Over the next several years, Shang traveled from one dangerous location to the next, always fighting powerful beasts.
There were so many beasts Shang had never fought against, and he felt his Battle-Strength become more and more powerful.
Eventually, Shang went through every single Zone that the Storm Kingdom owned.
During all this time, Shang always flew through the air at a very high altitude to avoid being seen by others, and he always only trained in locations where no one else was.
It wasn't that Shang was afraid of being seen by others. Shang simply didn't want to get taken out of his training mindset by having a conversation with someone.
Shang finally had time to fully work on his power, and he wouldn't allow anyone to interfere in his training.
After Shang had gone through every single Zone, he decided to do the same thing again while fighting Mid True Path Stage beasts.
Those beasts were already quite powerful, and Shang couldn't fight them without actually using his Elemental powers.
The fights became more stressful, and Shang had to react even quicker than before, making it even harder to perform his attacks perfectly.
Like a machine, Shang went from Zone to Zone to battle all the powerful beasts.
He was no longer seeing his surroundings.
He only saw himself, his power, and his next training dummy.
Everything had turned into a routine, and Shang was barely even conscious while fighting.
It was like his body was completely moving on its own.
Over many years, some people managed to take a glimpse of Shang from afar, but they weren't sure who that was.
Weren't nearly all the True Path Stage warriors at the frontlines?
Was there actually a True Path Stage warrior inside the Storm Kingdom that wasn't involved in the war?
After a while, most people started to doubt when someone told them that they had seen a True Path Stage warrior.
It was common knowledge that the True Path Stage warriors were all stationed at the frontlines.
They must have just been confused.
He didn't know how long it took, but Shang eventually returned to the Caves.
His attacks had become perfect yet again.
Then, Shang did one last thing.
He wanted to fight an average Late True Path Stage beast.
This definitely wouldn't be easy.
The last time he had fought one was during the trial. The average late True Path Stage beast back then had been that ice hedgehog, and Shang had only killed it by using Dusk.
If Shang were to go all out and use all of his States, he would definitely win without question.
However, Shang's goal was not to win but to train.
This meant that the fight would take a long time, making it very dangerous for Shang.
Nevertheless, Shang wanted to push himself even further.
He needed his attacks to be absolutely perfect in absolutely every single moment.
By now, Shang had already come to terms with the entire philosophy behind advancing inside the True Path Stage.
In the Commander Stage, warriors were creating the blueprint for their fighting style. They were essentially creating their Path.
However, their Path was only a concept at that point, and it wasn't completely perfected yet. While the Path dictated what the warrior could do, it didn't dictate how well they could do it.
In a sense, the Path represented a ruleset, and the warriors could create several techniques that followed that ruleset.
But not every single performance was perfect.
Humans made mistakes, and one couldn't always perform perfectly.
That was also why there were so many tries in the Olympics on Earth.
Why would people need to throw a spear so many times?
It was because humans couldn't always be perfect.
And exactly that was the goal inside the True Path Stage.
The warrior in the True Path Stage needed to perfect their Path.
They needed to push their Path to the limit and make perfect use of it.
When they eventually succeeded, they would be ready to reach the Fifth Realm.
Over the past years, Shang had changed more than one attack.
Sometimes, he felt like some of the attacks were superfluous or that there was an opening somewhere that couldn't be closed with an attack that actually flowed into the one he needed in a smooth manner.
By now, Shang's Mana pathways fit his new fighting style even less.
He had simply changed too much stuff.
But overall, Shang was happier with his current way of fighting. He felt like it fit him even more.
Shang quickly met his opponent, a beast at the Late True Path Stage.
The beginning was rather easy for Shang, but as he used up New Moon, things became difficult.
He had pushed the beast back with the overwhelming force of Ice Mana, but the Ice Mana was gone now.
And now, the beast was launching a terrifying offensive at Shang.
For the first time in a long while, Shang actually got injured.
He faced death more than once, and his mind always went to using Dawn.
By using Dawn, he could severely injure the beast or even kill it.
However, Shang always kept himself in check.
He wasn't here to win.
He was here to train!
Shang's performance was horrible for the next couple of seconds, but he eventually got used to the strikes of his opponent.
After a minute, it was like Shang wasn't fighting a Late True Path Stage beast anymore.
Its attacks became obvious to Shang, and Shang knew exactly how he had to move to deal with the attacks before they had even been launched.
It was like the beast was moving according to how Shang wanted it to move.
Time around Shang seemed to slow down.
The beast was still moving at quite a bit of speed, but it wasn't as overwhelming as during the first minute.
For some reason, Shang's attention was drawn to his sword, and he looked at it with interest.
As he swung it, it was like he saw a line.
Or was it a stream?
It was like there was a line traveling further and further through time.
Sometimes, the line was straight.
Sometimes, there was a sine wave.
Sometimes, there was a corner.
It went up and down.
And for some reason, the patterns repeated, and Shang could see the connection they had with his opponent.
Then, Shang willed the line to break out of this pattern.
At that moment, Shang's right eye widened as he felt like he was about to realize something.
'Stop!'
Shang narrowed his right eye and forcefully distracted himself from the realization.
Then, he immediately unleashed Dawn on the beast and killed it.
Lastly, Shang fled from the area where he had just fought and sat down at his usual spot.
'I nearly took the last step,' Shang thought. 'It seems like I am ready to comprehend the very thing that other warriors need to reach the Fifth Realm.'
'However, it is not time yet.'
'I don't know what will happen when I comprehend this concept, but I believe it would be better if my Mana pathways fit into it beforehand.'
'It seems like I have reached the peak of perfection for my Great Sword State.'
'Now, it's time to deal with the Mana pathways.
