Shang refilled his Death Mana once more as the man looked at the cute birds.
This time, he had needed to put in quite a lot more effort on destroying his opponent's Mana Shield without killing them.
The other Gravity Mage had already posed a small problem to Shang back then, and that Gravity Mage had only had a threefold Spirit Sense.
In fact, Shang's current opponent had been right.
Gravity Mages were Shang's weakness.
Luckily, the lack of information from his opponents made these fights far easier than normal.
Usually, every person Shang was fighting knew that he was a warrior. Everyone in the Hibye knew each other, and they all knew that Shang was a warrior.
But here, things were different.
The Judgment Palace didn't even consider that someone as powerful as Shang could be a warrior.
Everyone entered the fight, assuming that Shang was a Mage.
Even when Shang used ranged attacks with his swords, they simply believed that they were very complex and strange Spells.
Naturally, in the last fight, Shang used that to his advantage.
He had even used Mana Shield to make it seem like he was a Mage.
Sure, when his Mana Shield exploded, his mind truly was out of Mana, but he didn't really care that much.
If necessary, he could just use his Corridor of Darkness to escape.
Could Shang have won without using these tricks?
Very likely, but Shang probably wouldn't have been able to corrode his opponent's mind with the Concept of Purgatory.
This was not just a normal duel between two people.
This was a war, and both of them knew that there was no way to exit this place.
Under normal circumstances, the loser didn't immediately kill themselves.
What if they could bribe or blackmail their opponent to let them go?
What if a third person came to save them?
There were too many variables.
But here, these things wouldn't happen.
Even if Shang wanted them to survive, he would have to pay with his own life due to the barrier.
So, the best way was to just explode.
Like this, the Gravity Mana the man left behind would tell his people that he had committed suicide, and it would unveil Shang's true power.
Also, he might take Shang with him to the grave.
But since Shang wanted to kill more Mages from the Judgment Palace, he used this elaborate ploy to mask his true strength.
Even more, his previous tactic of acting like he was nearly dead would work again since nobody would believe that Shang was so powerful that he had the luxury to put up such an act after fighting someone with a fourfold Spirit Sense.
Only someone with a fivefold Spirit Sense could do something like that.
But Shang couldn't possibly have a fivefold Spirit Sense.
Not only would the Judgment Palace have already heard of him, but they also refused to believe that the Lightning Manor would put their strongest genius into such a precarious, open, and dangerous situation.
This would give the other Empires a chance to send their own peak geniuses at Shang that countered him.
That would put the future of the Lightning Manor in jeopardy.
Meanwhile, Shang just waited inside the cloudy barrier.
Outside, the Mage King was looking at the cloudy barrier with narrowed eyes.
The two Early Ancestral Mages had already been fighting for nearly an hour.
This confirmed that Shang had played her.
A couple of remaining volunteers with threefold Spirit Senses took deep breaths.
To think that they had been willing to volunteer to fight someone like that.
At this moment, they were relieved and happy that the Mage King had decided to choose other people over them.
"I need another volunteer," the Mage King suddenly said to the people behind her.
The Mages looked with shock at the barrier.
No, the barrier was still cloudy.
"Just in case," the Mage King said. "In case the enemy wins, I need someone that immediately charges in without giving him any downtime. You know how exhausting it is to fight someone with a fourfold Spirit Sense."
The volunteers nodded and discussed amongst each other who would go next.
Being the first to fight Shang was bad since Shang had been rested.
But now, their chance had come.
They could fight an exhausted enemy!
After a while, they decided that a woman with a Metal Affinity would go next.
If the enemy actually won, it meant that he most likely was strong against people fighting with domains like Gravity Mages and Time Mages.
So, they decided to try a Mage that fought with physical attacks.
After a moment, everything was prepared, and the grey-haired woman readied herself to join the battle in case she needed to.
Suddenly, the Mage King took out her Communication Crystal and looked at it with furrowed brows.
"Yes?" she transmitted to the Communication Crystal.
"How long are you going to take?" an annoyed but polite voice came from the Communication Crystal. "Our plan was made with your help in mind. It's been two weeks, and we have taken devastating losses. So, how much longer?"
The Mage King gritted her teeth.
This was the Mage King responsible for the assault from the Land and Sky Empire.
"We are fighting someone with a fourfold Spirit Sense," the Mage King said. "He has been acting like a pig the last two weeks, and he ate eleven Mages with threefold Spirit Senses. It's not like we are wasting time here. We're also losing people."
"Wait," the Mage King from the Land and Sky Empire said. "You're not joining us because of one guy?"
The female Mage King gritted her teeth with more intensity as shame and rage washed over her. "Yes," she said through gritted teeth.
"So, you're telling me that you haven't even won a single fight in the last two weeks?" the other Mage King asked.
"Yes!" the Mage King shouted in rage. "I fucked up! I'm a shit commander! I know! It's not like I'm trying to be this shit, okay?!"
The other Mage King became silent after that outburst.
"How are you getting stopped by one guy?"
"Shut the fuck up!" the Mage King shouted in fury. "We just sent in a Gravity Mage with a fourfold Spirit Sense! The problem should be solved within the next 24 hours!"
And then, she cut the connection as she steamed in unending fury.
The other Mages behind her didn't dare to say anything.
