"We have done something foolish..." The Dark Sun Sovereign's voice trembled with anger. Rosen was slightly taken aback. An Epoch Sovereign who had lived for hundreds of Epoch Cycles couldn't even control his emotions, or perhaps this was the result of his utmost effort to suppress his rage. It seemed the Dark Sun Sovereign was indeed greatly provoked. Come to think of it, how could one not be furious after being fooled for hundreds of Epoch Cycles?
"The Indestructible Sovereign is my and his teacher," the Nightfall Sovereign explained, her voice chillingly cold, as if she were not alive, noticing Rosen's confusion.
"Let's review from the beginning..." the Dark Sun Sovereign said through gritted teeth, recounting everything he knew about the Indestructible Sovereign.
Hundreds of Epoch Cycles ago, the Indestructible Will system didn't exist. Each time an Epoch Cycle restarted, all Reincarnation Lifeforms would be reborn back to their initial state of birth, losing all memories from the previous Epoch Cycle, and then embarking on a new life with the same outcome but different processes. Often, ignorance was bliss. Because they didn't know their past lives' memories, they naturally wouldn't have any doubts about their present lives. Whether their past lives were painful or happy, they wouldn't feel the slightest bit of it in this life.
This continued until the Indestructible Sovereign was born and created the Indestructible Will extraordinary system. The Indestructible Sovereign mastered indestructible memories, allowing him to retain all memories from the previous Epoch Cycle in the next. The story that later circulated was that the Indestructible Sovereign couldn't bear being the only one with retained memories in a new Epoch Cycle, couldn't bear familiar beings from previous lives forgetting him, and so chose to disseminate the Indestructible Will extraordinary system. Everyone firmly believed this story because it was reasonable and very simple. The most crucial part was that there was no benefit to faking it, so there was no point in doing so.
However, this story, which all Reincarnation Lifeforms deeply believed, now seemed to be a complete lie. The Indestructible Sovereign was the Reincarnation Will, or rather, the Reincarnation Will was the Indestructible Sovereign. There were two possibilities here: the first was that the Indestructible Sovereign existed first, and later became the Reincarnation Will through some means; the second was that the Reincarnation Will existed first, and the Indestructible Sovereign was merely an identity created by the Reincarnation Will from the very beginning.
When the Indestructible Sovereign disseminated the Indestructible Will extraordinary system, he first chose the Dark Sun Sovereign and the Nightfall Sovereign. The reason for choosing the Nightfall Sovereign was that his true body was the Nightfall Parasitic Flower, which could control memories. Because he was naturally a Reincarnation Lifeform who controlled memories, the Nightfall Sovereign was most likely to master indestructible memories. At that time, the Indestructible Will extraordinary system was still very imperfect, and the Nightfall Sovereign contributed a large part to its perfection.
Compared to the Nightfall Sovereign, the Dark Sun Sovereign had no particular advantage in mastering indestructible memories. He was chosen by the Indestructible Sovereign because, according to the Indestructible Sovereign, they were the best friends in their previous lives, and it was with the help of the Dark Sun Sovereign's previous life that the Indestructible Sovereign had the fortunate opportunity to master indestructible memories.
Because these three were the first to master indestructible memories, their relationship was extremely good during the initial Epoch Cycles. At this time, they still dared not widely disseminate the Indestructible Will extraordinary system, and even the first Epoch Sovereign had not yet been born. This was because, with their research into karma and the confirmation of Karma Reincarnation, they worried that the Great Reincarnation Realm had a master. If the Great Reincarnation Realm truly had a master, their dissemination of the Indestructible Will extraordinary system would be tantamount to suicide. What rancher would allow his penned cattle and sheep to devour his own ranch?
But as Epoch Cycles passed, the long eons began to make them lose their reverence. The Indestructible Will extraordinary system began to spread quietly. At that time, they still had some reverence and dared not spread it openly. They wanted to test whether the "rancher" truly existed through small-scale, secret dissemination.
The "rancher" seemed to truly not exist, never appearing from beginning to end. Their courage grew bolder, and the Indestructible Sovereign thus became the first Epoch Sovereign of the Great Reincarnation Realm. Also mastering indestructible memories, the Nightfall Sovereign had originally surpassed the Indestructible Sovereign with his innate talent. But as the Indestructible Sovereign became an Epoch Sovereign, his indestructible memories, in turn, surpassed the Nightfall Sovereign again. When the Nightfall Sovereign could only help Reincarnation Lifeforms master indestructible memories, the Indestructible Sovereign could even help Primeval Lifeforms master indestructible memories.
As more and more beings mastered indestructible memories, an increasing number of individuals in each new Epoch Cycle inherited their past lives' memories. Due to possessing memories from previous Epoch Cycles, these beings naturally started at a higher point, and they increasingly occupied the resources of the Great Reincarnation Realm. Consequently, the Nightfall Sovereign and Dark Sun Sovereign successively became Epoch Sovereigns.
Given the Nightfall Sovereign's talent advantage, the dissemination of the Indestructible Will extraordinary system primarily relied on him. The Indestructible Sovereign, conversely, rarely appeared, until one day he disappeared. As close friends, the Nightfall Sovereign and Dark Sun Sovereign began to exhaust all their efforts investigating the reason and whereabouts of the Indestructible Sovereign's disappearance.
The result, of course, was that they uncovered nothing. Instead, as Epoch Cycles passed, the philosophies of the Nightfall Sovereign and Dark Sun Sovereign gradually clashed. They began to transform from former close friends into irreconcilable rivals. Of course, while they contended, there were also times when they cooperated. They secretly guided the Great Reincarnation Realm to birth a new Reincarnation Will, unbeknownst to all other Reincarnation Lifeforms.
They originally thought they could control the newborn Reincarnation Will. However, after its birth, the Reincarnation Will proved unexpectedly powerful; even their combined efforts were easily dominated by it. If they hadn't discovered the Reincarnation Will was entangled with thousands of Epoch Cycles' worth of karma this time, they still wouldn't have realized that the Reincarnation Will was the Indestructible Sovereign, nor would they have realized that the Indestructible Sovereign was merely using them.
Although over countless years they had suspected the Reincarnation Will might be entangled with karma, they couldn't visibly see it, and they couldn't defeat the Reincarnation Will to investigate further. While they had suspicions, they couldn't just do nothing because of those suspicions, especially since the Reincarnation Will was their only hope for transcendence.
"Isn't it said that the Immortal Sovereign is the oldest Epoch Sovereign?" Rosen asked, puzzled.
"That's not wrong," the Nightfall Sovereign explained. "The Immortal Sovereign is the oldest Epoch Sovereign, but he wasn't the first Epoch Sovereign. Before the Indestructible Sovereign became an Epoch Sovereign, the concept of an Epoch Sovereign didn't even exist. The core of an Epoch Sovereign is possessing indestructible memories."
"If the concept didn't exist, why is he the oldest?" Rosen remained confused.
"Allow me to explain!" the Immortal Sovereign said calmly. "Whether it's indestructible memories or an Epoch Sovereign, fundamentally, they are all transcendent powers born by breaking free from the constraints of the Great Reincarnation Realm. These transcendent powers transcend the rules of the Great Reincarnation Realm. I am the oldest Epoch Sovereign because I am naturally imbued with the desires of all beings for immortality. The desire for immortality of countless lives in the Great Reincarnation Realm, much like karma, cannot be erased even by the Epoch Cycle restarts of the Great Reincarnation Realm. So, countless Epoch Cycles ago, I already carried this desire and possessed the power of an Epoch Sovereign.
However, I had the power but no self to carry that power, which is why I wasn't the first Epoch Sovereign. But on the power level, I did indeed possess the power of an Epoch Sovereign earlier, which is why I am also called the oldest Epoch Sovereign."
Rosen, listening to the explanation, caught crucial information: whether it was the power of immortality converged from the desires of all beings for eternal life, or indestructible memories, or karmic entanglement, all these originated from the Great Reincarnation Realm, yet they were transcendent powers that even the Great Reincarnation Realm could not fully constrain. By extension, the Dark Sun Sovereign and Nightfall Sovereign must also possess their respective transcendent powers. Becoming an Epoch Sovereign, disseminating extraordinary systems, or surviving Epoch Cycles were not the key. These were merely auxiliary. Mastering transcendent power was the sole condition for becoming an Epoch Sovereign.
"Mastering transcendent power allows one to become an Epoch Sovereign?" Rosen couldn't help but ask.
"You might be able to master karmic entanglement. We will all help you become an Epoch Sovereign," the Nightfall Sovereign said hopefully.
Rosen believed the Nightfall Sovereign was sincere, but he wasn't confident he could master karmic entanglement. The Nightfall Sovereign and the others realized they had been deceived by the Reincarnation Will. They realized that the Reincarnation Will's shell, entangled with karma, could not be used as a resource for transcending Reincarnation Lifeforms. They even realized that the Reincarnation Will might have already used them to fulfill the conditions for transcendence in this Epoch Cycle.
In this situation, transcendence was no longer their top priority; survival was. If he could master karmic entanglement and become an Epoch Sovereign, it would simply mean one more competitor for them in the future. If he couldn't master it, he would surely die in this Epoch Cycle. If he were pushed to the brink and chose to go down with them, facing thousands of uncontrolled karmic entanglements, even an Epoch Sovereign would risk being dragged down to perish with him.
"How can I control the karma on me?" Rosen's single sentence plunged the Nightfall Sovereign and the others into a deathly silence.
If karmic entanglement were so easy to master, they wouldn't have gone to such lengths to create a scapegoat. Even a single instance of karmic entanglement left them helpless, let alone thousands of them. The solution to these karmic entanglements was probably known only to the Reincarnation Will. After all, the Reincarnation Will had lived for thousands of Epoch Cycles burdened by this karma, even attempting to transform Karma Reincarnation into Destiny Reincarnation. However, it now seemed that it wasn't them preventing the Reincarnation Will from mastering Destiny Reincarnation, but rather the Reincarnation Will itself giving up on a Destiny Reincarnation that couldn't succeed.
Although they couldn't help him master karmic entanglement, in this situation, they could only treat a desperate case as if there were still hope. The Civilization Sovereign personally took charge of guiding Rosen, sharing all the extraordinary systems of countless civilizations he had mastered, including even the transcendent powers held by the seven Epoch Sovereigns. There was no hint of holding back in the entire guidance process.
Rosen wasn't going to refuse such an offer. He also needed these extraordinary inheritances from different systems to gain broader understanding. With the help of the seven Epoch Sovereigns, Rosen's mastery of Karma Reincarnation grew stronger. However, without the Destiny Computer, he couldn't even master a single instance of karmic entanglement. If they could all work together to help someone master one instance of karma, there would be no need for a scapegoat. Their fundamental goal, therefore, was to curry favor with Rosen. They wanted to turn an enemy into a friend and minimize the probability of Rosen dragging them down to death if he couldn't survive.
Rosen was well aware of this, but he currently needed their help. The power of a mere Reincarnation Dao Lord was clearly insufficient to withstand thousands of instances of karmic entanglement. But as long as he mastered transcendent power and became an Epoch Sovereign, he might be able to transcend Reincarnation Lifeforms by utilizing the Reincarnation Will's clone shell. At that point, even if he couldn't shake off the karmic entanglement, he would have hope of surviving just like the Reincarnation Will.
Time passed year by year, and the destruction of the Great Reincarnation Realm drew closer. Rosen grew increasingly anxious, and the Nightfall Sovereign and the others also became more uneasy. Driven by desperation, they even began to gather the strength of all members of the two major factions, acting separately to maximally delay the destruction of the Great Reincarnation Realm. The bitter fruit they had once sown they now swallowed themselves. The Great Reincarnation Realm, which was originally supposed to be destroyed in six million years, was forcefully extended for another four million years.
Rosen realized that he couldn't, by any means, shake off the thousands of instances of karmic entanglement originating from the Reincarnation Will. He began to change his objective, attempting to master the single instance of karmic entanglement that had been transformed and integrated into the destiny network by the Destiny Computer. As expected, mastering this particular instance of karmic entanglement was much easier; the Destiny Computer significantly reduced the difficulty of mastery.
Rosen used to believe that Reincarnation power was the strongest power in the Great Reincarnation Realm. That's why there were Spacetime Reincarnation, Life-and-Death Reincarnation, and Karma Reincarnation. This understanding was not wrong; Reincarnation is indeed the strongest power in the Great Reincarnation Realm. However, no matter how powerful Reincarnation power is, it cannot transcend the Great Reincarnation Realm, which is similar to the concept of God not being able to create a rock so heavy that He cannot lift it. Therefore, the fundamental difficulty in obtaining the transcendent power to transcend the Great Reincarnation Realm lies in transcending reincarnation itself.
Although the Great Reincarnation Realm is powerful, it also has its moments of weakness. The time of its destruction is its weakest, and the time of its rebirth is its strongest. Between destruction and rebirth, it's easiest to master transcendent power. This is why it's said that one can only become an Epoch Sovereign by passing through an Epoch Cycle. While this statement has some inaccuracies, it is undeniably true that it's easiest to become an Epoch Sovereign by passing through an Epoch Cycle.
Therefore, the closer the Great Reincarnation Realm came to destruction, the closer Rosen felt to success. But at the same time, he also felt himself drawing closer to death. Because the more he studied and mastered karmic entanglement, the more he realized that karmic entanglement was ubiquitous, entangling all beings, countless universes, and the entire Great Reincarnation Realm.
The more his Indestructible Source Seed parasitized the Reincarnation Will's shell, the more karma he inherited, and the deeper his understanding of karma became. The increasingly strong karmic entanglement gradually created a stronger and stronger close connection between him and the Great Reincarnation Realm. The gradually destroying Great Reincarnation Realm made Rosen feel a sympathetic resonance, as if he too would be destroyed along with it.
The instinct for survival, generated by the step-by-step approach of death, made him parasitize the Reincarnation Will's shell even more frantically. Finally, six hundred thousand years before the destruction of the Great Reincarnation Realm, he completely inherited all thousands of instances of homologous karmic entanglement. And in this process, the Reincarnation Will's true form, like a human brain, was completely integrated into the Destiny Computer.
Rosen was very much looking forward to the changes in the Destiny Computer, because this might be his only way out. He discovered that not only did the seven Epoch Sovereigns not want him to die, but the Reincarnation Will very likely didn't want to see him perish either. Because if he died, the karma entangled with him might not disappear. Only if he lived could the Reincarnation Will shake off these karmic entanglements. That's why the Reincarnation Will helped him sublimate the Main God Computer into the Destiny Computer, and even delivered its own shell into his hands, all to help him survive this Epoch Cycle.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the Reincarnation Will would transcend during this cycle of destruction and rebirth of the Great Reincarnation Realm. This was the weakest point of the Great Reincarnation Realm, and also the easiest time to transcend. Therefore, no matter what, the Reincarnation Will would not watch him die before its own transcendence.