"I would like for you to be my teacher," Shang said.
Queen Primordium furrowed her brows. "I think Amarius would be a better choice."
"No. I think that becoming his student will even slow me down," Shang said.
Queen Primordium raised an eyebrow. "And why would that be?"
"Because he would want me to do things that I don't want to do," Shang said.
"Which are?" Queen Primordium asked.
Silence.
"Make friends," Shang said. "Find a companion. Stuff like that."
Queen Primordium just looked at Shang with an even expression. "Is there something wrong with that?"
"If I had that, I wouldn't have a sixfold Spirit Sense," Shang answered.
Queen Primordium didn't agree with Shang, and even if that was the case, was that so bad?
What was the point of becoming powerful when one only lived a grey life of suffering and loneliness?
However, she also realized that her opinion on the matter wasn't warranted.
Shang had a sixfold Spirit Sense.
She didn't.
Shang obviously knew very well how to become powerful, and if he said that something would stop him from growing, he would very likely be correct.
"Fine," Queen Primordium said. "Then, I will be your teacher from today on."
Shang nodded.
Silence.
Queen Primordium didn't expect Shang to bow to her, but the nonchalant way Shang had become her student still felt strange.
Nevertheless, she was a Mage King, and she knew how to adapt.
"First, I need to know everything that you are willing to tell me," she said. "I don't know a lot about warriors, but since I am now your teacher, I have to learn how warriors work."
"So, for our first interaction as student and teacher, the student is going to teach the teacher," she said.
Queen Primordium summoned her Communication Crystal and tapped on it a couple of times.
She put it away again and looked at Shang. "Start with the very beginning. Take as much time as necessary."
Shang nodded.
Some people might question why Shang, as the most powerful and knowledgeable warrior in existence, would want a Mage to tell him how to become an even more powerful warrior, especially since Shang's Path wasn't even truly the warrior's Path.
However, such thinking was short-sighted.
Sure, right now, Shang knew more about warriors than everyone else.
If Shang transferred all his knowledge to Queen Primordium, both of them would know the same.
But what about ten minutes from now?
Who would know more in ten minutes?
Queen Primordium.
She was an ancient Mage King. Her experience and mind were unfathomable compared to Shang's.
Shang started to tell Queen Primordium everything via voice transmission since that was faster than speaking.
He explained the Soldier Stage and the Mana Sources.
He explained the Bloodline Infusion and the several different low-level techniques.
Mana Domain.
True Paths.
Mana Pathways.
Imposes.
World Connection.
Void Break.
It took Shang quite a long while to convey all the information to Queen Primordium, even with voice transmissions.
Queen Primordium had asked several questions during Shang's explanations, and her questions grew more and more in-depth.
One notable point was when Shang was explaining World Connection to her.
"Have you thought about infusing your soul into your weapon?" she asked calmly.
Shang went silent for a couple of seconds.
"No," he answered.
"This seems like the natural continuation from the Impose Stage," she said. "You have already established your four Paths and your four Imposes in the True Path Stage. While the World Connection seems like a viable way to continue, it feels more like you are trying to thin the wide Path you have created."
"Imagine it like one point leading upward into four. These four points represent your four Paths. After that, you comprehended four Imposes, which would be shown as four lines going upward from these four points into another four points."
"Your World Connection fuses these four points together again, reflecting the start."
"However, something like that should realistically only happen much later since you haven't unearthed all the buried potential in the four individual Paths."
"A logical conclusion would be to go deeper in the four Imposes, and I think a logical next step would be to infuse your soul."
"Your body and mind are already perfectly performing your techniques, but there is a certain emptiness in what you described."
"Via repeated movements, several different substances, and by focusing on certain aspects, you can train your soul to slowly leave its space. Part of it would stretch out from its dimension and move down your arm to your sword. At that point, the power of your Impose would become far more powerful than before."
Shang just listened to Queen Primordium's words.
Shang knew that she would be useful, but he hadn't expected this level of usefulness.
He hadn't even finished explaining the World Connection before Queen Primordium had already come up with a more natural way to reach the next Stage for warriors.
She was right. The way she had just come up with was more fitting for warriors.
However, Shang didn't regret choosing his own Path.
After all, he wasn't a warrior.
He had his own Path, and if he could choose again, he would still choose his World Connection.
Especially due to the way he gained power.
Comprehending four Imposes would have given Shang a fourfold Spirit Sense, but if he wanted a fivefold Spirit Sense, things would have become tricky with Queen Primordium's way.
With World Connection, all four of his Paths had fused in a way, elevating all of their powers to the next level.
Queen Primordium's way would only have elevated one of the Paths, but in exchange, that one Path would have also been elevated by far more than a single Path with World Connection.
Yet, if Shang broke through after comprehending only one of these things, it would have felt extremely strange and imbalanced.
The other three Sword Stages would have essentially become useless.
So, he would have needed to comprehend that thing for all four of his Paths.
But that was impossible.
That would take far too long.
In the end, Queen Primordium's way was definitely more fitting for warriors, but it wasn't more fitting for Shang.
Nevertheless, she had come up with a natural way for warriors to progress to the Sixth Stage in less than five minutes.
There was definitely a lot Shang could learn from Queen Primordium.
