Three Mage Kings had met their demise.
The first one was the Myriad King, whose remaining lifespan had finally expired.
When Shang had first encountered him, the Myriad King had less than 5,000 years left, and now his time had run out. Unfortunately, there was nothing that could have been done to prevent it.
The Myriad King's mana was transferred into an inheritor sphere and stored at a neutral location for the upcoming tournament.
As for the other two Mage Kings, one belonged to the Twilight Dusk Family, an elderly figure who had served for a long time.
The other was a newer Mage King recently acquired by the Lightning Manor, although they still remained at the Initial Mage King Realm, as advancing in the Mage King Realm took considerable time.
One day, the oldest Mage King from the Twilight Dusk Family launched an attack on the new Mage King from the Lightning Manor.
The mana of the Twilight Dusk Family Mage King was dispersed into the world since they were not allowed to keep it.
On the other hand, the mana left behind by the Lightning Manor's new Mage King remained with them.
As their previous Mage King had died due to a violation of the rules, the Lightning Manor had the privilege to select another member to become the new Mage King.
This resulted in the Twilight Dusk Family losing a Mage King while the Lightning Manor did not suffer the same fate.
But what was the purpose behind the Twilight Dusk Family's actions? It was all related to the upcoming tournament for the future Mage Emperor.
With only about 46,000 years remaining until the tournament, the Lightning Manor needed their trump card, capable of challenging King Sanctified Death, to become a Mage King as soon as possible.
However, the trump card already faced a disadvantage of around 30,000 years compared to King Sanctified Death.
If they didn't attain the Mage King status soon, not even a Mage with a sixfold Spirit Sense could bridge such a significant gap.
The Empires had no knowledge of who the Lightning Manor's secret weapon was, so they decided to sacrifice one of their oldest Mage Kings, who would have perished soon anyway, in exchange for the newest Mage King from the Lightning Manor.
Naturally, the Lightning Manor elevated another Mage Lord to the position of Mage King.
This individual had previously been a Thunder and possessed a fourfold Spirit Sense.
However, since they had worked in the secretive Contender Department, they were relatively unknown to the outside world.
The new Mage King was aware of their impending demise, expected to be sacrificed by another Mage King in a couple of thousand years, just to ensure safety.
But the Thunder was accepting of this fate.
Their lifespan would have expired in 3,000 years regardless. Moreover, this path would make them one of the rare few Mage Kings in the world, which was worth the price.
Interestingly, the Lightning Manor had another Mage Lord with a fivefold Spirit Sense, but they decided against elevating them.
Firstly, that particular Mage Lord would likely emerge victorious in the tournament.
Secondly, they would also be slain by a Mage King, essentially wasting a Mage Lord with a fivefold Spirit Sense.
That Mage Lord with a fivefold Spirit Sense required approximately 10,000 more years to accumulate enough power to triumph in the tournament.
These events had significant repercussions in the world.
A thousand Mage Lords perished, and even the mana of a Mage King was scattered throughout the world.
The density of mana had nearly doubled, revealing how low the atmospheric mana density had been prior to the war.
With the increased mana, many Mages were able to comprehend Concepts more easily.
After all, the more mana one was surrounded by, the clearer its functioning became.
Additionally, the number of Beast Lords on the islands slightly increased, although it was still insufficient to produce a King.
However, the effects on weaker beasts were substantial. Beasts in the first five realms advanced at a faster rate than before.
The world was undergoing transformation.
Nevertheless, these changes didn't have a significant impact on the ongoing war, and the Judgment Palace remained undecided about what to do with the line.
The Empress of Death still required approximately 500 more years to break the contract, after which this issue would no longer be a concern.
However, until that time, they had to contend with the problem.
Ultimately, they decided to wait until their Empress had terminated the contract.
As they defended the line, they were rapidly losing Mage Lords. Thus, they chose to relinquish it.
This action was not in violation of the rules since it was merely abandoning territories, not transferring them to harm another party.
Moreover, abandoning these territories was a logical decision as they caused more damage than they were worth.
When the Lightning Manor noticed that the Judgment Palace didn't immediately reclaim the territories captured by Shang, they took a significant risk and attacked the entire first layer of the line.
Surprisingly, the Judgment Palace did nothing. Subsequently, the Land and Sky Empire also assaulted the first layer.
Within an hour, the line had shrunk to a width of 400,000 kilometers.
Another hour later, it reduced to 200,000 kilometers.
Eventually, the line disappeared entirely, and the Judgment Palace returned to its original size.
The Lightning Manor acquired a vast territory, one million kilometers long and 300,000 kilometers wide, originally belonging to the Land and Sky Empire.
Consequently, the Land and Sky Empire had to reconquer that piece of their empire, which proved challenging since the defender always had an advantage.
Furthermore, the Lightning Manor didn't exert much effort, knowing they would eventually lose that territory anyway.
They avoided risky battles and only engaged in safe encounters.
Eventually, the Land and Sky Empire managed to reclaim the territory, but they lost approximately 100 Mage Lords in the process, while the Lightning Manor only lost seven due to their cautious approach.
Lastly, due to the broken contract, the Lightning Manor regained its entire Zone in the southeast by utilizing weakened Mage Lords to eliminate the Judgment Palace's Ancestral Mages.
Ultimately, the Judgment Palace found themselves confined to their original position, essentially disappearing from the war.
For the next 500 years, only the other two empires would continue their attacks on the Lightning Manor, but since the Judgment Palace wasn't assisting, they proceeded with caution.
All the empires entered a state of a half ceasefire, awaiting the moment when the Empress of Death would break the contract.
