Sword God in a World of Magic

Shang dealt with all the different Attack Flags that had been used by Peak Ancestral Mages and then returned to extending the tendril.

Naturally, no one dared to attack Shang while he attacked territories.

However, there were still ways to counter things.

For example, after Shang conquered a line of three territories, an Attack Flag from a Mid Ancestral Mage appeared on a territory behind him.

Shang couldn't defend that territory since he was too powerful.

Because of that, just having Shang wasn't enough to secure all the territories.

Shang continued attacking territory after territory, conquering one territory per hour.

He did that for weeks.

However, the progress the Lightning Manor made was only minor since the Judgment Palace kept counterattacking.

Luckily, attacking was always disadvantageous since the enemy had enough time to look at whoever was attacking and send the appropriate person to defend.

It was a bit like making your move first in rock paper scissors, but the advantage wasn't as extreme as in this case since there were still aspects of deception and power that played a role.

Nevertheless, the Lightning Manor was making progress, and since no Peak Ancestral Mages attacked the Lightning Manor in this Zone anymore, the Lightning Manor's Peak Ancestral Mages could move to other Zones.

This increased the quality of the Peak Ancestral Mages in other Zones, resulting in fewer Ancestral Mages dying.

At one point, a portal suddenly opened in front of Shang, and he charged through it without hesitation.

In an instant, he appeared over three million kilometers to the north and charged into one of the Defender Flags of the Twilight Dusk Family.

Everything had happened so suddenly that they couldn't even react.

Naturally, the Twilight Dusk Family became quite angry with the Judgment Palace, but the Judgment Palace told them that they were having issues with the menace.

They couldn't warn every other Empire every time a portal appeared in front of the menace. The warnings wouldn't be fast enough to make a difference anyway.

The Judgment Palace told the other two Empires that they should have been ready for such a stunt. It was obvious that the menace could appear anywhere on any frontline.

The other two Empires were still annoyed by the Judgment Palace, but they didn't want to argue anymore and simply became more careful.

However, after this incident, things had changed.

Since the surprise effect had now passed, there was no more reason to keep Shang in only one Zone.

Shang shot through one portal after the other, attacking any Peak Ancestral Mage that attacked the Lightning Manor.

After some devastating losses, the other two Empires had to make the tough decision to stop using Peak Ancestral Mages.

None of the three Empires could use Peak Ancestral Mages anymore.

One had to remember that around half of all Ancestral Mages were at the peak of their Realm since that was the level they stayed the longest.

The Peak Ancestral Mage Realm was when all the Mages focused on comprehending the Concepts they needed to become Mage Lords.

This meant that all three Empires were locked from using half of their Ancestral Mages unless the Lightning Manor attacked with their own Peak Ancestral Mages.

This reduced the number of deaths on the frontlines quite a bit since there were now far fewer battles.

The Empires didn't want to send so many of their weaker Ancestral Mages forward, and the Lightning Manor wasn't interested in sending their own Peak Ancestral Mages since that would essentially nullify the entire advantage.

So, the Peak Ancestral Mages mostly retreated from the frontlines and went back to training.

However, this was a good thing for the Lightning Manor.

As long as the Lightning Manor wasn't under too much pressure, it wouldn't lose many Mages, allowing them to refill their ranks.

Additionally, the goal of the Lightning Manor was to waste as much time as possible so that Shang had the time to become even more powerful.

By now, everyone in the world knew that the Lightning Manor probably had some kind of extremely talented genius that would fight King Sanctified Death in about 48,000 years.

And yet, no one connected Shang to that hidden genius.

Yes, Shang was extremely powerful, but there was still a huge gap between him and someone like King Sanctified Death.

Additionally, Shang was just a warrior.

Lastly, it would be stupid for the Lightning Manor to unveil their hidden genius since that would open them up for assassination.

After all, there was a precedence case with a Mage King attacking Shang.

Naturally, that Mage King had failed, but that was because the attacking Mage King hadn't been too powerful.

If a Mage King that knew Domain attacked, Shang would be dead right now, but that would be too much of a waste. After all, there were only very few Mage Kings that knew Domain, and they also probably weren't willing to sacrifice their life like this.

Eventually, years started to pass without any Peak Ancestral Mage fighting.

Shang kept conquering territories, but the Judgment Palace kept resisting.

Nevertheless, the Judgment Palace had been pushed back to barely owning 10% of the Zone.

That was when the Judgment Palace's defenses became desperate, and the Lightning Manor essentially stopped making progress unless they were willing to also sacrifice a lot of their Ancestral Mages.

The Judgment Palace wasn't willing to lose its entrance to the Lightning Manor. They were fine with losing the other territories since they could just reconquer them, but they couldn't possibly lose their entrance point.

If they did, the Lightning Manor could defend from the Judgment Palace with three measly Defender Flags.

Naturally, with less territory, the Judgment Palace also didn't need to defend as much, making it easier for them.

Eventually, the Lightning Manor decided that it wasn't worth it to continue advancing with that much opposition.

Shang retreated from the frontlines, but still, none of the Empires sent any Peak Ancestral Mages.

One portal, and they would lose a Peak Ancestral Mage. They knew that very well.

With that, a rather calm period of the war started.

At least for the Ancestral Mages.

The battles of the High Mages, Archmages, and Mage Lords were still as intense.

However, these three categories were not as important as Ancestral Mages.

The Zones with Mage Lords were very small, and since Mage Lords could capture a territory with a diameter of 100,000 kilometers, there were very few battles between Mage Lords.

Only the most talented Mage Lords were used in these battles, and no Empire was willing to risk their very talented Mage Lords.

As for High Mages and Archmages, the Zones also weren't as big, and the two categories couldn't conquer as much with one attack.

The Zones with these kinds of Mages were just many tiny battles with not a lot of planning.

Additionally, the Lightning Manor only had to defend from two Empires when it came to the other three categories. After all, the Judgment Palace could only fight with Ancestral Mages.

This had made the Ancestral Mage battlefield the most intense and dangerous one for the Lightning Manor.

And Shang's actions had alleviated the pressure considerably.

For the next couple of years, Shang remained on standby.

There were a couple of instances of an Empire testing out if they could use Peak Ancestral Mages again, but they very quickly realized that they couldn't.

Time passed.

And about 20 years after Shang had returned to the frontline, a major development in the war happened.