy, in the name of the World Government, issued a call to arms: no extraordinary beings were allowed to leave the duchy. As compensation, all military merits would be multiplied by ten.

Through his connections in the duchy, Rosen soon learned what was happening.

Legend had it that the volcano beneath Volcano City connected directly to the Abyss. The magma wasn't normal—it came from the Abyssal Plane. Beneath the city lay a vast spiritual realm, and the World Government had been using its power to suppress the Abyssal passage.

There were many such Abyssal passages in the human world, most of them sealed.

Destroying them outright would be too costly, so sealing them off and siphoning their resources made more sense.

But now, the seal beneath Volcano City had weakened. Restoring it wouldn't be easy.

The simplest solution was to send extraordinary beings into the spiritual realm beneath the city to slay the Abyssal demons inside. The more they killed, the less pressure the seal would face, making it easier to reinforce.

Rosen couldn't help but wonder if Badu's disappearance had something to do with this.

It seemed suspiciously convenient that the seal had weakened right after Badu vanished.

Rosen speculated that Badu, who had reached Sequence 4 and stayed in the city, might have been exploiting the Abyssal passage for his own gain, weakening the seal in the process. His disappearance could have been the final straw.

Ten times the merit was a tempting offer.

World Government merit points weren't just for avoiding military service—they could be exchanged for almost any treasure.

No faction possessed more resources than the World Government. All the painting skills Rosen wanted could be found there.

As for Badu's Sequence 2 backer, if they wanted revenge, they could try.

As long as they didn't openly attack him, any assassins they sent would only be delivering treasures to him.

Rosen packed his things and headed to Volcano City using the now-free wizard tower teleportation arrays.

The city was bustling, with most of its ordinary citizens evacuated to nearby towns.

But some reckless individuals stayed behind, hoping to profit from the chaos.

Tens of thousands of extraordinary individuals had flocked to Volcano City, from Sequence 9 to Sequence 4. Those who hadn't been called were only spared due to other important duties.

Meanwhile, a World Government demigod had arrived to investigate the seal and plan a response.

The results of their investigation were soon made public.

It turned out Badu had deliberately weakened the seal, making deals with Abyssal demons in exchange for extraordinary resources. After reaching Sequence 4, he found he could no longer maintain the seal and had fled in fear of the consequences.

Rosen was stunned by the investigation's findings—it cleared him entirely.

Apparently, the demigod assigned to investigate wasn't aligned with Badu's backers.

The seal's failure was no minor incident, and it was clear the investigators weren't friends of Badu. Had they been, they might have tried to cover up his involvement.

Now, Badu was labeled a criminal who had endangered the entire duchy, with some even speculating that he had fled into the Abyss. After all, the Abyss was shrouded in the eternal will of the Abyss, an entity so powerful that even the World Government couldn't challenge it.

Rosen felt a wave of relief—his troubles had been resolved by his good fortune.

A few days later, the atmosphere in Volcano City shifted as the entrance to the spiritual realm was opened.

The first to enter were Sequence 4s and Sequence 5s, returning days later, battered and bruised.

Then it was the turn of Sequence 6s and Sequence 7s.

Rosen received a detailed briefing on the spiritual realm.

It turned out this spiritual realm was essentially a mini-Abyss.

The realm had seven layers, the uppermost capable of accommodating Sequence 3s.

The creatures inside didn't regenerate like normal spiritual realms. Instead, each layer had an Abyssal rift. Human extraordinary beings needed to clear out the demons within each rift so that the World Government's demigods could seal the rifts.

In a way, this realm was a projection of the Abyss, a forward base for its invasion into various worlds. The charges against Badu were certainly no small matter.

Around a hundred Sequence 6s and over three thousand Sequence 7s gathered, their numbers diminishing dramatically with each higher Sequence.

Rosen spotted about a dozen elderly Sequence 6s, each appearing to be at the end of their lifespan.

But he didn't underestimate them—surviving to the end of their natural lifespan was already an impressive feat.

Once their hopes of reaching Sequence 5 had dwindled, they had likely broken the restriction of learning only three post-birth abilities.

Some of these Sequence 6s had likely mastered ten or more LV5 perfect abilities.

In a battle, they would have an 80-90% chance of defeating a standard Sequence 5.

These aging warriors would serve as the main force in hunting the Abyssal demons, while the others, including Rosen, would mostly handle smaller threats.

At the base of the volcano, the towering Gate to the Abyss, standing over thirty meters tall, creaked open.

Rosen and the other Sequence 6s entered the fourth layer, while Sequence 7s entered the third.

As soon as Rosen passed through the gate, he was struck by the overwhelming heat.

Looking around, he found himself in a random location, separated from the others.

The area was filled with erupting volcanoes and flowing lava. The volcanoes were normal-sized, with diameters of only a few kilometers. The molten rock teemed with soft coral-like plants, absorbing the intense heat—likely Lava Coral Grass.

Rosen pulled out a specialized thermometer. The ambient temperature was below 90 degrees Celsius, but for a Sequence 6, it should have felt like a cool breeze.

Yet Rosen felt the oppressive heat bearing down on him, meaning the temperature here directly affected his spiritual energy.

This was something not mentioned in the briefing, suggesting that something had gone wrong in the realm.

Rosen activated Void Shadowstep, blending into the shadows, while his right eye unleashed the Godhunter's Eye, scanning the skies from above.

Soon, he spotted numerous dangers.

Magma serpents slithered through the lava, flame demons siphoned heat from the volcanoes, bone demons raced across the fire-laden ground, and stone gargoyles swarmed the skies.

There were over a hundred Sequence 6 demons in a radius of just a few dozen miles.

But there were no signs of any other humans. This was far too vast for a fourth-layer realm.

Facing so many Sequence 6 demons alone, it felt like they had been sent to their deaths.

Rosen tried to use Sloth's Step to leave the realm, but it failed to pierce the surrounding space.

Normally, Sloth's Step allowed him to move freely through realms up to Sequence 2. The realm beneath the volcano was only Sequence 3, and although there was a World Government seal, Sloth's Step should have at least been able to disturb the space.

Rosen realized the horrifying truth: the gate he had passed through was faulty.

He tried sensing his Noble Sequence Tree in the spirit realm but came up empty.

Which meant he wasn't in a spiritual realm at all.

"This… is the Abyss. The real Abyss," Rosen muttered, struggling to accept the truth.

At the same time, chaos erupted at the Gate to the Abyss in Volcano City.

The World Government's Sequence 3 demigod, Elvin Kevin, had discovered that all the Sequence 6s who had entered the gate had gone missing.

For something like this to happen under his nose, it could only be the work of an Abyssal Lord—one of the Sequence 0 rulers of the Abyss.

The good news was that, with the seal in place, the Abyssal Lord could only project a limited amount of power.

The missing Sequence 6s were likely scattered across different layers of the Abyss.

The Abyss was chaotic, and without control over part of its will, even an Abyssal Lord couldn't easily locate them. They wouldn't have to face a Sequence 0 directly.

But the bad news was that those Sequence 6s had almost no chance of returning.

Elvin knew he would face severe punishment for this failure.

Meanwhile, Rosen continued testing his communication methods. His Main God Computer was unaffected, allowing him to access the Main God Network and the Spirit Realm Dark Web. The Noble Duke's Star Emblem could still connect to the Spirit Realm Dark Web, but the connection was weak.

It felt like going from gigabit internet to dial-up.

Sending a single message could take several minutes of delay.

But at least it still worked. Rosen logged into the World Government's website and inquired about what had happened with the Gate to the Abyss.

Two hours later, he received a reply:

An Abyssal Lord had intervened, and he was now stranded in the Abyss. His only option was to find a way to return on his own.

As compensation, the World Government awarded him a substantial amount of merit. If he managed to rescue other Sequence 6s, he would receive additional rewards.

But in the Abyss, merit was useless—if he died there, it would be nothing but an empty promise.

The only bit of good news was that, according to the Spirit Realm Dark Web's tracking, he was on the 99th layer of the Abyss—the uppermost layer. Anything lower than the 98th would have cut off his connection to the network completely.

(End of Chapter)