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Watching the dragonkin retreat, Shendu murmured to himself.
He had known from the moment Xue'er used the tracking magic device to eliminate the demons. In fact, he had allowed it to happen. He was fine with her wiping them out.
But of all places, the demons from the East District had to cause trouble right in front of him? Completely useless.
The other dragonkin in different regions had probably warned the clueless demons after seeing the royal mark on Xue'er's forehead.
But the ones in the East District? They just sat there doing nothing like a bunch of lazy dead fish.
And in the end, their nonsense landed at his feet. What a joke.
Still… it reminded him of something important.
Three whole days. That was how long Xue'er had been out in Huomu City.
A normal human body couldn't possibly comb through every inch of Huomu City in just three days. But the tracking device she was using could release a red beam and scan large areas at once.
On top of that, because she bore the mark of the Fire Monarch, Xue'er wasn't just some weak, squishy human. She had real power—strong enough to beat an average demon.
But she definitely couldn't take on a dragonkin. Humans and demons were on completely different levels physically.
And now, the fourth day was about to start. She still wasn't back. What was she up to?
With that thought, Shendu closed his eyes and channeled the power of fire, merging it into Xue'er's vision.
Through her eyes, he saw a happy little family eating dinner together.
"Xue'er, what are you doing?"
Just as she was about to grab some meat with her chopsticks, Xue'er froze, then quietly stood up and walked outside.
Her parents and little sister looked puzzled but didn't say anything.
Once she stepped outside, her knees instinctively bent as she knelt to the ground and whispered, "My Lord, I was having dinner. Tomorrow I'll continue searching for someone who can awaken the tracking device."
Shendu replied calmly, "Then why did the girl inside make the magic tool react? Don't tell me you didn't know."
As soon as he said that, the charm-like tracking device hanging at her waist lit up. Of its six dragon heads, five eyes opened wide.
It was obvious—her little sister was exactly the kind of magic-talented human Shendu was looking for.
Upon hearing that, Xue'er's body trembled violently. She dropped to the ground, forehead touching the dirt. "Please forgive me, My Lord. My sister is just a six-year-old child. I only wanted her to live peacefully at home."
Shendu's ghostly image gave a faint nod, his voice cold. "If there are other humans in Huomu City who can make the dragon heads open, then fine, your sister can stay. But if not—bring her to the palace tomorrow."
"Don't make me send someone to collect you. I won't be so nice then."
With that, Xue'er froze in place, completely stunned and at a loss.
Shendu let out a cold snort and withdrew his spirit back to the palace.
A long time passed.
Xue'er, shivering in the northern wind, stood there, feeling utterly crushed.
She had searched all over Huomu City for three days, and no one had made the magic device react.
But then on the third day, the moment she came home, her little sister caused five dragon eyes to open.
Her heart broke.
That meant she'd have to take her own little sister to the demon's palace—a place full of enslaved humans.
And now, her lord wanted her to bring her sister there tomorrow.
"Ugh… I… I…"
Xue'er's heart ached like never before. But she didn't have a choice.
They couldn't leave Huomu City. The whole world was controlled by demons. Humanity had no way to escape their grip. Fate was cruel—and the only option was submission.
She walked back into the house like a zombie.
Looking up at her parents, she collapsed to her knees and painfully told them everything.
The two didn't say a word. They just silently returned to their room, where soft sobs could be heard.
Ever since Xue'er had been taken away, they had already suffered enough. But what could they do? Humans had the worst luck in this era.
And now their eldest daughter was telling them that the ruler of Huomu City had his eyes on their youngest daughter too.
Take her to the palace? It was beyond insane.
But it was real.
They had no way to resist—only to pray that they'd somehow see each other again someday.
If Xue'er had known the reason Shendu was looking for a human, maybe she wouldn't have felt so hopeless.
He wanted her sister to learn magic—to help develop new kinds of spells.
After all, if Shendu researched magic alone, all he could work with was dark energy. Positive energy rejected him.
But with a human by his side who could study light-based magic…
Shendu had a bold idea: Yin and Yang exist in chaos. Yin and Yang fuse to form chaos again.
Yin was dark energy. Yang was positive energy. If he could master both, he could merge them.
Like the legends said—cultivating both demonic and divine energy.
That kind of power boost? Unimaginable.
Unfortunately, Xue'er had no clue. She had no idea what Shendu planned to do with her sister. All she knew was that humans who entered the palace had terrible fates—lifelong slavery, suffering with no end.
Eventually, she broke down mentally and went to her room, where she cried herself to sleep.
Inside the palace...
Shendu opened his eyes, holding a thick stream of dark energy in his palm.
"In the original story, the Sheng Lord and Ximu created the Grand Grimoire of Magic together."
"Some say it was the Grimoire's creation that gave rise to positive-energy mages and dark-energy sorcerers. But honestly, that's a joke."
"Even without the Grimoire, dark energy dominated for too long. A backlash from positive energy was inevitable. The eight demon lords getting sealed? That was the backlash."
"Even though I crossed over into this world, so what if I don't create a Grimoire?"
"There are always gifted humans who can sense the energies of the world and develop their own light-based magic."
"So, if that's the case, why not create the Grimoire myself?"
"All I have to do is create the foundation of magic, and let my demon siblings carve their own spells into it. We can share and grow together."
"The only issue is… knowing them, they'll probably look down on this kind of stuff."
"The fusion of the eight magics—that's the Eight Trigrams. But that's not easy."
"Positive energy… the Eight Immortals... hmph."
Shendu let out a cold snort, his eyes gleaming as if he saw through everything.
"Positive energy might strike back… but if I can survive the counterattack, light will fall. And dark energy will rise again."
"I'll rule the world once more, for countless years!"
"The so-called Yin-Yang balance in Jackie Chan Adventures... how do you break that? I don't know."
"But enduring the backlash of positive energy... that, I might be able to pull off."
As he spoke, the dark mist in his hand swirled and a faint white glow tried to rise.
But it was crushed—held down completely by the black mist, unable to move.
That was the current state of Blue Star.
Dark energy ruled over light.
The rise of the eight demon lords marked the peak of dark energy's dominance.
The next counterstrike from the light wouldn't come until ages later.
After the Eight Immortals sealed the eight demon lords, the second wave of dark energy came when seven of them helped the Sheng Lord escape Demon Hell.
Then, the Sheng Lord broke his promise and ruled the surface world alone.
Years passed under his reign until light energy slowly recovered.
Then, a mage named Luopei used petrification magic to seal the Sheng Lord once more—ushering in another era of positive energy.
"....."