An Earth-born human. Raised by ordinary parents.

A transmigrator from another world.

Reincarnation. The Tree of Wisdom. Spirituality. The Highest Leaf.

An empty shell...

That was the understanding Kanzaki Rei had of himself after crossing into this world.

When he first arrived here, he thought he had simply transmigrated into another world.

Just like the plots in novels.

But the further he searched, the more complicated and incomprehensible everything became.

His transmigration did not seem accidental.

It felt as though someone had orchestrated it.

And the spirituality he possessed was clearly far from ordinary.

Especially the most absurd thing of all, in Rei’s opinion—

The method through which he obtained God-Tier talents.

Every time one of his classes leveled up, he gained a God-Tier Talent.

The more knowledge he accumulated, the more impossible that phenomenon seemed.

Rei spoke quietly.

"So it’s this place again."

Huang Minzhi replied:

"You don’t seem surprised anymore."

"Mm. I already know what price comes with learning this answer."

Huang Minzhi shook his head.

"There’s no price you need to pay."

"This is something you deserve to know."

"Just like matters related to the Origin? Merely knowing it is already the price?"

Huang Minzhi chuckled softly.

"Well... depends on how you look at it."

"Knowledge has always worked that way."

"Once you know something, it becomes difficult to ever go back."

Rei nodded.

"Fine. Continue."

If not for this answer, Rei would never have come here at all.

Honestly, after learning the truth about the Origin, part of him had already wanted to leave.

This entire matter involving a Moon Sovereign was undeniably dangerous.

But at the same time, Rei had another intuition—

If he missed this opportunity, he might never learn the truth again.

And this answer was likely important enough that failing to uncover it would become a lifelong regret.

"Rei."

"I probably understand you better than almost anyone else."

"Because besides Yogg, I should be the only person who knows your true origin."

"Have you noticed that there’s someone who should have appeared... but never did?"

"And have you ever wondered how exactly you became infected by spiritual contamination?"

"Someone who should’ve appeared?"

"Spiritual contamination..."

Luluwy became infected with spiritual contamination because she read the book called Black Secret.

But Rei himself had never encountered any contamination in the normal timeline.

And throughout everything, Rei had always believed he’d been cautious enough.

He had even traced the contamination back afterward, yet still failed to uncover its original source.

The matter had eventually become one of the unresolved mysteries buried in his heart.

Rei’s mind rapidly processed every known piece of information. With the thought process of a Deciphering Scholar, his reasoning speed far surpassed ordinary people.

Once Huang Minzhi linked those two matters together, Rei immediately grasped part of the answer.

Still, he said:

"Just say it directly. Stop making me guess."

Huang Minzhi replied:

"What’s missing... is the being who brought you into this world."

"The existence that transported you from Earth to the Secret Sea."

Thump—

Suddenly, the entire airport before them plunged into darkness.

Rei’s gaze focused inside the airport.

A figure in a black robe gradually emerged.

People continuously moved throughout the airport. Crowds surged back and forth endlessly.

But they were all projections, not real people.

And amidst that sea of moving figures, the black-robed being stood out immensely—

Like someone bizarrely dressed for cosplay.

Yet not a single passerby stopped to look at it.

Rei’s perception probed deeper.

And beneath the robe—

There was no "person."

Instead, there were countless twisting black maggots.

The moment Rei saw them, he recognized them immediately.

Filth Worms.

The creatures that caused spiritual contamination.

Except these worms were even more grotesque than the ones he had seen during his advancement trials. Their aura was far deeper, far more horrifying, enough to instinctively provoke dread.

Every individual worm carried an aura equivalent to a Ninth-Tier monster.

Millions upon millions of worms had gathered together to form this humanoid figure.

"Source Nest of Filth."

The instant his perception touched it, Rei instinctively understood the being’s identity.

"You’re saying..."

"The reason I came to the Secret Sea was because of the Source Nest of Filth."

Back when he had reviewed everything with Anzu, Rei had already suspected that some Level 9 class-advancer—or perhaps even a god—had arranged his arrival.

But he never imagined it would be an existence of this magnitude.

The moment that answer surfaced—

Rei almost instantly understood why he had become contaminated.

The contamination...

Had never come from something he encountered during his journey.

It had existed from the very beginning.

"If the Source Nest of Filth seeks to contaminate every form of spirituality in the world..."

"Then the first thing it would target should naturally be the entire Tree of Wisdom."

"And reincarnation purifies contamination." 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

"When people die, their souls and spirituality return to reincarnation. Even if contaminated, the contamination disappears with death."

"So it would need a method capable of contaminating all spirituality at once..."

Rei narrowed his eyes.

"You mean..."

Huang Minzhi let out a cold laugh.

"Brother, this is exactly why I said you’ve shaken the entire world."

"It gathered together every single leaf and branch of the Tree of Wisdom."

"And contaminated them all simultaneously."

"That was the simplest solution."

"But an ordinary soul could never contain that level of spirituality. That was practically the entirety of a world’s spiritual power."

"And powerful branches naturally grant powerful talents when corresponding classes advance."

"Normally, a single class can only awaken one or two talents."

"That’s because spirituality itself has limits."

"But your spirituality surpasses ordinary beings by trillions upon trillions of times over. If you had been a normal lifeform, you would have exploded instantly."

"So the overwhelming majority of your spirituality transformed into your classes’ potential instead."

"Even though I don’t know your exact situation..."

"You should be gaining heaven-defying benefits every time you awaken a class or level up, correct?"

"And because you monopolized all the branches and leaves, no new geniuses have been born into this world ever since."

"The world’s balance has gradually tilted toward the monsters."

"And the reason is simple. The balance perceived the intelligent races as overwhelmingly powerful because every branch of the Tree of Wisdom had descended into this world."

"But in reality, the only truly overwhelming existence... was you, the man who disappeared for ten years."

"Do you understand what kind of weight you represent to the Balance itself?"

The collection of all spiritual branches and leaves?

Suddenly, Rei recalled the scene he had witnessed within the Temporal Ruins.

At the end of time—

The Tree of Wisdom had been almost completely bare.

Only empty branches remained.

Virtually all the leaves had been stripped away.

No wonder...

No wonder he had seen such a scene.

Back then, Rei had wondered where all the leaves of the Tree of Wisdom had gone.

Where all that spirituality had disappeared to.

And now, returning to the present—

He finally understood.

Everything had been gathered within himself.

"So this... is the answer behind my spirituality."

"This explains my spirituality. But aside from that, you still haven’t answered my own question."

Rei looked directly at Huang Minzhi.

"Why was I the one chosen?"