Ch. 421..430

Chapter 421 – Fleeing

Hell.

Inferno.

Destruction.

Pure destruction.

Everywhere Shang looked, something exploded.

It was like a huge bomber from earth was carpet-bombing a military encampment.

People died.

Many people died.

Probably around 150 of the about 200 barbarians and around four True Mages died during that attack.

And Shang didn't feel any guilt or regret.

These were not innocent people.

These were soldiers who were at war with his home, the Skythunder Kingdom.

Every person that remained alive could very well represent a future dead warrior.

This was nothing like the time Shang had made the Adamantite Behemoth flip over Duke Mithril's town.

No, everyone in here was a soldier, and they would fight the Skythunder Kingdom.

The Skythunder Kingdom was the only home Shang had in this world, and he wanted to keep it strong and prosperous.

Shang saw scattered and burned pieces of flesh everywhere, and he saw the horrified and terrified faces of the injured survivors.

'This is war!' Shang told himself.

In the distance, the High Mage looked with horror at the blackened craters that had once been her encampment.

This couldn't be real!

This must be a dream!

One single warrior had done all of this?!

BANG!

While the High Mage was distracted, Shang blasted towards the fourth tower from above and readied his sword.

BANGBANGBANGBANG!

Shang unleashed a flurry of attacks. The Long Sword State was by far the fastest one, and Shang had realized that he had never truly made use of Sword's speed in this State.

Shang had always tried to unleash maximum power with each strike, but this was wrong for such a thin and nimble sword.

By training with the other kinds of swords, Shang had realized that it was way better to essentially turn the Long Sword State into something that was essentially a blender.

Each strike was accompanied by black lightning, and in just five swings, the shield broke.

However, Shang's entire body had withered a lot.

In the Long Sword State, Shang could unleash way more elemental attacks, but this increased offense also took a heavy burden on his health.

Shang used the last of his Mana to regenerate his body, but that was it. He no longer had any Mana inside his body.

Any future injury would stay for a while.

BANG!

Shang unleashed another Blast and broke through the roof of the tower.

SHING! SHING! SHING!

In less than a second, several slashes could be seen coming out of the walls of the tower, and it collapsed into pieces.

Of course, there was also flesh amongst those pieces.

By now, the High Mage had recovered from her shock, and a fire of absolute hatred appeared in her eyes.

She wanted that warrior dead!

She quickly readied several Spells and waited for Shang to charge toward the next tower.

But then, her eyes widened in shock.

Shang hadn't left the collapsing tower.

She quickly concentrated on her Spirit Sense, and she finally found him.

He was fleeing!

Shang was on the ground in front of the towers outside the encampment, running towards the Skythunder Kingdom!

After all of this, he was running just like that?!

The High Mage gnashed her teeth in hatred.

"No, you don't!"

SHING!

And she used Mana Step.

She appeared close to the walls of her encampment.

BANG!

She unleashed her Concept of Cutting and blasted the walls in front of her apart.

She needed a clear path for her Mana Step to work, and she didn't have time or the nerves to jump over the walls.

Then, she saw Shang just a kilometer away from her, and she unleashed over 30 metallic spears in his direction.

It was like a gigantic shotgun had shot at Shang.

Shang's Pseudo-Spirit Sense quickly calculated the trajectory of all the spears.

There was no safe place for him at the current distance from the High Mage.

"Ishah!"

SHING!

Shang appeared over 500 meters further away and went a bit to the left.

SHING! SHING! SHING! SHING!

Several spears shot past Shang.

Not a single one hit him.

And he had never stopped running.

When the High Mage saw that Shang managed to evade her Spell by using Mana Step, her anger exploded even more.

SHING!

She also used Mana Step, and she appeared just 500 meters behind Shang.

An instant later, she had readied another 30 spears.

BOOOM!

And she unleashed them at Shang again.

This time, Shang was out of options.

Sword was too small to block.

He was not fast enough to evade.

He couldn't use Mana Step since one use of Mana Step used up all the Mana inside his mind.

His armor was still regenerating its Mana.

He would be hit.

Shang quickly blasted into a place where the least spears were and readied himself.

He jumped forward and kicked toward one of the approaching spears.

BANG!

The spear pierced Shang's shoes.

Then, it pierced Shang's foot.

It pierced his leg.

It pierced his abdomen.

And, finally, it came out of his shoulder.

Just when the spear came out of his shoulder, Shang grabbed it with both of his hands.

It took a lot of power, but Shang managed to hold onto that spear.

If it hadn't gone through his entire body and if it hadn't been grabbed by Shang's hands, it would have simply shot through him.

But, like this, Shang managed to borrow the power of the spear, and he was thrown into the distance along with it.

The High Mage's eyes widened.

Such a method to resist her attack hadn't even entered her mind!

Even more, Shang didn't only resist her attack, but it was even helping him escape!

All the spears around Shang started to fall to the ground as he traveled for nearly two kilometers like this.

Then, Shang pulled out the spear, threw it to the side, and unleashed another Blast to keep his speed up.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Shang was unleashing one Blast after the other, his body bleeding in several places.

He was burning up his vitality like a meteor!

The High Mage used another three Mana Steps and was now only 300 meters away from Shang.

She was ready to unleash her next Spell.

Shang looked back, and he only smirked.

The High Mage was just about to unleash her Spell when she suddenly felt a terrifying attack come her way.

SHING! BOOOOOM!

She used Mana Step to retreat as the place where she had just been was buried by a shower of humongous rocks.

Her Spirit Sense quickly noticed the person that had unleashed that attack, and she gritted her teeth in frustration.

The Duke of this Zone of the Skythunder Kingdom had arrived.

And he was rapidly charging after her with Mana Step as his Focus readied more Spells.

The High Mage threw one hateful glance at Shang.

She knew that she couldn't kill him today.

She unleashed one Mana Step after the other to retreat back to the Grandmountain Kingdom as the Duke charged after her.

The High Mage of the Grandmountain Kingdom had already used quite a bit of her Mana, and the Duke knew it.

This was the best opportunity to get rid of her!

The Duke shot past Shang in less than an instant.

Finally, Shang could stop and look back.

He was bleeding all over his body, but his passive regeneration would take care of these issues.

A couple of seconds later, Shang saw several True Mages shoot past him with Mana Step, and some more seconds later, Commander Stage warriors followed.

The Skythunder Kingdom knew what Shang had planned.

When they saw the terrifying number of distant explosions, they knew that Shang had succeeded, and they had prepared themselves for an all-out assault.

Today, the Skythunder Kingdom would take another Zone from the Grandmountain Kingdom!

 

Chapter 422 – Not Necessary

Shang slowly walked back to the Skythunder Kingdom as one soldier after the other charged past him toward the Grandmountain Kingdom.

'I've got quite some good gains from this excursion,' Shang thought as he continued walking.

'I know how powerful the weakest High Mages are now, and I could test several of my new techniques.'

'I even managed to severely damage the High Mage's shield, although that was luck. She just so happened to arrive in front of me of her own volition, and I just so happened to be above her.'

'In a normal fight, she would just keep her distance with Mana Step and slowly kill me from afar.'

'Right now, my speed isn't fast enough to truly keep up with a High Mage. I guess I need to reach the Peak Commander Stage first before I can try.'

Shang glanced at Sword, who was much smaller than before the attack. 'Luckily, I have a lot of money. With all the beasts and Foci I gathered, I don't need to care about this bit of ore.'

"How's the Entropy looking?" Shang asked Sword with a voice transmission.

"No problem," Sword answered. "I don't need more right now."

Shang nodded. "How was the pain?"

He still remembered that Sword had also been injured quite a bit.

"I don't like it, but I have to get used to it," Sword answered.

"Sorry about that," Shang said.

"There is nothing to be sorry about," Sword answered. "Power requires pain."

Shang smiled a bit.

He could empathize with Sword a lot.

They were very similar.

After a couple of minutes, Shang reached the outpost of the Skythunder Kingdom.

There were definitely far fewer people here than before.

Shang walked through the gates without being stopped, while many eyes looked at him with shock.

This madman actually survived!

They had all seen the distant black clouds. Such black clouds couldn't be created by a Mage Tower, and they represented a vast burning area.

This meant that something really big and flammable was burning, which could only be the enemy frontline.

Additionally, their Duke had already told them to get ready for battle, basically confirming that Shang had severely weakened the enemy.

All of this was basically unbelievable to everyone present.

Only a High Mage could pull something like that off.

Not even a Peak True Mage could do that.

And there had never been a warrior that had managed to do something like that.

It was very hard to believe, but this could only mean that Shang was more powerful than a Peak Mage.

And he wasn't even at the True Path Stage yet!

The present people felt like the world was changing.

Just 30 or so years ago, the first True Path Stage warrior had appeared.

Then came the Bloodline Infusion.

Then came the Star Map and the barbarian Strengthening Technique.

And now, just five years after that, the first warrior that could actually resist a High Mage had made his debut.

"What were those black clouds?"

Shang looked over and saw a Mid Commander Stage warrior ask him that question.

"About 50 Firebombs," Shang answered.

Everyone's eyes widened again.

That was a lot of Firebombs!

No wonder the clouds had been that thick and black!

"How did you manage to detonate the Firebombs with a High Mage there?" the same warrior asked. "Couldn't they just stop all the projectiles with their mind?"

"Well," Shang said. "The High Mage was a bit far away when I used them, and she hadn't been prepared for them."

"Oh? It was a she? How did she look?" the same warrior asked.

Shang furrowed his brows. "Come on, man. She's a High Mage of the Grandmountain Kingdom," Shang answered.

The warrior went a bit red in the face and looked away in embarrassment.

After that short exchange, most of the people lost their trepidation and also asked their questions.

Shang answered most of the questions vaguely since he wanted to keep his powers a secret. The Skythunder Kingdom might be his home, but there were also a lot of enemies here. The less his enemies knew about him, the better.

Funnily enough, Shang was more comfortable with revealing his powers to the Grandmountain Kingdom than the Skythunder Kingdom.

One reason was that Shang didn't need to live there.

Another reason was that, since he didn't live there, the Grandmountain Kingdom couldn't create an ambush for him.

An additional reason was that Shang didn't need to interact with them.

Lastly, the Grandmountain Kingdom couldn't just send an incredibly powerful High Mage after Shang to kill him. Such a High Mage would be personally attacked by the Council and die.

But if Shang unveiled some of his more sensitive powers to the Dukes and Council, it was possible that a member of the Council might assassinate him in the wild.

The Grandmountain Kingdom was no immediate threat to Shang, but the Council and Dukes were.

That was why he didn't go into detail regarding how he had fought.

The present people only knew that Shang managed to evade the Spells of the Mage Towers, somehow destroyed four of them, somehow managed to launch the Firebombs, and somehow managed to retreat.

They didn't know how Shang had achieved any of these feats.

Several of them even doubted Shang's words due to the lack of descriptions.

They could accept the Firebombs, but how did he manage to break through the Mana Shield of four Mage Towers while a High Mage was attacking him?

Breaking such a strong Mana Shield definitely wasn't easy.

A couple of minutes later, several warriors and Mages returned from the Grandmountain Kingdom to man their positions again.

Apparently, the fight had ended.

The other soldiers immediately asked the people what had happened, and they told them.

The enemy had lost half their Mage Towers, and the entire encampment had been reduced to basically something that amounted to a burned crater.

Destroying the last four Mage Towers hadn't been very difficult. Especially since two of them hadn't even been manned. The Mages that were supposed to be there had probably fled.

The army of the Skythunder Kingdom didn't even need to really fight. They only launched a couple of Spells and created some defensive Spells to take down the Mage Towers.

Now, if there were eight Mage Towers firing at them, many Mages and warriors would have died under the avalanche, but with only two of them firing, all the Earth Mages could focus on defending from only those two towers, making the fight very easy and straightforward.

After that, they cleaned up the place without much trouble.

This could barely be counted as a battle.

As all the soldiers heard the retellings of how the battle had gone, they looked at Shang with shock once again.

The soldiers had confirmed everything Shang had said.

He really had taken down a frontline all on his own!

A short moment later, a Peak True Mage, wearing some shiny armor that looked more like it should belong to a warrior, walked up to Shang.

"Shang, correct?" he asked.

Shang nodded.

"You've performed a valuable service today. Duke Quake wishes to meet you at the conquered frontline later to thank you personally. The enemy High Mage fell to Duke Quake thanks to her already weakened state," the Peak Mage said with a lot of respect.

The Peak True Mage waited for an answer, but none came.

In fact, Shang wasn't even looking at him.

Right now, Shang was looking with shock behind the Peak True Mage.

The Peak True Mage furrowed his brows and turned around.

Then, his heart stopped.

Standing alone in the crevice was one man.

White lightning crackled around his body as his long, white hair stood up straight due to the electricity all around him.

He wore the robes of a Grandmountain Kingdom's Governor.

And in his right hand was the head of Duke Quake.

When Shang saw that High Mage, he knew he had no power to flee.

This was not an Initial High Mage.

Shang estimated that he was a Mid High Mage.

He couldn't be compared to the earlier High Mage Shang had fought.

At that moment, the conversation Shang had had with Jerald went through his mind.

"Shang, do you want me to accompany you?"

"Why?"

"What if the Governor or another more powerful High Mage is near the frontline? Assuming you manage to destroy the frontline, the Skythunder Kingdom will attack, but it will also be open for a counterattack."

"That would be stupid," Shang answered. "Sure, we would be open to a counterattack, but if such a powerful High Mage were to enter the Skythunder Kingdom, the Council and surrounding Dukes would immediately be alarmed. Entering the Skythunder Kingdom would be akin to throwing their life away."

"Shang, I know what you are trying to say, and what you say makes a lot of logical sense. However, sometimes, even very powerful people do very stupid things in the heat of a moment."

"You think so?" Shang asked with skepticism. "I'm not sure. I would believe that such a powerful Mage would know better."

"Shang, even powerful Mages are just humans, and humans lose control over their emotions sometimes."

"I can accompany you if you want, Shang, just to be safe."

Shang only looked at Jerald with furrowed brows.

"No, that's not necessary."

Chapter 423 – Illogical

Shang only looked with shock and horror at the powerful Governor of the Grandmountain Kingdom.

'Jerald was right.'

'I've lost control over my own rage more than once. Why did I think that other people have perfect control over their emotions just because they are more powerful?'

'They are also just human!'

'After making sure that there was not the slightest risk of revealing my power so many times, I did the very thing I was trying to avoid.'

'I took an unnecessary risk.'

'Shang, you're such a fucking idiot!'

'Not everything has to be logical!'

'Humans don't always act according to logic! You should know that!'

"Not necessary?" Shang remembered Jerald say. "You're probably right. The chances of some powerful High Mage losing control over their emotions are rather small."

For a second, the Governor looked at the outpost with pure hatred.

Meanwhile, Shang felt like he had just looked death in the eyes.

Suddenly, the Governor's gaze shot to the sky.

"But I don't like taking chances."

Shang also looked up, and he could see someone with long green hair and green robes hovering in the air.

"I'm still coming with you, Shang. Just to be safe."

The Governor felt an incredible threat coming from this figure, and when he saw the Focus with four Amplifiers, all his rage vanished.

His eyes immediately widened in shock and terror.

"And, hey, if it turns out that I'm incorrect, you can laugh at me for being too paranoid."

Shang released a deep breath.

'Luckily, there was someone smarter than me around me.'

'This time, I've actually overestimated the enemy, which can be just as bad as underestimating them. I thought that they were smart enough not to do something so stupid, but I was wrong.'

'And I would have been forced to use Entropy again.'

Shang looked at Jerald, who was flying in the sky.

"I'm sorry for being so stupid and stubborn, Jerald. You were right," Shang transmitted.

Jerald only smirked.

And then, his Focus shone with green light.

SHING!

The Governor vanished as he used Mana Step to retreat.

BANG!

Yet, in the middle of his Mana Step, he suddenly hit something solid and was thrown back.

A violently shaking green wall of wind had appeared in front of him. It looked almost like a gigantic welding torch was spewing green fire.

The Mana Shield took a heavy hit, and the Governor's concentration was broken as his rapid, unprepared stop shook his organs and brain around.

Jerald lifted his right hand and pointed upward with his index and middle fingers. Some peaceful green wind appeared above them.

Then, he pointed at the Governor.

CRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

In an instant, a gigantic, rotating drill of wind appeared above the Governor's Mana Shield.

The sheer force of the green drill echoed for kilometers, blowing the eardrums out of any General Stage or weaker beings.

Sparks of pure Mana flew everywhere, illuminating the entire crevice.

And then, the Mana Shield and the drill vanished.

The Governor fell to his knees in a cold sweat.

All his Mana was gone.

He knew that Jerald had been more powerful than him from the beginning, but he hadn't thought that the distance between them was that great.

Then, the Governor's head shot up as he looked at Jerald again.

His Focus was shining with another prepared Spell!

"I surrender! I will follow-"

BANG!

A green streak of wind passed, and his head vanished.

Jerald only smirked. "Oops."

It was nothing unusual for a defeated High Mage to surrender and join another Kingdom, especially when they were someone of status.

A High Mage was very valuable, and even though they acted like they were loyal to their Kingdom, their loyalty wasn't actually as strong.

When faced with death, many High Mages would gladly abandon their Kingdom and join the enemy.

High Mages were rare, and every Kingdom needed them. They would always be accepted with open arms.

Of course, they would need to give reparations for their past actions, which meant a lot of work for them for a couple of decades.

But after that, they could fully join the Kingdom.

What were a couple of decades of work in exchange for survival and another shot at becoming more powerful?

Shang looked at the headless corpse and wasn't surprised in the least that Jerald had killed the Governor.

If this Governor joined the Skythunder Kingdom, the Council would get another powerful pawn to use against Jerald.

And, even more, this pawn would have a personal vendetta against Jerald.

After all, Jerald would be the reason that the Governor had to betray his Kingdom and work his ass off for several decades.

Jerald, obviously, wouldn't overlook something like that.

It was better to immediately kill the Governor.

The other people still couldn't believe that they had survived.

When they saw the infuriated Governor, they believed that they would die today.

Such a powerful High Mage could use their comprehended Concept to kill all of them within seconds.

They genuinely hadn't known that the Duke of the Storm Eagle Zone was here.

Some of them fell onto their butts in shock.

This day was just too much for them.

Jerald slowly landed beside Shang with a smile.

"I told you," he said.

Shang only looked to the side in shame. "Yes, you did."

"Powerful Mages are also just people," Jerald said. "They feel anger, happiness, and sadness just like you and me. When you can lose control over your emotions, others can as well."

Shang only nodded without saying anything.

Shang wasn't perfect.

He couldn't predict everything.

Logically, it had made no sense for the Governor to appear here, but things didn't always go according to logic.

Sometimes, people did dumb things.

Even the powerful and old ones.

SHING!

The air around Jerald and Shang shook as someone new arrived.

This was the very reason why it had been stupid.

Every Kingdom was surrounded by a gigantic and powerful Magic Circle that reacted to powerful presences and communication signals.

This Magic Circle had been how the Mages of the Grandmountain Kingdom had found Shang after he had used his Communication Crystal to contact George.

And it also alerted the leaders of the Kingdoms about any High Mage that crossed their border.

So, when the Governor came here, the Council had immediately been informed.

A Mid High Mage was someone with the power of an average Duke, and they knew that Duke Quake was the weakest and newest Duke. They knew that he wouldn't be able to resist such an enemy.

Shang and Jerald looked over and saw an older woman with black hair and cold eyes.

It was the Head of the Council, a Peak High Mage.

Four of the five members of the Council usually lived in the northern half of the Kingdom since they had to react very quickly to any powerful High Mage that arrived, and the Head of the Council lived at the southern border of this Zone.

It had barely taken her a minute to arrive here.

In that minute, the Governor could have decimated the entire camp several times over and retreat, but their location would have already been revealed to the Head of the Council.

A Mid High Mage couldn't run for very long while being chased by a Peak High Mage.

This was why it had been a very stupid idea for the Governor to arrive.

"How nice of you to join us, Council Head," Jerald said with a polite smile.

As soon as she had felt the presence of Jerald, she had known that the enemy was most likely already dead.

She was enemies with him, but she also knew how powerful he was.

The Head of the Council looked at the headless body and the corpse of Duke Quake just a couple hundred meters away from it.

She wasn't surprised that the enemy was already dead.

Then, she looked at Jerald with an emotionless expression.

"What happened here?"

Chapter 424 – A Talk

Jerald told the Head of the Council what had happened with the Governor except for one small detail.

In Jerald's retelling of the story, the Governor just died too quickly. Jerald simply hadn't anticipated for him to die with only one Spell.

Obviously, the Head of the Council knew that this was bullshit, but the only other person that had witnessed what had happened was Shang, and she knew that Shang would have Jerald's back. The other people had been blinded by the light of the Spells, and they could barely tell what had happened since everything had happened so quickly.

Even more, the Governor had used a voice transmission to surrender since it was faster.

So, there was nothing the Head of the Council could do about this incident.

She simply had to accept that the Governor was now dead.

But that was still a good thing.

It was rare for a High Mage to die in the war, but it was even rarer for an actual Governor or Duke to die.

Governors and Dukes were usually at the Mid High Mage Realm, while the weaker ones led the offense and defense in the war.

The Duke of this area had been the newest member of the Dukes since he had been exceptionally talented.

He had been able to fight Early High Mages while still being an Initial High Mage.

Additionally, there weren't enough Mid High Mages for all the Zones, which was why he had gotten the position.

The Head of the Council looked at the corpse of Duke Quake with furrowed brows.

Sadly, this shining light had now vanished.

"What led to this incident?" the Head of the Council asked.

"I wasn't present for the entire thing. You should ask Shang," Jerald said, gesturing to Shang.

The Head of the Council threw a cold glance at Shang.

Then, she looked toward the Peak True Mage, that had just talked to Shang a minute ago. "Commander, report!"

Jerald only bitterly smiled while Shang's expression didn't change.

He wasn't surprised in the least.

The Peak True Mage ran to the Head of the Council and bowed deeply in respect.

After that, he recounted everything that had happened.

When the Head of the Council heard of Shang's deeds, she threw an evaluating glance toward him.

What she had heard sounded unreal.

A Late Commander Stage warrior managed to destroy an entire frontline that was guarded by a High Mage.

After listening to everything, she turned to Jerald with a strict gaze. "Duke Whirlwind, what explanation do you have for the death of Duke Quake?" she demanded.

"My explanation?" Jerald asked with a polite smile. "My explanation is that one of our Initial High Mages died in exchange for the life of an Initial High Mage of the Grandmountain Kingdom, a Mid High Mage, and an entire Zone."

The Council Head's eyes narrowed. "Are you suggesting that the life of one of our Dukes is worth less than the life of a Governor from a dying Kingdom? With time, the Grandmountain Kingdom will fall. Your actions today have caused the Skythunder Kingdom unnecessary losses."

Shang had to try his best not to snort in disgust right now.

Duke Quake and the Governor couldn't be compared in value?

That's right!

The Governor had killed Duke Quake probably just as quickly as Duke Whirlwind had killed the Governor.

Obviously, the Governor's life was far more valuable than Duke Quake's.

Yet, she was making it seem like Jerald had caused the Skythunder Kingdom immense losses.

Jerald only smiled politely, but his smile definitely didn't reach his eyes.

"Are you trying to force things, Susan?" he asked in a friendly but threatening voice.

As soon as Jerald spoke these words, the entire atmosphere turned cold.

The Head of the Council narrowed her eyes as her surroundings turned darker.

"I have no problem with playing the game," Jerald said, "but we have to act according to the rules."

The surroundings of Jerald also seemed to warp with energy.

"Otherwise, we can't play the game, Susan," Jerald said, his polite smile giving off a very threatening vibe.

For a couple of seconds, the two of them only stared at each other.

"Ugh."

Suddenly, Shang heard someone groan and looked over.

The Peak True Mage had just lost consciousness.

And then, Shang's surroundings vanished into darkness.

Two humongous and cold eyes appeared in front of him, and he felt like he was staring into the Abyss.

In what seemed like an instant later, Shang slowly opened his eyes and shook his head.

His head felt foggy and scattered.

"Finally awake?" Shang heard Jerald say with a chuckle.

That was when Shang realized that he was lying on the ground.

"What happened?" he asked as he slowly sat up and looked around. He could see the Peak Mage rub his head as he slowly walked back to the encampment.

The Head of the Council was gone.

"Susan and I had a talk, and she doesn't like listeners," Jerald said.

At that moment, Shang remembered the eyes.

"That was her?" he asked.

Jerald knew what Shang was referring to and nodded. "That's her signature Spell, Soul Abyss. She's a Peak Darkness High Mage, and she mainly fights with Spells that attack your mind. She's a terrifying opponent."

"Sorry for not intervening, but I believed that it was better to talk to her alone. Her actions today went beyond the usual political game, and I wanted to have a real talk with her. I can flip the table, but we both don't want that."

Shang slowly stood up. He had a droning headache, but he could deal with it.

"What did her Spell do to me?" he asked.

"Her Spell can do many things, but I made sure that she didn't do anything invasive. She knows that she can't just do as she pleases with my friends. She simply put you to sleep."

Shang looked around the area.

"What happens now?"

"Nothing, really," Jerald answered. "We had a talk, and the issue got resolved. We can return home now."

"That's it?" Shang asked.

Jerald nodded.

At that moment, Shang realized that the two corpses were also gone.

"She took them with her," Jerald said when he noticed Shang's gaze.

Shang nodded.

That made sense.

Shang was still a bit confused due to the Spell, and he slowly walked toward the southeast.

"Oh, by the way, you will get a medal and the title of Count."

Shang stopped, blinked twice, and looked at Jerald.

"Huh?"

Chapter 425 – Count Sword

BANG!

Shang exploded forward with a Blast, his sword in its Saber State slashing downward.

CLINK!

A long sword parried the attack and tried to push the saber to the side.

However, Shang's attack had only been a feint, and his power was actually focused on pushing his opponent away.

The opponent's sword didn't have enough power behind it to push Shang's saber away, which resulted in the person holding it being flung backward.

Shang immediately exploded after them.

His opponent was open.

This was the perfect opportunity to strike!

Black flames appeared around Sword, and it struck the enemy's sword.

CRACK!

The sword broke into pieces, and Shang's sword continued slashing forward.

But he missed.

Where his opponent had just been was now a hole in the ground.

SHING!

Suddenly, a sword shot out of the hole, right toward Shang's head.

BANG!

Shang slashed the sword away.

SHING!

And then, Shang's eyes widened.

Right now, a second sword had come out of the ground beneath him, and it had stabbed him in the butt.

The entire sword was inside Shang's body right now, and he knew that his opponent could kill him now if he so chose to.

The ground below Shang moved to the side to reveal the head of a smiling man.

"My dear Count Sword, your creativity is still lacking," Mervin said with a smile.

Then, Mervin pulled his sword out of Shang's butt and stepped out of the ground.

Shang quickly healed his body and sighed helplessly.

"I still can't win, huh?" he asked.

"This is our first fight, Shang," Mervin said. "I don't think the word still is appropriate here."

"Right," Shang said, turning to face Mervin.

A moment later, a thundering applause echoed throughout the courtyard.

This had been an exhibition match between Shang and the new Dean of the Warrior's Academy, Mervin.

Shang had asked Mervin for a sparring match to see how far he had come and to learn some new things. Mervin had no problem with the match, but he also wanted to show the students of the academy how strong a warrior could become.

"Don't be too hard on yourself, Shang," Mervin said. "You nearly had me a couple of times, and I actually had to resort to such an unorthodox technique. I don't usually use my Earth Affinity in such a way, but I just couldn't help it. I needed all of my power to win against you."

Sure enough, Mervin hadn't exaggerated. His armor and clothing were cut in several places, and some blood was still flowing from some open wounds.

The fight definitely hadn't been easy.

Of course, Shang couldn't use all his powers. For example, he didn't use his Darkness Affinity, although it also wouldn't have helped much.

He also hadn't worn Jerald's armor since Mervin didn't have a comparable set.

"Give it a couple of years," Mervin said. "My Path is set while yours is still developing. In a couple of years, you will overtake me. It seems like your Path is far grander than even mine."

Shang didn't disagree.

He wanted to tell Mervin that the stability of his Path was all thanks to him, but he just couldn't tell another person about his secrets.

Shang knew Jerald, and he had known that he could trust him.

Mervin, on the surface, appeared even more trustworthy, but Shang couldn't really look through his personality.

Additionally, there was actually no need to tell Mervin where he had come from.

"Thank you for the fight, Teacher Mervin," Shang said with a short and polite bow.

Mervin reciprocated the bow. "The pleasure is all mine, Count Sword."

"You really don't need to call me that," Shang said.

"Why not? It's your title," Mervin said with a smile.

Shang only sighed.

Now that Shang was no longer part of the Warrior's Academy, Mervin stopped acting like a serious teacher. He joked around more now, and this was one of his jokes.

A couple of weeks ago, Shang had been given his title.

The ceremony had been held in Jerald's castle, and all the Mage nobles living in the Storm Eagle Zone had watched, even if there weren't many.

Every noble with a rank of Count or higher received a unique title. This was also how Jerald had received the title of Whirlwind.

Shang's title was Sword.

During the ceremony, Shang also received his own territory to manage.

In the beginning, Shang had not been even the slightest fan of that. He wanted to focus on his power, not manage some town or something. It would only distract him.

But when Shang saw his territory, all his worries vanished.

It was just a random part of the Wild Forest.

There was literally nothing to manage as long as Shang didn't make it so.

Usually, the Dukes gave the Counts the goals they wanted them to achieve, and it was the job of the Counts to make it happen.

Procuring gold, warriors, and Mages were the most common goals.

And Jerald's goal for Shang's territory was that it shouldn't bring in less than it does now, which was basically zero.

If Shang wanted, he could create a castle or even a small town in his territory since it was quite big. He could theoretically manage everything in there and demand taxes, which definitely wouldn't be little.

Or he could just do nothing.

And, obviously, Shang chose the latter.

The main reason why Jerald had granted Shang the title was to take the first step towards making the warriors equal to Mages in terms of status. If there was one warrior Count, there could be more in the future.

Naturally, having a dirty peasant warrior amongst their ranks made the other Counts in the other Zones protest. They immediately complained to the Council, who saw this as a prime opportunity to throw more dirt onto Jerald's image.

However, the Head of the Council surprisingly shot that idea down.

"Count Sword has the power and the achievements to be a Count," she had said.

The Council was horrified that their Head had said something like that, but they couldn't get a reason as to why she had said these things out of her.

Of course, the protests didn't let up, and the other noble Mages only grew angrier.

They just couldn't accept that a warrior was now a Count.

They could accept a warrior Baron but not a Count.

That was too high for mere warriors.

After all, a Count was in practice just one step below a Duke. There was also the Liaison Rank, which would give someone temporary authority on the level of the Duke of the territory, but it wasn't a permanent Rank.

Shang and Mervin exchanged a couple more words, and Mervin held a grand speech for all the students, complimenting Count Sword for his power and naming him the second strongest warrior in the world.

Shang didn't feel comfortable hearing all these praises come from Mervin. He was a rather proud person, and he agreed with everything Mervin said, but it felt so strange and weird hearing these things come out of someone else's mouth.

It didn't feel real.

While Shang was the target of contempt from the other noble Mages, for the students in the Warrior's Academy, he was their hero.

He was a young warrior that managed to become the first warrior Count in history!

In the students' minds, Shang had reached the same level of mystery as the original Dean.

After talking with some people, Shang left the academy again.

Another long period of isolated training was about to begin for him.

 

Chapter 426 – Ten Years

In the next ten years, the effects of the Star Maps started to show results.

The Skythunder Kingdom had received over 30 new High Mages, which was more than they had anticipated.

There had been so many Late and Peak True Mages that had been stuck at comprehending the unique Concept they needed to advance, and when the Star Map appeared, many of these people finally managed to do the jump.

At this moment, the Skythunder Kingdom had around 60 High Mages, which was a shocking number.

Every single encampment near the frontlines was now defended by a High Mage, which had been merely a dream just ten years ago.

Of course, the Grandmountain Kingdom and the Magic Purity Kingdom also had received a burst of new High Mages.

As time passed, the importance of True Mages and Commander Stage warriors only shrunk, but they were still important.

While the High Mages fought, the soldiers fought each other, and if one side won, they could assist their High Mage in the battle.

One True Mage wasn't an issue for a High Mage, but if 20 True Mages suddenly started throwing Spells at the High Mage while they were still dealing with another High Mage, things could turn bad very quickly.

If they evaded with Mana Step, they couldn't create another offensive Spell to deal with the High Mage, and if they didn't evade, the Spells would consume their Mana since they would hit the Mana Shield.

Attacking the forces would also require concentration, time, and Mana, which could prove fatal when another High Mage was attacking them.

One could say that having the support of an army increased the High Mage's power by about 30%.

Of course, if one of the High Mages was clearly stronger than the other, even these 30% wouldn't make a difference, which was why the importance of the True Mages had fallen. They could only help, not win.

But there weren't only new High Mages.

In the last ten years, about 15 new True Path Stage warriors also appeared. Just like with the High Mages, these True Path Stage warriors had been Commander Stage warriors that had been stuck at the later levels of the Commander Stage.

The impact a True Path Stage warrior brought to the battlefield wasn't as great as a High Mage, but it was definitely not little.

If a True Path Stage warrior managed to slip past the enemy's frontlines, they would create a bloodbath.

The enemy either needed to dedicate several Mage Towers to dealing with the True Path Stage warrior, significantly reducing the pressure on the enemy's army, or look at the True Path Stage warrior cutting through every Mage that wasn't located in a Mage Tower right now.

And if a True Path Stage warrior could go and support their High Mage, things would go bad.

A High Mage was definitely more powerful than a True Path Stage warrior, but it wasn't to such a degree that they could kill them with a flip of their hand.

A simple Spell thrown their way wouldn't be enough to kill them due to their resilience and speed, which meant that the High Mage needed to dedicate around three serious Spells to deal with them.

That were three Spells that wouldn't attack the other High Mage, which was devastating.

Sadly, all the new True Path Stage warriors hadn't undergone the Bloodline Infusion. They had already created simplified versions of their Paths when the Bloodline Infusion was invented, making it impossible to find a fitting beast for the procedure.

So, while the True Path Stage warriors were still helplessly inferior to the High Mages, they definitely weren't useless. If one thought of High Mages as a soldier, True Path Stage warriors would be their dogs. Having a dog helping them was definitely better than not having one, but it was not worth as much as another soldier.

In the past ten years, the Grandmountain Kingdom lost another four Zones while it had only gained two more Zones from the Blackshadow Kingdom, which meant that the Grandmountain Kingdom was shrinking.

The Skythunder Kingdom was no longer in the shape of a circle at the southern end of the world. Instead, it had transformed into an oval.

Due to the new Zones, the Skythunder Kingdom even had to create three new Dukes, raising the number of Dukes to 15.

The war was reaching a new level of intensity after years of peace.

Especially the Magic Purity Kingdom had started to assault the Skythunder Kingdom with more power while still keeping the pressure on the Blackshadow Kingdom.

While the war with the Grandmountain Kingdom went great, the news coming from the north was worrisome.

There were a lot of new High Mages in the Magic Purity Kingdom, and the Skythunder Kingdom was now under more pressure than ever before.

The world was rapidly changing.

But Shang saw none of that.

For the past ten years, Shang had only been training in seclusion, deep in the Caves.

Every couple of weeks, he heard some new developments from George and Jerald, but none of these things actually concerned him.

Jerald always told Shang that he should concentrate on training and that he shouldn't think about the outside world, but Shang knew that Jerald was under a lot of pressure.

The Council demanded more and more powerful warriors to be sent to the frontlines, and nearly half of all the True Path Stage warriors came from the little Storm Eagle Zone. Yet, they still demanded more.

Their goal was obvious.

They wanted Jerald to send Shang, George, and Mervin to the frontlines.

They wanted to deal with Jerald's closest allies since that would weaken Jerald's hold over the warriors.

Yet, Jerald always managed to keep those three away from the frontlines.

Shang knew that Jerald was under a lot of pressure, which only strengthened his resolve in training.

'It's been so long,' Shang thought as he descended further into the Caves.

He was still wearing Jerald's armor, but it looked old and ragged after over ten years.

Shang still looked to be in his early twenties, even though he was 47 years old now.

'I've been in this world for around 33 years now, and Earth seems so distant and unimportant.'

'I've trained for so long in the Caves.'

Shang continued descending more.

'But after 33 years, it's finally time.'

'I'm now at the Peak Commander Stage, and my body is just as powerful as the body of a Peak Commander Stage beast.'

'My Path has been around 30% completed.'

'And now, it's time.'

Shang descended more and more until the caves became bigger and bigger.

Shang still remembered the Exploding Mountain Turtle from the Day of Chaos.

'After 33 years, I'm finally there.'

Shang remembered how helpless he had been.

George had fought the Exploding Mountain Turtle several kilometers away, and Shang had only been able to watch.

'Today, I will fight my first True Path Stage beast!'

 

Chapter 427 – Shadow

Shang slowly walked down the Caves with a narrowed eye. His focus was at its peak, and he kept watch over his surroundings with all of his concentration.

This was no longer the safe area where only Commander Stage beasts lived. No, this was the place where the True Path Stage beasts lived.

Shang’s body had already reached the most powerful state possible for a Commander Stage warrior, which meant that he wouldn’t be able to become more powerful without working on his Path.

Theoretically, Shang could break through the True Path Stage without a Path by relying on the barbarian strengthening technique, but that would lock him out of the warrior Path.

At that point, he would be like King Skythunder, someone with a powerful body but no advanced techniques.

This was not what Shang wanted.

He wanted to push himself further and further.

He wanted to create the ultimate Path for anyone using a sword.

Shang had already been working on his Path for over 20 years by now, and he wasn’t even halfway done.

There was so much more to learn and so much more power to gain.

As Shang slowly stepped down the Caves, he felt like he was alone.

There were no beasts anywhere.

The Caves were dark, but Shang could rely on his Pseudo-Spirit Sense to make sense of his surroundings.

Yet, there was just nothing there.

Only walls.

Shang continued walking forward.

By now, the tunnels had reached a width and height of over a hundred meters, which was far bigger than the upper Caves.

Being alone in such a grand structure had a certain feel to it.

Suddenly, Shang focused on his right and furrowed his brows.

He could feel something charging at him.

Since Shang wasn’t at the True Path Stage yet, his Spirit Sense also wasn’t as big and accurate as it was supposed to be, which meant that the beasts would most likely find him first.

And, sure enough, the first beast had already found Shang and was charging at him with a lot of speed.

Shang couldn’t see it yet, but the closer it got, the clearer the image his Pseudo-Spirit Sense sent him became.

The beast was really long but not very wide. Of course, Shang was talking in terms of average size for a True Path Stage beast. Even though the beast wasn’t very big for a True Path Stage beast, it was still a good twenty meters wide.

But its length was definitely impressive.

Shang estimated that it was nearly 200 meters long.

Obviously, it had already seen him.

Shang readied himself mentally and took out Sword. He had never fought a True Path Stage beast before, and he also hadn’t fought such a big beast before.

The beast reached Shang’s cave in just a couple of seconds due to its incredible speed, but Shang had felt the vibrations already earlier.

By now, Shang also knew what it was.

It was a gigantic centipede. Its entire body was black, and there were three rocky spikes on every segment of its body. Its head had two gigantic pincers, and its eyes had already focused on Shang.

Right now, it was charging toward Shang from the ceiling.

Shang only watched it.

Usually, he would have already charged forward, but he could tell that this would be a bad idea.

BANG!

Sure enough, Shang was right.

As soon as the centipede could see Shang, the rocky spikes on its back exploded off and flew right toward him.

Shang easily evaded the first spike. It was fast, but not super fast. Additionally, it didn’t have that much power. Shang could probably block it with his sword.

However, that was not the problem.

If it were only one spike, this would be easy.

But the centipede shot over 30 spikes per second.

It was almost like a gigantic machine gun was shooting at Shang with huge spikes.

BANG! BANG!

Shang blasted to the side and then blasted away once again, but the avalanche of spikes just didn’t end.

There came more and more, and the centipede kept charging toward Shang as he retreated.

In just a single second, Shang had needed to evade over ten of the 30 fired spikes, which forced him to use several Blasts already.

‘This definitely isn’t a weak beast, and it definitely isn’t at the Initial True Path Stage. It’s most likely an average or above-average Early True Path Stage beast.’

Shang smirked.

‘Just right as my first opponent.’

Shang stopped evading towards the back and began to charge directly at the centipede.

The centipede didn’t stop and kept running at him.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Shang parried most of the spikes shooting at him and got closer to the centipede.

That was when the centipede reached him and readied its pincers.

As soon as Shang saw the centipede ready its pincers, his insides shook.

His instincts were telling him that these pincers were far deadlier than he had anticipated.

A moment later, a small light appeared in Shang’s right eye, and his body withered to a considerable degree.

Then, he charged forward.

Just when Shang was about to reach the domain of the pincers, he used a powerful Ice Blast to change his trajectory.

He was now trying to pass below the centipede’s head.

But at that moment, the pincers angled downward.

Shang had expected the centipede to commit to the attack and miss him, but it had waited with its attack.

And then, the pincers struck.

They were incredibly fast, far faster than the centipede’s body and its spikes.

CRACK!

The pincers crushed Shang’s entire body, turning him into dust.

Or, at least, they would have.

As soon as the pincers crushed Shang, he transformed into Darkness Mana and vanished into the surroundings.

An instant later, Shang appeared below the centipede’s head. It was almost like an even deeper darkness than the darkness around them had hidden him.

Ten years was a lot of time, and Shang learned a couple of new tricks.

This was one of them.

Shang called it Shadow Image.

By sacrificing quite a bit of his life energy, Shang could create an image with his own aura and could control it for a short time.

At the same time, Shang would use another new trick, which he simply called Vanish.

By sacrificing even more of his life energy, he could hide his aura to a certain degree.

Now, since Shang wasn’t a Mage, these two abilities were not very powerful. If Shang only created a Shadow Image but didn’t use Vanish, the enemy would immediately be able to tell where he was.

If Shang only used Vanish but not Shadow Image, the enemy would still be able to feel the slight traces of his aura.

But with both tricks at once, Shang could fool the centipede.

Sadly, in order to fool something this powerful, Shang needed a darkness-rich environment.

Additionally, beasts weren’t the smartest beings.

A High Mage would very likely not fall for that trick.

These two abilities had tons of weaknesses, but on the right occasion, these weaknesses didn’t matter a lot.

At this moment, Shang was below the head of the centipede.

And then, he readied his sword.

An instant later, the air around Sword began to vibrate and warp.

Chapter 428 – No Normal Beast

Shang slashed upward.

CRACK!

Sword easily cut through the thick armor of the centipede.

Obviously, Shang wouldn’t attempt to kill a True Path Stage beast with a Commander Stage weapon.

In the last ten years, Shang had also gotten the Darkness Ore from Jerald, and Shang had openly bought the Fire and Ice Ore himself. He had basically gone public with a Temperature Affinity, making his purchases reasonable.

After that, Jerald had given Shang the ore he needed to upgrade Sword to the Early True Path Stage.

However, Shang’s funds had essentially dried up.

These kinds of materials couldn’t be bought with gold, but Jerald sold them for gold anyway.

Shang had paid over a billion gold for all the ore, which was an unreasonable amount for a Commander Stage warrior.

Decades of Shang gathering Foci, materials, and gold had vanished in just an instant.

However, it allowed him to upgrade Sword, and he wasn’t worried about the future.

With such a weapon, he could now hunt True Path Stage beasts, which he could trade for even more ore.

As Shang’s sword cut into the armor, it suddenly shone brightly.

It was the ranged attack Shang had introduced to the world, but it was slightly different this time.

There was no Element in the slash. Additionally, the power of the slash didn’t exactly leave the domain of his sword.

How had the warriors of the past managed to fell such gigantic beasts with their comparatively tiny weapons?

This was the answer.

As long as there was living matter, the ranged attack could be used as an extension for the actual slash.

It was like Shang’s sword had transformed to be over 20 meters long, but only while being inside an enemy’s body.

Sadly, the actual power or weight of the strike didn’t change. It simply extended the attack’s reach.

After cutting through half the body, Shang felt his sword slow down. The centipede’s body was thick and massive, making it very difficult for him to cut through the entire thing.

BANG!

A Fire Blast came out of Shang’s left leg, shooting it upward.

BANG!

With a powerful kick, his left leg hit the back of his colossal sword, pushing it forward.

CRRRRK!

The sword continued going.

BANG! BANG!

Shang kept hold of his sword and released two more blasts, shooting himself past the centipede.

CRACK! CRACK!

The centipede’s sharp, hook-like legs were torn out of the walls as its body was pulled away from the wall.

Shang’s arms bulged as he continued slashing forward.

His sword was making more progress through the centipede’s body, and the continued power of Shang’s Blasts gave him more strength than the centipede could muster from its current position.

And then…

CRACK!

Shang’s sword cut through the centipede’s entire body, and its head started to fall to the ground.

Blood exploded out of the body, bathing Shang and his surroundings in a crimson red.

Such a feat would have been impossible if Shang’s body hadn’t already reached the absolute peak of the Commander Stage.

This beast was two levels above him, and its body had immense powers.

For just a moment, time had seemingly stopped, and Shang took a deep breath.

BANG!

Shang’s right eye shot open in terror.

His armor had just activated!

This meant that he would have died without it just now!

Shang quickly focused on his surroundings again, and he realized what was going on.

The spikes were still firing!

BANG!

Blood exploded out of Shang’s body as he used another Blast to evade the following spikes.

The temperature all over his body had been thrown all over the place by the continued uses of the Blasts, and Shang had gone past his usual limit, injuring him.

At the same time, the half of the centipede that had been wrestled out of the wall was pulled back by the other half, and the feet dug into the wall again.

Shang almost couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

He had cut off that thing’s head!

How could it still attack and move?!

The former neck of the centipede retreated from Shang as the centipede’s back turned to face him.

A second head!

Or was this its actual head?!

Shang looked at the falling “head” he had cut off.

That definitely was a head!

He knew the centipedes often had a tail that mimicked their head, but Shang wasn’t stupid. He could tell a tail from a head, and this definitely was a head!

Shang had never heard of a beast that had two heads!

‘I shouldn’t be surprised,’ he thought with a narrowed eye. ‘Not much is known about True Path Stage beasts.’

BANG! BANG!

Shang kept exploding left and right to dodge the continuing assault of the spikes.

At that moment, Shang used all his Mana to heal his body.

The Blasts, Shadow Image, and Vanish had used up a huge amount of his life energy, and he needed to refill it.

However, Shang was now out of Mana.

Any new injury would stay with him for the duration of the fight.

The fight had proven to be more difficult than he had thought.

Shang prepared himself mentally again while dodging the spikes and then shot toward the centipede again.

WHOOOOM!

But at that moment, Shang felt a powerful pulse of Mana come from behind him, and he felt an immense feeling of danger.

At the same time, the centipede stopped shooting its spikes at Shang and stopped moving.

Shang turned around and saw something horrifying.

The head he had cut off had landed on the ground, and blood was scattering over the entire floor.

This was not the normal speed at which blood spread, and this also wasn’t the normal amount.

It was like all the blood in the centipede’s body had gathered inside the head, and it had exploded forth.

Even more, the blood didn’t flow in natural pathways.

Right now, Shang was in the air in the middle of the cave, and he could see all the blood.

It had transformed into a complex diagram!

Even more, all the spikes the centipede had shot earlier had perfectly been placed at the important places inside the diagram.

This meant that it had planned all of this from the very beginning!

The spikes weren’t there to kill him but to set up this kind of ritual!

An instant later, the entire cave turned a bloody red, and there was even red light inside the cave now.

The head dissolved instantly, and at that moment…

It was like a switch had been flipped.

The walls of the entire cave turned red.

And then, they turned into a lustrous black.

When Shang saw that, his eyes widened.

‘That’s metal!’

But hadn’t the centipede been a beast with an Earth Affinity?!

And then, Shang felt a terrifying amount of Mana gather around the centipede.

CRK! CRK!

Its exoskeleton began to crack at multiple places until there were several holes.

And then, long metallic arms came out of the holes.

The first five segments of the centipede now had two gigantic arms coming out of them each!

BANG!

The centipede fell to the ground.

In this form, it was easier to fight while on the ground.

The first five segments righted themselves like it was the head of a gigantic cobra.

Then, the arms extended towards the walls and ground of the cave.

Several spikes the centipede had shot earlier that hadn’t landed in the diagram were now being grabbed by the arms.

And then, the arms pulled back.

The fingers and claws of the arms melded with the spikes until it was just one continuous mass.

And when the spikes came out of the walls, more than just the spikes was pulled out.

Ridiculously long scissor-like scythes were pulled out.

It was like one had taken the pincers of the centipede and had transformed them into long scythes!

Shang was immediately reminded of a mantis.

The scythes all stopped above the centipede, all ready to strike.

BANG! BANG!

At the same time, the metallic cave closed around the two exits.

The blood on the ground rose by a level until it was two meters deep and stopped.

Shang could feel corrosive powers come from the blood.

A couple of spikes were still sticking out of the walls, representing tiny spots of safety.

SHING!

Then, the centipede pulled its scythes to the side, cutting through the air.

‘This is not an average beast!’ Shang thought with shock.

And then, the centipede exploded towards Shang.

 

Chapter 429 – Weakening Strike

The centipede charged at Shang with incredible speed, throwing the corrosive blood to the side.

Its scythes shone in the red light of the metallic cave.

For a moment, Shang was overwhelmed by the possible angles he could be attacked from.

Usually, beasts only had one to three different attacks they could launch, making their offense rather predictable.

But there was so much going on right now!

There were ten scythes, two gigantic mandibles, several spiky legs, and even more spikes that could be launched at Shang at any moment!

Right now, the centipede was facing Shang with its raised underside, pointing the spikes away from him, but he knew that if he managed to get past all the other weapons, the spikes would continue raining on him!

Shang glanced backward and saw that only around a hundred meters were left to the end of the cave.

For just a moment, Shang felt like he was about to die.

But then, his right eye narrowed.

This wasn’t the first time he was fighting something so powerful in relation to his own power!

Shang knew that he had to go all out and that he couldn’t die now!

However, he also knew that the offense was just too massive and impenetrable!

How was he supposed to get through so many scythes?!

‘I immediately have to get rid of some of its weapons! As long as it gets one chance to attack, I will die!’

This thing was an absolute killing machine. Even a single scythe was already something Shang had to use all his power to block, and it had ten!

‘I have to use all my power to weaken it immediately!’

Shang glanced at the blood pool beneath him.

Jumping into it would definitely injure him.

Shang gritted his teeth.

Then, he jumped into the pool.

As soon as Shang’s feet touched the pool, it started to vanish.

The air and blood around Shang started to turn into pure Mana.

Right now, Shang’s right eye shone in a black light.

Domain of Entropy!

Shang landed on the corroded metal beneath him and pulled his sword back.

CRRRR!

Then, Sword began to burn with black fire.

Shang’s stance lowered as the centipede was close to reaching him.

The Domain of Entropy intensified.

“Ishah!”

BANG!

Shang shot to the other end of the cave in an instant, leaving behind an empty trail devoid of blood.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

A moment later, all the legs on the centipede’s left side broke off, followed by two scythes.

Shang had used his one use of Mana Step together with Sword’s Entropy and a colossal price for his Domain of Entropy.

The centipede fell to the side, creating waves with its blood as Shang jumped out of the pool, deactivating his Domain of Entropy.

Shang’s body hadn’t been injured in any place, even though he had just turned so much blood into Mana.

That was because Shang had sacrificed something else.

The black armor Shang had worn was turning into dust and scattering across the cave as more Mana.

Shang had sacrificed the armor Jerald had given him.

However, he hadn’t had any other choice.

Turning so much blood into Mana would have killed him, and he couldn’t sacrifice Sword.

“Sword!” Shang shouted immediately as he threw it at the centipede.

Sword had transformed into its Great Sword State, and it shot right at one of the scythes that had been cut off.

As soon as Sword touched it, the scythe turned into liquid metal, which wrapped around Sword.

At that point, Sword changed its angle and shot toward the second scythe, absorbing it as well.

With impressive speed, it suddenly turned around and shot toward Shang again, but it looked more like a throw than actual flight.

Sword was now at the True Path Stage, which meant that it could fly with quite some speed.

At the same time, the centipede was slowly righting itself.

Half its legs were gone, which meant that it had to use around three scythes to keep its body in balance.

Even more, that was only useful for the front of its body. The legs way at its back still only had one pair.

That was the problem with being so long and still using legs. If one lost their legs, their back would become nearly immobile.

Right now, the centipede was like a human without their legs. They needed to pull themselves forward with their arms.

Even more, it had to use the three remaining scythes from the very side it needed them the most.

Right now, only the five scythes on its right side could be used as weapons, but that was still terrifying enough.

However, the centipede’s power couldn’t be compared to its peak state anymore.

Earlier, Shang would have been helpless in front of it, but now, he had a chance!

Sword landed in Shang’s hands.

BOOOOM!

Sword hit the ground hard as Shang’s arms trembled with strain.

Sword had already become quite a bit heavier by being at the Early True Path Stage, but now, it had also absorbed two of those scythes.

From its Great Sword State, Sword had grown to a State even more ridiculous than the Colossal Sword State.

At this moment, Sword was over five meters long and nearly a meter wide.

It became nearly unwieldable to Shang.

“I will help you!” Sword told Shang.

Then, Sword became lighter, and Shang could actually lift it.

Sword had only managed to reach Shang with all this weight by using the momentum of Shang’s throw, and the weight hadn’t truly settled in until it landed.

Right now, Sword couldn’t fly anymore. All this additional weight and mass that wasn’t part of its usual body was weighing it down.

However, it could still use its power of flight to reduce its weight in Shang’s hands.

Shang slowly lifted up Sword, barely able to keep it in balance.

Shang gritted his teeth under the strain.

CRK! CRK! CRK!

Shang saw the centipede pull itself forward with its scythes as it readied all its other weapons.

Sword shone in the red cave with a metallic luster.

Shang lowered his stance and readied himself to strike.

Then, the centipede jumped forward.

And Shang struck forward.

Chapter 430 – Black Fire

Sword swung forward very slowly.

Shang had to swing very early. Otherwise, his swing wouldn’t be able to hit the centipede before it reached him.

Of course, that also meant that the centipede had already been prepared for the slow attack.

The gigantic sword swung towards the centipede, and it quickly tried to swat it away with one of its scythes.

CRACK!

However, the scythe immediately broke into two pieces under the swing.

“Sword, absorb!” Shang immediately shouted.

Sword thought that was a bad idea since Shang could barely swing it now, but it trusted Shang.

The cut-off scythe was absorbed, and Sword grew even heavier and bigger.

The centipede was shocked that its scythe had been broken by the attack, and when it saw the sword continuing to swing, it jumped back by using all its scythes.

The swing was just too slow to hit it, and it completely missed.

BOOOOOOOM!

The floor of the cave exploded as Sword hit it. Sword easily cut through it until it was halfway stuck in a diagonal angle.

Shang looked forward with a narrowed eye.

He saw the centipede’s frontal body high in the air while its tail was still on the ground.

Right now, the centipede’s head reached the ceiling, which was nearly a hundred meters above the ground.

It looked incredibly imposing.

It was like it was ready to strike.

Shang pulled at Sword with all of his power, and together with Sword’s help, he barely managed to pull it out of the ground.

However, lifting it would be impossible.

Shang used all his power to lift the handle over himself while the tip of Sword still remained on the ground.

The centipede angled its body backward when it saw the dangerous weapon move.

Its scythes dug into the ceiling and moved its body back.

With one swing, it threw itself around 300 meters away from Shang, right to the other end of the cave.

It slowly curled its body on the closed entrance and showed its back to Shang.

It was intimidated by the powerful weapon and decided to use ranged attacks.

When Shang saw that, hope appeared in his right eye.

This was what he had hoped for!

If the centipede attacked with its scythes again, Shang would most likely die.

This was why he had tried to intimidate his opponent into retreating, which worked.

This would never work on a Mage, but beasts weren’t as smart as Mages.

And then, the centipede began to fire.

BANG!

Shang let go of Sword and exploded to the right with a Fire Blast.

But instead of taking to the air, Shang just kept running.

When he reached the round wall, he kept running as the spikes shot past him.

When Shang reached the ceiling, he only continued running.

He knew he had enough speed to run along the walls like a car going through a loop.

Several of the spikes reached him, but Shang batted them away with his free arms.

This was a very risky maneuver. If he messed up the timing even once, he would be impaled and nailed to the back of the cave.

Shang reached the wall again and ran down.

His speed became even faster.

Then, Shang extended his arms and grabbed Sword’s handle as he passed by it.

CRACK!

Shang’s arms broke, and his muscles tore as his momentum kept pushing him forward.

Shang used the little bit of Mana he had recovered during the last couple of seconds to keep his arms in working shape.

BANG! BANG!

Then, he unleashed two more Blasts to strengthen his momentum.

Luckily, the centipede had anticipated for Shang to continue, which was why the spikes hit the place in front of Shang, giving him a free moment.

As Shang kept pulling and repairing his arms, Sword began to move under the force of Shang’s momentum.

BANG! BANG!

Shang released another two Blasts, his legs exploding with blood.

Shang managed to barely pull Sword to the wall when he felt his grip on the wall slip.

He wasn’t fast enough to run up the wall with Sword.

So, Shang let Sword go.

It was still moving upward at this moment, but it would begin falling soon.

After Shang let go, he used another Blast to accelerate again.

He ran up the wall, ran over the ceiling, ran down the wall, jumped over the blood, and reached Sword again, which still had some of its upward momentum remaining.

Shang was running with so much speed that he had completed a loop before Sword had even lost all its momentum.

As Shang grabbed it again, he kept pulling more and eventually managed to get it halfway to the ceiling before he had to drop it again.

Shang exploded forward again, blocking more spikes.

And when Shang reached the ceiling next, he grabbed Sword again and pulled.

He managed to awkwardly pull it to the other side of the cave, and this time, he didn’t let go.

He pulled more, and thanks to Sword’s weight, Shang’s speed increased even more.

Shang jumped over the pool while holding the gigantic Sword, the sword being pulled through the corrosive pool of blood.

“Entropy!” Shang shouted.

Sword immediately produced black fire, and the blood around it was turned into nothingness.

Shang kept pulling and ran up the wall again, leaving behind a black streak.

In one loop, a black ring of fire was created, but Shang didn’t run in a perfect circle but slightly angled towards the centipede.

So, the black ring wasn’t actually a ring but the beginning of a spiral.

As soon as the momentum had been established, it became incredibly easy to keep Sword’s momentum.

“Absorb just as much metal from the walls as you are using up!” Shang shouted.

Sword did just that, balancing its Entropy with the metal it absorbed.

By now, it had become very difficult for the centipede to actually target Shang. The black fire all around the end of the cave was messing with its Spirit Sense, which it relied on to target Shang.

Shang kept running across the cave in what felt like a straight line.

More of the blood vanished as the black fire stretched across the end of the cave.

The spikes stuck in the walls and ground were completely decimated by the gigantic sword.

More and more of the black fire accumulated, and Shang reached the halfway point to the centipede.

CRACK!

At that point, Sword cut through something that felt different, and Shang’s right eye shone.

The next moment, all the corrosive blood turned into normal blood.

‘I knew it!’

The diagram Shang had seen earlier was probably the reason for the corrosiveness of the blood, and this had been one of Shang’s targets.

As soon as the blood lost its corrosive properties, Shang stopped jumping over it and just ran through it.

This made the building and keeping of the momentum much easier.

Shang sped up even more, and the black flames kept getting closer and closer to the centipede.

And then, Shang’s angle changed.

He turned more towards the centipede, making the loop bigger.

“Sword, release 80% of your mass in one burst!”

BOOOOOM!

The black fire behind Shang exploded in intensity and size, completely throwing the centipede’s perception off.

Its aim decreased even more, and it kept missing Shang.

When Shang was only a hundred meters away from the centipede, he ran down the wall, gaining one last burst of momentum.

Then, he directly charged at the centipede.

The centipede noticed that Shang was now charging at it, and it immediately targeted him again.

Shang jumped.

The spikes passed under him.

BANG!

Shang used a Blast to completely stop his momentum in the air, but he let Sword continue swinging.

At this moment, a blood-covered and heavily injured figure was holding a gigantic sword covered in black flames in the middle of the air.

Then, he pulled it upward with all of his power.

Sword began to shine, and the black fire on it focused on its tip.

Finally, Shang completed his swing…

And it was a ranged attack!

A humongous wave of black fire left Sword as it turned back into its Great Sword State.

The wave of black fire was absolutely gigantic, and the centipede immediately attacked it with its scythes.

However, its scythes only turned into dust.

It tried to move to the side, but the wave was just too big.

Its body also began to turn into nothingness.

An Early True Path Stage beast couldn’t resist the force of Entropy.

Eventually, the wave hit the back of the cave.

And it exploded!