In a grand palace with red and black colors, a fat and blonde Shang stood in front of the God.
When Shang saw this past version of himself, he nearly exploded with anger for some reason.
He hated his past self.
Just the way he was standing there with uncertainty nearly made Shang scream with anger.
He was so weak!
His body was weak!
His mind was weak!
His willpower was weak!
He was indecisive, empathetic, and knew nothing of the world.
However, even though these emotions appeared in Shang's heart, he didn't lose control.
He ignored his past self and focused on the God, who looked at the older version of Shang.
Even now, Shang still couldn't feel the God's power.
"I need to think for a second," the young Shang said as he rubbed his chin in thought. "I'm kind of running out of questions."
"Take your time," the God said with a smirk as he leaned back on his throne.
The younger Shang kept trying to come up with a good question, but it became harder and harder to come up with one.
He knew that he would only gain the answer many years from now, and by then, he should know a lot more.
Yet, this was also an incredible opportunity.
But it was so hard to grasp and use correctly.
What question could he possibly ask that might save himself in the future?
What would his future problems be?
Well, by that point, his future self should already have a group of friends, several contacts, and maybe even a power backing him.
Maybe he would be part of some sort of striking force or hunting group?
Maybe he would be a fighter in tournaments between organizations?
Maybe he would be a teacher?
From what the God had said, the Sixth Realm seemed to be quite strong already.
So, what could such a person possibly need?
Money probably wasn't an issue.
Companions wouldn't be an issue. After all, Shang had already asked a couple of questions related to that.
He had also asked about organizations.
Asking about how to become more powerful was difficult since the God refused to answer these questions.
So, what could his future self possibly need?
No matter how much Shang thought about it, it was just too difficult to come up with anything.
This was so far away from him that he had no information on which to base his decision on.
And then, he suddenly got an idea as he looked at the God.
The God read Shang's mind, and his smirk widened.
"That's quite smart," he commented. "Go on, ask."
Shang nodded.
"Which question should I ask next?" Shang asked.
When the present Shang heard that, he realized how useful this would be.
The past Shang had no idea what he should ask about, but the same thing wasn't true for the God.
The God knew exactly what Shang would most likely need.
Of course, since this was essentially wasting a question, Shang would only get the answer to the actually useful question when he reached the Seventh Realm.
However, the Seventh Realm was also one of the most important Realms.
The God just continued smirking as he looked at the past Shang.
For once, the God didn't seem to have manipulated Shang's memory to include the addition of his Entropy Affinity.
"There's one question that the future you is probably dying to know the answer to," the God said.
"Your next question should be…"
"How can I get enough Mana to reach the Eighth Realm without the help of the Empires and without immediately being noticed?"
When the current Shang heard that, his heartbeat accelerated with excitement.
This was an amazing question!
Of course, Shang's memory cut off at this part.
He would only get the answer to that question when he reached the Seventh Realm.
Back in real life, Shang was reevaluating his opinion of the past Shang.
Yes, the past Shang was pathetic and weak, but that question was extremely smart.
A mortal Shang had asked the God a question to help his self 1,000 years from now.
And he managed to do it.
For a mortal, this was absolutely amazing.
The mortal Shang might have saved the future Shang's life and future.
After a while of evaluating his past self again, Shang focused on the next thing on the agenda.
Shang entered his inner world and looked at the stele.
The next trial would be held in 200 years, and Shang wasn't allowed to reach the next level before that.
'I've already earned enough points to get the best rewards the last time,' Shang thought. 'I'm quite sure I will get even more points this time.'
'I wonder what kind of rewards he has for me this time.'
Shang turned away from the stele and summoned several huge blocks of metal.
In the past, it had been quite a problem to get good ore for his swords, but after joining the Lightning Manor, this problem had completely vanished.
Everyone knew that he was a warrior, and everyone knew that a warrior needed a powerful weapon.
On top of that, Shang was earning a ridiculous amount of money by being a Cloud.
Shang was probably earning comparative amounts to the Temple of Blood's Territory Lord, and she was a Peak Mage Lord.
Buying all the ore Shang could ever possibly need for the Void Break Realm would consume less than 1% of his wealth.
At this moment, Shang's Addum and Subsis were as light as wooden sticks, which felt uncomfortable to Shang.
Shang put his two swords into several pieces of ore of different levels and tried out their new weight.
In the end, Shang's weapons were stronger than Peak Ancestral Beasts but a bit weaker than Initial Beast Lords.
Of course, they should still be able to block the attacks from an Initial Beast Lord, but anything stronger than that would put Shang's weapons in danger.
But that was already ridiculous.
The sheer power of Shang's weapons reflected the sheer power of Shang's body.
After trying out his weapons, Shang put them away and left his inner world again.
