Shang blasted towards his next target, but on his way there, he contacted Mervin again.
Shang was quite sure that the two Early High Mages wouldn't directly invade the Skythunder Kingdom but split up as soon as they crossed the border and attack the neighboring two borders from behind.
Mervin said that he also suspected that, but he didn't want Shang to be too conspicuous. If they lost a border, it was still fine. However, if Shang kept going from border to border in one straight line, the Magic Purity Kingdom would know where he would strike next and stage an ambush.
Without his Augmenting Spells, Shang might die if two Mid High Mages assaulted him at once.
After listening to Mervin, Shang shared a plan he had with him.
Mervin wasn't the biggest fan of the plan.
It was a risk, but it could pay off in a big way.
"Well, you're a Duke now, which means I technically have to listen to your orders," Mervin said with a slight chuckle. "If you want to do it, sure."
"Thanks, Mervin," Shang answered.
Shang hadn't stopped blasting through the sky as he talked with Mervin.
In the Peak Commander Stage, Shang hadn't been able to blast through the sky without pause, but everything changed as soon as he entered the True Path Stage.
His body had been reforged with his Path, which included his Ice and Fire Affinity.
The strain on his body wasn't nearly as much as it had been back then, which meant that Shang could blast through the air indefinitely.
This method of flying was also faster and less draining than the Weapon Flying Technique.
30 seconds later, Shang arrived at one frontline in the middle of the north.
No one had attacked yet.
Shang's wide Spirit Sense inspected the border of the Magic Purity Kingdom.
Two Initial High Mages.
The border of the Skythunder Kingdom was defended by an Early High Mage, which meant that the Magic Purity Kingdom probably didn't intend to attack this one.
Shang could decimate the Magic Purity Kingdom's border, but that would move the Magic Purity Kingdom to attack with even more ferocity, which was not something the current Skythunder Kingdom wanted.
So, Shang just continued to the next one.
Half a minute later, he arrived at the next one.
The Mages of the Magic Purity Kingdom were currently gathering and preparing for an assault.
This was obviously outside the enemy's Spirit Sense, but Shang's Spirit Sense was unnaturally big, which was how he found out.
Shang informed Mervin, who decided to redirect the Early High Mage from the border Shang had just passed by to go there.
It was risky since the other border would now have no one in the Fourth Realm protecting it, but the Skythunder Kingdom had to do these risky maneuvers since they simply lacked the manpower to support one border without compromising another.
30 seconds later, Shang arrived at the next border.
He saw that two Initial High Mages were preparing to assault this border as well, but that wasn't surprising.
After all, this was the border beside the one where the two Early High Mages of the Magic Purity Kingdom had broken through.
They were only waiting for their colleague to attack.
Shang stopped on top of a mountain west of the border.
He already saw the Early High Mage charging towards this place from the west.
A minute passed.
The Early High Mage was now only eight kilometers away from the border.
At that moment, the Magic Purity Kingdom's border launched its attack.
Two Initial High Mages were attacking with 100 True Mages.
As the Mages entered the Spirit Sense of the two defending Initial High Mages, the Skythunder Kingdom's border also readied for battle.
Shang blasted into the sky again.
Then, he looked at one of the enemy Initial High Mages.
WHOOOM!
His Saber burst into black flames, and he pulled it back.
And then, he threw it.
The eyes of the Mages widened when they suddenly saw an impossibly fast black streak shoot toward one of them.
BANG!
Star Shatter immediately killed one of them.
For a second, the assault paused.
Then, everyone saw the sword fly away again, towards the Skythunder Kingdom.
The remaining High Mage immediately took out a Communication Crystal and informed the Magic Purity Kingdom about it.
Then, the army retreated.
At the same time, Shang saw the Early High Mage stop.
He hadn't entered the Spirit Sense range of the High Mages of the Skythunder Kingdom yet, which meant that the Skythunder Kingdom shouldn't know that he had been ready to attack the same border just now.
In these two seconds, Sword came back to Shang, and he summoned some ore.
BANG!
Shang blasted towards the Early High Mage while Sword returned to its Saber State.
When Shang entered the range of the Early High Mage's Spirit Sense, the Early High Mage did something unforeseen.
SHING!
He used Mana Step, but this wasn't just any Mana Step.
This was the Magic Purity Kingdom's special Mana Step.
This special kind of Mana Step was one of the advantages the Magic Purity Kingdom had gotten from the Lightning Manor so that they had a shot at fighting all the other Kingdoms alone.
Sadly, it was impossible for the Skythunder Kingdom to find out how this Mana Step worked.
Whenever they tried to read the mind of a High Mage of the Magic Purity Kingdom, the High Mage would simply die.
This was also a present of the Lightning Manor.
This made it impossible to learn this special Mana Step.
And traitors basically didn't exist amongst the Magic Purity Kingdom.
They were all too indoctrinated to hate everything that didn't follow a purely magical Path.
So, what did this special Mana Step do?
As soon as the High Mage used it, he shot a kilometer into the sky.
Yes, this special Mana Step could be used to move vertically.
But the tradeoff was that it cost around double as much Mana as the normal Mana Step, which was also why the Magic Purity Kingdom didn't use this Mana Step to attack the Skythunder Kingdom.
The frontlines were mostly set up between gigantic mountains, making it very difficult to climb over them without being noticed.
The High Mages of the Magic Purity Kingdom could theoretically use two Mana Steps to gain enough height to get past the mountains and then use another five to enter the Skythunder Kingdom, but that would cost them nearly 80% of their Mana.
They would essentially be severely weakened as soon as they arrived in enemy territory, which wasn't a good thing for them.
SHING!
The Mage used another Mana Step to gain more height.
'But it's quite useful for retreating,' Shang thought.
WHOOOM!
Shang's Saber caught on fire again, and he threw it.
SHING! SHING!
The Mage used two quick Mana Steps before he noticed Star Shatter.
SHING!
He changed his angle and used Mana Step again to avoid Star Shatter.
Shang only smirked.
Sword could also change its trajectory.
The Early High Mage felt safe for a second.
CRACK!
Star Shatter broke through the weakened Mana Shield and killed the High Mage.
This kind of retreat was useful against other Mages, but it didn't work for Shang.
In fact, his opponent only weakened themselves unnecessarily while using this kind of Mana Step in front of Shang.
As soon as the Mage died, Sword returned, and Shang gave it more ore.
Then, Shang continued blasting towards the west with his Saber.
