A couple of minutes later, Shang left the Caves and went to where Jerald was currently.
Jerald simply handed Shang several large books, and Shang left for the Caves again.
As soon as he came back, Shang read through all the books.
These books were Spell Compendiums, and they basically listed every standard True Mage Spell known to the Skythunder Kingdom.
Something like that would go for an extraordinary price, but Jerald just gave them to Shang.
Sure, these Spell Compendiums were extremely valuable, but their value was still perceived in gold.
Shang could hunt True Path Stage beasts. If he wanted to repay Jerald, he would only need to hand over a single corpse, and he would have repaid far more than he owed.
Naturally, Shang wasn't interested in learning Magic. He only looked at the Spells and how they worked to gain inspiration for his techniques.
Shang was no longer on a level where he needed to learn other people's techniques. No, he needed to create his own techniques.
Additionally, with Shang's powerful Path, he was more than qualified to create such techniques.
Over the next two years, Shang's Path didn't make much progress. He was fully focused on coming up with new techniques and trying to manipulate his Mana and Affinities well enough to actually use them.
He created a couple of duds, but he also found a couple of useful ones.
After coming up with a good framework for his future fighting style, Shang went on to make his new fighting style an actual reality.
The beginning was hard since this was a new field for Shang.
Three years later, Shang had only made marginal progress.
At least, that was how it felt.
When Shang actually looked at the Star Map, he noticed something.
The Shards that had symbolized Shang's different Affinities were starting to connect to Shang's Paths.
This didn't increase the actual progress of his Path but made it wider and more powerful.
By now, all four Paths were even wider than Mervin's Path, showing their ridiculous power.
Shang realized that he was onto something big, and his determination to continue pursuing this path only increased.
Five years later, Shang managed to fully integrate his Affinities with his Paths.
In the last ten or so years, Shang's Path hadn't advanced upward but had gotten far wider.
Right now, Shang's Path was still stuck at a bit more than 50%, but it couldn't be compared to its earlier version.
From this point onward, Shang focused on progressing his Path again with its new width.
Over the past couple of years, even more True Path Stage warriors and High Mages appeared.
Sadly, the number of deaths amongst the True Path Stage warriors rose.
They started to be sent on reckless missions or just mysteriously vanished.
Most of all, the warriors that died were all warriors that were not too happy with the Mages.
By now, the warriors started to realize that the Council was behind all of this.
Sadly, they simply didn't have the power to go against the Council.
But there was something they could do.
Fewer warriors appeared on the critical frontlines, even when great rewards were promised.
More warriors only did the necessary things that were expected of them but didn't go beyond. They simply did the bare minimum and tried to stay alive.
Additionally, many powerful warriors didn't even announce their new power or show themselves in public. When nobody knew that they existed, they couldn't be forced to fight on the frontlines.
In short, they had given up on the Skythunder Kingdom.
If the leaders didn't respect them, they also wouldn't show respect.
Because of these slow changes, the frontlines between the Skythunder Kingdom and the Magic Purity Kingdom became bloody again.
The pressure on the Skythunder Kingdom increased, and the Council was forced to lower the pressure they put on the warriors.
Sadly, there was no way to announce such a thing.
Everything they had done previously had been done in the shadows. If they announced now that they were no longer doing these things, it would be like telling everyone that they had been responsible for most of the warriors' deaths.
Many things were changing in the world over the years, but for Shang, nothing changed.
He was still deep in the Caves, working on his power.
By now, Count Sword had been completely forgotten.
The general lectures on politics still included him, but he was basically only a footnote, and nobody really cared.
Even if Count Sword actually existed, he had been only a very powerful and talented Peak Commander Stage warrior. By now, there were many Early True Path Stage warriors and even a couple of Mid True Path Stage warriors.
There were even a couple of warriors that reached Mervin's level of power.
The entire world was changing, and even if Count Sword actually existed, he would only be a relic of the past.
He might have been outstanding back then, but would he still be outstanding today?
Also, if that guy actually were so powerful, why wasn't he at the True Path Stage yet? Wouldn't he have shown himself? True Path Stage warriors needed resources and experience. Wouldn't he want to fight Mages? How could he fight Mages if he didn't show himself?
However, even if Shang knew about all of this, he didn't care.
He was working on something important.
His power was increasing day by day, and Shang could see the sheer power his Path symbolized.
Shang remained deep in the underground, and more time passed.
Two years later, some bad news reached Shang.
Ranos had died.
He had most likely been killed by the Council.
Shang could only take a deep breath and continue working on his power.
This was the future he had chosen.
He knew that more and more of the few people he knew would leave him.
The only thing he could do was train.
Power was the most important thing to him.
One year later, Soran died.
He had also most likely been killed by the Council.
Shang still remembered the Vice-Dean. Soran had never truly been Shang's biggest fan, but it was still sad to see one of George's students go.
George's other student, the woman Viera, had been sent to the frontlines as punishment.
She had gone overboard while hunting beasts and had endangered the ecosystem.
Shang guessed that she also wouldn't stay alive for much longer.
It looked like the Council was systematically getting rid of all the important people in the old Warrior's Academy.
One year later, Teacher Niria died.
She had been the one that gave Shang the quota for the Day of Chaos, and she had also been the one that gave him the Darkness Ore.
He hadn't seen her in 50 years.
Then, one year later, Mattheo died.
This had hit Jerald very hard.
Mattheo had been his sole heir, and he had had a bright future ahead of him.
He had been a powerful Peak Commander Stage warrior and a powerful Peak True Mage at the same time.
He had probably been the most powerful person in the Commander Stage aside from Shang.
And exactly that had been the problem.
He was too powerful, and he was Jerald's son.
He was the biggest threat to the Council.
Yet, even though Jerald's son died, he had never urged Shang to hurry up.
He knew that Shang needed a lot of time.
One friend after the other left Jerald's life, and it was very difficult for him.
As more and more deaths happened, the warriors became more and more unruly, which forced the Mages to assume a more authoritative stance.
The warriors were not happy, and more than one of them fought the Mages, that came to bring them to the frontlines, to the death.
The Skythunder Kingdom's power was rising, but with the new developments, it was not rising nearly as quickly as it could.
As Shang heard about these developments, he realized that the Skythunder Kingdom was becoming more and more like the Grandmountain Kingdom.
Shang could only continue training.
Two years later, a major development in the war happened.
The Blackshadow Kingdom had been reduced to only 30% of its size, and in its desperation, it attacked the Spirit Spring Kingdom.
The Grandmountain Kingdom had gained a lot of land, but it had lost even more.
By now, nearly all of its original lands were occupied by the Skythunder Kingdom.
The Skythunder Kingdom had doubled in size, and the Grandmountain Kingdom and Blackshadow Kingdom shared the lands of the original Blackshadow Kingdom.
Right now, the Skythunder Kingdom took up the southern, southeastern, southwestern, western, and northwestern parts of the world.
It had become even a bit bigger than the Magic Purity Kingdom.
They even had to create a subsidiary Council made up of former Dukes to control the western lands.
However, the Blackshadow Kingdom's sudden betrayal changed the entire war.
The Magic Purity Kingdom completely stopped putting pressure on the Blackshadow Kingdom, focusing all its power on the Skythunder Kingdom.
The Grandmountain Kingdom kept attacking the Blackshadow Kingdom to force them to attack the Spirit Spring Kingdom with more aggression.
Meanwhile, the Skythunder Kingdom had to resist the Magic Purity Kingdom and also had to help the Spirit Spring Kingdom against the Blackshadow Kingdom.
The intense brutality on the Skythunder Kingdom's frontlines forced them to conscript nearly all the warriors into battle, but the warriors were not happy at all.
It was only a matter of time before a civil war broke out, and everyone knew it.
The five Kingdoms 50 years ago had been peaceful in comparison to the ones today.
The Grandmountain Kingdom was dying.
The Blackshadow Kingdom was dying.
The Spirit Spring Kingdom was dying.
The Skythunder Kingdom was on the verge of collapsing.
Only the Magic Purity Kingdom was somewhat stable, but they also didn't have it easy.
The entire world had gone to shit.
Shang was 73 years old now, and he looked like someone in their late 30s.
He had been in the Caves for so long.
Right now, his Path was around 80% done.
Only 20% more.
However, these 20% represented another decade of training.
Shang guessed that he would only reach his goal when he was about 85.
What would the world look like in another decade?
