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.

race went on for a thousand kilometers, and even if the bullet could

Shang's old framework, while

wasn't weaker or

It was just different.

would

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

would need to fight with his

a while of admiring his new Mana pathway framework, Shang

need to comprehend the very thing I

performed a

used his new Mana pathways, he felt

were no

had specifically been created to perform these

was born

had never

It was almost magical.

sword was part of

had expected to be out of practice after not fighting for so long, but he

hard for Shang not to perform his attacks

his attacks perfectly before,

to swing his sword in the most comfortable way, and that way was

like two pieces of a jigsaw

a square going in a

was like a bottle cap going onto

It just fit perfectly.

Shang's body

in a long while, the

his True Path many years ago, and now he was feeling the

It was just perfect.

as his sword

now weaker, his already heavy Great Sword should actually be

However, it simply wasn't.

it was very easy

body actually wasn't as slow as

was it even

that shouldn't be possible,

body was supposed to be

his

sword in a trance of wonder, the world

began to feel a certain aura

It felt like… himself?

Yeah, it did.

swung his sword again, he felt his surroundings move with