Sword God in a World of Magic
chapter-444

Shang could see so incredibly far.

He could see hundreds of True Path Stage beasts and even some beasts in the fifth Realm. It had been an unknown if such powerful beasts were in the Caves, but now, he knew.

Shang could feel three, and he could also see the bottom of the Caves.

Shang was already around 20 kilometers deep in the cave, and the actual end of the Caves was another 15 kilometers down.

At the lowest part, Shang could see a gigantic open space several kilometers wide and high.

Right now, the space was occupied by the most terrifying beast in the Caves.

However, as soon as Shang looked at the beasts, he felt like they were looking back.

When Shang felt that, he immediately looked away.

For about a second more, Shang felt the Spirit Senses of these terrifying beasts, but they retreated after that.

They didn't inspect Shang closely enough, which was why they hadn't realized that he essentially felt like an Abomination.

They only gave him a cursory glance, and when they felt that a measly True Path Stage being had looked at them, they lost all interest.

To them, it was like an ant would randomly face their direction while walking around outside.

It was irrelevant and unimportant.

Shang took a deep breath when he felt their Spirit Senses retreat.

He felt like he had just dodged a bullet.

'I've become powerful, but I need to remember that there are many more powerful beings in this world. I can't just randomly look at everyone.'

'Luckily, I'm so much weaker than them that they didn't even deign to take a closer look at me.'

After Shang had seen these beasts, he came to a realization.

Yes, the most powerful beings in the five Kingdoms were the Zone Beasts, followed by the Kings.

However, that wasn't entirely correct.

While the Zone Beasts and Kings gathered all the attention to them, one could easily overlook the terror that was the beasts in the Fifth Realm.

There were around three of these beasts in each Zone, and every single one of them represented the power of a King.

This meant that the Skythunder Kingdom had over 100 beings with the power of a King inside of it, while there was only a single human with that power.

The difference was absolutely astonishing and massive.

After looking away from the beasts, Shang turned his perception to the Caves above and around him.

He could see four True Path Stage warriors fighting against Initial and Early True Path Stage beasts right now.

'Four at once?' Shang thought. 'That's quite a lot. However, it does make sense. Jerald said that there are now very many True Path Stage warriors in the Storm Eagle Zone.'

Shang looked at the warriors, and what he felt made him happy.

They felt so incredibly weak.

Even the Early True Path Stage warriors felt so very weak to him.

'My training didn't betray me.'

'I spent over 50 years in here while everyone else in the world advanced several levels.'

'Yet, after all this time, I finally took my step forward, and my step is far bigger than anyone else's several steps.'

'True to the proverb, sharpening the axe doesn't take time away from cutting wood.'

At this moment, Shang felt very powerful, and he was happy.

He had taken the biggest step in his journey to power, and making progress felt magical.

This was why Shang loved training.

He loved seeing the results.

This was why he had decided to forsake everything else in his life.

And, for the first time, he thoroughly felt that it had been the right choice.

After looking at everything for a while, Shang decided to get to the next point on the agenda.

He searched through his memories and found that something new had appeared.

In Shang's memory, he stood in front of the God inside his hall.

"For my fourth question," the blonde Shang with two eyes said.

"At this point in my journey, I must have already reached the Fourth Realm, which means that I would want to reach the Fifth Realm."

"So, how can I reach the Fifth Realm?"

The God in Shang's memory only smirked.

"You think I'll make it this simple?" he asked.

The blonde Shang looked worried.

"I don't want old stuff. I want new stuff," the God said. "I don't want everything to go back to how it once was. I want to see new Paths. I want to see what the humans can come up with in a completely changed environment from back then."

"Was this your plan from now on, asking me how to progress to the next Stage?" the God asked with his typical smirk.

The blonde Shang only looked at him with an uncertain expression.

Yes, that had been his plan.

"Then, go and change your plan because I'm not going to answer these kinds of questions," the God said as he leaned back on his throne.

The blonde Shang furrowed his brows and scratched his chin in thought.

Several seconds passed.

"Okay, then, what about an optimal way to find my way forward in the future? You know, not something specific but just a general guideline, something that helps me in spurring on my own creativity," the blonde Shang said.

The God looked at the side and evaluated the question.

"Sure, I can answer that, but this answer will be applicable to all Realms. I don't want to hear that question another five times or so."

The blonde Shang nodded.

At that moment in Shang's memories, a second God appeared, and it looked like he had stepped past the scene as he was addressing him directly.

"Editor's Note: Answer has been changed due to your unplanned Affinity," he said.

Then, everything returned to normal, and the God gave his answer.

"The most important thing is creativity and the willpower to transform that creativity from mere ideas into something applicable in reality."

"Look at all the different powers you have and try to combine them with each other in all kinds of manners. Even if you think that something shouldn't work, you might find yourself surprised when it actually works."

"Trial and error is the best way to find new possibilities, and as these new possibilities become more and more numerous, you will gain more knowledge and experience. Eventually, you can combine some of them into something that you couldn't have thought of earlier."

"As for a specific guide to reaching the next Realm without any sort of person guiding you towards it, you should always try to find a way to elevate yourself."

"For example, True Mages needed to comprehend a Concept to advance to the High Mage Realm. However, in comparison to the True Path Stage that your predecessor created, it isn't unchangeable."

"After becoming a High Mage, the person in question can comprehend more Concepts from different Elements. To reach the Archmage Realm, they need to comprehend one Concept, which is on a higher level than the other Concepts they know."

"However, if they truly want to stand out, they can comprehend several other Concepts before making the breakthrough and incorporate them in their Main Concept."

"For example, the Duke in the place where you will be sent soon has the Concept of Wind Movement as his main Concept, but he also knows the Concept of Water Drop and the Concept of Lightning Spark."

"If he gets serious, he can create Wind Spells that include the strengths of these Concepts from different Affinities, essentially making him far more powerful than average High Mages."

"You can see this as two different kinds of elevation, and you could theoretically create a method to advance with both of them. Right now, the Mages all use the higher-level Concepts as their basis for becoming an Archmage, but with a bit of creativity, effort, and research, they could also find a way to become an Archmage by combining several lower-level Concepts. However, nobody has currently found that open Path yet. The current Path just works too well."

"If you want to find a way to the next level, you have to find something similar. You have to find something that elevates what you have created."

"I can think of over 20 different ways a True Path Stage warrior could advance to the next level, and all the different Fifth Realms would be unique and different from each other."

"Experiment, try things out, work on yourself, work on your weapon, work on the surroundings, and try to find that spark of inspiration that makes several or all of these things click together in one cohesive picture."

"Just creating another Path or making the Path longer isn't enough."

"It needs to transform into something new."

"That's the answer to your question."