Lord: Sequence Master

At the edge of the Desert of Death, numerous mobile towns of various sizes sprawled across the landscape. These towns served as outposts for transcendents venturing into the Desert of Death in search of treasure. Here, one could rent mechanical puppets of all kinds and remotely control them to explore the desert's outskirts. Since treasure hunting relied purely on luck rather than strength, these towns were highly popular among low-ranking transcendents and gamblers alike.

Upon arriving at Emerald Valley Town, Rosen waited for the teleportation array to activate. The Desert of Death was permeated with a curse of death—anyone below demigod rank who stepped inside would rapidly lose their lifespan and could even be instantly slain by a random instant-death curse. Because of this, those below demigod rank could only rely on mechanical puppets to search the desert's outskirts.

While demigods could venture deeper by using their domains to nullify the instant-death effect and significantly slow their lifespan drain, they still had to contend with threats like quicksand behemoths and withered ancient trees in the desert's depths.

From the outside, the Desert of Death appeared to stretch across a hundred thousand square miles. Yet, once inside, one would realize that the actual expanse was over a million square miles. Not only was its true size a hundred times larger, but its spatial properties were also highly unusual.

Anyone attempting to descend from high above into the desert's center would mysteriously find themselves landing at its outer edges instead. Likewise, if one tried to move inward too fast—exceeding the speed of sound—they would somehow loop back to the desert's outer edges. Using spatial teleportation was even more unreliable—it would randomly hurl people to unknown locations. Even the Spiritual Realm couldn't bypass these restrictions to enter the desert directly.

As a result, those who wished to reach the desert's depths had to advance at subsonic speeds, moving at a painstakingly slow pace. But traversing a million-square-mile desert at such a crawl would take an eternity.

These bizarre spatial anomalies stemmed from the divine domain of the Tree of Life, which had reached True God status. Even though the Tree of Life had perished, its divine domain had fused with nature and persisted. Scholars believed this spatial barrier was the Tree of Life's final act of protection for the elves. Back when the elves had fled the continent, it was thanks to this spatial safeguard that they had managed to escape.

However, at the very center of the desert, there existed a single teleportation array that was unaffected by the True God's domain. After being discovered by a human True God, this teleportation array had been modified and linked to all the mobile towns on the outskirts. Now, rather than spending months trudging through the desert, one could simply teleport directly to the oasis at its heart.

A few days later, Emerald Valley Town—which constantly moved along the desert's periphery—came to a halt. The previous extraction zone had been thoroughly scavenged, leaving behind little of value. Now, having reached a new region, an army of mechanical puppets of various shapes and sizes rushed out from the town and poured into the desert.

Meanwhile, the town's teleportation array began establishing a connection with the Oasis City at the desert's center, forming a stable teleportation channel. The stabilization process would take an entire day.

During this time, Rosen summoned a golden mummy pharaoh. The Sequence 2 pharaoh's body transformed into golden flowing sand, drifting with the wind as it ventured into the Desert of Death to scout ahead. Once the surroundings were clear of mechanical puppets, the pharaoh immediately summoned hundreds of Sequence 4 golden mummies, sending them in different directions.

Rosen needed to verify whether the Sequence 4 golden mummies could resist the death curse. If they could, then these mummies would be able to move through the Desert of Death with ease. However, if even they couldn't withstand the curse, then he would have no choice but to send demigod-rank troops from his domain, which would drastically lower the efficiency of his exploration—by at least a hundredfold.

A few hours later, after confirming that none of the golden mummies had perished, Rosen ordered them to return. However, just as they were making their way back, the golden mummy pharaoh sent him an unexpected report.

At the desert's edge, they had discovered the ruins of an elven city, buried deep beneath the sands.

Seeing that the teleportation channel still needed more than half a day to stabilize, Rosen decided to investigate personally.

A raging tornado swept through, continuously lifting the sand in a several-mile radius. Slowly, the ancient city ruins, buried hundreds of miles beneath the desert, began to resurface as the sand was drawn away.

Rosen flipped open the Eternal Chronicle, and his knowledge of elven civilization became crystal clear once more.

A living brain had limited memory storage, which was why ordinary people often forgot things. Transcendents were much better in this regard, but with their long lifespans, even they gradually forgot unimportant memories over time.

As a historian who had read countless books, Rosen had expanded his mind, soul, and divine core to increase his memory capacity. But even so, there would always come a day when it wouldn't be enough. For that reason, he recorded any non-essential information in the Eternal Chronicle and consciously chose to forget it.

However, whenever he needed those memories, he could instantly recall them in perfect clarity.

Now, all the information he had once studied about elven civilization returned to him, just as vivid as when he had first read it. With that knowledge, he immediately identified the ruins below as belonging to an extremely rare subspecies—the Cave Elves.

These elves lived underground, preferring to dig tunnels and build subterranean cities. Unlike other elves, they were not blessed with beauty. Not only were they short, but their features were wrinkled and unsightly.

Perhaps out of inferiority, Cave Elves had chosen to isolate themselves underground.

Back when the Titan Race had occupied the Holy Continent, the Cave Elves had completely vanished from the main world. If not for human archaeologists unearthing the ruins of their underground cities, no one would have even known they had once existed.

In fact, modern elven civilization outright denied that the Cave Elves had ever existed, going so far as to assassinate historians who tried to research them.

Rosen leaped into the massive sand pit, which was several thousand meters wide and tens of kilometers deep, landing directly in the heart of the city ruins.

With a casual flick of his divine brush, he drew a circle in the air. Immediately, the circle transformed into a miniature sun, radiating brilliant light that illuminated the dark underground.

As he wandered through the ruined city, he found that most structures had long since decayed.

Still, he managed to uncover some crucial clues.

First, this was not an ordinary city. Based on its architectural style, it was a royal city of the Cave Elves. However, a major problem immediately stood out—there was no sign of a Tree of Life.

Every elven royal city was supposed to have a Tree of Life. Even if the tree had been destroyed by the Titans, there should have been some kind of remnants left behind.

Yet here, there were none.

This meant that a Tree of Life had never existed here to begin with.

But if the royal city lacked a Tree of Life, could it even be considered part of elven civilization?

After all, Trees of Life were the core of elven heritage. Without them, elves would gradually wither and die out.

Considering how modern elven civilization went to such great lengths to erase the Cave Elves from history, Rosen couldn't help but entertain a certain possibility.

Had the Cave Elves already been expelled from elven civilization back then?

That would be the only explanation for why there was no Tree of Life here.

Rosen continued searching the ruins multiple times until he finally discovered a mummified corpse.

After tens of thousands of years, any sub-demigod corpse—even if it had dried out in the desert—should have completely crumbled into dust by now. However, this mummy was still remarkably intact, meaning that the person must have been at least a demigod in life.

Judging by the scale of the royal city, this mummy was most likely the Cave Elf King.

Rosen examined the corpse carefully and found a shattered spatial ring.

The storage space within had already collapsed, meaning that everything inside had long since been swept away by spatial turbulence.

Even if some items had miraculously survived the ripping forces of spatial currents, there was no telling where they had ended up. They could have been flung to the far end of the Desert of Death, buried somewhere deep beneath the endless sands.

However, after inspecting the spatial ring closely, Rosen discovered the cause of its collapse.

The ring had been pierced by an arrow. The external damage had destabilized the internal space, and over the course of countless years, the storage dimension had eventually disintegrated entirely.

Judging by the wound on the ring, the arrow that had struck it had likely been a wooden arrow—a signature weapon of elven archery.

Unlike other races, elves traditionally preferred wooden arrows, despite their weaker destructive power at the same sequence level. Other races at least forged metal arrowheads, but elves retained their custom of using pure wood.

Did this mean that the one who killed the Cave Elf King had been an elven demigod?

But the Desert of Death lay within the divine law domain of the Tree of Life.

For an elven demigod to slay another elf in this sacred land—wasn't that the same as betraying their own kind?

Rosen's expression shifted slightly.

Had even the Tree of Life itself abandoned the Cave Elves?

Seeing that there was nothing else of value in the ruins, Rosen was about to leave—but then he suddenly paused.

Turning back to the mummy, he extended his hand.

With a thought, his mental energy materialized, summoning the Divine Color Palette.

He then began to dismantle the mummified corpse, carefully extracting its essence.

To ensure accuracy, he even infused a vast amount of time-attribute divine crystals, condensing them into a specialized divine pigment.

Next, he unfolded his world domain, isolating the entire ruins by slicing the space apart from the rest of reality.

Finally, he sealed this space into a dimensional canvas and began painting.

With the Divine Pigment, he meticulously recreated a lifelike image of the Cave Elf King.

Through the process of corpse restoration, the ancient ruler was perfectly brought back to his original appearance.

Once the painting was complete, Rosen activated the spirit within the artwork.

As spiritual revival took effect, the Cave Elf King came to life within the painting, his voice weak and fragmented as he recounted the events leading to his death.

Rosen listened, his expression turning to one of shock.

His analysis had been correct—the Cave Elves had, indeed, been abandoned by the Tree of Life.

Even their Tree of Life had been forcibly taken by the other elven races.

Without a Tree of Life, the Cave Elves had no future—their population would inevitably decline until they were wiped out.

Naturally, they refused to accept this fate.

However, their resistance only led to a brutal purge by the other elves.

The Cave Elves who survived the initial exile were left with nothing but hatred for their former kin and the Tree of Life.

It was at that moment that the Titans approached them.

Some of the Cave Elves chose to accept the Titans' offer, transforming into Cave Giants and leading the Titans in their conquest of the Holy Continent.

Others, however, held onto hope, believing that they could still regain the favor of the Tree of Life.

The former thrived under Titan rule, and even now, there were still many Cave Giants alive in the world.

The latter, however, suffered a terrible fate.

Because the Cave Giants had led the Titans into battle, the elven race suffered massive casualties.

As a result, the elven purge against the Cave Elves escalated from exile to outright extermination.

This royal city had been one of the last Cave Elf strongholds—and it had been utterly annihilated by elven demigods.

Rosen flipped open the Eternal Chronicle, and the events had already been recorded in its pages.

His Eternal Chronicle was a miracle artifact, possessing the miracle trait—Historical Record. Even if the history it recorded was incomplete, the Historical Record trait could automatically fill in the gaps. The more fragmented or obscure the history, the harder it was to fully restore.

However, he had other abilities that might uncover even more valuable clues.

With his Elder God Bloodline awakened to 70%, Rosen had gained the Elder God's True Eye and his unique Eye Art—Seeker's Gaze.

As long as there was a lead, he could permanently expend a portion of his divine essence to peer into the hidden truth behind it.

Ordinary secrets weren't worth using Seeker's Gaze, but his instincts told him that anything related to the Cave Elves was worth investigating.

Expending three points of divine essence permanently, Rosen uncovered the hidden past sealed within the mummified corpse.

This wasn't just any Cave Elf King—he had also been a Cave Watcher, and, more importantly, the last Cave Elf to ever exist.

This meant he had met the conditions to awaken as an Avenger Watcher after death.

For an Avenger Watcher, death was not the end—it was only the beginning.

Rosen had encountered Avenger Watchers before, back when the Spirit Realm had descended upon reality.

This legendary elven profession ensured that even without a body, the soul would transform into a Spirit of Vengeance, bound by its unfulfilled grudge.

And according to what he had just uncovered through Seeker's Gaze—this Cave Elf King had not perished completely.

Even now, he still existed somewhere.

Rosen returned to Emerald Valley Town, gazing toward the depths of the Desert of Death with anticipation.

A vengeful soul that had survived for so many years—there was no doubt it had been sealed away.

And if an Avenger Watcher sought vengeance, the final place it would attempt to reach would surely be one of the sacred lands of the Elven Race.

This meant there was a very high chance that it was sealed in a major elven stronghold.

That, in turn, meant there was also a greater likelihood of ancient elven artifacts being hidden there.

More importantly, there was a real possibility that he could find traces of the Demon Hunters there.

As long as he found even a single clue, Seeker's Gaze would be able to guide him toward the Demon Hunters' secrets.

But before that, he needed to use the Primordial Oil Lamp to recover his divine essence limit as quickly as possible.

Half a day later, the teleportation array to Oasis City finally stabilized.

After paying the fee, Rosen stepped onto the teleportation platform alongside several other demigods who had also arrived at Emerald Valley Town.

The teleportation process was extremely unstable—the spatial tunnel itself felt as though it was barely holding together.

And this was after an entire day had been spent stabilizing it.

This alone showed just how severely the Desert of Death interfered with spatial magic.

If not for the fact that Oasis City's teleportation array had originally been built by the Elves, it was very likely that no teleportation array would have ever been able to link to the outside world.

Stepping out of the teleportation array, Rosen surveyed Oasis City.

He was no stranger to this place.

From the Historical Domain, he had read a detailed chronicle of the Desert of Death written by a historian.

Oasis City was built upon the only oasis within the Desert of Death.

During the night, all vegetation in the oasis would wither and die.

Yet when morning arrived, the entire oasis would flourish once more.

Eating these plants during the day would replenish one's lifespan.

Eating them at night, however, would drain it away.

Many demigods whose lifespans were running out chose to settle in Oasis City, relying on these miraculous plants to prolong their lives.

As a result, despite its small size, Oasis City housed thousands of resident demigods.

And when including all the visiting demigods who had come seeking treasure, the city's total population easily exceeded ten thousand.

The streets of Oasis City had no supernatural beings below the rank of demigod, but within the buildings lining the streets, there were large numbers of lesser transcendents—even ordinary mortals. These buildings were actually divine domains, housing the followers and subjects of various demigods.

The demigods who had come here to extend their lifespans didn't want to sit idly by and waste away, so they opened their divine domains for business.

Rosen quickly found a shop owned by a historian and stepped inside to gather more intelligence on the Desert of Death.

All the relevant information was clearly priced on the counter. Without hesitation, he bought everything.

As long as the content was genuine, it could help complete the missing historical records on the Elven Race within the Eternal Chronicle.

Just as the transaction was completed and he was about to leave, a dying old man suddenly materialized within the shop, barely clinging to life.

At a glance, Rosen could tell that this was a Sequence 3 historian. His lifespan was like a candle flickering in the wind—he was truly down to his last breath.

Ordinary lifespan-extending methods were already completely useless to him. The only thing keeping him alive was the daylight-grown plants of Oasis City.

"Historian Gavin Allen… begs His Majesty, the Radiant King, to save me…" The dying old man trembled as he bowed.

"Gavin Allen?" Rosen immediately recalled the origin of that name.

The historical account of the Desert of Death that he had read had been edited by none other than Gavin Allen.

But as far as Rosen knew, Gavin Allen was supposed to be young!

The World Government had only existed for twenty thousand years. There weren't many demigods who had naturally reached the end of their lifespans.

Even a Sequence 3 could find countless ways to extend their lifespan.

The vast majority of demigods either died prematurely or met unnatural ends.

"I've read your historical account. What happened to you?" Rosen asked in surprise.

"That version of the historical account… was censored," Gavin said with a frail yet smug smile.

"You're really not afraid of the Historian Guild coming after you, huh?" Rosen raised an eyebrow.

The main world was too vast, filled with countless civilizations that had risen and fallen over the ages.

The number of historians was limited, so historians scattered across the world had a great deal of autonomy.

Gavin Allen was likely a specialized historian dedicated to researching the Desert of Death.

He probably received a significant grant from the Historical Domain to support his work.

Yet despite taking their resources, he had intentionally redacted parts of his historical records.

If the Historical Domain found out about this, Gavin would at best be stripped of his position—at worst, he'd be silenced.

Rosen was now curious as to why Gavin had so openly confessed to him.

By the time the next morning arrived, Rosen had finally learned from Gavin what had been censored from the historical record.

Gavin had discovered a secret in Oasis City—while the trunk of the Tree of Life had indeed been chopped down, its divine essence and divine core had not fallen into the hands of the Giants.

Instead, it had been sealed within Oasis City.

If not for that, the domain of divine laws that encompassed the Desert of Death would not have persisted to this day.

This was not exactly a well-kept secret.

Many within the World Government were aware that the Tree of Life's divine core was sealed here.

But knowing was one thing—taking it was another.

Even true gods were incapable of claiming the Tree of Life's divine core.

If the Tree of Life's slumbering divine essence were ever pushed to the brink, it would self-destruct, unleashing a backlash that would reduce the entire Holy Continent to a dead zone.

Because of this, neither the Giants nor the World Government dared to forcefully extract the Tree of Life's divine core.

What was even more peculiar was that, for some unknown reason, even the Elven Race had never attempted to awaken the Tree of Life's divine spirit.

After thousands of years of research, Gavin had finally uncovered the truth behind this.

The Tree of Life had been afflicted with a terrifying curse.

Without lifting the curse, awakening would mean certain death.

To prevent this fate, the Tree of Life had sealed away its own divine core and divine consciousness.

The Elves were fully aware of this—and so, they had never attempted to disturb its slumber.

The curse that now permeated the Desert of Death was not originally from the Tree of Life.

Rather, it was the curse that had plagued the Tree of Life—over time, it had gradually been stripped away, infusing itself into the Desert of Death.

Gavin had spent thousands of years researching this curse.

In doing so, he had recklessly exposed himself to its effects—causing his lifespan to rapidly dwindle.

Now, he was on the verge of death, barely holding on.

For years, he had been searching for someone who could help him lift the curse.

To break the curse, one would need at least the power of a Sequence 1.

But at the same time, the Sequence level of the individual could not exceed Sequence 3.

However, finding someone who could fight across two Sequence levels was nearly impossible in the main world.

Rosen's reputation had long since spread far and wide.

To Gavin, Rosen was the perfect candidate.

For years, Gavin had been hiring demigods passing through Oasis City to try and reach out to Rosen.

But the Radiant Continent was too far away from the Desert of Death.

Until now, he had never succeeded in establishing contact.

So when he suddenly saw Rosen appear right before him in Oasis City, he was so ecstatic that he had nearly dropped dead on the spot.