As soon as the cloudy barrier turned transparent again, the world seemed to freeze.
The Mage Kings looked with shock at Shang.
Shang was nearly dead, but the important word was nearly.
He was still alive.
So, this meant that Shang had won?
The Mage Kings couldn't comprehend this new reality.
A Mage with a fivefold Spirit Sense and a Death Affinity...
Had died to a warrior?
To a warrior?
A warrior?
To these Mage Kings, warriors hadn't even existed until recently.
To them, it was like warriors had only appeared about two years ago.
And yet, a warrior had managed to actually reach a level where he could even win against a Mage with a fivefold Spirit Sense?
While being at the same level?
The emotions of the Mage Kings went haywire.
Shock, fear, confusion, rage.
The Judgment Palace realized that they had lost a future Mage King, which meant that they would have one less Mage King in the future.
This menace had cost them ANOTHER Mage King!
The reality of Shang's existence was very difficult to accept.
How could a mere warrior in the Sixth Realm possibly cost an Empire this much?!
It was ridiculous!
"Immediately prepare to attack!" the leading Mage King of the Judgment Palace shouted. "He can't move right now, and he can't stay in our territory for much longer without placing an Attack Flag!"
Naturally, Mages were allowed to enter the enemy territory up to a certain distance to plant their Attack Flags, but they were not allowed to stay there for more than a minute without planting one.
Otherwise, the entire enemy Empire could just station their army in their opposing Empire.
Shang had to place an Attack Flag very quickly. Otherwise, anyone inside the Judgment Palace was free to attack him without breaking any rules, which meant that Shang would die to a Mage King.
Everyone could see that Shang was nearly dead, and it was impossible for him to recover within a minute.
Even more, he couldn't even move or fight right now!
The Mage King immediately gathered his most powerful Peak Ancestral Mages and prepared them for an assault.
Shang just continued lying on the ground, fighting against death.
The next moment, they saw a Peak Ancestral Mage from the Lightning Manor charge toward Shang.
They wanted to retrieve Shang's body!
The Mage King reacted immediately and moved a Peak Ancestral Mage of his own, past the enemy Ancestral Mage, into the Lightning Manor's territory.
BANG!
The Ancestral Mage from the Judgment Palace placed down an Attack Flag.
BANG!
The Ancestral Mage from the Lightning Manor was suddenly flung into the distance, back to the Lightning Manor's territories.
Since the territory behind the Ancestral Mage was now contested, he wasn't allowed to go this far into the enemy territory.
Under normal circumstances, this would result in the Ancestral Mage dying, but this specific case had already been ironed out by the Mage Emperors when they had created the contract. Otherwise, any Empire could kill any invading Mage with his method, making individual power irrelevant since it would 99% rely on strategy.
In such a case, the Mage would be flung back to their Empire by the barrier that had been created behind them.
However, this didn't count for Shang.
Shang had just destroyed a Defender Flag, which was an exception to the previous exception.
Destroying a Defender Flag was an impressive achievement, and the Mage Emperors decided that someone that managed to do that deserved to also plant their own Attack Flag.
Naturally, no Mage Emperor had argued against that when someone had brought it up. There was only a limited number of Defender Flags, and this case was so rare that it literally didn't matter what happened after that.
It could only happen so many times.
And yet, this very unimportant exception of an exception to a rule could change the fate of the entire war at this moment.
Instead of being flung back, Shang was now isolated in the Judgment Palace's territory.
This rule was supposed to help him, but it resulted in the opposite.
This rule would kill Shang.
At least, that was what the Mage Kings thought.
Naturally, Shang was truly almost dead, but this was not an uncommon state for him to be in.
In truth, Shang was in no danger, and he could almost immediately return to his peak condition.
Several seconds passed in which Shang just lay on the ground.
About 55 seconds after the Defender Flag had been destroyed, Shang weakly summoned an Attack Flag and barely managed to plant it in the ground.
As soon as the barrier appeared, the Mage King immediately sent in one of his most powerful Peak Ancestral Mages with a fourfold Spirit Sense.
When the barrier turned cloudy, all the Mage Kings looked with intense expressions at the barrier.
Meanwhile, inside the barrier, Shang's body recovered in about one second, and he shot into the distance.
He wanted to buy some time to make it seem like the battle was difficult.
Shang quickly found his approaching opponent and simply moved so that he wouldn't enter his opponent's Spirit Sense.
The Mage was surprised that he couldn't find Shang.
Wasn't he supposed to be lying at this spot?
Meanwhile, Shang had already repaired his Addum and readied it.
Shang used Void Break and slashed.
BANG!
A burst of light exploded out of the Mage's Mana Shield, blocking a majority of the attack.
Immediately, the Mage's eyes widened in horror.
He couldn't even see his opponent, but he had already lost so much of his Mana!
Where had this attack even come from?!
Naturally, Shang's attack was far weaker than any of his powerful attacks, but the range was still amazing.
Shang could attack his opponent from 3,000 kilometers away.
The range of Shang's attacks was even higher than any Ancestral Mage's range.
Shang wasn't surprised that this attack hadn't killed his opponent.
He knew that the Judgment Palace had most likely sent in one of their strongest Mages to finish the job.
Shang just calmly lifted his Addum again and released another strike.
BANG!
The Mana Shield was broken, and the Mage died.
BOOOM!
The next moment, Shang detonated the Mage's body from a distance to hide the way in which he had died.
In an instant, Shang's body turned old and sickly again.
BOOOOM!
And then, Shang detonated some Fire Mana on his chest.
His blood scattered across many kilometers, revealing his burned flesh and broken bones.
He was severely injured!
Shang hit the ground and barely held himself upright by leaning on his Addum.
He was nearly dead.
And then, the cloudy barrier turned transparent again.
