Destruction. Collapse. Death. Disintegration...

How one entered the Dao, and what kind of Dao Manifestation Technique they awakened, depended entirely on the warrior’s own comprehension.

But comprehension was still comprehension—you couldn’t just force random ideas into existence because they sounded right.

This kind of thing had to be something you had truly felt for yourself.

It was like Origin Magic.

Every mage could theorize about what the Root might be and begin from the assumption that Origin Magic existed.

But assumptions alone could never become actual application.

They still required rigorous proof.

Simply put—

You had to completely convince yourself.

But...

What the hell was this situation?

Elosha couldn’t understand it.

This man had only looked once—

And he had already learned her Dao Manifestation Technique.

Space shattered apart.

No matter what rank the monsters were, they had already lost any chance to struggle.

Kanzaki Rei stepped through the black Abyssfall.

He arrived beside Elosha.

Her crimson hair was tied in a high ponytail, and only bandages wrapped across her chest.

Pretty good figure, too.

Rei said casually, "Why are you staring at me? Let’s go. We already killed our way in."

The guardian monsters at the entrance to the ruins had already been wiped out.

Elosha snapped back to herself and grabbed Rei’s arm.

"Wait a second. Aren’t you going to explain that move you used just now?"

Rei replied, "You want to learn it? I don’t mind teaching you, considering the materials you gave me."

Elosha’s mouth twitched.

Learn it?

That’s my skill! Since when did it become me learning it from you?!

Her expression turned serious.

"Don’t play dumb. You know exactly what I’m asking."

Rei sighed softly.

"If you’re asking me that, then how am I supposed to answer? I just suddenly comprehended the move. I figured it out myself. Surely you’re not saying I’m not allowed to use it?"

Elosha froze.

Comprehended it...

Are those even human words?

Truthfully, Elosha had never intended to pursue the matter seriously. There was no such thing as "stealing" battle techniques, nor had anyone ever claimed others weren’t allowed to use their combat arts.

In fact, powerful warriors were often capable of imitating the battle techniques of others during combat.

Elosha herself possessed that kind of talent.

Most ordinary combat techniques—she could imitate them almost perfectly after seeing them once, and after practicing them twice, she could fully master them.

But those were only ordinary combat techniques.

Entering the Dao had taken her twenty years.

Advancing her Dao Manifestation Technique to Sixth Principle had taken another hundred.

Dao Manifestation Techniques and ordinary battle arts existed on completely different levels.

Yet Rei claimed he had comprehended it after one glance...

Rei patted the dumbfounded Elosha on the shoulder.

"Come on. We can slowly discuss warrior principles on the way."

"And if you keep getting hung up on this kind of thing..."

"You’re gonna lose your life pretty easily."

FWOOOSH!

A gigantic wolf head suddenly materialized behind Elosha!

PUCHI!

Shumi’s dagger instantly pierced into the wolf’s skull and sliced downward, splitting the head cleanly in half.

From every direction, glowing crimson eyes lit up once more.

They were already inside the Abyssfall ruins.

"Seriously, Sasha, nya~ It’s just him learning your skill. Is that really something worth making such a fuss over?"

A red tendril hung from the corner of Shumi’s mouth—the whisker she had cut from the evil spirit they killed earlier.

"There are even more monsters here now. And the aura of life feels way denser too."

"Kinda reminds me of those bastards from the Life Cult, nya."

The Life Cult...

So now even the Church of Life had been branded a cult?

Still, as investigations went deeper, Sophia’s connection to the Aberrant Nest became increasingly obvious. At this point, labeling the Church of Life as a heretical cult wasn’t really inaccurate anymore.

"Shumi, do you hate the Church of Life that much?"

RIIIIP—

One crack after another tore open through space as more monsters crawled out from all directions.

If they couldn’t overwhelm these creatures with crushing force and eliminate them quickly—

Then over time, they would eventually be worn down to death no matter how strong they were.

"Way of Azure—Fifth Principle: One-World Prison."

Rei brought his hands together.

BANG!

The surrounding world sealed shut instantly.

Within that enclosed domain, every monster’s strength, mana, vitality, and blood essence began flowing continuously toward Rei.

Part of it permanently transformed into Rei’s own power.

From Shumi and Elosha’s perspective, all they saw were monsters materializing out of thin air—

Only to wither into shriveled husks in less than two seconds, their bodies drying into skin-wrapped skeletons.

Quite a few monsters launched attacks against Rei as well.

But regardless of what form the attacks took—

They merely passed through his body.

None of them caused even the slightest damage.

The only thing they could sense was Rei growing steadily stronger by the moment.

"Was he always this strong?" Elosha asked Shumi quietly through mental transmission.

"How would I know, nya..."

"Back then, Luluvi said he was really strong, but I never actually saw him fight. I only knew he was Izparut’s disciple."

"And I only got to know Izparut in the past few years..."

"But judging from his current strength, doesn’t he already feel half a step into Level 9?"

After hearing that, Elosha’s expression became even more distorted.

"Didn’t he say he was only Level 6? Have you ever seen a monster like this?"

"Two years ago, I heard legends about someone similar existing in ancient times. But that was just a myth, nya."

The two women flew behind Rei, both finding his combat strength utterly absurd.

They could kill Rank 8 monsters too—

But absolutely not as effortlessly as Rei.

Everywhere he passed became a meat grinder.

Endless dried corpses rained from the sky like a storm, as though a domain of death had formed around Rei himself.

Any monster within that range faced only one outcome:

Instant death.

All three moved at terrifying speed. After all, each possessed genuine Level 8 combat power. Every one of them had already surpassed the speed-of-light limit defined by Earth.

Even without phase traversal, they could cross millions of kilometers in a single second.

Suddenly—

Rei stopped moving.

Seeing this, Elosha and Shumi immediately halted as well.

"What’s wrong, nya?"

Rei stared into the distance.

There, he saw a winged monster with its back turned toward him, holding a pen while swaying its head side to side thoughtfully over a book.

A monster...

No.

The targets locked onto by his <Fifth Principle: One-World Prison> were monsters.

Creatures with weak spirituality.

Generally speaking, any being whose spirituality was weaker than a human’s—or whose spirituality resembled a human’s but possessed monster traits—would be directly affected.

They would be drained dry by One-World Prison.

But...

The monster in the distance with its back facing him had not been locked onto at all.

And when Rei focused his gaze upon it—

When he looked directly at its spirituality—

He saw...

One of the leaves of the Tree of Wisdom glowing brilliantly.

This monster’s spirituality was not ordinary spirituality.

It was a leaf from the Tree of Wisdom itself.

And beyond that—

It possessed a previous life.

Monsters did not have previous lives, because they possessed no spirituality and could not reincarnate.

This was the first time Rei had ever encountered a monster that possessed a past incarnation.

And what made it even stranger—

Was that he had never once seen this creature in any future simulation.