Five years had passed, and Shang was 37 now.
For the past five years, Shang had mostly stayed within the Caves, training against the beasts. He had mostly focused on the Colossal Sword Star and the Saber Star.
He had already received the True Path Light Ore from Jerald, but Shang wouldn't use it yet, even if he had access to all of the ore he needed.
The reason was that Sword needed to change shape several times, which would consume ore. Upgrading it to the True Path Stage would make this process far more expensive.
After five years of constant training, Shang's Star Map had made quite some progress.
His shards leading to the other Stars were now nearly as wide and impressive as the shards leading to the Long Sword Star.
This was astonishing progress. After all, it meant that Shang managed to copy the progress he had made after fighting Teacher Mervin for five years, nearly three times over in just five years.
The concept of Cross Comprehension turned out to be correct, and Shang noticed that some principles overlapped, allowing him to make tremendous progress on all of them.
Sadly, there was still a long way to go. He was probably not even 10% of the way to his goal.
The Path he was trying to create was simply too wide and powerful, and it demanded an insane amount of training and comprehension.
Right now, Shang was at the Late Commander Stage, with his body being around 90% as powerful as the body of a Late Commander Stage beast.
Over the past five years, Shang had only absorbed a couple of Abominations for several reasons.
First of all, Shang truly realized how long creating his Path would take. Increasing the power of his body was nothing in comparison. He didn't need to constantly absorb beasts and Abominations.
Second, Shang didn't want to summon too many Abominations. His ability to summon them was still his deepest secret, and he couldn't allow anyone to suspect him. Because of that, Shang only absorbed Abominations when they were about to appear on their own. In essence, he didn't even summon them. He simply took advantage of their regular appearance.
Five years ago, Shang would have counted as the most powerful warrior in the world with his current power. After all, even George would have been helpless in front of him.
However, times changed.
Mervin had reached the True Path Stage, and with his powerful and wide Path, his power also easily eclipsed George's.
Even without the Bloodline Infusion, Mervin could fight the weakest True Path Stage beasts. Maybe he wouldn't necessarily win, but he could fight and flee from them.
And that wasn't even everything. Mervin could do the same thing to the weakest High Mages. His Battle-Strength was evenly divided against all three possible opponents he could fight.
As for fighting against warriors? Shang had a more powerful body than Mervin, but Mervin was also exceptionally good at fighting other warriors.
According to Shang's estimates, if he were to fight Mervin right now, he would estimate that he would lose, but it would still be a long and arduous fight.
Teacher Mervin managed to gain enough power to fight the weakest Mages of his level without the Bloodline Infusion or barbarian strengthening technique.
This showed how incredible his power was.
But, surprisingly, Mervin wasn't the only one that reached the True Path Stage in the past five years.
The Commander of the guards of Warrior's Paradise also reached it.
His Path was also more impressive than George's, but it wasn't as impressive as Mervin's. Nevertheless, he also counted as a truly powerful warrior now.
When Shang had come to this world a bit more than 20 years ago, there had only been one True Path Stage warrior, and he had been very weak in comparison.
Now, there were four, and three of them were definitely not weak.
The world was changing.
About a year ago, George had handed over the position of Dean to Mervin. Mervin had already been informed prior, and he had accepted the position.
Just a couple of months ago, George had gone through with his plan.
After years of research, George had finally done what he had wanted to do for a while.
He took some medication while Jerald cast several Spells, and eventually…
George fell to the Peak Commander Stage and forgot most of his knowledge about combat, which included his Path.
George had stayed unconscious for several days, and his mind had gone through one shock after the other.
Forgetting a Path was not something easy to do.
After George woke up, he had forgotten many things.
Memories were missing.
Concepts were missing.
General knowledge was missing.
However, his personality didn't take a heavy hit, and he mostly remained the same.
He had to relearn many things, which took a long time, but a couple of weeks later, he recovered as much as possible.
Of course, since George was already about 155 years old and since Commander Stage warriors could only live for about 250 years, his appearance had changed.
A big part of George's hair had turned gray, and several wrinkles appeared on his face.
Right now, he looked like he was in his early sixties, in Earth terms.
He looked about as old as Teacher Mervin had looked before reaching the True Path Stage.
In comparison to George, Teacher Mervin had gotten younger, and he looked like he was in his late thirties.
In a way, it was like George and Mervin had switched places.
After George was ready to train again, he surprisingly joined Shang.
Shang was quite shocked when George asked for advice and training from Shang.
It was a strange feeling for Shang.
He had always seen the Dean of the Warrior's Academy as an incredibly imposing giant, and Shang had always learned from him.
But now, he was supposed to be George's teacher.
However, it made sense.
George had forgotten most of his Battle-Strength, and he needed someone very powerful to teach him again.
Shang was the perfect choice.
Usually, Shang would have declined. After all, he didn't have time for students.
However, George was different.
George had taught Shang in the past, and Shang wanted to repay him.
So, Shang accepted.
First, Shang let George fight against a beast one level below him.
This seemed like overkill for someone that was essentially a newbie.
However, Shang thought this was just right.
After all, George had already gotten the Bloodline Infusion.
Obviously, George would undergo the Bloodline Infusion as soon as he forgot his Path, and yes, the Bloodline Infusion could now be used on Commander Stage warriors, but only if their Path was not very developed yet.
George performed horribly against the beast, but he didn't complain or lose motivation in any way.
In fact, his determination only increased as he fought and lost to more beasts.
After a while, Shang made a frightening discovery that made him remember the truth.
The level at which George was adapting to his enemies was frightening.
He adapted so quickly.
It was like he never made the same mistake twice!
When Shang saw that, he remembered who George actually was.
George was someone that had reached the True Path Stage completely blind.
He had had nearly no idea how to reach it, and he just worked on himself without end.
In a completely unknown environment and without any predecessors to guide him, George had managed to essentially create the True Path Stage.
He had done everything on his own, and such a feat had only taken him a bit more than a century.
'George's previous Path might have been weak, but now I'm thinking, how many randomly scattered Shards are actually in his Star Map?' Shang thought.
While watching George advance, Shang was inevitably reminded of Lash and the other barbarians.
Whenever Shang thought about Lash, a sting of pain appeared inside his chest, but he pushed it away.
Nevertheless, Shang couldn't help comparing them.
Lash had already learned at an incredible rate, but he was nothing compared to George.
George learned several times faster than Lash, and his power grew incredibly quickly.
Shang spent a couple of months focusing on George, but he eventually started to fully focus on himself again.
George had gotten used to fighting again, and he didn't need Shang's help anymore.
Seeing George advance only increased Shang's determination.
'Fuck, if I don't hurry up, he might actually overtake me,' Shang thought as he went back into training.
