Shang traveled across the Storm Eagle Zone, the Ice Wyvern Zone, and the Empress Cobra Zone while checking up on his connection to the Abominations.
Had he lied when he had said that he could redirect Abominations to appear somewhere else?
No.
Over the past two years, Shang had noticed that some Abominations, connected to specific Zones where he had been, had felt unruly, which meant that they would soon appear.
If they didn't receive a command, they would just appear as normal, but if Shang gave them a command, he could make them appear somewhere else.
Sadly, he couldn't stop them from appearing entirely. He could only tweak their destination.
Of course, the Abominations actually weren't intending to come to these couple of Zones in the next couple of weeks.
But that didn't matter.
Shang would summon them regardless.
After checking through the Zones, Shang noticed that none of the Abominations were planning on coming, which was a good thing. After all, he had told Duke Whirlwind that he had a kind of deterring effect on them.
Wouldn't it be suspicious if Shang said that some Abominations were about to appear, redirect them, and then a new wave would appear just a week later in the Zones where Shang was supposed to be?
Because of that, Shang had to inspect the Abominations.
His plan would have worked either way.
If the Abominations weren't interested in coming, Shang would summon them.
If they were interested in coming, Shang would redirect them.
After checking through all the Zones, Shang contacted Duke Whirlwind again.
"I think they will appear tomorrow at around noon. I can't be entirely sure about the time, but I shouldn't be off by more than half an hour."
"Understood," Duke Whirlwind said through the Communication Crystal. "I will get Duke Mithril to leave for a couple of hours."
"Will he become suspicious?" Shang asked.
"He might, but it doesn't matter. There is no known way to control the appearances of the Abominations. Not even the Kings can do that. He might believe that I am responsible for that, but no one would believe him."
"Of course, we have to be careful how we do things in the future. If this keeps happening, even an idiot will suspect me," Duke Whirlwind said.
"No problem," Shang answered. "I'll keep you informed about the Abominations, and you tell me what you want me to do with them."
"Sounds good. I'll tell you when Duke Mithril leaves. After I contact you, we can't come into contact for at least three days. Go back to the Caves when everything is over. I will contact you eventually," Duke Whirlwind said.
"Alright," Shang answered.
Then, he cut the connection.
Shang put the Communication Crystal away and looked at the place in front of him.
Right now, Shang was inside a cave at the edge of the Adamantite Behemoth Zone and the Northern Ice Wyvern Zone.
From his current place, Shang could see the entire Adamantite Behemoth Zone and Duke Mithril's castle.
His castle was quite big, and a lot of people lived around it.
This single place was where all the people inside the Adamantite Behemoth Zone lived.
It was supposed to be one of the safest places in the Kingdom. After all, a Duke was literally living in the middle of this town.
But today, it would become one of the most dangerous.
And then, Shang just waited.
When the late morning arrived, Shang saw someone leave the town with quite a bit of speed, and Shang could see the distortion of Mana around them even from such a distance.
'That has to be Duke Mithril.'
A second later, Shang's Communication Crystal rang.
"He should have just left. We'll talk in a couple of days," Duke Whirlwind said before cutting the connection.
Shang didn't know how Duke Whirlwind managed to lure Duke Mithril out of his home, but it wasn't important. There were probably a couple of ways.
After Duke Mithril left for a while, Shang took out an intricately designed metal plate.
He put it on the ground and spoke some strange chants for a couple of seconds.
A second later, the plate began to shine, and Shang could feel a lot of Light Mana come out of the plate, which directly shot towards the distant town.
A couple of seconds later, the plate showed several moving images of the town.
It was like Shang was watching the town filmed by a flying drone via a tablet pc.
Obviously, Shang couldn't create something that intricate.
'It sure helps to have a High Mage as an ally,' Shang thought as he looked at the plate with a smirk.
Shang only needed to use a bit of Mana to activate it. The Mana that the Spell actually used was already stored inside the plate.
Someone like Duke Whirlwind obviously also had at least one Light True Mage in his army.
As Shang looked at the town on the plate, he got reminded of the last time he worked for Duke Whirlwind.
Back then, Duke Whirlwind had only asked Shang to catch a couple of traitors as an easy mission. He obviously didn't really need Shang to do that task. The main purpose of the task was to get Shang used to working for him and to draw him in.
Shang didn't exactly see a problem with that. Resources were resources, and Duke Whirlwind could get resources that Shang couldn't.
A good example was the Entropy ore, the True Path Stage ore, and a good set of armor.
It would have been impossible for Shang to get these things outside of the Skythunder Kingdom, which was why he had returned.
'Last time, I only performed an easy and unimportant mission for Duke Whirlwind, but right now, it's almost like we are partners. Of course, he is still vastly more powerful than me, but my powers have become irreplaceable for him.'
As Shang looked at the town, he noted down all the defenses they had in place.
They were pathetic.
Sure, there were a couple of Commander Stage warriors and like ten True Mages in the city, but they were missing a lot of heavy weaponry and Mage towers.
However, Shang wasn't surprised by that.
This Zone was one of the safest.
The Zone Beast never made any issues, the powerful beasts lived underground, it was nowhere near any of the frontlines, and lastly, a Duke lived here.
Beefing up the defenses would be a waste of money.
This Zone was nothing like the Ancestral Mountain Zone, Core Tiger Zone, or the border Zones of the Blackshadow Kingdom.
Those Zones were heavily fortified since they bordered an enemy Kingdom. Summoning an army of Abominations there only made the Kingdoms use up a bit of Mana.
But here, things would be far more devastating.
A good comparison would be an elite striking force.
If one set an elite striking force of ten highly trained soldiers into the middle of New York on Earth, they would do a lot of damage and claim many lives. After all, the police would need to gather, and they weren't trained to deal with such a highly trained unit. They would need to wait for something like a SWAT team or something similar, and even then, it would be problematic.
But if one sent the same unit towards a fortified location on the frontlines of a war, they would barely achieve anything. After all, everyone was on high alert and armed to the teeth.
After looking at the town for a while, Shang knew that the Abominations would do a lot of damage.
However, he wanted more.
He wanted Duke Mithril to pay!
He wanted to hurt Duke Mithril as much as he could!
'Put a bounty on my head?'
'I will make you pay more for my head than you would ever be willing to pay!'
