Sword God in a World of Magic

Shang had comprehended two Concepts, and they weren't just any Concepts.

They were Concepts related to one of the two most mysterious Affinities in existence, Life and Death.

The Custodian only knew the first two Concepts of the Life Affinity, and he was one of the most powerful Mage Kings.

This showed how difficult it was to comprehend any Concepts related to these two Affinities.

How many people knew the first two Concepts of Death?

Well, how would one even go about learning about them?

They would need to interact with a lot of Death Mana without dying themselves.

Additionally, the comprehension of these Concepts was also very strange.

While any other Concept could be explained in words and with logic, these two Concepts couldn't.

It was just a feeling.

It kind of was a mysterious feeling of resonance.

Shang's personality was unique, and it wouldn't surprise someone if one said that Shang's personality fit the concept of death.

Shang and death just fit together.

This was another part that made it so difficult to comprehend death.

There weren't many people that could identify with death. After all, everyone became stronger in order to survive.

People wanted to live.

They wanted to keep their loved ones alive.

They wanted to keep themselves alive.

They didn't want to kill themselves.

But to comprehend death, the best way was to kill oneself.

Naturally, that was contradictory since one needed to be alive to understand something.

Someone that wanted to die would have an amazing affinity with death, but someone that wanted to die wouldn't be alive to realize this affinity.

So, the next best thing was to be apathetic toward life.

To be neutral.

This was Shang.

Shang wasn't seeking power to survive.

He wasn't seeking power to protect his loved ones.

Shang was seeking power for power.

His survival was secondary.

Because of that, Shang had a high affinity for death.

Shang knew all of this, and he had a thought.

'If the God hadn't forced the Entropy Affinity on me, would I have had an Affinity towards Death?'

'The God said that he chose me for a reason. He said that I was different from others.'

'Out of millions and billions of people from Earth, he chose me because there was something different about me.'

'Was that it?'

'I'm not sure.'

Shang thought about all of this for a couple more minutes, but he couldn't come up with any answers.

Eventually, Shang became restless.

He hadn't trained in over a day, and he felt like he was being lazy.

'Yes, I comprehended two powerful Concepts, but I don't have the time to incorporate them into my fighting style for now. My longevity is close to running out, and I still need to comprehend Void Casting.'

'First, I need to finish Void Casting.'

'Then, I need to reach the Sixth Realm.'

'When I've done that, I can focus on the Concepts of Sickness and Weakness.'

'Anyway, I'm out of Furnace Pills. I should get two Grade Seven Mana Crystals worth of Furnace Pills for the last push.'

Shang took to the skies and flew to the Isolation Barrier.

He touched it and noticed that he could go through it without any issues.

Shang left the Isolation Barrier and flew towards Fleros.

He didn't notice it, but while he was leaving, he was being watched by Lucin.

Lucin had a complex expression on his face.

Naturally, he had witnessed everything that had happened.

However, since he wasn't supposed to help any Clouds, he didn't interfere when Shang was about to die to the Death Mana.

He had watched with interest and nervousness as Shang had nearly died.

Lucin had already noticed that Shang was in danger several years ago.

While Shang hadn't known about Death Mana, Lucin had known about it.

When Lucin had created the Isolation Barrier, he hadn't thought that he would accidentally create a Death Pit.

In ancient times, some powerful Mages comprehended the Concepts of Death with the help of Death Pits.

These Death Pits were created by throwing others into deep holes filled with poison that slowly killed everyone that entered.

By torturing and slowly killing an uncountable number of beings, the hole would be filled with dense Death Mana.

Then, it would transform from a dangerous hole to a Death Pit.

Nowadays, the Judgement Palace was the only Empire with a real Death Pit, and they only had that one because it was older than nearly every living Emperor.

Naturally, this Death Pit couldn't be compared to the tiny hill Shang had filled with Death Mana.

The Judgment Palace's Death Pit was an endless abyss of hopelessness and sorrow.

The Judgment Palace's Death Pit required many corpses to keep existing, but the Judgment Palace was exclusively using corpses from criminals.

Nevertheless, the creation of new Death Pits was forbidden.

All of humanity was already fighting against the Abominations. They couldn't use people creating huge Death Pits by killing millions of beings every decade.

In a way, Shang had violated the law by creating something like a Death Pit, but he actually hadn't sacrificed anyone else.

He had made the Death Pit with just his own suffering.

When Lucin noticed that more and more Death Mana was gathering in the Isolation Barrier, he became unsure of how to proceed.

Lucin had created the Isolation Barrier, and it was only supposed to help Shang if someone broke the rules.

Yet, the Isolation Barrier had now put Shang in danger, but the danger was self-inflicted.

Naturally, Lucin wouldn't protect Clouds from themselves.

But he was the one that made the Isolation Barrier.

It was a very complex situation.

Lucin wasn't sure how he should proceed, and since this involved international laws, he decided to ask Queen Primordium for advice.

Queen Primordium told Lucin that he shouldn't interfere since Shang wasn't actually breaking any law. The way the law was worded meant that to break it, one needed to involve others, which Shang hadn't done.

However, Queen Primordium also told Lucin to keep tabs on Shang and to inform her if anything came of this situation.

And Lucin decided to do that just now.

Lucin might not know any Concept related to Death, but he could feel when someone comprehended a Concept.

He knew that Shang had comprehended two Concepts.

Lucin told Queen Primordium about this.

Queen Primordium thanked Lucin for the information and cut the connection.

For some seconds, Lucin only looked at his deactivated Communication Crystal with uncertainty.