Shendu took a single step forward.
The elongated, distorted timelines vanished from his sight. He had done it, he had returned to the moment before the Demon Portal had opened.
The silhouette before him slowly turned around. It was Zoran. He looked at Shendu with a softened gaze and spoke: "You have returned."
Then, Zoran's eyes lingered on Shendu for a heartbeat. A flicker of an indefinable emotion crossed his pupils, and Zoran's lips curled into a subtle, knowing smile. "Shendu." (神都)
"I am back," Shendu replied with a slight nod.
His aura and bearing were now the polar opposite of what they had been before. He had found his true self. Though he still possessed the body of a dragon-headed humanoid, and his physical form remained unchanged, a surge of vibrant, soaring spirit now radiated from his soul.
It was a stark contrast to the reckless, arrogant creature of the past who was prone to fits of impotent rage. In the river of time, he had reclaimed his identity. He had found the version of himself from the ancient era, the one from the dawn of the siblings' birth. Though still ambitious and high-spirited, he was no longer a clown playing a part.
After a moment of silence, Zoran nodded slightly. "Excellent."
Zoran was genuinely happy for his brother, for the true Shendu. But between brothers, little needed to be said; a simple "excellent" was enough.
Shendu's clear, resolute eyes turned toward the distance. There, Lü Dongbin had only just manifested, and He Xiangu was staring at them in a state of utter bewilderment.
"Tso Lan... Shendu? Shendu...?" Her gaze darted between them, her voice laced with shock. Who was this being standing before her, and who was the one who had just lunged at her only to be repelled by Lü Dongbin?
Why were there two Shendus?
Beside Zoran, Shendu extended his hand. "Brother, I have completed the task. I reversed time and space, bringing back both myself and your power."
He opened his hand to reveal the concentrated essence of Zoran's power, which he had gripped tightly in his palm after Zoran's self-destruction in the future. Just as they had planned, Shendu had brought that power back to the "present."
"You did well." With a casual sweep of his hand, Zoran took the power, letting it hover above his palm.
"This... is how we break the cycle!" Zoran sighed.
Utilizing the core essence of the two demons to reverse time and add weight to their side of the scale… this was the strategy Zoran had proposed and coordinated from the start. His brother had executed it perfectly.
Zoran turned his gaze toward He Xiangu and said calmly, "As the elder, I cannot afford to fall behind."
The moment he finished speaking, his aura exploded. He channeled the power of his future self, pushing his capabilities to a brand-new zenith!
Beside him, Shendu gave a faint smile. He reached out toward the other Shendu, the one from the current timeline, and whispered, "Power."
In He Xiangu's eyes, the previous Shendu began to distort like ripples on water, before being absorbed entirely into the true Shendu's body. That was the power Zoran had brought from another world to reshape the statue's body; for the true Shendu, however, it was no longer necessary.
Shendu laughed heartily. He reached out toward the azure planet below and commanded, "My Demon Chi... RETURN!"
As his voice rang out, the vast Fire Demon Chi surged toward him like a hundred rivers rushing to the sea. In an instant, it returned to his embrace. His aura remained steady, but his eyes grew increasingly bright with confidence.
He had found his past self and reclaimed his past power. This time, he truly lacked for nothing.
The Demon of Fire, in his complete and perfect form, stood tall in the vacuum of space.
"It is not enough!" He Xiangu hissed, nearly grinding her teeth to dust. A massive lotus apparition bloomed behind her as she charged at Tso Lan.
Lü Dongbin likewise raised his sword. They had sealed the demons in this state once before during the ancient times. To them, this was merely history repeating itself.
But Zoran simply shook his head.
His form ascended instantly, hovering above the others with infinite majesty. He extended a skeletal arm, the Pan'ku Box glowing brilliantly in his palm. A Demon Portal thundered open, but it was not a door for sealing.
With Shendu back at his peak, the Pan'ku Box could naturally summon a projection of him at his pinnacle.
The Shendu Projection stepped out of the portal, standing side-by-side with the original. Lü Dongbin's pupils shook with disbelief as he stared at the two Shendus. This time, there really were two of them.
"I have waited a long time for this day," Shendu stood tall, lost for a moment in memory.
Then, he and his projection lunged forward simultaneously, their speed reaching the absolute limit. Two identical versions of him, one on the left and one on the right, slammed their monstrous claws into the chest of Lü Dongbin's dark blue Taoist robes, sending the deity flying backward.
This was pure mathematics. Perhaps one Shendu was no match for Lü Dongbin. But two? It was a simple matter of outnumbering the enemy.
"It is time you tasted what it feels like to be ganged up on," Shendu growled, his form becoming a blur of afterimages in the vacuum.
On the other side, the lotus spanning the vacuum was in full bloom. He Xiangu stood upon the pedestal, pressing in close to Zoran. She glared at him; she was confident Zoran could not stop her.
Yet, Zoran remained motionless, his gaze dropping coldly upon her. He extended a secondary arm, upon which the brilliant golden chains slithered like serpents.
"Immortal, I have brought a gift for you," he smiled.
The Chains of Heaven.
This was the reward Zoran had obtained from the previous world. It was one of Gilgamesh's Noble Phantasms, not the original, but a system-enhanced version.
Enkidu: Bind the Gods
- A specialized anti-divine artifact. A one-time use item that calculates power based on the target's divinity; the higher the divinity, the stronger the chain. Upon successful calculation, it locks down all mobility and abilities of the target.
Originally, the Eight Immortals and the Eight Demon Sorcerers shared a similar origin. The specialized Chains of Heaven, in theory, should have functioned like the prototype; if Gilgamesh couldn't lock down Shendu, Zoran shouldn't have been able to lock down He Xiangu.
However, the Eight Immortals were the exception. They were "Immortal Deities," deities of myth and legend across multiple worlds. And the System only followed its own rules.
[Targeting: He Xiangu. Calculation: Complete.]
Four golden chains shot out from the void like lightning. They were unavoidable, binding He Xiangu's limbs with iron-clad finality.
The lotus pedestal came to a dead stop.
She was only a single step away from Zoran. Her overflowing divine radiance almost reflected off Zoran's face, yet she stopped, unable to resist. Zoran could see the fury in her eyes clearly replaced by mounting terror. She was pinned before him, immobile.
"What... what power is this?" she gasped.
Her jade-like wrists and ankles were entirely ensnared. Standing opposite one another in the vacuum—one black, one white; one Yin, one Yang.
Zoran smoothed his wide sleeves and drifted slowly toward He Xiangu until they were eye-to-eye. The purple-black Demon Chi rolling off his body threatened to swallow her, crawling across her face like a cold, flameless tongue.
Zoran curled his lips into a smile and whispered:
"Immortal, this is a parting gift... specially prepared for you by me, the Moon Demon."
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