At the edge of the Twelfth Galactic Ring, Rosen piloted the Doomsday Ark to a halt in the endless void.
The forbidden zone of the universe was just ahead, but he couldn't just march in recklessly.
The Eternal Mech Clan's understanding of this Eternal Forbidden Zone was based on outdated knowledge from who knew how many years ago.
So many years had passed—who knew how much the Eternal Forbidden Zone had changed?
Rushing in blindly could very well mean dying inside.
If the universe's forbidden zone were that easy to conquer, if obtaining the corpse of an Eternal Lifeform were that simple…
Then those old fishermen wouldn't have risked death to collude with the World Will and scheme against the Ancient God. It was precisely because they found no better way forward that they dared to risk death at the hands of the Ancient God, choosing to strike while He slept in hopes of snatching a fragment of the Plunder Origin Seed for temporary use.
Just for temporary use—not even daring to claim ownership.
Rosen didn't possess a Plunder Origin Seed, but the Root Origin Seed he controlled also held some plundering characteristics.
So he wanted to test whether the Root Origin Seed would work on the corpse of an Eternal Lifeform.
If it failed, he'd have no choice but to return and join the World Will and the others in plotting to steal a fragment of the Plunder Origin Seed.
On the other hand, if it succeeded, Rosen was prepared to relocate from the Ancient God World.
He'd take everything he could—he had no intention of staying behind to fight the Ancient God to the death if another path presented itself.
As the only known Eternal Lifeform still truly alive, the Ancient God was by far the most terrifying existence Rosen knew of in the entire universe.
So, when facing the forbidden zone ahead, Rosen had to be thoroughly prepared before entering.
Tearing through the void with the Creator Domain, Rosen stepped into the cosmic starry sky.
The universe, dark as night, was lit by only a few celestial bodies.
The cosmos was beautiful, but to him, it also appeared fragile.
Within the Twelfth Galactic Ring, this portion of space was stable enough for even Great True Gods to live normally.
So long as there was no combat, the cosmic fabric wouldn't easily collapse.
But Rosen far surpassed Great True Gods—his very body was the embodiment of an Immortal World. Thus, he had to suppress his power as much as possible in the Twelfth Ring. Any excessive movement might unintentionally wreak massive havoc across the entire supercluster.
He sealed his strength down to the True God level and deployed the Golden Crow Starship, locking onto a direction before advancing.
His Eternal Will had already detected denser concentrations of World Source in that direction, which meant there were definitely transcendent stars ahead—undoubtedly occupied by civilizations in the universe. As long as he found the local civilization, determining the current state of the forbidden zone shouldn't be difficult.
The Golden Crow Starship transformed entirely into light elements, accelerating into faster-than-light travel via the Golden Crow Rainbow Form.
At the same time, all the light elements were completely retracted, so not a trace of light escaped. This allowed the Golden Crow Starship to traverse the universe unnoticed, like a ghost hiding in the cosmic darkness.
After a few hours, the Golden Crow Starship crossed millions of light-years and arrived at a star system.
The system itself was only a few light-years in diameter, but it contained over a hundred stars and thousands of transcendent celestial bodies scattered throughout.
Countless surrounding galaxies and stars together formed a dynamic, Immortal God-Demon–level formation that slowly funneled all the source energy of the supercluster into this system, reinforcing the transcendent stars while stabilizing space here.
Even if Immortal God-Demons fought within this place, the supercluster wouldn't collapse.
So it was certain—this system housed Immortal God-Demons and the civilizations under their rule.
All things, no matter the path, ultimately converged on the same destination.
Because the universe's fundamental laws were the same, and the dispersed World Source throughout the universe all shared the same origin, the laws built upon them couldn't differ too greatly. As a result, the lifeforms born from them would not be fundamentally different either.
Rosen activated the Eye of the Creator, observing from afar the outer regions of the transcendent star system, quickly gathering a wealth of information.
This star system was practically equivalent to a second Immortal World maintained by Immortal God-Demons.
Though immobile, it had a critical weakness—destroy the supercluster, and this transcendent star system would collapse too.
But it must not be forgotten—Immortal God-Demons possessed Immortal Worlds. If an Immortal World descended into reality and overlapped with this transcendent star system, the resulting effect—even if not greater than the sum of its parts—would still enhance an Immortal God-Demon's combat power considerably.
Other Immortal Godfiends would never set foot lightly into the lairs that Immortal Godfiends had cultivated over countless years.
A single misstep could easily result in being ambushed, trapped, and slaughtered—turned into the finest material for crafting Beyonder artifacts.
But Rosen felt no fear. His body itself was an Immortal World, and after merging his Ancient God True Realm with the Eternal Dream, it too had evolved into an Immortal World. His "Fallen Paradise" spiritual realm painting also counted as half an Immortal World. On top of that, he had the protection of the Snake Mother Gourd.
Other than facing Eternity itself, there were now very few threats in the universe that could make him wary.
Rosen's gaze swept over the edge of the Transcendent Galaxy, where a hyperspatial stargate was stationed. It was a device for interstellar teleportation, composed of numerous giant wormholes. It was one of the most advanced creations of the current cosmic technological system.
Unless one was a Great True God or Immortal Godfiend, entry into or departure from this Transcendent Galaxy required use of the hyperspatial stargate.
Rosen locked onto a battleship emerging from one of the wormholes in the gate. Using Void Dreamwalking, he instantly latched onto the dream of a sleeping being aboard the vessel, silently infiltrating the ship through that dream.
The Main God computer hacked into the ship's database. His Psychologist abilities directly scanned and read the target's spiritual memories.
In just a few moments, Rosen had acquired a basic understanding of the civilization in the galaxy ahead.
Though the universe housed countless lifeforms, they generally fell into several broad categories: carbon-based life made of flesh and blood; silicon-based life made of metal; energy-based life composed of pure energy matter; spiritual entities that possessed only a soul and no body; and exotic forms like data life that lacked even a soul.
Despite the diversity, the dominant types remained carbon-based and silicon-based lifeforms.
The civilization ahead, after translation, could be referred to as the Sirius Civilization.
The Sirius Civilization was composed of a race called the Sirians. In their normal state, they had wolf heads and humanoid bodies—somewhat resembling werewolves. However, in combat mode, they transformed into winged quadrupeds known as Celestial Wolves. The size of this battle form directly indicated the strength of a Sirian's bloodline.
Those with weak bloodlines could only feed on meat, while those with powerful bloodlines grew up devouring stardust and celestial matter.
It was worth noting that a Sirian's strength and potential were determined at birth.
If one was born with a weak bloodline, they would remain weak for life.
If born with a powerful bloodline, their peak state would inevitably lead them to become a Great True God.
Sirians rarely cultivated, as their Progenitor—a being who had ascended to Immortal Godfiend—had created a unique Transcendent system for them.
The bloodline of the Sirians was passed down from generation to generation. When an elder died, the power of the Celestial Wolf bloodline within them would automatically transfer to their descendants. Thus, over countless generations, the bloodline would accumulate. Once it reached a critical point, a Sirian would eventually be born with overwhelming power.
The Sirians also revered internecine struggle. Upon reaching the end of their prime years, they would invariably engage in duels to the death.
The loser would lose everything, and the victor would absorb part of the loser's bloodline power.
In this way, generation after generation, the Sirians accumulated bloodline strength. Their race had no elders among the Celestial Wolves, and their accumulation had produced more than a hundred Great True Gods. Only then did they earn the right to occupy a super galaxy cluster within the Twelfth Star Ring, and establish the Immortal-level Transcendent Galaxy known as the Sirius Galaxy.
At first, Rosen thought the Sirians placed utmost importance on bloodline.
But after deeper analysis, he discovered that the emphasis on bloodline was just a surface trait. Bloodline could be accumulated over generations, stolen from others, or enhanced using external resources. But the ability to control that bloodline power depended entirely on one's willpower.
Only those born with immense willpower could fully awaken and master the hidden powers within their bloodline.
Thus, willpower was the foundation. The Sirians followed the most extreme elite strategy.
All ordinary Sirians existed solely to serve the very few born as Wolf Kings with indomitable will.
Only the Wolf Kings had access to the true core of the Sirius Civilization.
Black Wolf Star—the domain of the Black Wolf King of the Sirius race.
This Transcendent Star had a diameter of three hundred thousand miles. Everything on it belonged to the Black Wolf King.
After following the cargo ship to Black Wolf Star, Rosen's first target, naturally, was the Black Wolf King nearby.
Activating the Eye of the Creator to peer through layers of concealment, Rosen quickly saw through the Black Wolf King's strengths and weaknesses.
He had already been a Great True God for several hundred thousand years, and was considered one of the more reclusive Wolf Kings.
Since the Sirius race barely needed to cultivate—spending their lives honing willpower through constant slaughter and battle—those who ascended to Great True God had already pushed the strength of their bloodline and Immortal Will to the limit. Ironically, their very bloodline then became the obstacle to becoming an Immortal Godfiend.
The Black Wolf King had once struggled fiercely to break through, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not see the path to becoming an Immortal Godfiend.
In the end, the Black Wolf King gave up on pursuing divinity and turned his focus elsewhere.
He chose gluttony. Since then, he had remained holed up on Black Wolf Star, doing nothing but eat.
After tens of thousands of years of indulgence, his strength had not only stagnated but actually regressed.
But this did not mean the Black Wolf King had fallen. On the contrary—he was tempering his Immortal Will in a different way.
"To lay down the butcher's knife is to become a Buddha on the spot." This was a saying from the Buddhist sect on Blue Star.
Tang Sanzang had to endure eighty-one tribulations before he could attain Buddhahood. Why should a villain be able to achieve it just by laying down his butcher's knife?Because enduring eighty-one tribulations was still not as difficult as truly laying down the butcher's knife for a villain.
Laying down the butcher's knife didn't mean putting down the one in their hand. It meant letting go of the butcher's knife in their heart—letting go of all obsessions, delusions, and evil thoughts—and instantly reaching, on a spiritual level, the same realm that Tang Sanzang only achieved after surviving eighty-one hardships.
For someone who had committed countless murders and atrocities to suddenly undergo such an extreme transformation on the spiritual level...
It was easy to imagine how difficult it would be.
The difficulty even surpassed the idea of forcing Tang Sanzang into madness, making him pick up a butcher's knife and slaughter every man, woman, and child he saw.
Because everyone knew—it was easy to learn evil, hard to return to good.
Thus, saying "lay down the butcher's knife and become a Buddha on the spot" sounded simple, but was, in reality, almost impossible to achieve.
If someone truly managed to lay down the butcher's knife in their heart and sincerely repent, then their soul would undoubtedly undergo a transformation profound enough to attain Buddhahood.
The Black Wolf King had once waged war across the universe, committing countless acts of slaughter. His immortal will could no longer be tempered through killing and fighting.
He could not, in a single moment, lay down the butcher's knife and achieve a spiritual transformation of his immortal will either.
Therefore, the Black Wolf King chose another path: to lay down the butcher's knife and instead cultivate his appetite, indulging it as much as possible, then—when his desire for food reached its peak—pick up the butcher's knife again to destroy that very appetite, using this method to temper his immortal will.
The entire process sounded simple, but in reality, it was anything but.
It was like a world champion sprinter abandoning all training at his peak, indulging in food, drink, and entertainment for decades, then—after aging and gaining three hundred pounds—suddenly abandoning those pleasures and forcing his battered body to run again, even surpassing his former peak performance.
It was easy to talk about, almost impossible to actually do.
The Black Wolf King indulged his appetite for tens of thousands of years. At first, he did so deliberately, but as time went on, he truly came to love eating more and more, unable to part from it. The weight of appetite within his immortal will had far surpassed his thirst for battle and slaughter.
The Black Wolf King resided in the Black Wolf Nest. The Celestial Wolf race did not reject technology, but in their way of life, they remained closer to nature and primitiveness.
This was also a way to temper their will. Thus, the Black Wolf King's nest was merely a luxurious cave.
Losen weaved through the shadows, silently infiltrating the Black Wolf Nest.
There were no early warning measures. The entire Sirius System was within the grasp of the Immortal Celestial Wolf. Any trace of conflict could not escape its notice. Even an immortal godfiend, without special means, could not silently take down the Black Wolf King.
Losen was no exception. If he wanted to instantly subdue the Black Wolf King, he would have to go all out.
However, going all out here would certainly alert the Immortal Celestial Wolf.
After careful consideration, Losen chose a different approach.
He slipped through the shadows to the kitchen of the Black Wolf Nest, where chefs from various races across the universe were constantly experimenting with different ingredients based on the Black Wolf King's tastes. Threads of Eternal Corruption origin quietly fused into these dishes.
Soon, it was time for the Black Wolf King's daily feast, and countless delicacies from all over the universe were presented before him.
The Black Wolf King opened his blood-red maw, accepting every dish without question.
As he ate, the power of Eternal Corruption began to erupt.The power of the Corruption Seed started to awaken the Black Wolf King's instincts.For the Celestial Wolf race, Eternal Corruption was the perfect cultivation cheat.
After his primal instincts were triggered, the Black Wolf King's appetite, cultivated over tens of thousands of years, was quickly suppressed. The innate nature of the Celestial Wolves—their love for slaughter and battle—was reawakened. His once-atrophied immortal will grew significantly stronger at that moment.
The Black Wolf King gazed at the remaining food. He knew there was something wrong with it.
But for now, this "problem" seemed only beneficial, not harmful, to him.
Thus, he wasn't sure whether someone had targeted him specifically, or whether the food itself had simply been imbued with a special kind of power. His intuition told him that if he could master this power, he might become the second immortal godfiend of the Celestial Wolf race.
Therefore, even knowing there might be a conspiracy or a trap behind this, the Black Wolf King chose to face it alone.
The Black Wolf King instantly spread his wings and soared into the sky, leaving the Black Wolf Nest.
At the same time, he expanded his domain, sweeping up all the chefs and every Celestial Wolf who had recently transported food, and then passed through a hyperspace stargate to leave the Sirius System, following his instincts to destroy a civilization or two for fun before deciding on his next move.
(End of chapter)