There was nothing the other three Empires could do.
After nearly 8,000 years, the secret weapon of the Lightning Manor had finally been unveiled.
Some of the Mage Emperors and Mage Kings had suspected that the Lightning Manor had someone with a sixfold Spirit Sense. After all, why would the Lightning Emperor ask for a war and a grand tournament otherwise?
The Lightning Emperor had to be confident, and only someone with a sixfold Spirit Sense could hope to resist King Sanctified Death.
And yet, the truth had been far more shocking than even that.
A warrior.
A warrior with a sixfold Spirit Sense.
When they had learned that Shang had achieved a fivefold Spirit Sense many years ago, they had already been beyond shocked.
After all, the warrior Path had been destroyed.
There were no inheritances.
There were no teachers.
And the only information about the ancient warrior Path was with the few Mage Emperors.
The Mage Kings and Mage Emperors didn't believe that the Lightning Emperor had created such a genius. After all, doing so went against many of the established and ancient rules.
The Mage God had said that no other Path was allowed to reach the Ninth Realm again, and the Lightning Emperor was the Mage God's closest companion. He would respect the Mage God's decision the most.
On top of that, creating such a genius artificially would cost wealth accumulated for thousands of years. Not even the Judgment Palace was willing to spend that much money.
Lastly, this was a warrior. Why would anyone want to teach and nurture a warrior like this?
Warriors as a whole were quite useful, as the war had proven, but a single warrior genius wasn't very useful.
This meant that this warrior must have been born naturally, and he must have come into contact with the Lightning Emperor later.
And yet, it was still more than shocking that the Lightning Emperor was actually willing to bet his entire Empire on a single warrior.
Now, one had to keep in mind that all of these things held true for a warrior with a fivefold Spirit Sense.
But now, they knew that Shang had a sixfold Spirit Sense.
There were no adjectives that could describe the unreality of this situation.
It was on the same level of absurdity as finding a pig that had become a Mage Emperor.
King Sanctified Death's talent was held in the same regard as the Mage God's talent.
King Sanctified Death might have become more powerful than the Mage God had been at his level, but one had to remember that King Sanctified Death had an unprecedented Affinity and the backing of two Emperors as soon as he was born.
Meanwhile, the Mage God needed to earn everything himself.
With the same backing, the Mage God might have been more powerful than King Sanctified Death.
But this warrior.
What was up with this warrior?!
He essentially managed to reach such a level without any guidance, and he also shouldn't have had any notable quantities of resources in the first five Realms.
And despite all of this, he managed to reach the same level as King Sanctified Death.
Despite all this, only very few Mage Kings from the Judgment Palace realized the true extent of Shang's power.
These few Mage Kings knew that Shang might actually become even more powerful than King Sanctified Death.
These very few Mage Kings knew that King Sanctified Death had achieved his sixfold Spirit Sense when he had become a Mage Lord, and his Aura had undergone another change when he had become a Mage King.
Yet, as they all thought back to the start of the war…
What if Shang had had a sixfold Spirit Sense in the Sixth Realm?
It was possible. After all, Shang's current Aura had a similar intensity to King Sanctified Death's current Aura.
But King Sanctified Death was a Realm above Shang.
What about when Shang becomes a Warrior King?
Would his Aura undergo another change?
The thought terrified them.
However, instead of feeling fear or anxiety, they actually felt like they had dodged a bullet.
Look at the current Shang.
He had no eyes.
He had no left arm.
He had no legs.
The fluctuations of his soul felt disjointed and jittery.
The Mage Kings hadn't been sure how they had crippled Shang or in what way they had crippled him, but the Judgment Palace had a couple of people with Life Affinities, and they could tell.
Shang's soul was severely injured.
They could tell that Shang's soul was on the verge of breaking apart.
Shang's soul was like a weak old man walking down the street with shaking legs.
The man could continue walking, but if a small animal ran into his legs, he would collapse.
They were certain that Shang was haunted by a constant feeling of weakness, disorientation, fatigue, stress, and anxiety. On top of that, his soul would have to be under constant, indescribable pain.
How difficult would it be to train in such a state?
A feeling of tranquility and inner peace was paramount for Mages. Stress and anxiety could easily distract someone's mind while they were focusing on something. Naturally, pain would be even worse.
And when it came to training as a warrior, Shang had it even worse.
After all, he was missing half his body. How could he achieve mastery over his body when he was missing half of it?
While Shang kept charging through several battlefields, the Mage Kings were meeting with their Mage Emperors, who then talked to each other.
They now all knew their target.
They knew the Lightning Manor's trump card.
Yet, it had become very difficult to deal with the trump card.
They had sacrificed Mage Kings to deal with new Mage Kings from the Lightning Manor.
They had sacrificed Mage Kings to deal with Shang, unsuccessfully.
They had used their changed Defender Flags.
They had lost several Mages with fivefold Spirit Senses.
They had lost a significant portion of their normal Mages.
And to top it all off, the Abomination Lords and the great number of Ancestral Abominations were causing untold damage to their Empires.
The Abominations were so devastating that they had probably cost the Empires more than fighting the Lightning Manor.
It was so bad that all towns had been abandoned.
All of them.
Every single one.
Ancestral Abominations were so powerful that only the absolutely most powerful Peak Ancestral Mages could hope to kill them, but only after a long fight, in which the Ancestral Abomination had the time to gather enough Mana to detonate.
Because of that, Ancestral Mages were no longer powerful enough to secure a settlement.
Only strong Mage Lords could guarantee the safety of a settlement.
Sadly, there were far more towns than there were Mage Lords.
So, every town had been deserted.
When possible, the citizens entered the big cities, but how could the cities hold all the citizens from all the towns?
Because of that, over 90% of the weakest people of a town had died.
At some point, the leadership of the town retreated to a city, and when the next beast attacked, the town would be destroyed, exposing the people to the wilderness.
And, well, only Ancestral Mages could survive in the wilderness without help.
If one wanted to visualize their impact on humanity, one only needed to look at a map of their country, pick out the ten biggest cities, and then eradicate all other villages, towns, and smaller cities.
So, despite the huge war and Shang's presence, they were actually not the Empires' biggest worries.
The Abominations were.
