Ch. 771..780

Chapter 771 771 – Trade

Even though the grey-haired Mage didn't have a lot of money in his Space Ring, his Focus should still be worth something.

The Foci the Clouds had access to were the best of the best, and they certainly weren't cheap.

Although, "not cheap" didn't mean expensive for the Clouds.

Maybe the Focus was worth about two Grade Seven Mana Crystals, making the Mage's total net worth about Five Grade Seven Mana Crystals.

However, that was still pitiful for an Ancestral Mage Cloud.

Many kilometers away, a Bolt was looking at an emblem with many small names written on it.

A second later, one of the names was crossed out, and the Bolt shook his head.

"What a waste," he muttered. "Why did you try to attack someone a level above you? Don't you get that jumping a level amongst Clouds is basically impossible?"

Naturally, since the grey-haired man had attacked first, Shang was allowed to retaliate and kill his attacker, even though his attacker had been an Initial Ancestral Mage.

The Bolt didn't question Shang's power at all.

In the Bolt's mind, Shang was in the Early Sixth Realm without a doubt.

But in truth, Shang was still in the Initial Void Break Realm.

This meant that this fight had been one between two equal opponents, according to level.

Yet, even though Shang had been the one that got ambushed, Shang had killed his opponent without any problems.

This was what it meant to have a sixfold Spirit Sense.

With a fivefold Spirit Sense, Shang would most likely win against his opponents while suppressing his Entropy abilities, and without suppressing them, he would almost certainly win.

However, a sixfold Spirit Sense was much more powerful.

Right now, there were probably no Initial Ancestral Mage Clouds in the Hibye that could realistically threaten Shang.

Attacking the current Shang as an Initial Ancestral Mage essentially equated to committing suicide.

After descending for a couple more seconds, Shang realized that this had probably been the only attacker, although the chances were high that a couple of Clouds had attacked other Clouds by now.

Ironically, Shang felt safer in the Wilderness Hunt than outside.

'Outside, people are trying to keep their intentions secret,' he thought. 'And worst of all, I am not allowed to kill them.'

'But in here, I am allowed to kill if I so choose to.'

However, Shang's mind still felt rather apathetic regarding all of this.

He could finally earn a lot of money, and he finally didn't need to hold back any longer.

Yet, it all felt a bit meaningless.

But that was actually to be expected. After all, Shang was fully ready to battle, which meant one important thing.

"You interested in working together?"

Shang seemingly didn't react to the words that had suddenly entered his mind.

"Explain," Shang said, creating a bit of air in his lungs to speak. Something like this wasn't difficult for someone on his level.

Shang couldn't contact the person with a voice transmission since he couldn't feel their presence.

"I've put a tracking Spell on one of the Early Ancestral Mages," the voice spoke. "She and I don't really get along. I won't be telling you the reasons."

"And you want me to kill her?" Shang asked.

"Yes," the mysterious voice said.

"And your condition?" Shang asked. Giving someone the location of a victim was not something one did for free.

"Nothing special," the mysterious voice said. "I just want you to convert all her assets into liquid funds instead of assuming ownership, but based on what I've heard, you would've done that anyway."

'It's an economic war between companies, probably,' Shang thought.

These Clouds were all extremely powerful and rich. Many of them owned a scary number of huge businesses and even towns.

Shang guessed that the mysterious voice probably had troubles with another Cloud's company, and their company was being suppressed.

If Shang killed that other Cloud, he would gain control over all her assets, including her companies and towns.

Then, Shang would just convert them to liquid funds, which meant selling the companies and towns.

Most likely, the mysterious voice would buy the majority, overtaking a rival business.

"Deal," Shang said.

"Good," the mysterious voice answered.

An instant later, a small emblem seemingly appeared out of nowhere just six kilometers away from Shang.

BANG!

Suddenly, all the Mana in the surroundings vanished, leaving a void behind.

Shang had used Void Break again.

Then, Shang pointed his Subsis at a slightly discolored spot beside the emblem.

SSSSSSSS!

A highly concentrated beam of water shot out of the tip of Shang's Subsis, reaching his opponent in no time at all.

BANG!

The beam hit something solid for just a tiny moment before the solid object seemingly vanished.

All the empty space was filled again by the surrounding water.

Shang didn't move, and he couldn't feel his opponent anymore.

He could only feel the emblem floating in the air.

Shang slowly floated over to the emblem and looked at it.

The emblem showed a three-dimensional image with an arrow pointing in one direction.

This was probably where that female Cloud was supposed to be.

A moment later, Shang followed the arrow and left the area.

While he was doing so, a silver-haired man sneered in disdain.

Surprisingly, he was a Mid Ancestral Mage.

'Idiot,' he thought with a malicious smirk.

He had been a bit surprised when Shang had suddenly attacked him, but in truth, he was actually quite happy about that.

Now, he would get control of his rival's businesses for free!

After all, someone more powerful than someone else was allowed to fight back as long as they were attacked first.

Although, what some of them didn't know was the timeframe.

They were allowed to strike back any time during the Wilderness Hunt, as long as the other person wasn't in a different duel.

That meant that the silver-haired man could now let Shang kill his weak rival and then kill him after that.

If Shang hadn't attacked him, he wouldn't have been allowed to strike back.

The silver-haired man took out another emblem and looked at the arrow with a smirk.

Then, he slowly moved toward the destination of the arrow.

 

Chapter 772 772 – Pressure

Shang moved diagonally downward. Based on the trajectory of the arrow, the silver-haired man's rival had been one of the ones that had been charging downward instead of slowly moving forward.

Shang followed the arrow for a couple of minutes.

Eventually, he finally saw something other than water.

The ground.

'Sure enough, it truly is over 10,000 kilometers deep. That's crazy,' Shang thought.

By now, Shang could also feel the intense pressure and gravity in the surroundings.

The pressure felt about as strong as the pressure a mortal would feel when freediving to a depth of around ten meters.

Definitely not easy for an average person to do, but not a problem for a professional.

Meanwhile, the gravity just required Shang to use a bit more power to move his body.

However, considering the power of Shang's physical body, this was already crazy.

'If I were at the Peak Fusion Realm without my Void Break, I would only be able to survive for a limited amount of time here,' Shang thought.

Naturally, staying at such a depth was also troublesome for the Mages.

While Late and Peak Ancestral Mages could stay here indefinitely, weaker Ancestral Mages had a slower Mana regeneration than what resisting the pressure used up.

This meant that they needed to surface a bit from time to time.

How deep was the Eternal Ocean here in total?

Maybe about 12,000 kilometers deep.

And since the Magic Circle went up to 10,000 kilometers, this meant that the Clouds could surface to a depth of 2,000 kilometers.

Naturally, the pressure wasn't nearly as deadly at a depth of 2,000 kilometers compared to a depth of 12,000 kilometers.

Like that, they could regenerate their Mana.

All of these thoughts also shot through Shang's mind, and he was quite intrigued by the choice of battlefield.

The Wilderness Hunt had turned out quite different from what he had thought.

Initially, he thought that they would be traveling through forests and mountains.

But instead, they were here, and all the parameters for usual battles had been completely changed by the environment.

Fighting at the bottom of this area could be extremely risky but also extremely beneficial.

Based on the strength of the combatants and how long they had been at the bottom, one combatant might start with 90% of their total Mana while the other only had 70%.

Even more, surfacing would also prove to be quite dangerous. After all, if one surfaced, it meant that they felt it to be too dangerous to remain in the depths, meaning that they had already been weakened.

So, what if someone fully rested created an ambush halfway to the top?

Staying in the depths was dangerous.

Surfacing was dangerous.

Honestly, the only place that wasn't dangerous was staying at the surface while already fully rested.

Of course, there were also some Clouds that didn't care at all about the pressure.

Someone very skilled in Gravity Magic could create an anti-pressure field around them, which meant that they didn't need to resist the pressure with their Mana Shield.

Metal and Earth Affinity Clouds could probably also just create a very hard isolating barrier around them, even denser than the surrounding water.

'The people that are stronger under normal circumstances might actually be significantly weaker here.'

'It's chaos.'

Eventually, Shang landed on the ground.

'So, that's why it's called Deep Crevices.'

At the moment, Shang could feel a couple of crevices in his limited Spirit Sense, and he couldn't even sense the bottom of some of them.

Some were barely a couple of meters wide, while others were so wide that Shang couldn't even feel the other side.

Initially, Shang believed that he had reached the ground, but after seeing all these crevices, he felt more like he had landed on the top of a small mountain or plateau.

Shang moved his feet around a little bit and noticed that he didn't need to increase the density of Mana beneath his feet.

The ground was so hard and dense that Shang could walk around without any problems.

And then, Shang started to run in the direction the arrow of the emblem was pointing.

The more he advanced, the more Shang could see the arrow move around, which meant that he was getting closer.

Eventually, Shang saw the arrow point into one of the crevices, and he also entered it.

The crevice was vast and deep, and Shang couldn't see the end of it.

Shang continued descending even more, but he couldn't find his target.

He saw the arrow move more and more into a horizontal orientation until it eventually was completely horizontal.

This meant that Shang was at the same depth as his target.

Shang followed the arrow, but just after a couple of seconds, he frowned.

There was a wall in front of him.

Shang looked at the arrow, which pointed directly at the wall.

Then, Shang ascended and checked if he had actually entered the correct crevice.

After looking around for a couple of minutes, he was certain that this had been the correct crevice.

He went to the same spot again and looked at the wall.

Eventually, Shang noticed a couple of hidden Magic Runes, which formed a complex Magic Circle.

Naturally, Shang's knowledge of Magic wasn't even near enough to understand this Magic Circle.

However, he didn't need to.

This simply confirmed that Shang's target was inside the ground, which meant that there was most likely an empty space within the crevice.

BOOOOOOM!

Shang punched the sandy wall!

BOOOOM!

BOOOOM!

BOOOOM!

Shang kept punching the wall, and the dense sand was blown in all directions.

Shang kept punching forward as his body moved to fill the gap he created with every punch.

Eventually, Shang was completely submerged beneath the dense sand, but that didn't matter to him.

It was just a bit more pressure.

Shang kept punching and moving forward.

BANG!

Suddenly, Shang felt like he had hit something solid. Well, "solider" than the ground around him.

Shang moved the sand to the side, allowing his Spirit Sense to see the thing in front of him.

It was a Magical Barrier.

Shang slowly put his hand on the barrier.

And then, his body began to atrophy.

Shang was creating Death Mana.

After all…

He had used up his storage of prepared Death Mana a couple of minutes ago.

 

 

Chapter 773 773 Beast Lord

Shang's body atrophied, but it wasn't as extreme as usual. After all, Shang couldn't weaken his body too much, or the pressure in the surroundings would kill him.

CRK!

Several of Shang's bones broke, and his muscles were torn.

However, everything was still under control.

While all of this was going on, Shang kept infusing the barrier in front of him with the Death Mana he was creating. He was keeping the amount of Death Mana in his body consistent so that he perpetually remained at the edge of death.

Shang remained like this for several minutes.

Meanwhile, many kilometers away, a Bolt was watching over the Clouds that had been assigned to him, with Shang being one of them.

He was paying special attention to Shang due to his identity as a warrior and the fact that he had just found one of the exclusive trials within the Deep Crevices.

These trials housed several challenges, and if one managed to clear all of them, one would get the rewards.

Most of the time, the first challenge of a trial was to find it.

The entrance to the Trial Shang was trying to get into was at the bottom of the crevice, and one would need to pay special attention to all the Earth Mana down there.

If one had some ability to reveal Magic Circles or secrets, one could find the entrance. After that, one only needed to reverse engineer the key to open the entrance.

"Wonder how long he will keep trying," the Bolt muttered to himself.

There was only one entrance to this Trial, and the place where Shang was trying to get to was not an entrance.

It was a wall.

Since Clouds were not supposed to enter from this point, the barrier on the walls was extremely powerful. One would need to be a strong Mage Lord to break through this barrier, and one would also need a couple of minutes to get through it.

Obviously, no Ancestral Mage Cloud could possibly hope to get through that barrier.

More minutes passed, and eventually, the Bolt noticed that the spot that Shang had been touching had turned grey.

The Bolt was quite surprised that a warrior at the Early Sixth Realm could influence such a powerful barrier, but that still shouldn't be an issue.

Some more minutes passed, and the grey spot had grown to be as big as Shang.

The clear parts around that grey spot had also started to vibrate, and Mana was ceaselessly flowing into the grey spot like a flood.

The Bolt looked with interest at what was happening.

He had never seen anything like it.

And then, the Bolt's Communication Crystal rung.

"Yes?" he asked casually.

"What the hell are you doing?!" came the furious shout of Lucin out of the Communication Crystal.

The Bolt was taken aback. "I'm not sure what you mean, Lucin," the Bolt said.

"Not sure what I mean?!" Lucin repeated in anger. "I've been told that one of the people you are supposed to watch is within Trial 31!"

"That's correct," the Bolt answered.

"Then what the hell do you mean with what do you mean?!" Lucin shouted.

The Bolt just blinked a couple of times. "I still don't know what you're referring to. Nothing seems out of the ordinary."

Silence.

"Is this some kind of protest?" Lucin asked with a threatening voice.

The Bolt blinked in confusion again.

"No?" he answered with uncertainty.

"Then fucking deal with it!" Lucin shouted.

The Bolt's mind was going wild.

He had absolutely no idea what Lucin was referring to.

"Lucin, are you okay?" he asked. "I genuinely have no idea what you are talking about."

"I'm talking about that Beast Lord that is attacking Trial 31's barrier!" Lucin shouted.

Silence.

"What?" the Bolt asked as he inspected Trial 31. "There's no Beast Lord."

Silence.

Then, the Bolt heard a very angry sigh.

"Then, how is that barrier losing more Mana than regenerating?" Lucin asked with obvious annoyance.

"It is?!" the Bolt shouted in shock.

He looked at the barrier of Trial 31 again, but he couldn't see any Beast Lord.

However, now that he heard Lucin say it, the Bolt realized that an awful lot of Mana was moving across the barrier in one stream, which was very similar to how it would act if it were attacked.

The Bolt followed the stream, and his eyes fell on the grey spot in front of Shang.

"Lucin," the Bolt said.

"What?!" Lucin shouted in anger.

"There is no beast interacting with that barrier in any way. The only thing interacting with that barrier is one of the Clouds," the Bolt answered.

"One of the Clouds?!" Lucin shouted. "How could-"

And then, silence.

"Which one?" Lucin asked in a calmer tone.

"The warrior," the Bolt answered.

The Bolt heard a deep sigh coming from the Communication Crystal.

"What's going on?" Lucin asked calmly.

"There's a big grey spot in front of the Cloud, and it is growing by the second. The grey spot seems to absorb all the Mana."

"I think this Cloud actually has a shot at breaking through the barrier," the Bolt said with surprise.

Silence.

"What should we do?" the Bolt asked. "This hasn't happened before, as far as I am aware."

Lucin remained silent.

"I mean, should we stop him?" the Bolt asked. "But that wouldn't be fair since we want to give all the Clouds the opportunity to use their powers."

"But if he succeeds, he will ruin the entire trial, making it meaningless."

"What should I do?" the Bolt asked.

Lucin remained silent for several seconds.

Then, Lucin sighed again.

"Nothing," Lucin answered.

"Nothing?" the Bolt asked.

"Nothing," Lucin confirmed. "This is his power. Restricting the Clouds' powers would be unfair. The Clouds work very hard for their powers, and restricting their powers would be like punishing them for being too strong."

"Strength should be encouraged, not discouraged."

"So, if a Cloud has the ability to break through barriers that can even hold off Mage Lords, they deserve to break the barriers."

"Well, okay then," the Bolt said.

"Sorry for shouting at you earlier," Lucin said.

"Oh, no problem. I understand," the Bolt said dismissively.

"Thanks," Lucin said. "I think I will come to the Deep Crevices. It might be better for me to watch personally."

"Sure," the Bolt said.

"Later," Lucin said.

"Later," the Bolt answered before the connection was cut.

The Bolt stashed the Communication Crystal away and looked at the barrier.

It would break very soon.

"I have no idea if the Magic Circles within the Trial will even work after this. They're not made to operate underwater and under so much pressure."

 

 

Chapter 774 774 Cube

Shang noticed that the barrier before him started to distort under the pressure.

Shang pulled his hand back and healed himself to his peak.

He had filled the barrier with an unreal amount of Death Mana, and it wouldn't stop absorbing Mana anytime soon.

Shang watched the barrier distort more and more until…

BANG!

The barrier shattered.

WHOOOOOOM!

As the entire barrier around the trial vanished, all the wet ground surrounding it suddenly imploded, filling the spots that had been filled with normal air until now.

In the short moment when the barrier had been destroyed but the earth hadn't yet filled in the empty space, Shang had been able to feel his surroundings with his Spirit Sense.

The image Shang had seen was of a rather large room with several pitfalls, several Magic Circles, and several platforms.

Shang assumed that this had probably been some kind of trial where people had to find out how the Magic Circles worked to divine the correct way across the platforms and pitfalls.

But now…

As soon as the barrier broke, all the earth rushed into the room, destroying the platforms, filling the pitfalls, and disrupting almost all the Magic Circles.

Shang remained standing on his spot for a couple of seconds until all the ground around him had calmed down.

Then, Shang took out the emblem and looked at the arrow.

Diagonally down.

Shang hadn't seen his target in the brief moment before the earth had filled in the gaps, which meant that his target was inside a different challenge within the trial.

Shang remembered where one of the doors had been and dug towards that spot by punching more dirt.

None of the pitfalls, platforms, and Magic Circles worked anymore.

Some seconds later, Shang reached the doorway, and one punch later, the door opened slightly.

WHOOOM!

The door immediately exploded outward, and the earth around Shang rushed into the opened doorway.

Shang simply continued punching forward.

BANG!

After one particular punch, Shang noticed that he had destroyed something that wasn't the normal kind of ground.

A couple of pieces of marble shot past him.

Shang realized that he had entered a hallway with a stairway that went upward, and he had just now punched through the stairs.

Shang took out the emblem again and looked at the arrow.

Diagonally down.

Then, he turned around, punched through the door, through the room, and then through the other door.

Shang punched through some marble again, but he noticed that the angle was different, which meant that he had just punched through the slanted ceiling.

This meant that this stairway led down.

Shang was just about to kick diagonally down when he suddenly stopped.

He realized something.

After that, he looked at the arrow again and oriented himself perfectly in the arrow's direction.

Shang realized that he didn't need to adhere to the planned layout if he was already accidentally destroying the walls and stairs.

Shang punched forward, and the more he advanced, the more the arrow was moving left and right.

This didn't mean that his target was moving but that he was getting closer to it.

Shang prepared himself for a battle as he punched forward.

Yet, nothing was happening.

Eventually, the arrow started to move rapidly when Shang was just moving the emblem around.

After moving it around a bit, Shang realized that his target was essentially directly in front of his chest.

His arms could already move behind the target.

Shang moved his arms forward and dug more carefully.

And then, he saw his target.

It was a small cube of bloody meat surrounding a Space Ring.

Shang wasn't particularly surprised about that.

Early Ancestral Mages couldn't permanently resist the pressure at the bottom of the Eternal Ocean.

This spot was even deeper than that.

Additionally, the pressure underground was even more brutal than the pressure in the water.

On top of that, the Cloud had probably been taken by surprise while undertaking the trial.

Maybe her Mana Shield had been deactivated.

Maybe her Mana had already been low.

Anyway, the brutal pressure of the sudden explosion of earth had killed her and compressed her into this tiny cube of meat.

How strong was the body of an Early Ancestral Mage?

Not very strong.

Such a body was probably about as strong as Shang's body had been at the Mid True Path Stage.

In comparison to Shang, it was pitiful.

Shang's current body was already under quite a lot of pressure.

One could imagine how a Mage's body would fare.

Shang dug the Space Ring out of the cube of meat and inspected it.

'Pretty good,' he thought.

He guessed that the contents were worth quite a couple of Grade Seven Mana Crystals. Way better than the beggar from earlier.

Shang threw the cube of meat to the side again and punched upward.

He kept a mental map of the layout of the trial and kept checking what kind of material he was destroying.

After a while, Shang noticed that he wasn't destroying marble anymore and turned around.

For the next couple of minutes, Shang kept searching through the highest layer of the trial until he found one single hallway that led upward.

Shang followed that hallway for a bit and noticed that it led to an inconspicuous spot at the bottom of the Eternal Ocean.

This was the exit.

After finding the exit, Shang turned around again and followed the hallway deeper.

Eventually, he found a door, and after opening it, he began to dig more carefully.

Some minutes later, Shang found a highly compressed cube of metal.

This should be one of the rewards for clearing the trial.

This cube of metal probably used to be some kind of artifact.

Obviously, it wasn't worth as much anymore as it used to, but Shang believed that the materials should still be worth something and pocketed the cube.

Shang searched around and found a couple more rewards, but the extreme pressure had turned most of them into useless chunks.

But one of the rewards had survived.

It was an emblem.

Shang read through its contents and snorted.

Free access to a high-grade area for comprehending Concepts for 500 years.

Anyone else would be ecstatic about this reward, but due to his status, Shang already had access to basically everything.

'Hope I can sell this back to the Lightning Manor.'

Shang pocketed the emblem and punched upward.

Some seconds later, he punched through the last layer of ground and reached the Eternal Ocean again.

Shang's Spirit Sense could finally expand to a radius of ten kilometers again.

Then, Shang stopped on the ground of the Eternal Ocean.

"I have a question regarding the rules," Shang said by creating more air in his lungs.

"What is your question?" one of the Bolts asked Shang via voice transmission.

The Bolts were always watching, and if someone had questions, it was their duty to answer them.

"If I kill someone but can't retrieve their belongings, what happens to them?" Shang asked.

"If you are truly the one responsible for their death, we will retrieve the belongings for you," the Bolt answered.

"Okay," Shang said as he slowly lifted his right arm.

"Then, can you retrieve this?"

Shang snapped his fingers.

At that moment, far away from Shang, the Bolt's eyes widened in extreme shock.

What the fuck had he just witnessed?!

It took him several seconds to recover.

Some seconds later, a small portal opened in front of Shang.

A Space Ring was coming through it.

 

Chapter 775 775 Infection

The Space Ring fell out of the portal, and Shang inspected it.

Then, he nodded.

'Not bad,' he thought. 'This guy probably has nearly a hundred Grade Seven Mana Crystals. With everything else I've gotten, I should have earned more than 200 Grade Seven Mana Crystals.'

Less than half an hour.

This was how long Shang had taken to earn more than 200 Grade Seven Mana Crystals.

Shang pocketed the Space Ring and planned his next move.

Meanwhile, the Bolt was looking at Shang with shock.

He still couldn't fully accept what he had just witnessed.

Near the top of the greater Magic Circle encompassing the wilderness, a Mid Ancestral Mage Cloud had been calmly waiting and recovering.

After he had been attacked by Shang, he went deeper into the Eternal Ocean and searched for something valuable.

Sadly, the intense pressure and gravity had been far stronger than the Mage had anticipated, and he needed to go to shallower waters to recover some of his Mana.

He hadn't expected that the intense pressure would use up that much of his Mana, but that also didn't matter that much.

After resurfacing for a while, he was planning to return to the bottom of the Eternal Ocean.

And then, he exploded.

A humongous black sphere suddenly consumed him and the surrounding kilometers.

The surroundings had been filled with insanely dense Darkness Mana.

It took a while for the dense Water Mana from the outside to wash the Darkness Mana away, but when it did, the Cloud had been revealed again.

He had transformed into a husk.

He looked like a corpse that had been dead for months.

Naturally, this was the doing of one or two of Shang's new techniques, depending on how one defined a technique.

When Shang had absorbed the Water Mana around him with his Void Break, he had immediately shoved it into his Subsis.

Shang's Subsis couldn't hold Water Mana, but it could still guide it due to its shape.

The dense Water Mana was pushed out of Shang's Subsis at its tip, creating a fast and dense beam of water.

Yet, it had to get through something first.

A layer of Death Mana.

Shang had coated the tip of his Subsis with his stored Death Mana, and when the Water Mana shot through it, it pulled the Death Mana along.

Naturally, Death Mana wouldn't easily move like that, but this was why this was a technique. By manipulating a couple of Concepts and the Mana, Shang could infuse some of his attacks with Death Mana.

And this was one of them.

People that weren't familiar with Death Mana wouldn't be able to see it, making Shang's attack seem weak and irrelevant.

When the water beam hit the Mage, it scattered Death Mana across his entire Mana Shield.

Shang had used the Concept of Sickness with the Death Mana, which meant that it clung to the Mana Shield and absorbed Mana continuously.

An Initial Ancestral Mage would notice the drain immediately.

An Early Ancestral Mage might notice the drain.

However, a Mid Ancestral Mage had too much Mana to notice the drain immediately. It would take some time for them to notice it.

This was one of the effects of this technique, with another effect being a marker for Shang to follow.

Shang could feel the Death Mana, and he could essentially follow its trail like a dog.

Shang called this attack Infection.

What could the opponent do to get rid of Infection?

It was very easy but also very risky.

Just dismiss the Mana Shield.

When the Mana Shield was dismissed, the Mage only needed to take a step to the side and resummon it. Like this, the Death Mana wouldn't affect them anymore.

However, activating Mana Shield wasn't instantaneous.

The cast for Mana Shield was a bit longer than for Mana Step.

And with the power of a Mage's body, any attack Shang would launch at them would end their life.

Even just the pressure of Shang swinging his sword in the general direction of the Mage might turn them to dust.

Of course, Shang also had created some techniques that were extremely weak but also extremely fast for exactly that purpose.

Either dismiss your Mana Shield and risk dying or keep getting drained by Death Mana.

Sadly, what the opponent didn't know was that the more Mana the Death Mana absorbed, the more powerful it became.

By using the Concept of Purgatory, Shang could keep the Mana "alive".

All the Mana eaten by the Death Mana would be transformed into Darkness Mana and stored inside it.

And Shang could detonate this Mana whenever he wanted.

Naturally, if the Death Mana didn't absorb a lot, the power of the explosion would be negligible.

In order to completely kill a Mid Ancestral Mage with their Mana Shield, it would need to absorb Mana for around a minute.

A minute in a battle between Shang and a Mage was an unreasonably long time.

But when they were not directly in a battle, this technique was deadly.

This was the attack that had killed the Mid Ancestral Mage Cloud.

Since it was an extension of Infection and a sort of culmination of it, Shang decided to call it Sepsis.

If you actually get Sepsis, there's a good chance that you won't survive.

A weak and pathetic beam of water that had touched the Mage's Mana Shield for just an instant had been the reason for his death.

The Bolt had no idea how Shang had accomplished that.

In fact, several things about Shang shocked and confused the Bolt.

How had he destroyed such a powerful barrier?

How had he killed someone a level above him from so far away?

The Bolt knew that the Clouds had mystical powers, but Shang's powers were the most mystical of them all.

They just seemed to defy common sense, making the impossible possible.

For some reason, the Bolt felt like this Wilderness Hunt wouldn't be a normal one.

 

 

Chapter 776 776 Needle

After thinking about his options for a while, Shang decided to walk along the bottom of the Eternal Ocean.

If he could find an entrance to a trial, he could earn a lot of money.

As long as he actually won the trial fairly, his rewards wouldn't be destroyed.

He walked along the ground of the Eternal Ocean and focused on all manners of fluctuations around him.

There were no beasts or humans around him.

There was only the deep darkness and pressure of the Eternal Ocean.

There were no streams at the bottom of the Eternal Ocean, making it feel dead.

Shang just kept walking through the darkness and pressure.

It was like he had been transported to a different world.

When he reached a crevice, Shang jumped down and inspected the entire thing.

Some crevices were small, while others were huge.

Yet, everything seemed to be the same, and Shang found no traces of strange fluctuations.

But he also hadn't expected to. After all, the Deep Crevices was a huge wilderness, and Shang's Spirit Sense wasn't that big right now.

The Early Ancestral Mage from earlier had probably known about the location of the trial before she had even jumped into the ocean.

The Clouds weren't stupid, and they even used information as resources.

Just pay a couple of Mana Crystals, and we will tell you where you can find one of the trials in the Deep Crevices. If you get lucky and get sent to the Deep Crevices, you will earn far more, and if you don't, there's always next time.

No one wanted the others to earn money without them getting a cut themselves.

As for people that weren't willing to purchase the locations of trials, they had to search for them on their own, and the chances of them finding one weren't very high.

After all, the trials were well hidden, and the wilderness was vast.

Nevertheless, Shang continued slowly searching through the crevices.

He moved methodically and efficiently.

Several days seemed to pass in the blink of an eye.

The surroundings hadn't changed.

However, Shang had changed.

Shang's body was losing a bit of blood through a couple of cuts, and his skin didn't seem as healthy anymore.

It looked like Shang's body couldn't permanently stay at the bottom of the Endless Ocean without slowly deteriorating.

But Shang didn't seem to mind.

A couple more days passed, and Shang's body released a bit more blood than before.

CRK!

Suddenly, Shang's left arm broke, and as soon as it did, it was compressed into a small tendril of meat.

Shang gritted his teeth in pain as his head faced his left arm.

Then, Shang jumped and started to ascend.

He had to recover in shallower waters.

WHOOOM!

Suddenly, several claws made of Darkness Mana appeared around Shang.

Oh no!

An ambush!

Just when Shang was at his weakest!

WHOOOOM!

In a single instant, Shang's entire body healed, and all the Mana in the surroundings vanished, leaving a void and the claws of darkness behind.

Shang couldn't absorb Mana that had someone else's will on it.

Yet, there was one other spot.

There was one spot in the void that was also filled with Darkness Mana that wasn't used to attack Shang.

Shang's recovered arm immediately grabbed his Subsis and slashed at one of the claws.

DING!

As soon as the Subsis hit the claw, it vanished.

At the same time, Shang's body atrophied slightly.

But there was one more thing.

Shang's Subsis now had a long edge made of Darkness Mana.

BANG!

Shang used the foreign Mana inside himself to avoid the other claws of darkness.

As Shang shot to the side, he pointed his darkness-filled Subsis at the one spot in the void that wasn't without Mana.

BANG!

The darkness-filled blade shot out of Shang's Subsis at incredible speeds and hit the opponent before they could react.

BANG!

The blade hit the target and scattered. It was like someone had launched a glass at a steel plate.

And then, the piece of Darkness Mana vanished.

All the Water Mana from the Eternal Ocean filled the void, and Shang faced a certain direction.

The opponent had retreated.

They had believed that Shang had been at his weakest, but that had been a trap.

As soon as they had seen Shang recover in an instant, they decided to retreat.

However, Shang still managed to hit them with the blade of Darkness Mana.

Luckily, that attack wasn't too powerful.

Yet, the attack's speed had been scary!

It was way too fast!

This was one of the attacks Shang had designed to finish off a Mage after they deactivated their Mana Shield due to Infection.

It didn't have a lot of power, but it was the fastest attack Shang could launch.

Shang called it Needle.

Needle was made to work with Infection.

However, it didn't need to be used after Infection had taken hold.

Shang's expression didn't change as he shot forward.

Needle could also be used to "infect" the target.

At the moment, Shang felt a clear trail of Death Mana.

Shang summoned Ice and Fire Mana and exploded forward.

Shang was using Comet to shoot forward at rapid speeds.

This was the fastest way Shang could move without wasting resources, and it was faster than average Mid Ancestral Mages could move without Mana Step.

Naturally, Clouds were quite a bit faster, but that also wouldn't be a problem.

Shang knew where his opponent was.

His opponent didn't know where Shang was.

After less than a second, Shang saw half a sphere of Death Mana rapidly moving away.

The sphere suddenly changed directions, and Shang followed it.

It changed directions a couple more times until it completely vanished again.

Mana Step.

Yet, even Mana Step didn't help.

Shang could still feel the trace.

He just kept charging after his target.

Four seconds later, Shang saw the sphere again.

SHING!

And it vanished again.

This spiel repeated a couple more times.

Eventually, the two of them reached rather shallow depths.

When Shang saw the sphere again, it quickly vanished again.

But this time, it reappeared right in front of him with an insane amount of Darkness Mana between it and Shang.

It was an extremely powerful Spell.

Obviously, the Mage had been thrown into a panic and had decided to go all in.

WHOOOOM!

The Darkness Mana vanished as all the Mana around Shang turned into Neutral Mana.

At the same time, Shang's legs vanished but were healed in an instant.

Domain of Entropy!

The next moment, all the Mana in the surroundings vanished again.

The Mana moved through Shang's body, was transformed, and was pushed into Shang's Addum.

And then, the Addum hit the enemy's Mana Shield.

CRACK!

The Mana Shield broke apart, and Shang could see a beautiful black-haired girl.

For just a moment, she looked at Shang with teary and terrified eyes.

And then, Shang's Subsis stabbed through her, and her terrified expression vanished as she turned into a dried corpse.

'Another Initial Ancestral Mage,' Shang thought. 'They're really underestimating me.'

Shang noticed that her Focus was still in one piece and pocketed it.

After that, he looked into her Space Ring.

'It's okay. Probably around 40 or 50.'

A second later, Shang moved to the ground of the Eternal Ocean again and continued searching for trials.

And as his search continued, his body was slowly becoming weaker and injured again.

He sure hoped that nobody would ambush him while he was injured.

 

 

Chapter 777 777 Trial

A man with purple hair opened his eyes widely in terror.

'No!' he thought.

And then, the unstoppable flood of water rushed past his destroyed Mana Shield, distorting his body and compressing him into a cube.

Shang extended his arm and pocketed the Space Ring and the Focus without thinking much of it.

This had been the third Early Ancestral Mage he had killed in the trial in the last seven years.

Yes, it had already been seven years since Shang had entered the Deep Crevices.

And he had made quite a killing.

In total, he had killed one Mid Ancestral Mage with Sepsis on the first day, three Early Ancestral Mages, and five Initial Ancestral Mages.

From 36 Ancestral Mages that had come with Shang to the Deep Crevices, he had killed nine of them, which was 25% of the total.

Shang estimated that he had probably earned enough money to pay for the thing he wanted, but having more money was never wrong.

By getting more money now, Shang could avoid going outside and earning money in the future.

Shang thoughtlessly pocketed all the belongings and went back to the bottom of the Eternal Ocean.

He still hadn't found a trial.

For the past seven years, Shang had continually searched for a trial, but sure enough, the trials weren't easy to find.

Shang guessed that he had probably passed by several trials without noticing them.

Sadly, amongst the belongings of his victims, he also couldn't find any written accounts of trials, but that was to be expected.

After all, people only carried extensive documentation and their diaries with them in movies and novels. In real life, people didn't carry their entire life story with them in their pockets.

So, Shang continued searching for a trial.

Two more years passed.

In these two years, Shang only managed to kill one Initial Ancestral Mage.

The number of other Mages had become low.

Well, the number of Mages Shang could defeat had become low.

There were still a lot of Peak Ancestral Mages, and Shang saw them pass by rather frequently.

They didn't really care about Shang's presence since his level was far too low to threaten or interest them.

Funnily enough, some of them even asked Shang if he had seen any other Ancestral Mages, and Shang earned a couple of Mana Crystals by giving them information.

It seemed like the Wilderness Hunt would end without Shang being able to find a trial.

But then, Shang actually noticed something fishy that wasn't fish.

The temperatures in one place were slightly fluctuating.

The fluctuation was very subtle, but since a major part of Shang's power was temperature, he managed to notice it.

Shang walked over and inspected the temperature and its movements.

He watched for several minutes, and eventually, he managed to make sense of it.

A second later, Shang summoned some protected Ice and Fire Mana and shot them at specific spots on the ground.

WHOOOM!

A yellow barrier came out of the ground, expanding and encompassing Shang.

All the water was pushed away from Shang, and a door appeared on the ground.

For the first time in a long while, Shang was not surrounded by water or earth anymore, but he also didn't care a lot about that.

Shang's mind moved the door and opened it, revealing a staircase leading into the ground.

Shang walked down the staircase, closing the door behind him.

After Shang closed the door, the barrier and the door vanished again, making everything seem normal.

Meanwhile, Shang continued walking down the staircase until he reached another door.

He opened it and entered a rather small entrance hall behind it.

The entrance hall looked rather simple. It was made of some darker stone, and there were a couple of torches hanging on the wall.

Naturally, no Cloud needed torches. Shang guessed that this was just for decoration and atmosphere.

The only interesting thing in the entrance hall was a stone stele in the middle.

"Ice and Fire Trial," Shang read.

"Rarity: Two of five."

"Difficulty: Two of five."

"Levels: Three."

"Realm: Automatically adjusted."

"Participants: One."

"Reward: Two of five."

'Makes sense,' Shang thought. 'It's one of the more common and easier trials. I assume the really difficult and rewarding trials are extremely difficult to find and might even require several Mages to work together. After all, this trial also mentions participants, which probably means that there are group trials.'

'I remember hearing that the biggest prize anyone can get in the Wilderness Hunt is to become a temporary student to one of the Mage Kings for a century.'

'In terms of value, that would probably equate to 100 Grade Eight Mana Crystals since that would be what a Mage King could produce in a century, but I guess that reward is only available in the most difficult trial.'

Shang turned to the door leading into the next room.

'This definitely isn't that trial, but there should still be some good rewards. Ancestral Mages already get five Grade Seven Mana Crystals every century from the Lightning Manor, and I don't think that there is any reward that's worth less.'

Shang nodded and walked over to the door.

'Most of these trials are probably made for Mages. I hope I can get through them.'

Shang opened the door and walked into the hallway behind it.

After some walking, Shang entered a big hall.

When the door behind him closed, a barrier appeared over it, stopping Shang from turning back.

These trials were supposed to be dangerous, and entering them was something that had to be considered.

Shang didn't exactly mind the barrier and focused on what was in front of him.

There was a two-meter-high and wide glass furnace in front of him with a floating purple crystal in the middle.

Shang could also see that the other door was held closed by another barrier.

A moment later, shimmering writing appeared in the air above the furnace.

And then, Shang knew what he had to do.

 

Chapter 778 778 The Three Challenges

"Increase the temperature inside the furnace as much as possible while using as little Fire Mana as possible," Shang read.

'Interesting. This is a trial that tests someone's mastery over the Fire Affinity. Hotter fire is more destructive, and by using as little Fire Mana as possible, this trial is testing the quality of someone's Concepts and mastery over fire.'

'The level four Concept of Fire is Explosion, which can probably produce extremely hot flames. Even the level three Concept Incineration can create powerful flames, but for a Cloud that found this place, this is probably the bare minimum.'

'However, this is also just the first trial. I would expect it to be easy.'

'I guess it needs the level three Concept of Fire, Incineration to complete it. I guess a Cloud that knows a lot about temperatures would have comprehended that Concept.'

'Sadly, I don't have that Concept.'

Shang walked over to the glass furnace and flew to its top.

Then, he extended his right hand.

A moment later, the space below his hand seemed to distort with some invisible waves.

After some time, the air in the entire furnace seemed to warp and wave in a strange manner. It was almost like the world inside the furnace was about to break down.

Ding!

At that moment, the door leading out of the room opened as the barrier vanished.

Shang had fulfilled the requirements.

He might not have the Concept of Incineration, but he had the Concept of Addition.

Light had two aspects, which were mass and brightness.

Fire also had two aspects, which were heat and brightness.

Shang had converted all the brightness in the fire into heat, which was why the fire he had just dropped in the furnace had been nearly invisible to the eye.

Naturally, this kind of fire was far hotter than normal fire since all of its power was focused on heat.

And that had been enough for Shang to get past the first trial.

Shang landed in front of the exit and walked through it.

Some seconds later, Shang opened the door to the second trial.

This time, there was a blue cube in the middle of the room.

Shang looked to the side at an emblem and read the instructions.

"The cube can only hold a limited amount of Ice Mana. Make it as cold as possible," he read.

'So, the opposite of the first trial.'

'The level three Concept of Ice is Blizzard, which doesn't seem to decrease the temperature by a lot more than just the level two Concept, Freeze.'

'Of course, the level four Concept of Ice, Zero, would decrease the temperature drastically again.'

'Do they expect an Early Ancestral Mage to know the Concept of Zero to advance?'

'I don't think so. Otherwise, the difficulty rating wouldn't just be a two. Sure, they could expect that from Peak Ancestral Mage Clouds, but not from Early Ancestral Mage Clouds.'

'I guess it probably needs the level three Concept of Ice, Blizzard.'

'I also don't have that.'

Shang walked over to the cube and put his hand on it.

A second later, the cube began to shine in a blue light.

Ding!

The door opened, and the barrier broke.

Shang got through that trial again.

Just like fire and light, ice and darkness also had two properties each, which could be manipulated with the Concept of Subtraction.

Darkness had absorption and void, void meaning the absence of light in this case.

Ice had cold and void.

Shang had simply pushed his Ice Mana to the extreme of coldness, which had been enough.

Fire pushed to the extreme of heat transformed into invisible flames.

Ice pushed to the extreme of coldness transformed into something that resembled azure sand.

What about the other two?

Well, that was where the connection between the Affinities came into play.

Pushing fire to the extreme of brightness would produce the same thing as what pushing light to the extreme of brightness produced.

Very bright light.

This was where these two Affinities were connected.

The same thing was true for ice that was pushed to the extreme of void.

It would just become a very dark space.

Darkness that was pushed to the extreme of absorption did just what it said. It absorbed and destroyed stuff.

From beginning to end, one could envision a line of connections.

Fire heat to fire brightness to light brightness to light mass to darkness absorption to darkness void to ice void to ice coldness to fire heat and so on.

The makers of this trial probably envisioned the contestant to use the pure Concepts of Fire and Ice to get through the trials, but the Concepts of Subtraction and Addition worked just as well.

Of course, everything involving the Clouds was special, and the Bolts that had designed the trials probably also expected the Clouds to get through the trials in ways they hadn't foreseen.

Because of that, only the results of the trials were important, not how the Clouds got them.

Shang left the blue cube behind and exited the second trial.

After some seconds, he reached the third trial, and as soon as he saw it, he realized that this would be very different from the last two.

CRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

SSSSSSSHHH!

The space in front of Shang was consumed by a sea of terrifyingly hot flames one instant before being flooded with extremely cold air.

The temperatures were changing several times per second, and the extremes of temperatures were no joke.

They could definitely kill an Early Ancestral Mage.

On top of that, there was something else that was different.

Shang couldn't feel the end of the room with his Spirit Sense, which probably meant that the inside of the room had been enlarged with Space Mana.

Shang also saw the instructions hanging on the wall.

"In front of you are 500,000 kilometers of alternating heat and cold. The use of Mana Step and similar Spells has been suppressed under the Magic Circle."

"Get to the other side of the room without dying."

'I see,' Shang thought. 'The first two trials were the extremes of each side, and the third trial now tests everything in between.'

'If someone has a certain mastery over fire and ice, they could definitely survive this place for a while, but the real challenge would be to survive everything while traveling 500,000 kilometers.'

'Some Clouds might run out of Mana before they reach the end, and there's also no place to rest and refill their Mana during the journey.'

Shang wordlessly walked over and put his hand into the storm of ice and fire.

After a couple of seconds, Shang pulled his hand out again and looked at it.

Some cracked skin.

A bit of blood.

Some burns.

Shang put his hand back into the storm and waited.

30 seconds later, he pulled it out again.

It looked quite ravaged, but he only needed to use a bit of life energy to recover it.

After that, Shang shot into the storm of ice and fire.

His body broke in a couple of places and burned in others.

However, Shang just kept using his life energy.

Shang only needed to heal his body once every 30 seconds, and the accumulated damage was also only on the surface.

He was regenerating more life energy than he was using.

This meant that he could stay in this place indefinitely.

He didn't even use his fire and ice abilities to control his temperature.

He just flew through it.

Sure, the sensation on his skin was a bit annoying, but it wasn't too bad.

About five minutes later, Shang came out of the other side of the trial.

And just like that, Shang completed all three challenges of the trial.

 

 

Chapter 779 779 - Rewards

Shang left the third challenge and walked to the next room, which was where the rewards were stored.

He entered a rather sizable hall with five rows of floating items.

Most of the items were in the first row and the least in the fifth.

Shang could see all the items in the first four rows, but the single item in the fifth row was obscured by a barrier.

In front of the first row of items was a stele that explained everything.

"Congratulations on passing the trial!"

"Your performance has been judged to be Four Stars. You may choose one item amongst the first four rows."

'Four Stars?' Shang thought.

A little bit lower, Shang could see how the trial judged performances.

One Star: Get to the end.

Two Stars: Get to the end and fulfill the criterium for success for one of the first two challenges.

Three Stars: Get to the end and fulfill the criteria for success for both of the first two challenges.

Four Stars: Get to the end and achieve minor success on the first two challenges.

Five Stars: Get to the end and achieve major success on the first two challenges.

That answered some of the questions Shang had.

'It seems like the first two challenges were actually optional, and I only needed to get through the third one to get a reward.'

'I presume that knowing the level three Concepts for ice and fire would get someone a three-star evaluation. To get a four-star one, someone probably needs to push it even further.'

'The five-star one probably needs the level four Concepts for both of them.'

'Thanks to the Concept of Twilight, my Concepts of Addition and Subtraction can now exhibit the power of level three Concepts, which would allow them to get a three-star evaluation on their own.'

'However, since Subtraction and Addition specialize in producing extreme results, it was enough to get a four-star evaluation.'

'To get a five-star one, I would probably need Subtraction, Addition, Incineration, and Blizzard. I don't think I would need Explosion or Zero.'

Shang nodded and looked at the items he could choose from.

The first row was filled with small piles of Grade Seven Mana Crystals, each one consisting of five.

There were also some small emblems signifying properties in some cities or towns.

The second row had some herbs and metals.

Shang didn't recognize any of them, but he guessed that these were probably worth more than the piles of money.

The third row was filled with books.

From what Shang could see, these were Spell Books. He guessed that these were probably Spells that past Clouds had come up with, which would make them worth a lot of money.

Maybe the person would even get the right to distribute these Spells.

The fourth row only had three items.

All three were vouchers to access useful areas that helped in comprehending Concepts.

Sadly, Shang couldn't see the last item.

But that didn't matter.

By entering the trial and getting through it the normal way, Shang had achieved his goal.

He had managed to enter the room of rewards before it was destroyed by the ground.

Shang walked past the rewards, to one of the walls.

BANG!

Shang punched the wall into dust, revealing a barrier behind it.

'This room of rewards is probably identical to the other one, and since all the rewards were destroyed by the earth after I broke the big Magic Circle, this probably means that the barriers protecting all the individual rewards are probably connected to the big one.'

'As soon as I break the big one, all the individual barriers will break, and I will have a moment to gather all of them.'

Shang's body transformed into a husk again as he continued touching the barrier.

Up above the water, Lucin sighed.

'You're lucky you found one,' he thought. 'I won't overlook this the next time.'

'Next time, I will make individual barriers that will kill anyone that damages them significantly.'

Lucin sighed again.

'Fucking Death Mana.'

A couple of minutes later, the ground above the trial sank considerably.

The trial had been buried by the ground.

Some seconds later, the ground exploded, and Shang floated out of the hole.

Right now, Shang actually felt a bit excited as he looked at all the rewards in his Space Ring.

He had earned a lot of money!

With everything combined, Shang estimated that he had probably earned around 500 Grade Seven Mana Crystals just from this trial alone.

And what was the mysterious reward in the fifth row?

Well, the trial was only slightly uncommon with average rewards, but the best reward from this trial still wasn't bad.

Of course, it couldn't even nearly compare to something like becoming a Mage King's student, but it was still quite valuable.

"A Bolt will be your servant for one century for free."

That was definitely worth quite a bit.

Theoretically, Shang could just tell the Bolt to sit down and make Mana Crystals, which would give him 100 Grade Seven Mana Crystals.

Of course, that would be a waste of the Bolt's strengths.

Shang guessed that this perk was probably worth around 200 Grade Seven Mana Crystals.

Not too shabby.

After looking through all the things he had taken from the trial, Shang continued walking forward on the ground of the Eternal Ocean.

He still had a bit less than one year ahead of him, and he wouldn't waste it.

Sadly, Shang wouldn't meet any more Initial or Early Ancestral Mages during that last year.

And just like that, the ten years of the Wilderness Hunt were up, and it was time for everyone to return.

"The Wilderness Hunt is over! Everyone, pass through the outer barrier and come to the surface. Until you are back at the Hibye, any sort of fighting is prohibited!"

Shang heard Lucin's words.

He healed his body in an instant and shot upward.

It was time to return to the Hibye.

He should have earned far more than enough for the thing he wanted.

 

 

Chapter 780 780 - Blue-Haired Mage

"Oh, hey! You're still alive!" One of the Peak Ancestral Mages shouted to a Mid Ancestral Mage with a smile.

The other Ancestral Mage floated over and nodded. "Yep, and I also made quite a bit this time. I completed three trials."

The first Mage let out an impressive whistle. "Impressive," he said. "Anyway, did you get Maruda?"

The second Mage slowly shook his head. "Couldn't find him."

"Huh, he's normally one of the first ones that return. I thought that you got him," the first Mage said.

"Nope," the second Mage said again. "It would suck if he suddenly dies. I wouldn't get my payment and his wealth."

"Speaking of," he added as he looked at the gathered Mages above the surface. "I also don't see my contractor."

The first Mage shrugged. "Maybe they're still in a trial?"

The other Mage just furrowed his brows. Then, he turned to Lucin, who was looking at the ocean. "Lucin, who are we still waiting for?"

"There's one more Peak Ancestral Mage. She's choosing her rewards right now. I don't think it will take longer than a couple of minutes," Lucin answered.

When Lucin said that, several other Mages raised their eyebrows in surprise.

Wait, basically everyone was already here?

They looked at each other and counted.

Twelve Peak Ancestral Mages.

Two Late Ancestral Mages.

Two Mid Ancestral Mages.

One Early Ancestral Mage.

Three Initial Ancestral Mages.

20 Clouds in total, and with the one they were waiting for, they would be 21.

They had started with 36, and now they were 21.

They had expected that there would be about 30 left near the end, but there were only 21.

This was quite a devastating death quota.

Even more, the deaths mostly focused on the first two levels in the Ancestral Mage Realm.

The other three levels were still within expected parameters, but 80% of Early Ancestral Mages and 70% of Initial Ancestral Mages died.

What happened?

Did they enter one of the extremely rare group trials with a chance of death?

No, these kinds of trials were only open for Peak Ancestral Mages that had been in the Wilderness Hunt several times already.

That only left one other explanation.

Someone had killed a lot of them.

But who?

It was probably one of the three remaining Initial Ancestral Mages. After all, an Early Ancestral Mage couldn't possibly kill that many Initial Ancestral Mages since they were not allowed to attack them first.

The Peak Ancestral Mages talked to each other via voice transmission, trying to find out who it could have been.

In the end, it came out that two of the three Initial Ancestral Mages had been at that level for quite a time to accumulate power, and they had always been quite peaceful.

One of them focused on inspecting the wildernesses and noting down locations of trials to make a lot of money. She even had several deals with other Clouds. In exchange for her safety in the Wilderness Hunt, they would get a discount for purchasing any of the trial locations.

Killing others would be detrimental to her business, which was why everyone was quite certain that she hadn't been the killer.

The second Initial Ancestral Mage was a notorious serial trial taker.

He was the first Ancestral Mage's biggest customer, and he specialized in a wide variety of skills.

He completed one trial after the other, earning a lot of stuff which he would then mostly sell to other Clouds.

He even took requests to find certain extremely rare materials in the right trials.

It would make no sense for him to kill so many other Clouds since that would damage his business.

Also, judging from the auras of the first two Clouds, they were not happy about this development.

That left the third Initial Ancestral Mage.

It was a woman with light-blue hair, and they all remembered her.

She had been the new Cloud that had asked the leading Bolt about the Deep Crevices on their way here.

After exchanging information, the Clouds concluded that she had joined just a couple of decades ago and that her powers were a mystery.

They knew that she had an Ice Affinity, but they hadn't seen her fight before.

And that still held true.

Not even a single Cloud had seen her fight in the Wilderness Hunt.

The other two Initial Ancestral Mages also noticed all of this, and they moved closer to each other.

They were thankful that they had traveled mostly together this time.

They wanted to see if they could earn more by combining their businesses this time.

They also remembered that they had seen the third Initial Ancestral Mage before in the Wilderness Hunt, and as they thought back to that event, a cold shower ran down their backs.

They hadn't realized what sort of danger they had been in!

It was terrifying!

Today, all the Clouds realized that the newest Ancestral Mage Cloud was extremely dangerous.

She was probably also very powerful, and most Clouds looked at her with narrowed eyes filled with wariness.

They knew that she would only grow more powerful after this event. After all, she would have gathered a scary number of Mana Crystals this time.

Splash!

A Peak Ancestral Mage came out of the water. "Sorry, I'm late," she said with a bright smile.

Lucin just nodded and summoned his Transportation Plate.

"Everyone's here. Let's go back."

When the last Peak Ancestral Mage heard that, her eyes widened.

There were so few!

Another Ancestral Mage informed her of what had happened, and she threw a shocked glance at the light-blue-haired Initial Ancestral Mage.

They would need to be careful of her in the future.

Everyone stepped on the Transportation Plate, and the blue-haired Mage took the spot behind that weird warrior.

At that moment, some of the Clouds sighed.

The warrior was lucky that he hadn't come across the blue-haired girl.

Otherwise, he would have most likely been killed by her.

Then, the Transportation Plate shot into the distance.

The Wilderness Hunt was over.