A frozen, bloody human body was lying in the middle of the branch, white mist slowly leaving the corpse's opened mouth.
Shang's Spirit Sense enveloped the corpse and realized…
This wasn't a corpse.
The person was actually still alive.
They were just in a lot of pain and couldn't move due to their body being frozen.
Shang also knew the identity of the "corpse", and he wasn't surprised in the least.
It was Spike Ball.
"That was me. He told me to run back to my mommy."
Shang's head turned to the person that had just spoken.
It was a young man with a bright smile and fiery red hair.
Shang also knew that person.
He was one of the newer Named Agents, only having been part of this branch for about 20 years.
He was an Early Archmage with a Fire Affinity. He enjoyed talking with others and telling stories. In a way, he was quite charismatic and would remind someone of the dead Desert Storm.
However, compared to the dead Desert Storm, this guy actually had a huge issue.
He was a pathological liar.
He lied about nearly everything for no reason whatsoever.
His codename was Fire Pillar, and he specialized in killing large groups.
If Fire Pillar were more powerful, he would have probably received the missions to get rid of the two gatherer families instead of Shang about four years ago.
Shang obviously didn't believe Fire Pillar when he said that he was the one that had frozen Spike Ball.
He already had a pretty good guess based on the fact that Fire Pillar was now here.
Ice Princess.
Ice Princess was probably done with earning money and wanted to focus on her training.
She probably wanted to enter Training Room One, but when she saw Spike Ball reserving it without using it, she got a slight bit irritated.
Killing among colleagues was obviously prohibited, but there were always ways around rules.
Spike Ball wasn't dead right now.
He was just very, very injured and in a lot of pain.
So, Ice Princess didn't break any rules.
Sure, under normal circumstances, the Keeper would have probably intervened since Spike Ball now wasn't in his top condition to accept missions, but she was probably just as annoyed with him.
"Help… me…"
Spike Ball barely managed to contact Shang with his Spirit Sense.
Shang just ignored him and walked over to the Keeper.
"You don't have to worry," Fire Pillar said with a bright smile. "I will release him later!"
Shang also ignored Fire Pillar.
Instead, Shang stopped behind the Keeper and waited.
A moment later, a sheet of paper appeared in front of him, and he scanned it with his Spirit Sense.
Assassinate an Initial Archmage merchant.
Details… details… details… details…
Reward: 150 Grade Five Mana Crystals.
The mission was an average one.
Nothing special.
Shang nodded, pocketed the sheet of paper, and walked up the stairs to the exit.
"Wait for a couple of minutes," the Keeper said. "There's currently an Ancestral Mage traveling through the area."
Shang stopped and waited.
"You can go," the Keeper said about two minutes later.
Shang left and traveled to the target's location.
Within the next five minutes, Shang killed the target.
Some minutes later, he arrived back at the branch and accepted his reward.
This was how most of Shang's jobs went.
He would get his mission, travel to the target, fulfill the mission, and come back.
Normally, such missions would be far more difficult. After all, this was an Archmage. If the Named Agent didn't perfectly plan and execute everything, they might very well die.
Such a mission required a long time of preparation and planning. That definitely wasn't easy.
But that was also why this was such a high-paying job. After all, 150 Grade Five Mana Crystals represented 150 years of an Initial Archmage focusing on nothing but condensing Mana.
150 Grade Five Mana Crystals could pay for about 15 Grade Five Mind Flow Pellets.
But since Shang had such a powerful Battle-Strength and since he had such a wide variety of abilities, such a difficult mission barely took him 15 minutes.
After accepting his payment, Shang checked the entrance to Training Room One.
Sure enough, the Isolation Barrier was active, but he doubted it was Spike Ball.
'Guess I was right, and Ice Princess is now in there. At least she's using it.'
Shang entered Training Room Two and continued thinking.
Some days later, he got the next mission.
After completing the mission, he returned and continued planning.
Eventually, more and more time passed.
Over the years, Shang had created several Paths on which he could advance.
Whenever he found one with some potential, he planned it out but didn't train in it.
The reason for that was that Shang was waiting.
At the moment, he couldn't make an informed decision on which Path he should follow, but that didn't mean that it would always stay like that.
For now, he was preparing himself for the right time.
And eventually, the right time arrived.
Today, Shang told the Keeper that he wouldn't accept any missions for the next two weeks and retreated to one of the training rooms.
He sat down in the middle, and his Spirit Sense seemingly vanished.
Shang had entered his inner world.
50 years had passed.
It was time for the trial.
This was why Shang had been preparing himself.
He knew that the trial would push him towards the right direction.
Shang's head looked towards the stone stele in the middle of his inner world.
The deadline was in a couple of weeks, but Shang's body had already reached its peak by now.
But when Shang looked at the stone stele, his Spirit Sense was actually pulled toward a certain location on the stele.
Near the top of the stele, above the rules of Shang's inner world, was something.
Shang only looked at that thing for a couple of minutes.
He wasn't sure what he was thinking about.
What was Shang looking at?
It was Jerald's hand.
Several decades ago, Shang had nailed it to the stele.
It was supposed to symbolize Shang's Path.
It was supposed to remind him of his choices and his future.
'Never go back.'
'Remember your sacrifices.'
'Look at how far you've come.'
'Always walk forward.'
"We can start with the trial," Shang said after a while.
