Ch. 981..990

Chapter 981 981 Freedom

It had been 4,000 years since Shang had transformed.

The Death Mana was still trying to kill him, but Shang barely even noticed. His Entropy automatically dealt with it.

Today, Shang had finally achieved his goal.

He had finished his swordsmanship!

Shang just madly grinned as he imagined the attacks he could unleash upon all his enemies.

It was so strong!

Due to his clothing, nothing seemed different about Shang, but beneath all the crimson red, Shang's body had transformed significantly.

Shang's torso no longer had skin. Instead, black scales covered it, and the muscles beneath the scales were also differently shaped.

The only similarity this torso had with a human torso was the general shape.

That was it.

Shang would have liked using the torso of an Abomination, but he knew that it was too conspicuous.

He would still need to go amongst people again, and he could only hide so much.

So, Shang was stuck with this torso.

However, restrictions often pushed creativity.

And the way Shang had designed his torso was very different from the torso of Abominations, and for him specifically, also far more useful.

He had mastery over his body!

He could shape his body in any way he wanted!

Humans? Abominations?

None of that mattered!

Shang could take the good from all of them and combine them into the perfect form!

His power was endless!

Eventually, Shang took out the pin he had received from Gregorio.

"I am done," Shang said. "What about the Abomination Kings?"

"I have talked with Kali," Gregorio answered with a neutral voice. "We were only waiting for you."

"How will it work specifically?" Shang asked.

"Kali will announce that she has found a way to reduce the number of Abomination Lords by understanding a couple of the principles in my Magic Circle. You know, the one that I made to make it seem like it was the reason why there were no powerful Abominations in the Lightning Manor."

"Of course," Shang answered calmly. "Continue."

Gregorio looked at the pin with which he was communicating with Shang.

After Shang had transformed, his conduct had also changed.

First, he started to call Gregorio by his first name, and now, Shang was even telling him to continue talking.

Now, the second part didn't seem strange. After all, friends, strangers, and family often talked like that.

But that was the problem.

Shang was talking to Gregorio like an equal.

For his entire life, Shang had talked to Gregorio with a certain politeness and respect, befitting of his power.

But now, Shang was talking to him like they were companions.

Of course, the past Gregorio wouldn't have minded since he had seen Shang as a friend.

However, Gregorio knew that Shang wasn't viewing him as a friend, which made his manner of speech feel slightly disrespectful.

Nevertheless, Gregorio didn't highlight any of these things.

After all, he was still struggling with his decisions.

"You will have to go to a specific place in Kali's Empire," Gregorio continued as if he hadn't noticed anything. "It will be directly beneath the Judgment Palace. Only Kali can see that place, and when you arrive, she will put a very advanced Disguise Spell on you, making you appear like a very complex and advanced tool."

"Naturally, no one is allowed to look at her while she is doing whatever they will think she is doing, but if they take a look anyway, they won't think that you are the Child of Calamity or even a person."

"After you go through all the Empires, you can return the same way you have gotten there. Kali will tell you everything you need to know later," Gregorio explained.

Shang found the plan amusing.

Disguising him as a tool?

That sure was original.

"Fine," Shang said. "When?"

"When you're ready, I will tell Kali to go ahead and announce everything. Expect to fly towards her within the next couple of years."

Shang chuckled a bit. "Fine, tell her that I'm ready."

Shang paused for a short moment, "and when we're done with this, I can finally become a Sword King."

Gregorio looked with discomfort at his pin.

Shang reaching the Sword King Realm represented a point of no return.

Shang would gain the power to fight normal Mage Kings, and if be increased his level, he would even gain the power to fight Mage Emperors.

As Gregorio thought about this, he became more unsure.

Was he truly okay with this new Shang achieving supreme power?

This was not the Shang he knew.

"Of course," Gregorio answered absentmindedly. "I'm going to inform Kali now."

"Good," Shang said with a chuckle before cutting the connection.

While Gregorio was looking with uncertainty around his library, Shang was looking at the silver wall with a toothy grin.

"Soon," Shang spoke.

BOOOOOM!

Something extremely powerful struck the silver wall, but it didn't even shake.

For just a moment, Shang's suit moved around a bit like something had brushed it.

Shang only looked at the silver wall.

"Soon, I will be powerful enough to break out of this place and reach whatever is beyond this wall."

"Aterium?"

"Emperor?"

"God?"

Shang chuckled.

"All of these things are just stepping stones!"

"There has to be more out there!"

"There have to be more powerful worlds and more powerful beings!"

"The Abominations are proof of that!" '

BANG!

Shang hit the wall again.

"This disgusting world can't contain me!"

For the next couple of months, Shang didn't do very much.

He didn't need to.

This little bit of time was barely worth anything, and Shang couldn't comprehend anything worthwhile in such a short period of time.

So, he simply did nothing and thought about his future. '

Soon, all these problems that Aterium had thrown at him would no longer exist.

Dealing with the Abomination Kings.

Becoming a Sword King.

Becoming a Peak Sword King.

Killing the Emperors.

Comprehending the level six Concept of Death.

Killing God.

And then...

Freedom!

And what would he do with this freedom?

Achieve more power!

 

 

Chapter 982 982 - Running

As Shang thought about his future, Aterium fell into shock and hope.

For the longest time, the truly powerful beings had been under immense stress.

Shang.

Abaddon.

The Abominations.

The war.

So many dangerous things were happening.

But now, there was finally some hope!

The Empress of Death had announced that she had found a way to stop Abomination Lords from appearing!

When the other Emperors heard that, they almost couldn't believe it.

This was too good to be true!

They had already felt extremely stifled and frustrated when they saw how the Lightning Manor didn't need to deal with Abomination Lords and Ancestral Abominations while they had to commit over 50% of their entire force to deal with them.

And even with all of this, the losses were still more than devastating.

If there were truly a way to prevent Abomination Lords from appearing, they could finally let their Mage Kings do something other than just constantly watching over their Empire!

Yet, exactly because it was too good to be true, the Emperors became skeptical.

Did Kali truly manage to do something like that?

Everyone had tried to find a solution to the Abomination problem for literally hundreds of thousands of years.

Ever since Lucius had become a God and had gotten rid of all the powerful Abominations, the Emperors had tried to find a way to also deal with the lowest three Realms of the Abominations.

Sadly, without any success.

That was until Gregorio found a way, but by then, Gregorio had already become their enemy.

Originally, they would have been just as skeptical about Gregorio succeeding in solving this problem as they were about Kali, but after they had seen the black booklet and Gregorio's power over Anti-Magic, it became more believable.

But Kali?

A Death Affinity didn't seem very useful in dealing with the Abominations.

Kali addressed these concerns with only a single statement.

"I will deploy these measures in my Empire first. Give me a couple of years, and you will see that no more Abomination Lords will appear."

The Emperors accepted that proposal.

For now, they wanted to see what would happen before talking about measures to deploy these things in their Empire.

During the tournament, Kali's conduct hadn't been perfectly in line with their goals, which made them a bit suspicious.

However, Shang was now dead, and he hadn't become a Sword King.

Maybe, she had actually done the right thing.

With time, the enmity and suspicions would vanish, but for now, they were still rather fresh.

While the Emperors were being skeptical, Gregorio told Shang that he could move towards the Judgment Palace.

Shang had only needed to wait for barely four months.

"Sure," Shang answered before cutting the connection.

Now, how would Shang get into the middle of the Judgment Palace without alarming anyone? After all, Shang also had to hide himself from the Mage Kings.

Surprisingly, Shang wasn't worried about that.

Shang, specifically, had the perfect skillset for that.

BANG!

The Eternal Ocean beneath Shang exploded as he shot toward its depths.

In an instant, Shang had already descended over 100,000 kilometers, and he slowly noticed that the silver wall was curving towards him.

Shang put his feet on the wall and used them to run downward.

After reaching a depth of a million kilometers, the pressure had already reached terrifying levels.

A Peak Mage Lord would lose more Mana from protecting their bodies with a Mana Shield than they would recover.

Meanwhile, Shang just kept advancing.

Surprisingly, the curvature of the silver wall became much more pronounced than one would expect, but Shang had already known about that.

Back when Shang had gone to consume the Spacetime Beast, he had already noticed that the shape of the silver wall wasn't completely spherical.

It was more like an ellipsoid.

The continent was 20 million kilometers wide, and from its edges, another 10 million kilometers of ocean stretched out for a total of 40 million kilometers.

However, the ceiling and bottom were not 20 million kilometers away from the center of Aterium.

Instead, the top was only about 10 million kilometers above the center of Aterium, half as far away as the horizontal edges of the ellipsoid.

So, Shang wasn't very surprised when the silver wall curved in more than expected.

When Shang had reached a depth of two million kilometers, things became a bit troublesome.

The pressure of the water slowed Shang down significantly, and Shang even started to feel a headache coming on.

Shang's torso and limbs had no issues in withstanding the pressure since they were far more powerful, but Shang's head was already feeling the pressure.

After another 500,000 kilometers, Shang became annoyed and started to sneer, the pressure of the water cracking his teeth and bones.

His other limbs still had no issues, but his pathetic human head was already on the verge of imploding.

With a snort, Shang activated his Domain of Entropy.

In an instant, the highly pressured environment vanished, replaced by a dense cloud of Neutral Mana.

Naturally, since Shang wasn't just standing still, the Neutral Mana quickly left his Domain of Entropy and was flooded by the insane pressure of the thick Water Mana around it.

The sheer strength of the Water Mana transformed the Neutral Mana back into Water Mana.

Because of that, the Mana Density of the Eternal Ocean or the atmosphere didn't change.

However, Shang was no longer under the effect of this immense pressure, and his speed multiplied again.

In just a little bit, Shang reached a depth of around seven million kilometers.

At such a depth, not even Peak Mage Kings could survive indefinitely.

At this depth, Shang finally saw the silver wall getting buried beneath compressed sand, which meant that he had reached the furthest underground edge of Aterium.

The coastline was still three million kilometers or so away, but the depth of the Eternal Ocean was already receding.

However, Shang just continued running forward, and his Domain of Entropy turned the compressed sand into Neutral Mana as well.

While some extremely powerful beings would have still been able to see Shang earlier, now, he was invisible.

Shang had entered the underground of Aterium, and he would continue running forward until he reached the middle of the continent, the Judgment Palace.

 

 

Chapter 983 983 - Meeting Kali

Shang continued charging toward the center of the continent while destroying all the ground around him.

The pressure at this level had reached heights where even Mage Emperors couldn't easily survive, and it still didn't reduce. After all, Shang was buried under more and more earth.

At this depth, nobody could possibly see Shang.

Sure, there were Magic Circles to detect intruders, but there were no Magic Circles this far underground.

The Mana required to protect these Magic Circles while also keeping them active would be beyond ridiculous.

And for what?

To protect from an Emperor sneaking into another Empire?

Why would they even do that?

If they did anything, the Emperor of the Empire would notice it anyway.

Additionally, sneaking up on an Emperor was basically impossible.

Because of that, there was no point in wasting that much Mana just to defend the underground.

Shang just kept running for a couple more minutes.

Eventually, Shang noticed that the bottom had stopped curving, or at least, its curvature had changed.

'The deepest part of Aterium,' Shang thought with a smirk.

Naturally, there was no living being down here.

At the moment, Shang was bathed in a dense and bright glow of light.

This glow of light was just the extremely hot magma. It was so insanely hot that even the space was being torn apart.

Although, the space was already being torn apart by the silver wall.

If Shang didn't have his Domain of Entropy active, he wouldn't be able to survive for a single second in this environment.

Slowly, Shang began to hover, and he flew upward.

The magma was turned into Neutral Mana, which then turned into magma below Shang again, just like the water of the Eternal Ocean.

After flying upward for a couple of million kilometers, Shang slowed down.

The Judgment Palace was perfectly in the middle of Aterium, and he should theoretically be directly beneath it.

Or, at least, he should be very close to it.

Because of that, Shang slowed down. It was important that no Mage King saw him.

Shang slowed down so that he barely moved a thousand kilometers per second, which was extremely slow for his power.

Eventually, Shang was only about a million kilometers away from the surface, and be slowed down even more.

And then, Shang felt Mana that wasn't just Fire, Metal, and Earth Mana.

It was a Magic Circle!

Shang wasn't quite sure if that Magic Circle was made by a Mage King of the Judgment Palace or by Kali.

'Kali knows that I am coming. This Magic Circle was probably made by her, and if it wasn't, she should have checked the underground of her Empire,' Shang thought with a snort.

So, Shang simply shot through the Magic Circle.

As Shang passed through the Magic Circle, nothing of note happened. Shang only felt a bit of Mana leaving the Magic Circle and flying upward.

Shang decided to stop and wait at this location.

Just to be sure, Shang had already retracted his limbs back into his torso, making him seem like his old self but wearing red instead of white.

A couple of seconds later, Shang's bandages told him that someone powerful was looking at him.

"Ascend," Shang heard the voice of Kali in his mind.

Shang just wordlessly ascended instead of answering.

For now, he didn't want to appear any different from his old self.

Additionally, Shang wasn't fully trusting Kali and Abaddon, and the less those two knew about him, the better.

"Stop," Kali transmitted after Shang ascended for a while.

SHING!

A moment later, a portal opened in front of Shang.

Kali had waited to summon the portal until Shang was at a safer depth. If the pressure or heat were too much, someone might notice. After all, some heat and magma were bound to go through the portal.

Shang quickly flew through the portal, and it closed rapidly behind him.

Shang found himself inside a huge room with expensive ornaments.

There were chandeliers, luxurious rugs, statues, huge plants, and there was also a humongous bed.

And yet, all of these things looked old and decrepit.

It was almost like this place was a ruin, a shadow of its former self.

Naturally, this was Kali's room.

Shang could also see Kali standing in the middle of the room.

She wasn't even looking at him.

"What's the plan?" Shang asked in a cold and emotionless voice.

Then, Kali looked at Shang for the first time.

"Wait," she said before looking away again.

Silence.

Under normal circumstances, Shang would ask for more specifics, but that wouldn't be fitting for Shang's old persona. Because of that, Shang remained silent and simply started waiting.

About two weeks later, Kali turned to Shang.

"Don't move," she emotionlessly said as she pointed a finger at the hovering Shang.

Shang did just that, and an instant later, expensive ore gathered around him.

The ore was extremely powerful. Shang was quite certain that it was even in the Emperor Realm.

The ore encased Shang's body, and as it did, shining lines from different Magic Circles appeared.

After a couple of seconds, Shang's body ' was fully encased in extremely hard and expensive ore, and he had transformed into something that looked like an ancient machine.

Shang's appearance was already very far away from a human's appearance, but now, there were zero connections between him and a normal human.

Shang wasn't very alarmed.

After all, he could just use his Domain of Entropy to destroy the ore around him. It would just take a bit of time.

Funnily enough, Shang's Spirit Sense was also completely isolated.

He was unable to move and unable to communicate with anyone.

Most people would think this was quite a terrifying place to be in, but Shang didn't mind.

He could break out whenever he wanted. Some moments later, Shang's mind was suddenly let out of the encased ore.

"I will release your perception when it is safe," Kali said coldly.

Shang looked at Kali.

"Fine."

 

 

Chapter 984 984 - Entropy Ore

After his perception had been released, Shang could also look at his actual appearance.

Shang was a golden ball with several golden tubes coming out of it. The tubes eventually all flowed together into another golden ball above him.

The runes of the Magic Circles continually moved from one golden ball to the other and back.

It looked quite mystical.

A moment later, Kali glanced at Shang, and Shang's perception was confined within the golden ball again.

Shang just silently waited.

He wasn't worried.

Sure, Kali could kill Shang without him even seeing the attack coming, but that didn't matter.

Shang wasn't dangerous to Kali because of his actual power but because of his soft power.

If Kali killed him, Gregorio would have nothing left to lose, and he would simply release the Archivist.

Since the Archivist's book was automatically updating, one could already read what the Archivist thought of King Sanctified Death.

His opinion wasn't great, and the Archivist would very likely kill King Sanctified Death before doing anything else.

Kali wasn't stupid, and she knew how things would go.

Because of that, Shang wasn't worried at all.

An unknown period of time passed before Shang's perception was released again.

As soon as his perception was released, Shang found himself and Kali inside a huge Isolation Barrier, which was hovering above the Judgment Palace.

"How many Abomination Lords are necessary for the Judgment Palace?" Kali asked neutrally.

"47 right now," Shang answered. "But the number might quadruple after my breakthrough. I would say 200."

When Kali heard that, she actually furrowed her brows, which was her first show of emotion ever since Shang had arrived at the Judgment Palace.

"I only have 100 cages for Abomination Lords," Kali said.

"Then, make more," Shang answered evenly.

Kali glanced at Shang.

Right now, she was trying to think of a way to make more cages, but it was extremely difficult.

One had to remember that every Abomination Lord was over a kilometer tall, which meant that the cages also had to be over a kilometer tall.

Even more, all the Entropy Ore had to be at the Seventh Realm, at least.

By building a hundred of these cages, Kali had already nearly depleted all the stores of Entropy Ore inside her Empire.

How would she get more?

Additionally, if she wanted to keep things secret from the other Empires, she also couldn't just ask for Entropy Ore from them.

Everyone knew that Entropy Ore was used to contain Abominations, and if she asked for it, their minds would immediately go to the possibility that Kali would bury Abominations in their Empires.

Naturally, there were several issues with that.

What if Kali had some kind of detonation Magic Circle on these cages, and she could detonate all of them remotely? She could use that as a threat in case things became bad.

Additionally, where did Kali even get all these Abominations from?

"You need Entropy Ore?" Shang asked.

Kali furrowed her brows.

She had never heard the black ore referred to as Entropy Ore.

However, Kali just nodded.

"I can make it," Shang said.

This immediately got Kali's attention, and she looked at Shang.

"Show me," she said.

A moment later, an Abomination Lord appeared in the Isolation Barrier.

Kali just glanced at it.

Meanwhile, the Abomination Lord acted like it didn't see her.

A bit later, the Abomination Lord was split into Entropy and Mana, but Shang didn't completely separate these two things. After all, he didn't want Kali to get an opportunity to learn about Entropy.

So, instead of two balls of black and white, the Abomination Lord was turned into an indistinguishable storm of grey.

The next moment, a great amount of Mana was absorbed by the Isolation Barrier, and a couple of Mage Kings and Mage Lords looked at it with wonder.

Whatever their Empress was doing required a lot of Mana.

Inside the Isolation Barrier, the grey storm fused with the approaching Mana, and it expanded into a black cube of Entropy Ore.

Entropy Ore was made of 50% Entropy and 50% Mana.

Since Abominations were made of 70% Entropy and 80% Mana, Shang needed some Mana to make a 50 / 50 ratio.

When Kali saw the cube of Entropy Ore, she didn't show any outward reaction, but inside, she was shocked.

No one had ever found out how to make this black ore.

All the Emperors had tried, and all of them had failed.

And yet, Shang had managed to do it.

Kali wanted to know how it worked, but she knew that Shang wouldn't tell her. After all, they didn't trust each other.

Kali was with Abaddon, and Shang was with Gregorio.

At the moment, they might be allies, but that wasn't certain.

"I can produce however much you need, but I need additional Mana."

Kali furrowed her brows as she tried to think of the best way to handle this situation.

If she wanted to bury the Abominations across all of Aterium, she needed around 2,000 cages for Abomination Lords.

With the cube of Entropy Ore Shang had created, she could make around ten cages, which meant that she needed to convert around 200 Abomination Lords into Entropy Ore.

One conversion had absorbed about one Mage Lord of Mana.

This meant that Kali needed 200 Mage Lords of Mana for the cages.

A moment later, several black dots appeared on the horizon, and they rapidly flew toward the Isolation Barrier.

These dots passed through the Isolation Barrier and stopped in front of Shang.

They were Beast Lords!

"Make ten more cubes," Kali ordered.

Shang didn't answer and just summoned ten more Abomination Lords.

Just like the last one, these Abomination Lords were destroyed and pulled apart into a grey storm.

Just when they were starting to pull in Mana, the ten Beast Lords in front of Kali exploded and were ground into tiny particles by her.

The sizes of these particles were so small that they nearly instantaneously transformed into Neutral Mana.

A bit later, ten more cubes of Entropy Ore were made, and Kali used many different Spells to shape them into cages.

In just a couple of minutes, another 100 cages were created.

After she was done, Kali turned to Shang again.

"And the Abomination Kings?"

 

 

Chapter 985 – Terrifying Power

985 Chapter 985 – Terrifying Power

"We don't need as many for Abomination Kings," Shang said. "For all of Aterium, we only need about 50."

Kali frowned and looked at the ground. "50 is a lot. I only have enough for 15."

Naturally, King-rank Entropy Ore was much harder to get than Lord-rank Entropy Ore, and there wasn't a lot of that remaining.

Since Entropy Ore could only be created by Abominations getting destroyed without being able to detonate themselves, every piece of King-rank Entropy Ore only came from Abomination Kings, and those had only appeared in Lucius' time.

Naturally, there couldn't be that many.

"Gregorio has another 15," Shang said. "We only need 20 more."

20 cages represented two Mage Kings of Mana, and one Mage King represented about a thousand times more Mana than a Mage Lord.

"So, we need a total of 2,200 Mage Lords of Mana," Kali said.

Silence returned as Kali thought about the best way forward.

"Let's finish the Judgment Palace first," Kali said. "I will demand this Mana from the others when it is time."

Naturally, asking for Mana was far less suspicious than asking for Entropy Ore.

After all, Mana could be used for literally everything.

The next moment, several Abomination Lord cages appeared around Kali. "Put them in," she ordered.

Shang didn't answer and simply summoned a couple of Abomination Lords.

As soon as they appeared, the Abomination Lords were unceremoniously shoved into the cages by Kali.

Kali siphoned out all the Mana from the cages and closed the door. A moment later, she flew toward the ground.

Shang was pulled along, and the Isolation Barrier followed her.

Eventually, the Isolation Barrier was no longer visible.

Kali rapidly dug through the ground until she reached a depth of around a million kilometers.

When she reached that depth, she started to place the cages down one after the other.

Whenever she summoned a new cage, Shang summoned another Abomination Lord.

After a couple of minutes, all 200 cages had been placed below the Judgment Palace.

Since Kali wanted to keep all of this a secret, all the cages had been enchanted and hidden with several powerful Magic Circles.

Due to the Magic Circles, the cages looked like huge orbs with countless moving runes on them. Of course, there were also protection runes on them.

If an Emperor wanted to learn what these Magic Circles did, they would need over 50,000 years to comprehend them. Naturally, that was enough time since they only needed to hold until the Final Tournament, which was about 22,000 years from now.

Of course, the Emperors could just destroy the Magic Circles and look at what was beneath them, but that would immediately inform Kali of what had transpired.

With enough threats, Kali wouldn't need to fear someone breaking her Magic Circles.

She could just say that she had invented this method and that nobody was allowed to steal it.

If anyone did, she would deactivate all of the Magic Circles within someone's Empire.

Then, they would need to deal with the Abominations again.

Even though the Emperors were bound to be interested in how these Magic Circles worked, the price of breaking them and looking inside was far too high.

When the Abomination Lord cages had been placed down, Kali made a plan on where to put down the Abomination King cages.

She would put them down in a seven-by-seven grid, and due to the size of her Empire, she needed around nine of them just for herself.

Kali moved to the first spot and summoned an Abomination King cage.

"Don't interact with it," Shang suddenly said.

Kali raised an eyebrow at Shang.

These were Abomination Kings.

If one of them detonated, even Kali would get seriously injured.

"Abomination Kings have a certain level of awareness and intelligence," Shang explained. "I can control them, but if you attack them, they might retaliate. Let me do this."

She knew that the Child of Calamity was connected to the Abominations and that it was responsible for them appearing in the world.

However, she hadn't known that the Child of Calamity could control the Abominations.

She thought the Child of Calamity was only a gateway of some sort.

The fact that Shang could control Abomination Kings was terrifying.

If he summoned several of them in an isolated space and sent all of them to attack the world…

Sure, the Emperors would manage to kill most of them, but every single one that managed to detonate represented over 500,000 kilometers of the world vanishing.

Shang's level of danger rose in Kali's mind.

Even more, if Shang could summon Abomination Kings now as a Sword Lord…

Could he summon Abomination Emperors when he was a Sword King?

An Abomination Emperor…

No one had ever heard of an Abomination Emperor.

But if those actually existed, one of them could probably even kill the Archivist, and it wouldn't even need to detonate.

Abominations were almost invincible on their level.

Probably only someone like Abaddon or Shang could kill one on the same level with a high level of confidence.

The more dangerous Shang was, the more uncertain the future seemed.

09:58

Originally, there had been three options.

Kill Shang.

Work together with Shang.

Capitulate to Shang.

Now, there were only two options.

Kill Shang and capitulate to Shang.

Working together became nearly impossible due to the power difference.

As soon as Shang became a Peak Sword King, assuming he could summon an Abomination Emperor, no one would be able to resist him.

At that moment, the power dynamic would shift to one side.

Cooperation was only possible between two similarly powerful parties.

But with an Abomination Emperor…

While the thought made Kali uncertain, she had also never heard of an Abomination Emperor.

So, maybe, the Abomination Emperors actually didn't exist?

What if Abomination Kings were the strongest Abominations?

Kali decided that she needed to talk to Abaddon some more regarding their plan.

How should they proceed in the future?

 

Chapter 986 986 - Done

Shang summoned the Abomination King.

When Kali saw it, her Aura became intense, but she didn't do anything.

This was the first time she had seen an Abomination King after 300,000 years.

Back then, they had been incredibly terrifying.

Luckily, the Abomination King didn't move.

It only looked at the golden ball surrounding Shang with a fanatic expression.

In the past, Shang had had issues in controlling Abomination Kings, but after his transformation, even the Abomination Kings listened to him without any issues.

A moment later, the Abomination King voluntarily walked into the cage.

Kali siphoned the Mana out of the cage and closed it.

Sflence.

This proved it.

Shang had full control over Abominations.

The pressure on Kali's shoulders multiplied, but she didn't let it Show.

She put the cage down and smoothly moved to the next location.

After a couple of minutes, all nine cages had been placed down in the Judgment Palace.

Kali returned to the actual Judgment Palace and retreated back into her room.

Naturally, the golden ball hiding Shang was also here.

"Now, we need to wait," Kali said. "Within the next decade or so, the other Emperors are bound to contact me."

"Okay," Shang said.

The next moment, Shang's perception was cut off from the world again.

Mage Kings could feel when someone was looking at them, which was why Kali isolated Shang's perception.

For the next ten years or so, Shang had to remain in his little prison of ore.

While the past Shang might have had some issues with doing nothing for a decade, the current Shang was different.

Shang was no longer in immense pain, and he didn't feel like he was dying.

In fact, Shang no longer had any issues with longevity, and he had even already finished his preparations for becoming a Sword King.

He only needed to break through.

Shang had never been so close to supreme power!

Soon".

Meanwhile, the Judgment Palace announced that there would be no more Abomination Lords appearing in their Empire.

Naturally, the other Empires paid close attention to the Judgment Palace for the following years.

Near the beginning, nearly no person in the Judgment Palace believed this to be true. After all, the Abominations had been a part of their entire lives, and they lived in constant fear of them.

And yet, the Abomination Lords truly stopped appearing.

While the Mage Kings had still been nervous at the start, now, they actually dared to believe that this was true.

N o more Abomination Lords?

So, they could finally relax?

Of course, two Mage Kings still needed to work. After all, Ancestral Abominations still appeared.

But instead of having to kill every Abomination personally, these two Mage Kings only needed to delegate their forces, which made things far easier.

Their minds could finally rest since they didn't need to be ready for every single second.

After some years, even the other Emperors started to believe Kali.

She had actually done it!

She had actually found a way to stop the Abomination Lords from appearing in her Empire!

The first Emperor that showed interest was Amon Gus.

He asked Kali to do the same thing for his Empire.

That was when Kali unveiled the price. 250 Peak Mage Lords of Mana.

Naturally, Amon Gus was shocked.

That was insane!

250 fucking Peak Mage Lords?!

"You think this is easy?" Kali answered his protests. "The Magic Circles take a great deal of Mana, and I'm not going to pay for your Empire."

Of course, negotiations immediately broke out, but Kali wasn't budging.

However, beggars couldn't be choosers.

So, Amon Gus was forced to pay the price.

Kali received all the Mana, and she asked Shang to create more cages.

A bit later, the two of them traveled to the Twilight Dusk Family, and Kali started to float into the underground.

Over the next minutes, Kali and Shang placed all the cages below the Twilight Dusk Empire, and they returned to the Judgment Palace.

Naturally, Amon Gus had been informed about the rules.

He wasn't allowed to destroy the Magic Circles, and he wasn't allowed to watch Kali while she was placing them.

Amon Gus was suspicious, but he had to follow the rules.

After all, the alternative was too terrifying.

As long as Kali managed to get rid of the Abomination Lords, she could do whatever she wanted.

After this day, the Abomination Lords also stopped appearing in the Twilight Dusk Empire.

The other Emperors very quickly contacted Kali for their own Empires.

Naturally, the price was still horrifyingly steep, but they were forced to pay regardless.

Eventually, Kali and Shang placed the cages on eight of the nine Empires. They were only missing the Lightning Manor, but Shang and Gregorio would place the cages there themselves.

All of this had only taken about ten years in total.

After Kali went back into her room, she dispelled the enchantments on Shang's golden ball and put the ore away.

For the first time in ten years, Shang could finally move again, but he didn't seem to care very much.

Wordlessly, Kali summoned a portal that led into the deep underground of the Judgment Palace.

Shang just floated through it, and the portal closed.

They hadn't exchanged any words.

When Shang arrived, he started to descend rapidly, and after a couple more kilometers, he summoned his real limbs.

All of Shang's limbs stretched. "Finally, free again," Shang spoke to himself.

The next moment, Shang descended to the silver wall and began to run towards the northwest.

Naturally, he kept his Domain of Entropy active all this time.

After a couple of minutes, Shang reached the Eternal Ocean again, and he ascended a bit.

Shang took out Gregorio's pin and contacted him. "Everything went smoothly," Shang said.

"Good to hear," Gregorio answered with a friendly voice.

However, if Shang had paid more attention, he would have noticed that Gregorio's voice was more distant than before and more uncertain.

"Now, we only need the Abomination Kings for the Lightning Manor," Shang said.

Gregorio didn't answer for two seconds. "Sure," he eventually said.

 

 

Chapter 987 €‹ 987 - Sword King

Shang and Gregorio met up and quickly buried the last couple of Abomination Kings that were necessary.

The entire time, Gregorio was barely saying anything, and he also avoided looking at Shang.

Shang didn't notice Gregorio's strange conduct.

Ever since he had become free from pain, Shang's mind was preoccupied with his own plan and his future.

Gregorio had worked together with Shang for tens of thousands of years, and Shang didn't even think about whether or not Gregorio would try anything on him or not.

After all, everything had worked out fine for such a long time. Why would things suddenly change?

After they were done, Shang prepared himself for a couple of hours before contacting Gregorio with his pin.

Shang no longer wanted to wait.

"I am going to become a Sword King now."

Gregorio didn't answer for a while.

"Do you need anything specific?" he asked.

"No," Shang answered with a smirk. "Nobody in the world will even notice."

"Okay, good luck," Gregorio said before cutting the connection.

Shang put the pin away with a smirk.

Shang slowly increased his altitude by quite a bit until he felt comfortable.

'There's no reason to wait anymore,' Shang thought as a slight glint appeared in his eyes. 'I will now attain my sevenfold Spirit Sense.'

'Sure, I could remain in this Realm for longer to comprehend level siX Concepts, but what would be the point? A Spirit Sense is only good for two things.'

'Showing others one's talent and gaining a range advantage in a battle.'

'With a sevenfold Spirit Sense, I will already outrange all of my opponents unless they are a Realm higher.'

'And as for proving my talent?'

Shang just smirked.

'It doesn't matter. Power is power. The opinions of others have no power over me.'

At this moment, Shang was 29,000 years old, and he would now become a Sword King.

Shang was the oldest being in the Seventh Realm that had ever existed for obvious reasons.

And now, this oldest being would reach the Eighth Realm.

Was Shang the first one that ever managed to attain a sevenfold Spirit Sense?

Nobody knew.

Maybe, maybe not.

Shang raised his right hand, and a second later, a huge Isolation Barrier appeared around him.

Creating something like an Isolation Barrier wasn't very difficult for someone on Shang's level.

He might not be as good in Magic as the average Peak Mage Lord, but he was still on the level of an Initial Mage Lord.

"Let's start the show," Shang said with a smirk before snapping his fingers.

SHING!

In an instant, several Abomination Kings appeared, which didn't move at all.

They all just looked at Shang with fanatic eyes.

Shang already knew that he had to absorb several times more Mana than normal people due to his elevated being, but that didn't matter.

Back when Shang had talked to Abaddon for the first time, Abaddon had said that there was enough Mana for both of them to become Gods, and he hadn't been wrong.

While Abaddon definitely didn't know about Entropy and what Abominations were actually made of, he had the correct idea.

Shang just needed to summon and absorb Abominations.

Abominations came from outside Aterium, and absorbing them would not put any strain on Aterium's Mana.

Shang no longer needed any Mana to become more powerful.

In fact, Shang didn't even need the prize of the humongous tournament in about 22,000 years.

He could just remain in hiding until it was time.

Although, at some point, someone would probably find him.

Sure, Shang could stay at the bottom of the world, but he would need to keep his Domain of Entropy active at all times, and due to the intense heat and pressure, all the Abominations he summoned would immediately collapse and transform into Destruction.

So, while Shang could theoretically reach the Sword Emperor Realm completely in secret, it was based on the fact that no one was searching for him.

This meant that Shang still had to be careful.

After summoning the Abomination Kings, Shang destroyed one of them and absorbed their Entropy and Mana.

Shang felt like he was about to explode, but before he actually did, he willed his being to advance toward the next Realm.

CRACK!

It was like the reality around Shang broke apart, and the next moment, Mana was pouring toward him like crazy.

In an instant, the surrounding 100,000 kilometers of Mana shot toward him.

Shang had already expected something like that, which was why he was located near the northwestern edge of the world.

Shang decided to look at what was happening for a bit longer.

Over the next seconds, the Mana absorption extended until it reached a distance of 700,000 kilometers, but that was when it stopped

Shang was absorbing all the Mana from that distance.

When Shang saw that, he smirked. '700,000 kilometers, huh? Isn't that the size of my future Spirit Sense?'

Shang noticed that his body and mind became more and more unstable as time passed.

His body and mind wanted to advance to the Sword King Realm, but the Mana they were absorbing was too little to support such an advancement.

It was like Shang's being was running out of fuel.

'So, that's how it feels when you try to break through without enough Mana, huh?' Shang thought with a chuckle.

BANG!

One of the Abomination Kings was turned into Mana and Entropy, which was quickly absorbed by Shang.

Shang's body and mind stabilized with the new influx of energy, but some seconds later, they started to become unstable again.

Shang just absorbed another Abomination King.

By now, the absorption of the Mana from the atmosphere had also slowed down significantly.

After all, Shang's being didn't need the Mana from the atmosphere. What the Abominations were giving him was more than enough.

Shang killed a couple more Abomination Kings over the next couple of minutes, and eventually, Shang's body stopped absorbing Mana.

At the same time, Shang felt his Spirit Sense expand.

100,000 kilometers.

200,000 kilometers.

300,000 kilometers.

400,000 kilometers.

500,000 kilometers.

600,000 kilometers.

And finally, 700,000 kilometers!

As soon as Shang felt the size of his new Spirit Sense, he broke out into maniacal laughter.

"I've done it!" he shouted.

"A body that is a level above of what it should be!"

"A mind a level above of what it should be!"

"A perfect Affinity for every single Element!"

"I've done it!"

Shang extended his arms and looked at the sky with a wide grin.

"I'm perfect!"

 

 

Chapter 988 988 - Eighth Question

Shang reveled in his new power.

Everything he had worked towards for 29,000 years had finally come true!

At the start, he had only been a weak and helpless boy that needed to jump from trees to become stronger.

Then, he underwent the painful Procedure and got a body that finally allowed him to fight the Mages on an equal footing.

After that, Shang had attained the technique that the barbarians from the Grandmountain Kingdom had used to attain such powerful bodies, and together with the effects of the Procedure, Shang had become even more powerful.

And yet, compared to the true geniuses of the world, Shang had only been mediocre.

That was until Shang had comprehended four different Paths before reaching the True Path Stage.

With a fourfold Spirit Sense, Shang had officially joined the true elite of the world, the Clouds!

And yet, there had still been a couple of thousand like Shang.

Then, Shang comprehended four different Imposes, and finally, he combined them with World Connection.

With that, Shang had reached a fivefold Spirit Sense.

Something that less than 100 people had in the world, including the Mage Kings.

Then, Shang learned Void Break after the most painful period of training of his entire life.

After accidentally consuming the momentum of comprehending Void Break, Shang managed to attain enough momentum to reach the next Realm.

And with that, he had done it.

A sixfold Spirit Sense!

The third person in known history after Lucius and Abaddon.

Then, Shang sacrificed his left arm to comprehend the Concept of Transformation, and he also managed to comprehend Sword Blood before becoming a Sword Lord.

By using up the momentum of comprehending the Concept of Transformation, Shang had surpassed Lucius and reached the same level as Abaddon.

An advanced sixfold Spirit Sense!

Shang had been on equal footing with the most powerful being in history, except for maybe the God.

And in the Sword Lord Realm, Shang had truly transcended all known norms and laws.

Except for his head, most of Shang's body had transformed to resemble Abominations. While Shang's torso didn't have the shape of a typical Abomination's torso, it was still made of the same stuff as the typical Abomination's torso.

If Shang used Void Break and Sword Focus, the power of Shang's body would eclipse the power of a Peak Beast King's body.

At this moment, except for the God, Shang had the most powerful body out of every single living being!

As an Initial Sword King, Shang could manhandle Peak Beast Kings with just his right arm, and one punch of his would destroy the Mana Shield of an Early Mage King without a fivefold Spirit Sense.

Finally, Shang surpassed Abaddon!

Finally, he attained a sevenfold Spirit Sense!

Even if the God had been some unprecedented genius in the past, Shang was absolutely certain that the God hadn't managed to go above a sevenfold Spirit Sense!

On top of that, Shang knew that his Battle-Strength vastly surpassed the God's last opponent, Lucius.

Shang even guessed that he might be able to jump two levels against Lucius.

"True power!" Shang growled as he clenched his right fist.

"I can feel it!"

"This is true power!"

"Yet, it is only the start!"

"My power might be unrivaled in Aterium, but if there are other worlds, I still have a long way to go."

Shang's grin widened.

"And I wouldn't have it any other way!"

Shang chuckled a bit in satisfaction, and he focused on a part of his mind that hadn't been there before.

A memory.

'The eighth question, huh?' Shang thought with disinterest.

'Fine, let's take a look.'

Shang accessed the memory, and he found himself in the God's palace again.

When Shang saw the fat and blonde guy in front of the God, he smirked.

'Alex,' he spoke to himself in his mind.

'What a pathetic creature you are.'

'Following the world's laws and trying to earn money for higher education.'

'You're a worker ant without any purpose.'

'But rejoice, your future is brighter than anything you could imagine at this moment!'

'You will one day become the most powerful being that Aterium has ever witnessed!'

A moment later, Alex asked his question.

"How do I become as powerful as you?" he asked the God.

The God only chuckled a bit. "That's interesting. Usually, people ask this question as their last one. How come you asked it for your eighth?"

Alex smiled sheepishly.

"I can't think of another question. This is the last one I can think of," he said with embarrassment.

The God cackled a bit. "Then think of a good one. I'm not letting you go until you've asked all your questions."

"As for the answer to your previous one, reaching my level will be extremely difficult."

"First, you need to become the most powerful person in the world."

"The more you learn before reaching a new Realm, the more powerful you become after your breakthrough."

Then, the God chuckled a bit, and his eyes turned to look at Shang.

"But when you unlock the memory of this question, you already know that."

It was like the God was talking to Shang, and Shang just looked back.

Shang looked deeply into the God's eyes with no fear.

"Become strong enough to defeat the kid from the Judgment Palace," the God said to Shang, as Alex also looked in that direction. Sadly, Alex wasn't able to see what the God was seeing, and he just looked around in confusion.

"If you somehow manage to attain that much power, you already know how to become a God."

The God chuckled a bit.

"And as for reaching my power."

"Just give it your all, okay?" he said with another chuckle.

A moment later, God looked back at Alex.

"One last question remains."

Alex seemed uncertain.

He genuinely had no idea what he should ask as his last question, and he simply looked at the God.

Alex thought about his past and his future.

That was when he realized something.

Yeah, he could ask that!

And then, the memory was cut off.

Shang just chuckled when the memory ended.

The God had said that Shang's last question had been a doozy, but Shang didn't care anymore.

Shang had attained his power, and he would use it to kill the God for playing with his life.

For a while, Shang just looked at the silver wall While dreaming of his future.

And then, Shang noticed something.

Someone was approaching his location.

It was not Gregorio.

It was not Abaddon.

It was not Kali.

When Shang saw that person, he smirked with confidence.

 

 

Chapter 989 989 - Suspicion

Shang had seen the person before the person had seen him.

They weren't traveling at their full speed, and maybe, Shang could escape before they saw him.

However, Shang just smirked and chuckled a bit.

'How interesting,' he thought. 'It seems like Gregorio hasn't been the most careful.'

A moment later, the person found Shang, and they just watched with shock.

This confirmed that they hadn't known that Shang was still alive but that they had only had a hunch.

Shang could feel the person looking at him, and the person could also feel Shang looking at them.

A moment later, a portal opened just 100,000 kilometers behind Shang. It wasn't close enough to count as melee range for Shang, but easily close enough for a Peak Mage King to fight him.

A moment later, an older man with an immaculately groomed suit walked out. The Custodian, Wester.

Wester looked at Shang with narrowed eyes while Shang just looked at the silver wall.

Shang hadn't hidden his new limbs, and Wester could see them in all their glory.

Shang chuckled a bit and turned to look at Wester with his black-and-white eyes. "Wester, what a pleasure to see you," he said with a smirk.

Wester's emotions were going crazy.

When Wester had talked to Gregorio, he had already noticed that Gregorio was acting strangely.

Gregorio had often talked about Shang when talking to Wester, but as soon as the Grand Tournament had passed, Gregorio had completely stopped talking about him.

It was almost like Shang had stopped existing in Gregorio's mind.

However, based on how Gregorio had acted when Shang had wanted to talk to him, Wester knew that Gregorio wouldn't just dump Shang like a piece of trash after he became useless.

At the very least, he would have lamented Shang's demise many times.

And yet, Gregorio had never talked about Shang again.

Wester had guessed that Shang might still be alive.

That, in and of itself, wouldn't be such a bad thing. After all, Shang belonged to the Lightning Manor, and they all worked together.

The suspicious part was that Gregorio hadn't told Wester about it.

One had to know that Wester was the second-in-command of the Lightning Manor, and he had been the closest friend, colleague, and servant of Gregorio.

Wester hadn't betrayed the Lightning Manor a single time. In fact, he hadn't even shown the slightest inkling of betrayal.

He had always kept confidential information confidential.

After over 50,000 years of working for Gregorio, Wester had expected that Gregorio would inform him about such things.

And yet, he didn't.

This worried Wester and made him suspicious.

Gregorio wasn't a paranoid or secretive person. In fact, he had always been quite open, transparent, and cooperative.

So, what kind of secret could be so important and destructive that Gregorio didn't even dare to tell Wester?

Of course, as soon as the first suspicions arose, Wester found many more suspicious points.

For example, even though the Abominations became more and more troublesome, Gregorio had stopped asking about the Child of Calamity.

In the past, literally every single conversation between them had started with Gregorio asking about the Child of Calamity.

And then?

Nothing.

It was like Gregorio no longer cared. Then came that sudden breakthrough that allowed Gregorio to stop Ancestral Abominations and Abomination Lords from appearing.

That was such a monumental and sudden breakthrough!

Especially since Gregorio hadn't seemed to be researching Abominations at all in the recent past.

That had created a suspicion in Wester's mind.

Shang was the Child of Calamity, and Gregorio knew about it.

It took a long time for Wester to accept this possibility. After all, Gregorio had always been against the Abominations, and it had even been his duty to deal with the Child of Calamity.

How was it possible that someone like that could suddenly become the ally of the Child of Calamity?

Nevertheless, all of these things had still only been guesses and speculation.

And then, Wester felt the Mana of the world move towards the northwest.

The movement had been very subtle.

It had felt unimportant.

And yet, something inside Wester told him that this was important.

But he hesitated.

If he actually traveled to that location, the possibility might become a reality.

Then what?

Shang would be the Child of Calamity, and Gregorio would be the greatest traitor of Aterium in history.

Wester only had a bit more than 10,000 years of longevity left.

He had served the Lightning Emperor for over 50,000 years.

Now, Wester was old, and he would soon pass.

Maybe, he could just look away.

Wester wouldn't witness the unprecedented tournament for the new Mage Emperor anyway.

Until then, things would basically remain the same.

Even more, there were fewer Abominations now, which meant that the world was actually improving.

If he went and confirmed his suspicions, he knew that he couldn't just sit idly by.

He would have to do what was right.

He would need to kill Shang and inform the other Emperors about Gregorio's betrayal.

Thinking about this possibility hurt him immensely.

So, even though Wester had thought about not doing anything for a while, deep inside, he knew that the decision had already been made.

Wester wasn't someone that ran away.

Wester was someone that followed his own principles, and he wouldn't idly stand by as more and more people died due to Shang's mere existence.

So, Wester had traveled towards the northwest.

And he had found what he had been looking for.

In front of him stood Shang, but Wester almost couldn't recognize him.

The color of his outfit had changed.

His body had become part Abomination.

His eyes looked at him with amusement and arrogance.

Lastly, his Aura had also completely changed.

In the past, Shang had felt grey, empty, and cold.

Now, Shang felt overpowering, fiery, arrogant, and dominant.

Wester almost couldn't connect the current Shang to the old one.

Yet, all of these changes weren't relevant.

Wester would kill Shang today, and the change in his Aura wouldn't change anything.

 

 

Chapter 990 990 - Star

Shang just looked at Wester with an interested smirk, while Wester looked at Shang with narrowed eyes.

"Since when?" Wester asked.

"Since when what?" Shang asked back.

"Since when did the Ancestor know that you are the Child of Calamity?" Wester shouted with an enraged voice.

"Since I lost my legs," Shang answered.

Wester thought back to that day and realized that it had already been well over 15,000 years.

"How did you convince the Ancestor to spare you?" Wester asked.

"Spare me?" Shang repeated with mock shock.

Then, he laughed.

"Convince him?" Shang said with a smirk.

"When he found out, I was unconscious. So, I guess you could say I convinced him by lying on the ground in front of him."

When Wester heard that, he started to grit his teeth.

Shang didn't seem like he was lying.

Even more, the world resonated with his answer, which meant that it was the truth.

Of course, powerful Mage Kings could manipulate that resonance to a certain degree, but Shang wasn't a Mage.

Sadly, Shang's answer took the last bit of hope from Wester.

Maybe, the Ancestor hadn't known that Shang was the Child of Calamity?

Maybe, Shang had used some kind of Spell on the Ancestor?

Unfortunately, the simplest answer was often the correct one.

"Why?" Wester asked. "Why did the Ancestor betray us?"

"Why?" Shang repeated with a smirk.

"Honestly, I'm not quite sure myself."

"Back when I met him for the first time, he was debating killing me, but after we talked about everything for a bit, he seemed to just like me for some reason."

Wester narrowed his eyes.

That sounded like a lie!

Yet, he didn't interrupt Shang.

"After our conversation, he started to act like we were friends. Honestly, I'm not exactly sure why."

"Maybe he saw me as a weapon against Abaddon?"

"Maybe he was just very excited to leave Aterium?"

"Maybe it's my promise that I will do my very best to stop the Abominations from appearing?"

"Or maybe, he was just a lonely old man."

"I never asked him why he was helping me," Shang said with a small chuckle.

When Wester heard Shang's answers, a light appeared in his narrowed eyes.

"You can get rid of the Abominations?" he asked.

"I don't know," Shang answered. "But if I can, I probably will, as long as it's not too much trouble."

"In comparison to Lucius, I actually have the power to defend myself."

Shang's words made several questions appear in Wester's mind.

"Defend yourself? From what? And why is the Mage God relevant?" Wester asked.

Shang glanced at Wester and chuckled some more. "I thought only the Emperors were blind due to their relationship with Lucius."

"Seems like even the all-powerful Custodian isn't immune to naivety," Shang spoke with a mocking tone.

"Can't you see it?" Shang asked.

"The Abominations. When was the last time an Abomination King appeared in the world?"

"It was when Lucius had just so happened to become a Mage King, wasn't it?" Shang said with a chuckle.

Wester's eyes widened, but Shang just continued talking.

"And what happened shortly after he became a God? All the Abominations became weaker, and we only saw Abominations from the first four Realms."

"Almost like the Child of Calamity has died."

Wester's mind was going through millions of scenarios and possibilities.

"And who killed him?" Shang said with a smirk.

Wester didn't know.

"Well, whoever killed him won't be able to kill me when it is time," Shang said with a confident grin.

Shang chuckled a bit and raised his right Abomination arm, showing it to Wester in its full glory.

"Didn't you notice?" Shang asked.

"I have a sevenfold Spirit Sense now."

"I have an Abomination body, making me superior to every other human."

"I have an Affinity for all the Elements."

"My mind is already equal to the mind of an Early Mage King, while I am only an Initial Sword King."

"The God of this world has given me my powers, which makes it likely that he is also the cause of the Abomination problem."

Shang clenched his right hand, and the surrounding space shook.

"If I attain Godhood, I will kill that God and leave this world."

"After that, everything will be left to the Emperors."

The things Wester had been hearing were more than shocking, but he quickly managed to wrap his mind around the new dynamic.

Now, Wester could finally understand how the Ancestor could have been convinced to help Shang.

Everyone knew that the Abominations represented the end of the world. As long as they couldn't perfectly kill every Abomination before it could absorb any Mana, they couldn't stop the world from degenerating.

The more time passed, the less Mage Kings and Beast Kings appeared in the world.

Eventually, there would be no more Kings.

And then, no more Lords.

Finally, nothing would be left, and the Abominations would consume the world unopposed.

By getting rid of the source, Shang could stop the world from dying indefinitely!

Yet, Wester couldn't even entertain the thought of helping Shang achieve his goal.

Because of Shang, trillions, if not quadrillions, of people had died!

He was so selfish and power-hungry that he would rather sacrifice an ocean of people before stopping to become more powerful.

The possibilities didn't matter.

Shang was a monster, and for all of his crimes, he deserved to die.

Shang saw Wester and could guess what he was thinking about.

"Really?" Shang said with a snort. "You would rather doom Aterium to certain doom instead of taking a shot at eternity?"

Wester didn't answer.

Instead, Mana gathered around him.

An instant later, a golden bolt of terrifying lightning shot directly at Shang.

CRRRRRRRK!

Wester narrowed his eyes.

He had already expected Shang to be powerful, but he had still been shocked.

As an Initial Sword King, Shang had managed to block Wester's Spell!

Even more...

When Wester saw how Shang had blocked his Spell, he had realized that Shang truly wasn't human anymore.

At this moment, tens of swords were in front of Shang.

Long swords, scimitars, katanas, daos, sables, sabers, great swords, two-handed swords, one-handed swords, big swords, small swords, thin swords, and wide swords.

All swords one could imagine were in front of Shang.

They had blocked the Spell, and a moment later, the swords moved away.

The base of each sword was connected to a long and black tentacle, which curved around Shang and entered his back.

Shang had mastery over Entropy, and he could also create Entropy Ore.

Using an external sword would be a waste with such abilities.

So, Shang had created tens of dark and black tentacles that ended in swords made of Entropy Ore on the level of the strongest Abomination Kings.

As Wester watched, Shang's long and powerful tentacles stretched outward.

Shang's arms were crossed, and a smirk adorned his face.

Meanwhile, the tentacles had stretched into a star made of swords.

Shang moved his right arm forward and gestured for Wester to attack.

Wester just readied himself.