After clearing everything with the Keeper and buying his Grade Five Mind Flow Pellets, Shang walked up the stairs towards the exit.
He exited the branch and pushed himself through the root.
As soon as Shang had exited, he already felt that the atmosphere was very different from usual.
Usually, everything appeared normal, but now, everything around Shang felt brighter and hotter.
Even the Yellow Sunbreaker's roots felt quite hot.
Yet, about a kilometer away, the dense Mana slowly thinned out until there was no special Elemental Mana left.
Shang's mind focused on the Yellow Sunbreaker for several seconds, making sure that it noticed him.
However, the Yellow Sunbreaker didn't react at all.
That was exactly what Shang wanted.
Since Shang's inner world could now absorb the Mana from the outside, his inner world would also be filled with Fire and Light Mana.
Usually, Mages comprehended Concepts by simply sitting in such an area and focusing on the world.
But Shang wasn't a Mage.
Shang believed that he could comprehend Concepts faster by actively combining them with his techniques.
He would focus on the very thing he wanted to comprehend and would swing his sword, trying to make use of these things.
Of course, Shang couldn't train like this on the outside.
First of all, only the Keeper knew that he was a warrior. Shang was isolated in the training rooms, but he wasn't isolated here.
Second, Shang would also need to train his Fire Affinity, and he wouldn't show that to the Keeper.
Even Agon had known about the Child of Calamity.
Shang refused to believe that a Mage Lord didn't know about the Child of Calamity.
Shang knew that he was the ultimate enemy of everything living.
Even such a cold and opportunistic organization as the Temple of Blood wanted humanity to survive and thrive. The more powerful humanity was, the more jobs they would get.
Because of all of these reasons, Shang would train inside his inner world, and since his mind wouldn't be able to take note of his surroundings in the real world, he had to make sure that the Yellow Sunbreaker wouldn't attack him.
And that was why he had focused so intently on the Yellow Sunbreaker.
He wanted to gauge its reaction.
Luckily, it wasn't interested in the slightest. It didn't care that Shang was looking at it.
A human also didn't care when an ant was looking at them.
Shang walked down the small hill where the Yellow Sunbreaker was perched and found a good spot.
He sat down in a cross-legged position and mentally prepared himself.
'I need to consume the Mind Flow Pellets with my real body. I just purchased a huge number of them, and if the Keeper doesn't see me eat them, she might grow suspicious.'
It was a bit annoying for Shang to exit his inner world about every four hours, but it wasn't a big problem.
He was so quick at switching back and forth that he wouldn't even lose any focus.
It was a bit like eating a snack while working.
However, before Shang started to train, he wanted to do something else first.
Shang focused on his body and all the Abominations he had absorbed over the last 50 years.
He had reached the peak of the Initial Fusion Realm, and he could breakthrough whenever he wanted.
At the True Path Stage, Shang had needed to integrate his new Imposes into his small breakthroughs, but he didn't need to do that now.
Everything would hinge on the big breakthrough in the future.
Some seconds later, Shang willed the hidden power inside his body to burst forth and fill his entire being.
WHOOOOM!
A small wave of Light and Darkness Mana shot out of his body. If Humanity weren't active, Fire and Ice Mana would have appeared as well.
However, there wasn't that much Mana Shang had given off, and just a moment later, all the Mana in the surroundings wildly entered Shang's body.
It was almost like someone had shot a hole into a bucket. First, the water in the bucket shot to the side, but then it all started to gather again and rush through the hole.
At this moment, Shang was absorbing Mana like crazy.
All the Fire and Light Mana in Shang's surroundings vanished. He had absorbed all of it.
Yet, just an instant later, it had been refilled by the Yellow Sunbreaker.
It didn't even notice that some of its Mana had vanished.
Some seconds later, Shang's body stopped absorbing Mana, and Shang took a deep breath.
He had reached the Early Fusion Realm, and his mind had reached the Early High Mage Realm.
The Archmages in Shang's branch all knew several level two Concepts, and they were all focusing on level three Concepts, and Ice Princess even knew one.
Level one Concepts were nothing to them.
Most High Mages also knew more than one level one Concept.
Comprehending a level one Concept was something great for a True Mage but not for a High Mage.
So, comprehending the Concept of Addition shouldn't be too difficult with the mind of an Early High Mage.
After breaking through, Shang started.
Shang threw the first Mind Flow Pellet into his mouth and immediately entered his inner world.
If one looked closely at Shang, one would realize that his Spirit Sense had vanished.
This always happened when Shang entered his inner world.
Obviously, the Keeper had noticed that several times already in the past, but Shang had given her a good explanation.
Deep Meditation.
Sometimes, he was undergoing meditation that was so deep and concentrated that he even lost track of the outside world.
It pulled all of Shang's focus inward.
Mages meditated a lot, but ironically, this Deep Meditation would actually be counterproductive for Mages.
Mages needed to comprehend their surroundings, not themselves.
How were they supposed to learn about fire when they were only looking at their minds and organs?
But the Keeper wasn't suspicious about Shang's weird training method.
After all, he wasn't a Mage.
He was a warrior.
Additionally, since Shang's Battle-Strength was so crazily high, the Keeper thought that Shang probably knew what he was doing.
But, of course, this Deep Meditation didn't actually exist.
It was just Shang entering his inner world.
As soon as Shang entered his inner world, he took out his first sword and changed it to its Saber State.
And then, Shang focused on the heat part of Fire and the augmenting and healing parts of Light.
Addition represented the increase in energy.
If an object was hotter, it had more energy stored inside it.
If an object was heavier, it had more energy stored inside it.
Shang had known since he had been at the General Stage that his Light Affinity represented an addition of mass, and he had also made use of that with Brilliance and Dusk.
Light could increase the weight and mass of an object.
The increase in mass was also how light actually healed people.
It consumed Mana or life energy and converted it into matter, which was skin, bone, blood, organs, and so on in the case of healing.
After four hours of swinging and experimenting, Shang exited his inner world, ate a Mind Flow Pellet, and entered his inner world again.
And again.
And again.
His training had begun.
