Ch. 521..530

Chapter 521 521 – Monumental Task

As Shang continued thinking about his Path forward, everything seemed to click into place until one whole plan was created.

'There must be a way to further one's Path without needing to branch out into other weapons. Just like the Star Map, there must be a point beyond the Path where it can lead to, and that point represents the Fifth Realm.'

'Depending on the power of the warrior's Path, that point might create an even bigger divide in terms of power since it completely relies on what kind of Path a warrior has chosen to create.'

'It would be the natural progression. It's not as bad as only increasing the power of the warrior's body but also not very outstanding. It's just normal, like all the previous major breakthroughs.'

At that moment, Shang's right eye narrowed. 'However, that isn't enough for me. Just based on the width of my Path, I would need to push all four of my Paths even further. Additionally, my individual Paths are already far wider than the Paths of every other warrior.'

'Sure, my power would increase by a lot, but if I want to reach Godhood one day, there must be more.'

'The normal plan for warriors would be to advance with their bodies until they are at the Peak True Path Stage. Then, they would focus on increasing the power of their minds by a bit to allow them to learn things quicker. Lastly, they would focus on creating their advanced Path.'

'If I were to follow that plan, I would be at the Peak True Path Stage with no further advancement in my Path. After that, I would focus on furthering all four of my Paths at once.'

'In the end, I would have reached the next level of my four Paths and reach the Fifth Realm.'

'But that's not enough!'

Shang looked towards the south. In his mind, he was looking towards the Storm Eagle Zone.

This was the place where he had come up with his Path, and it had appeared like a monumental undertaking back then.

Now, he would undertake another monumental task.

If any other warrior heard of Shang's plan, they would believe him to be insane.

'It requires the furthering of one Path to reach the fifth Realm.'

'But I will make that the prerequisite for my small breakthroughs!'

'I will comprehend the necessary information to reach the Fifth Realm with one of my Paths in the Initial True Path Stage and use that comprehension to reach the Early True Path Stage.'

'After that, I will comprehend another one to reach the Mid True Path Stage.'

'Then, another one to reach the Late True Path Stage.'

'And one last one to reach the Peak True Path Stage.'

Shang's right eye shone with a light of ambition.

'And I will fuse my four Paths into one to reach the Fifth Realm!'

For a while, Shang only looked at the south.

He knew how insane this task would prove to be.

Other warriors would spend decades, if not centuries, to further only one Path to reach the Fifth Realm, but Shang would need to do that four times and then do something even more insane to actually reach the Fifth Realm.

When Shang had reached the True Path Stage, the 500 years of total longevity of people in the Fourth Realm felt like so long, but now, it felt so very short.

He only had a bit more than 400 years left to do five to six times as much work as other warriors would do in that timeframe.

As Shang thought about the monumental task ahead of him, his mind wandered to the victory celebration from a couple of days ago.

Shang took a deep breath.

He had enjoyed the celebration, and being surrounded by people that liked him felt great.

But now, Shang could only release a bitter laugh.

'What did I think?' he thought. 'I already knew that I wouldn't have time for others.'

'Why am I suddenly regretting it?'

A couple of days ago, Shang had received a glimpse of something he wasn't allowed to have.

That left a bittersweet taste in his mouth, but Shang's priorities were already set.

His power was the most important thing in the world.

If he had to sacrifice everything else in his life for power, he would do so.

'Over a thousand people in the world have worked just as hard as me, but that number drops significantly the further I advance.'

'That's because the others were invaded by complacency.'

'They managed to keep their discipline for a hundred years, but as soon as it went on for more centuries or even millennia, their discipline weakened, and complacency took hold.'

Shang's right hand formed a fist, and Shang looked at it with narrowed eyes.

'Never become complacent.'

'Always continue forward.'

'Never stop.'

'As more and more time passes, fewer and fewer people will be on my level, and eventually, only I will be left.'

'There definitely are more talented people out there than me, but talent without hard work is useless.'

'What's the point of learning things thrice as fast when you fight someone that trains five times as much as you?'

'Always continue!'

Shang looked towards the south again.

'Sharpening the axe doesn't take time away from cutting wood. If I want to achieve my goal, I need a plan.'

At that moment, something appeared in Shang's hands.

It was one of the books Relon had given to Jerald and Shang.

This was the guide for all the different resources and natural treasures.

Shang opened the book and read.

​ 'There must be something in there that can help me in training.'

As Shang read through the book, he saw several resources that could be used to temporarily heighten the sensitivity towards specific Elemental Mana.

Shang remembered the several piles of resources that had been around Jerald when he had advanced to become a Peak High Mage.

He found a couple of these resources in the book.

'The God designed this world, and he wants variety. I don't think that he would have only made something like this for Mages. There must be something that can also be used by warriors.'

Yet, Shang didn't find any of these resources after going through 75% of the book.

Shang furrowed his brows but continued.

When he arrived at the last 10%, the layout of the book changed.

Before this spot, a lot of space had been dedicated to each resource, but now, there were only the names, a couple of descriptions, and one or two sentences about what the resource could be used for.

The first 90% were dedicated to valuable and useful resources, and the last 10% was just a dumping ground for random stuff nobody cared about.

And that was where Shang found vastly more interesting resources.

The Mages were only interested in resources useful to Mages, and since there were basically only Mages on that level, every resource not useful to Mages was essentially worthless. The level or rarity of these resources didn't matter.

'That's why these things are in the back. Of course the Mages don't care about resources useful for warriors.'

'But I do!'

 

Chapter 522 522 – The Crater

Shang was walking through a brown wasteland filled with extremely tall spires. The wind was incredibly strong. A normal human would have a very hard time walking through this place.

From time to time, Shang could see a couple of other warriors jumping from spire to spire in search of a beast they could hunt.

Several big beasts were flying through the distant sky, and many other beasts were crawling along the spires.

Today was the first time Shang had actually entered the Canyon in the Storm Eagle Zone.

For decades, he had only trained in the depths of the Caves since he had wanted to keep his existence a secret from the Council.

But with the Council gone, Shang could now go wherever he wanted.

The spires around Shang were the Eternal Spires he had seen from a distance during his first Day of Chaos.

They were made of extremely valuable ore, and many of the warriors were also mining from them while their colleagues defended them from the assault of the beasts.

This was an area where only Commander Stage beasts lived, and only the most powerful warriors below the True Path Stage could attempt to mine the ore here.

Several beasts took note of Shang as he slowly walked through the Canyon, but none of the beasts dared to attack him.

Beasts had powerful instincts, and they could feel a terrifying aura of threat coming from Shang.

A couple of warriors also noticed Shang, but they didn't recognize him.

Funnily enough, they only knew Duke Sword with his armor on.

Sadly, Shang's armor had been destroyed by Susan, and Jerald hadn't had the time to create a new one.

Eventually, Shang reached the end of the Canyon.

Only very few warriors had ever stepped past the Canyon. After all, the land beyond this place was filled with True Path Stage beasts.

Only True Path Stage warriors that had formed a team went to this place, and there weren't many of those.

Especially now.

Additionally, the Storm Eagle Zone didn't have many High Mages in it.

This meant that no one was currently in the land beyond the Canyon.

As Shang stepped past the last Eternal Spire, the wind picked up even more.

A normal human would be flung through the sky, but this wasn't an issue for Shang.

His body was several tons heavy, and the little area his body took up wasn't nearly enough for the wind to impact him in any major way.

A couple of minutes later, Shang arrived at a small cliff and looked forward.

For the first time, Shang saw an area that nearly no one had ever seen.

The Crater.

The land in front of Shang lowered more and more, similar to the Northern Ice Wyvern Zone.

The name Crater was accurate.

As soon as Shang stepped past the cliff, the wind picked up even more. The sheer amount of Wind Mana the Storm Eagle gave off was creating a terrifying storm.

Even though Shang didn't have a great Affinity for Wind Mana, he could feel the Wind Mana very clearly.

For a while, Shang stood only a bit in front of the cliff after jumping down.

The land angled further and further down, and the horizon in front of Shang created an image he had never seen.

There was nothing he could see in the distance.

Only a blue sky.

It was like Shang had arrived at the end of the world.

Shang angled his head down a bit, and his right eye followed the slope of the Crater.

There were a couple of round stones, but they weren't taller than two meters. The fact that these stones were still here despite the constant storm spoke volumes about their hardness.

When Shang's Spirit Sense inspected the stones, he realized that he was looking at True Path Stage ore.

There was so much!

The entire Crater was littered with True Path Stage ore!

At that moment, Shang remembered what Agon had told him.

The permission to plunder lands without any competition was extremely valuable.

Shang was sure that if there were more True Path Stage warriors, this entire place would have been cleaned of ore.

Even more, if Agon were an entrepreneur, he might have harvested all of this himself to sell to the warriors.

Even if one didn't need the ore, one could still sell it for an amazing profit.

It was literally like picking money off the ground.

Then, Shang's gaze focused on the horizon again.

He tried to estimate how far he could see.

He was sure that he could see further than his Spirit Sense, but he still couldn't be sure how far he could see.

But one thing was clear.

'The Storm Eagle Zone is actually bigger than the maps made it out to be,' Shang thought.

On the maps, the Storm Eagle Zone was about as big as every other Zone, around 80 to 100 kilometers across.

But as soon as Shang reached the Crater, he was sure that it was at least 150 kilometers from north to south.

At that moment, Shang's right eye was pulled to a certain spot in the distance by some subtle movement.

For a bit, Shang wasn't sure if the black thing in the distance had actually moved or not.

But then, Shang saw it move a bit, and he recognized something.

It was a feather!

For just a moment, Shang had seen a feather poking out of the black object in the distance.

Now, Shang knew what he was looking at.

'The Storm Eagle.'

'That gives me a good reference.'

For the first time in a long while, Shang's mind went back to Earth. Specifically, he remembered math class from high school.

Shang knew that the Storm Eagle was about two kilometers long, and he could see how big it looked from here.

He did some simple calculations in his head and quickly came to a result.

'Something between 40 and 80 kilometers from here. Too much guess work to get to a concrete result.'

'That means that the Storm Eagle Zone is probably around 150 to 200 kilometers from north to south.'

After satiating his curiosity, Shang stepped forward and walked to one of the huge stones of ore.

He pulled out his Great Sword from the back and put it to the stone.

"Early True Path Stage," Sword told Shang.

"What about the others? Can you make an estimate?" Shang asked.

"They are similar in level. If you want the valuable stuff, we need to go deeper into the Crater."

Shang nodded. "I just wanted to know."

For the first time in a long while, Shang was interested in knowing more about his surroundings.

The thought that not many people had been here made all of this that much more interesting.

Shang continued walking forward, but he wasn't walking in a straight line.

Thanks to his huge Spirit Sense, Shang could avoid being noticed by Late True Path Stage beasts and more powerful.

He didn't really care about the Initial to Mid True Path Stage beasts, but the more powerful ones could become troublesome.

Shang wasn't here to fight but to search for something.

From time to time, Shang felt the senses of a True Path Stage beast focus on him. When that happened, he simply looked back.

Most of the time, the beast would look away again.

But of course, there were some that wanted to fight.

Shang simply released one attack.

If they survived, they would realize they were outmatched and would flee.

If they died, Shang collected the corpse.

He didn't really care either way.

Cling… cling… cling.

After a while, Shang heard some sounds that sounded like a bigger wind chime.

When he heard these sounds, he had to smirk.

'Sure enough, just like the book said.'

Shang had already found the origin of the sound, and he had been walking toward it for a while now.

After a bit, Shang arrived in front of a two-meter-tall piece of ore.

The sounds of wind chimes had become louder and more numerous.

It was like there was a wall of wind chimes hanging in front of him.

Shang couldn't suppress a grin when he saw the stone in front of him.

There was a vine covering the entirety of the stone, and there were long, metal-like things hanging from it.

The sound came from these things hitting each other in the wind.

If one didn't know any better, one would think that these things were long blades.

But, in fact, they were seeds.

Shang looked at the wall filled with seeds for several seconds.

'Wind Blade Seed.'

'Increases familiarity with swords!'

 

 

Chapter 523 523 – Using The Wind Blade Seed

Shang spent the next couple of hours going to different Zones and harvesting resources. He had found a couple of interesting resources in the book, and he managed to collect a couple of them.

Sadly, not all the useful resources could be found within the Skythunder Kingdom.

After Shang collected all of that, he contacted Jerald and asked how he should consume them. Jerald was an experienced Mage, and he knew the basics of preparing such treasures.

"Well, we Mages mainly use Mana and Essence Gathering Magic Circles, but that doesn't necessarily increase the potency of the resources," Jerald said. "These Magic Circles act more as workarounds for our weaker bodies. After all, the resources we need are on a level that's several times higher than the levels of our bodies."

"I think you can just eat them with your strong body. I would advise you to consume one of them, train a bit, remember how you felt, and do the same thing for every other resource. After that, you can try to mix and match them, but keep in mind that some of the results might weaken the effects. You'll have to try and see what works for you."

"Okay, thanks," Shang answered before putting the Communication Crystal away.

In the west of the Skythunder Kingdom, Jerald looked at his deactivated Communication Crystal with interest.

'It's actually shocking to think that he has achieved his current power without ever consuming any of these treasures,' he thought. 'I wonder what he can achieve with them.'

Right now, Shang was back in the Caves inside the Storm Eagle Zone. He could go wherever he wanted, but he wanted to be in a safe and familiar location for the different tests he would be running.

Shang readied all the different treasures he had retrieved in the last couple of hours and put them in front of him.

Just like Jerald said, Shang would try one at a time and make an analysis based on how helpful they had been for his training.

The first thing Shang decided to try out was a Wind Blade Seed.

Sword had already returned to its Long Sword State since that conformed the most to the image of a normal sword.

There were also treasures that could increase the familiarity with blunt weapons and heavy weapons. Those were definitely more useful when it came to comprehending the Great Sword and Colossal Sword States.

Shang took one of the Wind Blade Seeds and put it in his mouth.

As his teeth touched the Wind Blade Seed, he felt like he was biting on metal.

CRK!

Shang bit down, and he felt like he was biting down on a stone.

However, due to his power, the Wind Blade Seed still broke apart.

CRKSH! CRKSH! CRKSH!

Shang kept chewing, and it definitely wasn't pleasant.

However, an unpleasant sensation or taste wasn't something that would stop Shang.

After a while of chewing, Shang swallowed the seed and closed his right eye.

Right now, he was focusing on the remains of the Wind Blade Seed in his stomach.

For a while, nothing happened, but then, Shang felt some form of Mana go past the sides of his stomach to enter his body.

The Mana felt a bit similar to Wind Mana, but it also was very different.

This could be compared to looking at the tomato sauce on a pizza. Yes, it was a bit like tomato, but it was also very different.

Shang continued watching the Mana for another five minutes, but nothing seemed to change.

The Mana was just going through his body without any noticeable effect.

'I guess that's what it looks like when the Wind Blade Seed shows its effect.'

​ 'I should try it out.'

Shang grabbed his Long Sword and readied himself.

SHING!

He released a slash with the intent to kill, something he regularly did while training.

Cling!

As the slash finished, Shang heard an unfamiliar and unusual sound.

It was like he had returned to the Crater where he had found the Wind Blade Seeds.

Just now, he felt like he could hear them dance in the wind again.

Shang took note of that and released another slash.

Clenk!

Shang nearly winced when he heard that sound.

The previous sound had sounded like the Wind Blade Seeds dancing in the wind, but this sound sounded like one of the Wind Blade Seeds had hit a stone.

It was like the beautiful melody had been ruined.

Shang furrowed his brows and performed a couple more attacks.

Cling!

Clenk!

Cling!

CLIIIIIIIRRRR!

When Shang heard the newest sound, he paused.

That sounded way different!

The normal sound felt pleasant and harmonious.

The other sound felt bad and unfitting.

But this newest sound had some form of beautiful feel to it.

It was like the vibrations of the Wind Blade Seed had synchronized with the Mana in the surroundings, creating a beautiful resonance with the world.

'Is that how it works?' Shang thought.

'The worse my attack, the uglier the sound. In turn, the more beautiful the sound, the better the attack.'

Shang decided to do some more testing and slashed several more times.

After a hundred attacks, Shang got the good sound 27 times, the bad sound 72 times, and the beautiful sound appeared only once.

By this point, Shang realized how useful the Wind Blade Seeds actually were.

In fact, they were acting very similar to the Star Map, but instead of showing a concrete map, the Wind Blade Seed only gave Shang signals based on if the direction he was moving in was correct or not.

However, that also created a couple of questions.

'How does the Wind Blade Seed know what I want? Is it following some kind of overarching principle of the world? If so, its help might prove damaging.'

Shang had his own style of fighting, and he wanted to further that style.

Yet, if the Wind Blade Seed gave him directions towards a more generally liked battle style, it might result in Shang's battle style becoming good but ordinary.

But Shang wasn't okay with ordinary.

He wanted to reach Godhood!

"What do you think?" Shang asked Sword.

"Not sure yet," Sword answered. "Perform the same attack multiple times in slightly different ways. I have a suspicion."

Shang nodded and did just that.

He performed the same attack over a thousand times with slight variations.

About 80% of the time, he received the disgusting sound, and the other 20% were the good sound.

The beautiful sound didn't appear once.

"That helps a lot," Sword told Shang. "Do the same with another attack."

Shang followed Sword's instructions and did just that.

The disgusting sound appeared 70% of the time, but the beautiful one also didn't appear even once.

"Do one of the ones with the beautiful sound and put variations to the attack," Sword said.

Shang did just that.

During this specific set of attacks, Shang managed to create the beautiful sound about 10% of the time.

Surprisingly, the good sound appeared for the remaining 90%.

The bad sound didn't even appear once.

"I think I get it. Do the same with that one," Sword said as it transmitted the image of an attack to Shang's mind.

Shang nodded again and followed Sword's instructions.

This time, Shang got the disgusting sound for 70% of the time and the good one for 30%.

The beautiful sound didn't appear.

"Yep, I got it," Sword said.

 

Chapter 524 524 – Uncontrollable Component

Sword highlighted some things it was feeling during the different attacks, and Shang understood what the Wind Blade Seeds were doing after listening to Sword's results.

When Shang was training, Sword also always gave feedback. Just like when Shang had been at the Soldier Stage, Sword was telling him when a strike felt good or bad.

Shang also felt if attacks were good or bad, but he couldn't be completely accurate.

As the weapon, Sword essentially was a participant, but it could also see the attack from a different angle than Shang.

This made Sword's feedback invaluable.

While Shang had to focus on performing his attacks perfectly, Sword didn't need to do anything and could simply watch everything with all of its focus.

Sword gave the following feedback.

When the same attack was performed, there were always only two different sounds present.

Either the ugly and good one or the good and beautiful one.

There were no combinations of ugly and beautiful.

There were never all three sounds present during one attack, no matter how often it was repeated.

When the ugly and good sounds appeared, Sword always felt that the attacks with the good sounds were better.

When the good and beautiful sounds appeared, Sword always felt that the attacks with the beautiful sounds were better.

Now came the interesting part.

When the attacks with the ugly and good sounds produced an attack with a good sound, it felt not better nor worse than when the attacks with the good and beautiful sounds produced a beautiful sound.

The same was true the other way around. When the attacks with ugly and good sounds produced an ugly sound, it felt just as bad as when the attacks with good and beautiful sounds produced a good sound.

"This means that great performance increases the level of the sound by one," Shang said.

"Correct," Sword answered. "However, the absence of all three sounds appearing at once and the ugly and beautiful sound never appearing during the same set of attacks means that there is an additional component, and that component is not influenced by how well you perform the attack."

Shang nodded. "There must be something that I can't control that impacts the result of the attack."

"But what could that be?" Shang asked.

"I don't know," Sword answered, "but it has to do something with you. I don't do anything during all of your attacks, and I specifically stopped myself from doing anything while we were testing."

Shang furrowed his brows.

As a living weapon, Sword could help with a couple of attacks, but Shang didn't think that whatever Sword was doing had any impact on the performance of the attack.

After all, it was just a weapon, and Shang was the one swinging it.

"We need more testing," Sword said.

Shang nodded.

After that, Shang performed one attack until he got the better sound, switched to another attack until he got the better sound, and switched back again.

He couldn't always perform the attacks perfectly, but he wanted the time between the two attacks he was comparing to be as short as possible. That was why he was always switching as soon as he got the good one.

If Shang managed to create the good sound, switch, and then immediately produce the beautiful sound, Shang could compare them very well.

There must be some kind of difference.

However, this proved to be far more difficult than he had anticipated.

Even after several hours, Shang couldn't come to a conclusion, and at that point, even the sound the Wind Blade Seed produced became quieter and quieter.

Eventually, the sound completely vanished.

Shang immediately consumed the next seed.

In truth, his plan had actually been to train his Great Sword State first since he wouldn't be running out of sparring partners anytime soon, but he wanted to understand the Wind Blade Seed first.

By now, Shang also realized that there was no variation inside the different levels of sound.

The good sound always sounded the same.

The bad one always sounded the same.

The beautiful one always sounded the same.

No matter how horrible Shang performed the attack, the ugly sound always sounded just as ugly.

The attack was either perfect or not perfect.

Shang continued training just like this for two entire days.

Yet, they still couldn't find the difference.

Sadly, after two days of continuously swinging his sword, Shang had to take a break.

The outer side of his right lower arm felt fatigued.

Shang only took a deep breath and closed his right eye.

He hated waiting like this.

But there was nothing he could do.

Eventually, one would run out of stamina.

He could still perform one of the attacks since that attack wasn't as strenuous on that part of the body as the other one, but without the second attack, Shang wouldn't be able to-

"Wait a second," Shang suddenly said as he opened his eye.

Then, he looked at his right arm with furrowed brows.

'Not as strenuous?' Shang thought with skepticism.

'Both of them use my triceps to stretch the arm, which puts strain on my tendon, and my tendon is also the thing that's feeling fatigued.'

'Yet, how is it possible that one of the two attacks doesn't feel as strenuous as the other one?'

'I need to test that right now.'

Instead of waiting for his body to recover, Shang continued doing the same thing, but this time, he was paying special attention to his tendon.

Shang continued swinging his sword as he paid close attention to what happened to his tendon during the attacks.

After a while, the effects of the Wind Blade Seed vanished again, but that was no longer relevant.

The performance of the attacks didn't matter right now.

Shang continued swinging his sword for another day, his body getting injured more and more.

Without the sound of the Wind Blade Seed, Shang entered a special state.

His entire mind was only focused on the place where his tendon was.

He saw it moving one way.

He saw it moving the other way.

He saw it moving one way.

And so on.

Left.

Right.

Left.

Right.

Shang didn't notice it, but his arm was sending incredibly powerful pain signals toward his brain.

His arm was essentially screaming that it was about to be destroyed due to overuse.

Yet, Shang's sensitivity to pain had been ground down to such a degree that he didn't even notice it.

The muscles in his arms were cramping as he continued swinging his sword, but Shang only kept focusing on that spot.

All his senses were completely focused on it.

PSSSHH!

Shang's right eye shone as he suddenly felt pain.

Something had happened inside of his arm that was so painful that even he took note of it.

And Shang saw what it was very clearly.

'It's actually not my tendon that's hurting,' Shang thought as he looked at a specific part below the tendon.

At that location, one of the Mana pathways in his body had ruptured and was leaking out Mana.

'It's the Mana pathways!' Shang thought.

Shang ignored the pain and performed the good attack again. At the same time, he was following how exactly his Mana moved throughout his arm.

While performing that attack, Shang's Mana was going to his sword in a uniform manner, putting the same amount of strain on every Mana pathway.

Then, Shang performed the other attack, and he saw how a larger chunk of his Mana traveled through the ruptured Mana pathway.

However, that also made sense. That attack required more power from that spot than the other one, which meant it needed more Mana.

'If the Mana pathway were wider, had a lower angle, or were tougher, this wouldn't be an issue.'

Then, Shang realized it.

Now, he knew what the uncontrollable component of the Wind Blade Seed's judgment was.

'Unfitting Mana pathways!'

'The pathways my Path has created are not perfect!'

 

Chapter 525 525 – Beasts And Humans

An older man dressed in white robes sat behind a table with several books and sheets of paper. The room looked like the typical study a True Mage would have, filled with books and plenty of arcane trinkets.

Right now, the older man was waiting for his client.

This one was going to be a big one.

Yesterday, the Mage had been contacted by a Peak True Mage with an offer.

Someone needed his expertise, but in exchange, he would need to sign a confidentiality contract and undergo another Mind Read.

Something like that was insane, but the Peak True Mage assured him that the payment he would receive would be enough until the Mage either died or reached the High Mage Realm.

The reward was too alluring. So, the Mage agreed.

And, right now, he was about to meet this mysterious client.

A couple of minutes passed.

Eventually, someone knocked on his door.

"Come in," the Mage said with calmness in his voice.

This was just another client. Nothing special.

The door opened, and a black-haired man with a metallic eyepatch stepped in.

The Mage looked at the obvious warrior for a bit.

'Probably one of the True Path Stage warriors,' he thought.

"Please, sit down," the Mage said professionally, gesturing to the chair in front of his desk.

The warrior complied and sat down.

"I'm Professor Callen. I dedicated my life to researching how beasts work and how their bodies differ from ours," Callen said.

Callen made a pause here, obviously waiting for the warrior to introduce himself too.

"My name is Shang," Shang said. "People generally know me as Duke Sword."

For the first time, Callen was surprised.

Duke Sword?

THE Duke Sword?

He was someone on the level of the previous Council!

"Hello, Duke Sword," Callen said after calming down. "Now, what do you need?"

"How do beasts store their Mana, and how do they transport it from one place in their body to the other?" Shang asked.

At that moment, a picture floated over from one of the walls and stopped beside Callen.

Shang could see the silhouette of a wolf on it, but there were some additional things inside the wolf's body.

"This," Callen said as he gestured to a blue-colored circle in the wolf's chest, "is the Beast Core. The Beast Core stores all the Mana the beast absorbs."

"As you know, such a core doesn't exist in our bodies. In comparison to beasts, we store our Mana in our minds and all over our bodies. When you are a Mage, you generally use your mind as your Mana Storage, which you could view as just another Beast Core."

"In comparison, warriors store their Mana all over their bodies. This is also one of the leading theories regarding the beasts' superiority in terms of physical power over the normal human body. Of course, when I am talking about the normal human body, I am referring to one that didn't undergo the Bloodline Infusion."

"Warriors do not have a central Mana storage in comparison to beasts. Because of that, every part of your body has to store the Mana individually, making it much harder for the body to store additional Mana."

Shang nodded. "Then how can warriors that have undergone the Bloodline Infusion reach the power of beasts without a central storage?"

"That's a good question, Duke Sword," Callen said with a friendly smile. "The reason for that is training."

"Training?" Shang asked with a raised eyebrow.

Callen nodded. "The Bloodline Infusion has strengthened the individual components of your body, giving them much greater potential to hold Mana. Of course, with only the Bloodline Infusion, you would still be only half as powerful as a beast on your level."

"That's why you have to eat beast hearts and force their Mana into your body. You are essentially strengthening your storage by putting significant strain on it several times. Sound familiar?"

Shang nodded. "Just like training your muscles."

Callen also nodded. "Precisely. You are training your body to hold more Mana. Now, compared to warriors, beasts don't have that problem. All the Mana they consume simply enters their Beast Core, which then refines the Mana."

At that moment, Shang got a thought. "But if we can train our bodies to hold more Mana, couldn't beasts do that as well?"

Callen's smile widened. "They can."

Shang's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "They actually can?"

"Mhm," Callen said with a nod. "We have run several experiments on beasts, and we've realized that we can increase the powers of their bodies even further by making them do specific exercises after eating a meal. We found out that their bodies can actually grow to be double as powerful as they are normally without advancing in level."

"Of course," Callen added, "beasts only follow their instincts, and they never think about training their body to hold more Mana. We needed to use several Spells to force their minds to perform specific tasks to push the Mana into their bodies. No matter how hard we tried to teach them without the Spells, they were just not able to do it."

"So, a beast body has much greater potential than a human body, even if that human has undergone the Bloodline Infusion. The reason for that is the central Mana storage that the beasts have."

"But since neither side can use the other side's advantage, powerful warriors and beasts have equally strong bodies."

Shang nodded. He hadn't come here for a lesson on beasts, but it had definitely paid off.

He had already learned a lot.

Shang gestured to the picture with his head, and Callen continued.

"The blue lines signify the Mana passageways. If a beast enters a fight, its Mana comes out from the Beast Core and gets distributed over the entire body, allowing them to unleash incredible power."

"Sadly, or luckily depending on your viewpoint, the Mana stored inside a beast's Beast Core is slightly different from the Mana stored inside different parts of its body. That means that healing from an injury takes several times longer since the Mana from the beast's Beast Core first needs to be transformed into the kind of Mana they need."

"Because of that, warriors can regenerate from their injuries much faster than beasts. Even normal warriors that haven't undergone the Bloodline Infusion."

Shang nodded as he looked at the picture.

When he saw the Mana pathways, he knew that he had come to the right guy.

SHING!

A couple of sheets of paper appeared in front of Shang, and they lightly landed on the table.

Callen looked at them from a distance, and Shang pushed them forward. "Take a look," Shang said.

Callen took the sheets of paper and analyzed them. "Mana passageways for a True Path Stage warrior. I saw one of those before. I was so entranced by this revelation that I couldn't focus on my work for several days."

"Those are my pathways," Shang said.

Callen nodded. "I thought so. The passageways in this picture are far more complex and numerous than the ones I saw before. I presume the reason why you are here is related to your passageways?" Callen asked.

Shang nodded and pointed at a specific spot that represented the pathways in his right arm.

Shang explained in detail how he would move his arm and how his Mana would move during one of his attacks.

Then, Shang explained how he would move his Mana and arm in a different attack.

However, before Shang could even finish…

"And your Mana passageway started to hurt, correct?" Callen asked.

When Shang heard that, a glimmer appeared in his eye.

 

Chapter 526 526 – Learning

When Shang confirmed that this was the problem, Callen started to stroke his beard in thought.

"I want to alter my pathways," Shang said.

Callen's brows furrowed at that point, but he kept thinking.

"It's risky," Callen said after several seconds. "From what I've heard, the passageways form during your breakthrough, and they have essentially been created by your Path, correct?"

Shang nodded.

"This means that these Mana passageways are a natural extension of your Path. Messing with them might weaken your Path or directly make it impossible to use it in the future. It would be like you knowing the theory but not being able to put it into practice."

Shang knew what that meant.

He had created all of his techniques before he had created his Path. Back then, using his techniques had cost several times more life energy and Mana than now.

If everything returned to how it was before, Shang would only be able to use a single Shock before running out of Mana. One Anger and his body would have already atrophied to a terrifying degree.

It would essentially cripple his Battle-Strength.

This was also the reason why Callen had to undergo another Mind Read before meeting Shang.

If Callen gave Shang incorrect information on purpose, he could essentially cripple one of the Skythunder Kingdom's strongest assets.

"I would advise against changing your Mana passageways," Callen said. "Instead, I would suggest altering your techniques to fit your Mana passageways. For example, you could change this movement to be a bit more like this."

Callen gave a couple of examples of how Shang could change the movement of his Mana for different attacks while pointing at different parts of the pictures.

Shang only frowned.

Then, he stood up and pulled out his Long Sword.

Callen wasn't panicked.

Shang swung his sword a couple of times and implemented Callen's changes.

After a couple of swings, Shang's frown deepened, and he ate a Wind Blade Seed.

Callen wasn't surprised that Shang was using something to help in his training. Every Mage did that.

Shang swung around a hundred times, and eventually…

CLIRRRRR!

The beautiful sound appeared.

This meant that Shang had performed the attack perfectly and that it conformed to his Mana pathways.

However, Shang didn't like that.

Yes, everything worked out, but the attack just felt wrong.

It felt like this attack had been created by someone else.

It didn't feel like his own.

"What do you think?" Shang transmitted to Sword.

"It's good, but I don't like it," Sword answered.

"It feels wrong."

Shang remained in thought for a couple of seconds.

Eventually, Shang put Sword away and sat down on the chair again.

"It resolves the issue, but I don't like the result. The attack doesn't feel like me," Shang said.

"Then that won't work for you," Callen said as he returned to thinking.

Shang raised an eyebrow.

"I expected you to tell me that my feelings aren't important in that regard," Shang said.

"Oh no, they are probably the most important," Callen added. "Us Mages often use Spells that are known by several Mages, but we also all have our own Spells, Spells that we create. These Spells evoke a certain feeling of familiarity and belonging, and it has been proven several times that having these feelings is a tremendous help in advancing."

"A Spell you don't like is very hard to develop further, and it is harder to establish the fine control over Mana you need to reliably use it. These feelings are of utmost importance."

When Shang heard that, some of the nervousness he hadn't known he felt vanished.

For just a second, he had believed that he was being overly difficult.

"So, is there a way to change my pathways?" Shang asked.

Callen frowned. "As I said, it's very risky. The accuracy and number of minor adjustments necessary are shocking, expensive, and time-consuming to perform. This would be a project that continues for years, and if a mistake is made, a blueprint of how the passageway has been before the alteration has to always be at hand."

"If you don't mind the question, Duke Sword, what is the level of your mind?" Callen asked.

"Initial True Mage Realm," Shang answered.

"Hmmm," Callen hummed as he fell into thought again.

"I don't want to be responsible for potentially crippling one of our Kingdom's strongest assets," Callen said.

"Because of that, I think it would be better to teach you the process and Spells. They might be a bit hard for an Initial True Mage to understand, but with enough time and dedication, you should be able to master the process."

"At that point, you can mess with your own passageways as much as you want."

"Would you be okay with that?" Callen asked.

Shang released a sigh and nodded.

This was not a sigh of acceptance but one of relief.

Shang didn't feel comfortable with giving someone else full control over his power.

It was much better when he could do everything himself.

Callen nodded. "We might need to spend a couple of months together until you can use the Spells with adequate mastery. These are complex Spells since we are changing the fundamentals of your very being. We are changing the very thing that tells your body what it has to recover to. After all, it would be senseless to spend time and effort to change your passageways just for them to recover to their old state after an injury."

"That's fine," Shang said. "Thank you, Professor Callen."

Callen only smiled. "That's my job. Now, I hate to ask this question, but I need to know before I commit that much time to help you."

"Payment, right?" Shang asked.

Callen only laughed sheepishly and nodded.

"Are five True Path Stage beast corpses enough?" Shang asked.

Silence.

Callen only looked at Shang with a skeptical expression.

"Not enough? What about ten?" Shang asked with a frown.

"Wait, wait, wait," Callen said. "You are offering five True Path Stage beast corpses? Like, entire ones or only some parts?"

"Entire ones, of course," Shang answered. "I am carrying several of them in my Space Ring, and I don't really have a use for them. If I need more, I just hunt more."

At that point, Callen took a deep breath.

Five True Path Stage beast corpses.

If he sacrificed his entire wealth, he might be able to get half a leg of an Initial True Path Stage beast.

"Is it enough?" Shang asked.

"Yes!" Callen almost shouted, losing his composure. "That's more than enough!"

Shang nodded. "Then, that's going to be the payment."

The two of them exchanged a couple of pleasantries, and eventually, Callen left to inform several people that he wouldn't be available for several months.

And then, Callen began to teach Shang everything he would need to change his Mana pathways.

 

Chapter 527 527 – Cleansing

Professor Callen first performed a couple of tests to see how good Shang's spellcasting was.

It couldn't be that bad, right?

It was, in fact, that bad.

Callen had expected that even warriors knew the basics at least, but he was mistaken.

Shang's spellcasting ability could dominate a Mid Apprentice, but a Peak Apprentice would easily outclass him.

Callen only took a deep breath and slowly released it.

This would be a lot of work.

While Shang was learning under Callen, Jerald returned from the western Skythunder Kingdom.

90% of the citizens had evacuated, while the remaining 10% had decided to stay. They refused to believe that the Magic Purity Kingdom would kill them. After all, they were just normal citizens, apprentices, and a couple of Adepts.

For a couple of days, nothing happened. After all, the Magic Purity Kingdom didn't expect the western front to be completely without any defense.

Two days after Jerald left, one of the frontlines of the Magic Purity Kingdom attacked the border of the Skythunder Kingdom.

Yet, there was nothing to attack.

They only saw empty walls and buildings.

The attacking force immediately grew suspicious and prepared for an ambush.

But nothing happened.

After a while, the force sent out a couple of True Mages to scout the surroundings.

Surprisingly, the Mages didn't face any resistance, and they were even welcomed by several villagers throwing themselves before the Mages' feet in obedience.

One of the Mages decided to read the minds of a random villager, and what he saw shocked him.

The Skythunder Kingdom gave up nearly 50% of its land?

As soon as the Mage found out, he informed his superior, who informed his superior.

A couple of hours later, several groups of True Mages entered the western Skythunder Kingdom via several borders.

They didn't face any resistance.

The True Mages split up and read the minds of random people scattered all over multiple Zones.

Sure enough, the Skythunder Kingdom had retreated.

However, there was something even more interesting.

The Magic Purity Kingdom finally knew about the civil war.

And with that, everything suddenly made sense.

The Skythunder Kingdom had been weakened to a ridiculous degree, and they couldn't possibly defend such a large area.

The leaders of the Magic Purity Kingdom were informed, and several orders were given.

The Magic Purity Kingdom would annex all of the abandoned land.

As soon as the order was given, the True Mages retreated back to the Magic Purity Kingdom.

This confused the few remaining citizens.

Wasn't the Magic Purity Kingdom annexing them?

Why did they leave?

Then, a group of High Mages entered the western Skythunder Kingdom.

They split up, and one of the High Mages appeared in front of a large city that was mostly empty. There were only a couple of citizens left.

The few citizens looked at the old Mage with confusion.

Would this be the new ruler of the city?

The High Mage's Spirit Sense inspected the entire city and all the people within it.

Then, the High Mage snorted and lifted his right hand.

Snap!

BOOOOOOOOOM!

The High Mage used his Concept and burned the entire city to the ground in a storm of fire.

None of the citizens survived for more than three seconds.

Half a minute later, the fire vanished.

Only ash, coal, and burned rubble remained of the previous city.

"Dirty bastards," the Mage said as he spat to the side. "You think you can join our holy empire with these dirty hands of yours? What audacity!"

The powerful Mages of the Magic Purity Kingdom called every Mage and citizen of other Kingdoms bastards. After all, just like bastards, they were a mix of two things.

They appreciated Magic, but they also decided to accept these stupid, primal, and disgusting warriors.

People like that didn't deserve to live!

To the Magic Purity Kingdom, these citizens and Mages weren't any better than the scum that kept calling themselves warriors.

After the High Mage finished razing the first city, he thoroughly searched the entire Zone for any survivors.

He wouldn't allow any bastard or scum to survive!

Today would be a day of genocide and horror.

Over the next several hours, over ten Zones were thoroughly cleansed of any human life that didn't belong to the Magic Purity Kingdom.

And within the day, the entire western Skythunder Zone had been cleansed.

Every single citizen, without exception, had been killed.

There wasn't even a single survivor.

Even though not many citizens had remained, there had still been over 20,000.

Over the next couple of days, the Magic Purity Kingdom set up new borders and defenses.

The western Skythunder Kingdom was no more.

Now, it was the western Magic Purity Kingdom.

At this moment, the Magic Purity Kingdom owned around 50% of Area 23. It owned a huge chunk in the middle, which stretched all the way to the western border.

The other Kingdoms now assumed the shape of a half circle going around the central part of the Magic Purity Kingdom.

The Grandmountain Kingdom and Blackshadow Kingdom have shrunken significantly, taking up the northern 15%.

The Spirit Spring Kingdom in the east took up 15% of the land, and the Skythunder Kingdom in the south took up 20% of the land.

The Magic Purity Kingdom was as big as never before.

Just 50 years ago, they had been fighting the Skythunder Kingdom equally, but now, they were the strongest Kingdom by far.

And why?

All because of the Star Map that had been introduced to Area 23 around 50 years ago.

Soon, the Magic Purity Kingdom would take over the world.

But for now, it had to consolidate its new land.

Citizens had to be migrated, infrastructure had to be built, the Zones had to be transformed, and many other things.

For the next six months, the Magic Purity Kingdom would focus on its new land, but after that, it would destroy the Skythunder Kingdom!

At least, that was the plan.

Sadly, things often didn't go as planned.

 

 

Chapter 528 528 – Cross Reference

"No, the Equilateral Rune goes on top of the Trinominal Rune," Callen said as he pointed at two Runes inside a Magic Circle between Shang and him.

Shang rubbed the bridge of his nose in stress and started from the beginning again.

There was so much to remember and look out for!

It was like Shang had to do a complex equation while talking with someone and leading them to complete a yet unknown part of the equation.

He had to keep so many different things in mind.

He had to draw the Rune correctly, transform his Mana into just the kind of Mana he needed, precisely control the shape of his Mana, and even had to evoke certain emotions sometimes.

It took Shang several minutes to do the calculations for the Magic Circle every time, and when he finally started to draw it, some part of the equation always slipped his mind, vanishing into the aether.

It was so hard to keep all the information ready and finished while then doing something completely different.

It was like Shang had to play an instrument with his left hand and fight someone with his right while solving math equations in his head.

There was just too much different stuff at the same time.

They had already been at this for two weeks, and Shang hadn't even managed to finish one Magic Circle.

One had to remember that the Magic Circles Shang needed to draw would be different every time. One Magic Circle only corresponded to one specific change in one specific location in one specific Mana pathway.

If anything changed, the entire Magic Circle would change.

The more Shang learned about spellcasting, the more impressed he became.

The Mages were doing the same thing for their Spells, just in a different manner.

They created the Magic Circle in their mind, infused it with the right Mana and the right shape, and then had to actualize it.

And even when he managed to finish one, he would need several minutes to cast the next one.

Shang was essentially learning how to cast a Spell for the True Mage Realm, and in comparison to him, a True Mage could do all of that in less than a second.

It was brutal.

However, he was making progress.

He was practicing one of the Magic Circles over and over again, and he eventually managed to finish it three weeks after he started learning.

"Well, you might be a complete newbie when it comes to Spellcasting, but your progress is still quite impressive, considering your starting position," Callen said with a smile.

Shang rubbed the side of his forehead in exhaustion.

This was more exhausting than fighting a Mid High Mage.

Yet, Shang still felt pride when he saw the finished Magic Circle.

For the first time while looking at a Magic Circle, Shang actually understood what was happening and how it worked.

Shang looked at the Magic Circle for a couple of seconds before dispersing it.

This was just the first step.

"I need a ten-minute break," Shang said.

Callen nodded. "You deserve it. In fact, I'm shocked that a newbie like you managed to practice Spellcasting without a single break in three weeks. Even True Mages take more breaks than you since it is so straining on our concentration."

​ Shang only nodded half-heartedly. "Thank you for also not taking a break."

"No thanks necessary. After all, you paid me," Callen said.

Shang absentmindedly nodded again and stood up. "I need to go out for a while. I will come back in ten minutes."

"Sure, I'll be waiting," Callen said.

Shang left the room, but as soon as the door behind him closed, his exhausted demeanor vanished, and his right eye narrowed.

'I got careless,' Shang thought.

Shang jumped on top of Sword and flew into the wilderness.

After around eight kilometers, Shang landed and sat down.

After that, he started to draw several lines in the air.

During practice, Shang had accidentally gone a bit too far one time, which resulted in the Mana in his mind completely emptying.

That meant that Humanity had deactivated, and Shang needed to activate it again.

'This is so much easier compared to Callen's Spell,' Shang thought as he drew the lines with practiced ease.

He had no idea what the different lines were doing or why they were there, but he could easily draw them.

'Equilateral Rune next- wait!'

Suddenly, Shang stopped.

Lucius' Spell had never even mentioned an Equilateral Rune.

Yet, Shang could see it right there.

For just a moment, Shang imagined the completed Magic Circle for Humanity and inspected it.

Most of it was still unknown to him, but about 2% of the Runes were now familiar to him.

He had learned these Runes during Callen's lesson.

These Runes were at the very edge of the Magic Circle and rather small, which meant that they were the most unimportant Runes in the entire Spell, but they were there.

'How did the book describe this passageway? Three goats happily jumping over a mountain and meeting up with an ancient tree,' Shang thought.

Shang was essentially casting Humanity by reciting a story in his mind.

Shang thought about how the book described the Runes Shang now knew and found some of the methods Lucius used to make this Spell so easy to cast.

Every noun, verb, and adjective described one specific part of the Rune.

Even more, the adjectives that described emotions also made Shang subconsciously draw these Runes with a certain emotion associated with them.

'Can I make use of that?'

"Callen, I might need two hours," Shang transmitted to Callen.

At that moment, Callen's eyes opened wide in shock, and he looked around his office.

"I'm talking to you with my Spirit Sense. I'm still outside," Shang said. "You can simply talk. I can hear you."

"Oh, okay," Callen said with a bit of embarrassment. "Sure, I will deal with a couple of things then. We resume in two hours, okay?"

"Sure, thanks," Shang said.

Then, Shang focused on Humanity again.

At the same time, Shang was analyzing how Lucius used different words to make Shang draw different Runes with different Mana and different emotions.

After several minutes, Shang had finally created something like a framework, which he then used to simplify the equations for the Runes he needed for Callen's Spell.

"I resumed practicing, and I feel like I'm onto something. I will contact you when we can continue with the lesson. It might take a couple of days, though," Shang told Callen, who was going through documents.

Callen only furrowed his brows. "Sure," he said.

'I hope he isn't using this as an excuse to laze around,' Callen thought. 'As long as he can't cast the Spells, my time and freedom are severely restricted.'

Several days passed.

"Okay, we can continue," Shang transmitted to Callen.

"Sure thing," Callen said, trying to smile politely.

However, deep inside, he was annoyed.

Yes, Duke Sword was paying him a lot, but he was also wasting his time by not continuing to practice diligently. That was very disrespectful.

Shang returned to the room a couple of seconds later.

After that, they resumed practicing.

However, when Shang got the instructions for his next Magic Circle, he asked for a moment of peace and closed his eyes.

Callen furrowed his brows, but he didn't say anything.

Several minutes passed.

Callen grew more and more frustrated by the second.

"Okay, I think I got it," Shang said.

Then, Shang started to draw lines, and he was several times faster than he usually was.

When Callen saw that, all his suspicions immediately flew out of the window.

The lines were mostly accurate!

However, the Magic Circle collapsed after only 50% was done.

Yet, Callen almost couldn't move.

Shang had finished 50% of the Magic Circle in barely 45 seconds on his first try!

That was beyond shocking!

Callen had expected that they would need another two weeks until Shang could finish that Magic Circle, but by the looks of things, he would be done by the end of the day!

What the hell happened?!

"Where was my mistake?" Shang asked.

"Oh, yeah, right," Callen said as he recovered.

Then, Callen explained where Shang had made a mistake, and Shang corrected it.

In just six hours, Shang managed to finish the Magic Circle.

Callen could scarcely believe that this was real.

 

 

Chapter 529 529 – Everything's Prepared

"Well done!" Callen said with a wide and pride-filled smile. "You made tremendous strides, and I think you can manage everything on your own now."

Shang nodded. For once, he was also smiling.

"To think that you managed to master my Spell in only ten weeks. I'm genuinely shocked. Originally, I thought we would be here for ten months to two years," Callen said.

"Thank you, Callen," Shang said.

"This is not thanks to me. This is all you, Shang," Callen said.

Callen had stopped calling Shang Duke Sword a couple of weeks ago when Shang got annoyed by it.

Shang had already given Callen ten True Path Stage beast corpses.

Callen said that they had come to an agreement that he would only get five, but Shang said that he had offered him ten after he had offered five, so it was ten.

Callen felt bad that Shang was giving him so many corpses, but Shang just kept saying that this was the agreement.

Eventually, Shang left.

The past ten weeks had been fun but also stressful for Shang.

He had come to know Callen very well, and they had talked a lot.

Yet, as Shang was flying away from Callen's place, he could only release a sigh.

Once again, he had gotten a taste of the very thing he couldn't have.

'True Mages only live for about 250 years, and Callen will most likely not make it to the High Mage Realm. Additionally, he's already quite old. I think he's already over 180 years old.'

'In less than 70 years, he will die.'

'And I will still be training.'

'It's sad to think that I will never see Callen again, but that is the price of choosing such a Path.'

Shang hated these moments the most.

Yet, he didn't regret his choice.

If he ever wanted to have a shot at reaching Godhood, he needed to work harder than everyone else and dedicate his entire life to his power.

After a while, Shang took out his Communication Crystal. "What's the status?"

"Not much going on," Jerald answered. "The Magic Purity Kingdom is still consolidating their new lands, and I think they will continue to do so for a couple of months."

"When's the meeting?" Shang asked.

"Six days from now," Jerald answered.

"Alright. I will be there," Shang answered.

"See you there," Jerald said.

Shang put the Communication Crystal away and returned to the Caves in the Storm Eagle Zone.

The meeting between the new and old Assistant Supervisors would be in six days, which meant that the old Assistant Supervisors would leave in a bit more than a month.

Area 23 would be thrown into chaos once again.

Shang was a bit worried about the future, but he also had faith in Jerald.

Jerald was much better at managing a Kingdom and war than him, and Shang knew that.

Shang only needed to attack the targets that Jerald called out, and everything would work out.

When Shang arrived at his usual training spot in the Caves, he took out a couple of the other resources he had gathered about ten weeks ago.

He had only tested the Wind Blade Seed, and he needed to test the other ones.

Over the next six days, Shang mixed and matched the resources in a certain way and even went out to gather additional ones.

During these six days, Shang managed to find just the right balance of resources necessary to increase the efficiency of his training for all of his four States.

The Long Sword State was the simplest since it only needed Wind Blade Seeds.

The Saber State needed a combination of Wind Blade Seeds and Bloodlust Powder.

Bloodlust Powder was the spores of a fungus living in the depths of Zones with a heavy presence of Darkness Mana. It was sort of a stimulant that heightened one's instincts while also increasing their aggression.

A saber was often viewed as a more aggressive version of the versatile longsword, and Shang found out that a more aggressive mindset helped while training in his Saber State.

The Great Sword State needed a combination of Wind Blade Seeds and Icy Death Crystals.

Icy Death Crystals were found in Zones with a lot of Ice Mana. While the Bloodlust Powder evoked explosive rage, Icy Death Crystals evoked a cold feeling of hatred.

Explosive rage could increase someone's power since it could unlock a bit of the hidden power in one's body. Sadly, one wouldn't have as much control over their power in this state.

On the other hand, cold hatred strengthened someone's willpower while fighting the very person they hated. Everything around them would vanish, only leaving the target in their mind, and their mind would dedicate all its resources to killing that target. This would increase control over one's power.

The Colossal Sword State needed, yet again, Wind Blade Seeds and Iron Wall Stalk.

Iron Wall Stalks were tall plants living in Zones with heavy Metal Mana presence. It evoked a certain feeling of standing one's ground and never giving up, no matter how strong the enemy appeared.

These combinations worked best for Shang, and he was looking forward to trying them out.

Now, Shang was completely prepared for his long session of training.

He knew his path forward.

He knew what resources he needed to consume.

He knew what he had to train.

He knew how he had to train.

He knew a Spell that could change his Mana pathways permanently.

Everything was prepared and ready, and now, Shang only needed to put it into practice.

Three months ago, Shang had had no idea how he could even possibly come up with a way to reach the Fifth Realm.

Now, Shang had a detailed plan. It might not be certain that he could reach the Fifth Realm, but Shang was sure that he could reach the Peak True Path Stage with a more-than-solid foundation.

But that would have to wait.

It was time for the meeting with the other Assistant Supervisors.

 

 

Chapter 530 530 – The Antagonist

Shang landed in front of Agon's castle and entered.

As always, the castle was empty except for the throne room.

Shang entered the throne room and saw Agon and Jerald talking about random things.

Agon and Jerald nodded at Shang. "Let's go," Agon said as he walked to his throne.

Instead of sitting down, Agon stopped in front of the throne and summoned his special Communication Crystal.

He extended it towards the back of the throne and held it there for about five seconds.

WHOOOM!

A wave of Mana washed over the throne room as the walls shone in white light for just an instant.

After the white light passed, Shang realized that he couldn't view the things outside the throne room with his Spirit Sense anymore. This was probably some kind of isolation Magic Circle.

SHING!

A couple seconds later, a violet portal appeared beside the steps that led up to Agon's throne.

"Just hold the Communication Crystal you got from Relon to the throne, and everything will happen automatically," Agon said as he walked towards the portal. "This portal leads to the meeting place for all employees in Area 23. Obviously, no other person is allowed to know about all of this."

Jerald and Shang only nodded.

Then, the three of them stepped through the portal.

After stepping through the portal, Shang could finally see where it led to.

It was a natural plateau.

The plateau was about 100 meters wide and filled with grass. Shang could see the clouds from the plateau, and he could even see the ground with his Spirit Sense.

Shang saw a lot of people, and his eyebrows rose when he felt their power.

There were over 20 High Mages within a 20-kilometer radius, and they were all Mid High Mages or more powerful. There were even three Peak High Mages!

Three Peak High Mages!

The Skythunder Kingdom only had one!

As soon as Shang felt the power of all these Mages, he knew where he was.

Only the Magic Purity Kingdom could have such powerful Mages. Additionally, based on the gigantic, white castle Shang could see near the base of the plateau, Shang knew where he was specifically inside the Magic Purity Kingdom.

'This is probably their capital,' Shang thought.

'Luckily, the plateau is nearly ten-kilometers-high, making it impossible for the Mages to see us with their Spirit Senses.'

Yes, the plateau was that high.

Even more, it was basically just a massive wall with a 90° angle.

"To think that filthy scum would one day find its way to the Holy Mountain of my Magic Purity Kingdom."

Shang narrowed his eye and looked at the person that had just spoken.

It was an old man with white hair and a long white beard. The old man was looking at Shang with contempt in his eyes, and he wore simple white robes.

However, when Shang saw him, he could feel the sheer power radiating off him.

Shang felt like this man was on the same level as Agon.

Of course, the identity of this man was obvious.

"I presume you are the Assistant Supervisor of the central region?" Shang asked with a neutral voice.

He specifically avoided calling him King.

The older man narrowed his eyes, and Shang could feel monumental pressure building around him.

It was like he was looking into the eyes of a pride-filled dragon.

However, Shang didn't even react to the pressure.

He had gone through too many things to be intimidated by a person that wasn't allowed to touch him.

For a couple of seconds, Shang and the King of the Magic Purity Kingdom only looked at each other.

Then, the King's eyebrows rose in surprise as all the pressure vanished.

After that, he looked at Agon. "Huh, you were right. He really didn't get intimidated," he said with an interested and surprised voice.

Agon only smirked. "Told you so."

Shang raised an eyebrow at the sudden mood shift.

"I must apologize for the joke," the King of the Magic Purity Kingdom said while smiling warmly and politely. "I simply wanted to see if Agon was overpraising you or not."

Shang hesitated for about two seconds before answering. "Aren't the Mages of the Magic Purity Kingdom supposed to hate everyone not practicing Magic?" he asked.

The King only laughed. "That's their role," he said. "But a role is just a role. The other paths require an antagonist they can fight against, and we fulfill that role."

"However, in the end, a role is just a role, and a job is just a job," the King added with a bit of mirth. "The very reason why I am here is to promote the growth of the other paths. Hating the other paths goes directly against the goal of my job and role."

Shang was a bit surprised.

The King of the Magic Purity Kingdom sure was different than Shang had expected.

Shang had expected some arrogant old man. In fact, the initial expression and demeanor the King showed had been exactly what Shang had expected.

"Nice to finally meet you," Jerald suddenly said with a smile as he stepped towards the King. "My name is Jerald, and I will be the new Assistant Supervisor of the southern region of Area 23."

The King only chuckled and walked over to Jerald.

Then, they shook hands.

"Nice to meet you, Jerald. You can call me by my name, Koran. We are all colleagues here, and there is no need to put up any pretenses," Koran, the King of the Magic Purity Kingdom, said.

"Thank you, Koran," Jerald answered.

"You know, Jerald," Koran added. "I'm glad that you got the job instead of Susan. I don't think we need two antagonists in this Area."

Jerald raised an eyebrow. "Susan would have gotten the job?"

"Yes," Agon said from behind Jerald. "If you died, she would have received your job."

'That would have been bad,' Shang thought with a complex expression.

"I've heard that you already met your new colleague, Charles," Koran said.

Jerald only laughed awkwardly. "Yes, we did."

"Trust me, I get it," Koran said with a chuckle. "He is a weird fellow. At a first glance, he might appear unreliable and impulsive, but that only holds true when nothing's at stake. When there are actually important matters, he always proves to be a valuable and reliable friend and helper."

Shang only looked at Koran with a doubtful expression.

That fire Mage didn't seem reliable at all.

"By the way, where is he?" Jerald asked.

"He will be joining us in about half an hour," Koran said. "Just try to work with his… special personality, and everything will work out."

Jerald only laughed politely.

SHING!

At that moment, another portal appeared at the edge of the plateau.

Then, the King of the Grandmountain Kingdom stepped through.