Lord: Sequence Master

"King of Wands from the King's Organization..."

Rosen placed the Holy Grail King card inside the drawer of the Mysterious Study Room.

Besides the True God backing them, the remaining two candidates for the Knight of Wands were also troublesome opponents. The King's Organization must have already taken notice of him, but whether they knew he possessed a Fallen Tarot card remained uncertain.

The reason was simple: if he were in Pompey's shoes, he wouldn't have reported it immediately. Pompey had long harbored dissatisfaction toward the King's Organization. Even though they had given him substantial support when advancing from Sequence 2 to Sequence 1, they failed to assist him further in ascending to Sequence 0. That made Pompey increasingly disloyal to them.

With a Holy Grail King and a King of Wands, there should also be a King of Swords and a King of Pentacles. However, he had no idea how many kings the King's Organization currently had.

In any case, getting involved with them would bring no benefits. He needed to be wary of the remaining two Knight of Wands candidates.

...

As Rosen left the Shining City, a mysterious space surfaced from the depths of the Spirit Realm.

This enigmatic space stretched infinitely, resembling a vast universe without boundaries. At the center floated a mass of white mist, surrounded by four grand and majestic thrones formed from countless stars.

Behind each throne were starry constructs shaped like a wand, a cup, a sword, and a coin.

Upon the Throne of Wands, a towering figure appeared, causing the mist at the center to churn restlessly.

Moments later, figures appeared on the Thrones of Swords and Pentacles as well.

"My Knight of Wands and candidate for the Squire of Wands have both perished," said the King of Wands, looking down at the swirling mist with a deep voice.

"To summon us, does this mean their deaths are related to the Holy Grail King?" asked the King of Swords directly.

"He's only Sequence 3 and far from being able to trigger the true King's Game."

The King of Wands answered decisively.

"King of Pentacles, only you remain in the human world. You know I can't wait any longer," the King of Swords expressed eagerly.

"I know you're anxious, but even so, you have to wait. Have you forgotten why the last King's Game failed?" the King of Pentacles retorted.

"My mistake. I'll contribute two shares; you each provide one," the King of Swords conceded without hesitation.

"One thousand years, no more than that," the King of Wands reminded sternly.

The King of Pentacles nodded and vanished from the mysterious realm, returning to the mortal world.

After the King of Swords also departed, the King of Wands gazed at the mist, his expression complicated—greedy, resentful, and tinged with a hint of fear even he didn't fully recognize.

He yearned for the King's Game yet simultaneously dreaded its resurgence.

As the King of Wands quietly departed, the mysterious space sank back into the depths of the Spirit Realm, as if it had never surfaced.

…

When Rosen returned to Sky City of Divine Arms, he quickly realized that Kubie's threat was not empty.

He found himself unable to hire any artistic designers or architects to help upgrade and strengthen his Void Gallery.

All demi-gods had received a warning through the Spirit Realm Deep Web. The warnings came from the Artistic Designers' Guild and the Architects' Guild. It was understandable that the former was retaliating after losing a vice president, but how did the latter get involved?

While pondering alternative ways to upgrade the Void Gallery, Rosen suddenly noticed that the ban on him had been lifted.

Not only had the Artistic Designers' Guild withdrawn their ban, but they had also issued a public apology on the Spirit Realm Deep Web. The Architects' Guild did the same, making the previous bans seem like a complete farce.

Just as Rosen was wondering what had happened, a Spirit Realm Messenger appeared silently beside him.

The messenger dropped a letter and vanished back into the Spirit Realm without a trace.

Rosen was currently busy reconstructing his Divine Domain. Though it had not yet fully recovered, it was not a place just any messenger could breach. If his eyes were not mistaken, that messenger was at least Sequence 0.

The only beings capable of commanding a Sequence 0 messenger were True Gods.

Rosen's first thought was that the King of Wands had found him.

But the King of Wands was an alien True God, unlikely to wield such influence in the human world.

Carefully opening the letter, Rosen read it thoroughly and was surprised to find that it was from the King of Pentacles.

According to the letter, to initiate the true King's Game, four True Gods needed to hold the four King cards. However, these King cards could only be wielded by those chosen by fate.

Twenty thousand years ago, an incomplete King's Game had once been initiated.

The problem was that the three Kings at the time all sought to encroach upon the share belonging to the Holy Grail King.

As a result, the King's Game remained incomplete. The three Kings suffered setbacks and the game was interrupted for twenty thousand years. If a new King's Game wasn't initiated within the next thousand years, all Kings would face severe consequences.

To avoid repeating past mistakes, the other three Kings now hoped that Rosen would become a True God within the next millennium.

They were even willing to provide him with various forms of support to ensure his complete mastery of the Holy Grail King card.

According to the King of Pentacles, only by successfully founding a kingdom could he unlock the full potential of the King card.

The King of Pentacles would try to secure him a piece of land in the human world large enough to establish a kingdom.

The King of Wands would supply resources for nation-building, and the King of Swords would grant him a miraculous artifact that greatly enhanced divine power.

"Is this what they call a blessing in disguise?" Rosen remarked with a chuckle as he read the letter.

He believed the letter was genuine—True Gods had no need for petty tricks.

However, such generosity from the three Kings was purely to ensure the initiation of the King's Game.

Rosen knew nothing about this so-called game, but it was evident that when it did start in a thousand years, it would be far from favorable to him.

Why were they so confident that he could become a True God?

After a moment's thought, Rosen understood.

According to the King of Pentacles, the holders of the King cards were chosen by fate and destined to become True Gods.

Perhaps the three Kings themselves had been born with the True God-grade innate fortune, preordained to ascend to divinity.

However, his innate fortune was acquired post-birth, so did he snatch the destined position from the rightful chosen one?

Unable to make sense of it, Rosen decided to stop thinking about it. The King cards, as miraculous artifacts, were beyond even the Mastermind Computer's ability to analyze.

The Miracle Pouch could help, but its level was too low, only capable of analyzing artifacts below Sequence 3.

Since overthinking wouldn't help, he might as well enjoy the windfall.

As for the price? He'd deal with it a thousand years from now!

A few days later, Rosen received a massive divine path gift package from the King of Pentacles.

The first grand gift was the clearing of a forbidden zone in the human world by the King of Pentacles himself.

Forbidden zones were areas contaminated by alien evil gods, similar to the Mech Spirit Archipelago.

Human True Gods were capable of dealing with alien evil gods, but doing so came at a high cost, far exceeding the benefits. Given the vastness of the human world, there was no pressing need to exhaust resources cleaning up these zones.

Moreover, forbidden zones weren't entirely without benefits. The sub-spiritual realm attached to the Mech Spirit Archipelago, for instance, produced Mech Spirit Transformation skill crystals.

This time, the forbidden zone chosen by the King of Pentacles was the Flesh Mother's Nest.

It was roughly half the size of the Thunder Empire, with the entire continent enveloped by endless writhing flesh.

With the Mastermind Computer now able to infiltrate the Pantheon Network, Rosen had learned much more about the gods.

The vast majority of True Gods were intelligent and orderly, living up to their reputation as beings of immense wisdom and terrifying intellect.

However, a small number were chaotic, twisted, deranged, and evil.

These gods were known as Evil Gods.

Evil Gods became what they were because their divine essence, elevated to True God origin, became tainted.

Some retained their intelligence; others lost it completely, leaving only primal instinct.

There were many causes for the birth of Evil Gods. Some Sequence 0 beings leveraged uncontrollable external forces during ascension, triggering law backlash. Others suffered indelible wounds after becoming True Gods, corrupting their divine origins.

Still, some willingly sought out forces capable of corrupting divine origins in pursuit of greater power.

The Evil God known as the Flesh Mother had once been the sole female goblin True God.

No one knew what had happened, but her true form and divine kingdom had turned into a writhing mass of flesh, devoid of intelligence and driven purely by instinct. Her flesh possessed the terrifying ability to devour everything and corrupt all sentient beings.

Originally, the Flesh Mother's Nest was even larger than the Thunder Continent.

Now, most of that area had been consumed by a single remaining chunk of the Flesh Mother's flesh.

The King of Pentacles cleared the Flesh Mother's Nest as a result of Rosen offering him a deal he found irresistible.

Naturally, the resulting merit was credited entirely to Rosen.

While Rosen was still traversing the vast ocean, the Noble Council sent him the King's Trinity through a Spirit Realm Messenger.

This set included the King's Scepter, the King's Crown, and the King's Throne, all Sequence 1 extraordinary artifacts.

They should have been Sequence 2 by default since Sequence 1 was the standard for empires.

It was clear that the King of Pentacles had exerted considerable effort on his behalf.

It looked like Rosen had truly hitched himself to a powerful backer and was now living off divine favors.

When Rosen arrived at the Flesh Mother's Nest, several days had already passed. The land looked completely different from the photos he had seen on the Spirit Realm Deep Web. The entire continent was now devoid of flesh, leaving only endless fertile black soil.

Half a day later, he reached the central area of the continent, where bustling development and construction were underway.

At a visible pace, a grand royal city was rising from the ground.

Around the royal city, several massive teleportation arrays were being constructed.

Establishing a kingdom required more than just land—it needed a population.

Naturally, these people wouldn't come for free; they had to be transferred from other empires through the teleportation arrays.

Since the human world was currently in a time of overall peace, all nations were regulating population growth.

The reason was simple: transferring into an extraordinary sequence was the best shortcut for ordinary families to change their fortunes.

But what if someone couldn't awaken their spirituality? The solution was obvious—have more children.

During the early days of the World Government, every household had more than a dozen children.

That was no longer allowed. In most places, ordinary families were restricted to two or three children at most.

However, population control varied by region. Some places enforced strict rules, while others were more lenient.

In areas with poor population control, numbers naturally increased over time. As life for ordinary people became more challenging, they sought ways to become noble subjects. These places essentially allowed large-scale childbirth as a strategy to manage population surpluses by selecting citizens as noble subjects.

Now, these massive teleportation arrays connected to a few overpopulated empires.

Rosen didn't bother concealing his arrival, instead riding on the mechanical warship form of Dragon God's Wrath.

Before he could approach the developing royal city, a Sequence 2 knight had already stepped forward to guide Dragon God's Wrath to land at the city center.

This was presumably the site designated for the royal palace, though it was still under construction and surrounded by energy barriers inside and out.

At the very center of the site was a writhing mass of flesh several dozen meters in size, with a crimson sapling rooted in it.

Rosen dismissed Dragon God's Wrath and immediately sensed a terrifying threat emanating from the flesh mass.

"Greetings, esteemed Duke Howard."

The Sequence 2 knight stepped forward and spoke respectfully.

"And you are?"

Rosen asked politely.

"Oil Yuriel, a hero from the Divine Kingdom of the True God of Wealth."

The knight introduced himself.

"What is this?"

Rosen pointed at the flesh mass.

"This is a piece of the Flesh Mother that once covered this continent," Oil explained. "The crimson sapling rooted in it is a Sequence 1 miraculous plant. It not only uses the Flesh Mother's flesh as growth nutrients but can also produce Sequence 1 miraculous flesh fruits. However, I don't know their exact effects. You'll need to take control of this miraculous plant yourself."

"A miraculous plant?"

Rosen carefully approached and released his divinity to refine the crimson sapling.

The process was arduous and took a full five days.

[Flesh Hell Tree: Miraculous Plant]

[Level: Sequence 1]

[Miraculous Attribute: Can use any flesh-based lifeform as nutrients to grow Flesh Secret Fruits]

[Miraculous Traits: Flesh Hell, Unique Under Heaven, Eternal and Indestructible]

The Flesh Hell Tree originated from an ancient hell.

In the earliest times, before the Spirit Realm existed, all souls would descend to hell upon death.

When the Spirit Realm emerged, hell was the first to suffer.

The entire infernal realm was dismantled by the gods. Despite being on par with the Abyss at its peak, it couldn't withstand the collective destruction brought by the true gods. The Flesh Hell Tree was one of the trees that once grew in the Flesh Hell of that shattered realm.

The tree itself contains an internal world—the Flesh Hell.

Any flesh-based lifeform locked inside would face a terrifying curse where their flesh constantly rotted and fell off every night. What was even more horrifying was that during the daytime, their flesh would regrow, providing the essential nutrients for the Flesh Hell Tree to grow.

Maintaining the Flesh Hell requires energy. The regrowth of flesh during the daytime doesn't come from nowhere.

It can consume spirituality or regular food.

Since consuming food naturally results in flesh growth, the Flesh Hell can transform the digestive systems of its inhabitants, making them eat voraciously and rapidly gain flesh during the day. The size of the Flesh Hell depends on how much flesh it produces.

The Flesh Hell Tree's final product—the Flesh Secret Fruits—provides two effects upon consumption.

First, a dramatic increase in physical strength.

Second, the acquisition of various flesh-related talents.

One guaranteed flesh talent is Life Withering, which allows the user to wither their own flesh as a sacrifice to significantly boost their divine strength. Paired with the Flesh Secret Fruit's ability to enhance physical strength, it offers a staggering acceleration in both physique and divine growth.

However, if it only had benefits without drawbacks, the Flesh Secret Fruit would be a Sequence 1 manufacturing miracle.

Even the generous Sword King wouldn't have gifted Rosen with the Flesh Hell Tree otherwise.

As the tree grows, its appetite becomes increasingly insatiable.

If the Flesh Hell Tree isn't fed enough, its owner becomes the first to suffer backlash.

To escape the curse, one must either die or become a true god capable of destroying the Flesh Hell Tree.

When the time comes, the Flesh Hell Tree will regress into a seed, ready for replanting and reassignment of ownership.

However, the Flesh Secret Fruit produced by the tree can only be consumed by the owner. Anyone else who eats it will undergo grotesque flesh mutations, turning into monsters. This greatly diminishes the tree's value, making it a double-edged sword—a Damocles sword ensuring that whoever possesses it must either become a true god or face certain doom.

The Sword True God gifting him this dangerous plant and the Coin True God choosing the Flesh Mother's Nest as its feeding ground made their intentions clear: to force him to ascend to a true god within a thousand years.

If he failed, the Flesh Hell Tree would devour him instead.

"None of them are kindhearted."

Rosen waved his hand, sending the Flesh Hell Tree and its rooted flesh mass into his divine domain.

With the Primordial Oil Lamp already in his possession and now the Flesh Secret Fruits, a thousand years was more than enough for him.

So he unceremoniously accepted this poisonous gift.

Soon, an immense amount of resources was transported to this newly birthed continent through teleportation arrays.

In addition to the royal city, nine other megacities designed to accommodate ten million residents each were under construction.

Eventually, five hundred million people would be settled on the continent—one hundred million in the cities and the remaining four hundred million in surrounding towns and smaller settlements.

The continent had no extraordinary lifeforms or plants yet, not even ash pollution. Therefore, it was expected to have a development window of at least a century.

After a hundred years, once ash spread across the entire continent, city-building would become much more difficult.

For now, Rosen didn't need to worry about this.

With population growth being slow, he could simply release a portion of the population from the Primordial God Realm.

Even the people following the Void Blue Whale across the seas could be recalled to develop this new land.

Rosen thought this was the end of it, but soon he witnessed what true divine power meant.

One day, as Rosen was inspecting the continent and pondering how to artificially create some mountains, he felt troubled by the immense task ahead.

Without natural mountain ranges as barriers, the entire continent was at the mercy of hurricanes.

Just as he was contemplating how to tackle the massive project, a divine kingdom projection suddenly descended above the continent.

Countless radiating golden lights, surrounded by floating coins, descended upon the continent's edges, manifesting titanic giants.

These titans uprooted entire mountain ranges from the seafloor and shaped a continuous circular mountain range around the continent. The range spanned at least 180 million miles in length and towered at least 200 miles in height.

Hurricanes and monstrous tsunamis from the sea were completely blocked.

The titans didn't stop there.

They moved inland, digging river channels and creating lakes, shaping a diverse topography. They transported moisture from the ocean, forming torrential rain that blanketed the continent.

In just three days, they had completely transformed the continent's ecological environment.

Rosen could have done this too, but it would have taken him centuries.

The Coin True God didn't even appear, merely descending part of his power to achieve all this in three days.

The gap between true gods and Sequence 0 beings was simply insurmountable.

How did those in the Golden Sequence manage to rival a true god as a trio?

(End of Chapter)