Ch. 281..290

Chapter 281 - What AreBarbarians?

The group bowed once again to King Skythunder before leaving the throne room.

The warriors looked with excitement and relief at each other.

If King Skythunder had said that he didn't like the Procedure, he would have probably killed everyone that had undergone it or known how to perform it.

Luckily, King Skythunder didn't see any issues with it.

But then, the warriors remembered something else and looked at each other with complex expressions.

Yes, King Skythunder had agreed to the Procedure, but he had also killed one of theirs.

From the five warriors, only four were left.

Did that warrior deserve to die?

Of course not!

But that didn't matter.

He was dead now, and there was nothing they could have done.

The group walked in silence until they left the castle. After that, they continued walking for a while longer before Duke Whirlwind stopped.

Duke Whirlwind turned to them with a smile. "The most dangerous part is over. We have the King's support, which means that no one can openly go against us with the Procedure as the reason."

"Your Dean and I can protect you from any random Adept and True Mage, but without the King's support, our opponents would have been the six High Mages you have just seen in the palace."

The group thought back to the Council and the Archduke.

These people represented the absolute rulers of the entire Skythunder Kingdom.

In comparison to them, Duke Whirlwind was only responsible for about 8% of the Skythunder Kingdom, and he was still subservient to the Council.

This wouldn't have been an opponent they could have overcome.

"You all did very well today," Duke Whirlwind said with a kind smile.

The warriors only looked at each other in guilt.

What had they done?

They had only stood there.

"If any of you have the luck to meet King Skythunder again in the future, remember what you have learned today," Duke Whirlwind said.

"Respect his power, but don't act like a weakling with no mental strength."

"We have managed to survive, but one of us was sadly left behind," Duke Whirlwind said with a sigh. "The reason for his death was his lack of willpower."

"King Skythunder had given him an order, but our lost friend didn't have the courage and willpower to fulfill it."

"However, we must still thank him. If it hadn't been him, it would have been one of you," Duke Whirlwind said to the warriors.

The warriors' eyes widened.

Wait, they could have also died?

"King Skythunder wanted to see how courageous our group was. After seeing Shang's performance, his interest had probably been piqued, and he wanted to know if every one of you was the same."

The group of warriors looked over at Shang with complex expressions.

Shang had truly shown immense courage. Not only had he shown incredible willpower by destroying his own hand, but he had also punched King Skythunder in the face.

It was already difficult to punch someone as powerful and intimidating as King Skythunder, but punching their face was even harder.

"George, you also did very well today, and it's all thanks to you that all of us are still alive, me included," Duke Whirlwind said.

The Dean's face didn't change. "I was already prepared. You told me that he would most likely want to fight me."

The group of warriors looked with surprise at Duke Whirlwind.

He had known that?

"Yes, but you still won, and that isn't easy," Duke Whirlwind said with a smile.

"I can't call that a win," the Dean answered coldly. "He didn't use his Magic, and he didn't even use basic equipment or weapons. While he came at me without any weapons for a fist fight, I had to resort to my accumulated experience and my weapon."

"Oh, come on," Duke Whirlwind said. "His body was three levels above yours. Winning against someone like that is still impressive."

The Dean's brows furrowed, and he looked at Duke Whirlwind. "Do you want to make me appear more impressive than I am in front of my students, or do you believe that I don't know what a Barbarian is?"

A helpless smile appeared on Duke Whirlwind's face, but he didn't answer.

"What's a Barbarian?" Shang asked.

Duke Whirlwind looked at Shang with a conflicted expression.

Then, he sighed.

'George is too direct and honest for his own good,' Duke Whirlwind thought.

"Just like you won't find any penguins in a desert, you won't find any scorpions in the tundra," Duke Whirlwind said.

He was obviously starting an explanation, but he couldn't get far before being interrupted.

"What about the Fire Wing Penguin and the Ice Crystal Scorpion?" Shang asked.

Duke Whirlwind's brows furrowed, and he glared at Shang. "You know what I mean," he said.

Shang nodded.

Duke Whirlwind sighed again. "What I meant is that different environments create different things," he said.

"In the Skythunder Kingdom, most people believe that warriors are simply humans that decide to fight with their bodies instead of with their minds."

"However, in the grander scheme of things, this belief isn't entirely true."

The group of warriors looked at Duke Whirlwind with surprise.

It wasn't?

"To be more specific," the Dean said as he overtook the explanation. "Warriors focus on the weapon, techniques, and Mana. Barbarians only focus on the body."

Duke Whirlwind stepped to the side as he let the Dean explain things. He was probably better at doing so.

"Think of your schedule in the academy," the Dean said. "A large part of your day is reserved for your weapon techniques, knowing your enemy, and manipulating your Affinity by using advanced techniques."

"In comparison to you, Barbarians do nothing but train their bodies all day. They don't learn much about their opponents and what they should use to counter them. They don't learn about how to use their Affinities. They don't learn about complex weapon techniques."

"Their only goal is to push their bodies further and further. As long as you have enough physical power, you can overcome anything."

"Of course, Barbarians are humans, not beasts. Because of that, their bodies can't become as powerful as beast bodies. Because of that, they still use armor and weapons, but their weapons are easy to use."

"Huge clubs, gigantic sticks, thick gloves, humongous swords, these are the kinds of weapons Barbarians use. But instead of learning advanced techniques for these weapons, Barbarians only use them as a force multiplier."

"If you believe warriors to be the physical path for humans, you are mistaken."

"Barbarians are the physical path for humans."

"Mages are the mental path for humans."

"And warriors are the mix between the two."

The Dean paused for a bit after saying that and looked at the group.

Most of the group only looked at the Dean in surprise.

They had never heard of Barbarians.

"I take it that their bodies are more powerful compared to ours on each level?" Shang asked.

The Dean nodded. "While we warriors use our Mana and control over said Mana to advance starting at the General Stage, Barbarians' training only intensifies. The bottlenecks we have also exist for Barbarians, but in comparison to us, they don't need to use their Mana."

"They just continue training their bodies until they die. There are a couple of techniques and medicines they have access to which allow them to train with enough efficiency to pull that off, but the Skythunder Kingdom doesn't know much about them."

"The Kingdoms have existed for a very long time, and during that time, different techniques and paths have been created. The path we know as the warrior path is unique to our Kingdom, while the Barbarian path is unique to the Kingdom to our northwest, the Grandmountain Kingdom."

"When I fought King Skythunder, he fought with a body as powerful as the body of a Peak True Path Stage warrior."

"But that doesn't mean that King Skythunder's body is on the level of a Peak True Path Stage warrior."

"I believe that King Skythunder has a body at the level of a Mid True Path Stage barbarian. So, in a sense, I didn't jump three levels but only one," the Dean explained.

The group of warriors looked with complex expressions at each other.

Then, one of them looked at the Dean. "The Barbarian Path sounds stronger than the warrior path," he said.

"It isn't," the Dean said.

"But don't they have more powerful bodies?" the warrior asked.

"They do, but that doesn't mean they are more powerful," the Dean said.

Then, the Dean took out his spear.

The Dean let go of the spear, and it hovered beside him. A second later, the spear shot through the air at insane speeds several times.

"Barbarians can't do that," he said.

After that, the air around the Dean seemed to warp.

The warriors knew that this was the sign of a Domain, something only available to Commander Stage warriors and stronger.

"Barbarians also can't do that."

Lastly, the spear landed in the Dean's hands again.

Then, the Dean moved his spear from one side to the other.

SHING!

A gigantic wave of sharp Mana left the spear, and it left a huge cut in a mountain several kilometers away.

"And they can't do that."

After that, the Dean put his spear away.

"Furthermore, as far as I know, there is not a single Barbarian that managed to reach their variant of the True Path Stage yet. There are powerful Mages, like King Skythunder, that have a body with that power, but that is due to the power of their minds."

"There are no True Path Stage barbarians."

The Dean looked at the group of warriors.

"And lastly, with the Bloodline Infusion, your bodies are even more powerful than the bodies of Barbarians."

Chapter 282 - Dark Pillar

After the explanation, the group began their journey back to the Storm Eagle Zone.

Right now, it was later in the noon, but it wasn't afternoon yet.

As everyone ran back with the Blessing of Wind, Shang thought about something else.

'The Barbarians can strengthen their bodies above what a normal warrior can achieve,' Shang thought. 'Without the Procedure, the Barbarian path and warrior path are about equal, I would say. Teacher is an impressively powerful and talented warrior, and it should be normal for him to jump a level against an inexperienced Barbarian.'

'The Grandmountain Kingdom probably also has very talented Barbarians, and the most powerful of them can probably also fight teacher equally. Well, as long as they are on the same level as him.'

'One focuses on the body while the other focuses on finesse and technique.'

'I wonder, can I make use of the Barbarian techniques to push my body even further? King Skythunder said that the Bloodline Infusion fits the Barbarian path more than the warrior path.'

'So, what if I could use the Barbarian techniques to strengthen my body? Would I be able to get a body as powerful as a pure beast?'

Shang thought about this for a moment.

'Maybe not perfectly, but I believe I could get very close.'

Then, Shang narrowed his eyes. 'However, it probably isn't that easy. If it were that easy to advance as a Barbarian, they would have already created someone at the True Path Stage. Obviously, there are also issues with their advancement.'

'On top of that, since they are part of a Kingdom, the Barbarians are also probably just servants of Mages. If the Barbarians were the leaders of the Grandmountain Kingdom, the Skythunder Kingdom would have long since claimed their territory as their own.'

'If I get an opportunity, I should see if I can get my hands on how Barbarians fight. It is a separate path, but I don't need to fully master it to get some use out of it. Just a little bit should be enough to increase my power by quite a bit.'

Some minutes later, the group arrived at the border of the Thunder Horse Zone. The group of Mages was still there.

They didn't say anything as the group of warriors passed.

The only thing the warriors noticed was the aura of hostility directed at them.

As Shang saw the group of Mages, he had a thought. 'The most dangerous part is over, but the Council will probably try some tricks to get rid of us in the future. We are still not completely safe.'

Then, Shang took a deep breath. 'But for now, this isn't my issue. I don't have the power to fight something as powerful as the Council.'

'Additionally…'

Shang's mind went back to the Poison Adept and the bloodied face.

'I have my own worries right now.'

Some minutes later, the group arrived at Spark Oasis again.

Luckily, the Thunder Horse wasn't inside the city right now, and everyone could pass through it without any issues.

The journey continued uninterrupted, and the group of warriors reached the Adamantite Behemoth Zone.

Once more, Shang had to take a deep breath as he saw the gigantic horn in the middle of the Adamantite Behemoth Zone.

A Zone Beast that was maybe even more powerful than the Storm Eagle.

The group slid down the crater until they arrived at the bottom.

Duke Mithril didn't come out to greet them.

By now, it was afternoon, and the group of warriors soon reached the Empress Cobra Zone.

The sky began to darken with thick clouds, but the group actually embraced the darkness.

This darkness meant that they were back in Duke Whirlwind's territory.

"Any of you staying in the Empress Cobra Zone?" Duke Whirlwind asked as they continued running.

"Me!" one of them shouted. "I'm training in Swamp Lake City."

Shang's brows furrowed.

'Right, Swamp Lake City. That's where the Wilbury couple lives.'

"We can make a short detour," Duke Whirlwind said.

With that said, the group continued toward the south until they reached a crossroads.

Instead of going to the west, they took the path to the south.

Shang kept inspecting his surroundings with his Darkness Sense. He found the wildlife in the Empress Cobra Zone quite interesting.

The further south they went, the more swamps there were and the more poisonous they got.

By now, the air had already started to sting in Shang's nose, and it definitely wasn't pleasant to be here.

After some minutes, the group stopped in front of a wide road.

Shang looked to the south, and he could see a city. Thanks to his Darkness Sense, he could see that it was even bigger than Warrior's Paradise, but that was to be expected.

Space in Warrior's Paradise was sparse, but there was plenty of space here. People could expand without any issue here.

Sadly, the city looked a bit too normal. Yes, it had walls that were over twenty meters high, but that was about it.

It wasn't nearly as interesting as Warrior's Paradise.

Shang looked at the city with interest. 'Behind these walls are the two people that want me dead.'

The warrior that had spoken up earlier left the group and entered Swamp Lake City while the group continued traveling to the west.

Bzzzt!

Duke Whirlwind and the Dean looked at Shang as a small bolt of lightning traveled over his body for an instant.

They had all heard King Skythunder's words.

The Thunder Horse had left behind a sign on Shang's body.

The sign hadn't activated when the Council or the High Mage at the border had inspected Shang, but it had activated when they had entered King Skythunder's domain.

This probably meant that the signal only got active if beings of the Fifth Realm or higher inspected Shang.

What beings in the fifth Realm or higher were in the Empress Cobra Zone?

Duke Whirlwind inspected his surroundings with narrowed eyes as he tried to find the beast.

Something had just inspected the group. Otherwise, the signal probably wouldn't have been triggered.

Sadly, Duke Whirlwind couldn't find any clue, even after using everything at his disposal.

There probably were no beasts in the Fifth Realm that could keep themselves hidden in front of the Duke.

Which could mean only one thing.

Meanwhile, Shang was focusing on the south.

There was a gigantic cloud of gathered Darkness Mana to the south, and it was in the form of a gigantic pillar.

Shang could only feel the general outline of the thing that stood there, and he felt like it was looking at him with interest.

But a couple of seconds later, the pillar seemingly became smaller until it completely vanished.

Shang released a deep breath he hadn't realized he had been holding.

"She's gone," Shang said.

Duke Whirlwind looked over. He wanted to ask if Shang had seen the Empress Cobra, but he remembered that they weren't alone. "You can't see something like that. You probably only saw an illusion."

Duke Whirlwind knew that Shang could see the Empress Cobra thanks to his Darkness Affinity and the abundance of Darkness Mana around them, but he didn't want to tell the group.

Shang knew what Duke Whirlwind was doing and nodded. "I was probably mistaken."

After that, the group continued as the warriors looked at Shang in confusion.

Why were so many weird things happening around him?

As everyone continued, Shang's heart beat quickly in his chest.

'If we had gone further south on the way to King Skythunder and the Empress Cobra would have seen me…'

'I don't think the Empress Cobra is as nice as the Thunder Horse.'

'It would have probably just killed me.'

For once, Shang was happy that he had met a beast more powerful than himself.

A couple of minutes later, the group reached the Storm Eagle Zone.

One other warrior directly went to the Ice Wyvern Zone, leaving only one other warrior left in the group, except for Shang.

In the early evening, everyone reached Warrior's Paradise again.

"And that concludes today's matter," Duke Whirlwind said with a sigh. "This will take a load off my mind."

"Come to me if you need anything," the Dean said to Shang and the other warrior.

And then, the Dean directly entered Warrior's Paradise.

He probably had a lot of work to do.

Duke Whirlwind also said his goodbyes.

And now, only Shang and the other warrior were left.

It was the very warrior that had thanked Shang back then.

"So, Shang, want to do something?" he asked.

"Sorry, I have to train," Shang said without looking at him.

"Oh, yeah, sure. Good luck," the warrior said awkwardly.

Shang nodded. "See you," he said before running towards the academy.

The warrior only awkwardly said goodbye.

'This was the last time I could go outside,' Shang thought. 'The Cleaners are still after me, and the sooner I become strong enough, the sooner I can deal with all of this.'

'The Wilbury couple, huh? For now, you can have your way. I won't leave the city.'

'But that won't be forever!'

And thus concludes the journey to meet King Skythunder.

And a long time of isolation and training started for Shang.

He wouldn't leave the city for a full two years.

 

Chapter 283 - Adult Shang

BANG!

A large sword cut through the body of an orange flaming tiger, bisecting it in the process.

The two parts of the body fell to the ground, with one of them still violently thrashing around.

BANG!

The head was destroyed as the large sword cut through it once again.

Silence.

A second later, the corpse vanished, leaving only one man behind.

The man was 187cm tall and had short, black hair. On his back was a long and thick sword.

He was clothed in black armor that looked nearly identical to the armor the Dean of the Warrior's Academy wore. On the man's back was a long black cloak, which extended all the way to the ground.

All in all, this man looked quite imposing.

This was Shang.

It had been over two years since he had entered seclusion inside Warrior's Paradise.

For two years, he hadn't left the city.

Now, Shang's body was about 20 years old, and it had fully matured.

Shang slowly walked through the snow-covered trees until he arrived on a small hill with several buildings on them.

Shang knew this place very well.

After all, he had seen it being built.

Yes, this was the outpost in the former Battlefield, which was now called the Northern Ice Wyvern Zone.

Snow was already raging throughout the entire Northern Ice Wyvern Zone, and plenty of trees had spawned. Usually, it would take many, many years for such a forest to appear, but Duke Whirlwind had invested a lot into terraforming this entire region.

Of course, not everything was stable around here. There were still plenty of beasts that came here from the Volcano Wyrm Zone, threatening the ecosystem.

That was where Shang came in.

Shang entered the command center in the outpost and put his Space Ring on the table.

The commander looked into the Space Ring and nodded. "Good job," he said. "You will get your pay tomorrow."

Shang nodded. "Is there another report?" he asked.

The commander only sighed. "Shang, you should know your own limits. Don't overwork yourself. If you flip a coin enough times, eventually, it will land on heads ten times in a row."

"That doesn't concern you," Shang said emotionlessly. "I'm here to work, and I want to work."

The commander looked at Shang for a bit more before taking out a report and putting it on the table.

Shang grabbed it and left the command center shortly after.

Outside, Shang read the report and left the outpost, going west.

'Peak General Stage Magma Spider,' Shang thought.

While Shang traveled to the west, he kept focusing on his Ice Sense.

'When will you finally show yourself? I know that you have been following me.'

'Do you believe that there is someone more powerful guarding me? Why wouldn't you want to earn a ton of money by killing some random Late General Stage warrior?'

Yes, Shang had reached the Late General Stage over the last two years, and he was still very confident in his Battle-Strength.

In fact, Shang's Battle-Strength didn't fall at all.

In truth, it had even grown.

After becoming familiar with his new power, Shang immediately left for the Northern Ice Wyvern Zone.

He wanted to deal with the Cleaner, and since the Ice Wyvern Zone was filled with Ice Mana, Shang would be able to sense him.

At least, that was what he had thought.

Instead, he was able to feel that someone was watching him, but he couldn't find them.

This Cleaner definitely wasn't as overconfident as the last one.

'Come on. I'm only a Late General Stage warrior. You're a Peak Adept. This mission should appear easy to you.'

Yet, the Cleaner just didn't appear.

Shang had even killed over ten Peak General Stage beasts in the last two days. Attacking him while he was fighting such a beast should be the smartest move.

A couple of minutes later, Shang arrived in front of a small mountain, and he could see a bit of lava coming out of a cave.

Shang took out his sword.

BANG!

An explosion of ice came out of Shang's leg, throwing him inside the cave.

BOOOOOM!

A loud explosion left the cave and reverberated throughout the surrounding icy forest.

Silence.

Two seconds later, Shang stepped out of the cave, looking over the surrounding forest.

There was no movement.

Shang only furrowed his brows. 'I am showing you so much of my power so that you might think that this is all my power. If I only show a bit, you might believe that I am creating a trap for you.'

'Why are you not showing yourself? You shouldn't be an average or weak Adept. After all, the Wilburys paid a fortune for you.'

'Are you that unconfident in your own abilities?'

Shang remained standing there for about half a minute, just looking around.

Then, he slid down the mountain and walked back to the outpost.

As Shang was traveling back, an icy crystal was slowly moving as well. The crystal looked nearly transparent, and it gave off a bit of Ice Mana.

The crystal was about two kilometers away from Shang.

Inside the crystal sat a young woman with icy blue hair. Several Magic Circles were spinning in front of her, showing different shapes.

She was the hired Cleaner.

Right now, she only looked at these shapes with furrowed brows.

'I have no idea what he is trying to do,' she thought. 'He obviously knows I'm following him. Otherwise, he wouldn't have remained in Warrior's Paradise for so long.'

'But now, he suddenly left Warrior's Paradise, and he keeps fighting one Peak General Stage beast after the other.'

'In the beginning, I thought that he was accompanied by someone else, but after so many days, that other person would have long since found me. That means that he is most likely traveling alone.'

'I believe he simply wants to lure me out and kill me himself,' she thought.

At that moment, a cold light appeared in her eyes, but at the same time, there was also a bit of respect and fear in them.

'Or is he trying to intimidate me?'

'He kills Peak General Stage beasts like they are insects. One strike and they crumble like paper. I might be able to do the same, but I would need to prepare a powerful Spell first, and I'm not that confident in hitting them immediately.'

'Meanwhile, he goes in, charges at them, and kills them.'

'He never misses.'

'He never makes a mistake.'

'Not even I can do that.'

The Cleaner kept looking at the shapes in front of her.

'If he wants to lure me out, he is probably showing quite a bit of his power so that I might believe that this is all he has. However, I'm not some rookie. I know how our targets tick.'

'He definitely has several abilities stashed away.'

The Cleaner took a deep breath.

'The abilities he is showing me are already at around my level. So, how powerful will he be if he goes all out?'

The Cleaner gritted her teeth.

'He's only a Late General Stage warrior, for fuck's sake! I'm a Peak Adept, and I'm definitely not a weak one.'

'Yet, at the Late General Stage, this Shang is showing abilities that rival my own!'

'Is that so-called Procedure really that powerful?! I thought the Procedure couldn't fully close the gap!'

'What should I do?'

Shang had tried to lure the Cleaner out by showing a bit of his ability.

However, as a loner that doesn't come into contact with other people much, Shang's perception of power had been severely warped.

Shang was only around powerful people like Soran, Ranos, the Dean, and Duke Whirlwind.

Every single one of them was extremely talented and very powerful.

Because of that, Shang's perception of the average power of the average warrior and Mage was skewed.

Shang wanted to show that he could attempt to fight a Peak Adept, not kill one.

But Shang didn't know how powerful the average Peak Adept was.

Yes, Mages were incredibly powerful, but in the Adept Realm, they were only a bit stronger than warriors.

Their true power only showed itself when they became True Mages.

Shang had seen how powerful the truly powerful Mages were, and he was using their standards on Adepts.

Shang believed that a Peak Adept could easily kill a Peak General Stage beast.

Yes, they could, but it wasn't a certainty that the beast would die in one hit. On top of that, the Mage would need to prepare a powerful Spell.

Meanwhile, Shang was demonstrating power even above that.

In the end, Shang's plan to lure out the Cleaner failed.

He had accidentally shown too much of his power, and he had intimidated the Cleaner.

Chapter 284 - Flipping a Coin

Shang continued hunting for another two days.

Sadly, no matter how many risky situations he brought himself into, the Cleaner just wouldn't bite.

Shang even accepted a mission to hunt a pair of Peak General Stage beasts, and he fought both of them at the same time.

This fight had actually taken a couple of seconds. All the others had ended in, at most, two seconds.

Yet, even then, the Cleaner hadn't shown themselves.

'What is their plan?' Shang thought with furrowed brows. 'With these two beasts, it would be three on one. You are a Peak Adept! Are you too afraid to attack some warrior a level below you with a numerical advantage?'

By now, Shang was getting really annoyed.

What, did he need to attack a Commander Stage beast for them to show up?!

Shang wasn't completely against attacking an Initial Commander Stage beast, but he certainly didn't want to do that while someone was out for his life. Such a fight would need all of Shang's reserves.

'Would I attack me if I were the Cleaner?' Shang thought.

Then, he thought about what he had done over the past couple of days.

'I might have shown too much of my power,' Shang realized. 'Sure, if I were them, I would have already attacked. After all, this seems like an interesting fight.'

'However, not everyone is like me. In comparison to me, the Cleaner doesn't need to fight. If they believe the mission to be too dangerous, they could simply retreat and give up.'

Shang looked at his surroundings with furrowed brows.

'It's very possible that they have already retreated.'

'I screwed up. If they decide to abort the mission, the Wilburys won't lose any money.'

Right now, Shang wasn't sure how he should feel.

He had felt frustrated and suppressed every day he had remained in Warrior's Paradise. He wanted to go outside and fight. Yet, the constant presence of the Cleaner had forced him to stay inside.

Now, Shang was finally taking the plunge, but the very power that had suppressed him for so long had vanished.

'If there truly is no way to lure them out, staying here is pointless,' Shang thought. 'I already have enough wealth back at the academy. I don't need the wealth from here.'

Shang looked at the outpost, which was about two kilometers away from his current position.

'And the beasts are also no threat anymore. I'm only at the Late General Stage, but not even one of the Peak General Stage beasts managed to put up a decent fight. They all collapsed like little children.'

'I didn't expect things to go this way.'

Shang looked at his own hand with furrowed brows.

'Have I become that powerful? I don't really feel that powerful.'

Well, how powerful was Shang?

Thanks to the Procedure, Shang's body was nearly as powerful as the body of an Initial Commander Stage warrior.

An Initial Commander Stage warrior could kill a Peak General Stage beast solo, but the fight wouldn't be super easy.

Shang's body was definitely far weaker than the body of a Peak General Stage beast, but that was only one aspect of his power.

Shang could increase his speed by a lot with his techniques and Affinities.

His weapon was at the Initial Commander Stage, which made it as hard and sharp as the hardest tusk or horn of an Initial Commander Stage beast.

Then came Shang's techniques and his fighting experience. With those things, he could easily outsmart a beast.

With everything combined, Shang's power had reached the power of an above-average Initial Commander Stage warrior.

And he was only at the Late General Stage.

For the longest time, Shang had only been around the peak powers of the surrounding hundreds of kilometers.

He wasn't hunting with other General Stage warriors, and he hadn't joined any missions.

He had been completely isolated from the normal person on his level.

Because of that, Shang didn't feel that powerful. In fact, he only felt a bit more powerful than the average.

But in reality, Shang was even stronger than the Dean had been back when he had been on Shang's level.

Without noticing, Shang had become the most powerful General Stage warrior in the world, and he wasn't even at the Peak.

'If the Cleaner won't show up by tomorrow, I will return to Warrior's Paradise. I need to become even more powerful.'

Shang slowly walked back towards the outpost.

Bang.

Shang turned to face the south.

He had just heard a distant explosion, and he could see a couple of icicles flying in the distance.

Then, he saw something jump up and hit something with long, icy claws.

The thing the claws had hit was circular, and it appeared when the claws hit it.

It was a Mana Shield.

'There have been warnings of an Ice Demon recently,' Shang thought. 'I guess this is it.'

Bang.

The Ice Demon was pushed back by a strong, green wind, and a second later, a huge spire made of stone shot at it.

'There are Mages fighting the Ice Demon,' Shang thought with furrowed brows. 'Everyone working here knows of the local blacklist, and they should know that the Ice Demon is on it. Sure, the punishment isn't very severe for killing it, but it's still better to just retreat.'

'Why did they engage in a fight with it?' Shang thought as he looked at the distant fight.

'Unless the Ice Demon got the drop on them, and they are only defending themselves.'

'But so what? Everyone hunting beasts around here received Positioning Bombs for exactly this kind of incident.'

'They should also have some.'

'But they don't.'

Shang's eyes shone.

'Which means they are not here to hunt beasts, and they are certainly not here to deliver something. The delivery people know how to get around these parts.'

'Additionally, since the three are still fighting the Initial Commander Stage Ice Demon, and since they are Mages, it means that they are all Adepts. A True Mage would have long since killed the Ice Demon.'

'So, a Cleaner is on my tail, and I might have intimidated them into thinking that they can't handle me over the past few days.'

'I thought they would drop the matter, but, apparently, there is another way.'

'Why not ask for help and split the reward?'

'That would also explain why they don't know that much about the local fauna. After all, their job is killing people, not beasts.'

'I don't think an Ice Demon can get a drop on someone hunting in this place, but if it were someone not accustomed to fighting beasts, I could imagine it.'

Shang smirked.

'The commander was right. If you flip a coin enough times, it will eventually land on heads ten times in a row.'

'However, I am not the only one flipping coins. The Cleaner that follows me also has to travel through the wilderness to follow me, and in comparison to me, they don't know much about beasts.'

'They were bound to provoke a powerful beast eventually. It was only a matter of time.'

Shang saw the explosions continue in the distance.

The fight was brutal.

'Let's join them!'

BANG!

After an Ice Blast, Shang sprinted to the south.

Chapter 285 - lce Demon vs.Adepts

Shang only took a couple of seconds to arrive at the place.

At the moment, one of the Adepts was keeping the Ice Demon busy by summoning several walls of earth while the other ones were bombarding it.

The Ice Demon was a mix between a lizard and a humanoid. It usually moved on all fours, but it could also stand up for a bit to strike its enemies with its five long, icy claws.

Ice Demons could summon and dissipate their long ice claws at will, giving them the option to run quickly without the ice claws getting in the way and the option to attack with devastating force.

The Ice Demon kept jumping around, trying to get past the walls. Whenever it jumped, it summoned its icy claws to strike, which were over two meters long.

There were a couple of cuts on the Ice Demon's body, which bled quite a bit. Shang guessed that these cuts came from the Adept with green hair and green robes. He was obviously a Wind Adept.

There were also a couple of big icicles stuck in its body, which came from the Adept with the icy blue hair.

'Ice Affinity, huh?' Shang thought. 'Why would someone with an Ice Attribute want to kill beasts with Ice Affinities? That would only make their life difficult.'

'Seems like the Ice Demon really got the drop on them.'

The Ice Demon slashed through several walls, and it eventually hit the Earth Adept, a rather tall man with brown hair.

Shang only kept watching.

"Somebody, help!" the Ice Adept shouted in fear.

Shang didn't react and stayed hidden.

When the Ice Adept saw that no one reacted, she gritted her teeth. "I know that you are there. I can feel your Ice Mana."

Shang only snorted silently. 'Feel my Ice Mana? Who would believe that? I learned how to isolate myself from the surrounding Mana long ago. There is literally zero Ice Mana inside my body right now.'

The fact that the Ice Adept had said that she could feel Shang's Ice Mana basically confirmed Shang's guess.

She knew that he was here, but she said the wrong reason.

If she were innocent, knew that Shang was there, and truly wanted help, she would have said the real reason why she knew that Shang was there. After all, there was no reason to lie.

The face of the Ice Adept morphed into a frustrated grimace as she realized that Shang wasn't answering.

She threw a look at the Ice Demon, who had destroyed the Earth Adept's Mana Shield. Right now, the Wind Adept was running around the Ice Demon with incredible speed, distracting it while the Earth Adept kept using his Focus to save the Wind Adept a couple of times.

"Fine, you win!" the Ice Adept shouted.

Then, she summoned a fancy piece of paper. Complex Magic Circles appeared around her fingers, and she touched the piece of paper.

A second later, she threw the piece of paper over an inconspicuous stone, the place where Shang was currently.

Shang caught it and looked at it.

'A Magic Contract,' Shang thought with a laugh. 'I get 300,000 gold if I help them, and she swears on her life that her group will abandon the mission and leave.'

Shang knew how to check the validity of a Magic Contract, and he knew that this one was real.

She was actually giving up.

There was no way out of this contract.

The longer the contract, the more freedom one had to screw someone over.

However, this contract was extremely short.

It simply had two clauses, nothing else, and they were formulated in a very direct and unambiguous way.

The Ice Adept only gritted her teeth. '300,000 gold. That's like half a Focus. He sure made off with a lot of money,' she thought.

Only an idiot wouldn't accept something like that.

And then, Shang noticed something.

Whoosh!

Shang ran towards the north, and the Ice Adept's face fell.

'Why is he running?!'

Then, the Ice Adept felt a concentration of Mana getting closer from the north, and she realized what would happen with horror.

The commander of the outpost had noticed the ruckus, and he was coming!

Shang quickly arrived in front of the commander and threw something at him.

The commander caught it and looked at it.

It was the contract that the Ice Adept had thrown to Shang.

"They are Cleaners sent here to deal with me. This is proof of their identity," Shang said.

The Cleaning Service was an illegal organization, and everyone working for them was wanted by Greenwind County.

The commander looked at the contract with surprise.

Then, he looked at Shang, and a second later, he looked at the fight.

"Alright," the commander said as he pocketed the contract. "Then, we shouldn't disturb their fight."

Shang only nodded with a slight grin.

"Let's get closer. I might need to save the Ice Demon if they win. It's worth more than them," the commander said before stepping forward.

Shang nodded and also stepped forward.

A couple of seconds later, the two of them stopped on top of a big rock and watched the fight.

The Ice Demon had received several more injuries, but its passive regeneration had also healed a lot of the previous injuries.

The passive regeneration which the warriors that had undergone the Procedure had received came from the beasts. With enough time, beasts could also regenerate.

This hadn't really become a factor to Shang until now since his aggressive fighting style ended the fights very quickly. On top of that, the passive regeneration used up the beast's Mana.

By now, the Ice Demon no longer dismissed its ice claws and kept them active at all times, lowering its speed.

The reason for that was its low Mana storages. Dismissing and resummoning the ice claws took some Mana.

The Ice Demon was exhausted, but the Adepts didn't feel any better.

Only the Ice Adept had over 50% Mana left, while the Wind Adept and Earth Adept were focusing on recovering their Mana storages.

Sadly, whenever they recovered some Mana, the Ice Demon would hit their Mana Shields, depleting their Mana storages again.

The Foci of the Earth Adept and Wind Adept could barely keep the beast from killing them, and dealing damage was completely left to the Ice Adept.

'This battle could go either way,' Shang thought. 'However, chances are high that at least one of them will die, and the others will be very exhausted.'

'Why should I kill them when I can get them into prison? I mean, I'm not some saint that doesn't want to kill my enemies, but it's simply far better. With some Mind Reading, the Inquisitors might be able to find some proof regarding the Wilburys.'

'They would be able to win against the commander in their peak conditions, but a Mage without Mana is basically just a normal person. On top of that, I'm here too, and-'

BANG!

Shang's eyes widened as his vision began to distort.

At this moment, Sword had come out from Shang's back, and its blade was between a saber and Shang's head.

Shang was thrown forward, and he could barely keep his consciousness. His own blade had hit his head very hard just now.

But an instant later, Shang's Mana healed all the damage, and Shang's mind recovered.

That attack could have only come from one place, and Shang's eyes narrowed.

BANG!

Shang used an Ice Blast to shoot himself to the side, and an instant later, a saber stabbed into the ground where Shang had just been.

Shang quickly stood up and looked at the commander, who had just pulled the saber out.

In the commander's eyes was greed.

Shang quickly glanced over to the Ice Adept, and he saw genuine surprise and shock in her eyes while she looked at the commander.

'They are not part of the same team,' Shang quickly concluded as he glanced at the commander.

'Which means he is not a Cleaner.'

'Honestly, who wants me dead this time?!'

Chapter 286 - The Reason

When the commander realized that he had missed his chance, he quickly looked at the three Adepts.

"You three get the reward for your mission. I get the open bounty for his head!" the commander shouted.

'Open bounty?' Shang thought.

'Open bounty?' the Adepts thought.

None of them knew of any open bounties for Shang's head. They were here because of a mission, which wasn't an open bounty.

Missions were an individual commitment, and only one group of people could accept them at a time, while an open bounty was open to anyone. As long as someone had proof of the kill, they could collect the bounty.

However, there was no open bounty on Shang.

What was the commander talking about?!

"Deal!" the Ice Adept shouted.

At this moment, Shang was weighing his options.

Should he retreat?

Should he call for help?

'You know what? It's been a long time since I had a decent fight. Also, I don't want them to escape.'

BANG!

The commander and Shang both accelerated at the same time.

But they were not charging at each other.

The commander was charging at the Ice Demon while Shang charged at the three Adepts.

Shang wanted to deal with the weakened Adepts first. If they got a chance to recover, they would be even more threatening than the commander.

The commander had a similar idea. "I distract the Ice Demon!" he shouted as he charged at the Ice Demon.

The Earth Adept and Wind Adept still had to survive until the commander arrived, which made them preoccupied.

But the Ice Adept quickly focused on Shang.

Three huge icicles appeared above her.

This was a very advanced Spell called Icicle Rain.

An instant later, her Focus lit up.

SSSHHH!

A cold wind shot over the ground and reached Shang's position in an instant.

It was so fast that Shang couldn't even react.

'Freeze Spell!' Shang thought as his feet were immediately frozen to the ground.

Immediately after, the three icicles shot at Shang.

He couldn't possibly evade, could he?

Suddenly, the ice around Shang's feet vanished.

It didn't melt or break.

It simply vanished like it had never been there.

The Freeze Spell created a dense field of Ice Mana around someone's feet, which essentially froze them to the ground.

However, as soon as the Spell was finished, the will of the user was no longer on the Spell.

Usually, that didn't matter. After all, it didn't make a difference if there was a will on the ice or not. The target would remain frozen.

But Shang's Affinity was special.

Shang still remembered how he had accidentally absorbed the Ice Mana from the Ice Wood he had been transporting.

As long as there was no will on the Ice Mana, he could absorb it.

Shang looked at the three icicles shooting at him.

'Sadly, not every Spell has this weakness.'

In order to keep the icicles in their dangerous shape, the will of the Mage remained on them, which meant that Shang couldn't absorb them.

The icicles shot at Shang in a triangle formation, making it impossible to evade them.

In an instant, Shang did three things.

First, he put one hand on the hilt of his big sword and the other on the flat side of its edge.

Second, he positioned his sword in front of him, the flat side facing forward.

Third, he jumped forward, keeping the sword in front of him.

BANG!

Two icicles passed below Shang, and the third one hit Shang's sword.

The power behind the icicle was far stronger than the force of Shang's jump, and he would soon be thrown several tens of meters away. Even if the icicles failed to deal any damage to Shang, the Ice Adept would still gain two seconds of preparation for a new Spell.

However, things didn't go according to her plan.

As soon as the icicle hit Shang's sword, a small black lightning bolt washed over it.

Shortly after, the icicle lost its shape and turned into a dense fog of Ice Mana.

The Darkness Element had destroyed the will on the icicle!

Suddenly, the dense Ice Mana vanished, and Sword turned slightly blue.

Sword had no issues in absorbing willless Elemental Mana.

BANG!

Shang's feet exploded with Ice Mana.

Originally, Shang would have been thrown back, but the Ice Blast countered the force, essentially making him stationary in the air.

An instant later, Shang's entire body began to release steam as his sword turned pure white.

BANG!

Blood exploded out of Shang's legs as he released a Fire Blast. Luckily, he still had enough Mana to regenerate his legs in an instant.

In just a second, Shang arrived at the height of ten meters, and he readied his sword.

For a second, the Ice Adept became confused.

Too much had suddenly happened with Shang and even more than that, why did he go so far up in the air?

But then, she remembered that new technique a couple of warriors were starting to use, and she realized what was happening.

In an instant, she summoned a huge wall made of ice.

This Spell was called Ice Barrier.

It cost a ton of Mana and was supposed to be a last defense when the Mage was about to die.

Shang slashed forward with his large sword.

And a huge wave of white Ice Mana left his sword.

However, it wasn't shooting at the Ice Adept.

BOOOOM!

The wave hit its target.

About a hundred meters away, a brown-haired man had turned into an ice statue.

The commander was still about twenty meters away from the Ice Demon, and the Earth Adept had been fully focused on the beast.

Because of that, he hadn't seen Shang's attack.

Shang was a Late General Stage warrior, and he couldn't possibly focus on the Earth Adept over a hundred meters away while being besieged by the Ice Adept, right?

CRUNCH!

Just a second later, the Ice Demon jumped to the ice statue and swallowed it whole.

As soon as the ice statue entered the Ice Demon's, its body began to release steam as its injuries closed with more speed. It wasn't nearly as fast as a warrior's body, but the regeneration was definitely quite fast.

The bodies of beasts were very peculiar. As soon as anything was swallowed by them, it would turn into its basic components.

The entire Earth Adept had turned into his individual components just half a second after entering the Ice Demon's maw.

Beneath the ice, the Earth Adept had still been alive, but as soon as he entered the beast's maw, his Mana and his life energy were absorbed by the beast.

The life energy was the reason for the beast's expedited recovery while the Mana refilled quite a bit of its reserves.

BANG!

Just after swallowing the ice statue, a saber hit the Ice Demon's right front leg and severed it.

In pain, the Ice Demon jumped to the side.

The commander had arrived, but he wasn't happy.

One of the Adepts was already dead, and the Ice Demon had recovered. Sure, it had lost a leg, but it had healed several other parts, and it had regained quite a bit of Mana.

Earlier, the commander was certain that he could kill the Ice Demon, but now, the fight was about even.

If the Ice Demon were at its peak, the Commander would be helpless.

But with only three legs and some injuries, the Commander had a slight chance at victory.

"Deal with Zero!" the commander shouted at the Wind Adept as he kept charging after the Ice Demon.

At that moment, the Wind Adept, the Ice Adept, and Shang realized what had happened.

The Ice Adept looked at Shang with shock.

'He's Zero?' she thought in shock.

'He called me Zero!' Shang thought with narrowed eyes.

'Seems like the cat's out of the bag.'

Sadly, Shang didn't have the time to think about these things right now.

The Wind Adept had readied a Spell with his Focus, and the Ice Adept was casting another one.

Chapter 287 - Black Gleam

The Wind Adept unleashed several small cuts of wind that flew at Shang. This Spell was called Wind Net, and it was made to counter fast beasts.

Shang wouldn't be able to evade the Spell since its size was simply too large.

CRRRRR!

Shang put his huge sword between him and the Spell. Luckily, Sword was hard enough to resist such a weak Spell. However, Sword also wasn't big enough to block the entirety of the Spell, and parts of the cutting wind hit the sides of Shang's body.

At that moment, several Magic Circles appeared around Shang, and the wind blades were being diverted with loud sounds of grinding. It was almost like a buzzsaw hit a diagonal wall of metal.

But that was it. Shang's armor glowed black, but it remained undamaged.

The Wind Adept looked with shock at the uninjured Shang.

'What is this armor?!'

This armor was the little present Duke Whirlwind had promised Shang when they had gone to King Skythunder about two years ago.

Not only could it block the killing blow of an Initial True Mage's Spell once, but it also had several other abilities, and one of them was to redirect force.

This also explained why Shang's armor looked so similar to the Dean's armor. Both of them had received their sets of armor from Duke Whirlwind.

The wind pushed Shang back a bit, but he quickly unleashed another Ice Blast to fly towards the Wind Adept.

The Wind Adept was nearly completely out of Mana, which meant that he had either had no Mana Shield or a very weak one.

In comparison to him, the Ice Adept had far more Mana, making it more difficult to kill her.

SSSHHH!

Suddenly, a huge blizzard appeared between Shang and the Wind Adept.

'The Blizzard Spell!' Shang thought with narrowed eyes.

The Blizzard Spell created an extremely dangerous territory of absolute cold. It cost a lot of Mana, but it could freeze someone's entire body in the blink of an eye.

Due to the control over Mana warriors and Mages had, creating a Blizzard Spell below their feet was basically impossible. Any interference on the opponent's part would ruin the entire thing.

Because of that, the Blizzard Spell could only be created at least a couple of meters away from the opponent.

But in exchange, it was extremely deadly.

Even a beast's body would be frozen if it jumped through the blizzard.

When the Wind Adept saw the blizzard, he quickly readied his next Spell.

At the same time, the Ice Adept readied a gigantic icicle, which pointed at Shang.

And then, she threw the icicle just a bit behind Shang.

She had noticed that Shang could move in the air, and the only way out of this situation was to retreat to the back.

And then…

Shang entered the blizzard!

The Ice Adept's eyes widened in shock.

Was he suicidal?!

The Wind Adept didn't see it since he was on the other side of the blizzard, and he kept concentrating on his Spell.

WHOOOM!

As soon as Shang entered the blizzard, it became more and more chaotic.

It was almost like something inside of it was affecting it.

BANG!

And half a second later, the blizzard dissipated into the surroundings.

At that moment, time seemingly froze.

A snow-white sword was in Shang's hands, and it was filled to the brim with Ice Mana.

Had Shang absorbed the blizzard?

No.

The blizzard was filled with the Ice Adept's will, and Shang couldn't absorb something like that.

When Shang entered the blizzard, he had put his left hand on his sword.

And then, he infused it with Ice Mana.

Shang's entire body heated up rapidly, but the extreme cold around him kept cooling him.

It was an extremely dangerous balancing act, but Shang had had several years of training on how to manage his own temperature. A normal person couldn't pull something like this off, but someone that had to juggle his own temperatures daily had the skill to do it.

Eventually, the blizzard's Ice Mana had been used up. After all, it couldn't cool everything infinitely, and Shang had exhausted it.

And in exchange, Shang's sword had been filled to the absolute brim with Ice Mana.

The Wind Adept looked with shock at Shang, who was only a couple of meters in front of him.

Shang lifted his sword.

SHING!

Suddenly, the Wind Adept disappeared as he spoke a short word very quickly.

The Wind Adept appeared around 100 meters away and collapsed to his knees, clutching his head.

He had just overdraft his Mana by unleashing a Mana Step. Even his Focus fell to the ground beside him since the Wind Adept didn't even have the basic Mana to keep it active.

BOOOM!

The Wind Adept heard the distant explosion of a large amount of Ice Mana hitting something, and his heart nearly stopped.

He had nearly died just now!

Fuck this mission!

The Wind Adept quickly turned to the Ice Adept. "We have to- "

But he stopped as his eyes widened in shock.

The Ice Adept was enclosed in a huge cube of ice!

What?!

Well, Shang hadn't intended to use that attack on the Wind Adept, to begin with. While fighting against a group, the best thing to do was to suddenly change one's target to surprise them.

The Ice Adept had been ready to attack Shang, but when the wave of Ice Mana suddenly flew towards her, she couldn't even react.

Luckily, her Mana Shield held, and she managed to survive.

Yet, there was a thick sheet of ice surrounding her, and she would need to get out of it before rejoining the fight.

The Wind Adept saw this, and he quickly glanced at Shang, who was still around 80 meters away.

'Fuck that!' the Wind Adept thought.

Then, the Wind Adept quickly took out a talisman.

This was a Wind Explosion Talisman, and, as the name suggested, it created a gigantic explosion of wind. It pushed everything around it over a hundred meters away.

It was a very expensive tool for escaping.

The Wind Adept had seen Shang's speed, and he knew that Shang wouldn't be even nearly fast enough to reach him.

Shang would need to travel 80 meters in less than 0.5 seconds.

Only the absolute fastest Peak Commander Stage warriors could achieve something like that.

When Shang saw the emblem, a small smirk appeared on his face.

"Ishah!"

SHING!

The eyes of the Wind Adept widened in disbelief.

From her frozen tomb, the Ice Adept looked at what had happened in absolute horror.

Time seemingly froze.

What had she just seen?!

Between where Shang had just been, and the Wind Adept appeared a long crevice in the ground, almost like something big had been dragged through it!

A black gleam sparkled around the Wind Adept's body, showing that something big and black had just passed him.

And past the Wind Adept stood Shang, his Sword positioned like it was at the end of a swing.

BOOM!

Snow and wind exploded out from the crevice, and the Wind Adept's body blew apart into several pieces.

At that moment, the Ice Adept realized what had happened with terror.

'He used Mana Step!'

Chapter 288 - Surrender

The Ice Adept only looked in shock at Shang.

'But how?! Why?! Warriors have nearly no Mana, and they also need their Mana to unleash their own techniques! Spells use a large amount of Mana, and warriors don't have that much! By using Mana Step, he has essentially cleared his entire body of Mana! There's a reason why warriors don't use Mana Step! It's stupid!'

She was right. If a warrior used Mana Step, they would be emptied of Mana, and they would most likely collapse with a severe headache due to the overdraft, just like the Wind Adept.

And sure enough, Shang's head felt like it was about to split apart.

Luckily, Shang's incredible resistance to pain allowed him to stay clear-headed and focused.

Shang quickly grabbed two of the pieces of the Wind Adept's corpse and threw them into his Space Ring.

But that was just a ruse.

Shang had acted like he wanted to keep the corpse as evidence, but what he had actually done was absorb a huge part of the remaining life energy from the corpse without creating any suspicion.

Shang's body recovered mostly, but the Wind Adept simply hadn't had much life energy, to begin with. His body was pathetically weak.

'I have to run!' the Ice Adept thought in horror as she readied several Spells. Originally, she wanted to absorb the ice around her since that wouldn't cost any Mana, but she didn't have the luxury anymore.

BANG!

At that moment, Shang jumped into the air, and his feet exploded with ice, giving him a lot of height.

BANG!

Then, up in the sky, Shang's entire body exploded with ice, and he shot into the distance like an icy meteor.

In the air, Shang's left arm was on his sword, and his sword turned redder by the second.

At the same time, a shower of blood shot out of the icy meteor in the sky, creating a red rain.

A bit later, the sword began to burn.

Shang's body was leaving behind icy mist due to its insanely low temperature.

At this moment, the commander was evading another claw from the Ice Demon by jumping back.

He had heard several explosions in the distance, but he couldn't afford to look away. One moment of carelessness and the Ice Demon would kill him.

But he also wasn't very afraid of a sudden surprise attack. Not only was Shang fighting two Peak Adepts, but the commander would also hear him if he suddenly approached.

The commander landed as he readied a counterattack.

DING!

The commander's eyes opened widely, and then…

His eyes rolled into the back of his head.

A bloodied, icy meteor had arrived behind the commander's head, and the flat side of a huge burning sword had just hit the back of his head, cracking his skull.

The commander could hear if someone approached on foot, but the only sign of Shang's approach had been some distant explosions, of which there had been many in the last couple of seconds.

Shang's flying body pushed over the commander, and he landed in front of him, his sword above him.

The Ice Demon showed its terrifying teeth and jumped towards Shang.

And Shang slashed down with his sword.

BOOOOOOM!

A terrifying wave of fire left Shang's sword and hit the Ice Demon on the head, releasing a terrifying explosion.

The Ice Demon screeched in pain as it fell over, its remaining foreleg furiously rubbing its head.

Its face had melted, burying its eyes, nostrils, and mouth.

BANG!

The Ice Demon couldn't possibly defend itself in this state, and Shang quickly killed it by burying his sword in its head. Even with his power, Shang wasn't powerful enough to completely cut through the head.

Shang had known that an Initial Commander Stage beast was very powerful, which was why he had injured himself to the most extreme degree to push the Fire Mana inside his sword to the top.

Shang had put his absolute everything into this attack, but the Ice Demon had still survived, and one had to remember that it was a beast with an Ice Affinity. Fire attacks were very damaging to it.

If it hadn't been so exhausted and careless after fighting so long, this battle wouldn't have ended like this.

Shang quickly grabbed the corpse, absorbed a huge chunk of life energy, and threw it into his Space Ring.

Shang's body recovered in an instant.

BANG!

Shang's body exploded with ice again, and he shot at the Ice Adept, who was still trying to get rid of the ice around her.

As more time passed, the Ice Adept felt more and more terror.

This guy had dealt with two Commander Stage beings in less than five seconds!

She had believed that she had more time, but that wasn't the case.

BOOOM!

The ice exploded around her and flew into the distance.

Then, she quickly readied everything she needed to run away.

But she stopped.

Shang had appeared just a couple of meters in front of her, and he was looking deep into her eyes.

Her mind froze, and she felt like she couldn't move.

For a second, none of the two moved.

The Ice Adept waited for her death, but Shang didn't move.

"You don't need to die," Shang said.

The Ice Adept's mind froze.

What?!

"The punishment for being a Cleaner isn't death. You only have to give up all your valuables and serve in Duke Whirlwind's army for a decade," Shang said.

"You are only doing your job, and I'm more interested in the commissioner of the mission than you," Shang said.

The Ice Adept only looked with shock at Shang.

"Or you can try to flee and die," Shang said coldly. "Your choice."

The Ice Adept's mind went wild.

Three seconds passed.

"I surrender," the Ice Adept said with a sigh.

Shang extended his hand like he wanted something.

The Ice Adept gritted her teeth, and her Focus landed on Shang's hand.

Her connection to her Focus was cut, and the Focus was put into Shang's Space Ring.

"Follow me," Shang said as he walked to the unconscious commander.

The Ice Adept's body shook, but she followed behind Shang until they arrived.

Shang put his right foot on the commander's back. He did this to keep his life energy low so that he wouldn't wake up. If the commander's life energy decided to go to his head, Shang would redirect it into his body to keep him unconscious.

Then, Shang took out a Communication Crystal.

"Oh, hey, Shang. Do you need something?" the voice of Duke Whirlwind came from the Communication Crystal.

"Two dead Cleaners, one living cleaner that is willing to receive punishment, and an unconscious Initial Commander Stage traitor that most likely works for Duke Mithril," Shang said. "I need an Inquisitor."

Duke Whirlwind remained silent for a while.

That was… a lot.

Duke Whirlwind knew that Shang was very powerful, but that was a bit much, wasn't it?

'I'm glad I decided to invest so much into him!' Duke Whirlwind thought with a grin.

"I will send one right away. It should take about five minutes for them to arrive. Good job, Shang!" Duke Whirlwind said with a happy and praising voice.

"Thanks," Shang said before putting the Communication Crystal away.

And then, the Ice Adept and Shang waited in silence.

Chapter 289 - Bounty

Shang had to wait for about three minutes for the Inquisitor to arrive. During that time, Shang collected all the valuables and stored them inside his world. By now, Shang only needed about one second for a roundtrip to his world and back, making it easier to store stuff but still impossible to use during battle.

The Inquisitor was a grey-haired woman who looked to be in her early thirties. Of course, the appearances of powerful Mages and warriors were deceiving. She was probably nearly a hundred years old.

Shang showed the emblem he had received from Duke Whirlwind to her, and she nodded. Then, she glanced at the man on the ground and the Ice Adept waiting beside Shang.

"She's the Cleaner that surrendered," Shang said, gesturing to the Ice Adept.

"He's the suspected traitor from Duke Mithril's side."

The Inquisitor looked at the Ice Adept. "Approach," she commanded.

The Ice Adept walked forward with fear on her face.

"By surrendering and consenting to a Mind Read, you get the opportunity to turn your life around," the Inquisitor stated neutrally. "Ten years of working for Duke Whirlwind will not only be beneficial to you, but you will also make powerful connections."

"The path of a Cleaner allows you to reach the True Mage Realm very quickly, but the Cleaning Service doesn't have the necessary connections and resources to cultivate a powerful True Mage."

What the Inquisitor said sounded good, but the Ice Adept knew that it couldn't be that easy. After all, she would probably be sent to the most dangerous regions, which were outside Duke Whirlwind's territory.

She would probably end up in the frontlines.

There was over a 70% chance of her death over the next decade.

Sadly, she had no other option.

It was already too late.

"I consent," she said.

The Inquisitor nodded and put her hand on the Ice Adept's head. "Don't resist."

The Ice Adept closed her eyes.

After that, the Ice Adept stopped moving as the Inquisitor moved through her memories.

It took a couple of minutes for her to finish, but eventually, both of them opened their eyes again.

"We have gained some valuable insight into the workings of the Cleaning Service," the Inquisitor said.

The Ice Adept didn't answer.

After that, the Inquisitor stepped over to the unconscious commander and put her hand on his cracked head.

But this time, she stopped looking after only three seconds and turned to Shang. "There is no barrier," she said.

Shang's eyes widened in shock.

No barrier?!

That couldn't be!

A barrier was a Magic Circle that hid certain memories from being read. It was very expensive and difficult to get through these barriers, and it even became impossible if a High Mage created these barriers personally.

Usually, Duke Mithril's traitors all had powerful barriers in their minds that required millions of gold to unlock. This increased the cost by so much that Duke Whirlwind couldn't afford to unlock every single one, and he had to decide which ones he wanted to access.

Even more, none of these people had absolute confirmation that it was Duke Mithril pulling the strings. Nearly all of them only received orders from one of their superiors, who got orders from their superiors, and they only knew that someone inside the Volcano Wyrm Zone was giving these orders.

However, they never knew who it was specifically.

The fact that the commander didn't have a barrier basically meant that he wasn't a traitor.

"That can't be," Shang said. "He attacked me as soon as he got the chance. She can confirm the event." Shang pointed at the Ice Adept.

"I know," the Inquisitor said. "I read her memories. I saw it. But that doesn't change the fact that he does not have a barrier inside his mind."

"However," the Inquisitor continued. "Barrier or not, he has tried to kill a soldier under him without going through the proper channels and without a valid reason. Even if he doesn't work for the enemy, he still counts as a traitor."

After that, the Inquisitor put her hand on the commander's head again and began to read his memories.

After around ten minutes, she was done. This warrior obviously had more memories to go through than the Ice Adept.

"So?" Shang asked, looking at the Inquisitor.

"Desperation and greed," the Inquisitor said.

Shang remained silent, looking at the Inquisitor.

"He had grand dreams about becoming as powerful as the Dean of the Warrior's Academy. Sadly, his progress slowed down a lot after reaching the Commander Stage. In his mind, the reason for that was his lack of wealth and resources."

"For that reason, he accepted several missions from the military and has been working for us for around ten years. He made a bit of progress, but nothing too amazing. In his mind, the reason was still his lack of resources. As long as he got better resources, he would ascend and become truly powerful."

"And when he saw you, he realized that his chance had arrived," the Inquisitor said to Shang. "There are several open bounties for someone named Zero posted in Duke Mithril's territories and in underground territories inside our territory."

"His plan was to attack you on your way back, take your head, and flee to Duke Mithril's territory to gain the reward."

Shang thought about this for a bit. 'So, he isn't actually directly a traitor, but he would have become one. In a sense, he is a traitor in training. I could also compare him to a Pest Cat baby.'

"How much gold am I worth?" Shang asked.

The Ice Adept also looked with interest at the Inquisitor.

"20 million gold," the Inquisitor answered.

"What?!" both Shang and the Ice Adept shouted in shock.

Shang looked with surprise at the angered Ice Adept.

"I would have only gotten four million gold!" she shouted in anger.

'That means that the full price is about five million gold since the Cleaning Service also takes a fee,' Shang thought. 'Good that I can now put a number to the gold I made the Wilburys lose.'

"20 million is a lot," Shang said.

The Inquisitor nodded. "20 million is the total net worth of an average Mid True Mage. A Focus with two Amplifiers costs around 15 million, and the remaining five million are for everything else."

Shang knew that Amplifiers were the circlets that floated around the Foci. A Focus with two Amplifiers only became more common amongst Mid True Mages, but a couple of extremely talented and powerful True Mages also got them earlier.

'I severely doubt that the Wilburys would be willing to create a bounty of 20 million gold. The baroness, the more powerful of the two, is at the Early True Mage Realm, and she isn't one of those supremely talented True Mages. All of her belongings probably only reach around ten to fifteen million gold, which would include all her equipment, her house, and her resources.'

'Her husband probably also has a couple of million, but he probably has less than her. Maybe, if they absolutely sold everything they owned and walked over to the Cleaning Service naked, they might be able to scrape that together, but I severely doubt that they would do that.'

'They probably spent around 500 thousand on the first Cleaner and another five million on the second one. That should be all of their liquid funds.'

'Which means that I am safe from them from now on. After all, I doubt that they are willing to sell their house and equipment to hire a True Mage Cleaner.'

Then, Shang furrowed his brows.

'But those 20 million gold are worrisome. I can only think of two people with that kind of money that have a reason to deal with me.'

'Duke Mithril and Jera Orvis, One's father.'

Shang scratched his chin in thought. 'The bounty is set for Zero, not Shang. However, that doesn't mean that they don't know that I'm Zero.'

'Back then, they still had no idea who Zero was, but new information has come to light that allowed them to connect my two identities.'

'The meeting with King Skythunder.'

'Back then, I defeated that one officer while being two levels below him, which should be impossible. But with the unveiling of the Procedure, it became possible, leaving only five candidates.'

'The five that had been in front of King Skythunder.'

Shang frowned. 'And I am by far the best fit for Zero.'

Shang sighed. 'Great. I got rid of the Wilburys, and now I got Duke Mithril on my ass.'

Chapter 290 - Plans

The Inquisitor put a chain around the commander’s body and woke him up.

The commander was confused for a second, but he quickly remembered where he was.

He jumped up with all of his power and tried to break the chain, but after the Inquisitor pulled lightly on it, the commander fell powerlessly to the ground.

When the commander noticed the Inquisitor, his face became white, and his world broke down.

He knew that he was in deep trouble.

“There is no information regarding who requested the mission or who put the bounty on your head,” the Inquisitor said to Shang.

Shang only nodded without answering. He had expected that.

“The only thing I could find out was that the mission was put up inside the Empress Cobra Zone, but that doesn’t exactly narrow it down,” the Inquisitor said.

Shang already knew that it was the Wilburys.

“Thank you,” Shang answered absentmindedly..

The Inquisitor nodded and left with the Ice Adept and the commander.

Shang remained on this spot for a bit longer, lost in thought, but a couple of minutes later, Shang decided to return to the Storm Eagle Zone.

‘The matter with the Wilburys is over for now, but I have to be careful of where I go. Zero’s bounty isn’t openly displayed everywhere, and not everyone knows that I am Zero, but there might still be several people interested in me.’

‘Even if only 1% of people are interested in my head, that would still be over ten True Mages in Duke Whirlwind’s territory.’

‘At least I don’t have to hide inside Warrior’s Paradise anymore. Warriors below the Commander Stage and nearly all Adepts are no longer a danger to me. The locations of warriors at the Commander Stage and True Mages are tracked, and as long as they don’t want to be hunted by absolutely everyone, they won’t make a move.’

‘After all, on the surface, the different Dukes still have to act like they are one unit. If a True Mage were to kill me and escape, their identity would be revealed within the day, and with their identity revealed, even Duke Mithril has to comply with finding them.’

‘Sure, he could hide them, but if it gets out that he is hiding someone that killed a weaker warrior without permission, he will have to pay a hefty fine. Most likely, he would just hand the person over, and the person definitely knows that.’

‘But there are always ways around that. However, the further away I am from Duke Mithril’s territory, the harder it gets for them to kill me.’

Shang sighed. ‘Even more, teacher said that as soon as I win against the first being at the Commander Stage, his protection ends. I now count as someone with the power of someone at the Commander Stage, and dealing with these threats is now my responsibility.’

‘I guess I have to continue concentrating on my power for now. The stronger I am, the better.’

‘And now, I can also properly train against beasts. I hadn’t had a true, direct threat to my life in over two years, and I feel my progress slowing.’

Shang had noticed that his progress was slowing, and he also found the reason.

Lack of danger.

Or, more precisely, lack of real-world experience.

A doctor on Earth could theoretically learn everything there is to know about the human body, but without any actual experience, they wouldn’t be able to be a great surgeon.

In order to get better as a surgeon, eventually, the doctor needed to operate on a patient. There was simply no way around it.

The same was true for Shang. Shang could train his mastery over Mana, train his Affinity, and train his techniques, but he lacked the critical feedback he got during an actual fight.

Shang needed to put things into practice and adapt if he wanted to grow as quickly as he had in the past.

And for that, he needed powerful opponents.

The Cleaner had stopped Shang from gaining this experience for the last two years, but now, Shang was finally free to search for powerful beasts.

The fight earlier hadn’t been truly dangerous. After all, Shang still had a couple of weapons he hadn’t used yet.

Sure, if the three Adepts had been at their peak conditions and only had to focus on Shang, this fight would have been very dangerous.

ɴ[0)ᴠᴇʟ But they hadn’t. They had already been exhausted and distracted when the fight started.

The same thing was true for the Commander Stage beast.

‘Luckily, now, I can fight an actual Initial Commander Stage beast,’ Shang thought with a gleam in his eyes.

‘Maybe, I can finally learn to condense my Domain. Then, I can advance to the Initial Commander Stage.’

‘But I should advance to the Peak General Stage first. I wanted to be at the Late General Stage for this fight since I wanted to gain some actual practice, which I got, to some degree.’

‘My Battle-Strength is also way more powerful than I had anticipated. I thought that the average Adept would be about equal to my current power, but they obviously are not.’

‘Remaining at the Late General Stage is more useless than useful for now.’

‘I think I should also strengthen Sword even more.’

Shang nodded as he made his plan.

‘First, strengthen Sword.’

‘Second, Peak General Stage.’

‘Third, go outside and battle Initial or Early Commander Stage beasts until I condense my Domain.’

‘Lastly, advance to the Commander Stage.’

‘That should work.’

With that thought, Shang traveled back to the Storm Eagle Zone. With his current power, it only took about three hours to get there.

When Shang was younger, he loved the feeling of the wind hitting his face while running, but this sensation had long become normal to him.

Shang was running as fast as a car on the highway, but he didn’t feel it to be special anymore.

When Shang had arrived at Warrior’s Paradise for the first time, he had looked at giants. The teachers were so incredibly powerful.

But now, Shang’s power was closing in on the teachers.

And he would soon reach their level.

As soon as Shang got back, he asked his teacher for materials to upgrade Sword, which he promptly received.

And then, Shang focused on strengthening his body.

This time, Shang only needed about ten months to advance a level.

Shang had just become 21, and as celebration, he left Warrior’s Paradise to hunt some beasts.

It was time to test his power!