Lord: Sequence Master

At Momella Mountain, Rosen and several Frenzied Lion demigods were furiously attacking the seals left behind by the Sacred Lion deity.

They had to work quickly—there wasn't much time left before the spiritual realm would reset.

The name Sacred Lion spiritual realm explained everything. Once all the Sacred Lions were dead, the realm would automatically reset. In contrast, even if every Frenzied Lion died, the realm would remain intact. Previous resets had been forced by the Lionkin deity from outside the spiritual realm.

In just half a day, the deity's seals on the mountain were forcibly broken.

Without hesitation, Rosen began collecting Momella Stones. He managed to gather a total of 36 stones, though he secretly stashed away 30 of them—his share of the spoils with Domnar. The remaining six were reserved for the two Beastmen deities.

Normally, collecting six stones per cycle was considered sustainable for the realm's long-term health.

This excessive harvest would likely leave the spiritual realm barren for several future resets.

But that wasn't Rosen's concern. Domnar probably wouldn't care either, considering he had already been used as a pawn and abandoned by the Lionkin deity. It was unlikely Domnar would remain in the Lionkin tribe after this, especially when the truth about the Sacred Lions' slaughter came to light during the next reset.

Fortunately for Rosen, he only needed to enter the spiritual realm one more time. Once his business there was complete, he could use Data Transmission to escape without a trace.

Rosen stored the 30 hidden Momella Stones in his Mysterious Study Room and left the spiritual realm with the remaining six.

When the teleportation ended, he found himself near the spiritual realm's entrance.

The Elephantskin deity regarded him coldly, and the Lionkin deity's gaze wasn't much friendlier.

"How did the Elephantskin demigod and all the Sacred Lions die?" the Lionkin chieftain demanded, stepping forward to question Rosen.

"They ambushed me—three titled demigods against one. Tell me, why would I hold back when it was a fight for my life?" Rosen retorted calmly.

The Lionkin chieftain fell silent, though his heart seethed with resentment toward Domnar.

If not for the fact that everyone in the tribe knew Domnar had sacrificed his Sequence 2 status for the tribe, the chieftain would have already punished him for this debacle.

Rosen handed over six Momella Stones. The Lionkin chieftain used a special extraordinary artifact to lock onto Rosen, ensuring that no additional Momella Stones were hidden in any spatial storage. After confirming that Rosen hadn't kept any for himself, the chieftain left, visibly disappointed, to split the stones.

Each of the two Beastmen deities took three stones. The Lionkin deity also contributed a large number of spiritual crystals to the Sacred Lion spiritual realm to offset the cost of the missing six stones and to revive the six Sacred Lions. However, the true resource consumption this time far exceeded those numbers. After a few more resets, the spiritual realm would inevitably degrade to Sequence 4.

Once their work was done, the Lionkin deity disappeared with the chieftain, leaving Rosen to be unceremoniously teleported back to the Lionkin tribe.

As for the promised reward of one Momella Stone for Domnar, it was conveniently forgotten. Clearly, the Lionkin chieftain had decided to withhold it. Domnar's resource allocation within the tribe had also been downgraded to Sequence 3, along with his status.

Had the Lionkin chieftain not feared the backlash of appearing too selfish and disheartening his people, Rosen suspected he wouldn't have been allowed to keep the Sacred Lion corpses he had brought back.

It was no wonder the Beastmen were so easily crushed by humans. While humanity operated on a similar "survival of the fittest" principle, laws and rules gave their actions an air of fairness, even if superficial. By contrast, the Beastmen's naked exploitation made it impossible to hide their ugly greed.

No wonder Domnar had agreed to Rosen's proposal so quickly. He probably understood better than anyone what it meant to fall from Sequence 2 to Sequence 3 in the Lionkin tribe.

Not far from the Lionkin tribe, in a stone forest, Rosen found Domnar roasting meat—Elephantskin meat, no less.

"You actually did it," Domnar said, his expression a mix of surprise and complexity as he looked at Rosen.

From the beginning, he hadn't truly believed Rosen could bring Momella Stones out of the spiritual realm.

After all, deceiving the detection methods of a deity was far easier said than done.

Still, even if Rosen hadn't appeared, Domnar had been planning to flee the tribe. Rosen's involvement had cost him nothing and even offered the possibility of earning a significant fortune before his departure, which was why Domnar had so readily signed the contract.

But to his astonishment, Rosen had actually succeeded. According to their agreement, Rosen wouldn't have come to this rendezvous if he hadn't secured the stones.

Rosen tossed ten Momella Stones to Domnar, the sight of which made the Lionkin's eyelids twitch.

Domnar knew he would have to leave the Vata Continent as soon as possible. Otherwise, the Lionkin deity would surely hunt him down for the rest of his life.

But with this many Momella Stones, the risk was well worth it. Domnar immediately etched a spatial teleportation array on the ground, sending the stones away to safety. Afterward, his spiritual energy dispersed, and his body transformed into that of an unfamiliar Sequence 4 Lionkin.

"Better to be cautious—it'll buy you more time," Rosen remarked as he summoned his Gluttony Psychic Beast to devour the remaining Lionkin and Elephantskin corpses.

Then, quietly, Rosen returned to the Lionkin tribe.

For the next few months, Rosen stayed hidden within his personal small world, concealed inside his tent in the Lionkin tribe. To the other Lionkin, it seemed like he was working to reclaim his Sequence 2 status.

Finally, the day arrived for the Sacred Lion spiritual realm to reopen.

The Lionkin chieftain sought out Rosen once again.

The reason the Lionkin chieftain sought Rosen out was simple: he needed Rosen to subdue the Sacred Lions once again.

Since Rosen had slaughtered all the Sacred Lions during his last venture into the spiritual realm, their memories would reset upon the realm's reset. Without suppressing the Sacred Lions, it would be impossible to bring them under control. The chieftain couldn't waste time, like the Elephantskin demigod had, persuading the Sacred Lions over multiple spiritual realm cycles.

Thus, Rosen's involvement was indispensable, which was also why he was confident he would be allowed to re-enter the Sacred Lion spiritual realm.

Rosen, however, didn't agree outright. He demanded a Momella Stone as payment.

The Lionkin chieftain agreed without hesitation, but Rosen's Seventh Sense immediately detected malice from him.

It was clear that once Rosen emerged, any promised Momella Stone would conveniently vanish.

Unlike the previous time, the Sacred Lion spiritual realm had now been relocated to the Lionkin tribe.

The Lionkin tribe handled the harvesting of Momella Stones, with 40% of the stones given to the Elephantskin tribe. Despite the value of the Momella Stones, the presence of deities on both sides ensured that neither deity would risk a full-scale conflict over these resources.

Upon entering the Sacred Lion spiritual realm for the second time, Rosen wasted no time.

Using the concealment ability of the Wolf Totem, he launched an ambush on the Sacred Lions.

He used the Void Shadow Realm to trap one, had his Gluttony Psychic Beast devour another, deployed the Seven Deadly Sins Psychic Beasts to stall one, and sent the Two-Dimensional Ash Wasp and Metallic Slime to handle two more. The final Sacred Lion was swiftly killed by Rosen himself.

Once the first wave of Sacred Lions was eliminated, Rosen immediately joined other ongoing skirmishes, assisting in the annihilation of the remaining Sacred Lions.

Thanks to the awakening of his Ancient God's Divine Body and the synergistic power of his Dimensional Artistry, Rosen's strength had undergone a complete transformation.

Even when facing two titled demigods and four Sequence 3 Sacred Lions at the same time, Rosen was now able to eliminate all of them in a short span of time.

Unfortunately, none of them dropped loot orbs this time.

However, the six extraordinary source materials obtained from the Sacred Lions were enough to evolve the Sacred Lion Cloak to Sequence 2.

The Sacred Lion Cloak underwent a full upgrade, with all its attributes enhanced and a new source trait, Lion King's Domain, unlocked.

Upon testing the Lion King's Domain, Rosen felt that the months of waiting had been worth it.

Starting from Sequence 3, beings began to grasp authority over rules. By Sequence 2, it became common to wield domains.

Strictly speaking, Sequence 3 beings could develop domains as well, but there was little incentive to do so. Sequence 3 domains were typically pseudo-domains that only offered partial suppression of opponents' rule-based authorities while enhancing the user's own.

However, against opponents with stronger rule-based authorities, such pseudo-domains were nearly useless.

Rather than wasting time refining a half-baked domain at Sequence 3, most would focus on advancing to Sequence 2, where they could fully develop domain-related skills.

Only those who saw no hope of reaching Sequence 2 would bother polishing their pseudo-domains.

Initially, Rosen had assumed that the Lion King's Domain would merely be a pseudo-domain.

To his surprise, it turned out to be a fully-fledged Sequence 2 domain.

When the Lion King's Domain was activated, Rosen could synchronize with the Lion King Authority, a unique racial authority that granted him unparalleled control over all Lionkin and lion-related beings.

If he ever faced powerful Lionkin adversaries, the Lion King's Domain would provide a significant advantage.

Even if it didn't suppress other races, it could at least neutralize the domains of other Sequence 2 beings.

Rosen collected the corpses of the Sacred Lions but refrained from heading to Momella Mountain to harvest more Momella Stones.

Since he had already exploited the mountain during his previous visit, further destructive harvesting could potentially render the Sacred Lion spiritual realm useless as a resource site.

Besides, the yield this time would likely be minimal. It was better to leave the realm intact so the Lionkin tribe could nurture it for future use. Once the spiritual realm recovered, Rosen could return to harvest more stones.

Using the God-Hunting Magic Eye, Rosen locked onto the Paradise Island virtual network and uploaded himself there via Data Transmission.

Meanwhile, the Lionkin chieftain waited outside the spiritual realm, completely unaware that it had been raided for a second time.

Days later, the Lionkin tribe issued a bounty for Domnar.

By then, Rosen was already on Paradise Island, preparing to advance his Noble Sequence to Sequence 4.

When Rosen advanced from Sequence 6 to Sequence 5, he had seized the opportunity to master the Ancient God Origin Realm skill, which increased the size of his divine territory a hundredfold.

This time, as he advanced from Sequence 5 to Sequence 4, he planned to master another Ancient God Sequence skill while also using the Ancient God Sacrificial Ritual to offer up an appropriate miraculous item.

His goal was to further enhance the potential of his divine territory.

The skill he aimed to acquire was Immortal Will, a spiritual-focused ability.

To unlock Immortal Will, he needed to lower his spiritual strength limit by nine points.

This meant that upon acquiring Immortal Will, his spiritual strength would drop to Sequence 5 levels.

To maintain Sequence 4-level spiritual strength, he would need a significant quantity of items capable of restoring his spiritual strength limit.

Both Golden Apples and Stellar Fruits could be used for this purpose, but the required quantity was immense.

Over the years, Rosen had produced plenty of Golden Apples, and he had also stockpiled Stellar Fruits since advancing to Sequence 5.

The Momella Stones he recently acquired could also be turned into special potions to assist in his advancement.

However, it still wasn't enough. The process would be most effective with the aid of a specialized environment.

Rosen already had a location in mind for this.

His main headache, however, was finding a suitable sacrifice for the Ancient God Sacrificial Ritual.

The extraordinary items in his possession were either unsuitable or too valuable to sacrifice at this time. Offering up an overly precious miraculous item would waste most of its power.

Rosen retrieved his Miracle Pouch, ready to search for potential offerings across the lands.

With his current abundant fortune, the Miracle Pouch could utilize its miracle trait to perform equivalent exchanges, consuming luck to increase the likelihood of encountering miraculous items.

The prerequisite was that there had to be miraculous items nearby, and their grade couldn't exceed that of the Miracle Pouch.

Sharing Amy's Miracle Wish ability, Rosen pulled out a map of the human world.

"Miracle Wish: Where is an unclaimed Sequence 4 miraculous item located on this continent?"

Amy's Miracle Wish trait also relied on equivalent exchange. While the cost of obtaining precise results could be exorbitantly high—sometimes requiring ten or even a hundred times the value of the miraculous item—it was far more affordable to simply wish for vague guidance.

A pinpoint of light illuminated a spot on the map, while the towering pile of spiritual crystals nearby was almost entirely consumed.

Rosen glanced at the glowing marker. The Thunder Empire?

The result surprised him—he hadn't expected to have another reason to return to the Thunder Continent.

Using Data Transmission, Rosen quickly traveled to Frost Snow City, a place he hadn't visited in many years.

The city remained nestled in ice and snow, its appearance seemingly unchanged from his memories.

Rosen retrieved his Miracle Pouch and activated its equivalent exchange ability, consuming his luck to enhance its treasure-seeking effect.

The more luck he expended, the better the pouch's ability to locate treasures became.

Eventually, Rosen's senses grew clearer, and he felt himself being drawn toward a direction. He turned his gaze to the snowy mountains along the Frost Coast.

The memory of something dawned on him—years ago, Gray Rat had been convinced that these snowy mountains hid some kind of treasure. However, despite searching relentlessly, Gray Rat never found anything. Back then, Rosen had been steadily accumulating wealth and hadn't taken Gray Rat's suspicions seriously.

Now, it seemed Gray Rat had been right all along. These mountains were indeed hiding something of extraordinary value.

Following his instincts, Rosen made his way toward the snow-capped peaks. Cloaked in the Sacred Lion Cloak, he activated the Lightwalker trait, transforming his body into pure light and swiftly scouting several potential areas.

He then deployed tens of thousands of Shadow Fiends, dispersing them across the zones highlighted by the faint treasure-seeking signals. Additionally, he pulled out various grades of Miracle Treasure Maps.

If the treasure in question was unclaimed, the maps should have been able to directly pinpoint its location.

However, when the treasure maps showed no reaction, Rosen found himself puzzled.

After a moment of reflection, he realized the issue: he had wished specifically for an unclaimed Sequence 4 miraculous item. In a vast empire like the Thunder Empire, there were undoubtedly many miraculous items, but not all of them were ownerless.

The Frost Coast treasure might not be unclaimed, which explained why the maps failed to work.

Regardless of whether the treasure had an owner or not, Rosen was determined to find it.

If the Miracle Treasure Maps couldn't help, then the Miracle Pouch would. He resolved to thoroughly comb the Frost Coast until he uncovered the treasure.

Five days later, Rosen found himself at the base of a snowy mountain, entering a frozen cave.

Inside, he spotted an icy-blue Frost Snow Rabbit, a common extraordinary creature in the Frost Coast region.

In the rabbit's arms, it held a spherical stone roughly the size of a football.

Rosen immediately activated his Lion King's Domain, enveloping the Frost Snow Rabbit within its influence.

The vigilant creature startled awake, instinctively attempting to escape into the snow. However, under the suppressive power of the Lion King's Domain, the Sequence 4 Frost Snow Rabbit was unable to teleport away and remained rooted in place.

The rabbit glanced nervously at Rosen, then looked down at the treasure it was holding.

Reluctantly, it nudged the spherical stone toward Rosen, its big eyes brimming with a pleading, sorrowful expression.

"Quite intelligent," Rosen remarked.

He picked up the stone and tossed it into the Miracle Pouch. Moments later, the results of the appraisal appeared.

The stone was identified as an exceedingly rare natural Sequence 3 extraordinary item—Heart of Frost and Snow. The outer shell of stone served only as protection, while the core contained pure extraordinary power. A Sequence 3 individual refining it would immediately gain divine authority over ice and snow. It was no wonder that the Frost Snow Rabbit had grown to Sequence 4 while holding it.

Rosen casually placed both the Frost Snow Rabbit and the Heart of Frost and Snow into his Mysterious Study Room. He planned to gift them to Li Shiqing as a present.

Whether the rabbit would become a pet or a meal depended entirely on how well it could behave and charm her.

Just as Rosen was about to leave, he noticed that the Miracle Pouch's treasure-seeking ability was still active, pointing to another location.

Could it be that there was another treasure hidden in these snowy mountains besides the Heart of Frost and Snow?

Half a month passed as Rosen's tens of thousands of Shadow Fiends scoured the entire Frost Coast, but they found nothing.

This made no sense.

With his ever-growing fortune, Rosen's natural luck had already been elevated to Sequence 1, both innately and through enhancement. His luck was already extraordinary, and with the Miracle Pouch's assistance, finding treasures should have been straightforward.

Deep in thought, Rosen systematically eliminated all other possibilities before arriving at a secluded valley.

The valley was bisected by a flowing river, with scattered divine territory nodes lining the riverbanks.

According to the Thunder Empire's official records, this valley was said to hold remnants of the Thunder God's divinity. The fusion of divinity and the magnetic fields here had created a phenomenon resembling the Spirit World's temporal recordings, enabling the valley to capture echoes of past events.

Rosen activated Time Seal Art, intending to extract fragments of the valley's past.

He suspected that the treasure indicated by the Miracle Pouch didn't exist in the present but rather in the past, recorded within the valley's magnetic field.

Having ruled out all other possibilities, this valley was his last lead.

Rosen took out a canvas and began painting, carefully capturing the surrounding snowy mountains and the valley encircled by the peaks.

Under the influence of the divine energy permeating the valley, time began to rewind rapidly within the painting. Rosen soon reached the specific point in the past he wanted to extract.

Seven days' worth of temporal fragments were successfully captured and sealed within the painting.

Integrating the painting with the valley, Rosen reached into the painted landscape and retrieved a small magnetite stone crackling with lightning.

Once placed in the Miracle Pouch, the item's attributes were quickly appraised:

[Temporal Magnetite: Miraculous Item]

Grade: Sequence 3

Attributes: The Temporal Magnetite can record and replay fragments of past events.

Miracle Traits: Temporal Gravity, Unique in Heaven and Earth, Eternal and Indestructible

After understanding the effects of Temporal Gravity, Rosen immediately decided to sacrifice the Temporal Magnetite.

First, its sole miracle trait meant there wouldn't be much waste when fusing it into his divine territory as a territorial trait.

Second, the effects of Temporal Gravity were astounding. This trait allowed the Temporal Magnetite to exist along past timelines.

By integrating this trait into his divine territory, Rosen would grant his realm the ability to exist within past timelines.

While he wouldn't be able to influence past events, merely observing them was a formidable time-related ability—enough to justify its high Sequence 3 rating.

The reason the Miracle Treasure Maps had failed to detect the Temporal Magnetite was now clear: the miraculous item had been hidden within a past timeline all along.

(Chapter End)