Ch. 451..460
Chapter 451 – Inferno, Star Shatter
The corpse of the bug quickly vanished, and the cheering returned.
An average beast, a level above him, wasn't very difficult for Shang to kill. He only needed to release three attacks and didn't even need to move from his spot.
Shang's offensive power in his Saber State was insanely powerful. He could essentially release over ten attacks equivalent to basic Spells of High Mages in just a single second.
The wheel returned and began to spin again.
"Level six: Powerful Early True Path Stage beast."
Shang looked at the wheel with a bit of subdued interest.
When it stopped, the picture it landed on enlarged, and Shang could see the image of an old tortoise with a cartoony castle on its back.
SHING!
Shang's opponent appeared, and he looked over.
It was big.
Like, really big.
Shang guessed that it was probably around as big as the Exploding Mountain Turtle he had seen back then at around 500 meters high.
It was a gigantic, black tortoise completely surrounded by a thick layer of black metal. Even its eyes, ears, and mouth were surrounded by the metal. In a way, it looked like a humongous statue made of metal.
However, the Exploding Mountain Turtle was obviously not on the level of this imposing armored fortress.
Shang could already guess why the tortoise counted as a powerful beast.
There were two ways to become truly powerful in general.
The traditional and most-used way was to eradicate all weaknesses and become good at everything.
Good speed.
Good attacking power.
Good defense.
Good tactics.
However, there was a second, rarer way.
It was to push one aspect so incredibly high that the others didn't matter anymore.
If one got access to insane speeds, defense didn't matter. The opponent wouldn't even be able to unleash an attack before they died. Offensive power also wouldn't matter as much since the combatant could make up for their lack of offense by simply attacking an insane number of times in a short moment.
This tortoise had obviously pushed its defensive powers to the absolute limit.
If it was impossible to injure it, it wouldn't die. It could just slowly suppress its opponent into nothingness.
Sure, its offensive power and speed were probably not very great, but it had all the time in the world to win.
It probably wouldn't mind slowly exhausting its opponent to death over several hours. At some point, its opponent was bound to make a mistake.
'High defense is the weakness of my Saber State. I wonder if the God chose this opponent on purpose,' Shang thought.
Yes, Shang's Saber State had an insane offensive power, but it was released in the number of attacks he released, not the attacks' individual power.
One turret from Earth could kill thousands of people in one continuous barrage, but it couldn't punch through a tank with the same ammunition. The tank could just drive forward and drive over the turret.
Did that mean that the turret didn't have a lot of destructive potential? Of course not! After all, it had killed thousands of humans already.
It simply lacked the necessary power to penetrate the tank's armor.
Shang's Saber State was essentially such a turret.
Shang considered changing his Saber into a Great Sword. He would need to evade for a couple of seconds to let Sword absorb the ore, though.
'Actually, this tortoise is just perfect for testing my other attack.'
In the end, Shang decided to leave his Sword in its Saber State.
The jester slowly lifted its mechanical arm and hit the bell with its hammer.
DING!
Shang immediately launched several Shooting Stars and Hidden Suns.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
All of them hit the tortoise's head, but it only heated up.
However, heat could also kill a beast, and Shang could see that the tortoise was already in a bit of pain.
SHING! SHING! SHING!
At that moment, over thirty metallic spears appeared around the tortoise.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The metallic spears intercepted Shang's attacks and made them detonate early as its head cooled down again.
Shang continued unleashing his attacks, and he even started to use Ice Blast to keep his body at a good temperature while running around the area.
After around ten seconds, Shang had already unleashed over a hundred attacks, and he didn't need to stop anytime soon. He could continue this barrage until tomorrow.
After these ten seconds, some of his attacks began to connect with the tortoise's head, but it wasn't because of Shang's overwhelming offense.
The tortoise simply let some of them through so that it didn't waste too much Mana.
Just like Shang, the tortoise could probably continue keeping up its defense indefinitely. Its entire power was based on long and drawn-out battles.
'Sure enough, Shooting Star and Hidden Sun won't get me far against this tortoise,' Shang thought.
BANG!
Suddenly, Shang changed his trajectory and kept using Ice Blasts to advance toward the tortoise. During the advance, he still kept shooting attacks at the tortoise. His attacks might not have the power to injure the tortoise, but they stopped it from using its spears to target Shang.
As Shang approached the tortoise, he had a thought.
'Is this how Mages fight each other?' he thought. 'Is this the kind of battle the powerful Mages have with each other?'
Shang imagined several hours of only this happening until one of the opponents made a mistake.
Sure, a couple of seconds and maybe even minutes were interesting, but several hours?
The two opponents were probably the only two that wouldn't get bored by such a fight.
Shang could understand why the God was bored.
"Right?" the jester suddenly shouted from his wheel. "It's boring!"
Shang didn't answer.
After a while, Shang reached the tortoise's gigantic leg. By now, the spears no longer appeared above the tortoise but beside its body. It could summon the spears wherever it wanted.
Shang just kept unleashing his assault.
But then, his attacks suddenly changed.
Shang's Saber touched the ground and swung forward like he was releasing another Shooting Star, but this time, he wasn't using Shooting Star.
A fiery red line appeared on the ground, and it traveled forward until it was below the tortoise.
CRRRRRRRRR!
As soon as the line arrived below the middle of the tortoise's gigantic body, a gigantic pillar of flame shot upwards.
It was like a gigantic welding torch had appeared below the tortoise.
The tortoise was used to using its spears to stop the attacks, but this time, the attack was not explosive, which meant that its spears didn't work. The violent flames simply went around the spears.
When the tortoise saw that, it changed its tactics.
All the spears pointed towards Shang, and it fired.
BANG!
Shang kept using his Ice Blasts to move around at incredible speeds. His speed was far faster than the tortoise, and it was even a bit faster than its spears.
He had to be careful not to get hit by the spears, but that wouldn't be a problem in the short run. Sure, if he did that for multiple hours, he might slip up, but not in just a couple of seconds.
While bursting around the tortoise, Shang kept releasing more and more pillars, and the violent flame below the tortoise never stopped burning.
Just two seconds later, the tortoise's belly started to turn red with flames, and Shang could tell that the tortoise was in quite a lot of pain.
At that moment, the tortoise's attacks stopped, and the next moment, its belly began to grow.
It was like the tortoise's belly was trying to grow until it reached the ground.
CLINK!
But then, the metal of its belly suddenly fell off and hit the ground.
Its belly wasn't growing. It had simply created another wall of armor beneath its outer wall and dropped the old one.
The new layer was still a bit hot but not nearly hot enough to injure the tortoise.
Additionally, the new layer of metal on the ground severely weakened Shang's flames.
It seemed like Inferno didn't work.
Yes, Inferno was the name of this attack.
Shang had specifically created it to deal with enemies with a lot of defensive powers while he was using his Saber.
It was meant to burn the opponent alive by adding more and more heat to their bodies.
Sadly, as a very powerful beast completely focused on defense, this didn't work.
The tortoise had used quite a smart way to deal with Inferno.
'Well, seems like Inferno doesn't really work,' Shang thought.
The only thing he was feeling right now was a bit of disappointment and annoyance.
'I don't really want to dodge its attacks while Sword absorbs some ore. I'll just end it now.'
Shang changed direction and charged away from the tortoise again while switching back to Shooting Star and Hidden Sun.
The tortoise also changed back to its spears to intercept Shang's attacks.
After Shang swung his Saber upwards, he didn't release another Shooting Star.
Instead, he pulled his Saber even further back.
His left leg rose to compensate for Shang bending backward by so much.
And then, he slashed forward with all his power…
And threw his Saber at the tortoise's head!
The Saber flew with even more speed than Shooting Star.
WHOOOM!
At that moment, black fire appeared around the Saber, and it transformed into a shining black bullet.
And it hit the tortoise's head.
CRACK!
It immediately broke past the armor!
CRACK!
And shot out of the other side of the tortoise's head.
The tortoise's assault stopped, and a muffled moan thundered throughout the surroundings. If Shang had to describe it, he would say it sounded like a crying mountain.
A moment later, black fire came out of the holes in the tortoise's head.
At the same time, Shang caught Sword. At this level, Sword could fly with a lot of speed, and it had already returned to Shang.
However, now, Sword was in its Long Sword State.
BOOOOOM!
And then, the tortoise collapsed.
It was dead.
This was Shang's last new attack for his Saber State, and he used it as a hidden trump card that either killed his opponent or severely injured them.
If Shang were forced to use this attack, it would mean that his opponent could deal with his barrage of attacks, and they would have already gotten used to Shang's rhythm.
However, the wind-up of this attack was nearly identical to how Shang released a Shooting Star, and the increased speed would also take the opponent by surprise.
And if the opponent was still alive after that, Shang would surprise them by transitioning into his Long Sword State.
It was an incredibly deadly attack hidden amongst a flurry of normal attacks.
Shang called this attack Star Shatter.
Chapter 452 – Close Combat
The corpse vanished, and the applause returned.
The wheel began to spin.
"Level seven: Weak Mid True Path Stage beast."
At that moment, Shang took out some ore and allowed Sword to return to its Saber State while he waited for his opponent.
His Long Sword State was not very good against beasts but devastating to Mages. His Long Sword State wouldn't be very useful in the beast category.
Sword returned to its Saber State just when the new picture appeared, but Shang didn't even look at it.
SHING!
When Shang saw his next opponent, he raised an eyebrow.
'A hippo? That's a new one.'
It was a massive hippo, nearly 200 meters long and 50 meters high.
'Aren't hippos usually pretty powerful?'
But as he looked closer at the hippo with his Spirit Sense, he realized why.
Shang felt a lot of Water Mana come from it.
Shang had gained the ability to feel all kinds of Mana after he reached the True Path Stage, which was how he was able to tell that the hippo had a Water Affinity.
Water wasn't very good in one-on-one fights.
DING!
The bell rang, and Shang unleashed more Shooting Stars and Hidden Suns.
The hippo was dead within five attacks.
It didn't even take a second.
"Level eight: Average Mid True Path Stage beast."
Shang just waited.
SHING!
Eventually, a huge brown pangolin appeared in front of Shang.
'Why do I only get beasts with a lot of defense this time?' he thought.
DING!
The bell rang, and the pangolin immediately had to deal with a barrage of attacks coming at it.
It turned into a ball and summoned boulders, which it threw at the attacks while rolling around the area.
A couple of Shang's attacks hit, but its defense was powerful enough to shrug those couple of attacks off. It was similar to the tortoise from before when it came to its defense.
However, it was an average beast, not a powerful one.
Shang changed tactics and burst after it while releasing more attacks.
As Shang ran beside its body, he changed his attacks to Inferno.
One hot pillar of fire after the other appeared around the pangolin's rolling body.
The pangolin focused on evading the pillars while assaulting Shang with stones. Its offensive powers were about as powerful as the tortoise's as well.
However, avoiding the flames proved impossible. Shang was very good at aiming Inferno.
Sure, the rolling motion did a lot to distribute the heat over the entire body, but that only meant that Shang needed to spend some extra seconds.
After around 15 seconds, the pangolin started to spasm and returned to its normal form.
Its entire body was burning violently, and it even started melting in some places.
It was dying, and three seconds later, it was over.
Sure enough, the pangolin might have the same offensive and defensive powers as the tortoise, but that was because it was an entire level stronger than it. Additionally, it didn't have the ingenious method that the tortoise had used to defend itself from Inferno.
The corpse vanished, and the cheering returned.
"Level nine: Powerful Mid True Path Stage beast."
This time, Shang looked over at the wheel.
The next fight definitely wouldn't be easy, but it also wouldn't be hard.
When the wheel stopped, Shang could see a smiling spider sitting on a throne of ice.
SHING!
The beast that actually appeared surprised Shang by a bit.
It was small.
Shang had been fighting beasts that were hundreds of meters long, but this spider was barely five meters wide.
Quite small for a True Path Stage beast.
However, that wasn't completely unusual.
Most of the smaller True Path Stage beasts were this small to take advantage of their speed and flexibility. After all, hitting a smaller target was harder than hitting a big one.
'Ice Affinity, a lot of speed, obviously a lot of offensive power, and probably also quite good defense,' Shang thought.
This powerful beast was good at everything.
The spider had very long and thin legs with a comparatively smaller abdomen.
The jester lifted his hammer and hit the bell.
DING!
Shang already began releasing his attacks, and the spider looked over.
Shang could feel that it wasn't too worried.
SHING!
With no sound, the spider shot forward, directly at the attacks.
Two of its legs turned icy blue and attacked Shang's attacks.
DING! DING! DING!
Surprisingly, Shang's attacks didn't explode, and the spider even managed to divert them.
It kind of reminded Shang of himself when he was charging at an enemy Mage.
It seemed like Shang's offense was useless against the agile spider.
However, when Shang saw how it dealt with his attacks, he only smirked a bit.
As if he hadn't considered such an opponent while creating his battle style.
After releasing another Shooting Star, Shang's Saber went to the side and released a horizontal slash.
The Hidden Sun he released was now angled completely differently.
BOOOOOM!
Due to the new angle, the Hidden Sun connected with Shang's opponent, but the spider's body only heated up by a bit.
Sure enough, it also had a lot of defense.
After swinging his Saber to his left, Shang slightly changed the angle at which he was holding his Saber and swung to his right again.
However, what the spider didn't see was how Shang's Saber slightly paused at a certain spot before continuing.
Another Hidden Sun shot at the spider, and it used one of its legs to deflect.
Whoosh!
However, its leg missed!
The crescent-shaped Hidden Sun had suddenly collapsed into itself!
It folded at a certain place, and the two parts of the crescent turned into one line.
One could easily imagine this picture by taking a thread of wool and folding it. It would still be in the shape of a line, but the line would point forward instead of from side to side.
The Hidden Sun had transformed into a Shooting Star mid-flight!
Yes, Shang could do that, but it would slow his offense by a bit.
But a bit of variation was deadly against opponents that dealt with his attacks by anticipating their trajectory.
From this moment onward, Shang kept releasing Hidden Suns that collapsed into Shooting Stars at different places, making it nearly impossible to foresee where the attack came from.
The spider was slowly accumulating damage, but it would still take a while to kill it.
And just a second later, it arrived in front of Shang.
Obviously, it was a beast that loved fighting in close quarters, which was also why it hadn't released a single ranged attack.
'I guess this is how a Mage feels while fighting me,' Shang thought as he looked at the spider.
Four of the spider's legs turned blue, and it lifted its body to stab Shang with them.
BANG! BANG!
Shang very quickly released two Ice Blasts to change his trajectory, evading two of the legs.
Then, his body spun until his feet pointed to his right, evading the third leg.
The last leg pointed right at Shang.
Then, he swung his Saber.
CRACK!
Shang parried the leg, cracking its icy armor.
BANG!
As soon as the Saber cracked the armor, it released an explosion, breaking the leg off the spider's body.
Then, Shang simply blasted away with another Ice Blast.
'But I'm not a Mage.'
One couldn't fault someone fighting Shang for thinking that he was bad at close combat after he released such an intense barrage of ranged attacks.
However, Shang was a warrior.
Warriors thrived in close combat.
The spider also jumped back when it realized that it had lost one of its legs.
BOOOOM!
Suddenly, the ground below it exploded with fire.
Shang had used Inferno.
The spider felt the heat building up and jumped to the side.
BANG!
That was when Shang arrived in front of it with a burning Saber.
CRACK! BANG!
Another leg was destroyed.
At that moment, a terrifying amount of blue and spiky silk shot out of the spider's mouth.
This was a powerful beast, and it obviously had trump cards.
BANG! BANG!
Shang retreated with two Ice Blasts and released a couple of Hidden Suns at the net, destroying it before it reached him.
Then, Shang went back to his basic attacking pattern and alternatingly used Shooting Star and Hidden Sun.
With two fewer legs, the spider couldn't even muster a proper defense, and it slowly died over the next three seconds.
This was the first opponent of the trial that forced Shang into fighting at close range.
The ninth opponent was the first one that managed to reach Shang.
This, more than anything, showed how far Shang's Battle-Strength had progressed.
Chapter 453 – Distortion
The wheel slowly returned.
"Level ten: Weak Late True Path Stage beast."
The wheel spun, and Shang looked over.
This would be the last fight where he could take it easy.
After that, he would need to get serious.
Some seconds later, the wheel stopped, and an image appeared.
It was a green ant with wings soaring through the sky. It also had cartoony eyes and a smile.
SHING!
Shang's opponent appeared, and he looked over.
It was just a green ant, which was about 50-meters-long, not very big for a True Path Stage beast.
'Understandable. Ants are weak on their own but powerful in a group. Funny that I get to fight another one. Didn't I fight an ant for the tenth level last time as well, or was that in the seventh? Not sure.'
The jester slowly lifted his hammer and struck the bell.
DING!
Shang immediately began to unleash his Shooting Stars and Hidden Suns, but sure enough, the opponent's defense was just too powerful.
The spider from before had quite a good defense, but it hadn't been ridiculous.
However, the ant mostly focused on defense and was a level higher. Of course, the trade-off was that it was probably very slow, straightforward, and weak.
As soon as Shang saw that Shooting Star and Hidden Sun didn't work, he changed his approach.
He charged towards it.
BANG!
At that moment, a spear made of wind shot at Shang from the ant's mouth, and Shang's eyes widened.
'Fast!'
Shang barely managed to evade.
This beast was three levels above him, and the difference in speed was quite big. If Shang weren't so good at dodging Spells, he would have been hit just now.
Shang quickly readied himself to evade again, but he realized that the ant was still preparing its next attack.
Sure enough, its offensive capabilities were not that great.
This wind spear was probably the only offensive attack it knew.
However, if one imagined an entire colony of ants using that attack…
That sure would be terrifying.
'The Pest Cats are already a big problem in the Five Kingdoms. What kind of menace would a hive filled with these ants be?'
The ant mindlessly ran towards Shang as it released its next spear. Even True Path Stage ants weren't very smart.
After evading the first attack, Shang had it easier to avoid the second.
The ant released two more attacks, and Shang finally arrived close to it.
BANG!
A fiery pillar came out of the ground below the ant.
Shang would need to use Inferno to kill the ant.
The ant seemingly ignored the fiery pillar and homed in on Shang with its attacks while charging toward him.
It was like it wasn't even alive.
Shang released one Inferno after the other, but it only caused a bit of damage over the next couple of seconds.
However, with the ant attacking like a primitive machine, it wasn't really a problem for Shang to continue attacking.
It was exceptionally easy to hit Inferno on a target that moved in obvious ways.
Sadly, it still took Shang far too long.
In fact, he needed to bombard the ant with Inferno for nearly 30 seconds, which was an insane amount of time for two combatants fighting at the True Path Stage.
Eventually, the ant fell over and stopped moving after unleashing one last spear.
Shang made sure that the ant was dead by using a couple more Infernos.
Just two seconds later, Shang heard the cheering return, and he stopped.
He took a deep breath and closed his right eye. 'This was annoying. Obviously, my Saber State doesn't cut it when it comes to opponents with such a strong defense.'
'Well, time to change weapons.'
As the wheel slowly appeared again, Shang summoned a sizable chunk of ore and stabbed Sword into it.
"Level eleven: Average Late True Path Stage beast."
As the wheel began to spin and Sword absorbed some more, Shang remembered something.
'Oh, right! I didn't fight anything for level ten the last time. The Ice King gave me two points, and I stopped after that. It should have been at the seventh level then.'
'I think I didn't even attempt level eleven back then since it was basically pointless. Sword wasn't powerful enough back then, and I didn't have that much ore to spare.'
'But this time, things are different.'
Shang looked at the wheel, and the image of his next opponent appeared.
It was a blue hedgehog wearing running shoes and giving a thumbs-up.
Just like all the other images, this one didn't seem familiar to Shang.
SHING!
Shang's opponent appeared.
Sure enough, it was an over 200-meter-long blue hedgehog, and Shang could feel a ton of Ice Mana circulating inside its needles and feet.
'An ice hedgehog? I mean, icicles are spiky, and a hedgehog is spiky.'
By now, Sword had finished absorbing the ore, and it returned to its Colossal Sword State.
Shang slowly lifted his gigantic sword and held it in front of him.
Sword was at the Late True Path Stage, and its weight was not negligible for Shang. His speed would suffer quite a bit with such a heavy sword.
The jester slowly lifted his hammer and hit the bell.
DING!
Shang's body expanded a bit as his muscles seemed to be on the verge of bursting.
At the same time, the hedgehog noticed its opponent. In response to seeing its next meal, it stood up on its two hind legs, making Shang lift an eyebrow.
SHING!
Then, ten insanely long claws made of ice shot out of the hedgehog, nearly reaching the ground.
'With those claws, that thing looks more like a sloth now.'
'But I get it. I can't attack it from the back or sides due to the needles, and if I attack it from the front, I have to get through the ice claws. Definitely stronger than a weak beast.'
'However, it still doesn't count as a powerful one.'
BANG!
The next moment, light exploded out of Shang's body, making him resemble the sun during noon.
The light was bright, blinding, and completely hid Shang's body behind it.
The hedgehog squinted its eyes, but it wasn't really relying on its eyes anyway. Just like everyone at the True Path Stage, it relied on its Spirit Sense, and it could feel Shang.
BANG!
Then, Shang shot forward, leaving a bright streak of light behind.
Even though Shang was completely hidden by the light, the hedgehog could still see him with its Spirit Sense.
And then, it roared.
CRK! CRK! CRK!
In an instant, the surrounding kilometer was covered by ice, and Shang had to be careful not to slip accidentally.
Some icy blue Ice Mana appeared on the hedgehog's hindlegs, and it also shot forward.
When Shang saw the hedgehog slide forwards without even really using its legs, he was quite impressed.
It was really fast for such a huge beast.
Shang charged toward the hedgehog, and the hedgehog charged toward him.
Right before the two of them reached each other, the light around Shang seemed to move.
The blinding light slowly pulled together, and it nearly stopped shining completely.
However, when the hedgehog saw what had just happened, it became confused.
The hedgehog now saw several Shangs!
Well, not exactly. It saw many illusory images of Shang.
It was like everything around Shang had become distorted, making him appear in several places at once.
Additionally, the hedgehog couldn't see where the real Shang was, even with its Spirit Sense!
This was the first new technique of Shang's Colossal Sword State.
He called it Distortion.
Chapter 454 – Last Glimmer of Light
The hedgehog didn't know what to attack. Its claws reached the ground, but they weren't long enough that it could sweep them over the entire area without lowering its body, which was something it didn't like to do. Lowering its body would result in its behind rising, giving the opponent an opening. As it stood right now, the opponent would only find needles at the hedgehog's back.
In the end, the hedgehog decided to use one of its two sets of claws to strike Shang.
It struck towards the middle of all the Shangs. After all, it would hit most of them by striking there.
CRRRRK!
The claws slightly dug into the ground and moved to the side, dispersing many of Shang's copies.
However, it didn't hit anything solid.
It had missed.
At that moment, Distortion ended, and the real Shang was revealed.
He was at the very front.
Shang jumped and charged toward the hedgehog's head.
At that moment, the hedgehog swung its second set of claws right at Shang.
The claws reached Shang, and they were about to hit.
At that moment, Shang's body atrophied quite a bit, symbolizing that he had used a considerable portion of his life energy just now.
He lifted his Colossal Sword.
WHOOOOOM!
Just before the icy claws hit Shang, a bright burst of light came out of Shang's body.
At that moment, the hedgehog became blind. Even its Spirit Sense had been blinded somehow!
It was like this bright light had gotten rid of the surrounding area!
At the same time, the hedgehog felt its claws hit something big and soft.
It was almost like it had hit a huge hand.
BANG!
Then, its claws were thrown to the side.
The soft thing the hedgehog's claws had just hit had become hard and rubbery, and it bounced back with a lot of power.
It was almost like the gigantic hand had pushed its claws away!
This was another one of Shang's new techniques in his Colossal Sword State.
It created a disorienting light and pushed an attack to the side just by using the powers of light.
However, even with Shang's powerful body that was adapted to his techniques, it still cost him a lot of life energy.
In fact, it consumed over fifty percent, which would need to be replenished by fifty percent of Shang's Mana.
But it was worth it.
The attack was powerful enough to throw such a powerful attack to the side, which was not an easy feat.
Shang called it Brilliance.
The hedgehog's equilibrium had been thrown off, and its mind became disoriented.
For a beast, such a state was very difficult to recover from in less than a second.
Unleashing this attack only had defensive and preparatory purposes, and it cost a lot of Shang's resources.
However, he was willing to make the sacrifice. After all, this attack was not meant to be used on its own.
It was used to prepare Shang's next attack.
Shang arrived at the hedgehog's head, his Colossal Sword still lifted above him.
WHOOM!
At that moment, the bright light in the surroundings created by Brilliance was sucked into Sword, and the world returned to normal.
The hedgehog was still a bit disoriented, but it would recover very soon.
At that moment, Shang's arms bulged.
His Sword had gotten several times heavier!
When Shang had theorized about the connection of his four Elements to the concept of Entropy, he realized that light symbolized an increase in energy while darkness represented a decrease.
And after years of experimenting, Shang finally managed to make use of that concept!
He could now use his Light Affinity to increase the weight of his Sword even more, even if only for just a moment.
The substantial increase in weight was also the reason why Shang always slashed upward while using Brilliance. He had to have his Colossal Sword above him if he wanted to make full use of its new weight and power.
As Shang slashed forward, something else happened as well.
WHOOOOM!
Black fire burst out of Sword!
The Colossal Sword had the most weight, even in its base form, and with the added weight of the light, it became even more ridiculous.
Sword's Entropy also released power based on the mass of matter and energy it was burning.
Lastly, the difference in mass between Sword's Colossal Sword State and Great Sword State was by far the biggest.
Yes, Shang's Colossal Sword State was fully focused on defense.
It hid his body.
It blocked attacks.
It disoriented its opponents.
However, Shang had created his entire Colossal Sword State around this very moment.
The goal of the Colossal Sword State was to get close to the opponent and open them up for a devastating attack.
And this was Shang's most devastating attack.
Yes, this attack was the strongest attack Shang could release in all of his States.
The sheer power of everything was just ridiculous.
Shang's Colossal Sword struck...
And it hit the hedgehog's head.
BOOOOOOOOOM!
The hedgehog's head exploded!
Its flesh, bones, and brain were scattered across the area hundreds of meters behind it!
It was like a cannonball had hit a human's head!
Shang's most powerful attack.
If this one failed to do any serious damage to an opponent while they didn't evade, Shang might as well give up.
If this attack didn't manage to break through the opponent's defense, nothing else could.
Shang and the corpse fell to the ground.
Obviously, the hedgehog was dead.
This was Shang's Colossal Sword State.
He would start with Distortion to get close.
While coming closer, Shang had two other techniques he could also use, but they hadn't been relevant against the hedgehog since it hadn't launched any ranged attacks.
Then, Shang would shine like the sun in a brilliant explosion of light...
And everything would culminate in the last attack.
The light representing the life-giving sun would vanish, giving way to the icy assault of the Great Sword State.
The warm and bright day would vanish, and the cold and deadly night would arrive.
After the last brilliant ray of light...
Dusk would arrive.
And Dusk was the name Shang had given to it.
Chapter 455 – Twelfth Level
Shang landed beside the corpse and quickly put his hand to it before it vanished.
The corpse barely shriveled up, but Shang managed to refill his entire Mana and life energy beyond its normal maximum.
Then, the cheering returned, and the corpse started to vanish.
Shang quickly took out more ore and stabbed Sword into it, returning it to its Colossal Sword State.
The Colossal Sword State was simply the best State when it came to killing beasts and closing in on opponents. It was a perfect starter for any kind of fight.
"Level twelve: Powerful Late True Path Stage beast."
Shang took a deep breath as the wheel returned.
'The next fight is not going to be easy. No matter what I will fight, I doubt that I will be able to end it by only closing in and using Dusk. That might work against normal beasts, but powerful ones have terrifying instincts and hidden weapons.'
'Additionally, the speed gap is only going to get bigger, and I might even need to use more power with Brilliance to actually create an opening.'
Shang glanced at the wheel. 'I will probably have to use more than one State during this fight.'
'Luckily, my Great Sword State is the ultimate counter to beasts.'
All in all, every State Shang had created was good for something.
The Colossal Sword State was great for starting the fight against any kind of opponent.
The Great Sword State was great for killing beasts.
The Saber State was a good allrounder, useful for basically everything.
The Long Sword State was great for killing Mages.
The best part was that Shang could transition into any kind of State from his Colossal Sword State. If necessary, he could burn more to immediately get to the Long Sword State, for example.
The Colossal Sword State would always be his starter, but after that, he could choose which State he wanted to use.
The only drawback was that Shang couldn't go back to higher States during the fight, but that wasn't really an issue.
The Great Sword State wasn't very useful for fast and flexible opponents anyway. Might as well use more of Sword's mass to strengthen the attack and immediately go to the Saber State. Nimble opponents wouldn't have it easy evading the barrage of Shooting Stars and Hidden Suns.
But if the opponent wasn't as fast, Shang could directly enter the Great Sword State and unleash devastating attacks.
Sword finished absorbing the ore just when the wheel stopped, and Shang looked over.
The image of his opponent grew, and he finally saw what kind of opponent he would be fighting.
It was a cartoony lightning bolt with a devious smirk.
Shang raised an eyebrow.
He wasn't quite sure what this image represented.
SHING!
Then, Shang's opponent appeared, but this time, it didn't appear a kilometer away from Shang.
No, this time, the God apparently had something else on his mind.
The opponent appeared in the sky, about three kilometers away from Shang.
It was a Serpent.
It had white scales, four small feet with sharp claws, and an imposing head. The scales on its head were sharp, jagged, and made the Serpent look similar to a viper.
And the beast was absolutely massive.
Shang guessed that it was probably over 500 meters long and nearly 30 meters wide.
It looked like a snake that could swallow the world.
Right now, it was just hovering in the air with closed eyes, curled into a ball.
'Sure enough, this won't be easy.'
Serpents were always problematic for two reasons.
First of all, a lot of them could inherently fly, making it very difficult for anyone to reach them.
The second problem was that they were essentially the Mages of the beast world. They could release terrifying Spells while still having very powerful bodies.
However, even a powerful Serpent was weaker than an average Mage of its level.
There were two reasons for that.
First, even though the Serpents had terrifying Spells, their Spells were not as varied as the Mages' Spells. They also didn't have access to a Focus.
Second, and most important of all, Serpents didn't have access to Element-Neutral Spells.
That meant no Mana Shield and no Mana Step.
Due to these two reasons, even an average Mage could kill a powerful Serpent on their level. The fight wouldn't be completely effortless, but it also wouldn't pose a real danger to the Mage.
The jester slowly lifted his hammer and struck the bell.
DING!
Shang prepared himself, and the Serpent opened its eyes.
BANG!
Shang shot forward as he activated Distortion. He was also using Fire and Ice Blasts to fly upward.
With his new body, Shang could stay in the air for a very long time with his Blasts. He couldn't stay there indefinitely, but he could stay long enough that it wouldn't be a big concern during a fight.
When the Serpent saw Shang, it extended its body and released a world-shattering hiss.
The air around Shang seemed to vibrate by the sheer power of the hiss.
BANG! BANG!
Several bolts of lightning appeared in the air and shot to a place behind the Serpent.
There were hundreds!
The air around the Serpent became filled with electricity and friction as a humongous ball of lightning formed behind it.
Shang could feel that the Lightning Mana inside the Serpent had dropped drastically.
It had probably wasted over 70% of its reserves for that move!
Shang decided to slow his approach.
After all, if the Serpent decided to throw this humongous ball at him, he would die.
That was simply too much power.
However, instead of immediately launching an attack, the Serpent began to coil around the ball.
At that moment, Shang looked at a gigantic Serpent that calmly circled a humongous ball of lightning like it were its egg.
Random lightning bolts shot out of the ball.
Eventually, the Serpent faced Shang again.
Then, a brief flash of lightning appeared in its eyes.
And Shang immediately had to dodge!
Chapter 456 – Refraction
Shang's instincts shouted at him to dodge to the side, and he did just that.
BANG!
Just an instant later, a terrifyingly fast bolt of lightning shot past the place where Shang had just been, even touching his body.
Shang's armor became seared on the side, but it was powerful enough to somewhat resist the terrifying lightning bolt.
However, if Shang had been hit by that, the Magic Circles on his armor would have been activated, which meant that he would have received a life-threatening injury.
These lightning bolts were no joke.
Shang's right eye quickly focused on the Serpent, and he prepared himself.
He now knew what he had to look out for.
BANG!
Shang continued charging toward the gigantic Serpent in the sky.
And then, a second lightning bolt shot at Shang.
At that moment, Shang didn't evade.
He had just extended his Colossal Sword and quickly angled it so that its tip pointed right at the lightning bolt.
Then, the tip of his sword began to shine with bright light.
The lightning bolt hit the tip of the sword.
DING!
As soon as it hit, the lightning bolt didn't explode.
Rather, it got dispersed like a tidal wave hitting a boulder!
The lightning blasted past Shang with its incredible power, but none of the bolts hit him.
This was one of Shang's new techniques for the Colossal Sword State that was designed to counter Mages.
Like light hitting a crystal, the enemy's attack would be split and scattered over the surroundings.
Shang called it Refraction.
Of course, in order for the attack to work, Shang had to sacrifice some of his life energy and hit the attack at the perfect spot. If he were just slightly off, the majority of the attack's power would still hit him.
Luckily, he had had enough practice with Jerald to get the timing down.
Otherwise, things would have been troublesome since the lightning bolts were so insanely fast.
Shang closed in on the Serpent, now only a couple hundred meters away from it.
When the Serpent saw how Shang had dealt with its attack, more lightning gathered in its eyes.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Shang's right eye widened in horror.
Three lightning bolts had just been shot at him!
This attacking speed was something he would have expected of an average Late High Mage with a Focus, not a Serpent!
Even more, Shang had been prepared to use Refraction again, which was why he hadn't been prepared to dodge.
The attacks would hit!
DING! BANG! BANG!
Shang managed to get rid of one of the lightning bolts, but the other two perfectly hit him in the chest.
At that moment, the Magic Circles on his armor activated, and they blocked the two attacks.
But just a second later, the Magic Circles collapsed.
This meant that the armor had used up all its stored Mana.
Due to the power and frequency of the lightning bolts, their power was only at the upper level of a Mid High Mage's Spell, and that was exactly what the armor was designed to block.
However, all its Mana had been used up.
Yet, if Shang hadn't had the armor, he would be dead right now!
Ironically, this time, Shang would have nearly become a victim of his own fighting philosophy.
Kill a powerful enemy so quickly that they couldn't even unleash their power, making it irrelevant.
The Serpent had just tried to do that, but Shang's armor had saved him.
Shang narrowed his right eye.
'I didn't expect such a rapid barrage of attacks. It seems like Refraction won't be enough.'
Due to the power of the lightning bolts, Shang had been thrown back quite a bit, making the distance between the combatants larger.
BANG! BANG!
Shang quickly unleashed two Blasts and shot at the Serpent again.
BANG!
The Serpent unleashed another two lightning bolts…
But they missed!
Just before the lightning bolts had been fired, the light in Shang's surroundings warped again. He had already used Distortion earlier, but he hadn't spread it over a great distance since he wanted to preserve his life energy.
He wasn't sure if it had been a coincidence or not, but the Serpent had still hit him through Distortion back then.
But this time, Shang used far more life energy for Distortion and spread it over a larger area.
And, sure enough, the Serpent missed its attacks.
By now, the surrounding ten meters were filled with blurry images of Shang, and the Serpent couldn't tell which one was the real one.
Not even with its Spirit Sense.
Then, more lightning appeared in the Serpent's eyes.
WHOOOOM!
Suddenly, a gigantic wave of lightning came out of the lightning ball and swallowed all of Shang's images.
SSSSSSS!
At one spot in Shang's area of Distortion, the wave of lightning dispersed across the surroundings.
However, Shang hadn't been able to use Refraction due to the sheer size of the attack.
Instead, he had simply put his Sword in front of him and hid behind it. The Colossal Sword was big enough to completely hide his body.
Shang remained uninjured, but he was pushed back again by the power.
Shang's Spirit Sense concentrated on the Serpent with frustration.
'My Saber State won't be able to unleash enough offensive power to injure the Serpent, which means I have to get close somehow.'
'Yet, no matter what I do, I get pushed back.'
'If I use Distortion, it just uses this huge wave. Sure, I won't get injured, but I will be thrown back.'
'If I don't use Distortion, I will be killed by the lightning bolts. I can deal with one of them. Maybe I can even deal with two, but I can't possibly deal with three.'
Shang tried to find a way to get closer.
Mana Step was no option since he was currently in the sky.
His Colossal Sword State was already the strongest State when it came to closing distance. The other States wouldn't help.
At that moment, the gigantic ball of lightning began to shrink by quite a bit.
After unleashing so many attacks, it had already shrunken by quite a bit.
Shang had already realized that it was the ball that released the lightning bolts, and there was only a limited amount of Mana inside it.
But now, it suddenly shrank even more.
Then, Shang saw a blindingly bright light.
BOOOOOM!
With a huge explosion, a brightly-white shining beam of concentrated lightning shot right at him.
His Distortion had just been broken, and the Serpent could finally see the real Shang.
You can deal with my small lightning bolts?
How about a big one, then?
Refraction wouldn't work on a bolt with such immense power.
The sheer explosive power would be so great that the streaks of dispersed lightning would still hit him.
Additionally, lightning had the terrifying property of traveling across the body to deal more damage.
Refraction was useless right now.
457 Chapter 457
Yet, when Shang saw the insanely powerful lightning beam, he wasn't worried in any way.
'Seems like I won't be able to use Dusk against the Serpent.'
At that moment, Shang's Colossal Sword was already in a blocking position, and that position was just perfect.
He only angled it a bit more.
'But I didn't expect to use Dusk anyway.'
'Luckily, I thought of this possibility.'
WHOOOOM!
At that moment, a terrifying amount of light gathered around the Colossal Sword, and it all went to the same point.
Shang's body atrophied tremendously.
He had just used up basically all of his life energy, and he quickly converted about 80% of his Mana into more life energy, making his body instantly healthy again.
With the overcharged life energy from absorbing the hedgehog, Shang had essentially used 150% of his maximum life energy just now, which was an insane amount.
However, that meant that Shang wouldn't be able to use Brilliance again as long as he didn't want to fight as a nearly lifeless husk for the rest of the battle. That essentially meant that he couldn't use Dusk. Without Brilliance, Dusk could easily be evaded.
Then, the pure beam of lightning hit the Colossal Sword at the exact point where all the light had gathered.
DING!
At that moment, a humongous wave of light exploded out of the Colossal Sword.
For just an instant, the beam of lightning seemed to pause in front of the sword.
And then, Shang pushed forward.
BANG!
The lightning beam shot at the Serpent!
The Serpent hadn't been prepared for such a fast and powerful attack right after it had unleashed its own.
It could barely move part of its body to the side.
BOOOOOM!
The beam of lightning tore through half the width of the Serpent, leaving a humongous burned hole behind!
If the Serpent hadn't moved to the side by a bit, it would have been blasted into two pieces!
And then, the lightning traveled across its body, severely burning it in several places before it finally used up its power.
However, even worse was the fact that the Serpent's body had seized, making it unable to act for a while.
This was Shang's alternative to Dusk.
If an enemy used a truly powerful energy-based attack, Shang could use this technique to severely injure or even kill them.
Of course, depending on the power of the attack, this technique could possibly become even more costly than Brilliance.
With the light-themed names for all the techniques in the Colossal Sword State, the name of this attack came naturally.
Reflection.
That was the name.
Refraction and Reflection were the two attacks Shang had developed to close the distance between him and enemy Mages.
Refraction was cheap to use and could disperse energy-based attacks.
Reflection was very expensive and could reflect energy-based attacks.
Sadly, these two attacks were only useful against Fire, Lightning, Light, Darkness, and some Wind Affinity Spells.
Earth, Water, Ice, and Metal Spells weren't affected by these attacks.
But that also wasn't an issue.
Shang could just parry those attacks and redirect them. After all, they were simply a mass of matter that was thrown at him.
Shang continued charging at the Serpent, who was still unable to act due to its lightning.
But before Shang even reached the Serpent, he had already swung his sword.
WHOOOM!
Black fire gathered around the sword, and he slashed forward.
Then, a wave of black fire shot directly at the injured part of the Serpent's body!
This attack wasn't nearly as strong as Dusk or even Star Shatter, but it would, at least, make use of Sword's Entropy.
At that moment, the Serpent regained a bit of its control.
WHOOOM!
A humongous wave of lightning shot right at the wave of black flames.
In the Serpent's current state, it couldn't rely on its ability to aim. So, it decided to use a huge attack to block Shang's attack.
In just an instant, the wave of black fire cut through the wave of lightning, but it had shrunk by quite a bit.
The Serpent barely managed to move part of its body to the side.
BOOOOM!
And the attack hit!
Sadly, the attack didn't manage to hit the already injured part of the Serpent, but a healthy part just beside it.
A humongous cut appeared on that part, several meters deep!
Blood exploded out of it, but the Serpent was still in fighting condition.
It was injured heavily, but it could still fight and survive.
And, finally, Shang reached it!
He had closed the distance!
At that moment, Shang was no longer carrying his Colossal Sword but his Great Sword.
Then, Shang did something that no one would have expected.
His entire body exploded with a humongous amount of fire!
The explosion of fire was so powerful that even half of the Serpent's body was pushed away, right into the humongous ball of lightning.
Yet, the Serpent was the controller of this ball of lightning, which meant that it didn't receive any injuries, but the fact that such a massive beast was thrown back by an explosion of fire already showed how powerful that explosion was.
Sadly, the power was dispersed, and the scales facing Shang only became slightly seared.
The Serpent didn't get injured.
However, that hadn't been the point.
After the fire vanished, Shang's body was revealed.
It was a deep blue, and he looked almost like an icy statue.
But his right eye shone with a fire of determination.
And then, Shang swung his Great Sword from one side to the other.
WHOOOOOM!
A terrifying amount of Ice Mana was released!
Yet, surprisingly, it didn't interact with the ball of lightning or the Serpent in any way.
It was almost like the Ice Mana was released into the surroundings.
At the same time, Shang's body exploded with blood, and he had to use the remainder of his Mana to fix it.
He had no more Mana, which meant that any injury he would receive now would stay for the remainder of the battle.
But all of this was worth it.
The Ice Mana surrounded the surrounding two kilometers, with Shang and the Serpent being in the middle.
A terrifyingly cold wind picked up, and the Serpent felt its body temperature drop rapidly!
All the light inside the domain of ice vanished, leaving only a cold, dead, and dark wasteland of icy death.
The Serpent had prepared its ball of lightning to unleash attacks faster.
It had transformed its internal storage of Mana into an external one to get rid of one step to conjure an attack.
And now, Shang had done the same.
His body temperature was also dropping rapidly, and this was just what he wanted.
In this land of icy death, he could release all of his accumulated power without needing to worry about where to Blast with his Fire Blast.
Shang had prepared the battlefield, and he had transformed it into an advantageous one for him.
The cold temperatures benefited him and hindered his opponent.
Shang only used this specific technique against beasts since they couldn't use Mana Step.
Mages could just release a couple of Mana Steps and escape the domain, but beasts couldn't.
That meant that the beasts would be stuck in this domain.
This was the technique that prepared Shang for an unending assault in his Great Sword State.
Everything around him would transform into a dark wasteland of icy death.
He called it New Moon.
458 Chapter 458
The Serpent was now in Shang's domain.
As soon as it realized that its body temperature was dropping, the humongous ball of lightning expanded to envelop the Serpent.
It absorbed parts of its own lightning to keep itself warm while also making it more difficult for the opponent to hit it through all the lightning.
Shang quickly saw his opportunity.
A terrifyingly cold wind gathered on his Great Sword.
And then, he slashed forward.
It looked like Shang would miss, but at the last moment, the length of his Sword grew by several times!
A humongous and icy edge formed in front of Shang's Sword!
The icy edge entered the ball of lightning.
WHOOSH!
However, the attack missed!
The ball of lightning had canceled out the Ice Mana inside the icy edge, dispersing it.
But the ball of lightning also shrank.
At that moment, part of the Serpent's body was revealed again.
More Ice Mana gathered on the Great Sword, and Shang slashed forward again.
CRACK!
The icy edge hit the scales and exploded!
However, the strength of the icy edge wasn't its hardness but its unreasonable sharpness!
Even though it shattered immediately, it still left behind a terrifying cut.
And that wasn't even everything!
The splinters of ice exploded in all directions, but nearly half of them exploded right into the cut the icy edge had just made!
The splinters were just as sharp as the icy edge and lodged themselves inside the Serpent's flesh.
But just moments later, they all dispersed into seemingly nothing. Of course, Mana didn't just vanish without using Entropy.
All the splinters transformed into Ice Mana and entered the Serpent's body, freezing it!
A sizable chunk of the Serpent's body was now completely frozen!
This was another one of Shang's new techniques in his Great Sword State.
Its goal was to leave a superficial injury on a target with terrifying defense.
Then, the hit part would cool down significantly and freeze.
Shang called this attack Frostbite.
At that moment, the Serpent realized that it was in a truly life-threatening situation, and it acted.
BOOOOM!
A huge portion of the ball of lightning exploded, bathing the surroundings in a terrifying wave of lightning.
However, an equally terrifying mass of Ice Mana gathered in front of Shang, canceling out the lightning.
This was his domain, and he could use all the Ice Mana in here.
Yet, the Serpent's attack still showed some effect.
The area of New Moon around the two of them shrunk by a lot.
Previously, it had been two kilometers wide.
Now, it was only one kilometer wide.
If Shang hadn't controlled New Moon to slightly expand to let the lightning disperse into the surroundings, it would have been broken completely.
Of course, after the expansion, Shang contracted New Moon again to restore the previous density.
A moment later, Shang could see that the lightning ball had shrunk even more. Even if the Serpent tried its best, it couldn't hide its full body inside of it anymore.
The Serpent's goal had to be to throw the opponent away and to get rid of the icy domain, but it had accomplished none of that.
When it realized that even this attack had been useless, it decided on the next best thing.
It would escape the domain!
The Serpent and the lightning ball moved away from Shang in an effort to escape.
Shang quickly shot after them…
And New Moon followed!
Shang was the core of New Moon, and it would be wherever he was.
At that moment, Shang saw his opportunity.
Shang willed New Moon to use a lot of its power to slow down the Serpent.
A terrifying cold wind picked up in front of the Serpent, and it felt its head beginning to freeze.
On top of that, it was pushed back!
The ball of lightning quickly went in front of the Serpent's head, blocking the cold wind and dispersing it.
However, the ball of lightning was also shrinking.
In that instant, Shang arrived at the frozen part of the Serpent's body.
More Ice Mana had already gathered on his Great Sword, and it had changed its shape once again.
It had become longer again, but this time, there was no emphasis on the edge.
There was only an icy and sharp pillar that ended in a terrifyingly thin and long point.
And then, Shang stabbed forward, right at the frozen part.
CRACK!
The thin point hit the frozen part of the Serpent's body and completely buried itself inside it.
Frostbite used extremely sharp but brittle ice, but this technique did exactly the opposite.
There was not much sharpness to the ice, but it was very tough.
As soon as the needle-like Sword punched through the icy exterior, all the Ice Mana gathered onto its tip.
And then, it exploded.
CRACK!
The frozen part of the Serpent exploded off, and the splinters scattered everywhere!
Blood exploded out of the Serpent's body as nearly half the width of that portion of its body had now also vanished!
The hole was just as big as the one the wave of black fire had left behind!
This was another one of Shang's new techniques.
Frostbite was responsible for breaking the opponent's defense, freezing part of its body, and creating a weak point.
Then, this attack would follow next and completely destroy that part.
Shang called this attack Piercing Cold.
Frostbite and Piercing Cold had been designed to be used in alternating order to deal with beasts that had powerful defensive powers.
The Great Sword State had been designed to deal with the powerful defenses of the beasts.
As the parts of the Serpent's frozen body scattered across the surroundings, they suddenly started to vanish.
At the same time, New Moon grew bigger!
It had converted the frozen parts into Ice Mana!
New Moon made Frostbite more powerful.
Frostbite made Piercing Cold more powerful.
And Piercing Cold made New Moon more powerful.
It was a positive feedback loop.
The only drawback was that Shang couldn't absorb these parts for more life energy with Darkness Absorb.
At that moment, the Serpent grew desperate, and it decided to sacrifice the entire ball of lightning.
BOOOOOOM!
The entire ball contracted for an instant and exploded into the surroundings, consuming everything.
However, Shang had already seen that move coming, and he had prepared himself.
Just when the ball of lightning had contracted, Shang had willed for all of New Moon to gather around him.
A terrifying nova of lightning scattered across the horizon, growing weaker and weaker the further it traveled.
Yet, the power was very dispersed, and there was actually nothing that stopped it.
The Ice Mana had already vanished.
The spot where Shang was standing was surrounded by all the gathered power of New Moon, easily resisting the dispersed power of the lightning.
As the wave of lightning passed, Shang saw the Serpent fleeing.
If he didn't attack now, it would escape and prepare another ball of lightning.
But Shang could also feel that the Serpent was in a panic, and he knew that now was his best shot at dealing a devastating blow.
All the Ice Mana gathered inside the Great Sword in an instant, and it grew to a terrifying size in an instant.
The Sword was now hundreds of meters long!
Yet, it was still somewhat easy for Shang to swing it. The ice he had used to create this edge was brittle, weak, and light.
Shang had already lowered his Great Sword earlier, and now, he was prepared to slash upward.
And he did just that.
It seemed like a normal attack, but nothing could be further from the truth.
All the power of New Moon had been gathered to create this gigantic sword, and all of that was for one purpose.
To deliver destruction.
The Serpent used its Spirit Sense and saw that a weak but humongous edge was slashing toward it.
It knew that it wouldn't be able to evade since the tip of the sword was moving at insane speeds.
At that moment, the Serpent realized that its life was over.
Even though the attack looked weak, its instincts were screaming at it to evade.
Then, the attack hit the middle of the Serpent's body.
The tip of the Sword shattered.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
A black sun appeared on that spot and exploded, consuming the surrounding 50 meters in black fire!
Beneath the ice, Sword had released Entropy and had pushed it into the icy edge.
Sword could control Entropy to some degree, and it could keep its explosive power docile while inside the icy edge.
But as soon as the icy edge broke, all the accumulated and pressurized power of Entropy would explode forward.
Wherever the icy edge broke would be the place where Entropy would also explode.
The black sun raged about 200 meters away from Shang for over two seconds, illuminating the surroundings in a weird, black light.
This was Shang's last new technique in his Great Sword State, and it symbolized a transition to the Saber State.
New Moon vanished.
The cold receded.
And Dawn arrived.
But after a night of terrifying cold, the following day wouldn't be warm and pleasant.
What would follow would be a barrage of cosmic destruction.
There would be Shooting Stars, Hidden Suns, and Inferno.
And it would all culminate in the destruction of the very thing that gave everything light and life.
The Star would Shatter.
And Darkness would arrive.
These were three of the four States of Shang's sword.
The day would begin with bright and illusory light, and it would culminate in Dusk.
The night would arrive with a cold moon and an avalanche of icy death, and it would culminate in Dawn.
The new day would begin with a barrage of cosmic destruction, and it would culminate in the Star Shattering.
And then, only Darkness would remain.
459 Chapter 459
As Dawn vanished, Shang could finally see the Serpent again.
It had been broken into two pieces, and it was falling towards the ground.
Just because someone was very powerful didn't mean that they didn't need their organs.
In fact, starting at the General Stage, the organs inside someone's body had already stopped their old functions and assumed new ones.
They were responsible for moving Mana around and generating life energy.
Without organs, someone's life energy would very quickly deteriorate until they died.
Even getting rid of just one organ already put a major dent in someone's ability to generate life energy.
With most of the Serpent's organs gone, it was already basically dead.
Beasts didn't have the luxury of quickly being able to recover parts of their bodies. They needed a bit of time to recover everything.
As the Serpent fell to the ground, Shang charged forward and put his arm on one of the halves, quickly regaining all his lost Mana and life energy.
A couple of seconds later, the cheering returned, and the corpse vanished.
Shang took a deep breath.
'The fight definitely hadn't been easy, but I won. The start was rough, but as soon as I managed to unleash New Moon, I gained control over the fight.'
'Sure enough, the Great Sword State is best for dealing with beasts.'
As Shang looked at the vanishing corpse, he thought about something he didn't like.
'Any random Late High Mage could have defeated this Serpent. I'm honestly not sure if I can win against an average Late High Mage at this point.'
'Additionally, a very talented Mid High Mage will very likely also win against the Serpent.'
'But my power has already made a great jump compared to the last trial.'
'Last time, level six in the Mage category had already ended my trial, but this time, I'm certain that I can reach level nine. With luck, I might even beat level eleven, but I'm honestly not sure.'
As the wheel returned, Shang fed more ore to Sword.
"Level 13: Weak Peak True Path Stage beast."
'Level 13 in the beast category, huh? Last time, I only barely beat level nine, but I got ten points due to the Ice King's sheer power.'
'This time, I'm already at level 13, and I doubt that I will lose against my next opponent.'
'Level 15 will be a complete impossibility. I'm certain that I can't even beat a single one of the beasts that can appear there.'
'Level 14 will be dependent on luck. If I get an all-around average beast, I will most likely win. If I get one that focuses on defense, I will probably also win. However, if I get one that specializes in speed, I will be helpless.'
Due to Dusk and the Great Sword State, Shang's preferred opponents were now beasts that focused on defense. In the past, these exact opponents had been his bane since he hadn't been powerful enough to even injure them.
Funny how things changed.
As the wheel finished spinning, Shang pulled his Colossal Sword up and readied himself for battle.
He always started in the Colossal Sword State unless the opponent wasn't in the least bit dangerous.
Shang's opponent was chosen, and he looked at the wheel.
The image made him raise an eyebrow.
It was a bowl of seared shrimp.
SHING!
At that moment, Shang's opponent appeared, and he wasn't really surprised.
It was a shrimp.
It was just a shrimp.
Sure, it was about 50-meters-long, but it was still just a normal shrimp.
There was nothing special about it except for its size.
'I guess these kinds of beasts are bottom-feeders in gigantic oceans, which is surprising considering that they are at the Peak True Path Stage.'
The jester lifted his hammer and hit the bell.
DING!
The shrimp's antennae moved around and pointed at Shang. Then, the shrimp turned to him.
BOOOOM!
And it exploded forward with terrifying speed.
Shang had already been prepared, but the shrimp's speed was still far higher than Shang's.
Sadly, Shang knew that the shrimp only counted as a slow beast within its level.
This was a Peak True Path Stage beast.
Its body was four levels above Shang's body, making the difference in speed absolutely ridiculous.
With his Blasts, Shang could move as fast as an average Mid True Path Stage beast, but a Peak True Path Stage beast, even a comparatively slow one, would be fast than Shang by multiple times.
Speed hadn't been a big factor in Shang's fight against the Serpent since it had barely moved, mostly standing its ground.
If Shang hadn't been prepared for such an explosion of speed, he would have been unable to react.
The shrimp reached Shang in what felt like an instant. To the current Shang, the shrimp's speed and a Mage's Mana Step felt equally fast.
Obviously, Mana Step was many times faster, but Shang couldn't think fast enough to feel the difference between the two.
It was like when someone spoke to someone else face-to-face.
One person would see the other one move their mouth and hear their voice at the same time, even though the speed of sound and the speed of light couldn't be compared.
But to the person, both things were so fast that they couldn't even feel the difference.
The same thing was true for Shang now.
As soon as Shang had seen even the slightest bit of movement coming from the shrimp, he had swung his Colossal Sword upwards, not knowing if it would connect or not.
But that didn't actually matter.
One of the shrimp's shears immediately went past Shang's Colossal Sword and went for his body.
WHOOOOM!
Then, the shears stopped, and Shang's body atrophied tremendously.
At the same time, a blinding light exploded out of his body, throwing the shrimp into absolute confusion.
Brilliance!
Shang had used up all of his life energy to stop the attack, including the additional life energy he had absorbed from the Serpent's corpse.
He couldn't be certain how powerful the enemy's attack or defenses would be, which was why he had simply unleashed everything at once to be sure.
As the shrimp's shear bounced to the side, all the light vanished and entered Shang's Colossal Sword, increasing its weight tremendously.
Then, the Colossal Sword swung down.
The shrimp counted as a weak beast, which meant that its battle instincts were terrible.
A smarter beast might have jumped back.
Black fire appeared on Shang's Colossal Sword…
And it connected with the shrimp's head!
Dusk!
p CRAAAAAAAAACK!
The shrimp's head didn't explode. Obviously, its shell increased the shrimp's defenses to the point that it was probably about three times as durable as the hedgehog from earlier.
However, a fully-loaded Dusk still had terrifying power, and it broke past the shell.
The sword entered the shrimp's head, but it was stopped after cutting through half of it.
Even with a fully-powered Dusk, Shang couldn't bisect the enemy's head.
But it was enough.
Black fire exploded out of the cut Sword had left behind. It looked similar to a crack on a highly-pressurized pipe. Just like how the water would violently shoot out of the crack, the black fire shot out of the shrimp's head.
Naturally, the black fire had turned the insides of the shrimp's head into nothing but Mana.
BOOOM!
And the shrimp collapsed.
460 Chapter 460
The cheering returned, and Shang refilled his life energy with the shrimp's corpse.
Then, the wheel returned.
"Wait a second," Shang said.
The wheel stopped descending and just paused.
"Yes?" the jester asked.
"If my armor breaks and becomes useless, will it be repaired?" Shang asked.
"Depends on if you lose or win," the jester answered. "If you win, no, your armor is the price you've paid to win. If you lose, it will be repaired."
Shang nodded. His armor was extremely important. Without it, he would have died to the Serpent, and he was sure that it would also save him in the Mage category.
"Then, I won't fight," he said.
"Smart move," the jester said.
There were three possible ways the next fight could have gone.
First, Shang died, and his armor broke.
Second, Shang won, and his armor broke.
Third, Shang won, and his armor survived.
If the first case happened, Shang would lose out.
If the second case happened, Shang would also lose out. After all, Shang wouldn't be able to rely on his armor during the Mage category since he couldn't just reforge it like his sword.
His armor would have been traded for exactly one point since level 15 would be absolutely impossible for Shang to beat.
However, if Shang had access to his armor, it would very likely pay out with more than one point in the Mage category.
Shang's armor had already paid two points in the beast category by helping him win against the Serpent. His next opponent also wasn't a big problem, but Shang would have never reached that opponent without his armor.
In the Mage category, Shang was most worried about the powerful Mid High Mage. The Mages before that opponent shouldn't be that difficult, but just like the Serpent, the powerful Mid High Mage represented more than one point.
If Shang beat the powerful Mid High Mage, he would definitely beat the weak Late High Mage that followed.
But without access to his armor, Shang wasn't confident in beating the powerful Mid High Mage.
So, as long as the first two options happened, Shang would sacrifice more than he would gain, even if he won.
The only possible way to go forward without a loss was the third option.
But what were the chances of his armor surviving?
Not very high.
Shang would be fighting a beast that was so powerful that the Magic Circles on his armor wouldn't even be able to stop their attack.
If Shang got hit, he would die, and Shang believed that he very likely wouldn't be able to win without being hit.
The speed of his opponent would just be ridiculously fast.
Lastly, Sword was only at the Late True Path Stage. If Shang had to block a physical attack with it, it would very likely break into pieces, killing it.
Because of all these factors, Shang found it to be a bad idea to fight an average Peak True Path Stage beast.
"Let's see what kind of opponent you would have fought," the jester said with a smirk as the wheel spun.
Shang was also interested in what his opponent would have been.
Eventually, the wheel stopped, and the image of his opponent grew bigger.
When he saw the image, Shang sighed.
It was a smirking cheetah running through the air.
"Oh wow, that would've been bad for you," the jester said with a chuckle.
"A very fast beast with a Wind Affinity, huh?" Shang commented.
"Yep," the jester said.
Shang could imagine how that fight would go.
He would prepare himself.
The cheetah would run at him.
The cheetah would move its claws past Shang's sword, and it would cut him into pieces.
On the off-chance that Shang managed to get Brilliance off, he would survive the attack, but he doubted that his follow-up attack would connect.
That opponent symbolized the worst-luck possible.
"And with that, the beast category is over," the jester said as he jumped off the wheel, which quickly vanished.
"13 points."
"Very impressive."
"But you are only at the True Path Stage for now. Reaching such a high Battle-Strength in this level is commendable, but it will become useless if you can't create an equally outstanding Fifth Realm."
"Exceptionalism turns to strong, turns to above-average, turns to average, turns to below-average, turns to trash," the jester said with his smirk.
Shang didn't answer, but he agreed.
Creating such a powerful Path had opened up the way to the very top, but every additional step had to be just as outstanding as the first one.
Only a road paved with exceptionally powerful rocks could hold until it led to the very end.
"How good is my Path right now?" Shang suddenly asked.
"At the moment, you have the potential to reach my level," the jester said with a smirk.
"However," the jester added with a malicious chuckle, "that might not be as special as you think."
"At the moment, there are more than 1,000 High Mages with an equally powerful Path, but that number drops to 200 for Archmages and then again to 30 for Ancestral Mages. Then, it drops to merely four Mage Lords and to only a single Mage King."
The jester's smirk widened. "And there's not a single Mage Emperor that has the potential to reach my level."
"As you can see, being outstanding at your current level is definitely noteworthy, but it doesn't say much."
"There are about 1,000 people on your level that are just as hardworking and powerful as you, but that number becomes zero the further we go up the ladder."
Shang took a deep breath when he heard that there were a thousand people just as powerful as him in the world in terms of Battle-Strength.
That was more than he had expected.
However, it still proved that Shang's current method of training was effective.
Shang already knew that there were billions of True Path Stage beasts in the world.
Just how many humans were in the world?
How many High Mages were there?
Maybe there were also billions of High Mages.
And Shang was in the top 1000.
As long as he kept going…
As long as he kept training without pause…
As long as he kept working hard…
He would break into the top 200.
Then, into the top 30.
And eventually, he would reach the very top.
Shang took another deep breath.
"We can start."