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.

of marble shot

hallway with a stairway that went upward, and he had

the emblem again

Diagonally down.

turned around, punched through the door, through

through some marble again, but he noticed that the angle was different, which

that this

just about to kick diagonally

He realized something.

at the arrow again and oriented himself

adhere to the planned layout

the more the

didn't mean that his target was moving but that he was getting closer

prepared himself for a

Yet, nothing was happening.

when

a bit, Shang realized that his target was essentially

could already move behind the

his arms forward and dug more

he saw

small cube of bloody meat surrounding a Space

wasn't particularly surprised about

couldn't permanently resist the pressure at the bottom

even deeper than

even more brutal than

the Cloud had probably been taken

Shield had been

Mana had already

of earth had killed her and compressed

strong was the body

Not very strong.

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

Shang,

body was already under quite

imagine how a Mage's body

of the cube of meat

'Pretty good,' he thought.

guessed that the contents were worth quite a couple of Grade Seven Mana Crystals. Way

meat to the side

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

Shang noticed that he wasn't destroying marble anymore and turned

of minutes, Shang kept searching through the highest layer

followed that hallway for a bit and noticed that it led to an inconspicuous spot

This was the exit.

exit, Shang turned around again and followed

he found a door, and after opening it, he began