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Time flew by. Days turned into nights, nights into years.
It's been nearly thousands of years since the demon who defied the rules used the Book of Ages to fight the eight Demon Sorcerers and created the Underworld.
During all that time, the eight Demon Lords ruled the world, and dark chi spread like wildfire. Every corner of the earth was filled with its presence—there was barely a trace of good chi left.
In just a few thousand years, Shendu took control of the ancient Asian continent and teamed up with Ximu to create the Grand Grimoire of Magic—an encyclopedia of deadly, powerful spells.
The entire world fell into an age of demon rule. Demons ran wild, and humanity suffered.
Even though humans were still weak and fragile, the creation of the Grand Grimoire by Shendu and Ximu gave birth to two legendary demon sorcerers.
Somehow, spells from that grimoire made their way into the human world.
A few gifted humans managed to understand and harness the power of these dark chi spells, becoming dark chi sorcerers.
But some human sorcerers, disturbed by how toxic dark chi was, used their talent to develop good chi magic to counter it.
The good chi mages and dark chi sorcerers sometimes worked together to stir rebellion against the Demon Lords, sparking a wave of resistance from humanity.
But in the end, it was all just a desperate struggle.
The eight Demon Lords barely paid attention to human resistance. They just sent a few big-shot demons to wipe out the rebellion.
Still, the legacy of magic couldn't be erased. Plenty of sorcerers and mages were still around.
Some hid in the mountains, others in the heart of demon cities. Some dark chi sorcerers even served the Demon Lords directly.
Truthfully, the techniques of dark chi sorcerers could actually pique the interest of the Demon Lords.
In a way, dark chi sorcerers were like the children of Shendu and Ximu's experiments.
They absorbed the energy of the world to train, and some good chi mages and dark chi sorcerers even grew strong enough to rival major demons.
The loss of control over the Grand Grimoire led to the rise of both types of mages—and with them, good chi quietly started making a comeback.
After thousands of years, the Demon Lords had all hit their peak. Every move they made could shake the world.
If they wanted to grow stronger, absorbing energy wouldn't cut it anymore. Now, it was all about mastering the deeper powers of the world—true authority.
Except for Shendu and Zhalan, the others didn't care about worldly affairs anymore. They left day-to-day control to their demon underlings.
The two of them focused entirely on unraveling the secrets of the world's power, while the other six, realizing they couldn't get any stronger, just lived it up and enjoyed their territories.
Well, there were exceptions. The Water Lord, Bai Tza, spent half her time having fun and the other half meditating to squeeze out tiny boosts in her power from the world's essence.
Over the millennia, it wasn't just good chi mages and dark chi sorcerers that appeared.
Tons of new demons popped up too.
In the Shadow Realm, a Shadow Queen rose up along with over a dozen Shadow Generals.
Their world was shunned by many other demons. They scoffed at the idea of a "Shadow Kingdom," thinking it was a joke—like they were pretending to be on the same level as the eight Demon Lords.
But petty stuff like that wasn't worth the Demon Lords' attention.
Same with the rise of sorcerers and mages—they were just stronger ants, nothing more.
Aside from the Shadow Kingdom, a whole new breed of demons emerged, feeding on human resentment, emotions, and even blood.
But after all those years passed, something suddenly happened that shook the Demon Lords to their core.
Po Kong, the Mountain Demon, had swallowed up a vast portion of the continent, shrinking it down to a small piece of land—less than one-fifth the size of any other Demon Lord's domain.
Now, she actually wanted to call for a council and re-divide the world.
At that moment, in a grand palace, the demon projections of the eight Demon Lords stood tall. Surrounding them were dozens of powerful demons and human sorcerers.
"Po Kong, I don't think there's any need to redraw borders," Ximu said casually, scratching the corner of his mouth like he didn't care.
"You devoured your own land. That's on you. You didn't even reach half the size of our territories. Why should we all change our borders?" Hsi Wu blew out a soft gust of wind and spoke with indifference.
"We already divided the world ages ago. There's no need to do it again," Tso Lan added, his eyes showing clear irritation.
"You... you guys!" Po Kong was furious. She wanted to slam her fist into the table, but as a projection, she couldn't do a thing—just pointlessly rage.
"Big bro, what do you think? Shouldn't we re-divide things?""I mean, you don't even have a continent. Don't you care?!"
Suddenly, Po Kong thought of Zhalan—he had no territory at all. Maybe she could pull him to her side.
"Po Kong, don't waste your breath," Bai Tza said hoarsely. "He gave up his continent as part of our original deal. He's the eldest, remember?"
Po Kong was exasperated. It's not like she wanted to swallow up that much land. But her nature—the instinct to devour—just drove her to do it.
Her eyes flicked to Shendu, who sat off to the side, acting like none of this had anything to do with him. She remembered how he hadn't even bothered to patrol his territory for thousands of years.
She got an idea.
"Shendu, your land is huge. Why not give up a piece of it?"
Shendu had been treating this as just another boring drama to watch—but now that Po Kong was coming for his land, he wasn't having it.
His eyes flashed coldly as he shot back, "Po Kong, those territories were chosen by the chi itself. You got a problem? Go talk to the chi."
"Back when we were born, each of us appeared on our own continent. That alone shows the dark chi chose the eight of us to rule those lands."
"You want to re-draw the map now? Fine by me. Just go get the dark chi's permission first."
The other Demon Lords nodded—he had a point. They all chimed in, repeating what Shendu said to shut Po Kong down.
Realizing there was no hope of claiming more land, Po Kong's thoughts drifted back to her own territory, where a certain army of shadow creatures—the Ghost Shadow Troops—lurked like servants.
They had been doing nothing all this time, running wild on her turf, and no demon could beat them in a straight fight. The only reason they bowed to her was because of her title as Demon Lord.
But now… maybe it was time they proved their worth.
She remembered something important—those shadow creatures, much like the eight Demon Lords, couldn't be killed. They had all kinds of uses.
Her palace had lost countless demons and human slaves over the years… but when she used the Ghost Shadow Army, she had zero casualties.
With that in mind, Po Kong suddenly felt confident—maybe the others would be very interested in her shadow soldiers.
"....."