Sword God in a World of Magic

The Judgment Palace never stopped.

Every second, without fail, they would send in the next Archmage to die.

Shang kept focusing on comprehending the level four Concept of Death, but even while constantly dying, it wasn’t as easy as he thought it would be.

One month after it started, around three million Archmages had already died in Shang’s territory.

The entire ground had already been transformed into a literal ocean of blood, and only a couple of mountains poked out of the ocean.

Rotting guts and pieces of human bodies could be seen floating inside the ocean.

Yet, there were no insects or scavengers present.

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Shang sat on one of those mountains, but the blood was already starting to touch his legs when there were higher waves.

This ocean wasn’t nearly as smooth as the real ocean.

No, this ocean was chunky, muddy, and disgusting.

It was like someone had filtered the majority of the water out of a sewage pipe and filled a pool with everything that remained.

Except that this was redder but also not really that red since the coagulated blood turned black.

The ocean of blood even had a thin black skin.

All in all, it was quite unpleasant.

Another month later, no piece of land could be seen anymore.

Naturally, all the living beings, except for Shang, had also died already.

Shang hadn’t moved and was completely surrounded by the blood.

He already needed to filter out the Death Mana that was trying to enter his body and mind.

Not doing anything wouldn’t immediately result in his death, but it would slowly poison him over a long time.

A couple of months later, Shang actually had to put some effort into filtering the Death Mana.

It was like he was no longer breathing automatically but manually due to the effort and focus it needed.

Shang was reminded of when he had been trying to comprehend the Concept of Purgatory.

He had felt very similar back then.

Shang just kept focusing on the level four Concept of Death as more time passed.

Eight months after the start of the Judgment Palace’s plan, Shang couldn’t train inside his inner world anymore.

Staying alive in the outside world consumed literally all of his focus.

Shang already noticed that his mind was being altered by the Death Mana.

Even though Shang was doing his very best to filter out all the Death Mana, his filter wasn’t perfect anymore.

His body and mind were consuming slight bits of Death Mana without him wanting to.

Ten months after the start, Shang was starting to lose more life energy than he was gaining.

By now, the Judgment Palace had already sacrificed over 25 million Archmages, which was insane.

The barrier had already fully been filled with blood, but the barriers the other Empires had built around Shang’s barrier kept forcing the blood into Shang’s barrier.

More Archmages entered and died.

Funnily enough, they didn’t even need to kill themselves anymore.

As soon as they entered, the Death Mana would kill them faster than they could kill themselves.

The Death Mana kept consuming more and more.

With every Archmage it consumed, it became more powerful.

Even more, the Death Mana had taken on very strange properties.

Shang had been around a lot of Death Mana back when he had trained in his own little Pit of Death, but he had never felt anything like this back then.

The Death Mana in here had… evolved?

Changed?

Shang wasn’t certain what the right word was.

The Death Mana was less apathetic and more aggressive.

In a way, Shang felt like all the dead Archmages were trying to take him with them into the afterlife.

It was like all the hate-filled and aggrieved souls that had died here were banding together to kill Shang.

All the hatred and regrets were combining to create some kind of primordial force that wanted to end all life. 

Life was not allowed to exist.

Shang could now see the difference between his little Pit of Death and a real one.

The power, quality, and level of the Death Mana here were incomparable to the one from back then.

His little Pit of Death might have been enough for Shang to comprehend the first two Concepts of Death, but it wouldn’t have been enough to teach Shang the Concept of Purgatory.

But the Death Mana that was around him right now felt very similar to the Death Mana he had experienced after his longevity had run out.

This was how it felt to die.

It was like some kind of force was trying to pull Shang from the living into the realm of the dead, which was exactly how he felt whenever he was severely injured in his inner world.

His life was ending.

He was being forcefully pulled away from the living.

Shang’s mind started to turn blurry, and it became very difficult to discern what he was actually thinking about.

And yet, the feeling was different from back when his longevity had run out.

Back then, the feeling of death came from inside.

This time, it came from the outside.

It produced the same results but with a different starting position.

This taught Shang something about death that he couldn’t have comprehended on his own.

Another two months passed.

The Judgment Palace still hadn’t stopped sending in Archmages.

It had been a full year, and they had sent in nearly 35 million Archmages.

By now, Shang could barely stay alive.

And, for once, he actually wasn’t calm anymore.

Back when his longevity had run out, surviving had been a matter of will.

But not this time.

No matter how strong someone’s will was, being blown into pieces would result in their death.

And this was the same.

Shang WOULD die.

Even more, Shang felt that he wasn’t ready to comprehend the level four Concept of Death yet.

His mind was just too weak, and his experience of comprehending Concepts was too little.

He needed to do something!

But what?

Naturally, Shang found a way, but it would be risky.