BANG!
Shang cut through a huge beak, destroying it in one strike.
The beast in front of him immediately jumped back in shock and looked warily at him.
It was the fish bird.
Shang had returned from the Lightning Manor after dealing with a couple more Ancestral Mages.
As soon as Shang had returned, the fish bird immediately came back to fight him.
It had comprehended Impose, and it wanted to finally beat Shang. The last couple of times, it had come so close. With Impose, it should now be able to win, right?
Sadly, Shang immediately broke its beak with Sword Infusion.
Speaking of, Shang had decided to give his Sword Infusion a fitting name.
Death Sword.
Death Sword could remain active for the entirety of a battle, essentially turning it into a kind of permanent upgrade for his sword.
The speed of Shang's sword didn't increase, and its hardness or weight also didn't decrease or increase.
It literally only increased a single thing.
Sharpness.
With his Death Sword, Shang now had the least problems with beasts that focused on defense.
The fish bird had been an issue due to its speed but also because its beak had been too hard for Shang to destroy.
But with its beak destroyed, the fish bird stopped being a problem.
"The fight is over," Shang said emotionlessly.
The fish bird knew that it couldn't fight Shang anymore, but it was still difficult to come to terms with reality.
Their powers had been about equal 150 years ago, but now, there was an incredible gap between them.
The fish bird felt like it had completely transformed into a different beast after comprehending Impose. Its power had increased by so much!
In fact, it had already fought a couple of Peak Beast Lords and even won!
But Shang just destroyed it!
One had to know that the fish bird's beak was incredibly hard. None of the beasts had been able to break it yet.
But Shang just destroyed it.
The fish bird knew that it had to leave and that it most likely wouldn't get another opportunity to fight Shang.
"What can I do?" the fish bird asked.
Silence.
"What can I do to become even more powerful?" it asked.
Shang remained silent for a couple of seconds.
"Continue training," Shang said, "and you need to focus on your mind as well. Your weapon and your mind must be one."
"Now, leave," Shang ordered.
The fish bird quickly lowered its head and respectfully walked backward out of the Isolation Barrier, showing its gratitude.
Originally, Shang didn't want to help this random beast, but for some reason, he wanted to.
Maybe the beast's relentless efforts in training reminded Shang of himself.
In comparison to all the students he had accepted in his life, the fish bird had been the most hardworking.
All the students from Icy Bastion had always just wanted to go to their families and waste time with their loved ones.
While they were doing that, Shang had been training with his sword.
And the fish bird was just like that.
From what Shang could tell, it had been training relentlessly, and he even considered its speed of advancement passable.
Over the next couple of minutes, Shang fought five other Late Beast Lords.
While the battles didn't end instantly, they hadn't proven to be of any danger to Shang.
"Thunder King, send in Peak Beast Lords," Shang said.
"Fine."
Surprisingly, the Thunder King answered this time.
Maybe it was because Shang had actually given the fish bird a little helping hand?
Nevertheless, the Thunder King had answered, and a couple of minutes later, the first Peak Beast Lord entered.
Peak Beast Lords counted as the most powerful beasts in the world, except for the 50 or so Beast Kings.
The Thunder King's island probably had over 100 Peak Beast Lords, which was quite a lot.
Naturally, the Peak Beast Lords had brutal rivalries with each other, and they all wanted to become second in command.
When Shang saw the silver bird filled with lightning enter the Isolation Barrier, he could immediately tell that the Thunder King had sent in one of the weakest Peak Beast Lords.
Its Aura was supremely average.
And yet, the fight was more difficult than his fight with the fish bird.
The reason was that the bird fought from a distance while rapidly fleeing from Shang's attacks.
Naturally, due to the relatively small size of the Isolation Barrier, Shang could still hit the bird, but he could only use his weakest attacks with the longest range.
Sadly, Shang's Death Sword couldn't show its power with these attacks. It could only show its power with Sword Heart or if Shang physically hit his opponents with his sword.
Since the bird was always as far away from Shang as possible, Shang couldn't use either of these two things, leaving him with his unique ability to hit his opponents from 3,000 kilometers away.
Luckily, the bird's defense wasn't the best, and Shang's attacks eventually exhausted it.
Naturally, the bird had also attacked Shang with several powerful bolts of lightning from a distance, but Shang managed to deal with them with Refraction, an ability he hadn't used in a very long time.
Refraction split energy-based attacks apart, dispersing their power over a bigger area. It had originally been used with Shang's Colossal Sword.
However, the Refraction Shang had used just now was different from the Refraction of his Colossal Sword State.
Back then, Shang had only been able to disperse the powers with Light Mana, but now, Shang could also use Darkness Mana to destroy the will on the energy-based attack, making his ability to disperse attacks vastly more powerful.
Nevertheless, due to the vast difference in their Realms, Shang still received a couple of injuries, but they weren't a big deal.
Winning against the bird hadn't been that hard, which confirmed Shang's suspicion that the bird was one of the weakest Peak Beast Lords.
Its speed was pretty good, but its defense was weak. Additionally, the lightning bolts it had fired at Shang were also not the strongest.
Eventually, the bird left, and Shang waited for his next opponent.
