Shang actually had to wait for a long time.
It wasn't that the Sweepers were fully booked but that the reward for the mission hadn't reached adequate levels yet.
Every month, the Keeper increased the reward for the mission by ten Grade Six Mana Crystals until one of the Sweepers accepted the mission.
By then, Shang had waited nearly one and a half years.
"Someone accepted the mission," the Keeper informed Shang.
Shang stopped training and stepped out of the room.
Spike Ball was sneering at him while Ice Princess was ignoring everything and waited with her eyes closed.
Shang walked over to the Keeper.
"The location of this branch is secretive, even for Sweepers," she transmitted to him. "You will leave the branch and wait at this location. Make sure that the Sweeper can actually find you."
A map appeared in Shang's mind. The place where he was supposed to be waiting was around 5,000 kilometers away from the branch. This was still within the range of whatever the Temple of Blood was using to scan the surroundings, which meant that Shang could go there without any issues.
Shang nodded and left the branch without saying anything.
He had already received his instructions several months ago. From now on, he was only supposed to follow the commands of the Sweeper.
Shang's survival was in the interest of the Sweeper since they were being paid good money to protect him, and they knew better than him what to do in the wilderness.
Shang left the branch and traveled towards the east.
He had been in this territory for over 150 years, and he knew it perfectly.
In comparison to Area 23, there were no real Zones in the outside world.
All of the surroundings were just normal forest from a temperate climate during early summer.
But in comparison to areas in temperate climates on Earth, there were no seasons here.
What it looked like right now was exactly what it looked like all year.
There wasn't much to talk about regarding the wilderness in this area. Just normal trees, normal temperatures, plenty of animals, lots of beasts.
One of the main reasons why there were no Zones, even though there were so many Ancestral Beasts, was that releasing one's Mana in the surroundings was considered a provocation by beasts.
If one of the Ancestral Beasts decided to transform its surroundings into a land of ice, some other Ancestral Beast that walked by might take offense to that and attack.
On top of that, Ancestral Beasts often didn't even stay in one place. Many of them traveled across the land while considering their immediate surroundings as their territory.
Sure, there were some beasts that still transformed their surroundings, but they actually couldn't transform that much of their surroundings into their element.
In Area 23, the Zones had only been about 100 kilometers wide each, while there were often over a thousand kilometers between Ancestral Beasts. A small area of about a hundred kilometers was not very noticeable, especially when only a few beasts actually transformed their surroundings.
Shang was living inside the territory of the Twilight Dusk Family, which was in the middle of the northern part of Aterium. More specifically, Shang was in the southern part of the Twilight Dusk Family's territory. If he went further north, the world would become colder. If he went further south, the world would become hotter.
The Lightning Manor's territory was in the northwestern part of Aterium, and Area 23 had also been in the south of the Lightning Manor's territory.
After leaving Area 23, Shang traveled east for years.
He faced so many dangers during his journey, but he survived.
Shang simply didn't want to remain in the Lightning Manor's territory since he knew that the Lightning Manor was searching for him.
Even if Jerald had only been a contractor, he had still technically been a member of the Lightning Manor.
In Shang's extremely lengthy journey, he had traveled for over four million kilometers, and he wouldn't do that again.
The number of close calls had been terrifyingly high.
In fact, they had been so high that Shang even suspected that the God might have interfered to keep him alive during his journey.
Of course, for the majority of the journey, Shang had actually joined different groups of Mages that were traveling from city to city.
While the Lightning Manor might have searched for Shang, they didn't ask the supervising Ancestral Mages of the city to keep a watch out for Shang.
Shang had only been a True Path Stage warrior back then, and his capture hadn't been a priority.
But things were different now.
Shang couldn't allow himself to come close to any city anymore.
The presence of the Temple of Blood was very strong in this territory, and based on the missions Shang had completed, it was possible for an Ancestral Mage to connect him to the Temple of Blood.
While he hadn't been a priority of capture back then, he definitely was now.
This meant that Shang had to travel through the wilderness while evading all cities.
Luckily, he didn't need to do that on his own.
This time, he would have a powerful Ancestral Mage escorting him.
Someone on that level could travel freely across the land, mostly. There were still some extremely dangerous areas, but the Mage only needed to avoid those.
These kinds of very dangerous areas were mostly stationary and didn't move around.
After some minutes of flying, Shang reached a seemingly random spot in a forest.
There were no Archbeasts inside the range of Shang's Spirit Sense, and the map told Shang that the closest Ancestral Beast was over 800 kilometers away.
After verifying everything, Shang deactivated Shroud for the first time in a long while.
The ethereal feeling and atmosphere around Shang vanished for the first time in decades, and he felt much more human than before.
The bandages around his eyes still gave off a feeling of wrongness, but he only seemed like a scary human now.
Shang waited for a couple of minutes until…
The Sweeper appeared in front of Shang.
