As the branch of the Tree of Wisdom merged into his Sea of Consciousness, Kanzaki Rei felt an indescribable sense of openness and relaxation spread through his mind.

He wondered whether anyone else in this world, aside from himself, had ever fused a branch of the Tree of Wisdom into their Sea of Consciousness.

Still, Kanzaki Rei guessed that if someone truly encountered the Tree of Wisdom, they would most likely attempt the same thing he had. After all, this thing absolutely qualified as a heaven-defying divine treasure. There would definitely be people willing to go to extreme lengths to exploit it.

"You... put it into your Sea of Consciousness?"

Echkatel’s voice sounded beside him. She followed closely behind through the Phase Shift pathway Kanzaki Rei had opened, never falling behind.

Kanzaki Rei responded with mild confusion.

"Yeah. There shouldn’t be any problem, right?"

Truthfully, he had already asked that question once before—in the future simulation. Back then, he had asked whether any other issues would arise. But even though he already knew the answer, he still asked again in reality so Echkatel wouldn’t think his behavior was strange.

Echkatel gave the same response as before.

"I don’t know whether there’ll be problems either. Before this, I’d never heard of anyone putting the Tree of Wisdom into their Sea of Consciousness."

"No, wait... is this really the kind of thing that can even be stored inside a Sea of Consciousness?" Echkatel tilted her head in confusion.

A Sea of Consciousness wasn’t a storage space. How could someone just shove anything they wanted into it? What if putting something this mysterious into it caused the entire Sea of Consciousness to explode?

But at the same time, once someone thought about the Tree of Wisdom, they would naturally associate it with the Sea of Consciousness.

Still...

Wasn’t this way too reckless?

Echkatel genuinely had no idea what would happen.

In truth, even her own memories were incomplete. Back in ancient times, she had quickly risen to become one of the era’s most famous powerhouses.

Ironically, that left her lacking in practical experience.

Many things existed only in theory for her. She had never personally witnessed them.

The Tree of Wisdom was one of those things.

Theoretically speaking, all living beings could trace their origins back to the Tree of Wisdom. And when this blessing was pursued to its ultimate source, one would eventually find the Tree of Wisdom itself.

Normally, however, a person reaching this point would possess no autonomy whatsoever.

At that stage, they could not even truly be considered to possess a physical body.

They were merely a drifting cluster of spirituality.

And ordinarily, Echkatel herself would never accompany another person to the very end of their timeline.

A special case like Kanzaki Rei was the first she had ever encountered.

Though, to be fair—

She had never met many people to begin with.

Echkatel suddenly found herself tempted to try placing a branch of the Tree of Wisdom into her own Sea of Consciousness as well.

"What does it feel like to put that thing into your Sea of Consciousness?"

"Did anything change?"

Kanzaki Rei answered,

"Not really anything special. You could try it too."

That was indeed the truth.

Aside from the branches floating within his Sea of Consciousness and the sense of mental clarity and relaxation, there were almost no other noticeable effects.

Logically speaking, placing a branch of the Tree of Wisdom into one’s Sea of Consciousness should dramatically increase spirituality.

But in reality...

Nothing particularly special happened.

"Alright then."

As they conversed, they had already crossed hundreds of millions of kilometers.

Very little of the Tree of Wisdom’s remains were left.

Kanzaki Rei intended to collect more branches, but the travel distance was truly absurd.

He continuously opened Phase Shift gateways, each traversal spanning at least three hundred million kilometers. The mana consumption was staggering.

For ordinary mages, Phase Shift would practically qualify as a forbidden spell.

Aside from someone like Kanzaki Rei, who essentially had limitless mana, what ordinary Level 6 mage could possibly gather enough mana to repeatedly cast Phase Shift?

Shing— Shing— Shing— Shing—

Kanzaki Rei continuously stored dozens more branches into his Sea of Consciousness.

Fortunately, his Sea of Consciousness was vast enough. Otherwise, it probably would not have been able to contain so many branches of the Tree of Wisdom.

Meanwhile, Echkatel curiously followed beside him, watching him store the branches while continuously asking questions about everything around her.

It was as though she was curious about nearly everything in existence.

Nearly an entire day passed.

By now, Kanzaki Rei’s Sea of Consciousness was filled everywhere with branches from the Tree of Wisdom.

At this point, only one remaining area of the entire space had not yet been harvested by him.

The highest region.

"That’s ridiculously far..."

Even using Phase Shift, he had traveled for an entire day.

Without Phase Shift, traversing this place might have taken nearly a full year.

And during the journey, Kanzaki Rei had also acquired the phase coordinates of this space itself.

In the future, he could potentially teleport here directly.

If mana consumption were ignored, this was arguably the most useful spell of the century.

Its usefulness was no less than other Root-Origin Magic—

Perhaps even surpassing certain Forbidden Spells.

Another half-day of travel passed.

The final location was incomparably farther than every previous destination.

The other coordinates could be reached in mere seconds or minutes. Even the most distant among them took no more than thirty minutes.

But this final coordinate alone required half a day just to reach.

Bzz—

At last, Kanzaki Rei arrived.

This cluster of branches was completely different from the others.

The previous remnants resembled scattered masses of colored mist.

But the thing before him now was an extremely condensed, liquid-like substance floating in midair.

Kanzaki Rei extended his perception toward it.

His senses touched the substance like invisible tendrils.

At the same time, information flowed back into him.

This is...

The Highest Leaf.

I didn’t expect it to exist in this form.

This truly was the very top of the Tree of Wisdom.

"The Highest Leaf..."

According to Ansel’s speculation, he believed he possessed the Highest Leaf himself. That was why he considered himself so overwhelmingly extraordinary.

[Capable of granting the possessor supreme spirituality.]

[After fusing with this branch, the user will naturally obtain a God-Tier Talent unique to themselves.]

[This talent can be obtained without requiring class advancement. Furthermore, advancing into any class will massively increase the user’s comprehension and affinity for that profession.]

It really did resemble the abilities Kanzaki Rei currently possessed.

Yet at the same time—

It felt weaker.

The Highest Leaf alone could not explain why he possessed so many God-Tier Talents.

According to the description of the Highest Leaf, even after obtaining it, one could at most acquire two God-Tier Talents.

One innate talent from birth.

And perhaps another awakened after class advancement.

That was completely unlike him.

Instead—

It resembled Izparut far more closely.

Izparut also possessed two God-Tier Talents, and his affinity for Mage talents was absurdly monstrous. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

It truly didn’t add up.

But regardless...

He would take it first.

With a thought, Kanzaki Rei wrapped the Highest Leaf in mana and sent it into his Sea of Consciousness.

When he looked back once more—

The entire Tree of Wisdom had become completely empty.

Previously, at least a few remaining branches still lingered.

But now—

Nothing remained except the faint outline of an empty shell.

"You really didn’t leave behind even a single thing," Echkatel clicked her tongue in amazement.