Ch. 861..870

Chapter 861 861 Future Teacher

Eventually, Shang returned to the real world.

Linay quickly noticed that Shang's dormant Spirit Sense was finally moving again after over 500 years, and she released a sigh of relief.

Was he finally done?

"How much time has passed?" Shang asked.

"A bit more than 500 years," she answered.

'That means I'm about 2,900 years old, leaving me with only 2,100 years," Shang thought.

"What about the ore?" Shang asked.

"Everything has been gathered," Linay answered. "Due to the value, I thought it would be better not to let it get delivered to this place. Everything's waiting in the Lightning Manor."

Shang nodded. "Then, let's return."

"You've comprehended the Concept of Temperatures?" Linay asked.

"Yes," Shang answered.

Linay just nodded.

She knew that a couple of Concepts became more difficult based on their connections, and the Concept of Temperatures was one of them.

A couple of people wanted to combine several Elements, but the combining of Concepts always became more and more difficult to comprehend.

Most people focused on only one Element since they also only had one Affinity, but there were also some people that focused on two. Nearly every Cloud trained in at least two Elements.

However, there were also a few people that focused on three Elements.

A good example would be Space, Time, and Gravity.

To combine them, one needed three Concepts. Spacetime, Timegravity, and Gravityspace.

With these Concepts, the power of all three increased by a bit.

Naturally, these Concepts weren't the priority since the small increase in power often wasn't worth the effort. People often only focused on these mixed Concepts when they were already Ancestral Mages or Mage Lords.

There was also a popular mix of Water, Ice, and Wind, which needed the Concepts of States, Snow, and Steam.

Naturally, all four of Shang's Concepts were known. People knew about Temperatures, Twilight, Addition, and Subtraction, but people never focused on all four of them.

The reason was their longevity.

Focusing on three Elements meant equally increasing their power so that none of the three fell behind the other two.

This took a lot of effort for only a small increase in Battle-Strength relative to others.

And four Elements?

Nah.

Forget it.

Too much work.

People wouldn't even attempt it since it would consume so much time to strengthen all four of them that their longevity would run out.

One guy would need to focus for many years to comprehend level one Concepts for all four Elements, and after comprehending four different Concepts, their opponents would have already reached the next Realm and would have comprehended a level two Concept.

Even more, since the Affinities couldn't properly be combined in the early Realms, the Mage would only be able to exhibit the power of one level one Concept at a time.

People would be very weak for a very long time since the last of the four required Concepts would be a level four Concept.

However, all of this didn't apply to Shang.

Not because of his Affinity but because he was a warrior.

Shang was using his Affinities for everything, but one had to remember that Shang's power always came from his body.

His speed, offense, and defense mainly came from his body, which were augmented by the Elements.

Meanwhile, all of a Mage's power came from their Affinities.

So, even if Shang needed to comprehend a lot of weak Concepts that were not very useful, due to his techniques and sheer physical strength, his Battle-Strength would still be very outstanding.

One had to remember that if Shang didn't use any of his Affinities, his power would still be equal to a Cloud.

The same thing wasn't true for Mages since all their power came from the very Concepts they comprehended.

Linay knew that the Concept of Temperatures was most likely as difficult as a level four Concept to Shang, which was why she wasn't surprised that Shang took this long.

To Linay, the time Shang had taken to comprehend a level four Concept was average for a Cloud.

Naturally, she knew that Shang wasn't a Mage, which meant that he should be slower.

However, Clouds also didn't have access to a Beast King that was willing to demonstrate a Concept.

If a Cloud had access to this place, they probably would have comprehended the Concept in about 400 years.

Shang was still slower in comprehending Concepts than an average Cloud.

Eventually, the two of them left the Hadean King behind and traveled back to the portal.

"I'm signed to be your bodyguard for one century more," Linay said.

"I know," Shang answered evenly.

"Is there anything specific you want me to do?" she asked.

"No," Shang answered.

Linay could only sigh.

She was itching to do anything else.

It was nice to relax once in a while and earn easy money just by standing in place, but after over 500 years, she almost felt trapped.

She just wanted to do something that wasn't standing around.

After stepping through the portal, Shang's Transmission Medal immediately rang.

Shang was quite surprised by the Aura of the caller.

It was the Starlight Queen.

"Yes?" Shang said.

"You are Shang Sword, the Ancestral Hero, correct?" she asked.

"Correct," Shang said.

"The Custodian has informed me about your situation and the true extent of your powers. He said that you are interested in me becoming your teacher, correct?" she asked.

"Correct," Shang answered.

"I'm currently busy with the southeastern front, the Research Department, and the Reconnaissance Department. I really don't have any time right now, but I think things will calm down when we get our new Mage King."

"I've heard," Shang said.

"In a bit more than a century, I can find some time for you. However, you have to keep in mind that I need to focus on many different things, and I can't just dedicate my entire time to you. Additionally, the extent to which I help you is also up to my discretion."

Shang's Aura darkened.

"What do you want?" Shang asked.

Shang could also feel the Starlight Queen's Aura change after he asked that question.

"If you even want me to consider putting any time aside for you, your method of addressing the other Mage Kings and I has to change," she said with a cold but professional tone.

"Stronger people and people that have done a lot for the Lightning Manor deserve to be treated with respect."

"I understand the problem you have with me addressing you, but I don't see how my conduct towards other Mage Kings has anything to do with you," Shang said.

"If you want to be my student, you will be an extension of myself, and how you treat others will also reflect back on me. Showing respect is important, and if you don't respect others, by extension, it will be like I don't show respect to others."

"Fine," Shang said.

Many kilometers away, the Starlight Queen released a sigh of frustration.

"I'm also fine with books," Shang said.

The Starlight Queen furrowed her brows.

"Elaborate," she said.

"The only reason why I even wanted a Mage King teacher in the first place was that I need someone to teach me everything about efficiently comprehending Concepts since I am not a Mage. As a Mage King, you should be the best in that department."

"But if that doesn't work, it isn't a big loss. I can just do what Queen Primordium did back then. It might take me a bit longer this way, but maybe only one to three decades or so. At least I don't have to change my entire personality this way."

"I don't need you as my teacher anymore."

Many kilometers away, the Starlight Queen's eyes narrowed in fury.

However, deep inside her eyes, there was also a bit of fear and anxiety.

She readied her next words, but the connection was cut immediately.

She quickly tried to contact Shang again, but the Transmission Medal couldn't build a connection.

Shang had already entered his Isolation Barrier.

The Starlight Queen's frustration and rage exploded.

No one had ever dared to talk to her like this!

However, Shang wasn't the only person she was angry about.

She was also angry at herself.

The reason why she had called was because of her subordinate, Thunder Maruan Depthwalk.

The Starlight Queen was fiercely loyal to the Lightning Manor, but she was just as loyal to her subordinates.

She had heard about Shang's ridiculous demand.

Naturally, her subordinate's punishment had already been way too harsh, but he wasn't even fine with that.

She couldn't possibly rationalize killing her subordinate for what she had done.

So, she wanted to talk with Shang. In exchange for more time with her, she wanted Shang to let things slide with her subordinate.

But now...

The Starlight Queen turned towards the southeast, at the advancing Judgment Palace.

She knew best how dire the situation was here.

If things continued like this, the Judgment Palace would reach a different Zone, and then, everything would break apart.

They needed help!

 

Chapter 862 862 Suspicion

For a couple of years, Shang worked on refining his Battle Style with the Concept of Temperatures, but it didn't take that long.

With the Concept of Temperatures comprehended, Shang now had to focus on the mysterious level five Concept of Entropy.

And for that, he needed to know a couple of methods that would help him.

So, Shang contacted the Custodian.

"Good evening, Shang. Is there something you need?" the Custodian asked.

"I want to request books from the Ancestor," he said.

"You can ask Sarah when she's your teacher to do that for you," the Custodian answered.

"I don't and won't have another teacher," Shang said.

Silence.

"That is your choice," the Custodian said. "However, I can't trouble the Ancestor right now. He is very busy with something."

"I can assure you," Shang said, "the Ancestor would want you to trouble him for this."

Far away, the Custodian looked with narrowed eyes at his Transmission Medal, but his tone remained professional. "I've worked under the Ancestor for tens of thousands of years. I am going to trust my judgment on this."

"Fine," Shang said. "How about this? If the Ancestor shows any sign of annoyance regarding your disturbance, I will fight on the frontlines for a century and will follow the Starlight Queen's orders."

This immediately piqued the Custodian's interest.

For a moment, he weighed the two options.

He really didn't want to disturb the Ancestor, but if they didn't do something about the southeastern front, he would have to disturb the Ancestor regardless.

"Will you keep your word?" the Custodian asked.

"As long as you are honest in this matter, yes," Shang said.

The Custodian furrowed his brows. He really wasn't a fan of Shang insinuating that he would lie in this regard.

"I will," the Custodian said. "I am going to contact the Ancestor right now. Please wait for my call."

After that, the connection was cut.

Shang just waited outside his Isolation Barrier.

And a minute later...

WHOOOM!

Suddenly, a portal opened in front of Shang, who simply flew through it.

At the side, Linay's eyes widened in unbelievable shock.

She had just seen the other side of the portal.

The Lightning Emperor!

That had been the Lightning Emperor!

Meanwhile, in the Lightning Emperor's personal study, the Lightning Emperor looked at Shang with a warm smile.

"Shang, Wester told me you needed something," the Lightning Emperor said.

Shang could see the Custodian behind him, but Shang was acting like he wasn't there.

"Yes," Shang said.

Then, he explained to the Lightning Emperor how he had reached his current level and what he was planning on doing to reach the Seventh Realm with a sixfold Spirit Sense.

"You want to comprehend a level five Concept?" the Lightning Emperor asked.

Shang nodded.

The Lightning Emperor hummed a bit.

The next moment, over 5,000 books floated out from the huge bookshelves and stopped in front of Shang.

"This should cover everything you need to know," the Lightning Emperor said. "A lot of the things in there are repeated in several books. If you want to know everything, you should read all of them, but if you are fine with 80%, reading half of them would be enough."

Shang nodded and put the books away. "Thanks," he said.

"Oh, one more thing!" the Lightning Emperor said.

The next moment, the Lightning Emperor took out an identical pin to the one Shang had worn while watching the Hadean King.

"If you need anything, just use that. It works like a Communication Crystal, but only for us two. Although, keep in mind that I'm currently quite busy with the entire contract thing," he said.

Near the entrance of the study, the Custodian looked with shock at the Lightning Emperor.

The Custodian also had such a pin, but he had been the only one.

Shang now also had one?

The Custodian didn't let anything show on his face, but his wariness of Shang increased even more.

After Shang's private meeting with the Ancestor back then, the Custodian noticed that the Ancestor had changed.

He seemed chipper and more excited, but he also treated the Lightning Manor with less importance.

Additionally, while the Ancestor's assault on the Judgment Palace made sense, it was very suspicious that the Ancestor thought about Shang when negotiating with the other Mage Emperors.

While the Ancestor had always treated the Lightning Manor as the most important thing, he rarely thought about single individuals.

The Custodian knew that the Ancestor would have never thought about one of his Mage Kings while attacking the Judgment Palace.

And yet, while he was opposing all the other Mage Emperors, the Ancestor had negotiated something that was obviously intended to help Shang.

Lastly, when the Custodian had told the Ancestor about Shang earlier, the Ancestor didn't seem bothered in any way. He even smiled with a bit of excitement or happiness.

The Custodian wasn't sure what exactly had happened, but he was certain that something must have happened in the meeting between the two.

But what?

What could a warrior in such a low Realm possibly have or do to influence such an ancient being to such a degree?

The Ancestor was friendly to everyone, but he also kept everyone at a distance.

He also didn't have a family.

And yet, the Ancestor acted like Shang was a close friend to him.

This was not normal.

Something was going on.

The Custodian still remembered the Ancestor's evaluation when he had first inspected Shang with his Spirit Sense.

Back then, the Ancestor said that Shang was very similar to King Sanctified Death, and the Custodian knew very well what the Ancestor thought of King Sanctified Death.

The Ancestor definitely hadn't been a fan of Shang.

But as soon as they met, everything changed.

The Custodian kept watching the interaction between the Ancestor and Shang until Shang left.

Based on the Ancestor's past evaluation of Shang, whatever was going on couldn't be anything good.

However, he also couldn't think of any way that someone like Shang could influence someone like the Ancestor.

This entire situation was confusing.

The Custodian didn't like it.

He didn't like it at all.

 

Chapter 863 863 Seven Books

Shang returned to his Isolation Barrier after talking with the Lightning Emperor and immediately started to read the books.

Reading books was something that Shang wasn't used to doing since he got all of his knowledge from other people or from his own experience.

In fact, it felt very weird to be reading a book.

Even more, Shang wasn't interested at all in the content.

Shang was interested in Concepts and how the world worked, but these books only talked about the history of how Mages comprehended Concepts and what they had learned.

Shang was essentially learning how to learn, which wasn't the most fun activity.

Nevertheless, Shang never lost his focus, even though he wasn't interested at all.

Shang read the first couple of books in barely a couple of minutes, but then, he read a book that was not as easy to comprehend.

The book didn't seem longer than all the other ones, but as soon as Shang started to go through the pages, he realized that the stack of pages near the end never seemed to shrink.

Just to check, Shang went to the last pages and looked at the page number.

1,534,917.

Shang closed the book and checked the cover.

Basic Guide to Comprehension.

Then, Shang opened the book again and continued reading.

The book was basically a list of different ways to comprehend Concepts, how people came up with these methods, how they worked, what the disadvantages and advantages were, and what the author of the book recommended.

Luckily, Shang didn't need to spend a lot of time on the book. Yes, it was very long, and Shang read all of it, but he didn't really need to calculate things. He just needed to read.

This book took Shang nearly an hour to read, and he didn't remember a lot of it since 99% of the contents were useless to him.

However, the one percent that was actually useful was REALLY useful.

Shang didn't immediately open the next book. Instead, he reviewed his method of comprehending Concepts with the methods he had just learned.

His method had also been in the book, and by reading how a third person evaluated that method, Shang had learned more about how he actually learned.

With that knowledge, he could also consider other methods, and most important of all, one could use more than one method at a time.

Shang had barely read more than an hour, but he was sure that this single hour had probably saved him decades, if not centuries.

After several hours, Shang looked at the books and began to organize them.

First, he grabbed all the books that were related to comprehension methods he didn't find useful and leafed through them.

He wouldn't dedicate his entire mind to them since they would very likely be useless, but it was still worth it to just skim them.

Sure enough, there were a couple of things that explained a bit more of the methods, but it wasn't that useful. It was just a bit of basic knowledge.

In just an hour, Shang had consumed over a thousand books and got rid of the most uninteresting books.

After that, Shang decided to focus on more general knowledge and opened the next overview.

This guide was not about comprehension methods but about materials and substances that could help.

The guide kept referring to the other huge guide Shang had read, which prompted him to look at the author of the book.

It was the same author.

Even more, the name was actually familiar to Shang.

Lightning Manor's Myriad King.

Shang checked through all the other books and took out all of them that had been written by the Myriad King.

Seven.

And they were all insanely long and broad.

Shang spent the next five days on these books, constantly cross-referencing them.

When he was done, he created his own method for comprehension over the next four weeks.

Finally, Shang created his method and focused on reading more books.

The first couple of books were finished in just a couple of seconds.

Shang basically already knew everything that was written inside them.

Shang read the next 1,000 books in just a couple of hours, and he didn't learn a lot from them.

This prompted Shang to look at the seven books from the Myriad King again.

It was actually insane how condensed and perfectly understandable these seven books were.

All the other books talked about essentially the same thing but barely covered the surface while wasting a lot of time on unnecessary information.

If one didn't have access to the library of a literal Mage Emperor, how difficult would it be to learn all of what Shang had learned without consulting these seven books?

Naturally, to someone like Shang, all of this didn't matter as much since he essentially had access to every single book in the world.

But to a normal Mage?

If these seven books spread throughout the world, the average power of all Mages might skyrocket.

Shang was quite confident that Mages outside Empires didn't have access to these books. The Mages' comprehension of Concepts was simply far too slow.

Shang guessed that only Clouds had access to all these books and probably not even for free.

Shang could imagine a Spark working for many years just to purchase a very abridged version of one of these books, which only had 10,000 pages or so.

Meanwhile, Boltlings could probably purchase expensive versions with over 100,000 pages.

And Clouds could probably purchase the complete versions.

Shang was pretty sure that he had learned most of the things that there were to learn from this pile of books, but Shang wasn't a careless person.

So, he decided to read all the books.

Some hours later, he had read another 2,000, leaving only a thousand remaining.

Shang learned a couple of things, but not a lot.

Shang mindlessly moved the next book in front of him to read it, but he paused when he noticed something.

In comparison to all the other books, this one wasn't in pristine condition.

Tiny particles of dust and age had fallen off the book when Shang had moved it, prompting him to be more careful.

Naturally, all the other books were copies in pristine condition, but this one wasn't.

This was obviously an original and a very old one at that.

The title was rather plain.

A Watcher's Record.

Shang opened it and began to read, but he received one shock after the other very quickly.

First, the author introduced himself.

The Archivist.

Second, the start of the actual contents.

"I want to start from when I reached the Ninth Realm, which was about 6.7 million years ago."

 

 

Chapter 864 864 A Watcher's Record

6.7 million years.

The Mage God had ascended only a bit more than 300,000 years ago!

For every living being, the world basically started existing 300,000 years ago.

Anything that happened before then wasn't relevant.

Back then, the methods of comprehending things were very primitive. People basically only looked at something and tried to build some kind of connection with it.

A big part of comprehension back then was faith and belief. Many people believed that the Elements and natural forces were sentient and that they only told their secrets to worthy people.

Some people even sacrificed others to appease the Elements so that they may share their secrets with them.

Naturally, that didn't really work, but it didn't stop people from trying.

The book talked about all the different kinds of ways the people managed to achieve power, and some of the things Shang read reminded him of what the God had said when they had first met.

"There are innumerable ways to supreme power. You can use the inherent energy in the air to increase the power of your mind. This strengthens your soul, and the more powerful your soul gets, the more powerful your mental abilities become. You can crush elephants with just your mind or move the energy of the world in such a way that it creates powerful destructive forces."

"However, you can also focus on strengthening your body. By absorbing the energy in the atmosphere and fusing it with your body, you can become so fast and so powerful that the other person that trains their mind wouldn't even be able to react to an attack of yours."

"You can also fuse with some ethereal concepts and summon them."

"You can also concentrate on weapons, which allows you to sunder reality with a move of your weapon."

"You can also comprehend the concepts of how the world works and manipulate the energy in such a way that it imitates these concepts. You would gain control over fire, gravity, time, space, water, metal, life, and so on."

"You can even just purely absorb Energy without end, becoming a walking bomb that could unleash many years of accumulated power in a single strike."

Shang had to pause after reading this.

The reason was that the book basically explained all these things in a very similar way.

It used similar words, and the structure of the sentences was similar, albeit more professional.

Of course, the book went into more detail.

All of this created a suspicion in Shang's mind.

Why was this so similar to the God's words?

Shang's first thought was that the God might actually just be the Archivist.

However, Shang very quickly dismissed that theory.

Lucius left the Archivist alive back then. It would make no sense for Lucius to die to the Archivist after ascending.

Additionally, if the Archivist could just walk around and kill Queen Primordium, the Lightning Emperor would have considered the Archivist as the perpetrator.

Yet, since the Lightning Emperor didn't even consider that possibility, this probably meant that the Archivist couldn't just walk around and randomly kill powerful people.

The Archivist and the God couldn't possibly be the same person.

Additionally, the God had created the universe where Earth was, which was beyond the power of a Mage Emperor.

Mage Emperors could create separate spaces, and they could maybe even create something like Shang's inner world.

However, creating such a huge universe with its own laws of physics was probably way beyond their ability.

Shang's next suspicion was that the Archivist might have talked to or knew of the existence of the God.

But that also didn't make much sense. After all, the Archivist had lived through these times. It would make no sense for the God to tell the Archivist how the world worked while the Archivist could literally see everything for himself.

So, did the God actually reference the Archivist's work?

But why would he need to do that?

He should have seen everything for himself.

Unless...

The Archivist's work was how the God knew about these things.

This opened several questions.

How could the God not know about these things?

Wasn't he the creator of this world?

Was the Archivist actually older than the God?

As soon as Shang came up with that question, he stopped thinking for a moment.

Younger than the Archivist?

Shang decided to continue reading the book for answers.

The Archivist talked about many different Paths, and the times they had been at their most powerful.

Back when the Archivist had still been young, people called Cultivators were the most powerful.

These Cultivators comprehended many different Concepts, which they called Laws back then, and combined them. With these combined Concepts, they elevated their own beings.

The Archivist called them the first iteration of Mages.

Cultivators essentially advanced very similar to Mages, but they did it in an all-encompassing way, which distributed their power over all aspects, making them jack-of-all-trades but masters of none.

However, the Cultivators were eventually suppressed by the beasts.

Ancient Beast Emperors appeared in the world, and they ate every powerful being they could find.

Only the weakest humans were left since they weren't strong enough to interest the beasts.

At that point, only one powerful human remained, which was the Archivist.

The Archivist was powerful enough to threaten most of the beasts, and they decided to refrain from attacking him as long as he didn't attack them. There were still some beasts that were more powerful than him, but they didn't attack.

However, the beasts wouldn't have done that if the Archivist had been a Cultivator.

The beasts had been angry at the Cultivators for suppressing them, which was why they had killed so many people.

Meanwhile, the Archivist had been born with a frail body that couldn't support the Elevation of the Elements, making him essentially a cripple that couldn't possibly become a Cultivator.

So, he focused on training his mind, which proved to be very effective.

Just like Shang, the Archivist had created his own Path.

Eventually, the Beast Emperors became so bored that they retreated from the world and went into slumber in the core of the world and the deepest oceans.

Somewhere during that time, the Abominations also began to show up for the first time, but they were barely an inconvenience. The strongest Abominations were just in the First Realm.

Humanity slowly achieved power again, and they invented new Paths.

That was when the Beast Controller Path started to become dominant.

The world was filled with incredibly powerful beasts, and the humans used their superior minds to create techniques to manipulate beasts.

Some of them controlled the beasts' minds.

Some of them created hallucinations.

Some of them created powerful curses that would hurt the beast if it didn't follow orders.

And some of them straight up just befriended beasts.

Eventually, humans regained control of the world.

However, legends spoke of beasts that could destroy the entire world.

Sadly, humans couldn't find them.

But they found something else.

The Archivist.

 

 

Chapter 865 865 Many Paths

When the most powerful Beast Controllers found the Archivist, they started to question him and eventually attacked him.

There had been 20 Beast Controller Emperors back then, and each one was interested in testing the Archivist's power one by one.

However, when they realized that none of them could win on their own, they started to harbor thoughts of banding together and just killing him.

The Archivist had lived a very long time by then, and he knew all of them.

The Beast Controller Emperors had dominated the world and had finally become the sole rulers. After being suppressed for so long, they felt unstoppable.

They were the most powerful beings in the world!

They could do anything!

When the Archivist saw their greed, he decided to negotiate.

He would tell them the locations of the legendary beasts in exchange for his safety.

The Beast Controllers agreed, but to make sure that the Archivist didn't vanish as soon as they left, they put a collar around him that he couldn't remove on his own, which would tell them where he was.

The Archivist didn't have any other choice and agreed.

When he told them about the locations of the beasts, the Beast Controllers quickly split into multiple camps.

All of them wanted to catch one of the legendary beasts first.

Many of them began to fight on their way to the legendary beasts.

And eventually, they found the legendary beasts.

And woke them.

When the legendary beasts saw that their kin were suppressed even more than with the Cultivators, their rage exploded.

The Beast Emperors released powerful roars, which woke the other sleeping Beast Emperors.

The apocalypse of the beasts had returned.

The Beast Controllers were no match.

From a roaring flame, humanity had been transformed into cinder.

The beasts let the Archivist live again, but they wouldn't get rid of the Archivist's new collar.

Over the next years, the Archivist witnessed humanity become powerful again, but this time, humanity didn't gain power by controlling beasts.

Naturally, Beast Controllers made a return, but they were stopped by another Path.

Mind Blasters.

Just as the name implied, Mind Blasters focused on attacking someone else's soul. They were quite effective against beasts, and they could also destroy the methods Beast Controllers used to control beasts.

However, the Mind Blasters were not the Path that reached the top. They were simply the ones that stopped the Beast Controllers from reaching the top.

Beast Warriors.

Beast Warriors were what turned out to be the most powerful Path.

Beast Warriors used methods to transform their bodies in such a way that they achieved beast-like qualities.

At the same time, Beast Warriors also had to train in techniques that defended their minds since they had to battle the wills of the beasts during their training.

Eventually, the Beast Warriors reached the top.

And they also found the Archivist.

This time, there was no fight.

That was because the leader of the Beast Warriors was more powerful than the Archivist.

In comparison to the scattered Beast Controllers, the Beast Warriors were all united under one person.

The Hegemon of that era destroyed the Archivist's collar but placed his own seal on him in the form of a tattoo on the right side of his face.

Naturally, the Archivist told them about the past.

The Beast Warriors became greedy for the legendary beasts' powers, but the Hegemon stopped them.

They wouldn't repeat the mistakes of their predecessors.

This time, all of them would go to one legendary beast at a time to suppress and kill it.

And it worked!

Until the fifth beast.

The sixth beast managed to warn all the others before dying, and the beast apocalypse returned.

But this time, humanity could put up a fight.

In the end, half of the legendary beasts died, but humanity was once more turned into cinders.

In the next years, the number of legendary beasts increased again as more beasts managed to consume the powerful Beast Warriors.

And just like that, the number of legendary beasts had returned to what it had been before, and they went to sleep again.

Humanity recovered once more.

This time, the most powerful Path was the Domain Controller Path, which used the power of the world as their weapon.

They also met the Archivist, and the Hegemon of that time gave him an amulet that would suppress him.

And again, the humans would die to the legendary beasts.

Humanity recovered again.

This time, they were Death Seekers, which was a Path focusing on Poisons, Darkness, Death, and Blood.

The Archivist received a black metallic glove this time.

They managed to take down about a third of the legendary beasts.

The next time, Beast Controllers made a return.

The Hegemon of that time was a bit nicer than the scattered Beast Controllers back then and gave the Archivist a bracelet instead of a collar.

Even though the Archivist was suppressed by several Spells, his power hadn't stopped growing, and by now, he could even fight the Hegemons if he wouldn't have to deal with all the suppressions.

This time, the Beast Controllers managed to get rid of three legendary beasts, surpassing their previous record of zero.

Humanity had turned into nothing but cinders once more.

When the Archivist saw humanity slowly increase in power again, he noticed that something similar to Cultivators would most likely reach the peak again.

The Archivist had already seen a repeat of one Path, and he didn't want to see another one.

The Archivist wanted to learn and accumulate knowledge.

So, for the first time, he actually intervened.

Many of the suppressions had already become weak with age, and the Archivist only had troubles with the two most recent ones, which weren't as bad.

When humanity was still in its infancy, with the strongest human being in the Fourth Realm, books appeared all over the world.

They were introductions to many different Paths.

Domain Controller, Beast Controller, Beast Warrior, Cultivator, and Death Seeker were amongst the most prominent, but there were also many smaller Paths.

And all of them had general outlines that could lead someone to the theoretical Ninth Realm.

Amongst those was also the Archivist's Path, which he decided to call Magic.

And the people practicing Magic would be called Mages.

 

Chapter 866 866 The End Of The Book

This time, many different Paths developed at a similar rate.

And eventually, they found the Archivist again.

For the first time, the Paths didn't restrict the Archivist, but they also didn't get rid of his existing suppressions.

This little kindness was probably the very thing that saved all of humanity.

The Archivist told them about what had happened to all the other Paths in the past, but this time, he told them very directly that they were not powerful enough to oppose the legendary beasts.

They needed to gather more power.

The Paths believed the Archivist, and instead of directly attacking the legendary beasts, they decided to just continue living normally.

Many periods of peace and war passed.

The Paths worked closely together, split apart to fight each other, made peace and worked together, and split apart again.

The political landscape changed rapidly, but one thing remained consistent.

Humanity was becoming more powerful than it had ever been before.

Eventually, the Archivist told them that they were probably powerful enough to fight the legendary beasts.

So, humanity banded together to kill the legendary beasts.

And rapidly killed them without even losing a single person.

It was very underwhelming.

Even the Archivist had been surprised by the sheer power humanity had achieved.

For the first time in nearly six million years, humanity had become the ruler of the world again.

And yet, this was the very thing that turned the world into hell.

With the threat of the super-powerful beasts gone, humanity no longer had any reservations.

War!

Power!

It was a brutal era of bloodshed.

The Mages proved to be one of the most powerful Paths.

And yet, the Mages lost that title in the most ironic way.

The strongest Mage tried to kill the Archivist for his secrets.

And the Archivist killed her.

The Archivist's Path had attacked him, and the Archivist destroyed it.

From one of the most powerful Paths, the Mages fell to a tertiary Path, and the other Paths wouldn't allow for the Mages to make a comeback.

But then, the bloodshed calmed down.

Why?

The Abominations.

The Abominations started to become quite a problem.

Over the ages, the Abominations had become more and more powerful, and now, there were even some Abominations in the Fifth Realm appearing every couple of years.

That was when humanity found the cause.

The Child of Calamity.

The power of the Child of Calamity determined the power of the Abominations.

When the Archivist heard that, he became very surprised.

He was very certain that something like a Child of Calamity didn't exist for a very long time.

He would have noticed the rapid strengthening and weakening of Abominations and would have connected them with a living being.

In fact, as soon as the Child of Calamity appeared for the first time, the Abominations started to grow more powerful at a much faster rate.

And the Archivist quickly found out why.

Gate.

The Child of Calamity was a gate for the Abominations.

The stronger the Child of Calamity became, the bigger the gate became.

With the Child of Calamity, the Abominations became a true threat to the world, and all of humanity worked together to find a way to deal with it.

Yet, every time they killed a Child of Calamity, a new one would appear somewhere else.

After trying out many different methods, they found the best one.

Give the Child of Calamity some money, a nice place to live, and status, and let them live in happiness. As long as they didn't become more powerful, everything was okay, and the Abominations would remain at their weakest.

After many years, humanity returned to bloodshed, but they still kept the Child of Calamity in their mind.

But then, the unlikeliest of Paths made a return.

A Path that wasn't even considered powerful by the rulers of the world.

Mages.

And their leader...

Lucius Volstad.

His power was... scary.

The Archivist wrote in the book that Lucius Volstad had a level of talent he had never seen before in history.

The Abominations also became more powerful.

Naturally, the Archivist inspected Lucius very closely since the power of the Abominations was too similar to Lucius' growth.

However, Lucius showed no sign of being the Child of Calamity.

Lucius had only been a Mage Lord when the Archivist inspected him, and the Archivist was quite confident that a Mage Lord wouldn't be able to fool the eyes of the first and most powerful Mage, who was over six million years old.

Therefore, Lucius couldn't be the Child of Calamity.

Eventually, Lucius destroyed all the other Paths and became the first person that consumed over 70% of the world's Mana.

When Lucius interacted with the Archivist, he was willing to destroy all the restrictions the Archivist was under in exchange for one thing.

The Archivist wasn't allowed to hurt his group of friends.

The Archivist agreed and received a bracelet.

Now, the Archivist was basically free except for this one restriction.

Eventually, Lucius ascended to become a God.

The Abominations became weaker.

The Mana became more.

And that made the Archivist conclude one thing.

Lucius had been the Child of Calamity, and he had died.

When Shang read that, he took a shaky breath.

The answer had been right there, but none of the Mage Emperors believed him.

How could Lucius, the core of their friend group, possibly be the Child of Calamity?

Additionally, the Archivist didn't have proof.

No, Lucius became a God, and he was watching over the world now.

In the last pages of the book, the Archivist talked about the Mages and one person in particular.

King Sanctified Death.

The Archivist said that King Sanctified Death was as talented as Lucius but not as kind.

Most likely, King Sanctified Death would become the new version of the beast apocalypse.

A monster that would destroy all of life again and again.

But compared to King Sanctified Death, the beast apocalypse was a child's toy.

And that was where things stood today.

This was how the book ended.

Shang just thought about everything he had just read.

 

 

Chapter 867 867 Who Is The God?

After finishing the book, Shang thought about everything he had read and how it related to the God and the Abominations.

The origin of the Abominations was a complete unknown, and even Shang, who could take a look at the place where the Abominations came from, didn't know where they actually came from.

Whenever Shang summoned an Abomination, he could see all the different Abominations in their own world, which was just a black nothingness.

There was no Mana or anything similar.

Yet, there had to be a force. After all, the Abominations had bodies and could interact with the world, which meant that they had to be made of something, and their world also had to be made of something.

Sadly, no one, including Shang, knew what this something was.

The closest thing people could inspect was Entropy Ore, but that also didn't tell them a lot.

Entropy Ore had to be similar to Abominations, but there was nothing anyone could find out about it.

It was just very hard, could isolate Mana, and could isolate Abominations.

Shang suspected that Entropy Ore was a stable fusion of Mana and whatever force the Abominations used.

The Abomination part of the Entropy Ore could isolate Mana, and the Mana part of the Entropy Ore could isolate Abominations.

That also made it impossible to be transformed into Mana to analyze its composition.

Suddenly, Shang realized something.

He took out his Addum and inspected it.

The Lightning Emperor had said that this was a Peak Companion Weapon, something that the ancient people from the Ninth Realm could create.

However, Shang's swords could also absorb Entropy Ore.

Could the Peak Companion Weapons from back then do that?

This thought led to another thought.

The God had given these two weapons to Shang, and on top of that, the God had given Shang his body.

And his body was the body of the Child of Calamity.

Did the God have control over which person became the Child of Calamity?

Could the God just create a Child of Calamity?

According to the Archivist's records, the Child of Calamity appeared relatively recently. Not even a million years had passed since then.

Did the God create the Child of Calamity?

If so, the God had probably appeared in the world in the last million years, which would also explain why he had quoted the Archivist almost word for word. After all, he wouldn't have known how the world looked back then.

So, had the God actually read this book as well?

Shang imagined the God reading the book and looking at his world.

The world in the book seemed exciting and magical.

And the God's current world?

Weak beasts.

The only danger was other humans.

Maybe the God increased the power of the Abominations by creating the Child of Calamity? That would make things more interesting and dangerous.

However, if the Abominations won, the world would be destroyed, and the God would probably be destroyed with it.

This was crazy.

And yet, wasn't the God crazy?

Shang could imagine the God doing that.

After all, the God was also watching as Shang grew more powerful, someone that wanted to kill the God.

Then, Shang remembered a short conversation he had had with the God during one of his earlier trials.

Shang had made a guess back then that the God wanted to become more powerful but couldn't, for some reason.

The God's reaction had been intense, and his jovial nature had vanished back then.

Assuming that the God wasn't as old as the Archivist, the Abominations predated the God.

This meant that the God wasn't involved in the Abominations invading the world.

However, the God had a certain level of control over the Abominations. After all, he created Shang's body, and he also created a Peak Companion Weapon that could manipulate Entropy Ore, something nobody could do.

So, the God had to be connected to the Abominations.

And there was only one person that was connected to the Abominations.

The Child of Calamity.

But that also didn't make any sense. If the God were the Child of Calamity, the Abominations appearing in the world would be incomprehensibly powerful.

This meant that the God had to be the Child of Calamity, but he also couldn't be the Child of Calamity.

A contradiction.

Once more, Shang thought about the possibility that God was Lucius Volstad.

And once more, it made no sense.

The God had seemed genuinely enraged and angry at the corpse he had been kicking around in his palace in front of Shang.

Also, shortly after Lucius had reached the Tenth Realm, all the Mana he had absorbed was brought back into the world, and all the powerful Abominations stopped appearing.

It was obvious that Lucius Volstad had died.

Naturally, the Archivist also couldn't be the God.

The book was written very differently from how the God acted, and the Archivist had also been suppressed by Lucius. Also, Shang hadn't seen any of these things on the God's body that had once suppressed the Archivist.

No tattoo, no ring, no collar, and most importantly, no bracelet.

Lastly, the Archivist seemed very serious, wise, and scholarly.

Shang still had no idea who the God was, but he had still learned quite a bit.

The God had most likely appeared within the last million years.

The God was not any of the known people in the Ninth Realm.

The God had a certain level of mastery over the Abominations, but he also couldn't stop them from invading.

The God had the knowledge of the Child of Calamity but couldn't be the Child of Calamity.

The God could enter the world and kill whomever he wanted and whenever he wanted.

The God could create an entire separate universe with its own sets of physical laws and could also manipulate the time in that universe to such a degree that billions of years passed in merely a couple of years.

The God could delete worlds and create new ones.

Lastly, the God was stuck in this set of worlds and couldn't leave.

He was essentially the biggest fish in an isolated pond.

And that was what turned him mad, most likely.

Sadly, that was the extent of what Shang knew about the God.

Eventually, Shang put the Archivist's book away and read through the remaining books.

Shang hadn't expected that he would be assaulted by so much important information when he had started reading the books.

He just wanted to know how to comprehend Concepts better, but he also got a history lesson on top of that.

 

 

Chapter 868 868 Questions

It didn't take long for Shang to finish the remaining books. Sure, some of the books took a lot of calculation and brainpower to understand, but Shang still finished them in a couple of years.

A moment later, Shang touched the little pin on his chest and contacted the Lightning Emperor.

The Isolation Barrier didn't interfere with the connection.

"Hey, Shang! What's up?" the Lightning Emperor asked with a chipper voice.

"I'm done with the books," Shang said.

"Oh, cool! Did you like them?" he asked.

"They were very informative. Especially the Watcher's Record," Shang said.

"Yeah, that one's a classic," the Lightning Emperor said.

"What's the Archivist like?" Shang asked.

"The Archivist?" the Lightning Emperor repeated. "He has white hair and wears all these ancient trinkets on his person. He's also incomparably wise, and he has this Aura that makes you think that everything in the world is within his control. Kind of like the ancient head of a big family, you know?"

"He also knows Spells that I don't even know how to create or counter. For example, nobody in the world can make a copy of his book. Any method of trying to copy it fails or produces unreadable and senseless text. Even if you just write down what you've learned from memory, at some point, it starts turning into gibberish."

"The book even updates itself automatically. All of us got one copy each from the Archivist, and the additional sentences after Lucius' ascension appeared on their own in all of our copies. He's crazy powerful!"

"Without Lucius' suppression, and if the Archivist wanted to, he could probably fight all nine of us at the same time and maybe even win!"

Shang listened intently to the Lightning Emperor's words.

"He's that powerful?" he asked.

"Very, very powerful," the Lightning Emperor answered.

"What if King Sanctified Death became a Mage Emperor?" Shang asked.

Silence.

"If the kid manages to reach the Late Mage Emperor Realm, he will probably be just as powerful. If he reaches the Peak Mage Emperor Realm, he will most likely win. King Sanctified Death is as powerful as Lucius, and he doesn't even have access to Anti-Magic," the Lightning Emperor answered.

"Anti-Magic?" Shang asked.

"Lucius could transform his own Mana into Anti-Mana, which canceled out Mana. With that, he could essentially turn whatever attack the enemy launched into nothing. He also had this domain that could transform Elemental Mana in the surroundings into Neutral Mana."

'The Domain of Entropy,' Shang thought.

"That sounds really strong," Shang said. "How much Mana did this domain use?"

"Nothing," the Lightning Emperor answered. '"That's the crazy part."

"Nothing?" Shang asked as his heart rate rose. "But it had to use something, right?"

"It literally didn't," the Lightning Emperor said. "No Mana, no life energy, no Mana from the surroundings, nothing. It was essentially like the passive domain of destruction of the Abominations, but instead of destroying the Mana, it just transformed everything into Neutral Mana."

Shang's mind raced.

This was very different from Shang's Domain of Entropy.

Whenever Shang used his Domain of Entropy, he had to be very careful not to accidentally die since the cost was so high.

But Lucius could just use it passively?

Without using any resources?

"When did he create such a powerful Spell?" Shang asked.

"He's had that Spell forever," the Lightning Emperor answered. "It just wasn't that powerful initially. When he was just a True Mage, he could use it, but it cost a crazy amount of Mana. He only perfected it at the Peak Ancestral Mage Realm."

Shang's mind nearly stopped.

Peak Ancestral Mage Realm?

Shang was currently in that Realm.

Lucius must have had a fivefold or sixfold Spirit Sense, which meant that he had comprehended something above his level.

Since he had been a Mage, Lucius' power came from Concepts.

So, Lucius must have comprehended a level five Concept as a Peak Ancestral Mage, and that level five Concept increased the power of his Domain of Entropy.

Shang was certain.

Lucius had comprehended the very Concept that Shang was attempting to comprehend right now.

"Do you think that was related to the Concept he comprehended before becoming a Mage Lord?" Shang asked.

"Oh, definitely!" the Lightning Emperor answered.

"What Concept did Lucius comprehend before becoming a Mage Lord?" Shang asked.

"Dunno."

Silence.

"You don't know?" Shang asked.

"No," the Lightning Emperor answered. "Back then, the powerful people realized Lucius' potential, and they sent an army of people in the Seventh Realm after us. Luckily, one of the few remaining Mage Kings used an impressive Spell that scattered our group across the entire world."

"After that, we all remained undercover, just increasing our powers in secret. We only met again when we heard that Lucius killed a group of people in the Eighth Realm while only being a Peak Mage Lord himself."

"I asked what Concept he comprehended to break through, and he said that he didn't want to lie to me, which was why he refused to elaborate. He only said that it was dark knowledge that should never enter the hands of anyone else since it would endanger the world."

Shang's frustration rose.

He had been so close!

"What Affinities did Lucius have?" Shang asked.

"He had five! Crazy, right?" the Lightning Emperor said.

"Five?" Shang asked.

"Yep. Fire, Ice, Light, Darkness, and Life."

"That's surprising," Shang said in a carefully controlled voice. "Life is very difficult to comprehend."

"It sure is," the Lightning Emperor said. "I only know the level two Concept of life, but he had already learned that as a High Mage!"

Shang was doing his best not to appear suspicious. "I heard that the level three Concept of Life can cure soul injuries."

"Your eyes?" the Lightning Emperor asked.

"Yes," Shang said. "That's why I'm asking."

"Yep, the Concept of Mutation can essentially regrow a soul, but I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you. At least, not for a long time," the Lightning Emperor said.

"How come?" Shang asked.

"It's because to use that Concept on someone else requires the person to open their soul to them. So, if you want your eyes back, you would need to open your entire being to someone else, giving them free rein to manipulate your soul and read all your thoughts and memories."

"And you don't seem like someone that likes that."

"Also, all the Mages with Life Affinities are part of the Judgment Palace, and that one Beast King with a Life Affinity belongs to the Land and Sky Empire. Not even I would trust any of them with my soul, and I'm basically the second-strongest, wait, third-strongest man in the world. I forget that God of yours for a second."

"Speaking of," the Lightning Emperor said. "I'm still a bit confused about the way Vana died. I just can't find an answer, and I still don't know how Kali could have possibly done it."

"Now that I remember this God, could it be that this God has actually killed Vana?"

"You met him a couple of times, right?"

"Do you know anything about this, Shang?"

Shang remained silent for a while.

Shang had asked several questions to the Lightning Emperor, and now, the Lightning Emperor had a question for Shang.

 

Chapter 869 869 Honesty

Shang sighed.

"Yes, it was the God that killed Lucin and Queen Primordium," Shang answered.

Silence.

"Tell me in detail," the Lightning Emperor said.

Shang couldn't sense what the Lightning Emperor was feeling at this moment.

Shang retold everything that had happened.

The God had read Shang's mind and saw that Shang doubted the God's power.

So, the God killed Lucin and made Shang kill Queen Primordium.

Shang told the Lightning Emperor everything.

After Shang was done, the Lightning Emperor remained silent for several seconds.

This time, Shang could sense what the Lightning Emperor was feeling.

The Lightning Emperor was angry.

Truly angry.

When the Lightning Emperor asked the question, Shang knew that there was no way out. The Lightning Emperor could easily tell if Shang was lying. He probably wouldn't even need to pay any attention to the conversation to know that.

This meant that the truth would come out either way.

So, the best way was to be honest.

"Why didn't you tell me?" the Lightning Emperor asked in a serious voice.

"I was afraid that you would kill me," Shang said.

Silence.

And then, the Lightning Emperor's rage exploded.

"Kill you?!" he shouted. "Do you think I'm a monster?!"

Shang didn't move or say anything.

"This God put you through one of the worst experiences imaginable! You were forced to kill your own teacher!"

"You are not the perpetrator! You are the victim!"

"You were the one that suffered the most in this situation!"

"You were helpless in front of a higher power that wanted to torture you as much as possible!"

"I can't imagine how much pain you must have been in while you were killing your own teacher!"

"Why would I ever want to kill you for that?!"

Shang remained silent for a while.

This was not the reaction Shang had expected.

Wasn't the Lightning Emperor able to see Shang's personality?

Pain?

When Shang killed Queen Primordium, he exclusively thought about how to hide his involvement and how hard it would be to get more resources.

Sure, Shang wouldn't have killed Queen Primordium if he had a choice, but it also wasn't really important if he did or not.

The difference in emotional magnitude was comparable to whether one wanted to go to the end of a street and cross or cross it now and then go to the end of the street.

On top of that, Shang's thoughts had resulted in the death of a Mage King. Whether it was intentional or not, Shang was involved in the death.

Lastly, Shang's silence on the matter had resulted in the death of several Mage Kings, the death of a Mage Emperor, and this entire war.

If Shang had simply been honest, all of this could have been avoided.

And yet, the Lightning Emperor made it very clear that Shang didn't do anything wrong, which was madness.

"I was scared for my life," Shang said again.

Shang heard the Lightning Emperor sigh.

"I get it. You've been involved with powers far beyond your comprehension. You lost control over your emotions and made a mistake."

"Shang, we all make mistakes. The important thing is that we learn from these mistakes and don't repeat them."

"I understand," Shang said. "Sorry."

Deep inside, Shang had difficulty accepting reality.

The Lightning Emperor acted like Shang had accidentally knocked over a vase instead of being the reason the entire world was in a huge war now.

"It's fine," the Lightning Emperor said. "I'm also still in shock. I've accepted that this God is real, but only now do I truly realize it."

"He killed one of my Mage Kings."

"Essentially directly beside me."

"And he was the one that killed Lucius."

"And he is also the one that you want to kill."

Silence.

"You really have a difficult task ahead of yourself."

"Yes," Shang said.

Silence.

"To think that Kali actually didn't do anything and that Adam essentially died due to a misunderstanding."

"Tragic."

Shang looked at his pin for a while.

Shang had thought that he knew the Lightning Emperor's personality, but all of that had proven to be false in this conversation.

Shang had expected the Lightning Emperor to be furious at Shang but still let him be part of the Lightning Manor.

And yet, the Lightning Emperor just accepted it and didn't blame Shang at all.

In fact, he even sympathized with Shang and said that he was the victim.

Sure, in the initial act, Shang could be considered a victim, but Shang's silence after that was his own doing.

Since Shang had no idea how the Lightning Emperor actually ticked now, it became very difficult for him to find a good way to continue the conversation.

Shang had no idea how the Lightning Emperor would react to any of his statements.

Some seconds later, Shang finally made his decision.

"I'm sorry that you killed one of your friends due to a misunderstanding," Shang said.

"It's fine," the Lightning Emperor answered. "I made a mistake, just like you. Like I said earlier, mistakes happen. We just have to make sure that we don't repeat them."

"We should stop talking about these depressing things. Listen, I'm glad that you called me and all, but I have to get back to dealing with this contract. Can we talk sometime else?" he asked.

Shang was still uncertain about what to say. The Lightning Emperor's demeanor was very confusing to Shang.

"What about the books?" Shang asked. "That was the reason why I called."

"What about them?" the Lightning Emperor asked.

"Don't you want them back?" Shang asked.

"No, I gave them to you. They're yours. Why would I take back a present?" the Lightning Emperor asked in a confused voice.

"Oh," Shang said. "I didn't know."

"I have enough books as is," the Lightning Emperor said. "I don't need so many. If you need any other books, just call, but keep in mind that I'm busy with this entire contract thing."

"Of course," Shang said. "Thank you."

"No problem. See you later!" the Lightning Emperor said.

"See you," Shang said.

And then, the connection was cut.

Shang just looked at his pin for a while.

Too many things had happened.

 

 

Chapter 870 870 Two Chamber Method

Shang went over the conversation several times in his head.

Eventually, he put the pin and the books away.

Many revelations had happened in a short time, and Shang had been sidetracked by his actual goal.

Power.

All of this started because Shang wanted to learn how to comprehend Concepts.

Now, Shang finally had all the knowledge he needed.

Yet, there was still one major issue.

Shang had no idea how to comprehend the Concept he wanted.

He didn't even know what it did or looked like.

Lucius had somehow comprehended this Concept back when he had been a Peak Ancestral Mage.

But compared to Lucius, Shang actually knew the effects of that Concept.

Based on what the Lightning Emperor had said, comprehending this mysterious Concept allowed someone to use the Domain of Entropy without needing to use any kind of Mana or life energy.

What did the Domain of Entropy do?

It transformed Elemental Mana into Neutral Mana.

Shang needed to sacrifice life energy to achieve this transformation, but Lucius could do it without needing to sacrifice anything.

Lucius essentially just transformed one kind of Mana into another.

Temperature, Addition, Twilight, Subtraction.

It was a circle.

Ice to Fire to Light to Darkness to Ice.

This was what Shang could do right now.

But this was only transforming one kind of Elemental Mana into another kind of Elemental Mana.

Neutral Mana was not part of this cycle at all.

The only way Shang could do this was by using his Domain of Entropy.

That was when Shang realized something.

He didn't actually know how his Domain of Entropy worked.

He knew what it could do and how to use it, but he didn't know how it actually achieved its effect.

Was this what Shang needed to learn?

He just had to take a look at his Domain of Entropy and comprehend how it worked?

Shang had watched the Abominations for quite some time before he had traveled to the Hadean King's island to comprehend the Concept of Temperatures.

The Abominations could also use the Domain of Entropy, but there were two differences between his domain and theirs.

First, they deleted Mana, while Shang just transformed Mana.

Second, they used no resources to activate their domain, while Shang used a lot of life energy.

Were their domains different?

Or...

Was the Abominations' domain superior?

What if the Abominations' Domain of Entropy was actually the finalized version of the Domain of Entropy?

Then, could Shang eventually delete all the Mana he wanted without needing to pay anything?

'Many old martial arts are derivative from how beasts move. Maybe I am doing the same thing with the Abominations.'

'So, I should actually take a look at how the Abominations actually delete Mana while also keeping in mind that it has to somehow be connected to the Concepts of Addition, Subtraction, Twilight, and Temperatures."

Slowly, a plan formed in Shang's mind.

Shang entered his huge Isolation Chamber and then entered the smaller Isolation Chamber inside his big one.

This time, Shang summoned a Commander Stage Abomination and closed both Isolation Chambers.

Shang watched as the small Abomination absorbed enough Mana to become explosive.

The Ancestral Abominations had been too powerful to become explosive since Shang's Isolation Barrier could only hold so much Mana at once.

But the Commander Stage Abomination was weak enough that the Mana was enough to make it explosive while also leaving a bit of Mana.

After becoming explosive, the Abomination activated its Domain of Entropy to destroy all the Mana that remained inside the Isolation Chamber.

Shang watched very closely.

Sure enough, the Abomination was using nothing to activate the effect of its domain. It also wasn't using the Mana it had absorbed previously.

Eventually, the Abomination destroyed all the Mana in the surroundings, and its domain deactivated.

A bit later, the inner Isolation Chamber opened.

The huge amount of Mana that the outer Isolation Chamber had contained was now flooding into the smaller Isolation Chamber.

The domain reactivated.

That was when Shang got an idea and closed the inner Isolation Chamber after leaving it.

When the outer Isolation Chamber opened again, Shang gave both the Isolation Chambers a certain order.

Then, the outer Isolation Chamber closed before the inner one opened.

Shang entered the inner Isolation Chamber and watched the Abomination.

Shang had set it up that the two Isolation Chambers would open and close separately.

The Abomination would use up the Mana inside the inner Isolation Chamber.

Then, the door would open, and the Mana in the outer Isolation Chamber would enter.

When the door of the inner Isolation Chamber closed, the door of the outer Isolation Chamber would open to refill the Mana in the outer Isolation Chamber.

And things would repeat.

Like this, nobody could ever see the Abomination, even if they could look through the Isolation Barrier, and the Abomination would get an infinite amount of Mana.

Shang could just stay inside the inner Isolation Chamber and watch the Abomination's domain.

Even though an Abomination was right beside him, Shang could fully let himself go without having to pay attention to his surroundings.

Shang just kept looking at the domain, trying to link it to the four Concepts of Entropy he had comprehended.

After a while, he saw that there was a certain connection between them, but he couldn't see what this connection actually was.

Shang also started to use his own Domain of Entropy to compare his domain to the Abomination's.

As more and more time passed, Shang saw more differences.

However, Shang still had no idea how or why these things were different.

He tried to compare them and understand why things were different, but the calculations became so insanely complex that Shang forgot the beginning of his calculations.

Now, Shang realized how truly difficult it was for Mages to get a fivefold Spirit Sense.

Mages had to comprehend something that their minds were too weak to comprehend.

It was crazy difficult and ate an incomparable amount of focus and concentration.

After around a century, Shang decided to leave his Isolation Barrier.

He didn't want to get a sudden visit by the Dawnlight King because the Lightning Manor was dying.