Lord: Sequence Master

In the endless deep space, Rosen closed his Root Heavenly Eye, leaving only a faint, mysterious vertical mark between his brows. Successfully finding the whereabouts of the two major factions in the Great Reincarnation Realm was, for him, like having a direction for the future. Whether he would eventually stand against them or join them, it was better than having no choice at all.

Rosen looked at the various universes in the darkness and decided to split his forces. His true form, carrying the Root Universe, would take one path, devouring cosmic remnants along the way and plundering cosmic vitality. His Yinglong clone, with his cosmic clone, would take another path, also devouring cosmic remnants.

Splitting up doubled their efficiency. He also planned to prioritize cultivating the Blue Star Micro-Universe next. Once the Chaos Orb transformed into the Blue Star Universe, they could then operate on three paths simultaneously, tripling their efficiency.

Tripling his efficiency would lead to an ever-increasing amount of cosmic vitality. While Rosen's other clones and pets couldn't ascend to Reincarnation Lifeforms through the Indestructible Will system, he had acquired tens of thousands of extraordinary systems from the cosmic remnants he had devoured over time. There were always systems suitable for his clones and pets to become Reincarnation Lifeforms.

In any case, as long as there was enough cosmic vitality, cultivating Reincarnation Lifeforms wasn't difficult. And the more Reincarnation Lifeforms he cultivated, the higher the efficiency of acquiring cosmic vitality by splitting his forces. Even if the cosmic remnants in endless deep space were countless, with this snowballing growth, he would eventually sweep them all away.

Rosen's only concern now was whether his actions would be detrimental to the two major factions. If they perceived this as a threat, they might become his adversaries.

Eighty thousand years later, Rosen had successfully accumulated cosmic vitality equivalent to 10,000 cosmic remnants. Relying on this cosmic vitality, he effortlessly transformed the Blue Star Micro-Universe into the Blue Star Universe. For this, his Yinglong clone specifically returned to his true form's side, ascending to a Reincarnation Lifeform with the help of the Blue Star Universe.

Less than fifty thousand years after that, Rosen again acquired another 10,000 units of cosmic vitality. First, he created a micro-universe for his Root Ancient Tree clone, then consumed cosmic vitality to transform it into a True Universe. His Root Ancient Tree clone thus became his second clone with Reincarnation Lifeform strength.

In less than forty thousand years, his Bronze Dragon clone also successfully sublimated its self-created micro-universe into a universe. Then, in less than thirty thousand years, his final Death God clone successfully sublimated its miraculous artwork, the Hell Reincarnation Painting, into a universe.

And then, fifty thousand years later, Nightmare Slime successfully transformed into a Reincarnation Lifeform. The Nightmare Slime took fifty thousand years because it consumed 20,000 units of cosmic vitality. One part, 10,000 units, sublimated its internal micro-universe into a universe, and the other part sublimated its own Dark Sun Heavenly Eye, successfully acquiring a second Reincarnation Dark Sun Heavenly Eye.

By this point, he had six Reincarnation Lifeforms, and the time it took to acquire 10,000 units of cosmic vitality had already dropped to less than 20,000 years. This is the power of snowballing. After passing the initial accumulation phase, as long as resources are sufficient, it grows faster and faster. No one was competing with Rosen for cosmic remnants, so he could recklessly snowball and accelerate his growth.

They say that when one achieves enlightenment, even their chickens and dogs ascend. Rosen, by his own power, sublimated more and more micro-universes into universes. Not to mention his clones and pets, even Fara and Li Shiqing followed suit, effortlessly becoming Reincarnation Lifeforms. Eventually, the snowball grew larger and larger, with more and more cosmic vitality. He even began allowing ordinary clones to grow into Reincarnation Lifeforms.

The number of cosmic remnants he destroyed grew, and the amount of Void Essence and Time Essence he collected also increased. Rosen even became so extravagant that he sealed nascent universes into canvases, mixed Void Essence and Time Essence into pigments, and used the Root as a brush to create spiritual realm paintings, each containing an entire universe.

Even so, the constantly acquired cosmic vitality continued to accumulate. Because he didn't know the origin of the Primeval Universe, Rosen didn't integrate the excess cosmic vitality into his cosmic clone. Other universes, including his Root Universe, could not contain more than ten times their original cosmic vitality.

In this situation, where his snowball grew larger and larger, Rosen continuously extinguished the last lights in endless deep space, bit by bit. Without the protection of the Reincarnation Dark Sun's Indestructible Sacred Radiance, all the completely darkened spacetime in endless deep space collapsed.

And the collapse of spacetime is much like the collapse of a house. If endless deep space is an edifice, then individual cosmic remnants are the only remaining load-bearing columns. As more and more load-bearing columns disappear, the entire endless deep space begins to experience a chain reaction, collapsing faster and faster.

It won't even take 1.6 billion years; Rosen estimates that the Great Reincarnation Realm will begin a new reincarnation cycle in less than six million years.

Though Rosen was frantically snowballing and devouring cosmic remnants, he didn't relax his observation of the Reincarnation Will. The fruit clone remaining within the Heart of the Universe coffin consistently monitored the every move of that mysterious super universe. As long as he didn't approach, there was no danger. If an anomaly occurred there, his true form in reality could prepare accordingly.

However, it turned out Rosen had overthought things; no one appeared to stop him from devouring cosmic remnants. This, conversely, made Rosen uneasy. Initially, the commotion was small; a mere few tens of thousands of cosmic remnants were insignificant to the entire Great Reincarnation Realm. But as he continued to destroy the Great Reincarnation Realm like a snowball, it was impossible for the Reincarnation Lifeforms of the two major factions not to know.

Yet, not only did they not come forward to stop him, they didn't even show any intention of making contact. This implies that they wanted to see the Great Reincarnation Realm destroyed. Rosen was capable of snowballing and destroying countless cosmic remnants, so there was no reason the Reincarnation Lifeforms of the two factions couldn't do the same. Since they had the ability but didn't act, and had the ability to acquire that cosmic vitality but didn't, could there be a problem with acquiring cosmic vitality itself?

Calculating at 10,000 units of cosmic vitality per universe, the mysterious mummy extracted 9,999 units. One unit was left to sustain the cosmic remnant's continued existence, and a Reincarnation-level Nightfall Parasitic Flower was specifically left behind to prevent the cosmic remnant from being parasitized by the Nightfall Parasitic Flowers spread throughout the Great Reincarnation Realm. Furthermore, a Reincarnation Dark Sun was left to slow the collapse of the Great Reincarnation Realm, using the cosmic remnant as its core.

Rosen didn't believe this was an act of goodwill, so he had long suspected there was an issue. But suspicion couldn't solve the problem. Each cosmic remnant offered tangible benefits. Even knowing that accepting these benefits might come at a cost, he had no choice but to take them to become a Reincarnation Lifeform.

Before committing to snowballing, Rosen had considered whether to retreat while he was ahead. He had already become a Reincarnation Lifeform, and knowing that cosmic remnants might pose a problem, stopping immediately would undoubtedly minimize potential trouble. But after careful consideration, he still decided to snowball.

This was because the fate of Candlelight and other Reincarnation Lifeforms made him realize that weakness offered no right to choose. Candlelight hadn't fully mastered the indestructible system, but was close. While alive, he was considered an peripheral member of the Dark Sun faction. Yet, when the mysterious mummy drained all universes, it showed no mercy to Candlelight. If Candlelight had been strong enough, would he have been so easily discarded and ultimately perished?

Certainly not. He was discarded because he was weak, so his life and death depended on the whim of the strong. Rosen didn't want to gamble his future on another's good or ill will. Therefore, even after realizing there was a hidden danger with the cosmic remnants, he still decided to use snowballing to maximize the power he wielded.

Of course, ever since he became aware of the hidden danger, he hadn't stopped researching cosmic remnants. When devouring a cosmic remnant, only half of the cosmic barrier fragments could integrate into his cosmic barrier. The other half decomposed into cosmic origin. Some of that became Void Essence and Time Essence, but what about the other unusable special essences?

Rosen hadn't stopped researching these special essences since evolving his Root Heavenly Eye into a Reincarnation Organ. However, the Root Heavenly Eye's retro-causal tracing and identification effects on these special essences were very weak. But even if weak, it was still able to trace back to their origin; it was just less effective and slower.

This dragged on for two million years before Rosen finally discerned the origin of these special essences through his Root Heavenly Eye. They were essentially also Void Essence and Time Essence, but they were polluted essences. The pollution came from two sources: first, the resentment generated by the demise of all living beings within the universe, and second, deeply entangled karma.

Everything exists for a reason. Whatever beings do, their primary principle must be profit-driven. Every action a living being takes, from birth, is necessarily profitable. Even selfless acts of charity can yield positive emotional returns on a spiritual level. If good deeds are met with humiliation instead of praise, even the kindest person probably wouldn't continue to do good.

This holds true for life, and it holds true for the universe nurturing all living beings. The universe doesn't simply give birth to and nurture life out of benevolence; the universe, by instinct, also wants to live. Cosmic vitality alone isn't enough; the universe also instinctively wants to give birth to a Cosmic Will. And the birth of a Cosmic Will requires spirituality. A nascent universe clearly doesn't possess enough spirituality to form a Cosmic Will.

This is why life is born. While life takes from the universe, it also gives back spirituality. As life prospers and grows, the total amount of spirituality increases, and the probability of a Cosmic Will being born also increases.

The universe profits from nurturing sentient beings, and the Great Reincarnation Realm giving birth to countless universes is naturally the same. This is why the Reincarnation Will came into existence. In this situation, completely destroying a universe would harm the Great Reincarnation Realm's interests, which explains why spacetime essence would be intertwined with the karma of the Great Reincarnation Realm.

Rosen now finally understood why the two major factions, even after draining universes, left behind cosmic remnants. If even the cosmic remnants were destroyed, if the last vestiges of cosmic vitality were severed, then the karma of destroying the universe would fall upon the two major factions. Conversely, by integrating the karma into the cosmic barrier, this karma would fall upon the person who ultimately destroyed the cosmic barrier.

The more cosmic remnants Rosen devoured, the more karma he accumulated. This karma was so potent that the two major factions dared not touch it, and it caused them to painstakingly maintain the Great Reincarnation Realm for 160 billion years without collapse. Clearly, the trouble contained within this karma was beyond imagination. He had, unknowingly, become the scapegoat for the two major factions.

Rosen looked thoughtfully at the polluted spacetime essence on the table. At this point, he had no retreat. But he wasn't willing to be used and ultimately become a sacrificial lamb. He was no stranger to karma; he knew the potential repercussions of this particular karma. When the Great Reincarnation Realm restarted its reincarnation cycle, it might use this karma to pinpoint and destroy him.

Although indestructible memories are said to be impervious to the Great Reincarnation Realm's restart, if that were truly absolute, the two major factions wouldn't have been locked in an endless struggle with the Reincarnation Will. Indestructibility is only relative; there's truly no absolute. So, if he did nothing, the Great Reincarnation Realm's destruction and restart in four million years would be his death.

Since it was no longer possible to swim against the current and shake off this karma, the only way out was to go with the flow and accept it. "More debts, less worry; more lice, less itch." Since the karma was already entangled and inescapable, he might as well find a way to make it even larger. Then, he'd figure out how to transfer this karma. If transferring it was impossible, then finding a way for "the person to die and the debt to disappear" wasn't out of the question either.

Ever since Rosen realized that the cosmic barriers of the cosmic remnants contained the resentment of all living beings and infinite karma, his true form stopped devouring universes. Instead, he took the Root Universe and began extracting all the resentment of all living beings and the karma of the Great Reincarnation Realm from all his universes, including the cosmic clone and the Blue Star Universe. He attempted to use these as nutrients to grow Root Fruits.

As long as it was observed by the Root Heavenly Eye, the Indestructible Source Seed could parasitize it through retro-causal tracing, then take root, sprout, blossom, and bear fruit. So, even the resentment of all living beings and the karma of the Great Reincarnation Realm could be parasitized by Rosen's Indestructible Source Seed.

However, an ordinary Indestructible Source Seed couldn't use them as nutrients for parasitism. The resentment of all living beings was manageable; at most, the Indestructible Source Seed couldn't parasitize it. But the karma of the Great Reincarnation Realm was different; it even had the ability to obliterate the Indestructible Source Seed, just like the mysterious mummy.

Rosen had to once again use the Reincarnation Root to infuse 10,000 units of cosmic vitality into the Indestructible Source Seed. With the support of cosmic vitality, the Indestructible Source Seed finally successfully parasitized.

As more and more resentment of all living beings and karma of the Great Reincarnation Realm flowed through the Indestructible Source Seed into the Root Universe, the Indestructible Source Seed, rooted and sprouting within the entire Root Universe as its soil, gradually began to nurture an unprecedented Root Fruit.

Year after year passed, and the cosmic vitality Rosen acquired became less and less. This was because most of the cosmic vitality was entirely integrated into the Indestructible Source Seed through the Reincarnation Root. Only in this way could the Indestructible Source Seed's growth be sustained, allowing the Root Fruit a chance to be born. No one could say what kind of Root Fruit would ultimately form.

While Rosen fully nurtured the Root Fruit, his audacity also became infinitely greater. Since he knew he was being used as a scapegoat, as long as the Great Reincarnation Realm didn't collapse, the two major factions were probably the most worried about him dying. If he died and the debt was canceled with his death, that would be one thing. But if the karma remained and was inherited by the two major factions, they certainly wouldn't accept it.

Therefore, before the Great Reincarnation Realm's destruction, the two major factions would absolutely not allow him to die. Rosen was now ready to actively court danger. He wanted to see if the two major factions could continue to hide in the shadows and remain indifferent.