Several days passed.Shang exited his inner world and killed the bird watcher.After a couple of seconds, the barrier turned transparent again, and Shang waited in the middle.As always, Shang looked calm and emotionless.And then, he waited for his opponent.Silence.The barrier didn't become cloudy, which meant that no one had entered the barrier.Some seconds later, Shang's Communication Crystal rang."Hold your position! No matter what!" came an urgent but unknown voice.However, based on the aura Shang had felt, he knew exactly who had just spoken.Kiran, the Catastrophe King.Before Shang could answer, the Communication Crystal became silent.Shang tried to contact some people of the Lightning Manor, but his Communication Crystal couldn't reach anyone.He was isolated.Shang moved to the edge of his territory without retrieving the flag to look out of the transparent barrier with his Spirit Sense.At the southeastern end, there was nothing too surprising.It was just the start of the Judgment Palace Empire.There were no powerful Mages that Shang could see.Then, Shang went to the southern end.There was the Land and Sky Empire.There was also no one there.After that, Shang went to the east.There was the Twilight Dusk Empire.No noteworthy Mages present.And when Shang reached the north, he realized what had happened.To the north of Shang's barrier, he saw a different barrier.It was a Defender Barrier for an Initial Ancestral Mage, and it belonged to the Twilight Dusk Empire.As Shang curved towards the west, he saw another barrier.It was also a Defender Barrier for an Initial Ancestral Mage, but this one belonged to the Land and Sky Empire.Shang immediately knew what had happened.The two Empires had conquered the territories behind Shang.These territories had been heavily defended by the Lightning Manor.

Conquering them had probably cost these two Empires a brutal amount of resources and lives.And then, after conquering the territories, they put two Defender Flags down that made it impossible for Shang to attack.The huge Zone was still assigned to Ancestral Mages, even though a big part of it had been captured by the two other Empires.They could have put down Peak Ancestral Mage Flags, but that would be risky.What if Shang could break through rapidly and destroy their defenders?Because of that, they decided to use Initial Ancestral Mage Defender Flags.Like this, Shang couldn't even attack them since he was too strong.This meant that it was impossible for Shang to go to the north, northwest, or west.He could only travel to the southwest, south, southeast, east, and northeast.However, by going there, Shang would be going into enemy territory.And that was what they wanted, but not for the reason one might think.Shang knew that the enemy wanted Shang to leave his territory.

In fact, the direction literally didn't matter.

As soon as Shang would lift his Defender Flag, an extremely quick Initial Ancestral Mage would probably swoop in and plant their Attack Flag down on Shang's territory.At the same time, new Defender Flags would appear around Shang's territory, barring him from moving literally anywhere.He was only allowed to move far enough to plant an Attack Flag into enemy territory.Anything further, and Mage Kings would be allowed to kill him.So, if he retrieved his Defender Flag, he would be encased by Defender Flags he couldn't attack.If he entered them, he would die.If he flew past them, he would die.And if he waited for an hour, he would die as well since the territory would vanish under him.This was their plan and also the reason why Kiran had told Shang to hold his position, no matter what.As long as Shang's Defender Flag didn't move, he could survive.But the other Empires were blocking all forms of communication.

The single communication with Kiran had probably cost the Lightning Manor a ridiculous number of Mana Crystals, and Kiran had only been able to say two sentences.Shang was alone.He was alone and surrounded by enemies on all sides.He was isolated from the entire world.How did Shang feel?He didn't care.If anyone wanted to kill him, they would need to send someone stronger than him that was on his level.And such a person didn't exist.Shang felt just as safe as ever, maybe even more.In this place, he was also protected from every powerful person.People from the Lightning Manor couldn't reach him, and if powerful people of other Empires entered here, they would be breaking the contract.After a while, Shang sat down in the middle of his own territory.He could feel his bandages reacting strongly, but he acted like he didn't know.At this moment, Shang guessed that he was probably being watched by over 15 Mage Kings.They were probably all waiting to see if he would fall for the trap.The Mage Kings watched Shang for several hours.Surprisingly, even though he had obviously realized the severity of his new situation, Shang didn't appear nervous or scared in any way.Several days passed.Then, four weeks passed.Shang didn't move.The Mage Kings saw that there was no deterioration in Shang's calmness or mood.He was just as relaxed as on the first day.They realized that this plan had failed.With heavy hearts, the Mage Kings of the Judgment Palace looked at each other.And one by one, they nodded.They would use the Empress' plan.Sadly, that was the only way they could think of.They contacted the other Mage Kings from the surrounding Empires, who agreed to the plan.Some minutes later, more Defender Flags popped up around Shang.One additional one appeared to the east and another one to the south.Now, Shang was completely boxed in.Literally the only way out was to the southeast, which was where the Judgment Palace was.A couple more weeks passed.Shang kept training inside his inner world.And eventually, the barrier became cloudy.Shang came out and readied himself for a battle.But the barrier became transparent again.Then cloudy again.And transparent.Cloudy.Transparent.Cloudy.Transparent.It took about a second for the barrier to switch modes each time.Shang wasn't quite sure what was going on and went to the southeast.And there, he saw what the Judgment Palace was doing.He immediately realized what their plan was.