972 Chapter 972 — I Will Kill You
Shang continued looking at himself and analyzing.
A hundred years passed.
Making progress had become very difficult by now.
Shang felt like he had already reached the threshold of the very thing he wanted to comprehend.
The level six Concept of Entropy.
Another century passed.
Shang barely made any progress.
Another century passed.
The progress became even slower.
400 years passed.
And now, progress had completely halted.
Shang felt like he completely understood his mind, soul, and body.
He felt like he could reshape it in a certain way.
However, that feeling also felt surreal.
It was like something was missing. Something crucial.
Surprisingly, that feeling felt real for Shang's body.
If he wanted to create some legs, he could, but they wouldn't be very useful.
It wouldn't be much different from the fake arm the Lightning Emperor had given Shang in the past.
While adding to the body wasn't difficult, adding to the soul was tremendously difficult, and since the soul dictated the body, as long as the new legs weren't present in the soul, they were not any better than prosthetics.
The issue was Shang's soul, as always.
Nevertheless, the feeling for his body was true, which showed that Shang had reached his goal for his body, at least.
He was only missing his soul.
And he knew that he was only missing the tiny last bit.
So, Shang continued looking at his soul.
A century passed.
No progress.
Another century passed.
No progress.
Shang's last century had arrived.
He was now 24,900 years old.
In one century, he would enter the state of purgatory again, and Shang knew better than anyone else how debilitating and terrifying the state of purgatory was.
And yet, Shang kept looking at his mind. 90 years later, he was still watching.
He only had ten years left.
Another 9 years passed.
He only had a single year left.
No progress.
No matter how much Shang tried, it was impossible to find a way to change his soul any further.
His soul was his soul, and no matter what he tried, he couldn't add to it.
Eventually, the last year passed as well.
It was time.
Shang's longevity had run out.
And yet, there was something different about him.
Back in the Fusion Realm, when Shang had entered the state of purgatory, he had already looked like a sick and decrepit old man.
But right now, Shang still looked young. Additionally, Shang also didn't feel any weakness due to age.
And then, the state of purgatory actually arrived.
Shang's perception felt uncontrollable Death Mana being produced inside of his body.
Even with the Concept of Exodus, Shang couldn't control this Death Mana at all.
On top of that, the Death Mana appeared out of nowhere.
It was like it just randomly appeared inside his body without rhyme or reason.
The Death Mana slowly attacked Shang's body, turning the Mana inside his body into nothingness.
This resulted in Shang's body becoming unstable.
Shang had to disperse a bit of Entropy from his body, or it would accumulate until it would turn into Destruction and kill him.
This was death.
It was unavoidable.
The uncontrollable Death Mana simply consumed the body until there was nothing left.
Additionally, the Death Mana also appeared inside Shang's soul.
Just like with his body, the Death Mana started to slowly consume Shang's soul, which resulted in parts of Shang's body dying off.
At that moment, Shang began to age.
While his being had shown some resistance to death, even his unique body was helpless when it actually arrived.
However, for some reason, Shang was still calm.
He felt like this wasn't a big deal.
But he didn't actually know why.
He was dying, right?
So, why wasn't he caring that he was dying?
Shang wasn't certain.
Was this because of his messed up instincts for danger again?
It didn't seem like it.
Nevertheless, Shang was dying, and he knew that he was dying.
There was actually nothing he could do about it.
There was no solution to the problem.
And yet, he wasn't afraid.
In fact, he didn't even feel like he was dying.
'Do I not care for my life anymore? Is it because my mindset has become similar to the Abominations?'
'Do Abominations actually care for their life?'
'Do Abominations actually die from old age?'
'I'm honestly not sure. The way the Death Mana is just appearing inside my body and soul seems deliberate.'
'I am not dying because my body is failing but because I am essentially getting poisoned by uncontrollable Death Mana.'
'This is not naturally dying.'
'This is killing.'
'It is an attack, and after thinking about it for a bit, I'm also quite sure that I know who created this attack.'
'The God.'
'He probably doesn't want to see people live forever when they can still become more powerful, which is why he created the maximum limit of longevity.'
'Starting at the True Path Stage, the soul, and body are actually already fully self-sustaining. If nothing interferes with the process, it shouldn't stop.'
'In a way, True Path Stage warriors and High Mages are already immortal.'
'Death due to old age is just the God not wanting someone to survive.'
'And you want to kill me now as well, huh?'
'You pulled an unimportant soul from Earth, gave me my name, gave me my body, and put me in Aterium for your amusement.'
'From the very beginning, I was nothing but your toy.'
Shang's right hand clenched, blood flowing out of his aged skin.
'And now, you want to kill me.'
'You are probably reading my mind right now with a smirk.'
'Maybe you just want to see me die after trying so hard for so long.'
'Or maybe, you already have something planned.'
Shang's head pointed up at the sky.
'But you know what will happen.'
'You know that I already have a resolution.' I just didn't want to do it.'
'But maybe I was always destined to walk this path.'
'Back in the first trial, when I realized what my Affinity was, I knew that I represented the antithesis of existence.'
'I never wanted to accept my destiny.'
'When I fought Mervin, I wept for the future I have chosen.'
'And yet, I didn't know the true path my future would take.'
'You win.'
'I am no longer running from my destiny.'
'I will become what you wanted me to become.'
'And then...'
Suddenly, the bloodied white cloth surrounding Shang's body started to fall.
The body beneath the cloth had vanished.
'I will kill you.'
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