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"Your Majesty the Dragon King, there are no such names among the humans."
"In my territory, every single human name is recorded. These eight names aren't in the records."
Ling'er shook her head and looked down respectfully.
Shendu was quiet for a moment before waving his hand dismissively. "Alright, go get things ready."
Ling'er stood, gave a small bow, and exited the grand hall.
"Sigh…"
After a while, Shendu let out a long sigh. A cold light flashed in his eyes.
"The Eight Immortals… the Eight Immortals…"
"Will you really grow strong enough to reach your peak, or die too early, only to be replaced by a new generation of warriors born from pure chi?"
"The energy of pure chi was growing denser and stronger, nearing its peak.
As he spoke, the pupils of his eyes flickered with the mix of yin and yang—light and darkness swirling together—forming a perfect yin-yang symbol.
In the early years, that symbol used to be pure black with just a single white dot.
Now, the balance of yin and yang was starting to take shape.
Yin accounted for 60%, yang for 40%.
Very soon, the complete balance of yin and yang would be realized.
That moment would coincide with the Eight Immortals reaching their full power, as pure chi prepared to strike back."
But Shendu couldn't sense any threat from the pure chi. Unlike the other demon lords, his power was still bound by the laws of this world. He had no clue how to break through.
Even after absorbing a sliver of power traded with Zhou Lan, it barely made any difference to his strength.
That left him with only one way to grow stronger—devour the other demon lords. His so-called "brethren."
"But demon lords couldn't be killed or destroyed. Even if he was stronger than the other seven demon lords, he couldn't truly consume them."
That thought frustrated him deeply, and in the end, he could only give it up with a bitter sigh.
A breeze blew in from nowhere, brushing past Shendu as he sat silently on his throne, slowly falling into deep meditation.
Three days flew by in the blink of an eye.
Over the Ancient Asia continent, the sky was thick with black clouds. Thunder roared, rain poured, wind howled, hail and snow fell together, and the ground shook violently.
These strange signs in nature signaled the arrival of the other seven demon lords.
For a while, the demon lords who had been busy fighting among themselves dropped everything and rushed to the capital to figure out what was going on.
"Ling'er dismissed their concerns with a simple explanation: the strange weather was merely caused by the arrival of demon lords from other continents, nothing to worry about. Still, many of the demon lords turned pale and quickly retreated back to their own lands, going into hiding. Many of them were traitors who had abandoned their former lords to serve the Fire Lord, including the Black Shadow group.
Tara and the others were seriously worried Bo Gang might come looking for trouble."
There were tons of demons who had fled from their original masters and thrown in their lot with Shendu because they couldn't stand being exploited anymore.
They'd heard that life under the Fire Lord was way better—so they switched sides.
"Meanwhile, in a human city, Lu Dongbin and his group had just returned to their place and were staring at the chaotic state of the Ancient Asia continent. He couldn't help but ask their late master's old companion, his Uncle-Master, 'What's going on?!'"
The old man stroked his beard, face dead serious. "This is the natural response of the world to the presence of the demon lords' power."
"Every move a demon lord makes can shake the entire world."
Lu Dongbin and the others went completely silent.
They'd thought that with the pure chi artifact and the demon-sealing prison, all they had to do was wait for pure chi to bless them again, and they'd be ready to fight the demon lords head-on.
But this revelation hit them hard—like a slap in the face.
Even if they boosted their own powers, there was no way they could shake the heavens and earth like the demon lords.
Compared to them, they were still a long, long way off.
They looked at each other—eight pairs of eyes meeting in silent agreement.
They needed to keep traveling the world, using pure chi to hide their presence, and find their path to breakthrough.
Only by reaching the same level as the demon lords on their own could they hope to win.
They'd always assumed pure chi would carry them to victory. But now they realized the demon lords had dark chi supporting them too. If they didn't reach that level themselves, it wouldn't matter—if both chi and dark chi clashed on the battlefield, they'd still lose.
In the very heart of the Ancient Asia continent stood the palace of the demon lord.
Shendu looked up at the sky, taking in the natural chaos. He knew—the other seven demon lords had arrived.
Soon, a raspy voice called out from the entrance.
"My brother! It's been too long!"
A figure slowly stepped inside, guided by Ling'er.
"Simu, long time no see. Welcome to my kingdom," Shendu replied warmly.
"Please, take a seat."
He pointed to the seven thrones arranged near his. Those were reserved for the other demon lords.
Shendu's was at the head of the table—the seat of power.
Simu sat down leisurely. "So I'm the first to arrive?"
Shendu nodded. Simu glanced at him, secretly thinking how much more mysterious and unreadable his "brother" had become. Just like that arrogant old Zhou Lan.
"Something on your mind, Simu?" Shendu narrowed his eyes, noticing Simu's odd stare.
Simu shrugged. "My brother, you really are starting to like that fragile human form more and more."
"Ha!" Shendu laughed. "And you're one to talk, Simu! Don't act like you're any different!"
Simu nodded. "True. Human bodies are really convenient."
He didn't argue. After all, he'd been using a human form for a long time himself. He knew how practical it was.
Among the eight demon lords, only Shendu and Simu preferred the human shape. The others stuck with their original monstrous forms.
Just then, a chilling wind blew through.
This time, Ling'er didn't enter—only the hulking figure of Xiaofeng, the frog-like demon of wind, slowly made his way inside.
Right behind him was Su, the thunder demon.
After some quick catching up, they waited for the others to arrive.
"The fourth to show up was Dikui, the demon of earth. Then, almost like it was planned, Zhou Lan and Basha entered the palace at the exact same time. With six of the seven demon lords now present, only Bo Gang was missing."
After a while, a huge crash echoed through the palace.
The demon lords, who had been chatting casually, turned to look at the entrance.
"Lord Bo Gang, aren't you a little too big?" Ling'er entered with Bo Gang… but a loud boom sounded from behind them.
She turned around—and her jaw dropped.
Bo Gang had gotten himself completely stuck in the doorway.
This door was over a hundred meters tall—and he still couldn't get through.
"....."