Sword God in a World of Magic

At the southeastern corner, Shang saw a Mid Archmage enter.

An instant later, they exploded into a shower of gore.

Then, an Early Archmage entered and exploded.

The barrier only restricted more powerful people from entering. If they so chose to, weaker Mages could also fight the defender of the flag.

The Judgment Palace was sending in one fighter after the other, which immediately committed suicide.

Of course, there was a certain limitation to the rules. Only people within one Realm of difference were allowed to fight. That rule was to make sure that no weak and innocent people were accidentally killed since very weak people didn't necessarily know what was going on.

This meant that no one below the Early Archmage Realm was allowed to trigger the barrier and "fight" Shang.

So, every single person that entered and exploded was at least an Early Archmage.

Every single second, an Archmage from the Judgment Palace died in Shang's territory.

As time passed, Shang could feel something change.

The Death Mana in the surroundings was very slowly increasing in density.

'They want to turn my territory into a Pit of Death,' Shang thought.

'They are insane.'

Turning a barrier with a diameter of 10,000 kilometers into a Pit of Death powerful enough to kill an Ancestral Mage was beyond crazy.

Even if they used high-grade "bodies", such as Archmages, it would literally take millions upon millions to achieve that.

The Judgment Palace was using a very specific way to kill these Mages, which resulted in the density of their bodies and blood to reduce.

But in exchange for that, the volume increased drastically. Every single explosion coated the surrounding kilometers in a thick sheet of blood with lower density.

With this method, the Death Mana would corrupt a greater area, getting rid of the other kinds of Mana sooner, which resulted in vastly increased efficiency.

They were literally planning on turning Shang's territory into an ocean of blood that would retain Death Mana with great effectiveness and efficiency.

The Judgment Palace was willing to exchange several million Archmages for Shang's life.

At maximum, there were 100 million Archmages living in the Judgment Palace's Empire.

And even with all their advanced methods of producing Death Mana, they would probably need to sacrifice over 20 million.

20% of all Archmages in their Empire.

For Shang.

Were all of these people volunteers?

Probably not.

It wasn't easy to surprise or shock Shang, but the Judgment Palace managed to do it.

Their plan was insane, but it would most likely work.

Sure, Shang knew three Concepts of Death, which allowed him to gather Death Mana and essentially throw it out of the barrier.

However, that would unveil one of Shang's secrets.

His mastery over the Concepts of Death.

Shang was already proudly posing as someone with a fivefold Spirit Sense, but if he showed that he had mastery over death to a certain extent, the other Empires might actually suspect him of being the Lightning Manor's true genius.

What if Shang were the one that could fight King Sanctified Death in the future?

At that point, Shang's value would rise from being equivalent to a Mage King to being equivalent to a Mage Emperor.

At that point, the Judgment Palace might actually decide to sacrifice a Mage King to deal with him.

If a Mage King decided to launch a Spell at Shang from a relatively close range, not even an Emperor would be fast enough to block it as long as they weren't specifically waiting for that attack with rapt attention.

Sure, the Mage King would be killed as a result, but it would have been a worthwhile exchange.

So, Shang couldn't possibly show that he knew about the Concepts of Death.

And being surrounded by Death Mana?

That was still dangerous.

Even to someone like Shang.

With enough density, this wouldn't be any different than an Isolation Chamber filled with Death Mana.

At some point, Shang would just die.

Shang continued to watch his territory getting rapidly filled with blood and guts.

He knew that, in one year, all of this would turn into an area of absolute death.

It wouldn't be easy to survive.

But Shang knew that this was also an opportunity.

'I've been trying to comprehend the level four Concept of Death. Maybe being surrounded by so much Death Mana will finally allow me to comprehend it.'

'Nevertheless, I'm not certain if that Concept will make me immune to the powers of so much Death Mana. No matter what I do, my body can't survive on Death Mana alone. That would be contradictory to the very existence of Death Mana.'

'It truly is problematic.'

'For now, there's nothing I can do but wait.'

After thinking that, Shang returned to his usual spot and waited.

Inside his inner world, Shang was summoning extremely powerful beasts one after the other.

Originally, Shang had been planning on waiting to comprehend such complex Concepts until he reached the Peak Void Break Realm since he would also have a much more powerful mind at that point.

But now, he couldn't wait anymore.

He had to die over and over again.

This was a huge danger but also a big opportunity.

In the past, Shang had avoided dying inside his inner world as much as possible due to a couple of reasons.

First, getting accustomed to dying might decrease the emotional pressure during a real fight to the death.

Second, continuously dying might make Shang extremely paranoid, warping his perception of the surroundings.

But now, there was no other way.

The second problem was no longer relevant due to the removal of his warrior body. In Shang's mind, the entire world was already out to get him.

As for the first problem, Shang had noticed that the emotional pressure had already reduced drastically.

Shang was as calm fighting a nearly hopeless battle as fighting an easy battle.

Sure, dying over and over again would make it even worse, but the tradeoff wasn't so bad anymore.

So, Shang just kept dying.

Over and over again.

And as he died inside his inner world, the real world also turned deadlier and deadlier.