Shang tried Impose a couple more times and grew even more familiar with it.
Impose increased his power by quite a lot, and it even allowed Shang to swing his Great Sword with only a single arm.
It was almost like he was swinging his Great Sword like his Long Sword.
When Shang had that thought, he suddenly stopped.
'I can swing my Great Sword like my Long Sword?' Shang thought as he scratched his chin.
'I mean, it definitely moves faster than before. In a way, my Great Sword can now move nearly as fast as my Long Sword, which is beyond impressive.'
'However, it doesn't really feel like a Great Sword anymore. If I need speed, I will just use a different State.'
'I wonder, is there a way to use Impose in a different way?' Shang thought as he looked at his Great Sword.
Shang closed his right eye and focused on the surroundings.
After practicing for a while, Shang could feel how his mind moved the world around him.
While he was swinging his sword, he simply wanted the swing to have more power, which was why the world was essentially pushing the Great Sword forward.
Shang tested a couple of things and found out that he could also make the world gather on his Great Sword.
It was a bit of a weird feeling. It was like all the Mana in the surroundings gathered around the Great Sword, fusing with it.
When Shang tried to swing his Great Sword again, he could barely move it.
It was like it had become many times heavier.
'Sure enough, that feels more like a Great Sword. However, it shouldn't be that heavy.'
Then, Shang willed some of the world's Mana to leave his sword.
After leaving Sword, the Mana in the world could now be used to boost the power of Shang's swing again.
'I can use both at a time, but I only have a finite amount of Mana in the surroundings. It's up to me how I use it.'
Shang tried a couple more swings with different uses of Impose, and he finally came to a result he was happy with.
'fifty-fifty,' Shang thought. 'I use half of the Mana to increase the weight of my Great Sword and use half to push it forward.'
'My attack will move slower than it would move with my old Mana pathway framework, but it is still quite fast. However, the power of my attacks is probably double as strong as with my own framework if I use Impose like that.'
'I exchange a bit of speed for a tremendous increase in power. Seems fitting for my Great Sword State.'
After swinging a couple more times, Shang was finally done with training his Great Sword State.
A second later, Sword started burning with black fire, and Shang swung it to the side.
Sword turned into a Saber.
After that, Shang tried out Impose while using his Saber.
The result was mixed.
'It kind of works a bit,' Shang thought with a frown. 'It only has about 30% of its usual power. Maybe a bit more. It definitely increases my power by a bit, but it isn't nearly comparable to my Great Sword State.'
'I think I can push the speed of my Saber to the same level it was with my old Mana pathway framework, but the power will be a bit weaker.'
'However, that's already better than I expected it to be initially. I still have the sudden acceleration and agile movements of my new framework. So, all in all, my Battle-Strength increased, even if I'm not in my Great Sword State.'
'But now the question is…'
'If Impose can exhibit some power in my other States, what will happen to my Great Sword State when I learn Impose for my Saber State?'
'Does the power increase from 100% to 100% plus 30%?'
'Does it stay at 100%?'
'There might be some tremendous hidden potential in perfecting several Paths.'
Then, Shang furrowed his brows.
'Actually, I remember Relon saying that one needed to comprehend two Concepts before reaching the High Mage Realm in order to be eligible for the position of Assistant Supervisor.'
'This means that comprehending several Concepts before a breakthrough can probably increase someone's power on a fundamental level. Otherwise, people could just comprehend them after the breakthrough. I mean, they probably still can, but it might be lacking some effect that can only appear when you comprehend it earlier.'
Then, Shang realized something.
'Like my huge Spirit Sense!'
'Yes, if I comprehend another Path now, my Spirit Sense probably won't grow, but if I had another one before my breakthrough, it would probably be even bigger.'
'Now, I'm fairly certain. The power of my Impose will increase the more different Imposes I know.'
At that moment, Shang had to grin.
'Sure enough, the Path I have chosen leads to true power.'
After thinking about his future for a bit longer, Shang decided that it was time to continue.
For the first time in a very long time, Shang left the Caves.
He blasted into the air and shot towards the south.
While Shang was blasting towards the south high up in the air, he noticed something.
'Has Warrior's Paradise always been this big?'
Shang inspected the city for a couple of seconds.
'Sure enough, it grew. Huh…'
Warrior's Paradise had grown from being two kilometers wide to being nearly four kilometers wide.
The warrior academy had also grown a lot.
At the same time, Shang could see hundreds of Commander Stage warriors in Warrior's Paradise.
That was a lot!
'Guess I've been gone for a while.'
However, Shang didn't stop.
He blasted past the Canyon and reached the Crater, but while blasting past the Crater, Shang had to raise an eyebrow.
'A team of three True Path Stage warriors? I guess the war is no longer as perilous as back then. Additionally, there's even a Spiriter in the group. Seems like the fusion with the Spirit Spring Kingdom worked out.'
Since Shang was blasting through the air at a great altitude, the people at the bottom didn't see him with their Spirit Senses.
Eventually, Shang stopped above the latter half of the Crater.
Then, Shang closed his eye and activated his Domain of Entropy.
It was time to reach the Early True Path Stage.
After a bit of concentrating, Shang pulled a True Path Stage Abomination into the world.
Surprisingly, Shang noticed that no Soldier Stage Abominations came with it.
Sure, there were still 20 Commander Stage Abominations and 400 General Stage Abominations, but there were no Soldier Stage Abominations.
Shang had to release a sigh of relief when he noticed that.
400 General Stage Abominations were still okay, but 8,000 Soldier Stage Abominations would have been ridiculous.
All the Abominations appeared in the air near Shang, and Shang immediately consumed the True Path Stage Abomination that had appeared beside him.
Meanwhile, the remaining Abominations were falling toward the ground.
The group below Shang didn't even know that a rain of Abomination would soon arrive at their place.
However, Shang wasn't worried.
He only looked towards the south.
An instant after the Abominations appeared, a dark shadow in the distance moved.
And then….
WHOOOOOOOOOOOM!
A gigantic storm of Wind Mana swept toward the north!
All the Abominations were consumed by the Mana, and Shang was flung toward the north with incredible speed.
The group on the ground was also thrown toward the north.
The huge storm even threw nearly all the beasts and warriors in the Canyon around.
Some of the Eternal Spires even collapsed.
After flying for a couple of kilometers, Shang righted himself again in the air with a couple of Blasts.
In the past, Shang would have been terrified of the possibility that a Zone Beast might try to kill him, but not anymore.
With Humanity, Shang felt like a normal human to the beasts.
The Storm Eagle had killed the Abominations, and it didn't even look at Shang while doing so.
In its mind, it had killed all the Abominations.
Shang had nothing to worry about.
'But, sure enough, the Storm Eagle still feels incredibly powerful,' Shang thought as he looked towards the south.
The Storm Eagle had thrown Shang into the distance with a mere flap of its wings from tens of kilometers away.
'It's kind of weird to think that Relon is probably even stronger than the Storm Eagle.'
'Anyway, I should reach the Early True Path Stage now with the Abomination I just consumed.'
