Naturally, the Lightning Manor very quickly noticed what was going on, and they couldn't be any happier about it.
The Tower of Climate wasn't putting too much pressure on the Judgment Palace, but they were definitely applying pressure. The Judgment Palace needed to maintain a constant stream of Mages that defended its territories.
Of course, that included Ancestral Mages, and since the Ancestral Mages were also desperately needed at the frontlines with the Lightning Manor, their absence was very noticeable.
However, the Lightning Manor couldn't afford to send all their people to the Judgment Palace right now since their forces had already been reduced by quite a bit. The other two Empires were still applying pressure to the Lightning Manor.
So, they decided to use this opportunity to recover and strengthen their other frontlines.
The other two Empires noticed that the quality of defenders had increased again, and their frustration grew.
They were annoyed by what the Temple of Climate was doing.
But what could they do?
Neither the Twilight Dusk Empire nor the Land and Sky Empire bordered the Tower of Climate. Even if they were willing to go to war, they couldn't.
Sure, they could conquer a small road to the Tower of Climate, but that would require attacking the Judgement Palace, and due to the contract, that was still out of the question. After all, enemies were not allowed to work together in such a way.
The Judgment Palace would need to honestly give their best in defending these territories, which would mean that several Mages with threefold and maybe even fourfold Spirit Senses would die from both sides.
For what? So that the Twilight Dusk Family could sacrifice even more Mages by going to war with the Tower of Climate?
So, for better or worse, the Judgment Palace was on its own.
After a couple more years, Shang no longer had anything to do at the frontlines and retreated.
"Thank you for your help, Young Master Shang," the Starlight Queen told him. "Please be prepared to help the frontlines again in 50 years."
Shang just nodded without saying anything and flew towards the north to his Isolation Barrier.
Shang didn't need to constantly be present. After all, before he attacked, he had always been hidden.
So, the enemy didn't know whether Shang was prepared to attack or not.
Every time they tried to test whether Shang was present or not, they would lose a Peak Ancestral Mage.
That's why they didn't try many times.
And even if Shang didn't immediately strike back, it was also possible that Shang was simply waiting for a more opportune moment when several Peak Ancestral Mages had planted Attack Flags.
Just Shang's mere existence served as a huge deterrence.
Even though Shang hadn't fought for very long, he had earned a huge amount of Contribution Points due to one thing.
He had killed a Mage with a fivefold Spirit Sense.
One had to remember that, on average, an Empire only got one person with a fivefold Spirit Sense every 10,000 years.
Ignoring Mage Kings, this meant that every Empire only had a max of two Mages with a fivefold Spirit Sense at any given time, and quite often, they only had one.
Due to the Judgment Palace's size, they had actually had three.
But now, they only had two.
This meant that, within the next 20,000 years, the number of Mage Kings in the Judgment Palace should reduce by one.
One of the old Mage Kings would die while a spot for a new Mage King would remain empty.
Once more, Shang had caused devastating losses to the Judgment Palace.
After Shang reached his Isolation Barrier, he entered and summoned several Abominations again inside his Isolation Chamber.
His mind had to hecome more familiar with the Abhominations.
He needed to comprehend the mystical level five Concept of Entropy.
50 years passed very quickly, and Shang returned to the frontlines once more.
The other Empires were slowly and carefully using Peak Ancestral Mages again.
As soon as Shang appeared, he rapidly killed three Peak Ancestral Mages, and the other Empires very quickly pulled back.
"Thank you once again, Young Master Shang," the Starlight Queen said. "Please be prepared for a short battle in about ten years."
Shang just nodded and went through the portal the Starlight Queen had created.
Shang wouldn't remain on the frontlines very long. He would get there, battle a couple of times, and retreat.
He wouldn't even remain there for a day.
One day of work every ten years was fine with Shang.
So, things continued.
Shang tried to comprehend more about Abominations, went to the frontlines for a quick battle, and went back to comprehending.
The cycle repeated again and again.
Years passed.
100 years.
200.
300.
Shang was now 3,500 years old, and he only had 1,500 years of longevity left.
And the Concept?
Problematic.
Shang felt like he had made nearly no progress.
The mysterious level five Concept of Entropy felt just as ethereal and incomprehensible as in the beginning.
Shang wasn't even sure if he had actually learned anything.
Sure, he knew a lot more about the Abominations and how they behaved, but he was still unsure how they could destroy the matter around them without sacrificing anything.
Shang knew that the Concepts of Temperature, Twilight, Addition, and Subtraction had to be connected, but he felt no inkling of them in the Abominations' domains.
It was like it was something completely separate from the concept of Concepts.
It was like Shang was a two-dimensional being trying to understand how three dimensions worked or a three-dimensional being trying to understand how four dimensions worked.
It was beyond his grasp.
Nevertheless, Shang continued to try.
Another 100 years passed.
200.
300.
£4.00.
And then, he stopped.
Shang's mind was going wild.
Things became more and more confusing the more he tried to comprehend.
Naturally, he had also already tried to consume high-grade Mind Flow Pellets and other supplements, but they didn't seem to help a lot.
Everything was just so confusing.
It was like Shang knew all the details, but he couldn't combine them into a picture.
It was like there were millions of mirror shards lying in front of him, but he couldn't even begin to try to assemble them into a mirror.
It was just too much.
It was pointless.
For a while, Shang thought about shifting focus, but he realized that he had already invested too much time into this Concept.
He had to comprehend it, or everything would have been for nothing.
But he couldn't.
Shang could only think of one last approach, but he wasn't very confident in it.
He called the Lightning Emperor.
