"This is the end."

Echkatel appeared once more.

This reset was completely different from the previous ones. He had not returned to any place he had visited before.

Instead, he had arrived somewhere he had never reached.

Yet the tree before him felt strangely familiar to Kanzaki Rei.

Or rather—

It was identical to the one within his Sea of Consciousness.

The Tree of Wisdom.

The legendary origin point of all spirituality and sentience.

"All spiritual origins of life in this world come from the Tree of Wisdom."

"You really haven’t changed at all." Echkatel sounded genuinely astonished.

"What should it normally look like when someone reaches this place?"

Echkatel replied,

"Normally... nothing should exist."

"The current you shouldn’t exist yet. You would need to wait until the Tree of Wisdom grants you a spark of spirituality before your birth could begin."

"This is the very beginning of a person’s timeline."

"And yet, here you are—a complete person, already someone who has undergone class advancement, standing in this place."

"You really are special."

Kanzaki Rei looked around as both his gaze and perception swept through the surroundings.

But with a single glance—

He realized that what he saw was not entirely real.

In every direction, hidden fractures and concealments existed within space itself.

At first glance, everything appeared harmonious and complete.

But in truth—

It was already riddled with holes.

The deepest layer of reality revealed things Kanzaki Rei should never have been able to see.

"Echkatel."

"What’s here should be the true Tree of Wisdom, correct?"

Echkatel answered,

"Well, obviously."

"Uh... alright, maybe I shouldn’t say that so confidently."

"You know, I haven’t actually left that place in countless years."

"I’m purely a theorist."

"In theory, once someone reaches the origin point of their own existence, they can truly stand before the Tree of Wisdom and witness how they descended from it and gradually formed into a new life."

"So the Tree of Wisdom in front of us should be real."

Should be real...

But in Kanzaki Rei’s eyes—

Most of the tree was already illusory.

It still looked whole and complete on the surface, but in reality—

It was nearly hollow.

Only a small portion of its branches remained real. A few stems. A few leaves.

Compared to its incomprehensibly massive entirety—

What remained was pitifully little.

"Echkatel... has this tree always been incomplete?"

This was the first time Kanzaki Rei had personally seen the true Tree of Wisdom. He had no way of knowing whether this was its original state.

"What do you mean, incomplete?"

Kanzaki Rei paused briefly before sharing his perception with Echkatel.

Allowing her to see exactly what he saw.

Shing—

Their senses connected.

Echkatel saw the scene before them.

Her small mouth slowly opened.

Shock appeared on her face.

But after a moment, she shook her head.

"I don’t know either."

Right...

Echkatel and Ansel were practically complete opposites. Ansel knew an enormous amount, had lived for ages, and truly possessed vast knowledge.

Echkatel had also lived for an extremely long time.

Yet she knew almost nothing.

She only understood certain things from the prehistoric era. As for anything that happened over the next hundred million years—

She was completely ignorant.

At that moment, both of them were filled with questions.

Yet when they looked at one another—

They were equally clueless.

"So I can move around freely here, right?"

"In theory, yes."

"At least that was true a hundred million years ago."

Kanzaki Rei fell silent.

That answer really wasn’t reassuring at all.

Fortunately—

He could still simulate the future.

Kanzaki Rei gently closed his eyes. Within his future simulations, he continuously opened Phase Shift pathways one after another.

Approaching the Tree of Wisdom.

The tree was simply too massive.

Everywhere shimmered with multicolored radiance.

These lights should originally have been the tree’s actual body, yet now they resembled wood hollowed out by parasites, leaving behind nothing but false brilliance.

The parts that had not been hollowed out—

The sections that still truly remained—

Were actually very far away.

This was a completely isolated space, seemingly detached entirely from the present world.

Even with a divine movement ability like Phase Shift—

Kanzaki Rei still spent a considerable amount of time reaching the visible surviving sections.

After landing, Kanzaki Rei reached out and touched one strand of flowing light.

Unlike the lights he had seen along the way, this strand possessed physical substance. The sensation felt like grasping flowing water. Thick and tangible.

It truly resembled a branch.

[Tree of Wisdom]

[Origin of Birth: None — Hidden Knowledge: A divine tree born naturally at the creation of the world.]

[Status: Incomplete — Its body has been repeatedly stolen from over millions upon millions of years.]

So it really had been stolen from.

Over millions of years...

Meaning this was not damage caused overnight.

Beyond that information, Kanzaki Rei also sensed a strangely familiar aura.

As though he himself had originated from this place.

At the same time—

He could clearly feel spirituality slowly increasing.

The Tree of Wisdom before him was actually repairing itself.

...What?

The moment I touch the Tree of Wisdom, it starts recovering?

Could this be connected to the Tree of Wisdom within my Sea of Consciousness?

A hypothesis formed in Kanzaki Rei’s mind.

Perhaps this was the Tree of Wisdom’s final self-preservation measure. To protect itself, it had left part of its true body within his Sea of Consciousness.

As long as he came into contact with the Tree of Wisdom—

It would begin repairing itself.

But...

The restoration speed was deeply concerning.

An entire minute only extended the solidified portion of light by a few centimeters.

And for a colossal tree whose individual branches stretched across tens of billions of kilometers—

That amount was utterly negligible.

If he tried repairing it alone—

Even spending hundreds of millions of years would not be enough.

And he absolutely did not have hundreds of millions of years to waste here.

There was no possibility of staying behind to repair it.

Kanzaki Rei reached that conclusion.

Rather than attempting to repair it—

It would be better to...

A thought flashed through Kanzaki Rei’s mind. His hand became a blade as he prepared a slashing stance.

Slash!

A sharp hand-blade condensed flowing light and instantly severed the branch before him.

Crack...

The branch broke apart, yet he felt no sign of retaliation whatsoever.

"In botany, plants can survive through grafting or propagation with the help of a cultivator..."

"I wonder if you count as that kind of plant."

"Since you’ve already been corroded to this extent..."

"I may as well take this section with me."

Within the simulated timeline, no abnormalities occurred.

After ending the simulation and returning to reality—

Kanzaki Rei reenacted every action exactly as he had practiced moments before.

In the end—

He stored a fragment of the Tree of Wisdom’s true branch within his Sea of Consciousness.