The outskirts of the gray city.

The black-robed lady challenged him to a fight, but Rosen remained sitting on the stone chair without moving.

On the surface, there wasn't even any sign of war.

He took a sip of wine and said, "Great Philiqisi, wait, I haven't finished my words yet."

Originally, he was planning to start a war directly, but the last sentence the other party said made him vaguely glimpse the conflicting psychology in his heart.

To put it another way on Earth, this Goddess of Annihilation seems to have an unstable "heart".

Rosen didn't want to fight either.

Because if he won, he would only win an incarnation of divine power. If he lost, he would most likely lose his life.

The gains are not proportional to the inputs, it is a complete loss-making deal.

On the other side, Phyllis shook her head slightly: "I don't think there is anything else to talk about between us."

Although she said so, she, like Rosen, sat on the stone chair without moving.

Rosen seized the opportunity and spoke faster: "Great One, you just said that you hope to reach the end of the world peacefully, but your actions are somewhat inconsistent with your words."

"You said you wanted stability, but you took risks to connect new worlds, develop new believers, and even built a solar bridge connecting the two worlds."

"You said that everything will eventually become annihilated. In other words, everything in the present has no meaning of existence."

"Since it is meaningless, what are you trying to do now?"

"Click~"

Phyllis placed the crystal wine glass gently on the stone table and stared at Rosen.

"The world has destiny. The nothingness of annihilation is only the end of destiny, not the whole picture of destiny."

"No life can see the full picture of fate. The only thing we can do is to follow the guidance of our heart and bear witness to fate with our own life."

“So, witnessing fate is the meaning of everything I do.”

Rosen immediately asked back: "A fate that cannot be seen clearly is not a fate, but an uncertain future."

"The differences between us may not be irreconcilable. After all, the new world is very vast, enough to accommodate many Five-ring True Gods, right?"

Filiqis nodded: "You are right. This is also the basis for our current conversation."

Rosen continued: "Perhaps, we can change the way of cooperation. We should not seek to form a pantheon, but become independent allies."

Filiquis fell into deep thought.

Seeing that the other party was convinced, Rosen continued his efforts.

"You just said that in the future, I will cause your strength to weaken significantly, but this is a matter of the future after all."

"Even if there is a 99% chance of it happening, it's still just a possibility, not a certainty, right?"

"Of course, you can ignore my words and do whatever you can to get rid of me, but I will definitely resist with all my strength. If you fail, we will be enemies to the death, and there will be no room for easing."

"Perhaps it is precisely because of your uncompromising attitude that you have led to the fate you have seen?"

Filiquis stared at Rosen again.

After looking at him for a long time, she said, "Mortal Emperor, you really have a clever tongue, but you can't win real status by words alone."

"You want to cooperate with me as an independent, that's fine, but you have to prove your qualifications with your own strength."

Rosen had already thought of a way, and immediately said: "To prove your strength, you don't have to use fighting. There are many other ways."

"I think we can set up a bet."

The frost on Filiqis's face melted a little.

"Gambling? Interesting."

"How do we bet?"

Rosen raised his hand and pointed his thumb in the direction of Gray City.

"We can agree on a time limit, such as one year."

"Within one year, we will each preach in Gray City and its surrounding areas. After one year, we will see who has gained more believers in Gray City."

"Spread the faith and gather believers?"

Filiqisi raised her eyebrows and said, "I have been doing similar things for more than 20,000 years, and you have not even been able to successfully ignite the divine fire. Are you sure you can beat me?"

Rosen smiled and said, "It is precisely because of the difficulty that I can use it to prove my strength, right?"

Filiqis nodded in agreement: "Although I think your words are a bit arrogant, I appreciate your arrogance because it makes me see the splendor of life."

"So, I agree to the bet."

"But gambling requires agreed rules."

Having said this, Filiquis raised her hand and waved in the air, and a line of glowing words appeared in the air.

"There is a core rule called the principle of non-intervention."

"True gods hide behind the scenes. They can appear to preach, bestow magical instruments and spells, guide and even command believers, but they do not directly participate in battles between mortals."

"The reason for establishing this rule is that the true gods exist in the divine realm and cannot directly interfere with the mortal world."

"Although it is possible to enter the mortal world with a true incarnation, condensing the incarnation will consume essence and make the god essentially a slave of mortals. Do you understand this?"

Rosen nodded: "I understand. As a mortal emperor, I deeply feel the tediousness of the emperor's daily work."

"What's worse is that I can't let go because once I let go, power will quickly slip away and my life and the lives of my family will be in extreme danger."

"I'm glad you understand."

Filiqis continued, "One year later, if you win, we will be independent partners."

"If I win, you will have to join my pantheon and become my subordinate god."

"Is everything all right?"

"No problem, Great One."

After saying this, Filiqisi stood up and left.

She took a few steps back, and her figure turned from solid to virtual, and then disappeared into thin air.

Rosen watched him leave and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

There was still some food left on the table, and he was a little hungry, so he just focused on enjoying the food.

While eating and drinking, Liv heard the secret words of time and space again: "Your Majesty, have you just encountered the mortal incarnation of the great Annihilator?"

The voice was very soft and cautious, as if afraid of being overheard.

“Yes, I did.”

"And you defeated her?"

If it were someone else, Liv would never ask this question, but this Natural Emperor is unfathomable.

Rosen smiled and said, "I'm not sure I can defeat a mortal incarnation of the Supreme Being. In fact, I reached an agreement with her."

"Agreement? Can I know?" Liv asked more carefully.

Rosen thought for a moment, then briefly informed him of the content of the agreement, and then said, "Tell your master that this agreement will not interfere with the existing cooperation between me and your master."

"Also tell her that if the Goddess of Annihilation invites her to become a subordinate god, I have no objection to her choice."

"Yes, Your Majesty, I will convey it truthfully."

Rosen wanted to ask Liv about the knowledge related to "faith and godhood", but after thinking it over, he decided not to ask.

Because this knowledge is the core knowledge of the true God, if he asks, the Joy-Maker may answer, but it will come at a heavy price.

Facing the true God, he has very few cards to play. If he wants to ensure as much initiative as possible, he has to play fewer cards and accumulate more strength.

"I already know how to ignite the divine fire. So how do I condense the divine nature that collects the essence of mortal souls?"

It’s hard to figure it out, and even harder to verify it experimentally.

Because his soul strength was only at the 20th level, he couldn't even sense the existence of the source.

According to common sense, he should wait until his soul reaches the 23rd ring before thinking about this problem, but this unexpected encounter with the Goddess of Annihilation gave him a strong sense of crisis.

His current opponent is the true God, and with the Scepter of Light, he has gained the qualification to converse with the true God.

But this is an act of courting disaster.

True gods are all indifferent, and the scepter of light is, after all, an external object. Once there is even the slightest flaw in his defense, he will be doomed.

This is by no means an exaggeration, as the experience of the eternal strongman Antoine is proof of this.

So, if you want to be safe, you can't act according to common sense.

He must shorten his period of vulnerability as much as possible and make his plans unexpected to his opponents to avoid being ambushed.

Therefore, if he really waited until the 23rd ring to start studying the matter of condensing the godhead, then he would be moving too slowly.

"We need to understand this thing called Sephiroth as soon as possible. But how do we study it?"

"Source Quality. Source Quality"

Rosen took out the scepter of light and played with it gently in his hand.

"The Joyful Ones say that there is a great deal of Essence in my soul."

"She also said that the Scepter of Light was also condensed from the source."

The Scepter of Light must not be messed with. If it is broken, he will lose the barrier against the true God, and the true God will invade his soul in an instant, and he will become his eternal slave.

Then we can only seek the source of essence in our own soul.

'In my soul, the manifestation of the source is most likely Lai Fu. But even now, I still cannot perceive Lai Fu's specific existence.'

For Lai Fu, he is still in a state where he can only use it but cannot modify the underlying architecture.

Just like most people on earth, they can only use mobile phones but do not have the ability to make them.

"What shall we do?"

Rosen leaned back on the stone chair, looking at the gray sky with a dazed look.

As he watched, a light suddenly flashed in his mind and a wonderful idea popped up in his mind.

Rosen has already obtained the method to ignite the sacred fire from the Joyer.

But the Joy-seeker never said that one must reach the 23rd ring before being able to ignite the divine fire.

She just said that one has to reach the 23rd ring to feel the source essence.

In other words, as long as Rosen gains the ability to sense the source, he can ignite the divine fire even if his current soul is only at the 20th ring.

Because the basis of the divine fire is the source material, not the strength of his soul.

The Joyful One also said that he already had more than enough Essence.

If Lai Fu is composed of the source substance in his soul, then he will definitely be able to feel the existence of the source substance, and naturally he will be able to train related abilities and successfully ignite the divine fire.

If Rosen guessed wrong, then he guessed wrong, and there was no loss.

After figuring it out, he immediately tried to ask in his mind: "Lai Fu, train the new ability "Ignite the Divine Fire"."

The next moment, Lai Fu responded: "Confirmed to train?"

"Sure."

"Begin training. The training will use free essence."

"Currently, the number of free essences accounts for 33%, which is too small. Should we stop some of the running abilities to unlock more essences?"

Rosen was suddenly ecstatic: "Ahaha~~ I guessed right!"

(End of this chapter)