BANG!
The Mana Shield of Shang's opponent broke, and his eyes turned confused.
Shang took a deep breath.
'This wouldn't have been so easy if I hadn't fought that shitty peacock in the trial. Luckily, I know how to counter this stuff now,' he thought.
The strongest Early Ancestral Mage of the Judgment Palace was now a confused birdwatcher.
Earlier, the Mage King had sent in that particular Ancestral Mage with fury and frustration.
Sending him in had essentially meant going all in.
They had already lost two Mages with fourfold Spirit Senses, and losing this guy on top of that would be horrible for the Judgment Palace.
And now, that person was a confused birdwatcher like all of Shang's previous opponents.
Outside, the Mage King and the volunteers behind her looked with gritted teeth at the barrier.
Their champion couldn't possibly lose!
He had to win!
Meanwhile, Shang just looked at the birdwatcher with his Spirit Sense.
'His aura is intense,' he thought.
Since the man wasn't using any Magic anymore, it was easy for Shang to feel the true power of his aura.
'He's probably one of the strongest Mages they have.'
'Getting three people with fourfold Spirit Senses is already more than I expected.'
'I don't think they will send a fourth one.'
'Additionally, they will most likely not believe me anymore.'
'I guess it's time for phase two of the Lightning Emperor's plan,' Shang thought as he slowly stood up from his mountain.
'Time to become famous.'
Suddenly, Shang's perception left the world as his mind stretched into the darkest void imaginable.
The world of the Abominations.
According to the Lightning Emperor's plan, Shang was supposed to reach the Early Void Break Realm now.
Why?
Well, there were only two possible outcomes after this battle.
One, the Judgment Palace gets handed the territories from the Twilight Dusk and Land and Sky Empires to go around Shang's territory.
Two, the true geniuses will be sent to attack Shang.
According to the Lightning Emperor, there was one Initial Ancestral Mage with a fivefold Spirit Sense in the Twilight Dusk Family, and there was a Late Archmage with a fivefold Spirit Sense in the Judgment Palace.
The Empires could reduce the aggression of the war and increase the power of one of these two to fight Shang.
Shang was confident in winning against someone with a fourfold Spirit Sense one level higher than him, but the same wasn't true for someone with a fivefold Spirit Sense.
On top of that, Shang didn't need to act like a weakling anymore since everyone would suspect that he had a fivefold Spirit Sense.
So, Shang would now show his "true" power by acting like a domineering genius with a fivefold Spirit Sense.
Something like this was so insanely outstanding and rare that no one would even think about Shang having an even deeper secret.
When one already belonged to the ten most talented people in the world, no one would suspect this guy from actually being so talented that he would easily be number one.
This was Shang's job.
By being this open and this powerful, the other Empires would overlook him when searching for the mysterious super genius of the Lightning Manor.
After all, the Lightning Empire suggested the tournament in 50,000 years, which meant that he had some confidence.
There had to be an even greater genius than Shang, and the Lightning Empire obviously wouldn't openly show this genius to all the other Empires.
That would be stupid.
After reaching into the world of the Abominations, Shang pulled one of the Abominations out of it.
This barrier was perfect for hiding the Abominations from the Empires. After all, nobody could see through these barriers.
The Abomination appeared in front of Shang, and he absorbed it without hesitation.
The Abomination vanished, and Shang's body began to shake.
WHOOOOM!
Suddenly, Shang felt like something inside of him had changed, and his body rapidly absorbed an insane amount of Mana from the surroundings.
Shang had reached the Early Void Break Realm.
Now, his body was even stronger.
His physical power would be a level above the mental power of an Early Ancestral Mage with a fivefold Spirit Sense.
Earlier, Shang wouldn't have been confident in taking down someone like that.
But now, there wouldn't even be a fight.
Shang's insane power would overwhelm his opponent's power, and his body could probably even survive a direct hit from such an opponent's Spell.
For the first time in a long while, Shang might be fighting someone that was on his level.
After reaching the Early Void Break Realm, Shang entered his inner world again to train.
The barrier didn't do anything to Shang since he was still within its limits as an Early Void Break Realm fighter.
Yet, Shang's power had reached insane levels when put in the context of an Early Ancestral Mage.
There was no longer any reason to act like someone with a fourfold Spirit Sense.
So, he might as well go all the way.
Several hours passed.
The Mage King of the Judgment Palace became tenser and tenser as hours passed.
Her nerves actually got the better of her a couple of times as she complained about the fact that all fights involving Shang took several hours.
Why did it always take this long?!
She nearly went crazy as over ten hours passed.
How could this fight be so insanely close?!
Fights rarely went on for this long unless the two combatants were at identical power levels.
But as more hours passed, her heart began to fall.
The people behind her turned white in shock and fear.
It had been 16 hours!
How had it been 16 hours?!
And as 24 hours passed, all hope was lost.
No fight between Early Ancestral Mages would go on for this long, and their champion had no reason to buy time.
This meant this fight was a repeat of the very first fight.
But it was so much harder to believe.
Their opponent was actually so powerful that he had effectively played with their champion?
Everyone knew that the barrier would remain cloudy for nearly an entire week.
And maybe, that wasn't so bad.
After all, they would need a long time to recover from this shock.
What a monster.
What an absolute monster the Lightning Manor had created.
After a day had passed, the Mage King slowly took out her Communication Crystal.
It was time to come clean with the Mage King from the Land and Sky Empire.
The Judgment Palace wouldn't be able to join the war without their help…
The entire Judgment Palace…
The strongest Empire in the world…
Was being hopelessly suppressed and held at bay by one guy in the Early Ancestral Mage Realm.
It was a humiliation.
