n

nTime seemingly stood still for Shang as he watched the Thunder Horse gather a terrifying amount of Lightning Mana.

nHe was going to die!

nAnd then, the Thunder Horse unleashed all the Lightning Mana onto Shang.

nShang’s Affinity for lightning had always been horrible. He had never been able to feel Lightning Mana.

nBut at this moment, Shang could feel the Lightning Mana.

nIt was so much!

nIt was like his entire body was encased with a form of prickly energy.

nShang felt the Lightning Mana touch his very being, and Shang felt quite uncomfortable.

nBut that was it.

nHe only felt uncomfortable.

nThe wave of Lightning Mana washed over Shang and dispersed after hitting the building behind Shang.

nThe citizens of the city were looking at the Thunder Horse with confusion.

nIt was acting very strange.

nThen, a moment of silence arrived.

nShang looked into the Thunder Horse’s eyes with terror, while the Thunder Horse looked into his eyes with unreadable emotions._-(0)ᴠʟ<

/sub>

nAfter seeing that Shang hadn’t died, the Thunder Horse’s snout moved closer to Shang. It was violently sniffing and snorting all over his body.

nBANG!

nThe Thunder Horse’s snout shoved Shang to the side, and Shang fell to the ground.

nThe Thunder Horse’s head followed and continued violently sniffing Shang’s body as he lay on the ground.

nDuke Whirlwind and the Dean were looking with nervousness and a bit of fear at what was happening.

nShang didn’t dare to move on the ground. If he showed any resistance, the Thunder Horse might just decide to end his life with a simple stomp.

nThis entire spiel continued for nearly half a minute, but eventually, the Thunder Horse took a step back and looked at Shang.

nAnd then, it snorted once.

nBANG!

nA lightning bolt suddenly formed in the air and struck Shang.

nIt was so fast that Shang hadn’t even realized what was happening until it was too late.

nShang realized that he had been struck by a bolt of lightning, but to his shock, he didn’t feel any pain.

nThe lightning bolt only washed over his body and seemingly vanished into nothing.

nShang still didn’t dare to move. _(O)ᴠʟ<

/sub>

nThe Thunder Horse sniffed once more in Shang’s general direction, and then…

nIt turned around, walked up to a stall, and ate an apple.

nThe kids that had been scared off by the Thunder Horse’s weird behavior returned and played with it.

nThe Thunder Horse didn’t mind, and it slowly walked along the road to the south of the city, ignoring the group of warriors.

nShang only watched in shock as the Thunder Horse left.

nAnd at that moment, Shang’s stomach churned, and he felt his head drone.

nThe terror of nearly dying assaulted him at that point, and his body shivered.

nHe could have died just now!

nThe Dean walked over and lifted Shang off the ground.

n“Don’t mind it,” the Dean said. “The Thunder Horse acts weirdly sometimes.”

nThe Dean didn’t sound worried, but Shang could see relief in the Dean’s eyes.

n“We wasted enough time here,” Duke Whirlwind said with a smile. “We should continue.”

nThe group nodded, but their eyes were still distracted. None of them had ever been so close to a Zone Beast before.

nThe group continued walking, and after they left Spark Oasis, Duke Whirlwind activated the Blessing of Wind again. _{ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕ(ꪫ)ꪣꫀꪶ<}

/sub>

nShang absentmindedly accelerated and caught up to Duke Whirlwind.

n“What happened?” Shang asked.

n“I can make some guesses, but I’m not entirely sure,” Duke Whirlwind answered.

nDuke Whirlwind’s mind inspected the surroundings, and he saw that their conversation wouldn’t be overheard.

n“I think it was confused,” Duke Whirlwind whispered just loud enough for Shang to hear him.

n“It probably sensed you, and it felt that you appeared similar to one of the Abominations, but not entirely.”

n“However, your power wasn’t nearly enough to threaten it, and you also didn’t damage anything in your surroundings. Because of that, it probably tried to make sense of your existence.”

n“In the end, it judged you as an Abomination and tried to kill you,” Duke Whirlwind explained.

nShang’s heart nearly stopped. “But I’m still alive,” he said.

n“Because you aren’t one,” Duke Whirlwind said. “You should know that Abominations can be killed by throwing a huge mass of Mana at them. That was what the Thunder Horse did to you. It gathered its Lightning Mana and washed it over your entire body.”

n“Even the strongest Abomination would have died when assaulted by so much Mana. The amount of Lightning Mana it had used on you was more than King Skythunder could produce, and he is an Archmage with a Lightning and Wind Affinity.”

nShang thought back to when the wave of Lightning Mana had washed over him.

nThat had been the Thunder Horse trying to kill him?

n“When it saw that you survived,” Duke Whirlwind continued, “it became interested in you again. It continued inspecting you but still couldn’t make sense of you.”

n“As for that lightning bolt, I don’t know what that was,” Duke Whirlwind said. “It wasn’t meant to injure you, but I don’t know why it had summoned it.”

nShang’s brows furrowed.

nHe also had no idea what that lightning bolt was supposed to be.

nFor a moment, Shang’s mind went back to all the fantasy movies he had seen on Earth, and he came up with the idea that he might have been blessed by the Thunder Horse.

nBut that thought was quickly thrown out of the window.

nThe Thunder Horse had literally tried to kill him just half a minute before that.

n‘Anyway, it’s over, and I survived,’ Shang thought. ‘However, I have to be really careful when it comes to Zone Beasts. The Thunder Horse obviously has no problems with humans, and it probably even likes them. After all, it even lets kids climb all over it.’

n‘But if something like the Empress Cobra sees me, I might just immediately stop existing.’

nThe group continued running to the north for several more minutes.

nBy now, Shang could see a couple of green hills on the horizon.

nThe hills weren’t very big, but Shang could see a lot of trees and bushes.

nIn a way, the area in front of Shang looked like a warmer Ice Wyvern Zone, but with fewer mountains.

nSome moments later, Shang could also see a large tower with several people standing in front of it.

nThen, Shang saw that every person had a Focus hovering beside them.

nNearly all the Foci had two circlets, and one even had three!

nA Focus with two circlets only became common in the True Mage Realm.

nAnd three circlets?

nOnly the most powerful Peak True Mages and High Mages carried those.

nTheoretically, a Focus with one circlet could be used by a Mid Apprentice, but the value of such a weapon would be wasted on such a weak person. On top of that, it needed a long time of training to use a Focus.

nBecause of that, Foci with one circlet only became common in the Mid Adept Realm.

nThe same was true for Foci with two and three circlets, but for the subsequent Realms.

nA Mid Adept could theoretically use a Focus with two circlets, but Mid Adepts with one basically didn’t exist. It would be like if Shang had a True Path weapon right now.

nIt was overkill.

nOnly the absolute elite Peak Adepts had Foci with two circlets.

nAnd only the absolute elite Peak True Mages had Foci with three circlets.

nSo, after Shang saw the Foci, he immediately realized that every person there was a powerful True Mage.

nAnd the very weakest was probably in the Mid True Mage Realm.

n‘Quite a powerful lineup.’

n“That’s the border,” Duke Whirlwind said. “Beyond this checkpoint is the personal domain of King Skythunder.”

n“The Skythunder Zone.”

n