Sword God in a World of Magic

Shang's next opponent was another beast with a Lightning Affinity, but it also wasn't the most impressive.

It was a white ape that was using a huge club. It mostly used its Lightning Mana to increase its speed.

Sure, the white ape was pretty fast, but its defense was horrible.

After avoiding a couple of attacks, Shang launched an attack of his own, and the battle ended.

However, Shang had felt more pressure in this fight than in the last since he had been forced to rapidly defend many times before he could launch his own attack.

The sheer power and speed of these beasts had reached such levels that Shang was immediately bombarded by an avalanche of attacks, and if he got hit once, he would explode into a shower of blood.

It was a lot of pressure.

Shang fought a couple more battles, and the beasts became more powerful and more dangerous.

He was going up the rankings of the island.

Eventually, Shang found some opponents that could genuinely threaten his life.

While his attacking power had reached levels where Shang could also kill these powerful beasts in one strike, his speed, and defense were brutally lacking.

"This is not the battle I want," Shang suddenly transmitted to his opponent.

The white wolf in front of Shang stopped attacking, waiting for an elaboration.

"Right now, we are evenly matched," Shang said. "However, you are not the opponent that will help me comprehend the thing I want to comprehend."

The wolf's stance changed to a casual one. "You are conceding?"

"If that is the only way to get a different opponent, yes," Shang answered. "I don't care about who is more powerful between us. I care about becoming stronger, and you are not the beast that can help me achieve this at this moment."

The wolf nodded.

It was in the middle of the rankings of Peak Beast Lords on the island, and it was only interested in keeping its ranking.

Having Shang concede was enough for it.

Killing other beasts was rare on these levels since almost all fights were between beasts that were evenly matched.

As long as one beast admitted that it was weaker than another one, there was no reason to kill it.

Peak Beast Lords couldn't become Beast Kings due to the Mana. Because of that, consuming other beasts no longer had any use or value.

Additionally, many of these beasts had known each other for a long time.

As long as the rankings were clear and everyone acted according to their ranking, there were no problems.

In comparison to most of the time, Shang knew what he wanted to comprehend and what abilities he would unlock.

And he also knew that this opponent wouldn't be very helpful.

The wolf left, and a white tiger entered.

After some seconds of fighting, Shang also conceded to this opponent for the same reason.

Finally, after five more opponents, Shang actually got one that would help him.

It was a Lightning Serpent, and it was essentially a superior version of the first lightning bird Shang had fought.

While its speed was a bit slower, its attacks were truly devastating, and it actually had a couple of ways to block Shang's weak ranged attacks.

Shang was under immense pressure immediately, and every attack he launched was blocked by the distant Serpent.

As of this moment, Shang couldn't possibly win since he couldn't even injure his enemy.

But that was exactly what he wanted.

Shang kept avoiding the brutal attacks from the Serpent for a long time.

Under normal circumstances, the Serpent would have probably changed its strategy against Shang after about 30 seconds of battle, but the Thunder King had told it that the Lightning Serpent's purpose was to increase Shang's power.

This also lessened the pressure on the Serpent's back, and it also became interested in increasing its own powers by trying to hit such a fast target.

So, the two of them continued battling.

After a couple of years, Shang actually had to subtly use his Domain of Entropy to destroy parts of the Serpent's will on its attacks since the Serpent was getting better at hitting him.

And that was where things remained for around 50 years.

The Serpent seemingly stopped improving, and Shang also seemingly stopped improving.

Yet, several things had changed during that time.

Shang's Death Sword was no longer just around his sword anymore.

By now, the black blade of Shang's Death Sword was warping and moving like a black fog.

It was almost like it was moving like normal Sword Mana again.

The Death Sword Mana kept extending from Shang's sword, blocking a couple of tiny bolts of lightning.

It was like Shang's sword had become a form of liquid that could float like gas.

And then, Shang finally managed to get Sword Transformation to work.

The next moment, all the Death Sword Mana around Shang's sword expanded forward and left his sword.

The area in front of Shang turned black, almost like he was using his Corridor of Darkness.

The black beam reached the Lightning Serpent, which quickly used a concentrated blast of Mana to divert it like it had done countless times to Shang's attacks.

But this time, the beam couldn't be pushed away or redirected. Instead, the black beam just became smaller.

The next moment, the beam hit the Serpent's body and cleanly cut through it!

It was almost like the gassy liquid was as sharp as a sword!

"I concede," the Serpent transmitted a moment later.

Beasts of this level could easily survive such an injury, but getting hit by this attack showed the Serpent that it could no longer win against Shang anymore.

Shang just nodded, and the two of them walked out of the Isolation Barrier.

Shang had finally comprehended Sword Transformation.

Sword Transformation was, as the name suggested, a way to transform the sword.

In this case, the word sword referred to the physical weapon in addition to the Weapon Mana.

While Shang's physical sword didn't change, the Sword Mana could now leave Shang's sword without dissipating.

This essentially created a ranged attack.

The reason why Shang hadn't been able to win against the Serpent was that his ranged attacks had been too weak, but with a way to hit the enemy with Death Sword Mana from a distance, Shang had gained enough offensive power to injure the Serpent.

At this moment, one had to remember that the other Paths used to be on the same level as Mages.

Someone that could only use Sword Mana obviously couldn't compare to a Mage Lord with a twofold Spirit Sense, making it seem like warriors were fundamentally weaker than Mages.

Yet, with Sword Mana, Sword Infusion, and Sword Transformation, couldn't the warrior launch a ranged attack with devastating power against a Mage while only using a bit of Mana?

Suddenly, the two combatants seemed equal again.

Just like how Mages had many ways to deal with warriors, warriors used to have many ways to deal with Mages.

There were a couple more non-essential Destinations for Warrior Lords that Shang could learn to increase his power even more, but he was out of time.

He only had about 450 years of longevity left.