King Sanctified Death.
Shang remembered that the God had once said that there was one Mage King that actually had a foundation that supported Godhood.
Shang was quite certain that the God had referred to King Sanctified Death.
Shang also knew what it meant when Lucin had said that the Emperors were debating about letting King Sanctified Death become an Emperor.
The number of Mage Kings already needed to be kept limited, and that was also true for Mage Emperors.
The world had ten Mage Emperors, and the world probably couldn't support an eleventh Mage Emperor.
So, when they were talking about letting King Sanctified Death become an Emperor…
They were considering killing off one of the current Emperors. After all, as far as Shang knew, Mage Emperors could live forever. They wouldn't just randomly die.
"Let's continue," Lucin said, motioning for Shang to follow him.
Lucin continued down the hallway with Shang.
They walked through a couple of different hallways, and they eventually reached a place where no one else was walking around.
The hallways didn't seem any different from all the other ones, but for some reason, Shang felt like they were different.
"This is where the Mage Kings live," Lucin explained. "There is no particular rule that forbids going to a Mage King's room and knocking on their door, but people don't need a rule for that. Common sense is already enough."
Shang knew what Lucin meant. In some huge companies with thousands of employees, there also weren't rules against knocking at the door to the CEO's office, but people still avoided doing that for obvious reasons.
The same thing was true here.
This hallway had far fewer doors than all the other ones, which meant that the rooms behind the doors were much larger than any room anywhere else.
As Shang walked through the hallway, he felt some strange feelings of grandeur.
Behind each of these doors was a Mage King, one of the 100 strongest beings in the world.
He could knock on any of the doors, and he would come face to face with one of the strongest beings in the world.
It was a surreal feeling.
After walking for a bit, the two of them stopped in front of a seemingly random door.
"This is Queen Primordium's door. Don't ever come here on your own, understood?" Lucin ordered with a serious voice.
Shang wordlessly nodded.
"Good," Lucin said.
Then, Lucin spoke some kind of complex Spell and lightly touched the door.
"Now, we have to wait," Lucin said. "The Mage Kings are very busy, and interrupting them can cost us a lot of money. Because of that, we use this Spell to very subtly make it known that we are here. It might take several weeks for her to open-"
Creeaak!
Shang heard the door in front of him open.
As soon as the door opened, Shang's Spirit Sense flooded into the room, but it didn't get very far.
It was like the world ended just a couple of centimeters behind the door.
It was like there simply was no more space, gravity, or time behind the door.
It was like the room behind the door just didn't exist.
And Shang also didn't see anyone open the door. The door had seemingly opened on its own.
"My Queen," Lucin spoke politely as he performed a quick but respectful bow.
"What do you have to report?"
Shang heard an emotionless, beautiful, but also strict voice coming from the door.
The speaker wasn't aggressive or annoyed in any way. Her tone had a distinct feeling of routine to it.
Sadly, Shang's Spirit Sense couldn't see Queen Primordium.
She was probably visible to normal eyes, but Shang didn't have those.
"My Queen, this is Shang Sword, the warrior that is about to join the Contender Department," Lucin said, gesturing at Shang.
Shang didn't feel anything change.
"Yes?" Queen Primordium asked, obviously expecting more than that.
"He has a fivefold Spirit Sense," Lucin said.
"Really now?" Queen Primordium asked with a slight bit of surprise.
Shang didn't feel anything change in the surroundings, but he could guess that Queen Primordium was probably looking at him right now.
"You are Shang Sword, correct?"
"Yes," Shang answered.
"You have a fivefold Spirit Sense?"
"I am at the Peak Fifth Realm, and my Spirit Sense has a radius of 250 kilometers. That should be a fivefold Spirit Sense," Shang answered.
Three seconds of silence passed.
"Who would have expected that the next True Contender would be a non-Mage," Queen Primordium mused. "How did you achieve such a level?"
Shang answered Queen Primordium's question and explained to her how he had comprehended World Connection at the True Path Stage.
"How peculiar," Queen Primordium commented after Shang was done. "Your words resonate with the world, which means that you speak the truth. Without the ability to feel the world's resonance, I might not have believed you."
Queen Primordium's words gave Shang a valuable piece of information.
He had expected that someone as powerful as a Mage King probably knew of several ways to find out if someone was lying or not, but Shang had never known how they would find out the truth.
"Tell me," Queen Primordium added, "Who has been your backer? Who has given you resources?"
Shang told her about his position as a plus one for an Assistant Supervisor in Area 23 and how he had been able to essentially plunder Area 23.
Then, Shang told her that he had to leave Area 23 because of a fallout with the Assistant Supervisor he was working with and that he had killed him.
Obviously, neither Lucin nor Queen Primordium cared.
Shang could kill 50 Assistant Supervisors, and the Lightning Manor would only tell him in an annoyed tone to avoid doing that again.
After Shang told Queen Primordium about what he had used to comprehend World Connection, she hummed for a bit.
"That is very little," she commented. "Explain to me in detail how you trained after comprehending your four Imposes and before you comprehended World Connection."
Shang did just that.
He never took even a single break.
He always gave his all.
He fought many powerful beasts.
He risked his life several times.
Queen Primordium asked for an even more detailed account, and Shang went into even more detail.
By the end, Shang had been talking for over two hours, just explaining how he trained.
Shang couldn't see Queen Primordium's reaction, but he could see Lucin's reaction.
Lucin's jaw was strained in discomfort, and his lips were pressed together.
When one heard someone say that they never took a break, one wouldn't be surprised.
A lot of people said that.
However, this was the first time when someone was being actually literal in the meaning.
Shang hadn't taken any time to rest.
No time for friends.
No time for himself.
No time for family.
No time for hobbies.
Even a machine or a Magic Circle would break down or cut out from time to time, but that wasn't true for Shang.
He literally never took a single break.
Lucin couldn't be sure what he should think about that.
Shang was extremely powerful, but he had also sacrificed more than literally everyone else.
That was when Lucin realized what kind of person Shang was.
He was a person of extremes.
With him, it was always either 0 or 100.
There was nothing between those two numbers.
"I understand," Queen Primordium said. "I have an unrelated question."
"Why do you not regrow your eyes?"
