969 Chapter 969 — Not Worthy
Now, it was official.
Shang wasn't allowed to reach the Sword King Realm legally.
First, he hadn't been allowed to use his weapon, weapon techniques, and even his inherent technique for one of his Realms.
Then, he had to fight the combined political power of all the Emperors.
And when he still won, they still found a reason to disqualify him.
If Kali weren't secretly on Shang's side, the Emperors would have probably even banded together to kill him.
Yet, Shang was still a bit uncertain about Kali.
Instead of arguing for Shang, she had effectively gone against him near the end.
Wasn't she supposed to allow him to become a Sword King?
None of the sides were happy with the outcome.
The Emperors wanted Shang dead, and Shang wanted to be a Sword King.
But in a certain way, Kali also hadn't ruined her chances with either of the sides.
The Emperors might be a bit confused about the manner Kali had solved the issue, but in the end, she had still forbidden Shang from becoming a Sword King.
"Fine," Gregorio said with an annoyed tone. "I will send one of my Thunders within the next few years to become a Mage King. Cynthia will advance when she
is ready."
The Emperors narrowed their eyes at Gregorio.
Two Mage Kings for the Lightning Manor.
That was troublesome.
However, ironically, it wasn't as bad as it would have been many years ago.
The Empires had already stopped putting pressure on the Lightning Manor, which made the addition of two Mage Kings not that troublesome.
Instead, they all focused on Shang.
Based on their calculations, Shang only had something like 2,000 — 3,000 years of longevity left.
This meant that they had to be extra vigilant within these years.
If Shang was going to become a Sword King, it would happen within these years, and they needed to immediately kill him as soon as they found out.
Shang, as an Initial Sword King, would still lose to the average Mage King, but Shang, as a Peak Sword King, could only lose to someone like Abaddon.
These couple of years were crucial!
"The tournament has officially concluded," Kali announced. "The prizes for the winner have already been gathered and will be handed over to them when they advance."
For every Grand Tournament, the Emperors readied several prizes, which would then be handed to the winner.
Slowly, all the gathered Emperors dispersed.
None of them said anything to Gregorio.
"Let's go," the Lightning Emperor said to Cynthia and Shang.
A moment later, a portal appeared.
"Cynthia, this is for you," he said. "When you are ready to advance, tell me."
Cynthia bowed deeply in front of the Lightning Emperor. "Thank you for everything! I'm proud to be a member of the Lightning Manor."
Gregorio just nodded with a smile.
Then, Cynthia turned to Shang. "And... thank you."
Shang didn't answer.
After a couple of seconds, Cynthia furrowed her brows and just left through the portal.
The next moment, Gregorio looked at Shang and nodded solemnly.
The two of them vanished and reappeared in Gregorio's library.
"What did she say?" Shang suddenly asked.
"Cynthia?" Gregorio asked in surprise.
"The Empress of Death," Shang answered. "You seem quite calm. I assume she said something to you."
Gregorio furrowed his brows. "Yes, it was a message from Abaddon."
"He said that being the Child of Calamity is wasted on you."
Shang didn't react and just waited for Gregorio to elaborate.
"He said, since you are so similar to Abominations, there should be so many more things you should be able to do, but you are blind to your own power. He said that he had already found two ways to become a Mage Emperor without having to kill any beast or human after just looking at you for a couple of seconds."
"His last comment was, if you can't even solve such an easy issue, you don't deserve to work with him."
Silence.
Shang thought about Abaddon's comments.
Was it truly so easy?
If this comment had come from anyone else, Shang would have simply dismissed it.
However, it had come from Abaddon, the most talented Mage that had ever lived and someone that managed to elevate the Mage Path to something that was similar to Godhood.
It was possible that Abaddon's talent was even greater than Shang's.
Shang was simply far more hardworking.
"Do you know what he means?" Gregorio asked.
"At least somewhat," Shang said with a nod. "I know of two ways, but Abaddon should only know of one of them, which means there has to be a third way as well."
"Two ways?" Gregorio asked. "One is the Spacetime beast. What's the other one?"
"Back then," Shang explained, "you told me that the world has 16 Emperors' worth of Mana and that the water in the Endless Ocean makes up one Emperor's worth of Mana."
"Yes, but that Mana is inaccessible," Gregorio answered.
At that moment, Shang activated his Domain of Entropy.
The next moment, the desk in front of the Lightning Emperor disintegrated and turned into Natural Mana.
That was when Gregorio realized what Shang meant.
"Right! You can convert matter into Natural Mana!" he shouted with excitement.
Shang nodded. "If necessary, I can just turn a portion of the Endless Ocean into Mana."
Gregorio's mind was going wild with possibilities, but he quickly found a problem.
"A Peak Mage Emperor has about a thousand times more Mana than a Peak Mage King. You would only need to absorb 0.1% of the ocean's water since the Eternal Ocean has one Peak Mage Emperor's worth of Mana."
"However, the Eternal Ocean is incredibly deep. There are even some isolated spots Where the depth reaches over a million kilometers. If we were to average it out, I think the average depth of the Eternal Ocean is something between 400,000 to 600,000 kilometers."
"0.1% of that would still be 400 to 600 kilometers."
"1 don't think anyone could possibly miss that. The water would essentially completely vanish from the coasts."
"The others will immediately assume that the Abominations have started to appear in the Eternal Ocean, and they will immediately search the entire thing, which will unveil you. At that point, they would find you, and they would also connect you to the Child of Calamity."
Gregorio could only sigh.
"What about just becoming an Initial Sword King?" Shang asked.
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