Sword God in a World of Magic

"Finally done!" Shang said out loud as he fell onto his back.

'That took sooo loooong!' he thought as his mind relaxed for the first time in a very long while.

However, Shang also just couldn't stop looking at his finished work.

An intricate but very logical network of interconnected Mana pathways was now inside his body.

In comparison to the chaotic growth of natural Mana pathways, the new ones were very straight and very orderly.

Comparing the natural Mana pathways with the new ones would be like comparing the root network of a tree with a plumbing network.

One was obviously much easier to understand and orderly than the other.

Additionally, the new Mana pathway network was designed to make easy changes in the future. Shang could simply remove one and add one without needing to amend any other Mana pathways.

Of course, the old network of Mana pathways was still inside Shang's body, and he was still using it for anything that wasn't his Great Sword State.

Sadly, needing to keep both networks active at all times had weakened Shang's reserves considerably.

Just like he had predicted, Shang now only had about 50% of his earlier power.

But that didn't mean that he was weaker from a Battle-Strength perspective.

While his entire body moved slower and hit lighter, Shang's ability to accelerate and adapt to any kind of movement was insane.

Some of Shang's movements had become so bizarre that one would even think that some fundamental laws of physics just didn't apply to him.

For example, Shang could swing with all his power to his right, but in the middle of the swing, his sword suddenly moved in the opposite direction at the same speed.

It was like inertia straight up didn't exist.

The way this worked was actually the sudden explosion of Mana.

If one imagined Shang swinging at an explosive, one wouldn't be surprised when Shang's sword suddenly shot in the opposite direction after detonating the explosive.

But if one imagined the same movement without the explosive, it would seem very unnatural.

That was because the explosive force was inside Shang's arm and invisible to the eye.

Even more, since Shang's muscles didn't need to sacrifice their own power in order to achieve the density of Mana necessary to perform a powerful attack, Shang's acceleration was also insanely fast.

While the top speed of Shang's attacks was slower than before, his attacks reached their top speed multiple times faster than before.

As an example, a space rocket was faster than a bullet. If the rocket had to accelerate from zero, it would take a couple of seconds to travel a kilometer.

A bullet wouldn't need that long.

on for a thousand kilometers, and even if the bullet could travel that far, the bullet would lose the race

Shang's old framework, while the bullet was his new

weaker

It was just different.

would only be like this for a limited

Shang reached the Fifth Realm, he would get rid of all the disadvantages of both frameworks and keep the advantages of

then, Shang would need to fight with his

framework, Shang stood up and concentrated on the final

I need to comprehend the very thing I stopped myself from

Sword and performed a couple of

pathways, he felt the swings become as

were no

body had specifically been created

was like he was born

sword had never felt

It was almost magical.

his sword was part of his

be out of practice after not fighting

be hard for Shang not to

concentrate on performing his attacks perfectly before, the attacks now launched perfectly

had to swing his sword in the most comfortable way, and

like two pieces of a

like a square going in

bottle cap

It just fit perfectly.

body were made

first time in a long while,

Path many years ago, and now he was

It was just perfect.

thought as his sword

weaker, his already heavy

However, it simply wasn't.

was

wasn't as slow as he had

it

shouldn't

supposed to be weaker, and it

how could his attack

Shang continued swinging his sword in a trance

slowly began to feel a certain

It felt like… himself?

Yeah, it did.

he felt his surroundings move