Ch. 551..560

Chapter 551 - Quitting

"And you think that's a good idea… why?"

A middle-aged man in expensive red robes was currently looking at a younger man wearing cheaper-looking grey robes.

"I just want to be careful, sir," the younger man said with nervousness.

The older man sighed. "Boy, do you have any idea how much money it costs to deactivate and activate the barrier?"

The younger man looked with uncertainty at the ground. "I don't know, sir, but I think carelessness can lead to worse outcomes."

"Carelessness?" the older man repeated with a raised brow. "There is a difference between being careful and being paranoid. Checking the surroundings for beasts while going through a forest is careful. Buying a grade five mobile deflection barrier for a stroll through your garden is paranoia."

The younger man looked uncomfortable. "But, sir, what about the Lenner Family?"

"They died. So?" The older man asked.

"Yes, and they were our allies, sir. So, wouldn't whatever targeted them target us next?" the young man asked.

The older man raised an eyebrow and looked at the younger man for a while longer. "Is this about the rumors?"

The young man didn't answer, but his eyes looked nervous.

The older man could only groan. "Really? You too?"

"Sir, several people have confirmed the rumors," the younger man said carefully.

"Boy, you have to pay attention to how much you believe of a statement," the older man said with a sigh while massaging the bridge of his nose in annoyance.

"Was the Lenner Family killed by only one person? Probably."

"Was the Lenner Family killed by some kind of Magic that no one has ever seen? Maybe."

"Was the Lenner Family killed by something that was neither beast nor Magic? Very unlikely."

"Was the Lenner Family killed by a literal white ghost? No."

"Yes, several people have confirmed that one person in white clothing has destroyed the Lenner Family and then vanished, but that doesn't mean that this person was some stupid ghost."

"We are Mages, not farmers, boy. We know more about the world than anyone else, and there is no proof of the existence of ghosts. All these ghost stories can be explained with specific phenomena that can only happen in these places."

The younger man still looked nervously at the older man.

When the older man saw the nervous look in the younger man's eyes, he took a deep breath.

Then, he pointed behind him.

"You see that? Did the Lenner Family have that?" the older man asked.

The younger man looked past the older man.

The older man stood in front of a gigantic gate nearly 200 meters tall. Slightly in front of the gate was a nearly translucent bubble that gave off a terrifying amount of Mana.

In the distance, a humongous castle made of wavy green metal stood on a hill.

If someone with a Spirit Sense came to this location, they would be able to sense over 500 High Mages in that castle, and there were even ten Peak High Mages and one Archmage!

Ding! Ding!

"We have a Medium Grade Five Repulsion Barrier," the older man said with annoyance as he knocked on the barrier behind him with his knuckles.

"This bad boy can resist an all-out assault of a Mid Archmage for over 30 seconds. The Lenner Family only had an Initial Grade Five Repulsion Barrier, and they didn't even have the added scanning function."

"Some Initial or Early Darkness Archmage probably hid amongst the visitors, reached the patriarch, assassinated him, and then destroyed everything from the inside."

"We don't have that problem, boy. If anyone tries to change their appearance or sneak in, we will know, and if they decide to attack directly, they wouldn't be getting through the barrier before an Enforcer arrives."

"We are not as helpless as the Lenner Family, boy. Get that into your head!" the older man said with annoyance.

The younger man lowered his head a bit.

He was only an Initial High Mage, and he was getting quite intimidated by his captain, who was a Late High Mage.

Yet, the younger man was still nervous.

"I understand all that, captain, but…"

A disgusted sneer appeared on the older man's face when he heard the but.

"What if it malfunctions?"

Silence.

"Malfunctions," the older man repeated.

The younger man nodded hopefully.

"That's why I think we should deactivate it, inspect it, and activate it again. I've heard of several barriers that couldn't complete their purpose due to an error that can only be found during an inspection," the younger man said.

The older man snorted. "The manufacturer wouldn't dare to let something like that happen. We could squeeze so much money out of them if they sold us a defective barrier."

"I know, but," the younger man added, "what's the point of getting money from them when we are all dead?"

"Enough!" the older man shouted. "I've had it up to here with all of your whining! We know what we are doing, and we know how to defend ourselves from invaders and attackers! Get back to work and stop bothering me! We will not deactivate the barrier because of your paranoia!"

While listening to the older man's barrage, the younger man's face scrunched up.

After the older man was done, the younger man actually looked into the older man's eyes with annoyance and disgust.

"What? Got any complaints?" the older man asked.

The younger man pulled off one of his Space Rings.

SHING!

His grey robes were replaced with a green shirt and some green pants.

The older man raised an eyebrow.

"Here," the younger man said as he shoved his Space Ring into the older man's hands. "I quit."

"Really? You quit because of your paranoia?" the older man asked with a deadpan tone.

"I don't feel safe here," the younger man said with annoyance. "And you just keep dismissing all my arguments just because it costs a bit of money to check the barrier. You're putting a couple of Mana Crystals over our lives, and I won't work for someone this irresponsible."

"Irresponsible? Pfft," the older man repeated with a snort. "Fine, then quit. Give me the SKP."

The younger man put one of his fingers onto the side of his head and began to chant a Spell.

The acronym SKP stood for Sensitive Knowledge Partition, which was the part of the mind that included all the information of a given subject that could be considered sensitive.

During employment in certain places, employees had to agree to set up such an SKP in their minds.

SKPs had a high degree of resistance towards methods of mind reading, and that knowledge could also easily be deleted if someone didn't want to work there anymore.

A couple of seconds later, a wispy grey mist came out of the man's head, and it floated over to the older man.

The older man also cast a Spell.

After looking at the grey mist for three seconds, the older man nodded and destroyed it.

"You can leave," the older man said evenly.

"Bye," the younger man said without any enthusiasm as he walked away from the older man.

The older man didn't say anything.

For several minutes, the older man only stood alone in front of the gate and barrier.

He was supposed to show the former new recruit the ropes of his new job, but it seemed like he would need to guard the gates alone for the remainder of his shift.

"The people don't know how good they have it here," the older man grumbled.

The entrance of the huge castle was pointing to the west, and dusk was slowly arriving.

The older man watched the dusk with calm interest. The dusks in this place always looked amazing due to all the mountains and colors.

It also gave him some peace of mind and distracted him from his stressful job.

He often volunteered to show the new people around since he would get a shift of peace out of it, while his substitute inside the castle needed to manage all the security matters.

As the older man watched the dusk, he noticed something moving at the edge of his vision.

He furrowed his brows and looked down the long road.

'What is that?' he thought. 'I can't feel anything there with my Spirit Sense, but I swear I'm seeing something.'

'Is that… a guy?'

The older man squinted his eyes and quickly casted a Spell that improved his eyesight.

Then, he saw what it was, and he took a deep breath.

'Is that a ghost?!'

 

Chapter 552 - Silhouette

For a while, the older man couldn't wrap his mind around what he was looking at.

It was the silhouette of a tall and thin man wearing long and old white robes.

There were several loose strands on the old robe, and it looked extremely old, almost ancient.

The white of the robes was so stark that they almost seemed ethereal as they moved slightly in the wind.

Even more, the man wearing the robes was standing on the road with his bare feet, which also seemed far too white to be from someone that walked around with bare feet.

The hair of the man was extremely long and pitch black, heavily contrasting his stark white robes. His hair was so long that it even reached his legs.

But the most shocking thing was his face.

Several pure white bandages surrounded the upper half of his face, completely hiding his eyes. Only his nose, mouth, and hair were visible.

And his expression was scarily neutral. It was almost like the older man was looking at a statue instead of a living human.

Lastly, his aura was… haunting.

As the older man tried to feel the aura of the silhouette on the road, he felt like he was trying to lean on air.

It was like this person didn't have an aura!

By all intents and purposes, this man looked and felt more like an illusion or a ghost than a person.

The older man's mind shot through several scenarios and possible explanations.

But his thoughts were interrupted as he suddenly had to take a deep breath.

The distant "face" of the person had suddenly appeared right in front of him!

Then, the older man couldn't think anymore.

A bloody hole had appeared on his forehead, and his corpse fell to the ground.

At the same time, the surroundings of the corpse were warping and transforming, and an instant later, the older man reappeared on the spot with a bored look.

Everything had happened so fast that no one would have noticed all of this unless they had already been looking at the older man.

Of course, the older man that had reappeared wasn't the real one.

It was just an illusion created with light.

A couple of Spirit Senses washed over the area after feeling some Mana fluctuations, but they looked away again a second later.

There was nothing of concern happening near the front gate.

None of the Spirit Senses noticed the ghostly figure in white robes standing beside the older man.

This was Shang.

Or at least what he had turned into.

Shang didn't have any particular thoughts while doing all of this.

This was just routine.

His goal in life was to become more powerful, and everything he was doing right now was to achieve that goal.

The way he gained his power didn't matter anymore.

And there were plenty of jobs for people with no care for morals.

Shang turned towards the barrier and walked over.

Then, he summoned a small medal made of metal and put it on the barrier.

BZZT! BZZT!

Some lightning came out of the medal, and a second later, a hole opened up in the barrier.

Shang walked through the hole, put a second medal onto the inside of the barrier, grabbed the first medal on the outside, and then retrieved the second medal.

To explain, in the beginning, the first medal kept the hole open. If Shang took it away, the hole would close with him outside. Because of that, he put the second one on the inside to keep the hole open so he could grab the first medal.

After also retrieving his second medal, the hole behind Shang closed, locking him inside the barrier.

Shang simply stepped forward past the gate. The gate was only there for show, and Shang could easily step through the bars.

Shang slowly walked along a wide and majestic path toward the castle.

As Shang grew closer, the castle took up more and more of his world until it looked like a mountain.

The castle was over five kilometers tall and 15 kilometers wide.

Shang had seen many castles in his life, but this was still one of the biggest he had ever seen.

After a couple of minutes, Shang reached the entrance of the castle.

There was no one outside the castle and no one guarding the entrance to the castle itself.

It was almost like there was no one living in the castle.

Then, Shang knocked on the door.

A couple of seconds passed.

The door creaked open, revealing a neatly dressed older gentleman.

A small black afterimage appeared between Shang and the older gentleman.

Shang stepped inside, and the door behind him closed.

The butler had closed the door, and he acted like there was no one there.

Shang and the butler of the house were walking through the grand entrance hall and stepped into the first corridor to the left.

Some people were looking at the butler walking into the first corridor on the left and looked away again.

No one saw the actual corpse of the butler lying beside the front door.

The butler stopped in front of the first door and knocked politely.

The door opened, revealing a young woman with flowing green hair.

A black afterimage appeared.

One second of nothing happening passed.

The woman nodded, and the butler bowed politely.

The door closed, and the woman sat down in the middle of her room, entering meditation.

This was what every watcher had seen.

In their mind, the butler had talked with the woman with voice transmissions, and the two of them parted ways.

Even though people could talk with each other kilometers away, it was still a sign of respect to converse with them face to face, even if it was only done via voice transmission.

As the head butler, the old man only initiated a conversation when he could have eye contact with someone.

Sadly, none of the watchers noticed the woman's corpse in the corner of her room.

The butler continued walking towards the next door and knocked.

The same process happened again.

This continued for several minutes.

Eventually, the butler reached a bigger door than the others.

He knocked politely and waited with a warm smile.

The sounds of playing children could be heard through the door.

Eventually, a woman opened the door.

The playing kids in the room became quiet and looked to the door.

They were interested in seeing who was here to visit them.

Then, the kids saw a weird white figure behind the door.

A black afterimage appeared.

The kids returned to playing, and the woman closed the door again.

Everything seemed fine in the playroom.

Yet, there was no more life there.

Shang walked towards the next door without hesitation, like a machine.

This was not an easy job.

But that was also why it paid very well.

 

 

Chapter 553 - Emergency

Shang and the image of the butler continued walking through the hallways one at a time.

For the next three hours, nothing special seemed to happen on the outside, but in reality, a huge portion of the castle had completely died.

Everything still seemed to be filled with life, but the life was only the cold manipulation of dead light.

But the scary part was that this illusion of light only affected someone's Spirit Sense. In fact, the light looked chaotic if one looked at it with their eyes.

Yet, every High Mage and higher only relied on their Spirit Sense.

Looking at the world with a Spirit Sense was just superior to looking at the world with eyes.

But Shang knew the truth.

Ever since he lost his sight, he knew that eyes were not an inferior method of perceiving the world but a different one.

Eyes could see light, while ears couldn't.

However, ears could perceive things from behind the person using them.

One of the two might be better most of the time, but that didn't mean that it was always better.

The same thing was true for eyes and Spirit Sense.

A Spirit Sense was superior in over 99% of cases.

But the remaining 1% of cases could still kill someone if they didn't use their eyes for that.

Shang learned that the hard way when he had been bitten by something while traveling towards the north after leaving Area 23.

He hadn't been able to sense the thing that had bitten him with his Spirit Sense, no matter how hard he tried.

Luckily, he had been able to hear it, but it was still a terrifying experience to be attacked by something one couldn't properly locate or sense.

In the many decades since leaving Area 23, Shang had learned a lot about how Spirit Senses worked.

And also how to trick them.

The illusions Shang was conjuring wouldn't be able to fool someone's eyes, but they could fool someone's Spirit Sense, and with everyone only talking with their Spirit Senses, this was a terrifying ability.

In the last three hours, Shang had killed over 400 High Mages and over 5,000 people in total.

Nearly 90% of the castle had turned into a land filled with deathly cold light.

Light was usually perceived to be warm and welcoming, but it could also be cold and clinical.

It brought an illusion of life and warmth to a ruin filled with death and corpses.

But after three hours, Shang noticed that some people started to grow suspicious.

He had already intercepted a couple of people that had left their rooms to go to someone else's room.

Usually, these people would just directly talk with that person with their Spirit Sense, but Shang's illusions couldn't talk.

Most of the time, the people would think that this had something to do with the visit of the butler. Maybe the Patriarch of the family gave them orders to remain quiet no matter who asked? Maybe they were searching for a traitor?

But not everyone would believe something like that.

Some of these people felt that something was foul, and they decided to check on the others with their own eyes.

The worst spot was the children's playroom. Shang had needed to intercept five people that wanted to go there.

Of course, as these people suddenly started turning around and going back to their rooms without looking at their children, other people that watched all of this grew even more suspicious.

Something definitely wasn't right.

Shang noticed that things became difficult to hide, and he decided to go for the last sprint.

He had already killed the majority of High Mages.

In everyone's vision, the butler started to Mana Step towards the front gate and waited there.

Then, he just stood there, doing nothing.

WHOOOOOOOOM!

Suddenly, the gigantic barrier surrounding the property turned an intense purple. At the same time, the amounts of Mana it was giving off also shot into the sky.

It was like the barrier was entering overdrive!

The strongest people in the castle had just been holding a meeting, but the strange actions of the barrier immediately drew their attention to the outside.

The couple of Peak High Mages couldn't perceive the barrier with their Spirit Senses since it was too far away, but they could still see the bright violet light coming off it.

The Patriarch, an Early Archmage, extended his far greater Spirit Sense and checked the barrier.

He found that it was rapidly burning through the stored Mana Crystals while activating all of its functions at once.

The Patriarch immediately checked on the huge Magic Circle creating the barrier, and willed it to stop.

But the barrier repelled his will!

One of the functions of the barrier was to stop anyone from messing with it while emergency mode was active. This function existed to protect the castle no matter what. There were several Mages that could deactivate a barrier by using certain Spells to weave through the barrier and manipulate the Magic Circle.

The emergency mode would make it impossible for exactly that to happen.

As soon as the Patriarch saw the barrier acting this way, he knew they were under attack.

The first thing he did was to take out a light-blue Communication Crystal.

But then, he gritted his teeth.

The expensive barrier he had bought for his family could also isolate Communication Crystals.

There was no way to break the barrier.

There was no way to deactivate it.

There was no way to touch its resources.

There was no way to contact the outside.

The Patriarch knew that they would be isolated until the barrier consumed all the available Mana Crystals.

If no one attacked the barrier, it would take ten minutes.

At that moment, all the illusions inside the castle vanished.

Everyone had just been in an uproar, but as soon as the illusions vanished, the entire castle fell silent.

Thousands of corpses appeared inside everyone's Spirit Sense at the same time.

WHOOOOM!

Everyone turned towards the outside as something dark blocked the light of the purple barrier.

A sudden explosion of darkness had appeared outside, and it covered the humongous castle in nearly an instant.

The people had no idea what was going on, but they knew one thing.

The darkness outside the castle felt cold and terrifying.

At that moment, Shang had already entered the castle again and stood in front of the front door.

A long, thin, and black sword was in his right hand.

The edge moved.

Shang's expression didn't change.

 

 

Chapter 554 - What Ls Going On?!

Shang vanished.

The ghostly white figure that had just been standing in front of the door had vanished.

Of course, that didn't really matter since the Mages weren't able to perceive him with their Spirit Senses anyway.

At this moment, Shang was moving through the corridors at rapid speeds without making any noise and without being seen.

Over the many decades, Shang had comprehended all the different forms of Impose.

Yes, Shang was at the Peak True Path Stage right now.

After gaining access to all forms of Impose, Shang's power exploded more and more, and he also managed to combine several of his Elements.

For the past 40 years, Shang had been focusing on combining his four different Imposes into one.

Sadly, without any success.

This was the last step Shang needed to take in order to reach the Fifth Realm, and it definitely wasn't easy to take.

However, even if he didn't succeed, he still managed to create more techniques and refine his fighting style even more.

His current way of moving rapidly without making a sound and while being invisible to Spirit Senses was something he had created out of Shock and Distortion.

The movement wasn't as instantaneous as Shock, but it also didn't require nearly as much Mana or life energy. Additionally, with Shang's new Mana pathways, the cost of using his elemental attacks lowered even more.

This ghostly, silent, and nearly imperceptible way of moving was called Ghost Step.

At the same time, the Mages across the entire castle were activating their Mana Shield and communicating with each other.

Even though they were well-trained and experienced, suddenly seeing that over 80% of their loved ones had died was still a shock to them, making it much harder for them to organize.

They were all searching for the enemy, but they couldn't find them!

It was like a ghost or phantom was attacking them!

At that moment, most people realized what was going on.

So, the rumors were true!

This was probably the thing that had annihilated the Lenner Family!

The fear the Mages were feeling intensified, but they still did their best to focus on survival.

SHING! SHING!

Suddenly, all the Mages focused their Spirit Senses on one spot in the castle.

Just now, two black streaks had appeared and disappeared in a matter of single-digit milliseconds.

It was so fast that they wouldn't even have noticed if their minds hadn't already been pushed to peak caution and alarm.

After the black streaks disappeared, everyone could see that one of their friends had died again.

Yet, even though they were looking at the very part where the enemy was supposed to be, they still couldn't see them!

The Patriarch gnashed his teeth.

If he had access to his barrier, he could use it to scan for the opponent!

SHING! SHING!

Several Mages used Mana Step and arrived in the hallway.

They had already summoned their Foci, and they were ready to battle.

Yet, the hallway was completely quiet.

The only thing here was the corpse of their friend.

For a while, they only inspected their surroundings with narrowed eyes.

Their minds were screaming at them with terror and fear, but they knew that they had to fight.

SHING! SHING!

Everyone looked at a different spot in the castle as another one of their friends died.

What the hell was going on?!

Why was everyone suddenly being killed without being able to move, and why was it happening all over the castle?!

Several Mages used Mana Steps to arrive in different hallways.

They all gathered into groups and inspected their surroundings, several Spells already readied.

Silence.

The enemy had managed to pick off a couple of their friends because they had been alone, but now, everyone was gathered in different groups.

Nothing happened for several seconds.

The hallways inside the castle were brightly lit with the warm fire of many candles, but it definitely didn't feel warm right now.

The brightness of the rooms made the Mages feel exposed.

Almost like there was no place to hide.

SHING!

The Mages' eyes opened wide in shock.

Just now, a long black streak had appeared, and it went through one of the groups in one of the hallways.

Accompanying the long black streak were many small black afterimages.

As soon as the black streak appeared, the Mana Shields of the five Mages in the hallway broke into pieces at seemingly the same time.

After that, the Mages fell into multiple pieces.

Most of the Mages almost couldn't believe what they were seeing right now.

What the hell was going on?!

What kind of Spell could do something like that?!

There were almost no Mana fluctuations, and there were no fluctuations of someone speaking an incantation.

Additionally, there was no aftermath in the surroundings!

When someone threw a fireball, everyone could still see the explosion and the smoke.

When someone activated an offensive Darkness Spell, everyone could still see the concentrated Darkness Mana slowly dissipating into the surroundings.

When someone used a Wind Spell, everyone could still feel the moving wind after the attack was over.

But not this time.

Everyone could still see the dissipating Darkness Mana from the big black streak, but the small afterimages left nothing behind.

They left no kind of Mana behind, but they were powerful enough to destroy a High Mage's Mana Shield in nearly an instant.

This should be impossible!

Magic always left behind traces!

Was this even Magic?!

It must be Magic!

What else was powerful enough to kill all of them?!

It couldn't be a beast!

Beasts were dumb, and the enemy was not just blindly attacking them!

But it also didn't feel like Magic!

What the hell was going on?!

Was this actually a ghost?!

None of them even thought about the possibility that a human was attacking them without Magic.

This was not Area 23.

The strongest physical fighters in this world were at the Commander Stage, and the concept of True Path Stage warriors didn't even exist.

Additionally, warriors were incredibly weak compared to Mages.

None of these Mages had been threatened by any kind of physical fighter in the last century.

This concept basically didn't exist in their world.

If anyone told them that there was a physical fighter that could rival a High Mage, they would laugh at that person.

Something like that couldn't exist.

 

 

Chapter 555 - Gathering

As more time passed, the Mages became more and more nervous and fearful.

They had over 50 High Mages on their side, and they had all prepared their Spells.

They were all ready to launch a devastating wave of attacks at whoever was attacking them.

Yet, they just couldn't find the opponent!

What were they supposed to attack when there was nothing to attack?!

"Don't panic," the Patriarch told everyone via voice transmission. "This is not a fight to kill the opponent but to survive. In ten minutes, at most, the barrier will deactivate. After that, the Enforcer will arrive very quickly."

The other Mages nodded.

The Patriarch was right.

They only needed to survive for a while, not kill the opponent.

"Everyone gather at my location and be careful while you move," the Patriarch ordered.

The Mages quickly made their way to the Patriarch.

SHING! SHING! SHING!

Yet, several of the Mages still died on their way to the Patriarch.

The Patriarch gritted his teeth. He wanted to do nothing more than just directly jump toward one of his dying people and kill the attacker.

Yet, he had learned by now that he didn't have the ability to do so.

As soon as he arrived, the attacker would have already retreated.

And worst of all, the attacker didn't even leave behind any trace of Mana!

He could have gone upward, downward, left, right, anywhere!

The bright light in the hallway only heightened the fear of the Mages.

There was nowhere to hide.

But they were also afraid of the dark.

They already had a hard time finding the attacker. If everything became dark on top of that, it would only become even more difficult to find them!

Eventually, the last 45 Mages gathered at the same spot.

In this spot were the Patriarch, eight Peak High Mages, and all the other High Mages inside the castle.

The High Mages quickly gathered and created a powerful Magic Circle to share all their Mana in one gigantic Mana Shield.

This Mana Shield would even be powerful enough to resist the Spells of a Mid Archmage for a while.

For several seconds, the Mages only kept watch over their surroundings.

Except for the couple of weaker Mages running in panic through the castle, everything else was silent.

The attacks had stopped.

SHING! SHING!

Or, more accurately, the attacks on the High Mages had stopped.

The black afterimages returned, and every time they did, another corpse of a weaker Mage was left behind.

"Get to the fifth floor in the middle of the castle!" the Patriarch ordered to everyone inside the castle.

There were still the children, parents, and service staff left in the castle.

The people that were near the place the Patriarch had called out ran towards him, while the others despaired.

Most of the people simply ran into their rooms and tried to hide there.

Sadly, they couldn't hide from a Spirit Sense, and they were killed.

The ones that had been running towards the High Mages had also been killed.

The High Mages could only grit their teeth helplessly as they watched their friends and family die around them without being able to help.

If they left the collective Mana Shield, they would also die.

This was the most frustrating and infuriating part of their entire lives.

They had never felt this helpless before.

Just like children, the only thing they could do was wait.

After a couple of seconds, only a couple of Mages near the front door of the castle remained.

In horror, those Mages burst through the front door and charged into the darkness outside the castle.

As soon as someone touched the Darkness Mana outside the castle, all the Darkness Mana in their surroundings was pulled towards them.

It was like all the Darkness Mana was water and the lives were drains.

CRACK!

The Mana Shields of the Mages broke within a second, and they were consumed by Darkness Mana.

Every single person that had fled the castle had died.

On the fifth floor, the Mages were silent, but deep inside, they were seething with fury and hatred.

All their families and friends had died!

Even their children had been killed!

The castle fell into silence again as the killings stopped.

All the High Mages waited, their destructive Spells ready to be unleashed any second.

They only waited for their target to appear.

As soon as their target appeared, they would rain pure destruction on them!

Nothing happened for several seconds.

There was only silence.

One minute had already passed, which meant that they only needed to survive for nine more.

The attacker hadn't shown themselves in nearly a minute.

Was it working?

Was the attacker afraid of their combined power?

Crr.

Something happened.

All the Mages looked at the ceiling of the hallway.

Just now, they had felt a small cut appear on the ceiling of the hallway a floor above them.

They couldn't see through the floor, but they could feel the change in the hallway above them with their Spirit Senses.

Most of the High Mages were barely fast enough to take note of what was happening above them, but the Patriarch was fast enough.

The Patriarch was an Early Archmage, and his mind was many times faster than the minds of his people.

While the others were only just turning their attention to the tiny cut, he had already fully analyzed it.

The cut was small, but it was very thick.

It was almost like a huge blade had left it behind.

On top of that, there were signs of burning along the cut.

And the burning felt very unnatural to the Patriarch.

It felt way too dangerous to be normal fire!

All of this happened in an instant.

While the High Mages were looking at the cut for the first time, the ceiling above them exploded.

The High Mages only saw a wall of black flames charge at them.

When the Patriarch saw the black flames, he knew what had happened.

The attacker had launched an attack from the sixth floor, right above them.

His attack had scratched the ceiling on the sixth floor and then launched at the floor of the sixth floor, which was essentially the ceiling of the fifth floor.

The attack then broke through the ceiling of the fifth floor, launching directly at the collective Mana Shield.

SHING!

The Patriarch used Mana Step.

The attack felt way too powerful!

With the Patriarch suddenly gone, the collective Mana Shield lost its biggest backer.

And then, Dusk hit the Mana Shield.

 

Chapter 556 - Job's Done

BOOOOOOM!

One side of the gigantic castle exploded as a huge ball of black fire consumed everything.

The explosion was over a kilometer wide, but the castle was nearly five kilometers high.

Even though the explosion was gigantic, it only broke the front side of the castle.

The Mages could barely see what was going on since their Spirit Senses were destroyed as soon as they came into contact with the black fire surrounding their massive Mana Shield.

But they knew one thing.

That one attack had just consumed over 90% of their Mana!

How powerful was this attack?!

This was ridiculous!

Were they actually being attacked by a Mid Archmage?!

This was the full power of Dusk.

Not only had Sword reached the middle of the Fifth Realm, but Shang had also burned so much of its mass that it directly transitioned from its Colossal Sword State into its Long Sword State.

On top of that, Shang had consumed an insane amount of Light Mana and life energy to launch that attack.

Lastly, Shang used all four Imposes with it, boosting the power even more.

The attack had been very slow and very telegraphed, but it had been beyond powerful.

Yet, the Mana Shield still survived.

SHING! SHING! SHING!

Shang immediately attacked several times with his Long Sword.

Shang's Long Sword State was already his fastest state by far, but after using all four Imposes to boost its speed even further, its speed had reached ridiculous heights.

It was like a black circular saw was trying to saw through the Mana Shield. That was how fast Shang's attacks were.

CRACK!

Just as everyone started falling, the Mana Shield broke.

WHOOOOM!

As soon as it broke, the darkness that had waited outside the castle rushed in through the gigantic hole Shang had made and consumed all the Mages.

The Darkness Mana would have quickly been used up if the High Mages had their Mana Shields active, but with their Mana Shields broken, there wasn't much resistance for the Darkness Mana.

In a matter of seconds, all the Darkness Mana consumed the High Mages.

Even though there wasn't much resistance, after consuming so many High Mages, the Darkness Mana still ran out near the end.

The darkness around the castle vanished, allowing the first rays of light to reach the surroundings of the castle again.

The barrier's oppressive purple light bathed the castle's destroyed side in an oppressive hue.

Shang landed beside the building, his Long Sword held beside him.

It was impossible to discern what Shang was feeling at the moment.

Half of his face was covered behind the white bandages, and the other half seemed like it belonged to a cold corpse.

The Patriarch appeared a kilometer away from Shang, looking at him with narrowed eyes.

For the first time, the Patriarch actually saw his enemy.

Yet, he still couldn't properly judge what kind of powers his enemy was using.

He had seen something black move back and forth, but it had been too fast for even him to see.

What kind of Magic was this?!

Even more, the attacker only gave off the mental pressure of a Peak True Mage!

How was that possible?!

There were too many unanswered questions regarding that opponent.

But one thing was clear.

The opponent was now in the open, and the Patriarch could finally attack him!

BANG! BANG!

Several bolts of lightning appeared around the Patriarch, destroying the ground around him.

His eyes turned white, and his body began to float.

WHOOOOM!

Suddenly, the rubble of the partly-destroyed castle began to levitate around the Patriarch.

This was a Spell created by the Level Two Pure Concept of Lightning: Magnetism.

As tons upon tons of stone began to rapidly orbit the Patriarch, Shang also felt his weapon being pulled to him.

As a Level Two Concept, Magnetism didn't only affect metal. It even affected one's opponent and their belongings.

The air around the Patriarch began to warp.

BOOOM!

The Patriarch's white eyes widened.

The biggest chunk of stone flying around him had just exploded with fire!

The Patriarch looked at his opponent and noticed that something had changed.

Shang's Long Sword was burning and had grown suddenly!

But that didn't matter.

The Patriarch spoke a quick incantation.

And then, lightning appeared between the rubble before everything shot forward at Shang with unreal speed.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

While the rubble flew toward Shang, more lightning came out of the Patriarch, striking the barrier and the ground around him.

The surrounding kilometer around the Patriarch had transformed into a hell filled with lightning.

Shang only faced the Patriarch with his unmoving expression.

Then, his Saber moved.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The Patriarch's eyes widened again.

Shang had launched several attacks at the mountain of rubble the Patriarch had thrown at Shang.

But all his attacks seemed to vanish in one place and reappear somewhere else!

And in the end, they all exploded on the Patriarch's Mana Shield!

The Patriarch felt his Mana deplete at a rapid rate.

His attack hadn't even reached his opponent, while his Mana Shield had just taken five hits!

What was this speed?!

Eventually, the rubble reached Shang.

SHING! SHING! SHING!

But Shang's body seemed to split into multiple parts as they all jumped right into the oppressive mountain of rubble and lightning!

All the different Shangs jumped along the stone with ease as the bolts of lightning missed all of them.

BOOOOOOM!

The mountain of rubble exploded, and all the Shangs fused again.

BANG! BANG!

At that point, the Patriarch launched several terrifying Spells at Shang.

Yet, Shang only vanished…

And reappeared directly in front of the Patriarch.

SIIIIIII!

So many black explosions hit the Patriarch's Mana Shield that it sounded like it was being attacked by a huge circular saw.

The Patriarch's face whitened, and he used Mana Step to retreat.

But it didn't work!

How?!

The Patriarch launched another three Spells, but Shang just vanished again, reappearing behind him.

It was like this attacker could vanish and reappear whenever and wherever he wanted!

The Patriarch used three more Mana Steps, and he felt like he was getting closer to successfully pulling one off.

CRACK!

And then, his Mana Shield broke.

The Patriarch's eyes widened.

SHING!

And a sword pierced through his forehead.

Silence.

There was no more life within the barrier.

The job was done.

 

Chapter 557 - Work

As silence returned to the surroundings, Shang's face turned towards the Patriarch.

He saw an extremely expensive Focus with five Amplifiers and several Space Rings on him.

It was quite enticing to just take that.

However, plundering the belongings of the targets of the mission was against the rules of the temple, with good reason.

There were too many ways to track belongings, and if one Agent overlooked even one of them, the entire branch of the temple might become compromised.

Additionally, part of the reason why the clients paid such a ridiculous fee was the loot.

Most of the clients that ordered a hit on an organization, person, or family had the means to collect the loot, and one of the main reasons very often for why they wanted that target dead was something the target owned.

Shang looked at the many corpses buried beneath the rubble.

Nearly every person had a Space Ring that harbored all of their wealth.

The amount of money buried in this place was at least five times as much as Shang would get paid.

Yet, Shang preferred the risk-free and secure payment.

SHING!

Shang summoned something from his Space Ring.

It was a large container of blood.

CRACK!

Shang slashed through the container with his sword, breaking it and dispersing all the contents onto the ground behind the Patriarch's corpse.

The blood landed in a special way that painted an image.

Behind the Patriarch's corpse was now a two-meter wide blood-red silhouette of a person.

There were no visible features on this silhouette, making it seem more like a shadow.

Leaving this mark was also one of the temple's rules.

In order to not make the Enforcers dig too much into the matter, the Agents of the Temple of Blood always left behind a symbol.

Normal Agents left behind the symbol of the Temple of Blood, which was a circle with three stains of blood of varying sizes inside it.

Named Agents left their personal symbols behind. The special kind of blood the temple used to create these symbols was proof enough that it had been them.

The bloody silhouette Shang had painted with the blood was his own sign.

He was one of the Named Agents, and his codename was White Ghost.

After leaving his sign, Shang walked over to the barrier and retrieved the emblem he had put on it.

The barrier turned transparent again and acted like nothing had happened.

After using the two medals again, Shang stepped past the barrier.

From the outside, the area inside the barrier looked like a ruin.

The middle of the gigantic castle had collapsed, and there was no life anywhere close to or inside the castle.

A dead ruin.

Shang looked at the barrier once more.

It was now using its normal amount of Mana Crystals again, which meant that it would remain active for around ten more days since no one was alive to refill its Mana Crystal storage.

This meant that, at the latest, people would take note of Shang's work in ten days. When one of these barriers ran out of Mana Crystals, the manufacturer that sold them would be informed, and they would send someone to investigate.

However, people would most likely notice everything before that.

Over 500 High Mages had died, and nearly all of these High Mages had important connections with the outside.

Someone would surely try to contact the High Mages, and after failing a couple of times, they would check up on them or directly call someone to investigate.

Shang guessed that everything would be discovered in five hours at most.

He would be long gone by then.

SHING!

Shang vanished.

The sun still hung brightly and conspicuously in the sky, bathing the entire world in a warm glow of life.

It was difficult to imagine that a huge slaughter had just taken place on such a warm and peaceful day.

As Shang was running through the mountains, hills, and forests, all the light around him bent, hiding him from all manners of Spirit Senses.

Shang avoided flying through the sky since it would be easier to find him there.

Even though he was invisible to most Spirit Senses, he wasn't completely invisible to the eyes. In the sky, someone might notice the bending light around Shang.

Additionally, Archmages had terrifyingly accurate perceptions of their surroundings. The Mana fluctuations Shang left behind while walking on the ground would mostly be hidden by the different forms of life and Mana constantly interacting with each other, but things would be different in the sky.

While running through the forests, Shang had to avoid several dangerous spots.

This was no longer a place where Zone Beasts stopped their strongest beasts from killing humans.

No, the beasts in this place loved attacking humans.

If someone ran through the wilderness without a map, they would most likely die.

Even as an Archmage.

There were plenty of Archbeasts and Ancestral Beasts in the gigantic wilderness. If one wasn't careful, they might enter the Spirit Sense of one of these.

And the worst part about it was that the beasts constantly moved.

A map someone bought one day might be completely outdated the next day.

So, one either needed enough power to defend oneself from any random Ancestral Beast they met or something that could tell them where powerful beasts were without entering their Spirit Senses.

This meant that one either needed a lot of power or a lot of money, and both things mostly came together.

In this world, going outside was not something for poor or weak people.

Going outside was a luxury only afforded to the powerful or rich.

Shang theoretically had enough money to travel quite some distance in the wilderness, but just one trip would consume over 10% of his wealth.

And Shang was definitely not poor.

But then, how was he traveling through the wilderness right now?

That was a perk of the job.

The Temple of Blood had a method that allowed it to scry areas from far away.

For the missions, the temple would use that method to tell their Agents where they had to go to avoid beasts.

Shang had gotten a specific path to follow at specific times, and if a beast suddenly moved unpredictably, he would be informed.

Because of that, Shang's journey was uneventful, and about eight hours later, he reached his current home.

The Temple of Blood.

 

 

Chapter 558- Yellow Sunbreaker

In front of Shang was a humongous sunflower.

It was nearly three kilometers tall, and its yellow petals shone in the evening sun.

It looked peaceful.

But in truth, it was actually an extremely dangerous Ancestral Beast called the Yellow Sunbreaker.

It didn't pose a danger to everyone, but any Ancestral Mage that came close to it would be attacked.

While being around the flower, it was better to be weak than strong.

Shang walked over to the gigantic flower without any fear and stopped in front of one of its gigantic roots.

He summoned a small emblem and put it at the base of the root.

CRRRRRR!

The emblem began to expand, pushing the root away from the stone beneath it.

A couple of seconds later, a small cave was revealed behind the root.

Shang simply stepped forward until he was inside the cave.

CLING!

Shang used his mind to pull the emblem, keeping the root upright back to him.

BANG!

The root collapsed onto the hard stone beneath it with a lot of power. Luckily, there was no actual tension between the ground and the root. It was just gravity pulling the root down. Otherwise, the tools the Agents used to pass through this spot would need to be replaced every time they walked through there.

All the light was cut off by the root, and the cave fell into darkness.

The cave was barely ten meters long, and it looked about as inconspicuous as any other spot around the Yellow Sunbreaker.

Shang walked towards one of the walls and summoned a small jar of blood.

This was similar to the kind of blood he had used to paint his sign, but there were still some differences.

Shang dipped the tip of his finger in the small jar and painted a symbol on the wall that looked a bit like an overemphasized S.

SHING!

The wall in front of Shang lit up in red light for a moment and vanished.

Shang only stepped forward.

Five seconds later, the wall behind Shang reappeared but without the sign.

This was the only way to enter this specific branch of the Temple of Blood, and after seeing all of these precautions, one could understand how the Temple of Blood could still operate successfully while being publicly targeted by basically every major organization.

Even though Yellow Sunbreakers only attacked Ancestral Mages, High Mages and Archmages still didn't dare to venture close to one. This kept any and all High Mages and Archmages away from this location.

On top of that, Yellow Sunbreakers were very useful for the ecosystem. They absorbed Neutral Mana and released it into the surroundings as Fire Mana, Earth Mana, Light Mana, and even some of it as life energy.

Yellow Sunbreakers were often surrounded by thick forests filled with life, specifically due to the life energy they give off. Their relatively peaceful nature and the strong Mana they give off attracted many High Beasts and Arch Beasts, filling the surroundings with life.

Because of that, most of the local hegemons wanted to keep their Yellow Sunbreakers alive. They were essentially living fertilizer for their lands.

Additionally, they didn't even need to guard it. Yellow Sunbreakers were not weak, and such a big specimen had to be in the Mid Ancestral Mage Realm at least.

Only powerful wandering Mages, Enforcers, and the upper echelon of the organization controlling this territory could fight something like that.

And that was where a branch of the Temple of Blood resided.

It was an extremely secure location, especially since the power of the Yellow Sunbreaker distorted any Spirit Sense that tried to look at it from afar.

No one would notice the extremely powerful and complex Magic Barrier below the flower as long as they didn't directly stand on one of the Yellow Sunbreaker's roots and focused on searching for a Magic Barrier.

Lastly, this place was in the middle of a thick forest, over 1,000 kilometers away from any kind of civilization.

Inside the cave, Shang walked for a couple of seconds before some candles around him lit up.

Of course, the light of the candles didn't make a difference to Shang.

A couple of seconds later, Shang stepped into a big hall inside the cave.

This was a natural hall that was about 50 meters high and 20 meters wide.

Some smaller roots could be seen on the walls of the hall. Surprisingly, they didn't directly extend into the hall and kept themselves to the walls.

Yet, if someone looked closer, they could see that the roots were actually pushed to the side of the cave by a lightly pulsating Magic Barrier.

The Magic Barrier was pulsating with a gentle blue light, and Shang could feel quite a lot of Water Mana coming from the bottom of the room and going into the roots.

At the bottom of the hall was a lake of incredibly clear water. This wasn't just any water, but highly concentrated Water Mana. It was so concentrated that it even assumed liquid form.

Just like how normal water evaporated into the surroundings, the Water Mana evaporated upward, filling the entire cave with a beautiful blue hue.

The Water Mana then entered the Magic Barrier, which then fed it to the roots.

This had several uses.

First of all, one could inspect the surroundings with their Spirit Sense, but they couldn't just look through someone's body or into their body.

By giving the Yellow Sunbreaker so much Water Mana, it treated them as a valuable source of Water Mana and completely surrounded this hall with its roots, hiding the hall from any kind of Spirit Sense with its body.

Additionally, by constantly giving the Yellow Sunbreaker Water Mana, it didn't try to destroy this annoying stone in the middle of its root network.

Of course, all of this came at a high cost.

A Late Archmage with a Water Affinity needed to stay here during all times and focus on creating Water Mana for the Yellow Sunbreaker.

That was quite expensive.

Inside the natural hall were a couple of wooden huts. The Yellow Sunbreaker didn't like metal or hard rock, which was why nearly everything in here had to be constructed with wood.

The natural and simple feel of the surroundings would make one think that an environmentalist organization was living here, not the infamous Temple of Blood.

Although to be fair, this location was special and looked very different from the black, red, and purple color scheme the Temple of Blood preferred.

And this was the entire branch of the Temple of Blood.

There were only ten people in total stationed here, including Shang, and right now, there were seven inside the hall.

 

 

Chapter 559-How To Train

Shang slowly walked down some wooden stairs. The entrance he had walked through was near the top of the hall.

Of the seven people currently inside the hall, three were inside their small homes.

Nine of the ten people associated with this branch had a lot of ambition and wanted to grow more powerful. That's why most people were always busy with their own training.

Shang was no longer in some separate Area made for developing different Paths.

No, this was the real world, and the millennia of knowledge known to humanity were not a secret here.

While the weak humans in Area 23 had only trained in isolation and with some materials, the stronger and more experienced Mages here did more.

For these people, their journey toward power was divided into five parts.

Part one: Gain resources.

Training without assisting resources was just making it more difficult for no reason. The quicker one managed to achieve their goals in their training, the more time they had left in their life.

Around 10% of all High Mages didn't die to some beast or other Mage, but due to their longevity running out.

With only 500 years in total, everyone had to work on their own power with a lot of enthusiasm. Otherwise, all the training would have been for nothing.

Yet, resources were extremely expensive.

Because of that, a huge part of someone's journey to power was about gaining the resources to expedite their training.

Part two: Comprehending Concepts.

After the person got their resources, they would focus on comprehending their next Concept. With the help of the resources they had gained earlier, the Mages could save several decades in this process.

Getting resources for a full decade could pay off big time by saving five decades of meditation.

Part three: Creating Spells.

A Concept only counted as that, a concept. One understood the Concept, but before one could make full use of the Concept, one needed to create a fitting medium.

That medium was Spells.

After comprehending a Concept, the Mage would use the knowledge they had gained to create several powerful Spells. Most of the time, this didn't take as long as comprehending the Concept, but it still took quite some time.

Part four: Practice.

After creating the Spells, the Mage would find some weak opponents and become familiar with using their Spells during stressful situations. Most of the time, this was the shortest part of their training, but it was still irreplaceable. A weapon that couldn't be used when someone was under stress might as well not exist.

Part five: Inspiration.

Inspiration was the last and most dangerous part of training.

By fighting a powerful opponent, someone's mind and body would reach their full potential, allowing their minds to come up with and combine several principles.

When someone was stuck in meditation and felt like they were progressing way too slowly, they could go out and fight someone that was a genuine threat to them. Like this, they would be pushed to their limits, and they would unearth all their potential.

Of course, there wasn't a set rule as to how powerful an opponent should be.

It was simply a combination of risk and reward.

The more powerful the opponent was in relation to oneself, the more one had to push oneself to win.

However, these fights were extremely dangerous.

On the other hand, someone could take a slightly dangerous opponent and gain some scattered insights by some slight scares here and there when the opponent launched an attack.

Very dangerous opponent, very great help.

Very weak opponent, very little help.

Surprisingly enough, the reason why so many Mages died to old age was precisely this part of their training.

They were simply too scared to risk their lives, leaving the fifth part of one's journey to power out.

It was still possible to become an Archmage without risking one's life, but only the smartest and richest people could do it.

The overwhelming majority still needed to risk their lives at some point.

Gain resources, comprehend Concepts, create Spells, practice, gain inspiration.

This was the cycle of training for ambition-filled Mages.

And the nine Named Agents in this branch were all very ambitious.

Of the ten people in this branch, three were on leave, focusing on comprehending their next Concept.

Of the seven that remain, three were currently focusing on creating Spells inside their homes.

The people that were focused on comprehending Concepts needed their peace, which was why they meditated in some isolated locations in the wilderness, away from others.

The three people focusing on creating their Spells were still here because they didn't need to fully focus on the process. If they got interrupted, they would, at most, lose around three minutes of work while still getting the opportunity to snatch up some good missions and practice their new Spells.

For the people here, part two and part three of training often happened in short bursts of alternating order.

In the middle of the hall were two people playing some sort of board game against each other.

Those two were focused on gaining resources or gaining inspiration.

They would mostly focus on earning a lot of money to exchange for resources, but if a particularly fitting opponent became the target of a mission, they could also gain inspiration.

Those were the eight other Named Agents in this branch, leaving Shang as the last one.

Just like the last two, Shang was currently in the process of gaining resources…

Or, more precisely, was.

The latest mission had been worth a lot of money.

That left only one person and the only person that wasn't a Named Agent in this branch.

The Keeper.

The Keeper was the manager, commander, and defender of any given branch of the Temple of Blood.

The Keeper was always present, and they never accepted any missions. Their job was to run the entire branch according to the rules of the Temple of Blood.

In order to be eligible to become a Keeper, one needed to be an Ancestral Mage.

Of course, with the special location of this branch, getting an Ancestral Mage in here wasn't an easy feat. After all, the Yellow Sunbreaker loved attacking Ancestral Mages.

Because of that, the Keeper in this branch was a bit special.

The Keeper of this place had another job as well.

Keeper was only the secondary job of this person since it was too expensive and troublesome to smuggle an Ancestral Mage to this location.

Because of that, the Territory Lord personally acted as the Keeper of this branch.

The Territory Lord was the superior of all the Keepers in a given territory.

A Territory Lord had to be a Mage Lord, at least.

 

Chapter 560- House Wife And Trapper

Shang reached the bottom of the stairs and slowly walked over to a small wooden platform above the lake but was interrupted before he could reach it.

"How was the mission, White Ghost?" a younger girl with silver hair asked Shang.

She wore a simple dress, and she didn't look special in any way.

That was the most dangerous part about her.

In truth, she was extremely dangerous and powerful, but due to a Spell she had created, no one truly took note of her.

Her codename was House Wife.

Her codename represented her perfectly. It was very ordinary, boring, and uninteresting.

Just like how she wanted to appear.

Due to her peculiar powers, she mostly focused on assassinations in public places and espionage.

Shang knew her, and he always paid special attention to her.

She was a pretty strong Early Archmage.

Her power was definitely greater than the Patriarch Shang had killed a couple of hours ago, but she was still weaker than Shang by quite a bit.

"Nothing special," Shang said with an emotionless voice.

"Really? Nothing?" the person beside House Wife asked.

The person beside House Wife was a middle-aged man with a full beard and spiky brown hair, wearing a set of expensive brown leather armor.

All in all, he looked like a hunter or mercenary.

However, he was a very powerful Archmage.

His Affinity was Earth, and he also dabbled in Darkness Concepts.

He was amazing at hiding his presence and staying in wait. His patience was nearly unmatched, and he stalked his target for a long time if they were quite powerful.

Eventually, he would wait at a place where the target would pass by and create several truly powerful traps.

Due to the required Mana and required set-up time, these Spells could release incredible power far beyond their level.

His codename was Trapper, and he specialized in taking down single but very powerful targets.

He was a Mid Archmage that had once killed a Late Archmage before they could attack him.

And the shocking part was that the Archmage had their Mana Shield active.

"Nothing," Shang answered Trapper.

Trapper snorted. "Are you trying to impress House Wife by saying that the mission was easy?"

"Are you dumb?" House Wife said from the side.

"House Wife, you don't know men," Trapper said with his deep voice. "Even though he refused your advances several times, it doesn't mean that he isn't interested in you."

House Wife only raised an eyebrow. "That sounds more like a woman thing than a man thing," she said.

Trapper snorted again. "You don't get it. Many men want to conquer something. We don't like getting something as a present, but we would enjoy the same thing if we took it with our own hands."

House Wife was very skeptical when she heard Trapper. "That's the rapist in you talking."

"It's called conquering," Trapper said with annoyance. "Please refer to it as such."

"Same thing, different word," House Wife answered.

Trapper spat to the side. "If it weren't against the rules…"

Everyone knew what Trapper was implying.

But House Wife only snorted. "You? Come on, stalker. You might be a level stronger than me, but you wouldn't even be able to find me. How are you going to use your little worm when you can't even track me down?"

Trapper narrowed his eyes.

He wasn't a fan of the nickname House Wife had come up.

Trapper didn't say anything for several seconds.

"You know, that's exactly why I was never interested in you," House Wife said with a derisive smile. "You look and act like a creep. Even now, you only look at me with narrowed eyes, thinking whatever creepy thoughts you have stashed in that misshapen head of yours."

Trapper gnashed his teeth.

"Why don't you learn more from White Ghost?" House Wife said. "He's distant, cold, and brooding. Many women think that's cool, mysterious, and sexy."

"Also, his dick is probably bigger than yours."

Everyone could feel Trapper's rage, and he even glanced at Shang.

At that moment, Shang's head turned to House Wife.

House Wife only smiled like an innocent girl, but her smile quickly faltered.

For some reason, the more time passed, the more scared she became of White Ghost.

After around two seconds, her pulse had doubled, and she felt a heavy mountain pressing down on her.

"I'm sorry, okay?" House Wife said with a slight grimace, glancing at Shang. "I won't do it again."

Shang kept looking at her for three more seconds, and House Wife felt even more pressured.

"Don't do that again," Shang said coldly before looking away again.

"I won't," House Wife said with a grimace, looking away from Shang.

Everyone knew that House Wife loved stirring up trouble and making different people mad at each other.

It gave her an intoxicating feeling of control.

However, everyone knew her very well by now, and House Wife's tricks didn't work anymore.

Of course, Shang was still quite annoyed by her attempt.

She hadn't tried that on Shang before since she had always been a bit nervous around him.

But after such a long time of none of her schemes working, she had probably grown frustrated and tried it for the first time today.

And she quickly decided that it was also her last time.

White Ghost had been part of this branch for over 80 years, but no one truly knew him.

In 80 years, several people had tried to get to know him more, but it was impossible.

There was this cold barrier around him. Whenever someone tried to create some kind of connection with him, they found their progress completely halted at some point.

No matter how much they talked with White Ghost, he never felt any closer than a stranger to them.

It was almost like White Ghost wasn't even a human but some form of machine that didn't have human emotions.

On top of that, nobody knew how White Ghost actually fought or what his abilities were.

They only knew that he had one of the rarest Affinities in the world, a Twilight Affinity.

His Twilight Affinity was also the reason why he had blinded himself and refused to heal his eyes.

Light and Darkness' biggest difference was related to vision, but White Ghost believed that he could learn more about them by blending out the most obvious difference.

That was why he had blinded himself.

He wanted to comprehend Light and Darkness on a more fundamental level.

Shang left House Wife and Trapper behind and approached the solitary wooden platform above the lake.

This was where the Keeper and Territory Lord stayed.

Shang wanted to claim his reward.