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Inside the palace of Demon Castle, Shendu's eyes snapped open, filled with utter shock.
"The chi of righteousness has awakened!""How is this possible?!""According to my calculations, even under the fastest possible conditions, righteous chi shouldn't awaken naturally for at least another hundred years!""But now... it's awakened early!"
Because of the demons' massacre of human wizards and sorcerers, the balance tipped and triggered the early revival of righteous chi, alerting both the Eight Immortals and the meditating Shendu.
The Eight Immortals had been chosen by the chi itself. As for Shendu, his power already surpassed that of ordinary demon lords, so of course, he noticed the righteous chi's return immediately.
Far away on the dark side of the moon, the Demon Monarch of the Moon—Zublon—also sensed it.
With his four arms coiling around him and his tongue flicking out, he grinned with amusement.
"Interesting… righteous chi has awakened!""Let's see if those eight humans are truly worthy of challenging the rule of us demon lords over this world!"
As he spoke, Zublon's gaze locked onto Earth—specifically, the battlefield where the mages and demons were about to clash.
He knew Lü Dongbin and the others who were aligned with the Eight Trigrams symbols were there.
But he didn't make a move. He simply watched in silence.
He was waiting—for the strongest representative of righteous chi to show up. Only then would things get fun.
Meanwhile, back with Shendu, after running countless divinations, he finally figured out the cause of the chi's early awakening.
"When evil suppresses righteousness too much, it backlashes. Now, the world itself is launching a battle to restore balance between yin and yang."
He had nothing to say in response to the results.
Who would've thought that the demons' decision to wipe out all human mages would piss off the righteous chi so much that it would wake up ahead of schedule?
Shendu was just about to head out—then stopped.
After thinking deeply for a long while, he shut his eyes again and remained where he was, waiting for Lü Dongbin and the others to reach their full potential.
Unlike Zublon, Shendu was thinking on a bigger scale.
In mythology, fate and momentum are not to be defied.
In the Jackie Chan Adventures universe, righteous chi and dark chi share the world's fate equally.
So if righteous chi wants to power up the Eight Immortals to their peak, attacking now would only accelerate Lü Dongbin's rise.
In the original show, the most wicked sorcerer—Daolon Wong—used ancient forbidden spells to help Shendu escape from the Netherworld and return to life, all to get his hands on the Dragon Talisman.
In return? Shendu betrayed him. Then he went on to reclaim the twelve magical powers that were once his.
In the zoo, before being turned back into stone by Uncle, Shendu was literally kicked across the room by Jackie Chan—a mortal with zero magic.
That was righteous chi at work—giving Jackie enough power to kick a Demon Lord into next week.
If Shendu interfered now, the same thing might happen.
And since this was all preordained, there was no point in trying to stop it.
Better to wait quietly—for the rise of the Eight Immortals and the final, peak battle.
Only after that battle would it be clear who would rule the world:
The Demon Lords—or humanity.
Right now, human grand mages and sorcerers powered by righteous chi had undergone a massive power-up—their magical energy was raging like a storm.
From their side, righteous chi surged upward like an endless ocean, sweeping across the skies.
From the dark chi sorcerers' side, thick waves of dark magic rolled out like choking black mist, cold and terrifying.
The forces of light and dark clashed, perfectly balanced in yin and yang, standing firm against the incoming horde of demon generals.
"Everyone, hold these demons off for the Immortals!"A leading grand mage shouted with a firm voice.
"Today, we stand as one—yin and yang united—to take down the demons and end their eternal rule over humanity!"the leader of the dark chi sorcerers roared.
These dark chi sorcerers had once wandered the world with no allegiance.
But the demons didn't care—they attacked everyone indiscriminately.
The first time, they didn't think much of it.
But now that it was happening again, they realized: if they didn't stand with the righteous chi, the demons would wipe them out too.
And in this moment, they were being empowered not by dark chi—but by righteous chi.
The demon generals serving under the six Demon Lords slowed to a stop.
They looked at the humans standing before them—and grinned wickedly.
"Kill them!""Wipe out their magic!""Obey the Demon Lords!""...!"
And with that, nine hundred demon generals, eyes glowing with bloodlust and weapons forged in dark magic, charged.
All one hundred sixty-two human mages and sorcerers gripped their staffs and charged as well.
Light vs. dark. The two forces collided.
Countless demonic spells and righteous incantations crashed against each other in a wild, chaotic storm.
But this time—things were different.
The humans weren't weak anymore.
This time, they were evenly matched.
Above the battlefield, the six Demon Lords didn't move a muscle—they just watched coldly as their demon generals clashed with the humans.
Since Lü Dongbin and the others hadn't shown up, neither would they.
In fact, all six of them shared the same thought:
"If our minions can wipe out these mages, then the Eight Immortals will have no choice but to show themselves—and probably in rage. If that happens, we'll finally have the chance to crush them for good."
But they hadn't noticed—or maybe hadn't even considered—that righteous chi would awaken at this moment.
Time passed. Day turned to night.
After one full day, the situation on the battlefield had completely changed.
The demons, who thought they'd steamroll the humans, were stunned by the sudden surge in resistance.
Mages—who they once saw as weak—were now holding their ground and fighting on equal terms.
Out of the nine hundred demon generals, several hundred had already fallen.
The humans weren't unscathed either. Of the original 162, more than fifty had died—a huge loss for such a small group.
But they only needed to hold out for two more days.
Once that time passed, everything would fall into place.
They realized: there was no need to fight the demon generals head-on.
If they could just seal the Demon Lords, the Eight Immortals could take care of the rest.
Realizing this, the remaining human mages immediately began casting powerful defensive magic, creating a giant protective shell around themselves.
Like a magical turtle shell, it blocked the demons' path.
To the demons, it looked like the humans were just trapping themselves.
So the demons launched another wave of brutal attacks.
Thunderous blasts echoed across the mountains and forests.
Under the relentless magical bombardment, the ground began to crack, trees fell, and dust filled the air.
Back in the Eight Immortals' palace, Lü Dongbin and the others could feel what was happening.
They saw that people were laying down their lives for them—and in that moment, they made up their minds.
No matter what it took, they would not let those sacrifices be in vain.
"....."