Sword God in a World of Magic

Shang noticed that the barrier before him started to distort under the pressure.

Shang pulled his hand back and healed himself to his peak.

He had filled the barrier with an unreal amount of Death Mana, and it wouldn't stop absorbing Mana anytime soon.

Shang watched the barrier distort more and more until…

BANG!

The barrier shattered.

WHOOOOOOM!

As the entire barrier around the trial vanished, all the wet ground surrounding it suddenly imploded, filling the spots that had been filled with normal air until now.

In the short moment when the barrier had been destroyed but the earth hadn't yet filled in the empty space, Shang had been able to feel his surroundings with his Spirit Sense.

The image Shang had seen was of a rather large room with several pitfalls, several Magic Circles, and several platforms.

Shang assumed that this had probably been some kind of trial where people had to find out how the Magic Circles worked to divine the correct way across the platforms and pitfalls.

But now…

As soon as the barrier broke, all the earth rushed into the room, destroying the platforms, filling the pitfalls, and disrupting almost all the Magic Circles.

Shang remained standing on his spot for a couple of seconds until all the ground around him had calmed down.

Then, Shang took out the emblem and looked at the arrow.

Diagonally down.

Shang hadn't seen his target in the brief moment before the earth had filled in the gaps, which meant that his target was inside a different challenge within the trial.

Shang remembered where one of the doors had been and dug towards that spot by punching more dirt.

None of the pitfalls, platforms, and Magic Circles worked anymore.

Some seconds later, Shang reached the doorway, and one punch later, the door opened slightly.

WHOOOM!

The door immediately exploded outward, and the earth around Shang rushed into the opened doorway.

Shang simply continued punching forward.

BANG!

After one particular punch, Shang noticed that he had destroyed something that wasn't the normal kind of ground.

couple of pieces of

entered a hallway with a stairway that went upward, and he had just now punched through

again

Diagonally down.

turned around, punched through the door, through the room, and then through

noticed that the angle was

this

kick diagonally

He realized something.

again

need to adhere to the planned

advanced, the

mean that his target was moving but that he was getting closer

a battle

Yet, nothing was happening.

started to move rapidly when Shang was just moving

bit, Shang realized that his

already move behind

his arms forward and dug more

he

of bloody meat

particularly surprised

Ancestral Mages couldn't permanently resist the pressure at the bottom of the

spot was even

pressure underground was even more brutal than the

Cloud had probably been taken by surprise while undertaking the

her Mana Shield had been

had already

brutal pressure of the sudden explosion of earth had killed her and

the body of an Early Ancestral

Not very strong.

body was probably about as strong as Shang's body had been at the Mid

to Shang, it was

current body was already under quite

could imagine how a Mage's

Ring out of the cube of

'Pretty good,' he thought.

were worth quite a couple of Grade Seven Mana Crystals. Way better than

cube of meat to the side again and

kept a mental map of the layout of the trial and kept checking

a while, Shang noticed that he

kept searching through the highest layer of the trial until he found one

a bit and noticed that it led to an inconspicuous spot at

This was the exit.

Shang turned around again and followed

door, and after opening it, he began to