Five hours later, Shang returned to the real world and focused on the confused woman wandering around his territory.
The last time, he had waited a week to waste as much time as possible.
But this time, waiting for an entire week wouldn't be the optimal course of action.
Last time, it was obvious that Shang would be superior to his enemy, but this time, he had fought against quite a strong Mage.
Waiting an entire week would unveil Shang's power as a Cloud to everyone.
There was still a high likelihood that Shang was only a Boltling.
The Lightning Manor could use him to lure out an enemy with a fourfold Spirit Sense and then directly attack that person with the strongest Cloud they had, killing one of the most talented Mages in the Judgment Palace.
For such a plan to work, Shang needed to be quite a strong Boltling.
Really brutal fights between even Mages on such a level could take up to twelve hours, but Shang decided to end the fight after five.
He didn't want it to appear too close.
Shang moved into the sky and spoke several complex words.
Whooom!
A Mana Shield appeared around him.
The next moment, Shang threw a big part of the Mana inside his mind away.
And then, he cast a Fire Spell, which killed the confused woman.
The cloudy barrier became transparent again, and the enemy Mage King looked at the distant Shang.
She could see that he was rapidly absorbing Mana, and with her very experienced eyes, she could also see that Shang wasn't even close to having a full tank of Mana right now.
Everything seemed like the fight had been relatively close.
Naturally, she was still skeptical.
Shang could be putting on a show.
However, the chances of that were low.
It was one thing to win against someone, but it was something completely different to win against them without killing them and keeping them alive.
Any error could result in a tragedy.
On top of that, chances were high that the opponent would just kill themselves as soon as they realized that they had lost. At least with such an action, the detonation of their Mana may take their opponent down with them.
In order to put on a show, Shang would have needed to win in a very controlled manner against his enemy without giving them a chance to kill themselves.
"Who's next?" the Mage King asked the people behind her.
This time, there was no immediate answer.
The people were talking with each other, deciding on who to send next.
Naturally, the more powerful ones left the weaker ones the initiative.
"I'll do it," a woman with icy-blue hair said.
The Mage King looked over and noticed that the new volunteer looked almost identical to the last one.
Were they twins?
The new volunteer also had a threefold Spirit Sense, but the pressure she exhibited was just a slight bit stronger than the previous one.
"Fine, but I don't want you to go like this," the Mage King said.
Everyone looked over at the Mage King with questioning gazes.
The Mage King summoned a piece of paper, which she then rapidly filled with writing.
It was a contract.
"I want to make sure that we are not being played with," the Mage King said as the contract floated over to the new volunteer.
The volunteer read through it and furrowed her brows.
This contract stated that if she lost the battle and five minutes had passed, she would have to kill herself.
She only needed to interface with the contract and summon its power, which would then rapidly disperse her soul.
Like this, she could end her life, even if all of her powers had been sealed away by the enemy.
The purpose of that contract was clear.
The Mage King wanted to find out if Shang was putting on a show or not.
If they fought for another five or more hours, it meant that Shang wasn't putting on a show.
However, if the fight ended within five minutes, it meant that Shang had been putting on a show all this time.
After some seconds, the new volunteer signed the contract and gave it back.
"You can go. Good luck," the Mage King said, looking back at the barrier.
Naturally, Shang could feel the Mage King's eyes on him, thanks to his bandage, but he didn't let it show.
The new volunteer took to the sky and shot into the barrier, which became cloudy again.
Shang waited for his new opponent.
Just like the last time, he waited until the bandage told him that he was being seen.
He noticed that his opponent had a threefold Spirit Sense like the last one.
This meant that his opponent had bought his display.
Shang charged at his new opponent, and just like last time, he used two Mana Steps and the corridor of darkness again.
CRACK!
The opponent's Mana Shield exploded.
Shang had won against her the same way he had won against his last opponent.
If his opponent had known that Shang actually wasn't a Mage, things might have played out differently.
After all, she would have expected Shang to get close to her very quickly, and she would have done her best to constantly widen the distance between them.
Because of that, Shang's fights were over very quickly and were quite easy.
One moment of surprise was all he needed.
Just like last time, Shang infused her mind with the Concept of Purgatory and retreated.
A couple of minutes passed, in which the confused lady looked at the beautiful birds again.
Outside, the Mage King narrowed her eyes as she looked at the barrier.
The five minutes had passed.
She looked at the barrier with intensity.
When ten minutes were up, she realized that her contract hadn't been triggered, which meant that the Early Ancestral Mage defending this territory was very likely a very powerful Mage with a threefold Spirit Sense.
Sure enough, this had been a trap.
The Lightning Manor wanted her to send in someone with a fourfold Spirit Sense, whom they would then proceed to kill.
The Lightning Manor was sneaky.
But they hadn't expected that she would see through their play.
She wouldn't fall for their plans.
She would continue to send in powerful Ancestral Mages with threefold Spirit Senses until they won.
And when they send out their Clouds, she would counter them.
Sadly, the Mage King didn't expect that Shang could use the Concept of Purgatory.
Contracts were very secure since they acted on the perception of the person.
If the person themselves felt like they were being a bit clever or tricky with the contract, the contract would consider that as breaking the rules.
In essence, in order to mess with a contract, one needed to mess with their soul and change their own perception and values.
That would mess with someone's mind, making it very difficult to continue practicing Magic after that.
This meant, at this very moment, the Mage with the icy-blue hair genuinely believed that she had a shot at victory.
Maybe, she would actually win?
The Mage King waited with excitement for the outcome of the battle.
