Sword God in a World of Magic

Someone shouted at Shang, and Shang felt his Spirit Sense being pushed away from the sword.

Shang had no idea how someone could even do that.

As soon as Shang felt someone attack his Spirit Sense, he fought against the force and began to gather his Mana.

He was already extremely nervous and paranoid due to his new body, and the sudden attack woke his killing instinct.

BANG!

However, Shang was immediately shoved toward the ground by an irresistible force, and he was stopped from doing anything.

"Calm down! I am not attacking you!" someone shouted. "Stop trying to look at the sword, and everything is okay!"

Shang's emotions were going crazy, but he did his best to keep his Spirit Sense from traveling toward the sword again. He knew that he was in a completely new area and that he had to learn the rules first. 

As soon as he did that, the force on his body let up, and Shang could finally stand up again.

Shang's Spirit Sense grew bigger again, and he saw the person that had attacked him.

It was a woman with silver hair that seemed to be in her early thirties. She hovered above Shang and looked at him with annoyance.

"Don't you know that it's forbidden to encompass the Ancient Sword with your Spirit Sense?!" she shouted with frustration.

"No, I didn't know that," Shang said coldly.

This took the woman by surprise, and she raised an eyebrow. "You didn't? Are you new?" she asked.

"Yes, I just arrived two minutes ago. Lucin brought me here and just left after explaining some things," Shang said.

"Oh, okay. That explains things," the woman said with a calmer voice. "Hi, I'm Sceva, and I'm one of the Bolts working under Lucin."

'That explains why I couldn't resist her,' Shang thought.

Shang took a closer look, and just as he had expected, she was a Mage Lord, probably even a Peak Mage Lord.

Shang still had to get used to randomly coming across Peak Mage Lords. 

When he had been a member of the Temple of Blood, the only Mage Lord he had seen had been the Territory Lord. 

The only other Mage Lord for hundreds of thousands of kilometers around had been the three leaders of the Natural Selection Company, but he had never seen those.

And now, Shang was coming across them almost everywhere, and to top it all off, most of them were probably more powerful than the Territory Lord.

Lucin could probably even kill the Territory Lord with just a mere wave of his hands.

"Why is it forbidden to look at the sword?" Shang asked.

Sceva raised an eyebrow. "You know, when a lady gives you her name, the least you could do is to give her your own."

"Shang," Shang answered simply. 

Silence.

Sceva snorted in annoyance. It was no fun to talk to this guy. "Because this is one of the best places in the world to comprehend the level five Concept of Metal, Destruction."

"Several powerful Mage Lords and even Mage Lords from the other Empires are sitting in front of the Ancestral Sword, and they are all trying to comprehend this Concept. We can't just allow everyone's Spirit Sense to encompass the sword, or the Mage Lords will never get their peace and quiet."

A level five Concept.

Something a Mage Lord needed to become a Mage King.

"Where did this sword come from?" Shang asked.

"Why should I tell you?" Sceva said with a snort. "You're cold, disrespectful, and rude."

"Sorry," Shang said coldly. 

Sceva raised her eyebrows in surprise.

Was that an apology?

It didn't really sound like one.

She just looked at Shang for a couple of seconds, but Shang didn't do or say anything else.

In the end, Sceva just sighed. "You're a weird one. Anyway, this is one of the weapons from the Grand Weapon Master. Legend has it that he had been one of the Mage God's strongest opponents back then. He used 32 weapons, and this is just one of them."

'A Weapon Master that uses 32 weapons,' Shang thought. 'That is definitely not my Path, but the Grand Weapon Master was obviously extremely powerful during his time.'

'Sure enough, many ways lead to the top.'

"Anyway," Sceva added, "you can look at the sword with your eyes if you want, but you can't look at it with your Spirit Sense."

Shang just stood there.

Did he want to look at the sword?

Of course!

This was an impossibly powerful symbol of the ancient warriors. He could probably learn a lot from it.

Yet…

Shang just turned to the side and began to fly away.

Sceva just looked at Shang with a raised brow.

What a weird guy.

A couple of seconds later, Shang saw a grand entrance that led into a hill.

Surprisingly, there were two Bolts sitting beside the entrance, who were playing some kind of complex card game that involved runes and Magic Circles.

When Shang looked at them, the two of them looked back. "Hey, you here for your trial?" one of them asked.

"I'm new," Shang answered. "I don't know what this place is."

"Oh," the guy said. Then, he gestured towards the entrance. "That's the Trial of Want. Everyone gets one chance per Realm to enter."

"And what's that about?" Shang asked.

"The Trial of Want is essentially a very complex Magic Circle designed by none other than the Lightning Emperor himself. It tests the people that enter, and depending on your result, you get something amazing that you need."

"But, just like with everything here, your survival isn't guaranteed," the Mage Lord said with a chuckle.

Shang just nodded.

This sounded quite useful, but it also wasn't what he needed right now. 

"Are you two also working for Lucin?" Shang asked.

"Yep," the other guy answered while placing another card in front of him.

Shang looked at the entrance to the Trial of Want for a while longer before leaving.

The two Mage Lords just continued playing cards.

Shang still couldn't get used to casually coming across so many Mage Lords.