Lord: Sequence Master

Inside the Sky Garden's Elven Art Gallery, Rosen put down the last painting he had copied.

Most of the spiritual paintings in the gallery were of lower quality than his own work.

However, he still spent five years meticulously copying every painting in the gallery.

This was because each painting contained different spiritual energy and conveyed unique artistic intent.

At first, Rosen simply copied them in a straightforward manner.

But as his Mind Canvas and Sketching Techniques advanced to Level 5, even though he suppressed any new abilities from manifesting, his understanding of the essence within each painting deepened. As a result, his copies transitioned from simple imitations to perfect replications.

What is a perfect replication?

The answer lies in replicating not just the paper, the paint, or the technique, but also infusing the exact same spiritual energy into the artwork.

Rosen had mastered the Body Painting technique, allowing him to perfectly mimic the spiritual essence of the original.

Thus, the spiritual energy Rosen infused into his copies was almost identical to that of the original artist.

With these perfect replicas, even the original artists would have difficulty distinguishing which painting was real and which was fake.

Rosen wasn't pursuing perfect replication just to create flawless forgeries.

His goal was to push the realism of his spiritual paintings to the extreme.

In normal spiritual paintings, if an artist painted a bird, even if the bird was summoned from the painting, it would only contain the artist's own spiritual energy, not the true spiritual essence of a real bird. No matter how lifelike it appeared, it was still fake.

But now, when Rosen painted a bird, he could perfectly mimic the spiritual energy of a real bird.

The bird he painted would undoubtedly be more real.

For a painter, this meant he was one step closer to mastering Creation Authority.

Rosen had already mastered the Authority of Creation, so now he was focused on refining his control.

Furthermore, if he were to paint a Death Judgment portrait in the future, he would be able to perfectly replicate the spiritual essence of the target. This would greatly enhance the power of the Death Judgment curse, potentially allowing him to kill a Sequence 5 extraordinary being even while still at Sequence 6.

Through these perfect replications, Rosen's painting speed had also increased significantly.

So after five years, even though his spiritual energy remained at 47 points, he was now far stronger than he had been.

Closing his Void Sketchbook, Rosen left the Elven Gallery without a backward glance.

There was nothing more for him to gain here, and now he needed to complete a Spirit Realm Painting using these seven years of accumulated skills.

He planned to create a painting based on the historical traces of the Life Elves from thousands of years ago, a painting that, when completed, would reach Sequence 2 in level.

While Rosen couldn't paint an entire Life Elf civilization, he could capture a small part of it.

During his study of the Ashen Light, he had noticed that as the war dragged on, the Life Elves had brought out their ultimate weapons, including several War Trees—special plants capable of mass-producing soldiers as an extraordinary structure.

By the current era, most War Trees had been lost. Only a few elven civilizations outside the human world still possessed them.

Without the Life Mother Tree, it was no longer possible to cultivate new War Trees.

Rosen set his sights on a military camp built around a Sequence 6 War Tree. While he couldn't recreate the entire Life Elf civilization, capturing a military camp in his painting was no different from how he had once extracted a single library as a model.

This time, however, he intended to elevate it into a full Spirit Realm Painting.

To do so, he would need to use materials from the Life Mother Tree itself.

Rosen planned to travel across the Sacred Continent, seeking out other elven temples hidden underground by giant true gods. Along the way, he hoped to find not only the Flame of Civilization embers from elven civilizations but also priceless materials from the Life Mother Tree.

Finding these relics, however, was the key challenge.

Rosen believed the World Government had long since discovered many of the giant-forged elven temples on the Sacred Continent.

Thus, most elven temples had likely already fallen into the hands of the World Government.

What he needed to find were the ones that slipped through the cracks, which would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.

This time, he would have to rely on the Miracle Pouch.

Rosen made his way to the Wood Elf Kingdom's treasury, having already contacted the Wood Elf Queen in advance.

There were no guards, as the treasury was located within the inner world of the Life Tree.

Inside the treasury, Rosen took a small sliver of wood from the Life Mother Tree's remnants. Despite being only the size of a thumb, the entire Wood Elf Kingdom had only a few pieces. Even though it wasn't a precious part like the tree's core, this fragment was still a Sequence 1 extraordinary material of the highest quality.

After acquiring the fragment, Rosen tossed it into the Miracle Pouch and began pouring in the power of the Flame of Civilization.

In the past, Rosen hadn't known how to measure his luck, but after igniting the embers of the Life Elf civilization and awakening the power of the Miracle Flame, he realized that his luck had long been tied to the Miracle Flame.

The stronger his luck, the more vigorous the Miracle Flame, and the more control he had over it.

Once his luck grew strong enough and his Sequence level reached at least Sequence 3, he would be able to fully refine the Miracle Flame, gaining insight into its attributes and characteristics. Currently, however, he could only draw on a small portion of its power.

Luck could be both innate and acquired, but innate luck was far more valuable.

This was because innate luck could regenerate after being consumed, whereas acquired luck could not.

Acquired luck could come from many sources—advancing in Sequence level, accumulating wealth, gaining fame, or elevating one's noble rank—all these could boost luck. Becoming the future Prince Consort of the Wood Elf Kingdom had greatly increased Rosen's luck.

However, even after exhausting all the additional luck he had gained, the Miracle Pouch still required more for an equivalent exchange.

In the end, he nearly drained all his acquired luck before the Miracle Pouch activated its treasure-seeking ability.

With the boost from equivalent exchange, the Miracle Pouch successfully located unclaimed Life Mother Tree remnants.

Rosen examined the spiritual treasure map sent by the Miracle Pouch and saw that he needed to travel 1.69 million miles east.

That was no short distance, and the journey was unlikely to be uneventful.

With his acquired luck now depleted, Rosen could feel the Miracle Flame weakening significantly. Any hopes of easily finding miraculous items were gone for now. But he had no regrets about using up his luck.

Once he found the Life Mother Tree remnants, the increase in his wealth and resources would undoubtedly cause his luck to soar again.

After spending several days buying supplies in the Sky Garden, Rosen prepared to bid farewell to the Wood Elf Queen.

"Take good care of Alicia," the Queen said, hugging her daughter tightly, reluctant to let her go.

"Don't worry, she can come back anytime she needs to," Rosen reassured her.

As he spoke, he summoned his mechanical mount and removed the bond, handing it to Alicia.

With his luck in decline, Rosen knew that riding the mechanical mount himself would likely lead to trouble.

Instead, he planned to hide in the Mysterious Study Room while Alicia piloted the mount to their destination.

This also served as a gift for Alicia—the mechanical mount had several knightly aura skills that would greatly enhance her ability to command soldiers.

"I love this gift," Alicia said excitedly, kissing him as she quickly bonded with the mount with Rosen's help.

Rosen then entered the Mysterious Study Room through the mount, leaving Alicia to pilot it. Through his Hero Altar, he guided her along the route, and the mechanical mount transformed into a jet, silently departing the Sky Garden.

With a straight distance of 1.69 million miles, even traveling non-stop would take at least two months.

Half a month passed, and thanks to Alicia's Sequence skills shared with the mechanical mount, they made faster progress than expected. By then, they had already entered the Sacred Wood Empire.

One evening, while Rosen was reading by the window, a sudden sense of foreboding struck him.

His Sixth Sense skill was alerting him to danger, yet Alicia remained completely unaware.

Without hesitation, Rosen used his power to pull Alicia and the mechanical mount into a corner of his Divine Domain, isolating them from the outside world. The Mysterious Study Room remained anchored to its location.

Peering out of the window, Rosen saw nothing but darkness.

From the gaps between the giant trees, he looked up at the sky, where he saw ash clouds slowly gathering.

Soon, rain began to fall. Holding his Dragon Fang Dagger, Rosen extended its tip out the window, conjuring three water clones from the raindrops.

The water clones could hide in the rain, and combined with Void Concealment, even a Sequence 4 enemy would struggle to detect them. He sent the three clones in different directions to scout and soon discovered a spatial barrier that enveloped an area several hundred miles wide.

Someone had anticipated his route and set a trap, waiting for him to walk into it.

For such a grand scheme, Rosen's first thought was of the Moore Family from the Sacred Wood Empire, with whom he had a score to settle, the 35 nobles he had killed using Death Judgment, or perhaps the two remaining hereditary dukes of the Wood Elf Kingdom.

It seemed a tough battle was inevitable if he wanted to escape.

But no matter who was plotting against him, Rosen vowed to repay them tenfold once he got out.

He released his Self-Portrait Clone, which activated Sloth's Foot as soon as it approached the spatial barrier, attempting to pass through it. Rosen didn't believe the barrier was Sequence 2 level.

Indeed, his clone easily passed through—the barrier was at most Sequence 4.

However, just as the clone Void Shifted to the other side, a dagger appeared silently behind it, slicing its throat with a lethal strike that drained all its life in an instant.

"A Sequence 3 demigod assassin? From the Moore Family?" Rosen frowned. To his knowledge, the Moore Family had a demigod, but they were a Gourmet, not an assassin.

Where had this assassin come from?

He couldn't hope to defeat such an opponent—his priority was to escape!

At the very least, Rosen needed to figure out the assassin's identity so he could exact his revenge later.

He pulled out the Destiny Pen and used his power to attempt a Fate Check on the demigod assassin.

However, no fate information was revealed.

The gap in their levels was simply too large; even at Sequence 6, Rosen's fate-checking abilities struggled to affect Sequence 4 targets.

While the demigod assassin had easily killed his Self-Portrait Clone, they hadn't bothered with his three water clones.

It seemed the assassin thought they weren't worth killing and could be used to lure the real Rosen.

This gave Rosen the opportunity to have the water clones set traps throughout the forest.

The assassin, hidden in the void, watched this happen, unfazed. He didn't believe these Sequence 6 traps could pose any threat to him. Though he couldn't locate the real Rosen, he didn't think Rosen could slip out of the spatial barrier without a sound.

If Rosen wanted to use traps to create an escape route, the assassin was willing to let him try.

After all, if he destroyed the traps too early, Rosen might never show himself.

If Rosen's backers arrived, the assassin's hunt would fail.

Once the traps were in place, Rosen activated the Stellar Emblem.

His spiritual strength surged to the limits of Sequence 4. At the same time, the Ancient God Relic in his heart boosted his spiritual power by nine points, pushing him to Sequence 3. Without hesitation, Rosen activated Void Shift and leaped out of the window.

The assassin immediately locked onto Rosen, teleporting behind him in an instant.

The time traps Rosen had set were activated but did nothing to slow the demigod assassin.

At that critical moment, Rosen produced a miniature Time Tower.

An extraordinary structure's true power could transcend two Sequence levels.

At Sequence 5, the Time Tower could hold its own against a Sequence 3 opponent.

But only if Rosen were at least Sequence 3 himself, which would allow him to fully unleash the Time Tower's power.

The Time Tower rapidly unfolded, and the Time Seal enveloped everything in its golden glow, freezing time.

Rosen quickly exited the Time Seal and absorbed the Time Tower back into his Gluttonous Stomach, which had swallowed both the Time Tower and the demigod assassin's clone.

However, just as this happened, another demigod assassin appeared behind Rosen.

Rosen had anticipated this. With another Void Shift, he teleported back to the window and re-entered the Mysterious Study Room.

The demigod assassin's clone had been sealed, but the real body had nearly killed Rosen during the escape. The space around him had twisted, preventing normal Void Shifts, but Rosen's Void Dance technique could bypass space interference below Sequence 3.

Coupled with the Sloth's Foot ability to ignore barriers, he had managed to escape the Sequence 3 space lock.

Rosen stood by the window, his heart still racing. He had taken a big risk, but the outcome was favorable.

He hadn't expected to defeat the demigod assassin outright, as assassins were skilled at using clones in battle. His goal had been to capture one clone with a sneak attack.

The Time Seal was the core ability of the Time Tower. Even a Sequence 3 being would be frozen in time within it.

However, the seal only lasted nine seconds. Once the Stellar Emblem's boost faded, Rosen would no longer be able to fully wield the Time Tower's peak power.

With five seconds remaining, Rosen removed the mask from the demigod assassin's clone.

It was an ordinary face, and Rosen, being an expert in portrait painting, immediately recognized it as a disguised and altered appearance. Left with no choice, he put away the Time Tower and left, activating his Gluttonous Stomach to dissolve the clone.

The demigod assassin's clone attacked the Gluttonous Stomach frantically but couldn't break its defenses.

Realizing this, the clone self-destructed.

Though the clone was destroyed, it left behind a trace of its spiritual aura.

Rosen then placed the Stellar Emblem inside the Time Tower, using its fivefold time acceleration to cool it down.

Five hours later, Rosen reactivated the Stellar Emblem and once again used the Ancient God Relic to boost his spiritual power to Sequence 3.

Using the spiritual aura left by the clone as a medium, he locked onto the demigod assassin's true body and cast Body Sculpture.

At that moment, the demigod assassin, who had been lurking in the space barrier, suddenly found himself unable to move.

Seizing the opportunity, Rosen Void Shifted to the assassin's location and stripped him of his clothing, including his dagger, shoes, and even his mask, tossing all of it into the Miracle Pouch.

Only then did Rosen open his mouth, preparing to swallow the immobilized assassin into his Gluttonous Stomach.

Just then, another clone of the demigod assassin attacked.

The assassin had earlier refrained from attacking during the looting because he wasn't confident his clone could successfully kill Rosen within the time stasis created by the Time Tower.

Since Rosen had only been looting, the assassin had decided to let him take the gear.

All the stolen items were extraordinary artifacts the assassin had refined, including the Twin Dagger, a miraculous item.

As long as Rosen held onto the dagger, he wouldn't be able to hide from the assassin, no matter where he fled.

Prepared for this, Rosen Void Shifted back into the Mysterious Study Room once more.

The demigod assassin's expression changed drastically, for he could no longer sense any of his artifacts.

He had gone to great lengths to set a trap, only to catch nothing?

Inside the Mysterious Study Room, Rosen noticed the Miracle Flame burning a little brighter.

Clearly, he had made a significant gain, which had increased his acquired luck.

Rosen opened the Miracle Pouch to inspect his loot, realizing that the assassin was not an old demigod. Apart from the Sequence 3 boots, all the other items were Sequence 4, though the Sequence 4 Twin Dagger was a pleasant surprise.

[Twin Dagger: Miraculous Item (1/2)]

[Level: Sequence 4]

[Miraculous Attribute: Skills below Sequence 3 are twice as effective when using the Twin Dagger.]

[Miraculous Traits: Poisoning, Weakening, Sharpness, Instant Death, Twin, Heaven and Earth Unique, Eternal Indestructibility]

The Poison trait enhanced damage, Weakness drained enemies, Sharpness improved penetration, and Instant Death was one of the most terrifying traits.

This Twin Dagger had maxed-out offensive traits, but its true value lay in its core attribute.

The ability to double skill effectiveness, though limited to skills of Sequence 4 and below, was still a power that even a true god might covet. The limitation on skill level drastically reduced its value, but it was still a formidable weapon.

Rosen then examined the Twin trait, the core feature of the Twin Dagger.

As long as one dagger remained intact, the other could regenerate quickly, even if destroyed.

At first glance, this trait seemed underwhelming, given that miraculous items had Eternal Indestructibility, meaning they could regenerate on their own if destroyed.

However, upon further thought, Rosen realized the true potential of this trait.

For instance, some assassin skills allowed for short bursts of extreme damage at the cost of shattering the weapon.

The strength of the burst depended on the quality of the weapon.

Shattering a Sequence 4 miraculous item would result in an incredibly powerful burst.

There was no such thing as a worthless miraculous trait—it was all about using it in the right way.

Rosen had given the mechanical mount to Alicia, so he no longer had the Holy Judgement Aura to boost his damage.

However, if he could learn the right skill through Body Painting, he would undoubtedly push his damage potential to a whole new level.

Before that, though, Rosen needed to obtain the other Twin Dagger from the demigod assassin.

When he had looted the assassin's gear, he had only found one dagger, meaning the other was still in the assassin's possession. The assassin likely intended to use the Twin trait to track Rosen down.

It was a good plan, but the Mysterious Study Room was capable of blocking even the Twin trait's effects.

Rosen entered the Time Tower and used the accelerated time within to begin refining the Twin Dagger with his spiritual energy.

Normally, a Sequence 6's spiritual energy wouldn't be enough to overcome the divine nature of a Sequence 3 item. However, Rosen's Greed Authority allowed him to forcibly seize control of any extraordinary element below Sequence 2, including miraculous items at Sequence 4.

In less than an hour, Rosen had claimed the Twin Dagger as his own.

Outside, the demigod assassin was growing increasingly anxious. Never before had an assassination gone so wrong.

Apart from killing a Self-Portrait Clone, he had failed to capture Rosen twice.

What's worse, Rosen had vanished completely, despite the assassin's best efforts to locate him.

Had Rosen's backers arrived to help him escape? The assassin didn't think so—he hadn't seen any signs of them.

Still, as an assassin, he knew that the longer a fight dragged on, the worse it would be for him.

Reluctantly, the assassin contacted his employer for reinforcements. This target was far stronger than the employer had suggested, and if they wanted the job done, they'd need to pay more and provide additional support. Otherwise, he would be taking compensation from the employer directly.

Half an hour later, a Sequence 4 Hunter and a Sequence 3 Gourmet arrived to help.

Despite their combined efforts, they couldn't find any trace of Rosen. The Gourmet even began to suspect that Rosen had already escaped.

Still, the assassin insisted on staying, continuing to wait for his target.

Rosen, of course, hadn't left—he was busy calling for backup.

While refining the Twin Dagger, he had already sent a newly created Self-Portrait Clone through Void Phasing back to the Sky Garden.

Once he activated Void Phasing again, he could return with the Wood Elf Queen for reinforcements.

But Rosen wanted to be extra cautious, so he also planned to uncover the demigod assassin's true identity through the Spirit Web.

By digesting the demigod assassin's clone, Rosen had captured a trace of the assassin's spiritual aura, which could serve as a medium for his Body Painting.

This aura also included the assassin's spiritual signature, and while the assassin could hide his true identity in the real world, he couldn't disguise himself in the Spirit Web.

All Rosen needed to do was find the names of the nearby demigod assassins, then hack the Spirit Web using the Main God Computer to compare their spiritual signatures.

Another hour passed, and Rosen successfully identified the demigod assassin.

This was a notorious assassin who specialized in killing human nobles and seemed to harbor a deep-seated hatred for nobility. His fees were exorbitant, and his methods were top-notch. As Rosen followed the clues, it became clear that his employer was none other than the Moore Family.

(End of Chapter)