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Time passed slowly, sun and moon shifting endlessly.
A world swallowed by the vortex of time.
This place was vast beyond imagination. The sky was soaked in a blood-red hue. There was no land, no ground, no clouds—just one dull, lifeless color stretching on forever.
Yet there was an invisible force here, a strange kind of gravity that made everything float.
This was the future's Demon Hell—also known as the Panku Hell. The prison built to seal away the eight Demon Sorcerer Lords.
The power of time filled this entire realm, slowly wearing away at all living beings—dulling their intelligence, magic, and strength.
That was the price for tampering with the Book of Ages. Using the eternal force of time and combining it with the Eight Immortals' magical artifacts, they created this world.
A prison that could hold any lifeform. Even the Eight Immortals themselves would slowly lose their wisdom, magic, and power if they stayed here too long.
The Eight Immortals were on par with the Demon Lords in terms of power—but they had one thing the Demon Lords didn't: righteous energy and sacred artifacts made specifically to counter them.
Even so, they didn't have the ability to create a world on their own. That's why they had to borrow the power of time and the laws of this universe to build their ideal prison.
There was no time here. No space. No day or night.
Right now, the eight demons who had messed with the Book of Ages were lying unconscious on floating rocks.
Not far from them, the eight Demon Sorcerer Lords were each sprawled out on separate pieces of rock, slowly beginning to stir.
And it wasn't just them. Countless other demons and even some humans had been swept into this mess.
The humans, however, had weak bodies and didn't survive the time vortex—they died on the way in.
A few powerful demons managed to hang on, but what awaited them was this pitch-black prison: Demon Hell, where there's no such thing as daylight.
"Where… are we?!"
"Why does this place feel kinda familiar?"
Shendu slowly opened his eyes, scanning the world of floating rocks and that endless, dead-red sky, totally confused.
Nearby, the other seven Demon Lords were waking up too.
Since they were all similar in power, it made sense they were the first to regain consciousness.
BAM!
Dai Gui woke up to find Po Kong still clutching him tightly. Furious, he punched her with full force.
BAM—BAM!
Still groggy, Po Kong got knocked flying, smashing through several floating rocks before slamming into a massive boulder.
"Po Kong! How dare you grab the great Dai Gui and drag me into the time vortex with you?! If I don't teach you a lesson today, I'm no longer the Earth Demon Lord!"
Dai Gui's eyes blazed with anger. His voice echoed across the whole of Demon Hell.
He roared and vanished in a blur, his massive stone-like fists slamming down toward Po Kong.
Even though Po Kong was known for being nearly indestructible, Dai Gui's brute force was no joke—his punches had her screaming in pain.
But she quickly snapped out of it, realizing Dai Gui had already gotten his hits in.
With a flash of golden energy running across her body, she repelled Dai Gui's attack and growled coldly, "I let you hit me as payback, but don't push it!"
"Hah! You should be buried in the earth after what you did!" Dai Gui snorted and charged again, refusing to let it go.
As Dai Gui and Po Kong continued to brawl, the other four—Xiao Feng, Tso Lan, Bai Tza, and Hsi Wu—were already throwing punches at each other too, summoning their powers as they fought.
Turns out they were just like Po Kong and Dai Gui—each of them had dragged the others into the time vortex while trying to escape. Now, they were all blaming one another and fighting it out.
Meanwhile, Shendu had finally figured it out.
Wait a second… this place—isn't this the Demon Hell from the original story? The one where the Eight Demon Lords were sealed?
It finally made sense why the Eight Immortals traveled back in time. They weren't just punishing the demons—they used that opportunity to create Demon Hell using the power of time.
Only time itself could erase magic and intelligence from living beings.
The Eight Immortals probably couldn't have made a realm like this on their own. Without time's power, they wouldn't have had a chance at keeping the Demon Lords sealed.
"Shendu! We can't stay in this underground world—we need to get out, now!" Zhou Lan flew over to him, voice heavy with urgency.
"We can't escape on our own," Shendu shook his head.
Escaping from Demon Hell was almost impossible.
In the original story, the only way the Demon Lords escaped was by having their physical forms destroyed, turning into spirits so they could slip out of this realm.
The other method was using the Pan'ku Box to open each Demon Gate connected to a Demon Lord.
But right now, the Pan'ku Box hadn't even appeared. So how the hell were they supposed to get out?
"Shendu! We must escape—no matter the cost!" Zhou Lan insisted.
"This place is thick with time energy. The longer we stay, the more it'll wear down our minds and magic!"
Of course Shendu knew that.
After a moment of thought, he said seriously, "Then we'll use the Bagua Formation to break this world's laws and return to the surface!"
Zhou Lan hesitated for a second but quickly nodded. "Alright."
BAM!
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
CRASH—
WHOOSH—
SMACK—
THUD—
The six Demon Lords' all-out brawl was shaking the entire realm—so much so that it interrupted Shendu and Zhou Lan's planning.
Zhou Lan, the eldest of the Demon Lords, turned and roared, "What the hell are you doing?!"
"Instead of figuring out how to get out of here, you're fighting each other?!"
But as soon as he yelled, the other six paused their fighting… only to glare at him and shout in unison, "Zhou Lan! We haven't even settled the score with you for abandoning us!"
And just like that, they went right back to beating each other senseless—nobody wanted to back down.
Honestly, none of them had ever really fought one-on-one before. Now they were finally letting loose and loving it.
Shendu saw that things were heating up way too fast and quickly stepped in. "Enough! Do you want to stay trapped down here forever?!"
Didn't matter. Just like Zhou Lan, he got the same angry shout from the six Demon Lords, accusing him of ditching them during the escape.
Shendu's face darkened, but he took a deep breath and said coldly, "If we keep fighting, we'll never leave this place. We'll be trapped here forever—no light, no escape."
At that, the six Demon Lords finally stopped and gathered around.
Shendu sighed in relief.
Right then, the eight humanoid demons who had messed with the Book of Ages earlier finally woke up.
They stared blankly at the unfamiliar world, completely lost.
But as soon as they laid eyes on the eight Demon Lords, they screamed in pure terror—so loud it interrupted the group who were just getting ready to use the Bagua Formation to escape.
"....."