849 Chapter 849 -Price
When the Mage Kings saw that Shang had destroyed both their attacks, they frowned.
They had hoped that Shang would fall for it.
A breakthrough could be achieved pretty quickly, but one couldn't just break into the next level during a fight.
During a breakthrough, the body would be altered, which would take a couple of seconds.
Defending during a breakthrough was extremely difficult.
So, as soon as Shang had attacked, he had essentially committed to the battle and couldn't change his mind.
After all, due to the way Auras could be disguised, it was impossible for the warrior to know how powerful his opponent was.
They hadn't expected the warrior to be this careless and just charge in.
If only they had sent someone with a fourfold Spirit Sense.
Then, this warrior would most likely have died.
Naturally, the Mage Kings didn't know that this wouldn't have helped.
As soon as Shang would have noticed a fourfold Spirit Sense, he would have immediately retreated before his opponent could even ready their Spells to attack him.
Then, Shang could have simply broken through at the edge of the barrier.
Nevertheless, the two barriers had been destroyed, and the base of the tendril had been defended.
There was still another territory being attacked near the tip of the tendril, but that was not something Shang could get involved in.
After destroying the two barriers, Shang simply stopped in the air after putting his two swords away.
Far away, the Thunder responsible for the assault looked with shock at what had just happened.
Sure enough, that warrior was extremely useful and powerful.
The other two people were still shocked by Shang's power, and they also just looked at each other.
Yet, a couple of minutes later, they noticed that the Ancestral Hero didn't return, which made them feel a bit awkward.
The warrior had far more questions for the Ancestral Hero, but he couldn't just walk over to him and talk to him during a mission, right?
In the end, the warrior could only accept that he couldn't talk to the Ancestral Hero anymore without making it weird.
Several minutes passed before the Judgment Palace made another attempt to stop the tendril.
Surprisingly, they did the same thing again, creating a barrier for someone at the Late and someone at the Early Ancestral Mage Realm.
Last time, they had gambled on the wrong chip, but this time, they would gamble on the correct one!
Just like before, Shang shot into the Late Ancestral Mage barrier.
And just like last time, the person in there had a onefold Spirit Sense.
BANG! BANG!
Shang destroyed another two barriers, returning to the two people on the southern end of the tendril.
When the Mage Kings saw that, they gnashed their teeth.
How had he done that again?!
No one would have expected the Mage Kings to send two useless Mages in a row!
On top of that, how was this warrior so crazy?!
If he gambled wrong, he would lose his life!
Every normal person would err on the side of caution and breakthrough. After all, if there was actually someone with a fourfold Spirit Sense in there, the warrior would die, but if it was a weak warrior, they might only lose a tendril.
A couple of minutes later, another two barriers appeared.
Shang entered again, and it was the same as last time.
The Mage Kings gnashed their teeth.
How was he winning those 50:50 coin tosses?!
At this moment, the Mage Kings considered sending in someone with a fourfold Spirit Sense.
Yet, surprisingly, it was a Mage King from a different Empire that stopped them from doing that.
“You guys keep losing whenever you try to pull one over him,” the Mage King said. “Just give up.”
The Mage Kings became even more frustrated, but in the end, they stopped.
They had to concede.
The grim reality finally settled in for the Mage Kings of the Judgment Palace.
The only way forward was to attack in a way that made it impossible for Shang to interfere.
Sadly, that was a terrifying price to pay.
This meant that they couldn't send in any Early Ancestral Mages or Mid Ancestral Mages.
40% of all levels in the Ancestral Mage Realm couldn't be used anymore.
Even more, they couldn't use the three-star flag since Shang would immediately destroy it as soon as it appeared.
The Judgment Palace was completely crippled when it came to fighting in this war.
They just watched as the Lightning Manor finished making their tendril, isolating a total of around ten territories, which would eventually be captured.
The Judgment Palace only had around 100 territories left in this Zone, which was ridiculously little.
Theoretically, there were about 2,500 territories in this Zone.
100 territories weren't a lot in this context.
After a couple of hours, the Mage Kings saw Shang walk back to the Lightning Manor for the first time in a thousand years.
He had caused so much damage.
He had killed several Ancestral Mages with a fourfold Spirit Sense.
He had killed even more with a threefold Spirit Sense.
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He had destroyed two of their flags.
He made one flag impossible to use.
He had been responsible for the death of over 30 million Archmages.
He cost the Judgment Palace 275 Grade Eight Mana Crystals.
He had also been the reason why the Judgment Palace had lost a Mage King.
On top of that, at the beginning of the war, he had been the reason why the other two Empires had lost so many powerful people.
Lastly, his constant presence had allowed the Lightning Manor to counterattack.
The singular impact of this one warrior was even greater than the entire Lightning Manor combined. Of course, this was only true for the Judgment Palace.
This warrior had singlehandedly turned the tide of the war in this Zone.
And now, the Judgment Palace had to find a way forward in this Zone.
They couldn't possibly allow themselves to be pushed into a corner. At that point, this warrior would do the same thing as at the beginning of the war and block everything.
This meant that they had to continue sending Ancestral Mages to their deaths.
Or alternatively, they had to give up on attacking the Lightning Manor and simply defend, which wouldn't be an issue since the neighboring Zone was for High Mages, and the Judgment Palace had so many powerful High Mages.
Both choices were painful.