Shang continued to look around his new surroundings, and it didn't take long for him to see the next Archmage.
They were casting several Spells in the wilderness, and the surroundings became increasingly colder the closer one came to that Archmage.
Shang avoided looking at them since everyone seemed to notice him when he did so.
Shang definitely needed to get used to his new surroundings.
He saw a couple more High Mages focusing on some complex diagrams that were written on an ancient wall.
Shang also saw a Mage Lord playing some kind of string instrument made of wind and ice that seemed to be part of the sky.
The melody it played created a really strong headache in Shang's mind, but he could also see a whopping 40 Clouds sitting there with closed eyes and listening to the melody.
Surprisingly, most of them smiled contently, while only a couple of them seemed to grimace.
Yet, judging by their expressions, the ones that grimaced didn't think the melody was very painful.
Meanwhile, Shang's hand turned white as he pressed it with nearly all of his power on the side of his head to alleviate the monstrous headache he was feeling.
Shang could deal with a lot of pain, but for some reason, this melody created such a strong headache that Shang immediately turned around to get away from the sound as quickly as possible.
To Shang, the sound was absolutely horrible.
It almost felt just like the operation the Custodian had done on Shang's soul.
Shang didn't want to hear this melody ever again.
He hated it!
It made him angry!
He wanted to kill whoever made that melody!
He despised it!
He absolutely hated it!
This fucking melody!
THIS FUCKING MELODY!
IT NEEDED TO DIE!
HE WOULD KILL-
Shang took a deep breath.
Shang had already gotten away from the melody, and he wasn't hearing it anymore.
He slowly breathed in, and he slowly breathed out.
Shang didn't need to breathe to survive, but slowly breathing in and out could calm someone's nerves.
He remained like this for several minutes.
Eventually, Shang completely calmed down.
'What just happened?' he thought as he put his hand to his chin in thought.
'It's not like me to feel so much pain and to lose control over my emotions. This was just a bit of music. Why would it have such an intense effect on me?'
For some reason, just thinking about the melody made Shang's heart race with anxiety and even fear.
Shang didn't know what was up with that strange melody, but he vowed never to go to this place again.
Instead, Shang looked to a different place. When he had been retreating from the melody just now, Shang had arrived at a new location.
There was an extremely dark forest in front of him.
The trees were black.
The ground was black.
The air was black.
Everything was black.
The only sign of life were three Mages that were very slowly walking through the forest, their expressions stressed and their eyes closed.
The black forest interested Shang a little, and he landed in front of it.
Then, he slowly walked towards it, just like the other Mages.
Yet, when Shang reached the entrance of the forest, he stopped.
His legs were shaking.
He couldn't walk forward anymore.
Surprisingly, Shang's mind was calm, and he looked at the current situation with cold indifference and logic.
Yet, his body was showing all the signs of panic and fear.
His heart raced.
His hands uncontrollably shook.
His legs wouldn't move.
His breathing quickened.
'Curious,' Shang thought as he took note of his panic-filled body. 'I don't feel any fear, but for some reason, something inside of me refuses to let me advance.'
'Sure enough, this place is unlike any I have ever seen. No wonder the Empires have the strongest Mages in the world. With such magical locations, even an idiot could become a Mage Lord.'
Shang stopped trying to enter the black forest and turned around.
As soon as he decided to leave, all the panic and fear in his body vanished.
Shang took to the sky and flew for another couple of seconds.
He found some more Ancestral Beasts with Mages sitting around them.
He found a momentous mountain made of nothing but lightning.
He found a pillar of fiercely burning fire that was kilometers tall.
He found a couple more Mages talking to each other.
Eventually, Shang came across a Mage Lord that was seemingly just randomly sitting in the middle of a random clearing.
Shang ignored him, but the Mage Lord didn't ignore him.
"Hey, I don't know you. Are you new?" the Mage Lord asked.
Shang stopped flying and turned to the Mage Lord. "I arrived just a couple of minutes ago."
"Show me your Communication Crystal," the Mage Lord said.
Shang summoned his Communication Crystal.
"Yep, everything checks out," the Mage Lord said. "Welcome to the Hibye!"
"Hibye?" Shang asked.
"That's what we call this place," the Mage Lord said with a snicker. "It's because we constantly get new people while old people die. That's why it's called hi and bye, Hibye."
"I'm Fleros. You can view me as sort of an administrator. If you need any resources, I'm the guy you wanna talk to. In a way, you could also say that I'm a shopkeeper," Fleros said. "Lucin should've told you about a shop, right? Or did he forget to mention that again?"
"No, he mentioned it," Shang said. "I just assumed that there would be a noticeable building. He said that I can't miss it."
"Yeah, you can't miss it because I literally know everyone here," Fleros said with a snicker. "I've been watching you for a while."
"You did?" Shang said with a cold and apathetic voice.
"Yep, can't help it. I got a big Spirit Sense, you know?" Fleros said with a chuckle. "Anyway, you're a strange one. You know that?"
"I've been told," Shang said.
"You know," Fleros added, "I've seen plenty of new people, but I've never seen a single one that had such a strong reaction to the Inner Heart Melody and the Outer Heart Forest."
Shang could guess what Fleros was talking about. "And what do these two things do?"
"The Inner Heart Melody gives strength to your deepest and most repressed desires, giving them the power to fight your greater self."
"The Outer Heart Forest does the same, but instead of just awakening your deeply buried feelings, it manifests them as illusory apparitions that attack you."
"Those two things are invaluable for clearing someone's regrets and making them achieve inner peace and tranquility. You should know how incredibly helpful that is for comprehending Concepts."
"Or, maybe you don't," Fleros added. "You seem to have about as much peace inside of yourself as Abominations."
