It had taken so many years and so many Mind Flow Pellets, but Shang had finally done it.
By now, Shang was 630 years old. People in the Fifth Realm could live for about a thousand years, which meant that Shang was essentially over 50 years old if he were a mortal.
If someone reached the Sixth Realm, they would have reached it in their 400s or 500s, at the latest.
Yet, Shang still wasn't done.
He had only comprehended three of the five things he needed to reach the Sixth Realm.
Luckily, the next part Shang needed to focus on wouldn't take too long.
Sure, the creation of an entirely new Path was always difficult, especially without a Star Map, but Shang had gained a lot of experience, and his mind had become many times more powerful. Lastly, he even had access to expensive resources.
Over the past centuries, Shang had consumed over four Grade Seven Mana Crystals worth of Mind Flow Pellets, which would have been unimaginable to him before coming to his town.
This was the advantage of having a powerful organization backing him.
Surprisingly, ever since the number of True Path Stage warriors joining the Temple of Blood had increased, the Congregation stopped demanding progress and proof from him.
This meant that they were more than happy with the influx of warriors they were getting.
Over the past centuries, the Temple of Blood had already created several methods to make perfect use of these warriors.
The minds of the warriors were mostly weaker than their bodies, which was extremely useful for covert missions since Mages only judged another human's power by feeling the Mana waves coming from their minds.
The target of a mission might look around suspiciously, but they would ignore someone whose mind was like four levels below their own.
Even more, the Temple of Blood had created a terrifyingly effective piece of equipment.
It was an earring with quite an interesting ability.
The earring would severely restrict the flow of Mana that would enter or exit someone's mind, locking up someone's Magic. They could still cast some very weak Spells, but these Spells would be at least two Realms below their own, making them worthless.
Additionally, taking the earring off didn't mean that one could immediately cast Magic. The mind and Mana would need to resynchronize first, which took a couple of seconds.
However, that also severely weakened their strength in the eyes of others.
A True Path Stage warrior would seem as powerful as a mere Adept.
Assuming a Mid High Mage suddenly died in the middle of a city and no one paid attention, who would look at the Adepts for the perpetrator?
And the best thing was that True Path Stage warriors were still unknown to the vast majority of people.
Maybe they had heard about them one time a couple of decades ago, but that was about it. No one was really thinking about them.
This meant that the Temple of Blood could essentially go nuts with missions.
Powerful people that had been warned about an attempt on their life would find themselves dying in the middle of a heavily guarded city.
Secret information from some organizations and households leaked out.
The people that knew of the Temple of Blood became more nervous.
It was like the Temple of Blood had found some kind of new powerful weapon.
And even worse, the power of the people dying to this mysterious weapon only increased with time!
It wouldn't take long for Archmages to die to this mysterious weapon if things continued progressing like this!
The Temple of Blood was earning a lot of money.
Their investment in Shang had paid off.
They hadn't yet recouped their investments, but they would earn far more than they invested in the long run.
That's why they were no longer bothering Shang.
After comprehending the Concept of Subtraction, Shang focused on creating his new Path and Impose.
Ever since coming up with his plan, Shang had already decided that he would change his fighting style from fighting with one sword to fighting with two swords at once.
And then, in the Sixth Realm, Shang would focus on combining the two Swords into a single one again.
But for now, he needed to use two.
Because of that, Shang wasn't planning on creating a weapon that was perfect for being used on its own.
In fact, even his Addum hadn't been designed to fight on its own.
Shang's Addum wasn't as cumbersome as his old Colossal Sword, but it was definitely more on the heavy and slow side. The Addum definitely wasn't made to be fast.
And now, Shang focused on creating a sword that would complement his Addum perfectly.
After a lot of experimenting, Shang finally came up with a perfect design, and it was a doozy.
In fact, it couldn't even be called a sword.
It was a very long and thin stick.
In a way, it looked like one of the weapons the fencers in the Olympic Games back on Earth used.
Of course, something like that was absolutely horrible for slashing and was only good for stabbing.
However, Shang had a very good reason for creating something like that.
After creating his sword, Shang focused on it.
It was thin, long, and had no cutting edge.
Then, Shang willed something to happen.
CRRRR!
Dark pieces of ice surrounded the sword, and in an instant, a long edge had been created.
Now, the sword looked like a longer form of Shang's old Long Sword.
CRRRR!
The dark ice around the sword changed again. The sword became shorter, but the blade grew wider.
Shang went through a couple more blades before dispersing the ice around the sword.
This was the idea Shang had come up with.
Shang's Addum attacked slowly but with incredible power due to its heavy weight and big size.
Meanwhile, there was nearly no heavy ore in the smaller sword, essentially allowing Shang to swing it as fast as his naked hand.
And even more, when Shang thought about what he could do with the Concept of Subtraction, he had to smirk.
The Concept of Subtraction was already incredibly useful on its own, but with the addition of the Concept of Addition, its power became terrifying.
There was a terrifying level of synergy between the two Concepts and Shang's two new weapons.
It took Shang 40 years to create the Path for his new sword and an additional 30 years to create its Impose.
Shang's newest weapon had been completed.
Its name was Subsis.
Now, Shang had six Imposes inside his World Connection, and he had perfected his combat style.
Only the last step remained, which was to somehow elevate everything to the next level.
However, Shang knew that he probably wouldn't be able to just create something like this by just sitting inside his little town while consuming some pills.
He needed inspiration, and for that, he needed to travel the world.
By now, Shang was 700 years old, someone that had lived seven-tenths of his life.
He was definitely not a young person anymore.
Many people might even call him an old man.
And now, this old man would leave his town for the first time in a long while and travel the world.
