Shang continued charging toward the center of the continent while destroying all the ground around him.

The pressure at this level had reached heights where even Mage Emperors couldn't easily survive, and it still didn't reduce. After all, Shang was buried under more and more earth.

At this depth, nobody could possibly see Shang.

Sure, there were Magic Circles to detect intruders, but there were no Magic Circles this far underground.

The Mana required to protect these Magic Circles while also keeping them active would be beyond ridiculous.

And for what?

To protect from an Emperor sneaking into another Empire?

Why would they even do that?

If they did anything, the Emperor of the Empire would notice it anyway.

Additionally, sneaking up on an Emperor was basically impossible.

Because of that, there was no point in wasting that much Mana just to defend the underground.

Shang just kept running for a couple more minutes.

Eventually, Shang noticed that the bottom had stopped curving, or at least, its curvature had changed.

'The deepest part of Aterium,' Shang thought with a smirk.

Naturally, there was no living being down here.

At the moment, Shang was bathed in a dense and bright glow of light.

This glow of light was just the extremely hot magma. It was so insanely hot that even the space was being torn apart.

Although, the space was already being torn apart by the silver wall.

If Shang didn't have his Domain of Entropy active, he wouldn't be able to survive for a single second in this environment.

Slowly, Shang began to hover, and he flew upward.

The magma was turned into Neutral Mana, which then turned into magma below Shang again, just like the water of the Eternal Ocean.

After flying upward for a couple of million kilometers, Shang slowed down.

The Judgment Palace was perfectly in the middle of Aterium, and he should theoretically be directly beneath it.

Or, at least, he should be very close to it.

Because of that, Shang slowed down. It was important that no Mage King saw him.

Shang slowed down so that he barely moved a thousand kilometers per second, which was extremely slow for his power.

Eventually, Shang was only about a million kilometers away from the surface, and be slowed down even more.

And then, Shang felt Mana that wasn't just Fire, Metal, and Earth Mana.

It was a Magic Circle!

Shang wasn't quite sure if that Magic Circle was made by a Mage King of the Judgment Palace or by Kali.

'Kali knows that I am coming. This Magic Circle was probably made by her, and if it wasn't, she should have checked the underground of her Empire,' Shang thought with a snort.

So, Shang simply shot through the Magic Circle.

As Shang passed through the Magic Circle, nothing of note happened. Shang only felt a bit of Mana leaving the Magic Circle and flying upward.

Shang decided to stop and wait at this location.

Just to be sure, Shang had already retracted his limbs back into his torso, making him seem like his old self but wearing red instead of white.

A couple of seconds later, Shang's bandages told him that someone powerful was looking at him.

"Ascend," Shang heard the voice of Kali in his mind.

Shang just wordlessly ascended instead of answering.

For now, he didn't want to appear any different from his old self.

Additionally, Shang wasn't fully trusting Kali and Abaddon, and the less those two knew about him, the better.

"Stop," Kali transmitted after Shang ascended for a while.

SHING!

A moment later, a portal opened in front of Shang.

Kali had waited to summon the portal until Shang was at a safer depth. If the pressure or heat were too much, someone might notice. After all, some heat and magma were bound to go through the portal.

Shang quickly flew through the portal, and it closed rapidly behind him.

Shang found himself inside a huge room with expensive ornaments.

There were chandeliers, luxurious rugs, statues, huge plants, and there was also a humongous bed.

And yet, all of these things looked old and decrepit.

It was almost like this place was a ruin, a shadow of its former self.

Naturally, this was Kali's room.

Shang could also see Kali standing in the middle of the room.

She wasn't even looking at him.

"What's the plan?" Shang asked in a cold and emotionless voice.

Then, Kali looked at Shang for the first time.

"Wait," she said before looking away again.

Silence.

Under normal circumstances, Shang would ask for more specifics, but that wouldn't be fitting for Shang's old persona. Because of that, Shang remained silent and simply started waiting.

About two weeks later, Kali turned to Shang.

"Don't move," she emotionlessly said as she pointed a finger at the hovering Shang.

Shang did just that, and an instant later, expensive ore gathered around him.

The ore was extremely powerful. Shang was quite certain that it was even in the Emperor Realm.

The ore encased Shang's body, and as it did, shining lines from different Magic Circles appeared.

After a couple of seconds, Shang's body ' was fully encased in extremely hard and expensive ore, and he had transformed into something that looked like an ancient machine.

Shang's appearance was already very far away from a human's appearance, but now, there were zero connections between him and a normal human.

Shang wasn't very alarmed.

After all, he could just use his Domain of Entropy to destroy the ore around him. It would just take a bit of time.

Funnily enough, Shang's Spirit Sense was also completely isolated.

He was unable to move and unable to communicate with anyone.

Most people would think this was quite a terrifying place to be in, but Shang didn't mind.

He could break out whenever he wanted. Some moments later, Shang's mind was suddenly let out of the encased ore.

"I will release your perception when it is safe," Kali said coldly.

Shang looked at Kali.

"Fine."