For the next two years, Shang continued training as always.
He was dead set on comprehending Void Casting before his longevity would end, which was in about 280 years.
Shang was around 720 years old now, which was very old already for someone in the Fifth Realm.
Someone of such an age would normally be considered as someone whose Path had come to an end. They would only continue coasting along until their longevity ran out, never reaching the next Realm.
Sadly, spending so much time in each Realm was the only way for Shang to get a solid foundation.
If Shang's Path had already been planned out in the beginning, he could have done a couple of training exercises for his body while comprehending the Concepts of Addition and Subtraction.
Additionally, there would have probably also been better methods for warriors to comprehend Void Casting.
However, Shang was the strongest warrior.
There was no Path he could follow.
He had to create his own.
If there had been a Star Map for his Addum and Subsis, he might have also saved a century.
If he had a greater backer, Shang would have also received a far better area to comprehend the Concepts of Addition and Subtraction. As it stood, Shang had comprehended these Concepts by looking at beasts with somewhat fitting Affinities, but that obviously hadn't been the best method.
With a better area, Shang would have maybe saved another century.
In that case, Shang would only be a bit over 500 years old, giving him nearly 500 years to comprehend Void Casting.
That would be far easier.
Sadly, these were only ifs.
Shang could only hope that all these issues would vanish as soon as he joined the Lightning Manor.
Nevertheless, Shang never wasted even a second of his life, and he continued training with everything he had.
He let the Sweeper use several powerful Magic Circles that forced Mana into Shang's body over and over again.
Shang's body exploded again and again, but he didn't flinch.
This was just normal pain, and he had grown so used to it that the concept of pain had become distorted.
Whenever Shang felt excruciating pain, he wasn't even sure what he felt anymore.
Was it uncomfortable? Yeah, but he couldn't really describe it.
Was it pain? He didn't know.
In a way, Shang couldn't feel pain anymore since what he felt whenever his body got injured had become so confusing and unimportant that he wasn't even sure what it was or if he was feeling it or not.
Additionally, he had witnessed the own destruction of his body so many times that he had completely dissociated from it.
When Shang witnessed his chest explode and his organs shoot out of his body, he didn't feel any different than when he saw a stone on a road break into pieces.
It was like his body wasn't him.
It was like all these things that were happening to him were not actually happening to him.
It was monotone, boring, unimportant, grey, and repetitive.
After years of helping Shang with his training, the Sweeper had grown somewhat used to him.
Sure, a high pain tolerance was important for a powerful Mage, but whenever she saw Shang train, it was like she was witnessing something that shouldn't exist.
Humans, animals, and beasts were supposed to feel pain and fear when they were injured, right?
A high pain tolerance was good and all, but this was just ridiculous.
Was Shang even a human anymore?
The more time she spent with Shang, the more abnormal and unnatural he seemed to her.
Whenever Shang was training, it was like he was some kind of being from outside this world or reality.
However, when Shang actually entered the Isolation Chamber, everything was flipped to the other extreme.
Over 99% of the time, Shang seemed like an otherworldly being that didn't have human desires and human pains, but during this last percent, when he went into the Isolation Chamber, it was the opposite.
At that moment, the Sweeper felt like Shang was a horrified and scared child. It was like a poor and innocent child had been befallen by a tragic fate.
Ironically, that fate was his own desire.
These were the two extremes of Shang that the Sweeper had witnessed.
Extreme apathy and detachment.
Intense fear and emotion.
There was no in-between.
As the deadline of two years came closer, the Sweeper grew more nervous.
For some reason, she didn't want to leave Shang.
Of course, the Sweeper wasn't some teenage girl. She was over a thousand years old, and she had plenty of life experience.
She looked inside herself and actually asked herself if she had taken an interest in Shang.
Initially, she denied it. After all, she couldn't empathize with Shang at all.
For such interest to develop, one needed to be able to empathize with the other person.
They needed to understand how the other person felt.
And that didn't exist between them.
Nearly all the time, it was like the Sweeper was looking at a ghost with nothing human about it.
But when the Sweeper actually analyzed her feelings more, she realized that the contrast between Shang's two extremes had an intense pull on her.
Everyone in the world had only seen that one version of Shang, but she was the only one that had seen the other version of Shang.
His vulnerable side.
His scared side.
In a way, she knew Shang better than any other person in the entire world.
In the end, she came to the conclusion that, yes, she had taken an interest in Shang.
However, what about it?
Would a relationship even work out?
Would he even care?
No, it was impossible.
She knew Shang better than everyone else, and that was why she also knew why it could never work.
Shang was exclusively focused on his power, nothing else.
He got rid of absolutely everything that could be a distraction.
Love wouldn't be any different from any other distraction to him.
Because of that, she hadn't spoken about her feelings until shortly before Shang was supposed to leave.
Just when the two of them were making their way to the meeting place, the Sweeper actually spoke up.
She didn't know why, but she just had to ask.
"Would you mind if I also joined the Lightning Manor?" she asked.
"I don't care," Shang answered coldly.
The Sweeper just looked at Shang, not surprised about his answer.
"Aren't you interested in why I would ask you something like that?" she asked.
"No."
Silence.
The Sweeper took a deep breath.
"Are you interested in a relationship?"
Shang remained silent for two seconds.
"I changed my mind. I don't want you to join the Lightning Manor."
"I can't use any more distractions."
Silence.
"Okay," the Sweeper said after some seconds.
And the two of them flew towards the meeting place in silence.
