A magnificent palace rose from the earth, standing like an enormous beast that had slept for a thousand years.
Shendu, finally revived after a millennium of imprisonment, descended upon the long-sealed palace.
The moment he landed, he impatiently extended a claw and tore through the air.
A magical portal split open.
Boiling magma churned beyond it, as though the gate connected directly to an abyss.
Dragons eagerly poked their heads through, opening their jaws to breathe fire.
Excitement filled their eyes as if they couldn’t wait to follow their master and burn the entire continent.
Shendu’s hoarse voice rang out with arrogant excitement.
“This is the gift I prepared for the world!”
But before he could release the dragons, a powerful gust suddenly tore through the air behind him.
Luke had already rushed forward like a ghost.
He grabbed Shendu from behind and drove his enchanted hands straight into the demon’s body.
With a violent pull, he ripped two Talismans out of Shendu at once.
The instant their power disappeared, Shendu spun around violently.
His huge body thrashed, and one thick arm swung like an iron whip, sending Luke flying.
Luke flipped once in midair and landed firmly on both feet.
He opened his hands.
In his right palm was an orange-red Talisman engraved with a rooster.
In his left was a bright yellow Talisman marked with a dog.
“Hm? The immortal Dog and the floating Rooster. Not bad luck.”
The corner of Luke’s mouth rose slightly.
Shendu turned toward him, his vicious demonic eyes glowing red with fury.
“Human, I remember you! Just like Jackie Chan, you interfered with my servants while they were gathering my Talismans!”
Two terrifying laser beams began gathering in Shendu’s crimson eyes.
Luke rolled sideways just in time.
The high-temperature lasers blasted two deep craters into the ground where he had been standing.
Sand and soil were instantly vaporized and crystallized, leaving behind scorched black pits.
“He really is terrifyingly strong…”
Luke’s expression became serious.
Even while holding the Dog Talisman’s immortality, he had no intention of taking one of Shendu’s heavy attacks head-on.
The Dog Talisman granted agelessness and immortality.
In gaming terms, it effectively prevented the holder’s HP from reaching zero.
That didn’t mean the holder couldn’t feel pain, be knocked unconscious, or otherwise incapacitated.
And Shendu, with the combined power of the Talismans, was currently the strongest demon in the world.
But precisely because Shendu had become too powerful and disrupted the world’s Balance, Luke could feel the force maintaining that Balance beginning to act.
The Good Chi within him surged wildly.
His physical strength and explosive power rose dramatically, while General Razo’s Black Chi stopped resisting it entirely and began cooperating with the Good Chi, transforming into Good Chi energy instead.
“So this is what it feels like to have the world’s Balance backing me? I feel like I could take on ten people right now!”
Luke clenched his fist and felt the explosive power running through his body.
Shendu’s crimson eyes burned with fury.
“I’ll kill you!”
Empowered by the Rabbit Talisman, Shendu became a blur and appeared in front of Luke almost instantly.
His enormous dragon claw, strengthened by the Ox Talisman, thrust forward with terrifying force.
The sound of the air being torn apart was painful to the ears, as though the strike could punch straight through the earth.
Luke immediately tightened his grip on the Rooster Talisman.
Its magic activated.
Invisible force supported his feet, and his body shot backward as lightly as a feather, narrowly avoiding the lethal strike.
Boom!
Shendu’s claw smashed into the ground.
The earth shattered, sending dirt and stone flying high into the air.
Using the Rooster Talisman’s levitation, Luke stepped through empty air and shot forward like an arrow.
In an instant, he reached Shendu and delivered a flying kick directly to the demon’s face.
Boom!
The impact was tremendous.
Shendu actually staggered backward.
His massive body briefly stiffened, his gaze unfocused for a moment as surprise flashed across his face. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
Luke immediately followed up.
His left hand shot forward like a blade, pierced through Shendu’s hardened exterior, and accurately seized a third Talisman inside his body.
“My Talisman!”
Shendu roared and swung a huge claw toward Luke with enough force to crush everything in its path.
At such close range, dodging was impossible.
A deep shadow flashed in Luke’s eyes.
“My soldiers!”
He activated the power of the Shadowkhan.
In an instant, the shadow beneath Shendu became unnaturally deep, spreading across the ground before losing all solidity and becoming an empty darkness.
One of Shendu’s feet suddenly lost its footing.
His balance collapsed.
The heavy blow that should have struck Luke shifted off course.
The claw scraped past Luke’s scalp before smashing into the ground, tearing away his hood and cutting through the bandage around his forehead.
Luke seized the opportunity and pulled out the third Talisman.
“The Snake Talisman?”
He raised an eyebrow, then immediately opened a safe distance between himself and Shendu.
Only then did Shendu realize that Luke could control shadows.
“A mask? Brat, you’ve obtained the power of the Shadowkhan too.”
During his reign, Shendu had once obtained another Oni Mask and gained the ability to summon Ninja Shadowkhan.
His eyes widened slightly as he stared at the demonic features now exposed across half of Luke’s face.
Luke’s voice took on a sinister tone.
“Yes, Shendu. Stealing the power of the Shadow Realm comes with a price. An Oni General has come to collect the debt.”
The consciousness of General Razo’s fragmented spirit surfaced, its cold gaze locking onto Shendu with intense hostility toward the Demon Sorcerer of Fire who had stolen the Shadowkhan’s power.
Shendu answered with complete arrogance.
“I am the ruler of this land. Serving me is an honor for the Shadow Realm!”
“Shameless!”
General Razo’s fragmented spirit immediately cursed him.
Luke said nothing.
The shadows around him had already begun moving.
Half of a Shadowkhan emerged from Luke’s shadow and took the Snake Talisman from his palm.
In the next instant, it transformed into a streak of darkness and disappeared back into the shadows.
“My Talisman!”
Shendu’s rage finally reached its peak.
Destructive dragon fire erupted from his mouth.
Explosive flames gathered in both hands, while two scorching laser beams shot from his crimson eyes.
A sea of fire surged toward Luke.
The air distorted from the heat, and burning waves rolled forward as though they could consume a person instantly.
Luke’s expression tightened.
He pushed the Rooster Talisman’s levitation power to its limit and moved through the air, constantly shifting between the barrage of flames and lasers.
His and Shendu’s figures were repeatedly swallowed by the raging fire.
Every dodge looked dangerously close, with the slightest mistake enough to leave Luke engulfed by flame and extreme heat.
“This is getting troublesome.”
Luke frowned.
“Shendu knows perfectly well that he can’t let me get close.”
As Luke continued maneuvering through the bombardment, a strange magical beam suddenly shot through a gap in the flames and flew straight toward his forehead.
Luke’s heart tightened.
A Shadowkhan instantly emerged from the darkness in his palm and took the beam for him.
The moment it was struck, the Shadowkhan’s body visibly twisted and shrank.
Eventually, it turned into a weak little rat and lost all combat ability.
“The Monkey Talisman. Forced transformation…”
Luke narrowed his eyes.
He recognized one of Shendu’s more troublesome magical abilities.
The evil dragon had mixed transformation magic into his continuous saturation bombardment of flames and lasers.
That made Luke’s situation even harder, leaving him with less and less room to evade.
Using the Rabbit Talisman’s extreme speed, he appeared directly in front of Luke.
Luke’s pupils contracted.
There was no time to dodge.
He immediately raised his arms to defend himself while thick shadows condensed into a solid barrier before him.
Shendu’s claw came crashing down.
The shadow shield shattered layer by layer.
Luke took the heavy blow and was hurled into the palace wall.
Bricks and stone broke apart around him as dust filled the air.
By the time his vision cleared, Shendu had already prepared his heat vision.
His glowing eyes locked onto Luke as he let out a cruel, mocking roar.
“I can’t wait to hear you scream.”
Luke narrowed his eyes.
He immediately raised the Dog Talisman in front of himself and activated its immortality, protecting his life against the incoming attack.
Shendu’s destructive strike was about to fire.
Then, in the next instant—
The demon’s heat vision suddenly went out.
Shendu froze and blinked his crimson eyes.
“My Talisman power?”
He whipped his head around.
Someone invisible to the naked eye had driven hands coated in the Talisman-extraction magic into Shendu’s body and was forcibly pulling out another Talisman.
“The Pig Talisman.”
Jackie’s voice came from empty air.
He held the freshly extracted Pig Talisman in his left hand, while his right held the dark-green Snake Talisman that granted invisibility.
While Luke had been keeping Shendu occupied, he had already used the Shadowkhan to deliver the Snake Talisman to Jackie outside the battlefield.
Using its invisibility, Jackie had slipped into the fight and acted at the crucial moment.
As another Talisman left his body and its power disappeared, fury immediately filled Shendu’s face.
Jackie gave an awkward smile and reached in for another Talisman.
“Hello, Shendu. I’m here to take back the Talismans!”
“Jackie!”
Shendu roared furiously and swung his enormous claw toward Jackie behind him.
Jackie had no time to evade and could only instinctively throw a punch in response.
The difference in their size was enormous.
Shendu could tear through reinforced walls, much less Jackie’s flesh-and-blood body.
But the instant fist and claw collided, Shendu was knocked over and sent sliding several meters across the ground.
His face filled with shock.
“My strength?”
Jackie opened his hands.
Two Talismans glowed in his palms.
One was the Pig Talisman.
The other was the Ox Talisman.
“The Ox’s strength really is useful.”
Jackie sounded relieved.
The next second, a wave of scorching heat rushed toward him.
An explosive fireball hurled by Shendu came roaring through the air.
Jackie’s expression changed dramatically, and he immediately turned and ran, dodging again and again.
Fireballs continuously gathered in Shendu’s hands and mouth before being hurled toward Jackie one after another.
“You’re all going to die!”
The demon roared.
Then Luke’s teasing voice came from behind him.
“Why don’t you look behind you?”
While Shendu’s attention had been focused on Jackie, Luke seized the opportunity to rush toward his unguarded back.
His left hand pierced through Shendu’s skin and grabbed the sixth Talisman inside his body.
“A one-in-seven chance…”
Luke pulled hard.
Resting in his palm was the Rat Talisman—the core Talisman required for Shendu’s resurrection.