Shang cut off the front half of the tortoise, and immediately, the battle stopped.
Luckily, the true tortoise had been well in the back half since enemies tended to attack the chest and neck more often than the ass.
A moment later, Shang reappeared as he stopped using his Concepts of Light and Darkness.
"The fight is over," Shang said.
Then, Shang turned around and flew out of the Isolation Barrier. After the fight had ended, it no longer stopped him from leaving.
Shang's Spirit Sense locked onto the Thunder King. "I need some time to think, and I need to go back for a while. I will return later."
The Thunder King didn't answer. Apparently, it was still annoyed by Shang's earlier disrespect.
Shang simply took to the sky and flew towards the southeast.
On his way, he thought about everything he had just learned, and he realized something.
'Sword Mana is definitely the level above Sword Heart, but the infusion of my Death Mana in Sword Mana is not part of it.'
'This must be something separate.'
'Sword Mana on its own already increases my power by a lot, but with the addition of Death Mana, it became even more powerful.'
'It doesn't feel like something on the level of a level five Concept, but all of this is stronger than a level four Concept.'
'I believe Sword Mana is on the level of a level four Concept, and the infusion of Mana into Sword Mana is probably also on the level of a level four Concept.'
'It makes sense. Mages can comprehend different Concepts related to their Affinities, but if a warrior wanted a twofold Spirit Sense, they need to comprehend entirely different weapons.'
'That's like asking a Mage to comprehend a Concept from a separate Affinity.'
'There must have been a way to get a severalfold Spirit Sense without having to comprehend different weapons, and I think this might be one of those ways.'
One couldn't forget that Shang was literally creating his own Path and that he didn't know a lot about the different Paths of the past.
Shang knew some general things, but the specifics were still unknown to him.
Over the million or so years ever since the apocalyptic beasts had been killed, how many things had the different Paths created?
How much knowledge had been lost?
Was there a way to get a fourfold Spirit Sense while only using a single weapon in the True Path Stage?
There had to be.
Using different weapons for an increase of a Spirit Sense was part of the Weapon Master Path, not the warrior, barbarian, or even berserker Paths.
There must have been ways to increase someone's Spirit Sense without having to comprehend things from different Paths.
Mages could do this. So, why couldn't the other Paths as well?
After Shang left the island of the Thunder King, he used his pin to contact the Lightning Emperor.
"Oh, Shang! What's up?" the Lightning Emperor asked.
"I have comprehended two things, and I want to know more about them. You know about the other Paths, right?" Shang asked.
"Of course," the Lightning Emperor said.
The next moment, a portal appeared, and Shang stepped into the Lightning Emperor's library.
Shang walked over to the table in the middle and sat on one of the chairs.
"So, what did you learn?" the Lightning Emperor asked with a friendly chuckle.
Seeing Shang learning new things reminded the Lightning Emperor of his own youth.
He missed the times when he could see and learn new things.
Sadly, these times were over, but with enough luck, they might return in the future.
Shang summoned his sword and showed it to the Lightning Emperor, who looked at it with expectation.
The next moment, grey Mana appeared on the sword.
"Ooohhh," the Lightning Emperor uttered. "Weapon Mana."
Shang nodded. For once, his name and the actual name were the same. He was quite certain that Weapon Mana for a sword was called Sword Mana.
The next moment, the Sword Mana turned black and solid.
The Lightning Emperor's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Oh wow," he said. "You're a fast one."
"Do you know what this is?" Shang asked.
The Lightning Emperor nodded without hesitation. "Just to be sure, this is Sword Mana and Death Mana, right?"
Shang nodded.
"Back then, we called this Weapon Infusion," the Lightning Emperor said as a book flew over to him from one of his bookshelves.
"Weapon Infusion is on the same level as a level four Concept, and it's a non-essential Destination for Warrior Lords."
"Non-essential Destination?" Shang repeated.
The Lightning Emperor nodded. "Back then, warriors talked about their Paths in a more literal sense. They viewed their Paths as literal journeys."
"In theory, if we ignore the Mana shortage in Aterium, a Mage only needs to learn one Concept per level to become a Mage Emperor."
"Let's just use Lightning as an example. After a True Mage learns the Concept of Spark, they can become a High Mage."
"After they learn the Concept of Magnetism, they can become an Archmage."
"After the Concept of Shock, Ancestral Mage."
"Concept of Bolt, Mage Lord."
"Concept of Lightning, Mage King."
"Concept of True Lightning, Mage Emperor."
This was the first time Shang had heard the name of one of the level six Concepts, but he didn't comment.
"Instead of calling their checkpoints and requirements level something Concepts, warriors call them Destinations. However, they didn't call them Destination one, two, and so on. No, that would be far too easy and convenient," the Lightning Emperor said with a chuckle.
"Instead, they call them essential or non-essential Destinations and use the Realm they could reach after comprehending one of their Destinations."
"In your case, Weapon Mana is an essential Destination for Warrior Lords. That means that you must comprehend Weapon Mana if you want to become a Warrior Lord. Without Weapon Mana, you can't become a Warrior Lord since all the non-essential Destinations on the Warrior Lord level need Weapon Mana as a basis to work."
"Without Weapon Mana, you can't use Weapon Infusion, but you can use Weapon Mana without Weapon Infusion. That's why Weapon Mana is essential, and Weapon Infusion isn't."
Shang nodded. "I understand."
"Read it," the Lightning Emperor said as the book from earlier flew over to Shang. "It's a quick read."
Shang opened the book and rapidly read through it.
It barely took a couple of seconds since the content of the book wasn't hard to understand.
The book basically analyzed and explained Weapon Infusion, which basically answered all of Shang's questions.
