Lord: Sequence Master

Over the vast, ash-shrouded sea, Dragon's Wrath flew steadily, unaffected by the raging hurricanes.

It traversed a hurricane belt spanning tens of thousands of miles before finally reaching a calm zone spanning only a few dozen miles in diameter.

Here, any approaching hurricane would silently dissipate, as if erased from existence.

Rosen flashed to the dragon's head of Dragon's Wrath and looked down at the distant Hurricane Island.

Even the World Government was unaware of this tiny island, barely twenty miles in diameter, hidden amidst the endless storms.

The island was peculiar—hurricanes would vanish upon approaching it, yet rain was unaffected. Torrential downpours, swept in by the hurricanes, constantly shrouded Hurricane Island in perpetual rainfall and overcast skies.

Despite such harsh conditions, resilient survivors still managed to live there.

Freshwater was never in short supply; the ceaseless rain brought an endless supply.

Food was also abundant—extraordinary sea beasts, hurled onto the island half-dead by the hurricanes, provided enough sustenance to stave off starvation. The real shortage lay in habitable space—shelters where people could escape the relentless rain and build a place to thrive.

Rosen had spent over a decade searching for this island.

Dozens of pirate captains, painstakingly cultivated knights from the Ancient God Realm, had perished in the hurricanes.

But persistence paid off—he finally found Hurricane Island, the birthplace of the Hunter True God.

The Hunter True God had no love for Hurricane Island, as he left with no fond memories.

Yet after becoming a True God, he had returned to leave behind a realm.

Thus, no traces of human habitation remained on the island—the original inhabitants had long migrated into the realm.

Rosen stowed away Dragon's Wrath and expanded his world domain, enveloping the entire island.

The rain was completely sealed out. Years of torrential downpours had scoured the island clean, leaving only smooth, pitted rock surfaces.

In some places, faint traces of human excavation could still be seen.

Rosen approached a mushroom-shaped rock formation.

Under the cap-like structure, on elevated terrain safe from flooding, he found a stone door at the base of the "stem." It could only be opened from the inside, not the outside.

Rosen melded into shadows and slipped through the narrow gap in the door.

The entire Hurricane Island was actually a massive chunk of wind-forged iron rock, a Sequence 6 extraordinary material.

Following the staircase behind the stone door, Rosen soon descended to the island's underground world.

He saw some abandoned farmlands and glowing moss growing on the rocks.

The surrounding cave walls were lined with stone dwellings, once home to the island's inhabitants.

Now, however, they were completely empty, devoid of any signs of life for thousands of years.

Sensing spatial fluctuations, Rosen made his way to the largest stone cave and stepped inside.

The cave resembled a small temple, with a statue of the Hunter True God at its deepest point.

The statue was now riddled with cracks.

At the statue's feet lay a bloated void pufferfish, still breathing, its appearance reminiscent of an enraged, ballooned-up river puffer.

These void pufferfish, like void blue whales, carry a realm within their bodies.

The void blue whale's internal world leans toward a physical reality, while the void pufferfish's internal world is more akin to a spiritual realm, where rules are less stable and refined than those of the real world. However, the void pufferfish's inner realm is far larger than that of the void blue whale.

Rosen cautiously approached the void pufferfish, a Sequence 1 extraordinary lifeform.

It was once the pet of the Hunter True God. When the god found a better replacement, the then-Sequence 2 void pufferfish was released from servitude and left here. Now, after countless years, the Hunter True God had fallen, but the void pufferfish had instead advanced to Sequence 1.

Rosen took out a feather and gently brushed the pufferfish's belly.

The little creature opened its mouth in bliss and swallowed Rosen whole with a contented "Ahhh," then went back to snoring peacefully.

Swallowed into the pufferfish's internal realm, Rosen found himself atop a small mountain.

Surrounding him was an endless expanse of mountains, and nestled among them lay a valley spanning hundreds of miles.

The valley was filled with ruins and scattered bones, some still faintly brimming with lingering spiritual energy.

Rosen expanded his world domain, enveloping the entire valley. His eyes observed everything as time rewound—not literal time travel, but a historian's technique to perceive past events.

He quickly saw scenes of thousands of people who had migrated from Hurricane Island, thriving and multiplying in this new land.

At first, everything was peaceful, but as the population grew and more people became hunters, the power disparity between extraordinary professionals and ordinary humans became insurmountable.

Eventually, two Sequence 3 hunters waged a devastating war, resulting in everyone being wiped out.

On Hurricane Island, their ancestors had survived for countless millennia under brutal conditions.

Yet here, in a paradise-like realm, they perished within a mere thousand years.

By any standard, the Hunter True God had been exceedingly generous to these homeland people.

Not only did he leave behind the void pufferfish, but he also provided the resources necessary to cultivate demigod hunters.

The reason was simple—the bloodline of these Hurricane Island people was far from ordinary.

Otherwise, producing two Sequence 3 hunters within just a thousand years wouldn't have been possible. To put it in perspective, the Ancient God Realm had a population of 30 billion, yet those with the potential to reach Sequence 3 numbered fewer than ten.

At its peak, Hurricane Island had only a few million people, yet they had produced two demigods.

Not to mention, Hurricane Island had also birthed the Hunter True God.

Over a millennium, their population only grew from a few hundred to several million, not because the spiritual realm couldn't support more people but because the fertility rate of Hurricane Island humans was abysmally low.

It was only through deep research into the Hunter True God's memories that Rosen uncovered the hidden secret of Hurricane Island.

Although humanity had repeatedly risen to become the dominant race in the main world, it had also faced its share of hardships.

Whenever human civilization was overturned, the True Gods behind humanity would suffer as well—severe injuries were the norm, and some even perished.

In such times, the True Gods of humanity were powerless to protect all of humankind, giving other races the chance to enslave or subjugate them.

Some True Gods with a grudge against humanity even sought to destroy them outright.

The method was simple—sheer slaughter could not annihilate humanity, as the remaining pureblood humans were still under the protection of their gods.

Thus, the most effective way to destroy humanity wasn't through direct slaughter but by polluting and enhancing their bloodline.

By fusing human bloodlines with those of other races, strengthening them while reducing fertility rates, the growth of the human population would inevitably slow. As a result, their chances of once again becoming the dominant civilization would drastically diminish.

In the current era, humanity's bloodline was far from pure, drifting further from its original form.

The emergence of noble sequences was partially due to the use of extraordinary essence to strip away alien bloodlines within one's body, allowing individuals to harness the power of these foreign bloodlines while purifying their own human lineage.

Hurricane Island was a laboratory established by a True God—a place for grim human experiments.

Countless humans were cast into hurricanes, their flesh torn into pulp, and their souls and spiritual essence shredded amidst endless wails. The despair and hatred these humans developed toward their own kind lingered long after their deaths, ultimately leaving behind one surviving human on the island.

Back then, the people of Hurricane Island didn't drink rainwater; they drank the blood of their kin.

Their food wasn't the meat of extraordinary sea beasts but the flesh of their own people.

Under the guidance of a True God, the humans on Hurricane Island gradually devolved into cannibals who harbored an intense hatred for humanity itself.

After the fall of the god who created this grisly experiment, countless ages passed. No one knew that a tribe of cannibals had stubbornly survived. Over time, the remnants of human flesh and souls in the hurricane eventually dissipated.

The cannibals of Hurricane Island were forced to change their diet.

As countless years went by, their genetic craving for human flesh became recessive. On the surface, the descendants of these cannibals were indistinguishable from ordinary humans. The only difference was the latent, polluted recessive genes hidden within their blood.

The Hunter True God discovered his ancestors were cannibals only after becoming a deity.

At that point, he realized he harbored an almost uncontrollable appetite for human flesh.

Fortunately, the Hunter True God managed to suppress this urge and returned to Hurricane Island in search of a solution. By chance, he stumbled upon a relic left behind by the fallen True God—the Hunter's Map, a miraculous treasure of True God-level.

The Hunter's Map was formed from the remnants of that True God's death near the hurricane.

By wielding the Hunter's Map, one could gain the talents, abilities, and even rule and law authority of any human they killed.

Despite this immense temptation, the Hunter True God resisted.

Until his death, he never used the Hunter's Map to grow stronger, upholding his moral compass as a human. Back then, it would have only taken a single thought for the Hunter True God to become a protagonist of the cannibalistic path. Not only would he have avoided death, but he might have even ascended to become a Great True God.

Rosen couldn't guarantee that he would have the same level of self-control in the future. 

If the opportunity to kill Chinon presented itself, could he resist using the Hunter's Map to seize Chinon 's power?

Chinon was his mortal enemy—it would be far too easy to justify taking his power.

But if he seized Chinon 's power, could he truly stop himself from hunting others?

Looking at those protagonists from cannibal-themed novels, it was clear—the cruelest, most ruthless, and most extreme character was always the protagonist.

The allure of the Hunter's Map was undeniable, and Rosen couldn't be certain he could resist it forever.

Thus, he decided to begin modifying the miraculous property of the Hunter's Map—the concept of hunting.

Just like how riding skills initially applied only to horses and oxen but later extended to dragon riders and behemoth riders, now even cars, ships, planes, and other races could be "ridden."

Thus, the meaning of "knight" had evolved over different eras, adapting to new interpretations.

While the miraculous attribute of "hunter" couldn't be altered, the concept of "human" could be redefined. Just as anything with "dragon" in its name would be restrained by the Dragonblood Flask, anyone identified as "human" would fall within the bounds of the hunter's influence.

Rosen was confident in this approach because all life ultimately originated from the primal humans.

To the primal humans, contemporary humans and all other races were fundamentally their descendants.

Since Rosen possessed the bloodline of the primal humans, as long as he deemed certain alien descendants as "human," combined with the special hunter branch sequence inherited from the Hunter True God, he could redefine who counted as human.

Following the Hunter True God's memories, Rosen soon arrived at an unnamed mountain.

A waterfall cascaded down its face, leading to a deep pool below. What he sought lay at the bottom of that pool.

Dragon Incantation — Ice Age!

The surrounding hundred miles instantly transformed into a world of ice and snow, with the pool below frozen solid.

Still dissatisfied, Rosen compressed the ice elements within the hundred-mile radius into the pool, lowering its temperature further and further until it reached absolute zero.

At that point, all material and energy within the pool vanished, leaving only spiritual essence, which began to gather.

Eventually, the spiritual essence coalesced into a single droplet shimmering with seven-colored radiance.

This was divine marrow, the cerebral essence left behind by a True God.

This True God had harbored deep resentment against humanity. Even in death, that hatred had rooted itself within this divine marrow.

When the Hunter True God discovered this drop of divine marrow, he had also found the Hunter's Map.

However, he only took the Hunter's Map, leaving the divine marrow behind.

At the time, the Hunter True God had devised a terrifying hunter sequence branch, with this divine marrow as the core material for the corresponding potion.

If not for already being a deity, he might have succumbed to the temptation to become a Vengeance Hunter.

Although this profession wasn't as terrifying as the Hunter's Map, it still wielded the power to counter humanity.

Thus, the divine marrow was sealed and left in this deep pool, hidden from the world.

Rosen took out prepared extraordinary materials and began concocting the sequence 3 Vengeance Hunter potion using the Miracle Flask.

[Spiritual essence imbued with wrath toward one's enemies, essence imbued with killing intent, essence imbued with despair, essence imbued with terror, essence imbued with defiance…]

"Finally, with this drop of divine marrow, the potion will be complete..."

Rosen carefully held the Miracle Flask and soon saw a thumb-sized little figure form inside.

He uncorked the bottle and swallowed the figure in one gulp.

In that instant, his hunter sequence extraordinary essence began absorbing faith and transforming toward sequence 3.

Having already experienced advancing to a half-deity through the noble sequence, the hunter sequence's transformation proceeded smoothly without any obstacles.

However, terrifying and frenzied murmurs echoed in his ears.

Within his sea of consciousness, the Ancient God's Sacred Bell rang silently.

Under the power of its miraculous attribute, Ancient God's Melody, the previously incomprehensible murmurs became crystal clear, every word sinking into Rosen's awareness.

The source of these frenzied murmurs was the hatred of the divine marrow's former owner toward humanity.

Other parts of the murmurs came from countless beings' hatred for humanity, including humanity's hatred for its own kind.

This pervasive hatred, influenced by spiritual forces, had formed an unknown and fearsome presence.

Rosen initially believed these murmurs would disrupt his class advancement—many people lost their sanity to such madness when advancing to half-deity.

At best, they failed the advancement. At worst, their extraordinary essence mutated, transforming them into monsters.

However, this time, the frenzied murmurs did not attack Rosen's spirituality or extraordinary essence.

Instead, they willingly merged with his extraordinary essence, becoming part of it and nurturing the development of his sequence 3 innate skill.

As the murmurs faded, Rosen's divine intensity had ascended to 83 points.

Moreover, all of Rosen's innate Hunter Sequence skills advanced in level, culminating in the successful creation of his Sequence 3 innate ability—the very power he had been yearning for.

[Vengeance Judgment: You gain control over the Authority of Vengeance and Judgment. Against targets you mark as enemies, the greater the power disparity between you, the more damage you inflict. Successfully hunting your enemies rewards you with unique spoils.]

"This is the most powerful innate ability I've ever seen," Rosen declared with absolute certainty.

The term "enemy" in the skill description referred to those he held enmity toward, while "people" encompassed humans.

This skill could be considered a weakened version of the Hunter Map's miraculous "Hunter" attribute. It was the result of the Hunter True God's research into the map, forming a derivative profession that allowed mastery of a weakened version of the map's power. This would significantly reduce the difficulty of altering the Hunter Map in the future.

Rosen shifted his attention to his other innate abilities. Special skills primarily underwent overall enhancements without fundamental transformations, given their already overwhelming power. Achieving qualitative changes was exceedingly rare.

Excluding special skills, his other upgradable innate abilities were Nightmare Shackles and Nen Ability.

The LV6 Nightmare Shackles had already granted him the Nightmare Authority early due to his noble sequence advancement.

Now upgraded to LV7, Nightmare Shackles underwent another qualitative leap.

[Nightmare Shackles LV7: Manipulate the Nightmare Authority to transform divinity into Nightmare Shackles]

Divine Authority Feature: Nightmare Shackles possess the power to seal divine authority.

Divine Authority Feature: Nightmare Shackles possess the power of plunder, allowing the embedding of up to two miraculous treasures for unique effects.

Nightmares, Sealing, and Plundering—he now controlled three distinct authorities.

While other skills also granted sealing authority, multiple skills controlling the same authority significantly enhanced his mastery and priority over it. This was not a drawback but a coveted advantage for any half-deity.

However, what Rosen valued most was the Plunder Authority. Originally, Nightmare Shackles could embed only one miraculous treasure, but now it could embed two, enabling a transformative leap in its capabilities.

Lastly, Rosen examined Nen Ability, which had already reached LV7 due to his primal human bloodline.

This time, the accumulated foundation propelled it directly to LV8.

[Nen Ability LV8: Manipulate your Life Essence (Qi) to generate and control Nen infused with divinity]

Divine Authority Feature: Control a trace of foundational fusion rules, granting Nen the ability to fuse with various law authorities.

Divine Authority Feature: Command the Life Authority, allowing permanent Nen consumption to strengthen your soul and physique.

Divine Authority Feature: Command the Creation Authority and the Seven Deadly Sins Authority.

Divine Authority Creations: Godslayer Crossbow, Gluttony Nen Beast, Hunter's Magic Eye, Golden Apple Tree, Demon Seed (Seven Deadly Sins Nen Beasts), Universal Printer.

Rosen sensed the transformative change in his internal Nen.

Life Essence, being the source of vitality, made Nen composed of it at least ten times more powerful than ordinary Nen. Combined with the Life and Creation Authorities, it granted him the capacity to create complete life forms capable of reproduction.

However, the most terrifying change was his mastery of a trace of foundational fusion rules—a force surpassing even laws.

At least within the Prime World, the ancient gods' foundational rules represented the pinnacle of power. With this trace of fusion rules, Rosen could swiftly master any rule authority he desired.

This meant his dominion over world authorities would only grow stronger.

(End of Chapter)