Lord: Sequence Master

Rosen enthusiastically bid farewell to the Wood Elf Queen and eagerly rushed into the Mysterious Study Room.

He took out the Miracle Pouch and placed the seed inside.

The detailed appraisal results came out quickly, confirming that his previous spiritual perception was correct.

This seed was the embryonic form of the Hero's Altar, a miraculous building unique to the Wood Elf race. It was extremely rare because it had the potential to grow, with the ability to evolve from Sequence 6 to Sequence 3.

Divine Domain Lords could confer the title of Hero, but heroes weren't exclusive to them.

Various intelligent races had their own special Hero Sequences. The birth of a hero required three conditions: strong personal combat ability, strong leadership ability, and, most importantly, recognition from the Flame of Civilization.

The first two were relatively easier to achieve, but gaining recognition from the Flame of Civilization was exceedingly difficult.

For most races, the methods to reliably produce heroes were very limited.

The Abyss Lords and the Divine Domain Lords of humanity could be classified as special hero units. However, not all intelligent races could establish Divine Domains like humans, nor could they, like Abyssal demons, become Abyss Lords through the favor of the Abyssal Will. As a result, many races eventually developed extraordinary buildings like the Hero's Altar.

The Hero's Altar could directly confer the title of hero and even resurrect a hero after death.

As a Divine Domain Lord, Rosen could already confer a hero title, but he was currently limited to one. With the Wood Elf Hero's Altar, he could now confer a second title. Furthermore, this Hero's Altar was a miraculous building with the Eternal Immortality attribute, meaning it could never be destroyed.

Rosen carefully planted the seed in the garden of his Ash Castle within his Divine Domain. He placed millions of spiritual crystals around it, allowing the seed to absorb the spiritual energy as it grew. Eventually, the seed sprouted into a miniature version of the Life Tree, standing only five meters tall. Its branches formed a spherical structure filled with a terrifying life force.

Rosen immediately used his Noble Extraordinary Essence to bind the Hero's Altar and refined it as the second Sequence 6 building in his Divine Domain.

In fact, miraculous buildings didn't need to be refined to function. However, without refining, any heroes conferred by the Hero's Altar wouldn't be fully recognized by the domain, so while structures like the Time Tower and Magic Altar didn't need to be integrated into the Divine Domain, the Hero's Altar had to be fully incorporated.

Hero's Altar: Miraculous Building

Level: Sequence 6 (Potential to grow to Sequence 3)Miraculous Attribute: Can confer the hero sequence to one Wood Elf.Miraculous Characteristics: Troop Transformation, Unique in the World, Eternal Immortality.

The higher the level of a miraculous item, the more characteristics it had, but the core attribute of the Hero's Altar was Troop Transformation.

By providing the necessary extraordinary sequence potions for the Wood Elf race, the altar could transform ordinary Wood Elves into Troops, and for a Divine Domain Lord, troops were far more valuable than ordinary extraordinary individuals.

In Rosen's Divine Domain, slimes, cave demons, ash bees, and knight retainers were all classified as troops. While extraordinary individuals like Kurapika might outperform troops of the same level in one-on-one combat, in large-scale battles, one hundred Kurapikas would never be able to defeat one hundred cave demons.

This was because, as troops, they could carry the blessings of both the lord and the heroes.

Rosen could grant part of his extraordinary abilities to a single troop, and that troop could easily defeat a Kurapika of the same level.

Thus, high-level troop buildings were the most coveted extraordinary structures for Divine Domain Lords.

Sequence 1 troop buildings were even qualified to be the Ancestral Treasures of the human race.

The Wood Elf race had three extraordinary sequences: Forest Guardians, Forest Mages, and Forest Watchers, which corresponded to humanity's Hunter, Wizard, and Assassin sequences, respectively. However, the former was slightly inferior to the latter at the same level.

Of course, the Wood Elves also had a rare sequence—the Elf King Sequence, which only the reigning queens could attain.

However, the Elf King couldn't be converted into a troop. The Hero's Altar could only transform Forest Guardians, Forest Mages, and Forest Watchers.

Alicia, now a Forest Mage, was destined to advance to Elf King in the future and might even become a hero.

Currently, Alicia's heart was entirely tied to Rosen.

If he asked her to stay, she certainly would, but it would deeply sadden her.

On the other hand, if he allowed Alicia to follow him, the Wood Elf Queen would undoubtedly worry about her beloved daughter's safety.

Rosen's intuition told him that this was precisely why the Wood Elf Queen had entrusted him with this precious Hero's Altar.

Because the Hero's Altar was a miraculous building with the Eternal Immortality attribute, part of Alicia's spirit could be linked to it, providing her with its protective power. Even a true god wouldn't be able to completely kill her, only seal her.

Moreover, becoming a hero would enhance Alicia's potential and significantly reduce the difficulty of reaching Sequence 1.

That night, the Wood Elf Queen discreetly sent Rosen 2,100 uninitiated Wood Elves.

She also provided the necessary potions for their transformation, along with formulas for future sequences.

Using the Hero's Altar, Rosen transformed 1,000 into Forest Guardians, 1,000 into Forest Mages, and 100 into Forest Watchers. Since Forest Watchers required proficiency in assassination techniques, fewer Wood Elves met the requirements for this transformation.

Once all the troops had been transformed, Rosen began conferring the hero sequence to Alicia.

The process went smoothly, and Rosen gained his first hero.

Alicia: Wood Elf

Age: 160 yearsProfession: Sequence 5 Forest Mage, Sequence 6 HeroSpiritual Energy: 50 pointsCommand Power: 5,000 + 5,000Talents: Sequence 3 Life Affinity, Sequence 4 Elemental AffinitySkills: Life Sharing, Plant Control, Wood Magic, Life Magic…Hero Skills: Hero Aura, Forest Mist, Leadership, Hero Logistics

Rosen was slightly taken aback after reviewing her attributes—Alicia's talents were even better than expected.

Her innate Sequence 3 Life Affinity would significantly increase her chances of acquiring the Pseudo-Divine Authority of Life and becoming a demigod.

Her Command Power of 5,000 meant she could lead up to 5,000 Sequence 9 troops, 2,500 Sequence 8 troops, or 1,250 Sequence 7 troops. The higher the sequence, the more command power required.

With her Hero Aura, Alicia could share some of her abilities with her troops, further enhancing their combat effectiveness.

Additionally, Forest Mist could create a fog in forested areas that would obscure the enemy's perception while boosting her troops' abilities.

Her Leadership skill doubled her command power.

Lastly, Hero Logistics significantly reduced her troops' spiritual energy consumption and accelerated their recovery.

These four hero skills were special and had no level—they automatically grew as her sequence level advanced. Collectively, they greatly increased the combat effectiveness of her troops.

Since transforming into a hero, Alicia had been leading her 2,100 Wood Elves in various virtual realms, gaining experience at a rapid pace.

While Alicia busied herself with training her hero troops, Rosen immersed himself in the Wood Elf Royal Library.

He discovered numerous valuable materials, revealing that the Sacred Continent originally didn't belong to the giants but to the elves. At that time, the Sacred Continent didn't have the colossal plants it had now.

However, the giants later arrived, defeated the elves, and felled the Life Mother Tree.

Eventually, they divided the Sequence 0 Life Mother Tree's Authorities and spread them across the Sacred Continent, resulting in the emergence of countless gigantic plants and beasts, artificially creating an environment most suitable for giant survival.

Thus, theoretically, the Sacred Continent's Foreign Spirit Realms included both giants and elves.

However, the elven defeat occurred so long ago that it predated the birth of the Spirit World. Consequently, the Spirit World captured very few historical traces, making elven Spirit Realms exceptionally rare.

Rosen repeatedly infiltrated the Spirit Web using the Main God Computer, gradually uncovering many secrets.

One key secret he uncovered was that the current Flame of Civilization system originated from the Fire of Civilization Divine Kingdom, but the kingdom wasn't the creator of the Flame of Civilization, merely its discoverer. The Divine Kingdom claimed to have created the Flame only to elevate its own status.

Thus, the Flame of Civilization had existed long before, and the Divine Kingdom simply discovered and created a system to ignite the Flame of Civilization.

The historical traces stored within the Spirit World were essentially Flame of Civilization embers that had been captured by the Spirit World.

If the embers of the long-extinct elven civilization still existed on the Sacred Continent, they would likely manifest as Mirages within the Spirit World's surface layer.

However, in the Wood Elf Kingdom's recorded data on the Spirit World, there had never been any mention of mirages related to the elven civilization.

Oddly enough, several elven Spirit Realms did still exist.

There were two possible explanations: either there had never been a grand elven civilization on the Sacred Continent and the records of the Wood Elf Kingdom were false, or the Spirit World had only captured a tiny portion of the embers of the fallen elven civilization.

Most of the Flame of Civilization embers might not be located in the Spirit World's depths, which would explain the absence of elven-related mirages.

Rosen believed the second theory, as there was already precedent for such a situation.

The Spirit World didn't have any Spirit Realms related to the Fire of Civilization Divine Kingdom, because the kingdom's Flame of Civilization embers had scattered into the human world and now formed the Ashes that enveloped humanity. This led to a situation where there were no Spirit Realms related to the kingdom.

Rosen wanted to delve deeper, but the Main God Computer's infiltration capabilities had their limits.

Infiltrating the Spirit Web required his Divine Power. The more encrypted the information, the longer the infiltration process took. Clearly, the information Rosen sought was highly classified, and his current spiritual strength wasn't enough to support the Main God Computer in completing the infiltration.

Nonetheless, Rosen had found some clues.

Combining these clues with the Wood Elf Kingdom's records, Rosen was able to form some theories.

He believed that the Flame of Civilization embers from the ancient elven civilization might still remain on the Sacred Continent.

To verify this, Rosen decided to conduct a simple test.

Rosen placed his hand on the Life Tree's trunk and used his spiritual energy to communicate with the tree's spirit.

In the next instant, he was transported by the Life Tree to its roots.

The Life Tree wasn't planted randomly; the Wood Elves had specifically chosen a location that had once been a site where the ancient Life Elves of the Sacred Continent planted their Life Trees. This area naturally gathered spiritual energy from tens of thousands of kilometers around.

Thus, beneath the Life Tree's roots remained traces of an ancient Life Elf Civilization that had perished thousands of years ago.

If the Flame of Civilization embers were still in the physical Sacred Continent, then this site might be where the missing embers could be found.

With the help of the Life Tree, Rosen was directly transported to the ancient ruins.

He found himself in a temple about one hundred meters in diameter. The entire temple was constructed from the branches of the Life Mother Tree. Although the branches had long since lost their vitality, the Life Tree continued to nourish the temple with its Life Essence year after year.

If there was a chance for these dead branches to sprout again, perhaps the Life Mother Tree could be reborn.

However, after nearly twenty thousand years, the Life Tree's efforts had proven fruitless.

Rosen walked cautiously inside the temple, using the Miracle Flame and the Firewood Fire to sense any Flame of Civilization embers.

Almost instantly, he detected something. He followed the sensation to the statue of a deity inside the temple. The statue of the elven true god was entirely composed of Flame of Civilization embers, but it appeared to be sealed by a layer of special enchantment.

"Can I take this statue?" Rosen asked, communicating with the Life Tree through his spirit.

The Life Tree didn't object, so Rosen didn't hesitate to take the statue apart.

As long as he didn't dismantle the temple itself, the Life Tree seemed indifferent.

This wasn't surprising. After all, the Life Mother Tree had given birth to both the Life Tree and the earliest elves. Even a true god of the elven race would be viewed as a peer by the Life Tree, so it had no inclination to protect the statue of a long-dead peer.

Rosen brought the statue back to the Mysterious Study Room and extended the Ethernet Cable to touch the statue.

He found that the seal on the statue was imbued with powerful divine energy, which the Main God Computer was extremely adept at countering.

Sure enough, as soon as the Ethernet Cable made contact, the Main God Computer began continuously extracting divine energy from the statue.

It even extracted some information, which appeared on the Main God Computer's interface.

Rosen watched intently as the history of the Life Tree, which had been burned to ash by the Flame of Civilization, unfolded. From this tree, a Life Elf civilization had emerged, and beside the burning Life Tree stood a giant engulfed in the raging flames of civilization.

After the Life Elf civilization had been entirely reduced to Flame of Civilization embers, the giant collected all the embers and molded them into a statue.

He then placed the statue into a temple built from the branches of the Life Mother Tree and buried the temple deep underground, where it vanished from the surface. Clearly, the giant race had collected the Flame of Civilization embers from the elven race.

Furthermore, there were likely many such temples and statues scattered across the Sacred Continent.

As Rosen continued watching, the Main God Computer unexpectedly deciphered the purpose of sealing the Flame of Civilization embers.

With the Main God Computer's level of decryption, it shouldn't have been able to achieve this.

Unless the information had been intentionally stored in the divine energy by the giant true god.

"So that's what it is," Rosen muttered, smiling in surprise as he finished reading the decrypted information.

The giant civilization had also lit its Flame of Civilization using methods stolen from the Fire of Civilization Divine Kingdom.

The giants then developed an innovative technique for utilizing the Flame of Civilization embers.

Flame of Civilization embers possessed the same Eternal Immortality attribute as miraculous items, and the giants believed that the embers were the most unique type of miracle.

This was before the birth of Spirit Realms, yet the giants had already discovered that Flame of Civilization embers contained historical traces.

Thus, they forged the Flame of Civilization embers into statues of true gods and used the power of the Life Mother Tree to continuously nourish the statues. The goal was to create artificial miraculous items, though, judging by the results, the technology had ultimately failed.

Had the technique been perfected, the giant true god wouldn't have left related information behind within the divine energy.

Although the technology had failed, the Flame of Civilization embers, after being refined by the Life Mother Tree's energy for thousands of years, had undergone some changes.

Rosen discovered that the Flame of Civilization Firewood produced by these embers was special.

Compared to ordinary Flame of Civilization embers, it was akin to the difference between wood and charcoal.

The latter burned more easily and, once ignited, could project a greater Flame of Civilization Light.

Rosen tossed the firewood into the Firewood Fire Pit and ignited it with the Miracle Flame.

As the firewood burned, Rosen gazed into the flames, watching as they cast their light onto the Ashen Canvas, projecting the Light of Civilization and revealing the historical traces hidden within the Flame of Civilization embers.

Rosen witnessed another Life Tree and countless elves living beneath it.

These weren't Wood Elves but the superior Life Elves, the ancestors of the Wood Elves.

Alicia, in fact, was a Life Elf by blood, which explained why she had inherited the innate Sequence 3 Life Affinity talent.

There were hundreds of thousands of Life Elves—a large elven civilization branch.

All the elves were busy and anxious, preparing for battle.

Finally, the giants appeared within the historical record. Tens of thousands of giants marched across the land, causing the ground to sink beneath their feet. Even the smallest giants stood several hundred meters tall, carrying mountains that they hurled toward the Life Tree from afar.

The war between the Life Elves and the giants lasted for three years, with heavy losses on both sides, yet no victor emerged.

The decisive battle finally came when a giant god, engulfed in flames, stepped forward from among the giants. The Life Tree also came to life at that moment, transforming into a humanoid form as the True God worshipped by the Life Elves descended.

But just as the two gods manifested, the historical traces abruptly ended.

Clearly, the Flame of Civilization embers weren't sufficient to bear the full memory of true gods.

Rosen pulled out his Divine Pen and touched it to the Ashen Canvas, beginning to infuse it with divine energy.

Based on his calculations, to reignite the Flame of Civilization for the Life Elf civilization and recreate the past within the world of the painting, he would need at least hundreds of millions in divine energy. That translated to roughly six billion high-grade spiritual crystals.

If converted into low-grade spiritual crystals, the amount would exceed six hundred billion.

Rosen only had a few billion spiritual crystals on hand. Even if he sold all his miraculous items and his regular extraordinary resources, he would barely be able to gather a little over ten billion spiritual crystals. Even if he sold his Time Attribute spiritual crystals, he might only get a few hundred billion.

This meant he was still short by nine-tenths of the required amount to resurrect the Life Elf civilization.

Rosen shook his head. If he succeeded in reigniting the Flame of Civilization, he could at least obtain a Sequence 2 Spirit Realm Painting.

While the investment was huge, the returns would be well worth it.

After all, the Life Elf civilization had a Sequence 2 Life Tree, hundreds of thousands of Life Elves who could become his subjects, and even multiple demigod Life Elves. These were assets that couldn't be bought, even for trillions of spiritual crystals.

At the very least, it would be an enormous profit, but he simply couldn't afford it.

For the first time in years, Rosen felt poor.

In truth, if he sold off a few miraculous items, he might be able to gather the necessary amount of spiritual crystals.

The Sequence 3 Resurrection Cross and Sea God's Ring, and the Sequence 5 Time Tower, were all priceless treasures.

However, Rosen was concerned that even if he managed to reignite the Flame of Civilization and create a Sequence 2 Spirit Realm Painting with his Flame Painter abilities, he might not have the strength to control such a powerful painting.

It was at this moment that Rosen realized how arrogant he had become lately.

The incredible gains he had made by lighting up a portion of the Dark Continent with Mechanical Cities had made him impatient to quickly find one thousand such cities and fully light up the entire Dark Continent. But he had overlooked the fact that this wasn't something a Sequence 6 individual should be doing.

Even if he lit up the entire Dark Continent, or obtained a Sequence 2 Spirit Realm Painting, what then?

These were all external objects. His true advancement, in terms of sequence level, was what really mattered.

He hadn't even fully absorbed the extraordinary resources worth tens of billions of spiritual crystals in his possession, yet here he was, thinking about how to make hundreds of billions more.

Rosen shook his head and calmed himself, deciding to return to a more grounded approach.

Of course, he wouldn't abandon his pursuit of Foreign Spirit Realms, but he would take a more natural pace, without obsessing over completing everything in a short period.

With his mindset adjusted, Rosen soon discovered something he had previously overlooked—there was a painter's sanctuary within the Sky Garden.

The natural beauty of the Wood Elf Kingdom and the stunning appearance of the Wood Elves, regardless of gender, made it a favorite destination for many painters from nearby nations. The Sky Garden, in particular, had become a place adored by artists.

As a result, the Artist Guild of the Sky Garden boasted a massive gallery owned by the Wood Elf Royal Family.

Almost every painter who visited left behind a few paintings, and while most of them were low-sequence spiritual paintings, there were also some high-quality works of Sequence 3 or higher.

Even spiritual paintings underwent a qualitative change once they reached Sequence 3.

Upon learning about the gallery, Rosen eagerly moved in and planned to stay for the long term.

If he could fully comprehend the painting sequence knowledge contained in all the spiritual paintings there, he estimated that he could at least advance to Sequence 4 as a painter.

Two years passed without him noticing, and during that time, his Mind Canvas, Sketching Techniques, and Glory Blood Seal had all reached Level 5.

As for his other special abilities, they would naturally improve as his sequence level rose.

(End of Chapter)