[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-sword-god-in-a-world-of-magic":3,"chapter-sword-god-in-a-world-of-magic-sword-god-in-a-world-of-magic-chapter-549":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Sword God in a World of Magic",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1492484,1940,"Chapter 549 - Dark Path","sword-god-in-a-world-of-magic-chapter-549",549,"\u003Cp>A harsh wind blew.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On top of a hill was a broken castle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mere moments ago, this castle had been whole.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, the back of the castle was missing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What had once been a room was now a ruin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Half-broken walls were behind Shang as the bright sun shone down on him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The bright sun didn't reflect Shang's feelings, but the weather didn't care about the feelings of living beings.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shang's body had become a husk. Nearly all his muscles had shrunk to a sickly degree, making him look like a skeleton with merely some skin on it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The two empty eye-sockets only strengthened this perception.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>About 140 years ago, Shang sacrificed his left eye.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Today, he had sacrificed his right eye.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shang couldn't possibly sacrifice his arms or legs since that would severely weaken his Battle-Strength.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Organs couldn't be sacrificed because that would reduce Shang's maximum life energy tremendously.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The ears or the nose weren't enough to achieve any kind of significant power with Entropy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shang had decided to go with the eye.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Due to his Spirit Sense, he wasn't reliant on vision anymore.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, all of this was actually only of secondary importance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In fact, Shang didn't even really think about what to sacrifice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His mind had been someplace else.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>​ Jerald.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His friend.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His only friend.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His closest companion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shang's life had always been surrounded by a cloud of darkness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His Affinity made it impossible for him to have friends or companions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His goal made it impossible for him to have friends or companions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was alone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The world was dark.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His life was dark.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet, Shang was willing to walk through this darkness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In fact, Shang had walked into this darkness voluntarily.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If he had just stopped searching for power, he wouldn't need to be surrounded by this darkness anymore.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But he couldn't.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He needed to achieve his goal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was the only purpose of his life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Had he had more purposes back then?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Maybe, but ever since Shang had stepped onto this dark path, all the other purposes vanished.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shang had to reach the end of the path, no matter what.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The consequences didn't matter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The sacrifices didn't matter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The price didn't matter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He wanted to reach it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He needed to reach it!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shang had always believed that he had already made his choice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He believed that he had already come to terms with his path.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But he realized the true weight of his path only today.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>During this dark and lonely journey, Jerald had been like a visitor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A ray of light.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Something nice in a place of nothing but apathy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It wasn't actually that hard to walk the path.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shang looked at the hand lying in front of his feet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The hand had Jerald's Space Ring on it, and Shang had avoided it on purpose.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If he destroyed the Communication Crystal that Relon had given Jerald, Relon would know that Jerald had died.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For several seconds, Shang's empty eye-sockets only stared at the hand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn't move.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The wind blew across the now exposed floor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The bright sun mercilessly shone down on the scene.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The world was so bright.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Shang only saw darkness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shang stood in front of the hand without moving.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Step.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A woman walked out of the still-standing part of the castle behind Shang, and her eyes widened in horror at what she was seeing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Half of the castle was gone!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What about King Storm?!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was one of the True Mages responsible for organizing everything in the castle, and she had heard and felt the commotion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When she saw Shang's husk and the solitary hand on the ground, she took a horrified breath.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, the world around her moved.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The power of the world around her gathered beside her head.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before she could say or do anything, her head separated from her shoulder.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shang didn't move.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His empty eye-sockets only stared forward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A couple more True Mages arrived shortly, but they died as soon as they arrived.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It took Shang two minutes to move, and the only reason he was moving was that he was seeing someone approach in his Spirit Sense.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sylvia was returning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was a shocked and horrified expression on her face as she activated one Mana Step after the other.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shang stepped forward and scooped up the hand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, he put it into his inner world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shang's expressionless face stared toward the direction where Sylvia was coming from.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn't want to see her, but he couldn't stop himself from looking at her one last time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had also been a friend of Shang's.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had been Jerald's wife of 75 years and the mother of his children.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jerald had been a good father, and she had been a good mother.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jerald had only wanted to continue living.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shang had destroyed their happiness today.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sword left Shang's back and hovered in front of him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shang lightly jumped on it, and Sword flew away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In just a couple of seconds, Shang had reached a height of over eight kilometers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No one from the ground would be able to find him that high up in the air unless they were specifically searching for him with their eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shang's Spirit Sense encompassed the ruined castle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sylvia had arrived, and she was searching around the ruined castle in horror.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No, this couldn't be!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had to still be alive!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jerald had to be somewhere!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After not finding any trace of Jerald for a while, she quickly left the castle again to search for him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had to still be around somewhere.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shang's expressionless face only stared in her general direction for a while.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, he slowly turned around, and some distorting light gathered around him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In an instant, Shang's body had vanished.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With Distortion hiding his body, Shang flew towards the south.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The barrier had become active again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shang only activated his Domain of Entropy and flew past the barrier.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The guards, including Prince George, looked upward with horror.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The barrier had been breached!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet, they couldn't find the culprit!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Prince George immediately took out his Communication Crystal and contacted Jerald.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And the Communication Crystal told him that no one with that aura existed.\u003C\u002Fp>",1035,"2026-06-06T04:07:15.357Z",1,"novelbin.me","f8f31375ebfaf2a10110563867d23133a829baa4fb304753f7a5ca4bfc3dfd53","sword-god-in-a-world-of-magic-chapter-550","sword-god-in-a-world-of-magic-chapter-548",1033,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fsword-god-in-a-world-of-magic-cover.jpg"]