The Serpent was now in Shang's domain.
As soon as it realized that its body temperature was dropping, the humongous ball of lightning expanded to envelop the Serpent.
It absorbed parts of its own lightning to keep itself warm while also making it more difficult for the opponent to hit it through all the lightning.
Shang quickly saw his opportunity.
A terrifyingly cold wind gathered on his Great Sword.
And then, he slashed forward.
It looked like Shang would miss, but at the last moment, the length of his Sword grew by several times!
A humongous and icy edge formed in front of Shang's Sword!
The icy edge entered the ball of lightning.
WHOOSH!
However, the attack missed!
The ball of lightning had canceled out the Ice Mana inside the icy edge, dispersing it.
But the ball of lightning also shrank.
At that moment, part of the Serpent's body was revealed again.
More Ice Mana gathered on the Great Sword, and Shang slashed forward again.
CRACK!
The icy edge hit the scales and exploded!
However, the strength of the icy edge wasn't its hardness but its unreasonable sharpness!
Even though it shattered immediately, it still left behind a terrifying cut.
And that wasn't even everything!
The splinters of ice exploded in all directions, but nearly half of them exploded right into the cut the icy edge had just made!
The splinters were just as sharp as the icy edge and lodged themselves inside the Serpent's flesh.
But just moments later, they all dispersed into seemingly nothing. Of course, Mana didn't just vanish without using Entropy.
All the splinters transformed into Ice Mana and entered the Serpent's body, freezing it!
A sizable chunk of the Serpent's body was now completely frozen!
This was another one of Shang's new techniques in his Great Sword State.
Its goal was to leave a superficial injury on a target with terrifying defense.
Then, the hit part would cool down significantly and freeze.
Shang called this attack Frostbite.
At that moment, the Serpent realized that it was in a truly life-threatening situation, and it acted.
BOOOOM!
A huge portion of the ball of lightning exploded, bathing the surroundings in a terrifying wave of lightning.
However, an equally terrifying mass of Ice Mana gathered in front of Shang, canceling out the lightning.
This was his domain, and he could use all the Ice Mana in here.
Yet, the Serpent's attack still showed some effect.
The area of New Moon around the two of them shrunk by a lot.
Previously, it had been two kilometers wide.
Now, it was only one kilometer wide.
If Shang hadn't controlled New Moon to slightly expand to let the lightning disperse into the surroundings, it would have been broken completely.
Of course, after the expansion, Shang contracted New Moon again to restore the previous density.
A moment later, Shang could see that the lightning ball had shrunk even more. Even if the Serpent tried its best, it couldn't hide its full body inside of it anymore.
The Serpent's goal had to be to throw the opponent away and to get rid of the icy domain, but it had accomplished none of that.
When it realized that even this attack had been useless, it decided on the next best thing.
It would escape the domain!
The Serpent and the lightning ball moved away from Shang in an effort to escape.
Shang quickly shot after them…
And New Moon followed!
Shang was the core of New Moon, and it would be wherever he was.
At that moment, Shang saw his opportunity.
Shang willed New Moon to use a lot of its power to slow down the Serpent.
A terrifying cold wind picked up in front of the Serpent, and it felt its head beginning to freeze.
On top of that, it was pushed back!
The ball of lightning quickly went in front of the Serpent's head, blocking the cold wind and dispersing it.
However, the ball of lightning was also shrinking.
In that instant, Shang arrived at the frozen part of the Serpent's body.
More Ice Mana had already gathered on his Great Sword, and it had changed its shape once again.
It had become longer again, but this time, there was no emphasis on the edge.
There was only an icy and sharp pillar that ended in a terrifyingly thin and long point.
And then, Shang stabbed forward, right at the frozen part.
CRACK!
The thin point hit the frozen part of the Serpent's body and completely buried itself inside it.
Frostbite used extremely sharp but brittle ice, but this technique did exactly the opposite.
There was not much sharpness to the ice, but it was very tough.
As soon as the needle-like Sword punched through the icy exterior, all the Ice Mana gathered onto its tip.
And then, it exploded.
CRACK!
The frozen part of the Serpent exploded off, and the splinters scattered everywhere!
Blood exploded out of the Serpent's body as nearly half the width of that portion of its body had now also vanished!
The hole was just as big as the one the wave of black fire had left behind!
This was another one of Shang's new techniques.
Frostbite was responsible for breaking the opponent's defense, freezing part of its body, and creating a weak point.
Then, this attack would follow next and completely destroy that part.
Shang called this attack Piercing Cold.
Frostbite and Piercing Cold had been designed to be used in alternating order to deal with beasts that had powerful defensive powers.
The Great Sword State had been designed to deal with the powerful defenses of the beasts.
As the parts of the Serpent's frozen body scattered across the surroundings, they suddenly started to vanish.
At the same time, New Moon grew bigger!
It had converted the frozen parts into Ice Mana!
New Moon made Frostbite more powerful.
Frostbite made Piercing Cold more powerful.
And Piercing Cold made New Moon more powerful.
It was a positive feedback loop.
The only drawback was that Shang couldn't absorb these parts for more life energy with Darkness Absorb.
At that moment, the Serpent grew desperate, and it decided to sacrifice the entire ball of lightning.
BOOOOOOM!
The entire ball contracted for an instant and exploded into the surroundings, consuming everything.
However, Shang had already seen that move coming, and he had prepared himself.
Just when the ball of lightning had contracted, Shang had willed for all of New Moon to gather around him.
A terrifying nova of lightning scattered across the horizon, growing weaker and weaker the further it traveled.
Yet, the power was very dispersed, and there was actually nothing that stopped it.
The Ice Mana had already vanished.
The spot where Shang was standing was surrounded by all the gathered power of New Moon, easily resisting the dispersed power of the lightning.
As the wave of lightning passed, Shang saw the Serpent fleeing.
If he didn't attack now, it would escape and prepare another ball of lightning.
But Shang could also feel that the Serpent was in a panic, and he knew that now was his best shot at dealing a devastating blow.
All the Ice Mana gathered inside the Great Sword in an instant, and it grew to a terrifying size in an instant.
The Sword was now hundreds of meters long!
Yet, it was still somewhat easy for Shang to swing it. The ice he had used to create this edge was brittle, weak, and light.
Shang had already lowered his Great Sword earlier, and now, he was prepared to slash upward.
And he did just that.
It seemed like a normal attack, but nothing could be further from the truth.
All the power of New Moon had been gathered to create this gigantic sword, and all of that was for one purpose.
To deliver destruction.
The Serpent used its Spirit Sense and saw that a weak but humongous edge was slashing toward it.
It knew that it wouldn't be able to evade since the tip of the sword was moving at insane speeds.
At that moment, the Serpent realized that its life was over.
Even though the attack looked weak, its instincts were screaming at it to evade.
Then, the attack hit the middle of the Serpent's body.
The tip of the Sword shattered.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
A black sun appeared on that spot and exploded, consuming the surrounding 50 meters in black fire!
Beneath the ice, Sword had released Entropy and had pushed it into the icy edge.
Sword could control Entropy to some degree, and it could keep its explosive power docile while inside the icy edge.
But as soon as the icy edge broke, all the accumulated and pressurized power of Entropy would explode forward.
Wherever the icy edge broke would be the place where Entropy would also explode.
The black sun raged about 200 meters away from Shang for over two seconds, illuminating the surroundings in a weird, black light.
This was Shang's last new technique in his Great Sword State, and it symbolized a transition to the Saber State.
New Moon vanished.
The cold receded.
And Dawn arrived.
But after a night of terrifying cold, the following day wouldn't be warm and pleasant.
What would follow would be a barrage of cosmic destruction.
There would be Shooting Stars, Hidden Suns, and Inferno.
And it would all culminate in the destruction of the very thing that gave everything light and life.
The Star would Shatter.
And Darkness would arrive.
These were three of the four States of Shang's sword.
The day would begin with bright and illusory light, and it would culminate in Dusk.
The night would arrive with a cold moon and an avalanche of icy death, and it would culminate in Dawn.
The new day would begin with a barrage of cosmic destruction, and it would culminate in the Star Shattering.
And then, only Darkness would remain.
