951 Chapter 951 — Waking Up
Shang's perception had already recovered, but his mind and soul hadn't.
Once more, Shang's soul had received some damage.
Luckily, the kind of damage Shang received was different from when his soul was sacrificed to Entropy.
While Entropy completely eradicated Shang's soul, the injuries that the Death Mana had caused Shang's soul could be recovered.
As a metaphor, one could say that Shang had a broken femur while Entropy would have removed the femur.
Nevertheless, Shang was still in a lot of pain.
But he didn't care anymore.
After feeling so much pain inside the dark world, Shang no longer cared about it.
"Why is there Entropy in my mind?" Shang asked as his body began to hover.
The Lightning Emperor sighed as he realized that his short moment of relaxation had passed.
"Do you have any idea in how much danger you were?" he asked.
"I know," Shang said. "I fought the Death Mana and comprehended the Concept of Exodus. Without that, I might have died."
This surprised the Lightning Emperor quite a bit, and he had to blink a couple of times. "You were fighting the Death Mana?"
Shang just nodded.
"So, you weren't actually unconscious?"
"That's not entirely correct," Shang said. "I lost most of my memories and was stuck inside my own mind. I was fighting the Death Mana in there, but I managed to adapt and consume the Death Mana."
The Lightning Emperor hummed for a bit as he stroked his beard. "I noticed that your condition had somewhat stabilized. That explains it."
"Once again, why is there Entropy in my mind?" Shang repeated.
The fact that Entropy was in Shang's mind was troublesome.
Minds could only be created with Mana. Entropy couldn't possibly sustain a mind.
Even the Abominations had Mana inside them, and that Mana mainly went to their minds.
From what Shang and the Lightning Emperor had learned about Entropy, they had become certain that Entropy couldn't possibly act as a replacement for Mana in a mind or soul.
Obviously, both of them had thought about the possibility of Entropy being able to heal Shang's soul.
But it was pointless.
While they could shape Mana into any form they wanted, they couldn't shape Entropy.
Well, to be more precise, they could reshape Entropy, but they had no way to keep Entropy in that shape.
One needed a lot of focus, Mana, and knowledge to force Entropy to stay in a certain shape, and with the mind replaced with Entropy, one couldn't use any focus without effectively falling apart.
One couldn't use water to contain water.
Because of that, the presence of Entropy in Shang's mind was troublesome.
"I had to do something," the Lightning Emperor said.
"Why?" Shang immediately asked. "You said my condition had stabilized."
The Lightning Emperor nodded. "It did, but there was a different danger."
"Time."
"You've been unconscious for way too long."
Shang's mind focused on the Lightning Emperor. "How long?"
"Over 6,000 years."
Silence.
Over 6,000 years...
This meant that Shang was now nearly 19,000 years old.
Shang felt like he had become a Sword Lord only recently, but now, he only had a bit more than 6,000 years of longevity left.
And he still needed to comprehend two very difficult things.
6,000 years was very likely not enough.
"I had to wake you up somehow," the Lightning Emperor said with a sigh. "Your condition had stabilized over 800 years ago, and it was improving only very slowly. If things continued this way, you would have only woken up in another 3,000 years. I thought you would rather I wake you up this way."
Shang just nodded. "You thought correctly."
Shang was already inspecting his mind and the Entropy inside it.
The Entropy was clouding Shang's mind, making it difficult to think clearly, but Shang had already grown used to it.
The amount of pain, disorientation, paranoia, anxiety, rage, and hatred that constantly bathed his being had already made him used to thinking with a clouded mind.
Too many things had happened to Shang's body and mind over the years, and any person in his place would have already died.
Switching places with someone else for just a second would doom them.
But this was normal to Shang.
Adding an additional layer of hazy Entropy barely made a difference.
Shang noticed that part of his soul was also bathed in Entropy, but it wasn't a lot.
Yet, there was something that surprised and interested him.
His soul hadn't lost any Mana, and yet, there was still Entropy.
Whenever Shang tried to push Mana into his soul, it simply either got absorbed by it or got rejected by it.
Pushing Mana into a soul was how Mages increased their Realm. The more Mana someone had in their mind, the stronger their Realm.
However, instead of increasing the volume of a soul, the Mana only increased the density. Because of that, Shang couldn't just add Mana to regrow his limbs. It elevated his state, but it didn't add anything.
And yet, the Entropy was inside his soul Without getting absorbed or rejected.
It was simply there.
Of course, due to the properties of Entropy, if Shang were a normal human, his mind would have already exploded by the resulting creation of Destruction.
But since Shang was the Child of Calamity, small parts of his mind and being were made of Entropy. Shang's soul was still made of Mana, but the tiny bit of Entropy essentially transformed Shang's soul into something that could interact with Entropy without exploding.
At the same time, Shang looked at the different breaks and cracks that went through his soul.
Shang would need some expensive materials or someone that knew the Life Concepts to recover from these injuries, but that shouldn't be an issue.
He had the backing of the Lightning Emperor.
If an Emperor couldn't get these resources, who could?
After recovering from these injuries, Shang's mind would also become clearer again, and he could dispel the Entropy from his mind, clearing that as well.
But then, Shang had an idea.
'My mind is already cloudy and unfocused. This will make nearly no difference.'
'I can roughly tell how to fix the damage, which gives me a unique opportunity to witness the workings of my soul.'
'Since my mind is already working in this injured state, I can't accidentally kill myself if I were to add some things. As long as I don't remove or change already established things, my mind will continue to function.'
Shang looked at the Entropy in his mind. 'If I can find a way to repair my mind with Entropy, I might comprehend the final Concept of Entropy.'
'And with luck...'
'I might even be able to repair my soul.'
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