Jerald took it easy on Shang. After all, Jerald was far more powerful than him.
For now, Jerald decided to emulate a normal Mid High Mage. He simply slowed his movements and used less Mana for his Spells.
Sure enough, Shang had shown incredible power. In fact, Jerald had to do his best not to increase his power by more since Shang kept pushing him back at frightening speeds.
The new techniques Shang had come up with in the last 50 years were especially terrifying. Just the fact that Shang had created such an effective technique against Mages in his Colossal Sword State was impressive.
Jerald also felt the power of Shang's attacks on his Mana Shield.
Initially, it wasn't anything too special, but as Shang entered his Great Sword State, the power ramped up significantly!
And when Shang entered his Saber State, the fight had completely changed yet again.
But the most terrifying state was the Long Sword State. At least for Mages.
Shang had dealt significant damage to Jerald's Mana Shield in that state, and he even had to stop Shang before he completely ran out of Mana.
Shang had managed to break the Mana Shield of a Late High Mage, although Jerald had been fighting with the strength of a normal Mid High Mage.
At that point, there was no more doubt.
Shang had definitely reached a level where he could kill an average Mid High Mage.
That was a jump of two levels!
Against a Mage!
Back when Shang had been in the second trial, he had come to a draw with the powerful Early True Mage.
Fighting against an average Mid True Mage should have been about as difficult, maybe a bit easier.
But this time, Shang had been on the offensive several times, and he could have probably progressed even faster if he wasn't testing out several of his new techniques.
Additionally, his body wasn't even at its peak for his level!
It was only a bit more than 80% as powerful as an Initial True Path Stage beast.
After a while, Jerald decided to fight with his Full Mana, but without using any special Spells or tactics.
In essence, Shang was now fighting an average Late High Mage.
And it was rough.
Jerald essentially played with Shang, and Shang's offensive had been weakened significantly.
From this moment on, he only rarely managed to deal more damage to the Mana Shield than Jerald recovered Mana, and the terrifying thing was that Jerald would just recover more Mana after the short offense.
In short, Shang didn't manage to win.
Over the next couple of weeks, Shang's techniques became more efficient and flowed into each other.
Near the end, Jerald wasn't sure if Shang could win against an average Late High Mage or not.
It looked about even.
Jerald also couldn't be sure if he hadn't overdone it with weakening himself. After all, if this were a game, he would essentially be using only five of his over 30 buttons.
Because of that, he couldn't be sure if Shang could win.
A Late High Mage, when pushed to the brink, could unleash significant power. After all, they would die otherwise.
However, Shang could probably do the same if he faced death.
For Jerald, it was all up in the air, and he couldn't be sure if Shang could win or not.
Nevertheless, Shang's power was higher than Jerald had hoped before he reached the True Path Stage.
With this power, his plan could definitely work.
Jerald had to take some breaks to manage his Zone every couple of days, but he always returned relatively quickly.
After around three months of training, Shang's power stopped increasing, which meant that he had gotten used to fighting Mages again and that he had solidified his theories into practical applications.
From now on, Shang's progression of power would return to normal, and it would take a long time for him to make any major leaps.
At that point, the two of them stopped their practice. There was no more point in continuing.
At that point, Jerald shared his plan with Shang, and Shang finally realized why Jerald had said that his power would be the key to success.
He definitely hadn't exaggerated.
If Shang messed up, Jerald might very likely die.
Jerald was truly trusting Shang with his life.
This had never truly happened before. Sure, there had been the barbarians, but it had been ingrained in their traditions to trust their leaders with their lives.
But when it came to someone as powerful and talented as Jerald, this was something completely different.
At the same time, Shang also felt guilty that he didn't tell Jerald the truth about his connection with the Abominations.
Jerald trusted Shang with his life, but Shang couldn't do the same thing in return.
Shang was simply too afraid of what might happen.
Shang knew that his very existence would bring calamity to the entire world.
The more powerful he became, the more powerful the Abominations across the entire world became.
It might already be possible that Shang had indirectly killed millions of people just by becoming more powerful, and it would only get more extreme as more time passed.
Assuming Jerald knew of Shang's secret in the far future, what would happen when Shang vastly overtook him in power?
At some point, Jerald's home or Kingdom might be assaulted by Abominations that were far too powerful to resist.
Jerald might lose everything.
And if he somehow managed to survive, what would he think?
He knew that it would only get worse.
At some point, he would die to the Abominations. Shang couldn't always be around and protect him then!
Even more, the catastrophic effects of the Abominations would only strengthen.
One life in exchange for saving the entire world.
Shang didn't want to force Jerald into making such a decision.
If Shang were in Jerald's shoes, he knew what he would do.
He couldn't allow himself to die. He couldn't allow someone that would be responsible for his death in the future to continue living.
These thoughts made it impossible for Shang to share his deepest secrets.
After the two of them talked about the plan some more, Jerald left.
He also had to prepare himself for the plan. After all, it wasn't only Shang that needed to do something.
Shang stayed in the Caves.
For the next three years, he mostly focused on working on his Affinities and his control over Mana. Creating more techniques would take too long at his current level.
Shang managed to push his body to the peak just a couple of weeks before the deadline arrived.
And then, it was finally time for the trial!
