Lord: Sequence Master

"I already have divine energy..." Rosen's heart raced as he considered the potential of the Divine Brushstroke.

The divine energy the Main God Computer had absorbed from the Cat God's Sacred Statue had already been integrated into his Divine Territory, fusing with his spiritual flame and allowing him to open up his Mind Sea early, forming his Sequence Tree.

Now, the newly formed Sequence Tree naturally carried traces of divine power.

Thus, the most challenging part of mastering the Divine Brushstroke—obtaining divine energy—had already been achieved. All that remained was to create his Divine Brush.

A few days later, the custom-made brush Rosen had ordered arrived.

It was a multi-functional brush. One end was for painting, capable of switching between colors and brush materials effortlessly, making it perfect for both sketching and coloring. The other end could transform into various types of brushes, such as those for ink and oil painting.

Rosen immediately brought the brush into his Divine Territory, placing it within his Sequence Tree to merge with his Painter Sequence's spiritual essence.

Thanks to the divine power within the Sequence Tree, the fusion process went smoothly. Rosen even did something unprecedented—he permanently infused two units of spiritual energy into the brush instead of just one, a choice he made carefully.

The power of Divine Brushstroke was undeniable. Its strength lay in its ability to convert auxiliary skills into innate ones.

However, there was no rule stating that only one unit of spiritual energy could be infused.

In history, there had been a famous painter, a genius recognized by the World Government, who had infused two units of spiritual energy into their brush. This granted them the ability to convert two auxiliary skills into innate ones at every sequence level, significantly enhancing the potential of their Divine Brush and its capacity to bear divine energy and power.

But that painter did not possess the dual-bloodline glory Rosen had, meaning their spiritual energy capacity was capped at nine units per sequence.

As a result, when that painter reached Sequence 1, they could only infuse 81 units of spiritual energy into their paintings, which was comparable to a Sequence 2 painter.

This limitation left the painter stuck at Sequence 1 for the rest of their life, unable to make the leap to Sequence 0 and become a god. Instead, they earned the title of the strongest demigod of their era, a title that fell short of their aspirations.

In the end, this demigod painter was defeated by an alien true god.

Two days later, Rosen's Divine Brush had finally taken form within the Sequence Tree.

He withdrew the brush from the tree within his Divine Territory, then used the Sequence Tree to connect to the Artist Civilization Tree in the Spiritual Realm, preparing to complete a spiritual painting with the divine brush.

The final challenge for mastering Divine Brushstroke was gaining the approval of the Human Civilization Tree.

If the tree deemed his artistic skills lacking, the brush would fail to form, the brush's prototype would collapse, and although his supernatural essence would not be permanently damaged, he would have to spend years healing before he could attempt again.

Rosen tirelessly created spiritual paintings, but the Human Civilization Tree remained silent, showing no signs of recognition.

His heart began to sink. He realized he had overestimated himself.

His talent in painting, while exceptional compared to ordinary people, paled in comparison to those with true gifts in art.

Had he been truly talented, even in his previous life, he would have been a world-renowned artist, rather than scraping by making commissions and illustrations.

If his talent was mediocre among billions, how could he expect to compete with the trillions of humans under the World Government?

In that moment, Rosen understood that without his golden finger, he was merely average.

He finally realized why so many protagonists in movies, anime, and novels, even with cheats or supernatural abilities, still faced significant struggles. Many protagonists, once they ascended to the pinnacle of life, began to look down on geniuses, a hubris that Rosen now recognized as arrogance and ignorance.

Just as Rosen was about to lose hope, a leaf fell from the Human Civilization Tree, merging with the brush's prototype.

Rosen's Divine Brush was complete, and he had successfully acquired the innate skill Divine Brushstroke.

However, despite this success, Rosen felt an odd sense of calm. His victory wasn't due to talent but because he had infused two units of spiritual energy into the brush and utilized the divine power of his Sequence Tree. Even with all this, the brush had only just formed.

This kind of talent was nothing to be proud of.

Though Rosen had confidence in his golden finger, knowing it granted him an infinitely broad future, this was not a reason for arrogance. If his natural talent had been better, he could have reached even greater heights. So while continuing to explore the potential of his golden finger, he knew he had to work on improving his personal foundation.

Only with a solid foundation could his supernatural ability be fully leveraged.

Although Rosen resolved to focus on building that foundation, he couldn't help but feel elated as he examined the attributes of his Divine Brush.

Divine Brushstroke LV1:

Creates a Divine Brush from supernatural essence.

Gradually improves painting talent.

Significantly enhances the overall quality of spiritual paintings.

Greatly strengthens the Painter's physical body and spiritual recovery speed.

The ability to improve painting talent was exactly what Rosen needed to strengthen his foundation.

The enhancement to physical strength would take several days to manifest fully, so Rosen wasn't sure yet how much of a boost it would give him.

However, the increase in spiritual recovery speed was something he could feel immediately. Normally, a Sequence 9 painter could only recover their spiritual energy once per day. But with Divine Brushstroke, Rosen could recover his spiritual energy twice a day.

There were many ways to restore spiritual energy, but natural recovery and artificial recovery were vastly different.

For example, if Rosen consumed food that he had painted himself, the energy restored would be considered artificial recovery.

Spiritual paintings created with naturally recovered energy were of much higher quality, while those made with artificially recovered energy were generally at least one tier lower.

Moreover, if Rosen wanted to use the Main God Computer to unlock more virtual realms, it would only recognize spiritual energy recovered naturally.

Rosen continued to examine the attributes of his Divine Brush, and the benefits of permanently infusing two units of spiritual energy into it were impressive.

Divine Brush: Divine Artifact

Level: Sequence 9

Attributes:

Significantly enhances the quality of spiritual paintings.

Greatly increases painting speed.

Can freely transform into any type of brush.

Slightly improves the effects of spiritual pigments.

Anything painted within the Divine Territory will become permanent.

Divine Skill: Draw the Boundaries—The brush can designate an area. Anything within this area will be trapped as if within a painting.

Rosen was thoroughly satisfied with the brush's attributes and skills.

He set up an easel within his Divine Territory and quickly painted a pastoral windmill scene. The moment he activated the painting, a real windmill appeared before him, fully formed. Normally, such an object would last for only 12 minutes, but now, so long as it remained in the Divine Territory, it would exist permanently. This was an invaluable advantage for building his Divine Territory.

He then tested the Draw the Boundaries skill, confirming its formidable potential.

Without this skill, if Rosen painted a sea of fire, the flames would simply manifest around him, giving enemies a chance to dodge. But with Draw the Boundaries, Rosen could preemptively create a boundary. Any enemy that entered the designated area would instantly be engulfed by the flames.

In future battles, Draw the Boundaries would significantly enhance the combat capabilities of the Painter Sequence.

(End of Chapter)