Shang's body atrophied, but it wasn't as extreme as usual. After all, Shang couldn't weaken his body too much, or the pressure in the surroundings would kill him.
CRK!
Several of Shang's bones broke, and his muscles were torn.
However, everything was still under control.
While all of this was going on, Shang kept infusing the barrier in front of him with the Death Mana he was creating. He was keeping the amount of Death Mana in his body consistent so that he perpetually remained at the edge of death.
Shang remained like this for several minutes.
Meanwhile, many kilometers away, a Bolt was watching over the Clouds that had been assigned to him, with Shang being one of them.
He was paying special attention to Shang due to his identity as a warrior and the fact that he had just found one of the exclusive trials within the Deep Crevices.
These trials housed several challenges, and if one managed to clear all of them, one would get the rewards.
Most of the time, the first challenge of a trial was to find it.
The entrance to the Trial Shang was trying to get into was at the bottom of the crevice, and one would need to pay special attention to all the Earth Mana down there.
If one had some ability to reveal Magic Circles or secrets, one could find the entrance. After that, one only needed to reverse engineer the key to open the entrance.
"Wonder how long he will keep trying," the Bolt muttered to himself.
There was only one entrance to this Trial, and the place where Shang was trying to get to was not an entrance.
It was a wall.
Since Clouds were not supposed to enter from this point, the barrier on the walls was extremely powerful. One would need to be a strong Mage Lord to break through this barrier, and one would also need a couple of minutes to get through it.
Obviously, no Ancestral Mage Cloud could possibly hope to get through that barrier.
More minutes passed, and eventually, the Bolt noticed that the spot that Shang had been touching had turned grey.
The Bolt was quite surprised that a warrior at the Early Sixth Realm could influence such a powerful barrier, but that still shouldn't be an issue.
Some more minutes passed, and the grey spot had grown to be as big as Shang.
The clear parts around that grey spot had also started to vibrate, and Mana was ceaselessly flowing into the grey spot like a flood.
The Bolt looked with interest at what was happening.
He had never seen anything like it.
And then, the Bolt's Communication Crystal rung.
"Yes?" he asked casually.
"What the hell are you doing?!" came the furious shout of Lucin out of the Communication Crystal.
The Bolt was taken aback. "I'm not sure what you mean, Lucin," the Bolt said.
"Not sure what I mean?!" Lucin repeated in anger. "I've been told that one of the people you are supposed to watch is within Trial 31!"
"That's correct," the Bolt answered.
"Then what the hell do you mean with what do you mean?!" Lucin shouted.
The Bolt just blinked a couple of times. "I still don't know what you're referring to. Nothing seems out of the ordinary."
Silence.
"Is this some kind of protest?" Lucin asked with a threatening voice.
The Bolt blinked in confusion again.
"No?" he answered with uncertainty.
"Then fucking deal with it!" Lucin shouted.
The Bolt's mind was going wild.
He had absolutely no idea what Lucin was referring to.
"Lucin, are you okay?" he asked. "I genuinely have no idea what you are talking about."
"I'm talking about that Beast Lord that is attacking Trial 31's barrier!" Lucin shouted.
Silence.
"What?" the Bolt asked as he inspected Trial 31. "There's no Beast Lord."
Silence.
Then, the Bolt heard a very angry sigh.
"Then, how is that barrier losing more Mana than regenerating?" Lucin asked with obvious annoyance.
"It is?!" the Bolt shouted in shock.
He looked at the barrier of Trial 31 again, but he couldn't see any Beast Lord.
However, now that he heard Lucin say it, the Bolt realized that an awful lot of Mana was moving across the barrier in one stream, which was very similar to how it would act if it were attacked.
The Bolt followed the stream, and his eyes fell on the grey spot in front of Shang.
"Lucin," the Bolt said.
"What?!" Lucin shouted in anger.
"There is no beast interacting with that barrier in any way. The only thing interacting with that barrier is one of the Clouds," the Bolt answered.
"One of the Clouds?!" Lucin shouted. "How could-"
And then, silence.
"Which one?" Lucin asked in a calmer tone.
"The warrior," the Bolt answered.
The Bolt heard a deep sigh coming from the Communication Crystal.
"What's going on?" Lucin asked calmly.
"There's a big grey spot in front of the Cloud, and it is growing by the second. The grey spot seems to absorb all the Mana."
"I think this Cloud actually has a shot at breaking through the barrier," the Bolt said with surprise.
Silence.
"What should we do?" the Bolt asked. "This hasn't happened before, as far as I am aware."
Lucin remained silent.
"I mean, should we stop him?" the Bolt asked. "But that wouldn't be fair since we want to give all the Clouds the opportunity to use their powers."
"But if he succeeds, he will ruin the entire trial, making it meaningless."
"What should I do?" the Bolt asked.
Lucin remained silent for several seconds.
Then, Lucin sighed again.
"Nothing," Lucin answered.
"Nothing?" the Bolt asked.
"Nothing," Lucin confirmed. "This is his power. Restricting the Clouds' powers would be unfair. The Clouds work very hard for their powers, and restricting their powers would be like punishing them for being too strong."
"Strength should be encouraged, not discouraged."
"So, if a Cloud has the ability to break through barriers that can even hold off Mage Lords, they deserve to break the barriers."
"Well, okay then," the Bolt said.
"Sorry for shouting at you earlier," Lucin said.
"Oh, no problem. I understand," the Bolt said dismissively.
"Thanks," Lucin said. "I think I will come to the Deep Crevices. It might be better for me to watch personally."
"Sure," the Bolt said.
"Later," Lucin said.
"Later," the Bolt answered before the connection was cut.
The Bolt stashed the Communication Crystal away and looked at the barrier.
It would break very soon.
"I have no idea if the Magic Circles within the Trial will even work after this. They're not made to operate underwater and under so much pressure."
