In the next 500 years, another monumental change took place.

The Judgment Palace had stopped resisting the Tower of Climate, and the Towe of Climate had claimed the eastern 10% of the Judgment Palace's Empire.

The Tower of Climate had sustained losses, but they weren't nearly as heavy as the other four Empire's losses.

Resisting two Empires at once had been too taxing for the Judgment Palace, and they decided to deal with the Lightning Manor first.

For now, the Tower of Climate could have these territories, but they would get their revenge when the Lightning Manor was gone.

Another 500 years later, the Empires really started to feel the stress.

There were five times as many Abomination Lords appearing as 2,000 years ago, and the number of Ancestral Abominations had also multiplied.

By now, two Mage Kings had to look out for the Abomination Lords since, in very rare cases, two Abomination Lords could spawn at the same time in different spots of the Empire. It only happened once every 200 years or so, but even that was too much.

Whenever an Abomination Lord exploded, all land in the surrounding 100,000 kilometers was completely annihilated.

It was a horrifying disaster.

The vast number of Mage Lords the Empires had to choose from when planning an assault had shrunken by a lot, and they had to make concessions several times.

Meanwhile, the Lightning Manor was fighting with all of their forces.

It was almost like Abominations weren't an issue for them.

But how was that possible?!

Eventually, the Empires came to a decision.

They would create a unified force that would test every single being in the Seventh Realm to check if they were the Child of Calamity.

That also included warriors and beasts.

Over the next years, they traveled to all Empires and performed blood tests on everyone.

The Lightning Emperor had also given them a vial of Shang's blood, but the test was negative.

Naturally, the Lightning Emperor had ways to fake such a test.

Sadly, the Empires couldn't find the Child of Calamity.

However, they found something else.

They finally found out what the huge Magic Circle in the Lightning Manor did.

They couldn't find any traces of Abomination Lords or Ancestral Abominations in the Lightning Manor, which shocked everyone.

Naturally, the other Empires immediately demanded an answer, but the Lightning Emperor just said that this was what his huge Magic Circle did.

It stopped Abomination Lords and Ancestral Abominations from appearing, and it even predicted where weaker Abominations would appear.

The ability to predict where Abominations came from had worked back when Shang had still been weak. Back then, they had simply used the Pylons to measure the waves the Abominations gave off, which would tell them where a new Abomination would appear.

Sadly, that ability had become useless as Shang's strength increased.

But now, the Lightning Emperor had made it usable again.

The other Emperors immediately demanded to know how it worked, but the Lightning Emperor refused.

They wanted to collectively fight and kill him, and now they wanted to know how his Magic Circle worked?

Fuck them!

The Emperors weren't stupid, and they knew that they couldn't force the Lightning Emperor to comply.

So, they were stuck with the current status quo.

Additionally, it wasn't even so bad since they would soon be able to break through the Lightning Manor's defenses.

A thousand years passed.

Around 4,500 years had passed since Shang had his run-in with the Mage King.

And now, the Empires were on the attack.

The Mage Lord with a fivefold Spirit Sense that had comprehended a level six Concept from the Land and Sky Empire had become a Mage King.

At the same time, the talented Mage Lord from the Judgment Palace finally comprehended her level six Concept, and she would become a Mage King in the next tournament, which would take place a thousand years from now.

But until then...

She decided to do what Shang had done and attack one territory after the other.

Naturally, a Peak Mage Lord with a fivefold Spirit Sense that knew a level six Concept was invincible.

The Peak Mage Lord with a fivefold Spirit Sense from the Lightning Manor hadn't comprehended a level six Concept yet, and they couldn't win against the attacker.

They still needed more time.

With the Mage Lord's added pressure, the Lightning Manor was starting to lose territories again.

Additionally, they also lost many of their Mage Lords since they had to take the initiative to reconquer their territories.

Even more, they couldn't use Peak Mage Lords anymore since the impossibly powerful Peak Mage Lord would just kill them.

It was brutal, and the Lightning Manor was under enormous pressure.

There was no one that could possibly resist her, and the Lightning Manor was forced to fight several unfair fights.

And then, someone appeared.

Or… something appeared.

It looked like some sort of specter or demon from legend.

A white cloak completely hid the head and face of the being, even blocking Spirit Senses.

The white cloak extended over the torso of the being, but then, there was just nothing.

It was like the specter had no legs, and its body just ended after the torso.

Even more, there was also no left arm coming out of the torso.

The only thing everyone could see was the right arm, which was encased in the white cloak.

Only a pale hand was visible coming out of the cloak.

Lastly, the left part of the cloak was crimson red and wet. It was almost like the shoulder of this being was constantly bleeding and seeping into the white cloak.

Naturally, the ripped parts at the end of the cloak were also crimson red, with blood endlessly dripping down.

It was terrifying.

What was this?!

Suddenly, the specter shot forward in an extremely unnatural way.

It was like reality, space, and time were moving around it.

Its movement was unnatural, but one thing was sure.

It was fast.

Really fast!

Before the specter entered the barrier that the Mage Lord with the fivefold Spirit Sense had summoned, it summoned a long sword.

The Mage Kings couldn't react to the appearance of this specter.