"Valmont has more courage than I imagined."
Zenith pulled a shuriken from a wooden dummy, flicked it, and listened to the crisp metallic echo it produced.
The magic of this world identified the shuriken as "Japanese steel," and it could even be used as a consumable material for magic spells.
But fundamentally, this thing should have been transmuted from magic. The Shadowkhan all hailed from the Shadow Realm in the shadow dimension, but there were no mineral deposits or round-the-clock steel mills there.
"Is it a magical version of mass-energy conversion, or alchemy?"
Zenith thought about it. In his impression, the other types of Shadowkhan didn't seem to have extra equipment; these basic Ninja Khan seemed to be the only exception.
Even the Samurai Khan who fought with katanas had weapons and armor made of "shadows," lacking physical substance.
"Either the Ninja Khan are special, or someone made them special."
Very few people could do this, or rather, the suspect could be directly narrowed down to Shendu, who was both a demon and a dark chi wizard.
This time, Zenith wasn't planning to give Shendu any face. Last time was to swin—exchange for the talisman tracker from Shendu. As for this time...
Zenith kicked open the door to Valmont's office, glanced at the regular characters who were currently getting a scolding, and said directly, "Shendu, I heard you've been looking for me everywhere?"
His domineering aura leaked out. Valmont saw this and thought, *How can I let this slide?* He smirked and immediately called out his newly recruited strongest enforcer.
Red pants, blue vest, and a meticulously groomed three-part mustache. This muscular brute had a ruthless look in his eyes as he cracked his knuckles.
"I am Hak Fu, the Black Tiger! Prepare to die!"
The king of trash talk made his debut this early? Zenith slightly tilted his head to dodge Hak Fu's "Two Dragons Playing with a Pearl," and then began to appreciate the performance of the strongest rapper in the entire show.
"Mantis Fist! Scorpion Palm! Lotus Hover! Gorilla Snaps the Branch! Eagle Spreads its Wings! Elephant Kick! Angry Crow Takes Flight!!"
Hak Fu's raw strength was actually higher than Jackie Chan's at this point. Just from his performance in the original show, being able to punch through a steel barrel with a chocolate bar was proof enough.
Unfortunately, he was facing Zenith. With a single wave of his hand, a blast of air blew Hak Fu straight into the opposite wall. "Thanks for the lesson, Crow."
Shendu had no reaction at all to Zenith thrashing Hak Fu. He only spoke after Zenith stopped. "I smell the Talismans. Zenith, leader of the Illuminati, my loyal servant... you won't disappoint me, right?"
Zenith rummaged through his inventory and pulled out the original Talismans, each engraved with the silhouette of a Chinese zodiac animal, stacking them in his palm.
"Want them? Like them? Bark like a dog if you want them."
Zenith was answered by a massive blast of dragon breath. Breathing fire was a dragon's instinct; even without the Dragon Talisman and a flesh-and-blood body, Shendu could still spew flames.
"No bad breath. Commendable."
Zenith gave the dragon breath a thumbs-up. The stone statue couldn't show expressions, but Shendu's voice betrayed a simmering, quiet fury.
That kind of suppressed, extreme rage.
"Zenith, you are humiliating me! Humiliating a noble dragon!"
Zenith put the Talismans away and reached out a hand, pressing it against the surface of the statue.
"How is this humiliation? It's a transaction at best. But since you don't like it, we can change the terms of the deal."
"Either you bark, or I smash this stone statue you're residing in into dust right now."
Give him an inch and he takes a mile. I say a few nice words and you actually take them seriously? You even dared to send people to capture me?
I have to make you understand who's the real boss here.
To be fair, Shendu was very fragile right now. A single RPG could blow this flimsy stone body to smithereens.
But Shendu wouldn't die from that. He would just return to the Netherworld in spirit form, nothing more.
"You possess powerful magic, but you still cannot kill me! For a demon, death is merely another state of existence!"
Immortality made one fearless. As a renowned dark chi wizard, even if he lost his physical body, he could find a way to resurrect himself.
Or rather, he was already dissatisfied with this petrified body anyway.
Even if he regained his flesh-and-blood body using the Rat Talisman, his powers would still exist within him in the form of Talismans, which could be yanked out of thin air by certain magic.
Shendu stayed silent, but the Finn trio below couldn't hold back. Ratso whispered to the other two, "Why did Zenith put his hand on the statue?"
Finn replied, "They look very affectionate."
Chow added, "I heard it. Zenith told Shendu to bark like a dog. Man, they're into some kinky stuff."
"..." Zenith fell silent. He had placed his hand on Shendu's statue to analyze the source of his magic, to see if he could follow the trail and find Shendu's old lair.
After all, Shendu had a lot of good stuff. Even though Zenith didn't need it much right now, it didn't mean it wouldn't be useful later.
Zenith had the heart of wanting to become Doraemon, but he still needed to work hard for now.
"Found it. The first Oni Mask from the upcoming mask arc, the source of the Ninja Khan summons!"
Zenith let go and looked at Shendu's statue with a smile. "So tough. I like tough guys like you. Remember to go rob Section 13 for the Talismans. I'll deal with you after you get your body back."
The reason he didn't finish Shendu off right now was that without Shendu's power supply, the pile of magical artifacts in his lair, along with the palace itself, would turn to dust.
Although it wouldn't affect the mask, what if Shendu's old lair had his research notes from back in the day? That would be a waste.
Leave professional matters to the professionals. Zenith grabbed Serie, who was playing video games with Jade, and teleported directly to Shendu's old lair in Hong Kong, ignoring Jade's resentful gaze.
"Setting aside why you brought me here, you actually learned spatial magic!!"
This was the most shocking thing Serie had experienced in nearly ten thousand years, bar none. She walked a circle around Zenith. "Did you crash-course all of modern mathematics?"
"You think way too highly of me." Zenith rolled his eyes and had Serie observe Shendu's entire palace.
He could tell that everything here was made of magic, but he couldn't understand how it worked at all.
Although he had been studying magic for a long time, that "long time" was only relative to ordinary people. For many things he hadn't learned yet, he still had to rely on Serie.
While Serie was researching, Zenith wandered around. What if he could trigger some mod? Unlocking anything was a profit.
Unfortunately, he walked all the way to the vicinity of that mask without unlocking anything new.
Zenith picked up the dark red mask. He could feel that it was connected to a small world with blurry coordinates, along with two distinct branches.
One of them was Shendu, and the other was probably the dark chi wizard Daolon Wong.
"Serie can study the magic-to-matter conversion part, and I'll figure out how the Shadowkhan are summoned. If this crappy Shadow Realm can do it, there's no reason my coordinate space-anchor world can't."
Come to think of it, facing a massive mess, Zenith waving his hands and summoning countless SPW agents out of thin air... that sounded pretty cool.
Even though the members of the SPW Foundation would definitely object.