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.

pieces of marble

stairway that went upward, and

the emblem again and looked at

Diagonally down.

through the room, and then through the other

but he noticed that the angle was different, which

this stairway led

was just about to kick

He realized something.

the arrow again

didn't need to adhere to the planned layout if he was already

punched forward, and the more he advanced, the

that his target was moving but

for a battle as

Yet, nothing was happening.

to move rapidly when Shang was just moving the

his target was essentially directly in front

already move behind

his arms forward and dug more

then, he

cube of bloody meat surrounding a

wasn't particularly surprised

pressure at the bottom of

even deeper than

even more brutal than the pressure in

that, the Cloud had probably been taken

Mana Shield had been

had already

had killed her and compressed her into this tiny cube

body

Not very strong.

strong as Shang's body had been at the Mid True Path

comparison to Shang, it was

was already under quite a

imagine how a Mage's body

Ring out of the cube of meat and

'Pretty good,' he thought.

worth quite a couple of Grade Seven Mana Crystals.

of meat to the side again

mental map of the layout of the trial

while, Shang noticed that he wasn't destroying marble

highest layer of the trial until he found one single hallway that led

led to an inconspicuous spot at the bottom of

This was the exit.

Shang turned around again and followed

he found a door, and after opening it,