"If you want to get stronger, stop thinking you have to shoulder everything alone. Only an idiot would do that."
Those words still hung in the mist of the Valley of the End, but Shengu Xuan had already vanished into the dense forest upstream of the waterfall. His pace was unhurried, as though he had just finished an utterly boring errand and was looking for somewhere to catch up on sleep.
But his footsteps suddenly stopped.
The deep-purple bead in his pocket grew hot again. This was not the faint restlessness from before, but a steadily rising, searing heat, as if whatever was inside was undergoing some violent transformation.
Frowning, Shengu Xuan took out the bead. Dense golden patterns surfaced across its deep-purple exterior. He recognized them: a composite array formed by interweaving the runes of the Twelve Talismans with the authority sigils of the Eight Demons' black chi.
"What's going on?"
The moment he spoke, the system notification chime that had been silent for so long suddenly rang out in his mind.
"Shendu Template integration has reached 100%. All Twelve Talismans activated. All Eight Demons' essences awakened. Dimensional-level threat Kaguya Otsutsuki slain. Black Zetsu's thousand-year game ended. Additional achievements completed. Unlocking final form."
Shengu Xuan raised his eyebrows. The bead in his hand erupted with golden light at that very moment. It was no ordinary light: twelve differently colored streams of talisman power and eight dark authorities surged from his body simultaneously, interweaving around him to form a ceaselessly flowing chaos shell.
He glanced down at his hand. Golden and dark energy flowed beneath his skin like blood vessels, and every inch of muscle was being reshaped by some higher order of power.
``` "Complete Shendu essence unlocked. The host has become a conceptual being above the