Chapter 840 840 – Many Paths
After comprehending Sword Heart for his Addum, Shang decided to focus on comprehending Sword Heart for his Subsis.
He had trained both of them nearly equally, and comprehending Sword Heart for his Subsis only took a couple of years.
Now, Shang had two Sword Hearts.
The power of his World Connection had increased yet again, but it didn't make that big of a difference to before.
However, his ability to focus had become more effective.
Now, the starting size of the circle had a radius of 50 kilometers, which meant that Shang could essentially physically attack someone from 50 kilometers away.
Even more, the standard attack, without having to gather a lot of focus, was now just as powerful as Shang's physical attack, and he could increase the power even more.
This meant, as long as Shang was 50 kilometers away from the enemy, he could instantaneously unleash a nearly unavoidable attack that had the power of Meteor.
Sure enough, training without focusing on anything had allowed Shang to comprehend something that increased his power.
Sadly, it wasn't useful to Shang's Realm.
Shang needed to comprehend something that was on the level of a Mage King to retain the power of his Spirit Sense.
Sword Heart was something that Impose Stage warriors would comprehend to reach the Sixth Stage, the Heart Stage.
Sword Heart was on the same level as World Connection.
Even if Shang comprehended the level above Sword Heart, it would only increase his potential Spirit Sense from onefold to twofold.
Shang could only get back to a fivefold Spirit Sense with something that a Warrior Lord would use to become a Warrior King.
And this was obviously not the way to go.
It took too long.
Even more, Shang had two weapons, which would make this even harder.
Shang still needed to find something that could increase his Spirit Sense and his Realm.
But for now, he didn't search for that.
For now, he would continue to train aimlessly.
Eventually, another century was up, and Shang turned 1,600.
The war had been going on for 400 years.
Shang's little world had completely recovered by now.
There were many different landscapes, animals, plants, and beasts.
The Lightning Manor still didn't change the assignment of Zones.
So, Shang continued fighting in his inner world.
The next thing he managed to comprehend was the level three Concept of Darkness, Consumption.
Consumption increased the power of Darkness Absorb by a lot, and it allowed Shang to cancel even more of the opponent's will while using less Mana.
It was definitely quite useful.
But that was all he comprehended in that century.
Shang turned 1,700.
The Lightning Manor still didn't change anything.
When Shang realized that the last century had come, he decided to actually focus on something.
He decided to focus on the level four Concept of Death.
He had died so many times, and he had also come into contact with extremely powerful Death Mana.
He knew that he was close to comprehending it.
So, instead of fighting, Shang summoned one powerful Mid Beast Lord after the other, and he didn't even resist.
He died.
Very quickly.
Again and again.
He was eaten, pecked apart, bitten, eviscerated, exsanguinated, crushed, drowned, frozen, incinerated, torn apart, poisoned, shocked, cut, pressed together…
Eventually, all of this stopped mattering to Shang.
Dying became normal.
Was dying actually really so bad?
Whenever Shang noticed that he was having these thoughts, he did his best to rectify them.
Dying in here was fine, but dying outside was not fine.
Dying outside meant that everything would end.
Death in here was different from true death.
And that was when Shang realized it.
This was why he hadn't comprehended the level four Concept of Death yet.
Dying in here didn't represent dying outside.
Shang's mind replayed the things he had felt after coming into contact with the powerful Death Mana.
There was definitely a difference between that Death Mana and dying in here, emotionally speaking.
Even though Shang had grown used to dying, just the thought of coming into contact with this powerful Death Mana filled Shang's mind with fear.
'Getting accustomed to death?' Shang thought with ridicule.
'Dying in here is not a true death.'
'How can I ever get accustomed to death when I've never actually died?'
And finally, he understood everything.
The level four Concept of Death, Death.
Yes, the level four Concept of Death was the state of being dead.
A level four Concept.
Something that an Ancestral Mage would use to become a Mage Lord.
Shang was still in the Early Sixth Realm!
This truly put into perspective that Shang's mind was no longer his weakness.
Comprehending a level four Concept in the Early Sixth Realm was something that only Clouds could do, the most talented Mages in the world.
Was Shang very talented in Magic?
No.
It was just that Shang's mind was extremely focused, and that it was constantly in an extreme state of comprehension due to Shang's insane willpower.
He just never stopped learning.
He never took breaks.
He never took it easy.
He was a perfect machine.
After comprehending the level four Concept of Death, Shang decided to rework his techniques.
He now had Sword Heart and another Concept of Death to work with.
His Realm hadn't benefited, but his foundation and Battle-Strength had increased tremendously.
Additionally, Shang had an idea of what he could do to retain his Spirit Sense.
Shang had been a warrior up to the True Path Stage.
After that, he had comprehended World Connection, which deviated from the path of a warrior.
According to the Custodian, World Connection had been used by World Manipulators.
This meant that Shang had the base of a warrior, but channeled all of this into what World Manipulators used.
After that, Shang comprehended Void Break, which was something that Berserkers used, but Shang had also changed it somewhat to fit his own style.
This meant that Shang had already borrowed from three different Paths.
On top of that, Shang was using several weapons, which meant that he was even treading on the Weapon Master Path.
Four Paths.
And for the next breakthrough?
Why not borrow from yet another Path?
And wasn't there a very noticeable Path he hadn't borrowed from yet?