At the Radiant Palace, Rosen carefully extracted a portion of the kingdom's Civilization Flame.
Manifesting the Divine Palette with psychic energy, the Civilization Flame was immediately absorbed into it.
He then added loyalty extracted from the faith of hundreds of billions of believers, along with power from various rule authorities such as Nobility, Lordship, Glory, Fate, Law, Order, and Judgment.
Soon, he had concocted a unique Divine Pigment.
With the pigment ready, Rosen prepared the canvas.
After careful consideration, he collected soil from every city on the Radiant Continent and fused it to create Dimensional Canvas.
With the canvas and pigment prepared, Rosen began painting with the Hand of God.
He painted the Radiant Continent, its mountains and rivers, and each town and city. Normally, even a dimensional canvas couldn't accommodate the entirety of the continent, but with Dimensional Art, he was able to reduce everything into points and lines.
Soon, countless intricate points and lines densely covered the entire canvas.
While the content could be reduced to points and lines, capturing every detail of the continent would still take centuries to complete.
Even with Simple Sketching's 97-fold time acceleration, Rosen still spent eight years in real-time painting this one piece.
With the final stroke, the last structure—the Radiant King City—was reduced into a single line.
The entire painting now consisted solely of countless shifting points and lines, which clung to the brush's tip like living creatures.
Using these points and lines, Rosen began re-rendering a scaled-down map of the Radiant Continent.
This phase only took three days to complete.
When the map was finally finished, Rosen could raise any point or line in dimensional space, revealing hidden depths within the painting.
This Spiritual Painting had not only reached Sequence 1 but became his third Miracle Painting the moment it was completed.
[Radiant Map: Miracle Painting]
[Level: Sequence 1]
[Miracle Attribute: The Radiant Map allows omniscient observation and editing of all things on the Radiant Continent.]
[Miracle Traits: Radiant Canvas Realm, Unique in the World, Eternally Indestructible]
Rosen willed his mind, zooming in on the Radiant King City's location on the map.
His divine consciousness entered the painting, granting him a God's Eye View of every person in the city.
He could clearly discern who was loyal to the kingdom, who harbored resentment, and who had broken the law.
With a single thought, a gentle breeze swept through the city, and dark clouds gathered in the sky.
With another thought, several evil god cultists had their faith forcibly twisted, transforming into the kingdom's most devoted subjects.
If the real Radiant Continent were akin to a game, the Radiant Map was the ultimate GM tool capable of editing game data at will.
Only demigods could barely resist its modifications without having their spiritual consciousness warped.
With this painting, no evil god cultist would ever infiltrate the Radiant Kingdom again.
Even if they managed to sneak in, as long as they weren't demigods, their spiritual consciousness would be twisted in an instant, making them loyal to the kingdom and turning them into backstabbers against the evil god cults.
Thanks to painting the map and the assistance of the Primordial Oil Lamp, Rosen's divine strength had soared to a full 90 points.
He was only a step away from advancing to Sequence 2.
Considering it had only been a few decades in real time since he became a demigod, becoming a true god within a thousand years didn't seem too daunting.
Rosen used psychic energy to manifest a Universal Printer and swiftly produced two copies of the Radiant Map.
The copies were also made on Dimensional Canvas using the same Divine Pigment, with the key difference being the absence of the Hand of God's power.
Even as copies, they retained some of the original's abilities.
Although these replicas couldn't provide a God's Eye View of everyone's loyalty, they could still mark hostile targets and manipulate weather, mountains, and rivers to some extent. Using these two copies to govern the Radiant Kingdom would undoubtedly yield exceptional results.
Rosen kept one copy to hand over to Fara, helping her better manage the kingdom.
The other copy was to be divided among the cities, with each part assigned to the respective city lord. These fragmented maps would enable city lords to better govern their domains.
If any lord harbored treasonous intent, Fara could detect it immediately through the complete replica.
As for the original Radiant Map, Rosen naturally kept it for himself.
It wasn't because he was reluctant to part with it. If it didn't have the Radiant Canvas Realm miracle trait, he wouldn't have cared as much for this auxiliary-type map.
But with the Radiant Canvas Realm, things were completely different.
The Radiant Canvas Realm was essentially a World Within the Painting, and its scale was nearly identical to that of the Radiant Continent.
In a sense, it functioned as a special spiritual realm.
Of course, this wasn't a physical realm—if it were, that would be akin to recreating the Radiant Continent, which a Sequence 1 Miracle Painting was simply incapable of achieving. Only a true god-level Miracle Painting might accomplish such a feat.
Thus, the Radiant Canvas Realm remained a metaphysical space, nine parts illusory and one part real.
All beings who died on the Radiant Continent, unless their spiritual essence was captured, would have their essence enter the Radiant Canvas Realm.
Now, the Radiant Continent functioned almost like a miniature underworld, serving as the final resting place for spiritual essences after death.
The Radiant Canvas Realm could absorb these essences, granting them souls and physical forms, allowing them to live another life within the canvas.
It could also consume these essences to fuel the realm's growth.
As the Radiant Canvas Realm grew stronger, Rosen's control over the Radiant Continent through the Radiant Map would also intensify.
In the future, the painting could even ascend to Sequence 0, or perhaps even become a true god-level Miracle Painting.
Rosen hung the Radiant Map on the wall of the Mysterious Study Room, then willed himself near the World Tree.
Near the tree lay a vast body of water—technically a lake, though that was only relative to the vastness of the Dark Continent.
In reality, it stretched over tens of thousands of miles, wide enough to swallow dozens of planets like Blue Star without filling it.
And this so-called lake was filled entirely with blood.
Over the years, the Hellish Blood Tree had consumed vast amounts of resources. What it couldn't digest had to be sent to the Blood Hell.
Eventually, the Blood Hell struggled to digest the excess, which partially transformed into this vast blood lake.
Because it had consumed too much, the Hellish Blood Tree's Flesh Fruit of Secrets had yet to mature.
Now that the excess nutrients had transferred to the blood lake, the Hellish Blood Tree had begun digesting the remaining flesh, finally preparing to grow the Flesh Fruit of Secrets.
In just a few more years, the fruit would be ready, significantly accelerating Rosen's divine growth.
Just consuming one would push his divine strength to a perfect 91 points.
However, divine strength reaching perfection didn't mean all aspects of his power would be perfected.
The Ancient God Sacrificial Art had yet to be used to sacrifice a Miracle Artifact and merge it into his divine domain.
In his Miracle Sequence, he still hadn't found a Sequence 8 Miracle Artifact that truly satisfied him for complete integration.
Skill proficiency issues with individual abilities were relatively minor and easy to resolve.
The primary focus of sacrificing a Miracle Artifact was to transform its miracle trait into a domain trait.
Rosen's first choice for sacrifice was the Mobius Ring.
With its Dimensional Fusion trait, his divine domain would be able to merge with any spiritual painting.
That meant he could turn his divine domain into a painting at any time or seamlessly absorb the contents of a painting into the domain.
But on second thought, sacrificing the Wolf Totem seemed just as appealing.
With the Devouring trait of the Wolf Totem, the divine domain would recover much faster after casting Tenfold Annihilation.
Though reshaping the domain seemed fast now, once it evolved into a divine kingdom, casting Tenfold Annihilation and rebuilding from scratch would be unimaginably arduous.
Besides the Mobius Ring and Wolf Totem, other candidates included the Fairy Dragon Pearl, Lucky Heartlock, Ecological Weather Apparatus, Apocalyptic Treasure Map, and Miracle Pouch.
Previously, his divine domain couldn't accommodate these artifacts, but now they met the conditions for the Ancient God Sacrificial Art.
Because there were so many choices, it was a decision that couldn't be undone once made.
That was why Rosen had delayed using the Ancient God Sacrificial Art since reaching Sequence 3.
Even when his divine domain advanced to Sequence 3, he refrained from using the sacrificial art, worried that merging authority rules into the domain might conflict with the art's effects.
But with Sequence 2 now visibly within reach, a decision was inevitable.
"I'll sacrifice the Mobius Ring, then," Rosen finally resolved, reluctantly giving up the other options.
In less than half an hour, the Mobius Ring had been fully integrated into his divine domain through the Ancient God Sacrificial Art.
The domain gained a new Dimensional Fusion trait.
Rosen immediately merged the Radiant Map, Demonic Manifestation, and Two-Dimensional Ashen Hive miracle paintings into the divine domain.
The Radiant Canvas Realm immediately transformed into a Nine-Layered World.
The Demonic Manifestation and Two-Dimensional Ashen Hive became part of the divine domain's defensive forces.
However, these were far from the best choices for dimensional fusion—the clear winner was Terror Park.
It would become Rosen's strongest trump card at present.
Having witnessed the Mother of Flesh easily thrash the Judgment, and having seen the terrifying golden claw of the Sun Dragon God firsthand, Rosen couldn't help but harbor a lingering fear of true gods.
Now that Terror Park had merged with the Source of the Evil God, it was highly likely to evolve into a true god-level spiritual painting upon completing the fusion.
However, if Terror Park became too powerful, it would undoubtedly be difficult for Rosen to fully control it.
But with his divine domain now possessing the Dimensional Fusion trait, which could enhance the integration of spiritual paintings, his control over the future Terror Park would be significantly enhanced.
If a true god appeared before him, he might be able to withstand it by relying on the divine domain to strengthen his control over Terror Park.
If not for this consideration, the best candidates for integration into the divine domain would have been the Ecological Weather Apparatus and Miracle Pouch.
The former could accelerate the birth of new rules, significantly aiding the growth of World Authority.
The latter possessed the miracle traits Equivalent Exchange and Void Shift.
Equivalent Exchange could grant the divine domain terrifying treasure-hunting abilities, while Void Shift would endow it with unparalleled stealth and escape capabilities, making its value far superior to that of the Mobius Ring at this stage.
Over the next two months, Rosen took a proper break.
These years, he hadn't painted non-stop either; when he got tired, he had his two avatars take turns painting.
As for himself, he often took time off to go on scenic trips with Li Shiqing and the others.
So this two-month rest was more than enough to restore him to peak condition.
Rosen had been persistently searching for a Sequence 8 Miracle Artifact.
It wasn't that he couldn't find any—he had found plenty.
The problem was that none matched the quality of the Ancient God's Sacred Bell or the Knight's Bridle.
Had he never seen those high-quality Sequence 9 Miracle Artifacts, his standards might not have risen so dramatically.
Now, however, he couldn't bring himself to settle for inferior Sequence 8 artifacts.
Artifacts on par with the Knight's Bridle were rare across the entire Primary World.
Anyone who owned one would surely keep it tightly guarded.
Even with the vastness of the Primary World, the power of the Miracle Pouch, Miracle Wishing, and the Prevision Painting, finding these artifacts was like searching for a needle in a haystack.
Rosen's only hope now lay in one place: the past.
If high-quality Sequence 8 artifacts were scarce today, surely they had existed at some point in history?
By finding relevant historical records, he might trace a lead far better than blindly searching.
Once he had a general location, the Miracle Pouch and Miracle Wishing would help pinpoint their exact positions.
So he had to make another trip to the Historical Secret Realm.
With his Level 7 Roleplaying Skill, he possessed the powerful divine traits Spiritual Assimilation and Spiritual Parasitism.
Unless a true god confronted him, few beings could see through his disguise.
But the Historical Secret Realm had tightened its internal security significantly since his last infiltration.
His Prevision Painting was effective against Sequence 0 beings but not against those within divine kingdoms.
The Historical Secret Realm was in no way inferior to a Sequence 0 divine kingdom.
Blindly infiltrating without information could lead to trouble.
Though the risk to his safety was minimal thanks to Data Transmission, failure to access the historical records and locate clues about Sequence 8 Miracle Artifacts would be a wasted effort.
Just as Rosen was mulling over this dilemma, the Demonic Eye AI brought good news.
After Chinon's confirmed betrayal of the World Government, archaeologists had faced intense suppression from historians.
The World Government had originally supported the archaeologists to weaken the historians.
The reason the Historical Secret Realm remained separate from the Eternal Continent, despite it being a safer location, was fundamentally due to the animosity between historians and the World Government.
Now that Chinon had vanished along with the Archaeologist Sequence Tree, historians had almost completely lost the path to becoming true gods.
Wendy was thoroughly enraged by this turn of events and began disregarding the World Government, launching a full-scale purge of archaeologists.
The World Government, already at fault, simply abandoned the Archaeological Institute.
Both Sequence 0 professionals, Chinon had to obey orders, while Wendy dared to defy the World Government.
The key difference was the profound heritage of the historians.
Of the four Golden Sequences, historians were the only profession with a clear path to becoming true gods.
Given the vast and ancient history of the supernatural world, countless secrets lay hidden within it.
Historians had mastered many of these secrets, some of which posed significant threats to the World Government.
As long as historians did not outright betray the World Government, a complete fallout was unlikely.
After all, the internal conflict was a struggle over interests. Fighting was acceptable, but going too far was not.
Seizing the opportunity, Wendy aimed to make archaeologists a thing of the past.
Archaeologists were left with only two choices:
Convert to historians.
Be purged by the Historians' Association.
Though outright killing was unlikely, as many archaeologists were nobles protected by the Noble Council, quietly crippling them and cutting off their future prospects was not difficult.
Unless they were staunchly loyal to archaeology, most chose to convert.
Wendy's approach wasn't purely oppressive; she primarily aimed to recruit.
As long as they were willing to convert, they had the opportunity to study further in the Historical Secret Realm.
To ease tensions with the World Government, the Historical Secret Realm would soon dock at the Eternal Continent.
Management of the Historical Secret Realm would become chaotic during this period, as many archaeologists demanded partial access to the realm as a condition for switching sides.
Disguising himself as an archaeologist to infiltrate the Historical Secret Realm would significantly reduce the danger.
Though Chinon was dead, much of his memory had been extracted.
Rosen's understanding of the Archaeological Institute far surpassed Wendy's.
He quickly selected a suitable identity—an archaeologist specializing in miracle artifact excavations.
Assuming this identity, requesting access to historical records on miracle artifacts wouldn't arouse suspicion.
Through Data Transmission, Rosen quietly arrived at the ruins city where the Archaeological Institute headquarters was located on the Eternal Continent.
The entire ruins city was built from the remains of various ancient civilizations.
At the moment, most of the archaeologists within the institute were dejected.
Though their strength had never matched that of historians, their official backing had granted them superior power and status, enabling rapid development.
But now that they had to convert to historians, things were different.
The World Government was wary of historians and would never offer them support, even if it stopped suppressing them.
Those archaeologists who converted would find it difficult to fully integrate into the historians' circles.
Human exclusivity was well-known, and there weren't enough resources within the historians' ranks to accommodate them all.
It was obvious that life after conversion wouldn't be easy.
To improve their prospects, they had three options:
Find a powerful patron.
Excel on their own to carve out a place for themselves.
Affiliate with the Historians' Association and fend for themselves.
As a result, every archaeologist was scrambling to find a way out, creating an atmosphere of unrest and internal chaos.
No one noticed that someone had been replaced.
Rosen stared into a mirror. His body remained his own, but through the power of his Ancient God Physique, he had transformed into the stranger reflected in the mirror.
His soul and spiritual essence had already parasitized and assimilated the target.
Now all that remained was for the Historical Secret Realm to arrive at the Eternal Continent, allowing him to transition into a historian and infiltrate the realm.
Hopefully, no unexpected events would arise—this was not yet the time to openly confront Wendy.
(End of Chapter)