Four decades had passed since Shang had taken over as the Town Lord.
The mortal district was thriving with General Stage and Commander Stage warriors.
Over ten of the Commander Stage warriors from the Warrior Academy had already reached the True Path Stage.
Shang had taken all the True Path Stage warriors as his disciples, but only eight actually remained.
Duma had been Shang's first disciple, but Duma had no ambition inside him.
There were a couple of others that also didn't make the cut, but the eight remaining people were hungry for power.
They listened intently to everything Shang told them, and they looked up to him as an icon.
As far as they knew, Shang was the only warrior in the world that managed to reach the Impose Stage!
Even more, Shang knew four different True Paths, four different Imposes, and he was even comprehending a fifth one right now!
They knew that Shang was on a completely different level from them, but because of that, they were also willing to listen to all of his teachings.
Additionally, they were deeply grateful that someone like their Master decided to sacrifice so much time for them and teach them.
Of course, Shang wasn't exactly doing this for them.
Shang's job was to create True Path Stage warriors and Impose Stage warriors.
There were now several people that could teach Commander Stage warriors about reaching the True Path Stage, but as of this moment, there was only a single person that could teach True Path Stage warriors about reaching the Impose Stage.
Because of that, Shang needed to teach these people.
As long as two or three of them reached the Impose Stage, at least one of them should be willing to remain and teach the True Path Stage warriors.
At that point, everything would work on its own, and Shang would no longer need to invest so much time into them.
Right now, two True Path Stage warriors that hadn't met Shang's standards were still working in the Warrior Academy, teaching other warriors about the True Path Stage.
Shang's eight disciples were fully focused on themselves, and Shang was even willing to pay for the resources they needed, including their weapons and armor.
With all the money at his disposal, it hadn't been very difficult for Shang to find a company that was essentially the equivalent of an engineer's office from Earth.
Shang told them what he wanted.
They sent a couple of Earth, Metal, and Fire Mages to create some ways to forge weapons and armor.
And then, Shang paid them in exchange for the methods to create these things.
Sure enough, having money was very useful.
Shang's disciples were extremely grateful, and they promised to pay him back, but Shang didn't particularly care.
He had all the resources he needed, and he was simply investing in them because of the Temple of Blood's plan.
As of this moment, Shang had not yet been rewarded for his efforts.
For that, Shang would need to convince a True Path Stage warrior to join the Temple of Blood.
Every True Path Stage warrior that joined the Temple of Blood would net Shang ten Grade Six Mana Crystals.
Obviously, that was a ridiculous sum of money for a True Path Stage warrior.
Not even the average Named Agent was worth that much.
But that was exactly what the Territory Lord had meant back then when she said that they would pay Shang very, very handsomely for his results.
For now, Shang didn't intend to convince any warriors to join the Temple of Blood.
Sure, that would net him some money, but Shang was after the actual goal.
He had to create Impose Stage warriors.
At that point, the Temple of Blood would get involved directly and hire them.
As long as they kept getting more Impose Stage warriors, they would get even more since the current warriors would raise new warriors.
Eventually, the Temple of Blood would have its own secret unit of special agents.
All defenses in the world were set up for either Mages or beasts.
No one was setting up any defenses for warriors.
With these special agents, the Temple of Blood could complete missions that were impossible to complete before.
Additionally, if the Lightning Manor eventually noticed, the Twilight Dusk Family would get involved.
Right now, the Twilight Dusk Family completely ignored the Temple of Blood. It was simply too weak to enter their eyes.
But as soon as the Lightning Manor showed interest, the Twilight Dusk Family would quickly act like the Temple of Blood had been their most loyal subjects for thousands of years and that they wouldn't simply betray them for a bit of money.
While the Empires weren't warring with each other, the tournament for the next Mage King every 1,000 years created a tremendous rivalry between them.
The more resources they had, the more they could ram down their King Contender's throat to increase their chances by 0.1%.
All the resources the Temple of Blood could give him wouldn't be enough to close the gap between him and the true King Contenders.
For that, Shang would need to join an Empire.
And that was why he needed Impose Stage warriors.
However, Shang was also working on himself.
Shang had delegated nearly all of his tasks to someone else, for good pay, of course.
He only needed to activate the Pathway Magic Circle and call the Security Agency when an Ancestral Beast was spotted.
Every month, Shang also held a public lesson for his eight disciples.
When he wasn't doing any of these things, he was working on his sword.
And just three months ago, Shang had finally managed to create the Path for his new sword.
Creating that Path had taken Shang nearly 40 years, which was far longer than any Path had taken him before that, even though his mind was vastly more powerful than back then.
This was the difference between having a Star Map and not.
The next step was for Shang to create the Impose for his new weapon, which would probably also take about 40 years.
Additionally, Shang had also finally created a name for his new weapon.
He called it Addum, and he would call his new State the Addum State.
