Chapter 289: Ultimate Possession, Perfect Speed ForceInfused
Central City, Star Umbrella penthouse.
The high-altitude night wind whipped up Iris's messy curls.
She stood at the edge of the helipad, her hands tightly clutching the oversized dark suit draped over her.
The lingering woody scent on the clothes completely covered the hospital disinfectant smell she had originally carried.
Lin Nuo held two glasses of whiskey with ice in one hand, walking out from the glass sliding door behind.
His leather shoes stepped on the special coating of the helipad, making an extremely steady sound.
"Looking down from this height, Central City has no such dirty alleyways." Lin Nuo handed one of the glasses to Iris, "Only the lights piled up by capital."
Iris caught the wine glass.
Her fingertips inadvertently brushed against Lin Nuo's fingertip pads.
Her hand trembled slightly, and the ice cubes in the glass hit the glass, making a crisp sound.
"I used to look for news in those alleys every day." Irislowered her head to look at the amber liquid in the glass, "Joe always said that was the true background color of this city."
"That is the background color of the bottom layer." Lin Nuowalked to her side, his tall and sturdy body just blocking the night wind blowing from ahead for her, "You belong here. Standing high enough means you don't need to guess the secrets hidden in the darkness."
Iris raised her head and took a large gulp of whiskey.
The spicy liquid rolled down her throat, and a warm current rose in her stomach, driving away most of the chill she had accumulated in the medical room.
She turned her head and looked at the man beside her.
Lin Nuo had already taken off the gold-rimmed glasses, and two buttons of his collar were undone.
Without the highly oppressive capitalist demeanor in the laboratory, at this moment he exuded an extremely pure male aggressiveness.
"Aren't you afraid Joe will check up on you for bringing me here?" Iris asked.
"I had Cisco call Joe via S.T.A.R. Labs' dedicated line ten minutes ago." Lin Nuo shook the glass in his hand, "Telling him that Barry was seriously injured, and you fell asleep in the laboratory lounge because of an emotional breakdown."
Iris's breath hitched.
This man had arranged even her final retreat and excuse seamlessly.
"Let's go inside." Lin Nuo took the empty glass from Iris's hand and casually placed it on the bar counter nearby, "It's windy outside, your body can't handle it."
Inside the apartment.
Thick handmade wool carpets were laid in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling windows.
There was no extra lighting, only the city's light spots projected in.
Lin Nuo did not turn on the lights.
He walked to the sofa and leisurely unbuckled the mechanical watch on his left wrist.
The metal strap made an extremely crisp clashing sound.
That watch, carrying his body temperature, was casually tossed onto the marble coffee table.
Iris stood by the door, nervously pinching the hem of the suit.
"Come here." Lin Nuo sat on the edge of the sofa with his legs apart, gazing straight at her.
These two minimalist words carried an unquestionable commanding tone.
Iris swallowed a mouthful of saliva, started moving her legs, and walked step by step in front of Lin Nuo.
The soles of her shoes stepped on the carpet without any sound.
The entire space was so quiet that only their interlaced breathing could be heard.
Lin Nuo raised his hand, his fingertips resting on the collar of the suit on Iris's shoulder.
He didn't pull it down, but instead pushed it outward extremely slowly along the contour of her collarbone.
The oversized suit slid down Iris's shoulders and dropped onto the carpet.
Iris was only wearing a thin silk shirt underneath.
"What he can't give you, I will." Lin Nuo's gaze slid all the way from her slightly trembling eyelashes down to the carotid artery on the side of her neck.
The blood vessels there were beating violently.
Lin Nuo pressed his hands on Iris's waist, used a little force, lifted her entire body up, and pressed her directly onto his lap.
The spatial oppression brought by the size difference instantly overwhelmed Iris.
She was forced to sit astride Lin Nuo's lap, her hands having nowhere to rest, and could only press against his hard chest.
"Lin Nuo..." Iris's voice was hoarse, carrying an extremely obvious tipsy feeling.
"Shh." Lin Nuo's slender index finger pressed against her lips, "Tonight, there is no need to mention anyone's name. (º ʖ º)"
The rough texture on his fingertips brushed across her soft lips.
Lin Nuo's palm traced her waistline all the way up, finally stopping at the back of her neck.
His five fingers clenched, forcefully compelling her to lower her head.
Their lines of sight were intensely focused.
The tips of their noses touched.
Iris could clearly feel the minute shivers caused by Lin Nuo's gaze falling on her skin, a tension that could trigger a mishap at any moment.
Lin Nuo didn't kiss her directly.
His lips brushed against Iris's auricle, his warm breath hitting her sensitive skin.
"Your breathing is ragged." Lin Nuo's voice was lowered very much, carrying a hint of playful amusement.
Iris completely gave up resisting.
She wrapped her arms around Lin Nuo's neck, actively welcoming him.
The rustling sound of clothing friction was infinitely magnified in the quiet room.
Lin Nuo's fingers, separated by that layer of thin silk fabric, slid down her spine inch by inch.
The night was deep.
The neon lights outside the floor-to-ceiling windows danced upon their overlapping silhouettes.
The plunder of capital is never limited to numbers on a balance sheet.
The next morning.
Sunlight spilled onto the carpet through the gaps in the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Iris curled up on the oversized double bed, breathing evenly, her eye corners still bearing a lingering blush.
Wearing a white shirt, Lin Nuo stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows.
The buttons were only buttoned up to his chest, revealing muscular lines.
Holding a cup of black coffee in his hand, his gaze overlooked the awakening city.
Deep within his brain, a cold mechanical voice rang out on schedule.
[Associated target detected: Iris West.]
[Conditions met: Complete possession of body and mind.]
[Interception progress: 100%!]
[Triggered Ultimate Possession Critical Roulette!]
A tiny arc pulled at the corner of Lin Nuo's mouth.
He had waited for this moment for a long time.
[Critical strike settlement completed.]
[Congratulations to the host for obtaining: Speed ForceOrigin (Perfect Grade).]
[Note: This origin has been purged of current Universerejection by the system. The host can reverse time at will without generating time wraith backlash.]
Boom!
An extremely massive deep-blue energy violently detonated within Lin Nuo's veins and blood vessels.
This was not the half-baked power that Barry had to rely on a treadmill to barely squeeze out.
This was the true dimensional law.
The coffee cup in Lin Nuo's hand instantly froze in mid-air.
It wasn't that he was holding the cup, but rather that the time scale around the cup had been forcibly stagnated.
The heat rising from the rim of the cup froze into a bizarre shape.
Under the flushing of this energy, the Hulk-level violent physical body emitted a muffled sound like war drums.
The purplish-red blood and the deep-blue time law fused perfectly.
The law fractures generated when sealed and exiled by the Vishanti were completely smoothed out at this moment.
The Quicksilver Speed Factor in a state of deep dormancy emitted joyful vibrations, directly swallowed and assimilated by this higher-dimensional Speed Force.
The resonance of the Space Stone fragments reached its peak.
Lin Nuo raised his right hand.
His five fingers opened.
Deep-blue electric arcs jumped wildly at his fingertips, even causing naked-eye-visible folded water ripples in the surrounding space.
He no longer needed to run wildly on a treadmill like a fool.
As long as he wanted, he could now directly cleave the river of time.
Next, it was time to go to S.T.A.R. Labs and take a look at that boy who had lost everything.
S.T.A.R. Labs, medical room.
The pungent smell of nutrient solution permeated the air.
The glass cover of the life pod made an extremely slight exhaust sound, and then slowly slid open to both sides.
Barry Allen suddenly opened his eyes.
His chest heaved violently, greedily gasping for fresh air in large gulps.
He tried to sit up, but the piercing pain from his right leg caused him to fall heavily back onto the hospital bed.
The heavy titanium alloy brace tightly locked his leg bones.
"Don't move." Cisco walked over carrying a tray, his eyes full of bloodshot veins, "Your cell activity has just recovered to ten percent, and your bones are still reorganizing."
Barry grabbed Cisco's wrist, his knuckles turning white from exertion.
"Where is Iris?" Barry's voice was terribly hoarse, "Where is she?"
Cisco avoided Barry's gaze, turning his head to look at Caitlin standing in front of the control console.
Caitlin bit her lower lip and didn't speak.
"I'm asking you where she is!" Barry raised his volume, ignoring the severe pain in his leg, struggling to pull out the tubes on his body.
"She got into Lin Nuo's car last night." Cisco closed his eyes, speaking at a rapid pace to spit out the truth, "She still hasn't returned to Joe's house."
Barry's brain instantly crashed.
The scene of Iris draped in Lin Nuo's coat at the private club last night overlapped with this sentence, turning into a barbed knife that stabbed directly into his heart.
"There is one more thing." Cisco opened his eyes, looking at Barry, his voice exuding extreme despair.
"Star Umbrella's security team completely took over the laboratory's physical servers ten minutes ago."
Cisco pointed at the pitch-black screen on the main console.
"All the super-light-speed data you ran out last night, including the energy fluctuation model of the Speed Force..."
Cisco swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
"All wiped out. Not a single byte was left behind."
Barry stared fixedly at that black screen, his pupils violently trembling.
The speed he was proud of, his trump card for protecting this city, his final bargaining chip to win back Iris.
All gone.
Outside the corridor, an extremely steady sound of leather shoe footsteps came.
From far to near.
Eventually stopping outside the glass door of the medical room.
The door was pushed open.
Wearing a brand-new dark suit, Lin Nuo pushed the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose, a signature refined scoundrel smile hanging on the corner of his mouth.
"Good morning, Mr. Allen." Lin Nuo's tone was even, "It seems your sleep quality last night was quite good."
Barry looked at Lin Nuo, his sanity completely snapping.
"I'm going to kill you!"
Chapter 290: Swept Out, Completely Shattered Pride
Lin Nuo didn't move his position even half a step.
He stood under the blinding shadowless lamp of the medical room, with one hand tucked into his suit trouser pocket.
"Mr. Allen, Central City is a city that speaks of the law."
Lin Nuo raised a hand to push his gold-rimmed glasses, "Intimidating your employer cannot speed up the healing rate of your leg bones."
Barry supported himself on the bed with both hands, trying to pull out the life support tubes on his arms.
"Don't move! Your tibia is still recombining!"
Cisco rushed over from behind the console, pressing down hard on Barry's shoulders.
The glass door of the medical room slid open to both sides.
High heels stepped on the metal floor, making an extremely crisp rhythmic sound.
Iris walked in.
She had changed out of the dusty khaki trench coat from last night, wearing an extremely form-fitting black slim-fitting dress, layered outside with a dark suit jacket that obviously belonged to Lin Nuo.
This outfit completely subverted her original capable journalist temperament, exuding a mature charm meticulously wrapped by top-tier capital.
Most fatally, her curly hair, which was usually tied up casually, was now draped over her shoulders, shielding a few faint red marks on the side of her neck.
Barry stared fixedly at Iris, his gaze sweeping all the way from that suit jacket to her neck.
The string in his head snapped completely.
"Iris..." Barry's throat was dry and hoarse, his voice trembling, "Where... where did you go last night?"
Lin Nuo strode forward extremely naturally, walking to Iris's side.
Without asking for any opinion, he directly reached out an arm, wrapped it around Iris's waist, and drew her towards himself.
Not only did Iris not dodge, but instead, following Lin Nuo's strength, she leaned her body's center of gravity completely against him.
"Are you done handling it?"
Iris raised her head, looking at Lin Nuo's profile.
She didn't care about Barry on the hospital bed in the first place at all, and her tone exuded an extremely familiar intimacy.
"He just woke up, and his emotions are extremely unstable."
Lin Nuo's fingers rubbed lightly against the fabric on Iris's waist, "You shouldn't have come in, the disinfectant smell here is too heavy."
Barry looked at Lin Nuo's hand wandering around Iris's waist, his eyes bloodshot.
"Take your dirty hands off her!"
Barry grabbed the surgical scissors in the tray beside him and threw them directly at Lin Nuo.
The scissors drew an arc in mid-air, smashed against the special glass protective shield beside Lin Nuo, bounced off to the ground, and made a muffled thud.
Iris turned her head, her brows furrowing together.
"Barry, are you crazy?"
Iris raised her voice, "Lin Nuo just told me outside that he is considering providing you with a follow-up rehabilitation treatment plan, and the moment you wake up, you are smashing things here?"
"He is providing me with a rehabilitation plan?"
Barry pointed at his own legs, his nails turning completely white from exertion, "Iris, open your eyes and see clearly! He is the one who forced me onto that machine! He is the one who drained my energy!"
"Forced you?"
There was no pity at all in Iris's voice, only thick exhaustion and disappointment, "Lin Nuo said, the safety threshold is twice the speed of sound. You were the one who refused to stop. You insisted on running the machine to overload, insisting on breaking your own legs, just to fight for that meaningless backbone in front of Lin Nuo?"
Barry stiffened all over on the bed.
The scene he had envisioned was Iris rushing to the bedside, holding his hand, and denouncing Lin Nuo's atrocities.
But the reality was that Iris stood beside that man, looking at him with the gaze of watching an unreasonable child.
"I was stopping him!"
Barry defended incoherently, "That machine was extracting my power in reverse! He is using me!"
"Using you for what?"
Lin Nuo took over the conversation.
Standing in place, he looked down condescendingly at the man on the hospital bed, "Using you to burn down all the core diversion channels of S.T.A.R. Labs? Or using you to almost paralyze the entire industrial power grid of Central City?"
Lin Nuo turned his head to look at Cisco.
"Show him that damage assessment report."
Cisco swallowed a mouthful of saliva, took out a thick document from the console, walked to the bedside, and handed it to Barry with extreme guilt.
Barry flipped open the document.
It was filled with dense equipment damage details and repair quotations.
"All thirty-one high-frequency induction probes are scrapped. The superconducting cable metal has melted. The energy matrix needs to be remade."
Lin Nuo rattled off a series of terms, "Mr. Allen, your reckless operation has caused Star Umbrella Group direct losses exceeding three billion U.S. dollars."
"That was your trick!"
Barry tore the document in his hand to pieces, paper scraps falling all over the bed, "You were the one who cut off the alarm!"
"This is called framing."
With his palm clasping Iris's shoulder, Lin Nuo pulled her behind him, "Cisco was in the main control room the whole time, and Caitlin was also present. They can all testify that you lost control on the treadmill and ignored the shutdown command."
Barry turned his head abruptly to look at Cisco and Caitlin.
Caitlin immediately lowered her head, staring at the tablet screen in her hands.
Cisco turned around directly, turning his back to the hospital bed, pretending to check the parameters of the instrument.
No one stood up to say a word for Barry.
The dimensional reduction strike of capital and the deterrence of absolute power had completely turned these two people over to the other side.
Iris looked at the hysterical Barry and shook her head.
"Barry, you are always like this."
Iris's tone was extremely cold, "When encountering problems, you only know how to make a fuss and push the responsibility onto others. You destroyed billions of the company's equipment, and you don't even have a single apology."
This sentence became the last straw that crushed Barry.
He looked at Iris, opened his mouth, but could not make any sound.
Fifteen years of affection could not compare to a dinner party and a set of brainwashing rhetoric from this billionaire.
"As your employer, I originally planned to go through legal procedures and apply to the Central City Court for full compensation."
Blocking Iris behind him, Lin Nuo pronounced the final verdict, "But Iris pleaded for you. She felt that your brain wasn't very clear and asked me to leave some leeway."
Barry bit down hard on his back teeth.
The unwillingness and anger in his blood churned crazily.
He did not need Iris's charity, nor did he need this man's leeway.
Lin Nuo straightened his suit hem.
"You are fired, Mr. Allen."
Lin Nuo's tone was extremely smooth, yet carried the sharpness of a scalpel, "From this moment on, you are no longer an employee of S.T.A.R. Labs. In addition, I will have the HR department contact the Central City Police Department directly to cancel your forensic affiliation agreement. The budget of the Central City Police Department is extremely tight, and they won't be willing to pay a salary for a disabled person who needs to sit in a wheelchair for half a year."
Barry's eyes widened.
His pride-and-joy Base was gone, his life-sustaining job was gone, and the only woman he cared about was currently wearing someone else's jacket, standing opposite and watching the show.
Lin Nuo wiped out Barry's value completely on both the physical and social levels.
"Medical expenses will be deducted from your severance pay. I'll have finance wire the remaining balance into your account."
Lin Nuo raised his hand to look at his watch, "You can lie in this medical room until you are fit for discharge. This is the last remaining humanitarianism of Star Umbrella."
Lin Nuo turned around, wrapping his arm around Iris as they walked outward.
"Don't go!"
Barry propped his body up from the bed, a heart-piercing pain shooting from his injured leg, "My speed will definitely recover! I will definitely expose you to everyone!"
Lin Nuo stopped in front of the glass door.
He released Iris's waist and said to her, "Go wait for me in that maybach in the underground garage. I need to give Cisco a few technical instructions alone."
Without any hesitation, Iris nodded and walked straight out the door.
Only Lin Nuo, Barry, and Cisco and Caitlin standing in the corner not daring to breathe loudly were left in the medical room.
Lin Nuo turned around, walking with steady steps back to the hospital bed.
He didn't speak.
He didn't even have any extra expression.
Lin Nuo raised his right hand extremely casually.
Zzz!
An extremely pure, extremely violent deep blue electric arc burst open at Lin Nuo's fingertips without any warning.
The time scale in the air instantly stagnated.
The signature pen dropped by Cisco froze in mid-air.
The rise and fall of Caitlin's chest when breathing was forcibly pressed with a pause button.
In the entire medical room, only Barry could still think.
He stared fixedly at the deep blue light jumping at Lin Nuo's fingertips.
That was the Speed Force.
Furthermore, it was a Speed Force source higher-level and without any impurities than the one he once possessed.
Lin Nuo flipped his wrist.
That deep blue electric arc wandered between his fingers, easily tearing apart the surrounding physical space.
"Relying on this power, you hid behind a mask and played those childish hero games."
Lin Nuo lowered his voice, these words nailing precisely into Barry's eardrums, "And I drained it dry."
Barry's lips trembled violently, tears mixed with cold sweat sliding down.
All his trump cards and all his pride shattered into powder all over the floor in front of this deep blue electric arc.
Lin Nuo clenched his five fingers.
The electric arc dissipated.
The flow of time returned to normal.
Cisco's signature pen dropped to the ground, making a crisp sound.
"Mr. Allen, the game is over."
With extremely refined movements, Lin Nuo pulled out a handkerchief from his suit pocket and wiped his fingers, "Be a good disabled person."
Lin Nuo casually threw the handkerchief into the trash can, turned around, and strode out of the medical room.
S.T.A.R. Labs, underground core main control room.
The induction lights in the metal corridor lit up one by one following Lin Nuo's footsteps.
Lin Nuo pushed open the heavy door of the main control room.
Cisco had already scrambled and taken a shortcut back to the front of the console.
His forehead was covered in cold sweat, his hands hovering above the keyboard, not daring to look back into Lin Nuo's eyes at all.
Lin Nuo walked to the front of the holographic projector.
The panoramic view of that massive ultra-high-frequency particle collider device slowly rotated in mid-air.
"Liquid helium cooling system status."
Lin Nuo didn't have any nonsense and directly issued the order.
"Refill."
Cisco replied while swallowing his saliva, "Metal fatigue has been repaired. But Mr. Lin, without Barry's super-light-speed startup, the collider simply cannot acquire the initial kinetic energy."
Lin Nuo stood in front of the console, raising the right hand that had just crushed the frost villain's hand bones.
The deep blue Speed Force source climbed rapidly along his arm.
The purplish-red blood and deep blue electric arc fused perfectly in his veins.
The surrounding gravitational field completely went out of control, and all the metal parts in the main control room suspended in mid-air.
"Who said I need him?"
Lin Nuo's palm slammed heavily onto the core energy receiver of the main console.
The violent Speed Force source, like a breached flood, directly bypassed the limitations of physical equipment and forcibly poured into the energy matrix.
The lights of all of S.T.A.R. Labs flashed violently.
"Activate the full-band energy matrix."
Lin Nuo's ink-black pupils revealed an absolute desire for control in the light, "Lock onto the Earth-199999 spatial coordinates."
"Cisco."
Lin Nuo's voice drowned out the humming of the equipment, "Prepare to open cross-dimensional time flashback, I'm going to pick someone up and bring them home."
Chapter 291: Time Rift, Returning to the Day of the Blip
Lin Nuo exerted continuous force with his right hand pressed against the core energy receiver.
The deep blue source of the Speed Force washed over the superconducting matrix without reservation, and the metal walls deep beneath S.T.A.R. Labs emitted violent sounds of protest from metal fatigue.
"Mr.... Mr. Lin, the coordinates are being entered." Cisco's fingers nearly slipped as he tapped the keys. "Cross-dimensional positioning requires an anchor point. The machine cannot capture the spatial frequency band named Earth-199999."
The metal doors of the underground main control room slid open to both sides.
Diana strode in, wearing her Amazonian armor with the Lasso of Truth hanging at her waist.
Selina followed closely behind, her black leather outfit conforming to the curves of her body, while she played with a micro-tracker of Wayne Enterprises just confiscated from the Gotham black market.
Having received Lin Nuo's highest directive, the two of them directly cleared out all irrelevant personnel on the periphery of the laboratory.
Lin Nuo withdrew his hand pressed against the receiver.
He closed his eyes, and the Reality Warping authority crystal and the Space Stone fragments deep within his brain region vibrated simultaneously.
Crossing the barriers of the multiverse was simply something ordinary equipment could not achieve.
"There is no need for machines to capture it." Lin Nuoopened his eyes, extremely intense deep blue electric arcs overflowing from the edges of his ink-black pupils. "That Universe has my people."
Lin Nuo spat out a set of irregular numbers. "Cisco, punch these codes into the system. Lock the time scale to one minute before Thanos's fleet descends upon Earth and snaps his fingers."
Cisco did not dare to utter a single word of nonsense, forcibly writing the numbers into the energy matrix.
The underground space of the entire S.T.A.R. Labscompletely lost gravity.
Desks, chairs, coffee cups, and even Cisco himself were all pulled into mid-air by an invisible gravitational force.
Lin Nuo turned around to look at Diana and Selina.
"I am going back to pick them up." Lin Nuo's tone was extremely steady, yet it exuded absolute oppression. "During the time I am away, Central City and Gotham must not fall into chaos. I want to see exact accounts for every single asset here when I return."
Diana pressed one hand against the edge of the armor on her chest, bowing her head in salute to Lin Nuo.
Her clear eyes were filled with undisguised reverence.
In the worldview she reshaped after her cognition was shattered by Lin Nuo, this man was about to cross the Universe to save those innocent lives. This was a greatness and compassion comparable to gods, or even surpassing the Olympian gods.
"The sword of Paradise Island will guard this territory for you." Diana's voice was resolute. "No one can lay a finger on your enterprise."
Selina rolled her eyes and tucked the tracker into her leather jacket pocket.
"Boss, the remnants of the Black Mask in Gotham have been a bit active lately." Selina swayed her waist, approaching Lin Nuo, her fingers naturally smoothing out an extremely small crease on his suit lapel. "You'd better come back quickly, or I'm afraid I won't be able to help myself and will snap the necks of all those fools."
"Go ahead and do it." Lin Nuo's fingertips grazed Selina's chin, his gaze sweeping across her wild face with extreme aggressiveness. "By the way, tell Batman that if he wants to investigate the details of Star Umbrella, he should come to this laboratory to find me in person."
Lin Nuo loosened his tie and casually pulled open the top two buttons of his shirt.
He did not rely on any acceleration equipment.
He stepped back with his right foot, the bottom of his leather shoes engaging in an extremely intense squeeze against the special alloy floor.
The deep blue source of the Speed Force erupted completely at this moment.
Interwoven with the deep purple light of the Space Stonefragments, the gravitational field around Lin Nuo was completely shattered.
Boom!
The moment he started, Lin Nuo directly broke through the speed of light limit in the conventional physical sense.
His body transformed into an afterimage intertwined with red, blue, and purple colors, pulling out an energy wake more than a dozen meters long at the edge of the open space deep underground.
The air was forcibly ignited, and the surrounding metal walls rapidly vaporized under the high temperature and energy scouring.
Cisco was pinned firmly to the ceiling by the powerful airflow, unable even to catch his breath.
He could only watch helplessly as that man wearing a haute couture suit ran out a pitch-black rift in the reality dimension with his bare hands.
Inside the rift, there was no sound, no light, only countless interwoven and disordered light bands.
That was the reflection of the long river of time.
Without any hesitation, Lin Nuo directly crashed into that rift.
The violent laws of time pressed in from all directions.
This power was enough to tear a superhero into their most basic atomic state within milliseconds.
The haute couture suit on Lin Nuo's body turned to flying ash the instant he entered the rift.
Purplish-red blood seeped out from his pores, and under the healing of the perfect-grade Speed Force, it quickly scabbed and fell off.
The Hulk-level violent physical body forcibly propped open a two-meter-square safety zone in this endless tunnel.
Lin Nuo sprinted within the timeline.
He could clearly see the retreating scenery around him.
He saw the scene of Barry being drained of energy and collapsing on the medical bed.
He saw the moment Diana crippled Steve on the beach of Paradise Island.
He even saw the origin point where he was sucked into the stone cell when he first descended to this place.
The resonance of the Space Stone fragments was pushed to its peak.
Lin Nuo's gaze locked onto the golden light rail representing Earth-199999.
Snap.
An extremely crisp cracking sound echoed through the long river of time.
The barriers of dimensions were forcibly smashed open, and a huge suction force wrapped around Lin Nuo's body.
Lin Nuo's feet heavily stepped onto the hard ground, and the space rift rapidly healed behind him.
The surroundings were permeated with an extremely thick smell of gunpowder smoke and blood.
The sky presented an ominous dark red, and the wreckage of a huge alien battleship was obliquely inserted into the distant mountains.
Lin Nuo raised his head.
Ahead of his line of sight was a completely collapsed ruin of ancient buildings.
The bluestone bricks were shattered, and the pillars carved with intricate runes were broken into several sections.
Kamar-Taj!
Lin Nuo had returned here!
Chapter 292: Days of Future Past, The Tyrant's Second Appearance
Only a pile of ruins was left of the ancient temple of Kamar-Taj, and the bluestone-paved square was riddled with craters several meters in diameter.
Smoke billowed in the fierce wind, and above the ruins, the huge shadow of the obsidian spaceship completely blocked out the sky.
Hela's combat boots stepped on the gravel and rubble, making a dull clashing sound. Her dark green combat suit was damaged in many places, and purple-black blood hung from the corners of her mouth.
The Night Sky Sword, which originally represented the master of death, had snapped in the previous collision. The remaining power of the God of Death at her fingertips flickered unstably, and she was extremely weak.
Hela supported her body with the broken half of her sword, blue veins bulging on her forehead.
Beside her, Jean Grey's long red hair flew in the frantic airflow. The Phoenix Fire within her struggled on the verge of losing control, and a violent crimson halo constructed a barrier around her, but under the suppression of the six-colored beams emitted by the Infinity Gauntlet, it melted at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Right in the center of the battlefield, Lin Nuo of the original timeline had his suit sleeves turned to ashes under the backlash of time.
The Reality Warping authority crystal within him vibrated with a near-wail, but he had to forcibly pour the remaining power of the laws into the air in front of him.
Anna Marie's fingertips had turned into pale white powder, and those sparkling flying ashes dispersed in all directions along with the energy aftermath.
No matter how Lin Nuo tried to pull with the modification authority, he could only watch as those grains of sand continuously slipped through his fingers.
Potts sat weakly and slumped under the ruins on the other side, her legs largely desertified, breathing weakly.
Thanos stood on the stone steps at the highest point of the temple square.
His massive purple body was covered in golden armor. Even though parts of it were scorched black by the Phoenix Fire, it still did not detract from his majesty as the overlord of the Universe.
His right hand was raised high, and on the Infinity Gauntletwearing golden armor plates, the light of the six stones reached an unprecedented peak.
Space blue, time green, mind yellow, reality red, power purple, soul orange—the six-colored laws intertwined in the void, forming a halo of laws that completely rewrote this parallel Universe.
"This is not a punishment, but a gift."
Thanos's voice was as dull as a war drum, echoing in the ruined square, exuding absolute arrogance:
"Your resistance is only adding meaningless pain to this Universe."
Hela sneered, forcibly squeezing the dried-up divine power of death within her. In the void behind her, tens of thousands of sharp Night Sky Swords condensed once again.
But Thanos only slightly turned the Reality Stone on the Infinity Gauntlet, and those sharp blades condensed by the divine power of death were forcibly transformed into pale white petals in mid-air, scattering all over the ground in the fierce wind.
Jean Grey let out a painful low roar, pushing her hands forward, the Phoenix Fire on her body attempting to burn a gap in the barrier of the Space Stone.
However, with a casual wave of Thanos's hand, the purple Impact of the Power Stone swept out, directly tearing apart the flaming wings she released.
Jean's body was directly blown away by this huge force, crashing heavily into the broken stone pillar behind her, her bones making a dull grinding sound.
Thanos's five fingers slowly closed together, and his thumb was already resting on the edge of his middle finger joint.
As long as his knuckles rubbed lightly, half of the living beings in this Universe would be completely erased in this millisecond.
Lin Nuo of the original timeline clenched his teeth tightly, driving his Reality Warping authority to the limit. The space before his eyes began to show serious misalignments and folding.
However, in front of the legal barrier constructed by the six stones of the Infinity Gauntlet, every modification he made was forcibly restored by the Time Stone and the Space Stone.
Every backlash from the collapse of the laws left a new scar inside his body, and the skin on his arms began to crack, oozing purplish-red blood.
"Stop, Lin Nuo... You will die."
Anna's voice was faint, extremely weak.
Lin Nuo ignored it. He wanted to mobilize the violent Hulkphysical body to hard-resist, but the power of the Time Stone turned into a quagmire, completely locking his movements, making every step he took extremely difficult.
Just one ten-thousandth of a second before Thanos's knuckle was about to exert force.
High in the dark red sky covered by the shadow of the obsidian spaceship, an extremely dazzling red and blue intertwined electric light violently tore it open.
That was a space-time crack a hundred meters long, and even the space and dimensional barriers were forcibly ablated with distorted ripples.
An absolute kinetic energy that could not be measured by physical common sense, with a concept exceeding the speed of light, heavily smashed down on this desolate square.
The air within a radius of several kilometers was instantly evacuated in the first millisecond, forming an absolute vacuum field.
The gravitational field was severely distorted under the Impact of this kinetic force, and countless tons of gravel and wreckage on the ground all suspended into mid-air.
In this dead point where even time was pulled to near stagnation, a man wearing a white shirt and gold-rimmed glasses stepped out from the space-time crack.
Future Lin Nuo descended.
The instant his soles stepped on the void, the time flow rate within a radius of hundreds of meters was forcibly reduced to the minimum limit by the perfect-grade Speed Force origin.
In Thanos's vision, the snapping action that originally only took one hundred-thousandth of a second to complete became extremely slow at this moment, even slower than a snail crawling.
The muscles on Thanos's face hadn't even had time to produce any ripples due to the suddenly descending majesty before Future Lin Nuo had crossed the void and appeared directly beside him.
"Too slow."
Future Lin Nuo's voice could not propagate in the absolute vacuum field, but that cruel will directly oscillated across the high sky of the entire ruins.
He did not use any cumbersome magic.
His perfect divine body, completely tense under the white shirt, gathered unimaginable physical kinetic energy under the extreme acceleration of the Speed Force.
His right leg pulled a nearly vertical crimson-blue wake in mid-air, and with an extremely arrogant and brutal posture, swept across Thanos's gloved right arm.
A dull Impact sound of bones being forcibly shattered came over.
Under the combined strike of the Speed Force's ultimate kinetic energy and Hulk-level pure strength, the golden armor plates on Thanos's arm shattered and disintegrated.
The bones of that thick purple arm turned into pale white bone fragments in the first millisecond amidst the ten-thousand-ton-level kinetic energy collision.
Under the pull of absolute strength, Thanos's entire right arm, along with the Infinity Gauntlet, was forcibly kicked off right from his shoulder joint!
A large cloud of deep purple blood mist immediately spewed out from the broken end.
The Infinity Gauntlet, accompanied by that long severed arm, flipped and flew towards the extremely high night sky. The beams emitted by the six stones pulled out frantic colorful ribbons of light in the air.
The flow rate of time returned to normal at this moment.
Thanos's towering purple giant body flew backward to the left out of control, and his massive body smashed a tall totem pole, stirring up a large cloud of dust.
He used his remaining left hand to tightly grip his empty right shoulder, thick purple blood gushing out, and cries of pain echoed in the ruins.
Future Lin Nuo landed steadily in the position where Thanos had originally stood.
His white shirt, dampened by sweat, was somewhat messy, and the complex mechanical watch on his wrist was still ticking regularly. He slowly raised his right hand and tapped the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose with his index finger joint.
Lin Nuo of the original timeline was still half-kneeling in the gravel at this moment, looking at the body ahead that was identical to his own yet powerful to the extreme, with a somewhat dazed expression.
Jean and Hela were completely dumbfounded.
"Lin Nuo... How is this possible?"
Hela supported herself with the broken sword and stood up, her gaze moving back and forth between the two Lin Nuos.
In this cruel concept of the God of Death, she had never seen such a bizarre scene.
The progress of Anna Marie's body desertification was forcibly halted because Thanos's right arm was destroyed. She lay weakly in the pile of rocks, looking at this new face wearing a white shirt and emitting deep blue electric light, her eyes somewhat hollow.
Future Lin Nuo turned his head, his gaze condescendingly falling on himself who was gritting his teeth and enduring the backlash of the laws.
"Don't look."
Future Lin Nuo's expression was extremely indifferent, even exuding a condescending arrogance:
"I'll teach you how to thoroughly kill him."
Before the words fell, the Infinity Gauntlet spinning and flying in the sky had lost its upward kinetic energy, mixed with broken golden armor plates, and plummeted in spirals from the high sky.
The high-dimensional law fluctuations emitted by the six stones tore dazzling electric sparks in the air. Any mortal who touched this overflowing energy would be burned into charcoal.
But Future Lin Nuo did not dodge, nor did he even move his body half an inch.
He only slightly raised his right hand. The moment the gauntlet fell to the top of his head, his five fingers reached out, extremely steadily and precisely catching the edge of the Infinity Gauntlet in mid-air.
A muffled sound of metal collision came out.
Future Lin Nuo did not hesitate for a moment. Under everyone's watchful eyes, he extremely toughly put that huge Infinity Gauntlet onto his right arm.
After sensing the new host, the six cosmic stones erupted with a frantic wave of laws sufficient to destroy a star.
Red, blue, yellow, green, purple, and orange six-colored energy thunder frantically spread upwards along the skin of his arm.
But the current Lin Nuo possessed a perfect demigod bloodline, a Hulk-level tyrant's physical body, and that perfect-grade Speed Force origin whose time penalty had been completely erased by the system.
As soon as those energy thunders climbed onto his shoulders, they were ruthlessly swallowed and suppressed by the deep blue Speed Force laws surging in his veins.
Except for some tiny purplish-red blood vessels bulging under the white shirt, his gloved right hand didn't even make the slightest tremble.
"This thing belongs to me now."
Chapter 293: Dual Kings Combined Strike, Inescapable Obliteration
The light of the six Infinity Stones spread along Future Lin Nuo's knuckles, and purple and red energy veins wandered across the surface of his Hulk-level muscles.
The perfect-grade Speed Force origin vibrated at high frequency deep within his blood vessels, instantly forcibly detaining the destructive power overflowing from the Infinity Gauntlet between his five fingers.
Future Lin Nuo lowered his head slightly, his ink-colored pupils presenting an extremely indifferent texture under the reflection of colorful flowing light.
"Is this the so-called Universe order?"
He shook his right hand wearing the golden gauntlet.
The metal pieces on the surface of the gauntlet made a slight clashing sound in the air.
Lin Nuo of the original timeline had already straightened his body from the rubble of the ruins at this moment.
He pressed his hand on the collapsed temple stone pillar, and the Reality Warping force field began to overflow around.
The red light bands outlined one extremely complex geometric figure after another in the air.
"Lock."
Original Lin Nuo spat out this word.
As this word fell, the spatial density around the Kamar-Tajruins was forcibly increased by tens of thousands of times in the first millisecond.
The originally turbulent air molecules completely solidified, and even the wind stagnated in mid-air, turning this thousand-square-meter plaza into an absolutely sealed iron coffin of laws.
Hela knelt half-way in the gravel, her face pale.
She could clearly feel that under the dual aura suppression formed by these two Lin Nuos, even the weakest induction of the surrounding God of Death divine power was completely cut off.
"Space is completely welded shut."
Hela's voice was somewhat low.
Jean Grey's gaze wandered back and forth between the two white-clothed men who looked and dressed identically.
The Phoenix Fire within her body, which had already calmed down, actually proactively retreated into the depths of her soul the second Future Lin Nuo put on the Infinity Gauntlet, showing an extremely obedient posture of submission.
Edge of the plaza.
Thanos, whose right arm was broken, gasped heavily, purple plasma dripping from his incomplete right shoulder joint onto the ground, emitting wisps of sour and rotten white smoke.
This overlord who traversed the Universe showed unbelievable panic on his face for the first time.
His proud "Destiny", his grand plan to save the world prepared for decades, turned into an extremely ridiculous comic performance in front of that white-clothed man who suddenly walked out.
"This is unfair."
Thanos clenched his back teeth tightly, and his remaining left arm picked up the double-bladed battle blade that had fallen on the ground.
The blade scraped a harsh friction sound on the cracked ground.
"You are the biggest virus in this Universe. Without the constraint of laws, all living beings will eventually head towards self-extinction in reproduction."
On Thanos's stalwart body, the golden armor cracked over a large area, but he took heavy steps and launched a dying charge towards Future Lin Nuo above the stone steps.
His speed was forcibly slowed down by the hardened space around him, and every step forward, the bones at the soles of his feet would make a crisp shattering sound due to resisting the solid law space.
Future Lin Nuo didn't even lift his eyelids.
In the vision of the perfect Speed Force, Thanos's movements were full of flaws, as slow as an insect crawling in a mud puddle.
"Destiny?"
Future Lin Nuo's voice did not spread through the air, but directly vibrated in Thanos's mind by high-dimensional thoughts.
"Your so-called Carnage for the balance of the Universe is just your incompetent roar when facing higher-dimensional laws."
Future Lin Nuo took a step out.
The deep blue electric arc brought up an almost vertical trajectory in the void.
The moment Thanos's battle blade finally slashed to high altitude and was about to fall, Future Lin Nuo had already brushed past the phantom of the blade and appeared extremely naturally right in front of Thanos's chest.
His right hand wearing the Infinity Gauntlet formed a fist and delivered it with extreme precision.
Thud.
An extremely dull physical impact sound exploded in the center of the thin-atmosphere ruins.
Future Lin Nuo's fist did not carry the power of any stones, relying solely on the muscle explosive force of the Hulk-level perfect divine body to completely smash through the heavy golden armor on Thanos's chest.
The fragmented armor pieces pierced into the purple muscles, and one could even hear the harsh booming sound of the sternum disintegrating inch by inch.
Thanos's massive body, over two meters tall, flew backward, rolling dozens of meters on the bluestone ground, and the ruins and rubble along the way were all smashed into powder by his strong body.
He supported the ground with his remaining left hand, wanting to stand up, but because his internal organs were completely smashed by this punch, large mouthfuls of purple blood clots gushed directly from his mouth.
That pair of originally fanatical eyes of his had their light rapidly dimming down.
The Infinity Stones were rejecting him.
That source of the Universe that originally resonated with him treated him as non-flammable garbage from the very second Lin Nuo put on the golden gauntlet.
Future Lin Nuo walked to a place five steps away from Thanos and stopped.
He lowered his head, looking at the six primitive stones that had been completely tamed on the gauntlet.
"You spent a lifetime searching for them."
Future Lin Nuo's voice was extremely calm.
"But you don't know that in front of true power, you are just a chess piece that can't even get an admission ticket."
Thanos's left arm trembled slightly. He raised his head, his gaze firmly nailed to the gauntlet flashing with six-color light.
"You... what do you want to do with them?"
"Reckoning."
Future Lin Nuo gave the answer extremely simply.
He slowly raised his right hand.
The friction sound of the golden armor pieces appeared exceptionally crisp in this silent space.
The thumb and middle finger overlapped in the air, and the core halo of the six stones was instantly compressed to the limit by an invisible Speed Force law, condensing on that tiny force-bearing point.
"No... this is not your destiny!"
Thanos roared low, using his last strength to pounce towards Lin Nuo's ankles.
Future Lin Nuo pulled out a cruel arc.
Snap.
An extremely crisp ringing sound spread through the ruins.
This sound was not even as loud as the roaring sound of the surrounding airflow.
But as this sound fell, there was no grand white light sweeping across the entire Universe, nor were there any law fluctuations rewriting the destiny of all living beings.
The absolute erasure command pouring out from the gauntlet, under the dual compression of the Speed Forceand the Reality Warping force field, was precisely controlled within an extremely narrow range.
Thanos's forward-pouncing body stagnated in mid-air.
Starting from his left fingertips, the originally tough and resilient purple skin quickly turned grayish-white, then cracked and turned into powdery dust.
This rate of ash-turning was extremely terrifying.
In just one second, Thanos's left hand, shoulders, massive torso, and even the struggling expression on his face, all weathered inch by inch in this space.
There were no screams, nor any law resistance.
This Universe overlord ultimately turned into a pool of ghastly white ashes on this nameless ruin, and was instantly blown away without a trace the first second a wild wind blew past.
Hela's fingers trembled slightly. She stared at the open space where Thanos disappeared and gasped heavily.
It was over.
That monster who once drove them into desperation and tore this Universe apart couldn't even put up a single second of struggle.
Chapter 294: Two Bodies Merged into One, a Transformation Beyond Shackles
Thanos's ashes scattered above the ruins of Kamar-Taj.
Hela propped herself up on the ground with half a broken sword, panting heavily.
Her eyes, belonging to the God of Death of Asgard, stared fixedly at the man in the white shirt ahead.
Future Lin Nuo did not look at the ashes on the ground.
He raised his right hand wearing the Infinity Gauntlet, his five fingers slowly spreading open.
The six Infinity Stones vibrated violently within the grooves of the golden armor pieces, emitting a high-frequency hum.
They were resisting, fearing the higher-dimensional laws within this vessel that did not belong to this Universe.
"External things are ultimately external things."
Future Lin Nuo's tone was calm as he reached out his left hand, his two slender fingers directly pinching the green-glowing Time Stone.
Without any hesitation, he forcefully gouged the stone right out of the gauntlet.
Just as the green backlash energy of the laws of time was about to erupt, the deep blue Speed Force surging through his veins transformed into a giant net, forcibly wrapping around it and devouring it.
Next came space, reality, power, soul, and mind.
The sounds of metal armor plates breaking rang out one after another.
All six stones were gouged out by him like peeling candy, floating above his palm.
The energy-depleted Infinity Gauntlet turned into a piece of scrap metal, which he casually tossed into the pile of rubble.
Future Lin Nuo turned his head to look at his past self, who was half-kneeling on the ground dozens of meters away, his arms covered in purplish-red cracks.
"Did you see that?"
Future Lin Nuo pushed the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose, "This is the ultimate form of plundering."
Past Lin Nuo straightened his body, tearing off his tattered suit jacket to reveal the bloodshot yet rapidly healing Hulk-level muscles underneath.
"Are you teaching me how to do things?"
Past Lin Nuo's lips twitched into a mocking arc, "Don't forget, you are me."
"So, accept this interest."
Future Lin Nuo strode forward.
He did not walk over, but directly crossed the boundaries of space and time.
Deep blue electric arcs exploded above the ruins, and two identical bodies collided fiercely under the traction of the Speed Force.
There was no explosion, no Impact.
There was only an extremely viscous, high-density force field of laws, centered on Lin Nuo, expanding crazily toward the entire Multiverse.
The violent Hulk-level physical body emitted a muffled sound like war drums, and the purplish-red blood and the deep blue Speed Force origin fused perfectly within the same vessel.
Quicksilver's super-speed factor was pushed to a multi-dimensional peak, and the Reality Warping authority crystal completely filled the final gap under the infusion of the underlying logic of the six Infinity Stones.
Lin Nuo stood in place, closing his eyes.
The six stones transformed into six streams of pure light, directly drilling into the center of his brow and merging into his sea of consciousness.
Phoenix Fire, Death Divinity, Olympian demigod bloodline, and the assimilation mark of Chaos Magic formed a perfect closed loop within his body.
He no longer needed to snap his fingers, chant incantations, or even lift his hand.
With just a thought from him, the physical laws of this Universe would be rewritten according to his will.
The dark red smoke of war above Kamar-Taj was forcibly erased by an invisible force, revealing an extremely clear starry sky.
The surrounding collapsed stone pillars and shattered green bricks, under the intervention of the Reality Warpinglaws, floated in mid-air in violation of the rules of gravity.
Jean Grey stood not far away.
The Phoenix Force within her completely gave up its violent struggle, turning into a gentle crimson halo surrounding Lin Nuo's feet.
"Lin Nuo..." Jean's voice trembled with an extremely morbid infatuation.
She looked at that man as if looking at the sole anchor point of the entire Universe.
Hela dropped the broken sword in her hand.
The pride of Asgard was crushed into pieces in front of this man's absolute power.
Her knees went soft, and she knelt directly on the bluestone slabs, lowering her high head.
"The God of Death surrenders to you."
Hela's voice was filled with undisguised fanaticism.
At the edge of the ruins, a ball of crimson Chaos Magic tore open space.
Wanda stepped out wearing a dark red battle suit.
Sensing the ultimate completion of the Reality Warpinglaws, she rushed over across half of Earth.
The moment she saw Lin Nuo, the light of Chaos Magic in Wanda's eyes danced wildly.
She walked quickly to Lin Nuo's side, very naturally hooked her arm through his, and pressed her cheek against his hard shoulder.
"You got it."
Wanda murmured with an undisguised desire for possession.
Lin Nuo opened his eyes.
Deep within his ink-black pupils, a halo of six-colored laws slowly rotated.
He ignored the woman beside him, his gaze sweeping across the ruins and falling on the broken totem pillar at the end of the square.
The air distorted at a high frequency.
Ancient One's phantom condensed above the totem pillar.
This Sorcerer Supreme, who had guarded Earth for centuries, looked ashen at this moment, her once unfathomable aura completely dissipated.
The golden magic circle beneath her feet that had tried to light up shattered directly into golden powder when it touched the edge of the coercion emanating from Lin Nuo.
"You have broken all balance."
Ancient One looked at Lin Nuo, her voice dry, "The seal of the Vishanti, the karma of the river of time, have all been trampled under your feet."
"Balance is an excuse used by the weak to cover up their incompetence."
Lin Nuo put one hand in his suit trousers pocket, his tone extremely cold, "I didn't spend time playing these magicgames with you to follow your rules."
Lin Nuo raised his right hand and pointed his index finger across the air at Ancient One's phantom.
"Now, the rules of this Universe are decided by me."
Ancient One closed her eyes.
She knew that resistance no longer had any meaning.
Whether it was the eye of agamotto or the mystic arts of Kamar-Taj, in front of this man who had gathered the ultimate laws of the dual Universes, they weren't even a joke.
The phantom slowly dissipated in the night wind, and Ancient One chose a complete retreat.
Lin Nuo withdrew his hand and shifted his gaze to the pile of rubble.
Anna Marie lay weakly there, her previously sand-like fingertips having completely recovered the texture of flesh and blood.
Potts slumped against the stone pillar, the ash state of her legs also forcibly reversed by the Reality Warping laws.
Lin Nuo strode forward, walking up to Anna.
He bent down, extremely domineeringly scooping her up from the ground and holding her in one arm.
"I said I would block all the wind and rain outside."
Lin Nuo's thumb brushed across Anna's pale cheek, and a woody fragrance instantly enveloped her.
Anna gripped the edge of Lin Nuo's shirt tightly, her tears falling uncontrollably.
Lin Nuo offered no extra comfort.
With his other hand, he slashed across the void.
The deep blue Speed Force electric arc, mixed with spatial laws, directly sliced open a portal leading to the headquarters of the Star Umbrella Group.
"Go back, take a bath, and change into clean clothes."
Lin Nuo issued his command with an unquestionable tone.
Wanda helped Potts up, followed closely by Jean and Hela, and the group walked through the portal.
Only Lin Nuo was left alone on the ruins.
He straightened the cuffs of his white shirt, and a dark purple fissure tore open silently.
Chapter 295: Unfinished Karma, Lightning Leaping at the Fingertips
A dark purple spatial rift tore silently in the dome hall of the main building of the North America Star Umbrella Manor.
Lin Nuo took a long stride and stepped out of the rift.
Rapid footsteps came from above the spiral staircase.
Anna Marie didn't even wear slippers, stepping barefoot on the thick wool carpet, running down the stairs all the way.
She was wearing a thin silk loungewear slip, and her usually well-groomed long hair was a bit messy at the moment.
She had no idea that in another timeline that had been forcibly erased, her body had turned into a puddle of pale ashes.
In her cognition, this man had just gone to deal with a slightly larger-scale alien invasion and had now returned without a scratch.
Anna rushed down the last step, without any pause, and directly threw herself into Lin Nuo's arms.
Lin Nuo wrapped one arm around her explosive waist, used a little force, and lifted her whole body up.
The violent physical strength of Hulk-level was controlled by him with extreme precision.
He didn't speak, only placing his other hand on the back of Anna's neck.
His large palm gripped her spine, his rough thumb pressing up inch by inch along her cervical vertebrae.
The skin there was warm, and a lively artery was beating violently.
Lin Nuo felt this extremely real touch, his ink-black pupils surging with the possessiveness unique to Raiders.
He had snatched those private properties swallowed by the long river of time back from the hands of the God of Death by sheer force.
"You are back."
Anna buried her face in the crook of Lin Nuo's neck, greedily breathing in the aggressively woody scent on him.
"Mm."
Lin Nuo turned his head, his lips brushing against her auricle, his tone level, "Come to inspect your power."
Anna's body curled up involuntarily in Lin Nuo's arms.
She raised her head, wrapping her hands around Lin Nuo's neck, her eyes full of morbid infatuation.
Through Lin Nuo's extremely cruel desensitization training, she had long since rid herself of the fear of her own superpower.
What she craved most right now was to draw endless vitality from this man.
"I haven't been slacking off."
Anna bit her lower lip, her fingertips sneaking along the edge of Lin Nuo's shirt to touch his scorching abdominal muscles, "I have completed all the tasks you gave me."
A tiny arc curled at the corner of Lin Nuo's mouth.
He did not stop Anna's movement, letting her fingertips with weak absorption ability wander on his skin.
The Perfect-grade Speed Force origin oscillated at high frequency in his veins, and the tiny bit of vitality Annaabsorbed couldn't even catch up to one ten-thousandth of his recovery speed.
"Talk is cheap."
Lin Nuo's thumb rubbed against her collarbone neither too lightly nor too heavily, evoking a series of fine tremors, "Go wait for me in the bedroom. Wash up clean. (º ʖ º)"
Anna's breathing stagnated, and a distinct blush spread across her cheeks.
She obediently got down from Lin Nuo, stepped barefoot on the floor, and turned to walk upstairs.
Halfway there, she looked back, her gaze lingering on Lin Nuo's unbuttoned collar for two seconds before speeding up and disappearing around the corner of the stairs.
The rhythm of high heels stepping on the marble floor came from the other side of the corridor.
Emma Frost, wearing an extremely form-fitting white professional suit, walked into the dome hall holding two cups of hot coffee.
Her long legs, wrapped in stockings, stepped alternately, every step falling on an extremely precise scale.
She walked to the marble counter and pushed one of the cups of coffee to Lin Nuo's side.
"Boss, welcome home."
Emma's tone was capable, exuding a bottomless submission.
Lin Nuo picked up the coffee and took a sip.
Without sugar, the bitter liquid rolled down his throat, completely dispersing the slight dizziness brought by time travel.
"How is the situation outside handled?"
Lin Nuo casually placed the coffee cup on the counter, one hand stuck in his suit trouser pocket.
"The wreckage of the Obsidian Fleet has been completely taken over by our engineering team."
Emma tapped the tactical tablet in her hand, rows of extremely complicated data popping up on the screen, "The United Nations held an emergency meeting. Representatives of several permanent members argued fiercely at the conference table."
Emma raised her head, her red lips curling into a mocking arc.
"That four-star general at The Pentagon tried to send troops to blockade the ruins of Kamar-Taj in the name of national security."
Emma swiped her fingers across the screen, "I directly cut off two-thirds of their global military satellite network. By the way, I sent that shady slush fund from their defense budget to the public mailboxes of several mainstream media outlets."
"How did they react?"
Lin Nuo pushed the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose.
"That general resigned to take responsibility ten minutes ago."
Emma handed the tablet to Lin Nuo, "Those council members who shouted about a community with a shared future for mankind on TV contacted me privately through encrypted channels. They are willing to cede all overseas mineral mining rights, only asking Star Umbrella to reserve a few spots in underground bunkers for them during the next alien invasion."
Lin Nuo sneered as he looked at the humble emails sent by those politicians on the screen.
"Bunkers?"
Lin Nuo tapped his fingers on the counter twice, "Tell them Star Umbrella does not accept scrap. If they want to live, they must transfer all the energy, communication, and medical lifelines they control to Star Umbrella Holdings unconditionally at an eighty percent discount."
Emma didn't hesitate at all, directly inputting instructions on the tablet.
"What if they refuse?"
Emma asked.
"Refuse?"
Lin Nuo turned his head, his gaze passing through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows to look at the dark night sky outside the manor, "Then let Wanda take a turn over their official residences. The demolition efficiency of Chaos Magic is much cleaner than a nuclear bomb."
Emma bowed her head in salute and sent out the command.
She knew this man's style too well.
In the face of absolute force, any capital game was just a one-sided massacre.
"Any movement from Stark Industries?"
Lin Nuo asked.
"Tony Stark entered a state of deep self-seclusion after the war."
Emma reported, "Miss Potts has completely taken over the daily operations of Stark Industries. Following your instructions, she is gradually transferring Stark Industries' core technical data into Star Umbrella's encrypted database."
Lin Nuo withdrew his gaze with satisfaction.
Miss Potts, this chess piece, had completely deviated from her original track and turned into the sharpest commercial sickle in his hands.
"Notify all executives to hold a board meeting tomorrow morning at eight o'clock."
Lin Nuo issued the final order, "I want to establish absolute rules on this Planet. (º ʖ º)"
Emma picked up her own coffee and slightly bowed.
"As you wish, Boss."
Emma turned and left the hall.
The sound of high heels gradually faded away until it completely disappeared.
Lin Nuo stood alone in the center of the dome hall.
He raised his hand, tore off the tie stained with the smell of gunpowder, and tossed it casually on the sofa.
He took a stride and walked toward the private study at the end of the corridor.
The door of the study opened automatically via sensor.
No main lights were on; only the moonlight outside the floor-to-ceiling windows projected onto the huge black walnut desk.
Lin Nuo walked to the leather swivel chair and sat down.
He rolled up the left sleeve of his white shirt, revealing a forearm with smooth lines.
On the surface of his originally flawless skin, extremely tiny ghost-blue electric arcs were leaping at the moment.
Those electric arcs wandered between the muscle textures, gradually intertwining into an extremely complex three-dimensional coordinate system.
That was the dimensional coordinate of Earth-1.
He used the Speed Force origin to forcibly split the long river of time, cleaning up the mess of the Marvel Universecompletely.
However, at the other end of that timeline, in the S.T.A.R. Labs of Central City, there was still a collider drained of energy.
More importantly, under the night sky of Gotham, there was still an untamed cat guarding his territory.
On the beach of Paradise Island, that demigod princess was still holding the Lasso of Truth, waiting for him to return and fulfill his promise.
Lin Nuo looked at the coordinates flashing on his wrist, his thumb gently rubbing against those ghost-blue electric arcs.
The karma of the Speed Force could not be completely resolved by mere extraction.
Barry Allen's legs had been crippled, but the Time Wraiths behind him, as well as the ancient entities hidden deep within the Speed Force dimension, would sooner or later find their way here along this rule fissure.
Lin Nuo leaned against the back of the chair, his legs crossed and resting on the edge of the desk.
He closed his eyes, and the Reality Warping power deep in his brain resonated at an extremely high frequency with the Speed Force origin.
The rules of the two Universes formed an extremely dangerous balance point within his body.
"Break time is over."
Lin Nuo opened his eyes, his ink-black pupils surging with tyrant-like predatory desire.
He pressed the communicator on the desk, his voice echoing in the empty study.
"Emma, prepare a clean suit for me."
Lin Nuo's tone was level, "I'm going to see some old friends."
Chapter 296: Keep Superman Steady, the Deep Space Giant Eye Has Opened
Two minutes later, the hidden wardrobe on the side of the study opened automatically.
A mechanical arm delivered a dark gray suit, its tie clip embedding the latest micro quantum terminal developed by Star Umbrella.
Lin Nuo changed his clothes and sat back behind the black walnut desk.
He raised his left hand, and his fingertips brushed across the interlaced deep blue electric arcs on his wrist.
The three-dimensional coordinates representing Earth-1 unfolded accordingly, with hundreds of spatial nodes rotating around the study.
Ordinary communication requires satellites, relay stations, and fiber optic cables.
Lin Nuo was now building bridges using the Law of Time.
The passage he left between the two Universes had not yet closed; he only needed to extract a stable frequency band from it to allow signals on both sides to cross the dimensional barrier.
A holographic screen lit up in the center of the study.
A large amount of static noise lasted for three seconds, and the picture quickly stabilized.
Selina was wearing a black catsuit, sitting on a steel beam of an abandoned clock tower in the East End of Gotham.
Behind her were a dozen servers moved from the Wayne Enterprises technology warehouse, and the screens were filled with complex capital flows.
"Missing for three days, not even a single good night. Boss, this management style of yours makes it very easy to lose excellent employees."
Selina lifted her leg and rested it on the edge of the steel beam, spinning a bat-shaped tracker between her fingers.
She complained verbally, but her body actively moved closer to the camera. After confirming that the man in the screen was safe and sound, her shoulder line finally relaxed.
Lin Nuo leaned back into the boss chair, took off his gold-rimmed glasses, and wiped the lenses with a handkerchief.
"If a cat needs to listen to her Master coax her to sleep every day, it means she hasn't learned to guard her territory alone. Tell me the result; the funds I left you are not meant for purchasing emotional value."
Selina gave a soft hum and tossed the tracker into the coffee cup beside her.
The screen switched.
The industrial map of Wayne Enterprises covered the holographic interface, and nearly half of the logistics nodes had been marked in red.
Docks, chemical raw materials, precision chips, and aerospace parts suppliers were all cross-held by dozens of offshore companies.
"The cash reserves of Wayne Enterprises can still last for two months, but Bruce has started selling overseas assets. He procured military-grade materials through Queen Consolidated, and also transferred a batch of residual samples from the Kryptonian incident from Metropolis."
Selina swiped her fingernail across the screen, pulling up a blurry video.
A red and blue figure supported an out-of-control cargo ship, flying up to the port against tens of thousands of tons of weight.
The dock worker's cell phone failed to capture the face clearly, leaving only the striking symbol on the chest.
"This Metropolis Boy Scout has been very busy lately. He saves planes, stops floods, and even finds cats for old ladies. Bruce hid his information in an offline server, thinking that unplugging the network cable could fool me."
Selina looked at the red cape in the video, a sense of gloating rising in her heart.
That Batman in Gotham was already troublesome enough, and now another alien who could lift a ship with bare hands had popped up in Metropolis.
But she was even more looking forward to what kind of expression Bruce would wear after Lin Nuo returned.
Lin Nuo put his glasses back on.
Kryptonian cells could absorb stellar radiation, and the biological energy stored within their bodies was enough to supply a large city.
If the cell structure could be replicated, Star Umbrella's fleet would shake off traditional energy cores.
Heroes liked to call ability responsibility.
Here with him, that was called undeveloped assets.
"Continue to compress the supply chain of Wayne Enterprises, but don't let it go completely bankrupt. Brucestill has utilization value. Reserve a procurement route leading to Central City for him, making him feel like he has found a breakthrough."
Lin Nuo tapped his fingers across the desktop, and a green channel immediately appeared on the Wayne industrial map.
"He will trace along this line to S.T.A.R. Labs. Once he brings all his equipment, connections, and intelligence over, close the net. Cats catching mice also need to pay attention to efficiency; don't waste time chasing an empty-handed Batman."
Selina stared at the deliberately left path of survival, a chill rising on her back.
Bruce probably still thought to this day that he was secretly investigating Star Umbrella.
But from the moment he sold his first overseas share, every step stepped on the route Lin Nuo had drawn in advance.
"Understood, I will make him believe that it is a flaw he desperately figured out himself."
Selina extended her finger and poked across the holographic screen at the position of Lin Nuo's chest, "However, after you come back, you must personally inspect my work. Gotham's nights have been very long lately, and I can't sleep peacefully alone."
"Wait."
Lin Nuo closed her side of the individual channel.
The second picture unfolded from the side.
The coast of Paradise Island appeared in the study.
Amazonian warriors were moving medical equipment and communication terminals left behind by Star Umbrella, and two camouflaged small transport ships were parked in the distance.
Diana stood at the edge of the cliff, draped in a dark red cloak over her battle armor.
She returned to Paradise Island according to the arrangement before Lin Nuo left, explaining the war happening in the outside World to Hippolyta.
The Amazon council still rejected modern civilization, yet could not refuse medical technology sufficient to quickly recover severely injured warriors.
"Mother agrees to open the eastern port, but only allows your ships to enter. Steve is still locked in the stone cell, and he has repeatedly requested to leave the island, claiming that the outside war cannot do without him."
When Diana mentioned Steve, her tone lacked temperature.
The poison gas intelligence brought by that man was indeed important, but his arrogance had exhausted Diana's remaining patience.
In contrast, Lin Nuo's behavior of crossing two Worlds to save an old friend better matched all her imaginations of a hero.
"The training ground on the island has been cleared, and the council is also waiting for you. When you descend again, Paradise Island will welcome you with the etiquette reserved for welcoming the King of Gods."
Lin Nuo swept his gaze across the Amazon military formation on the coast.
This island possessed divine weapons accumulated over thousands of years, ancient magic, and demigod bloodlines.
Continuing to hide it in the sea fog was a waste of resources.
"Have Hippolyta organize all ancient documents in the temple, focusing on searching for records of Krypton, Old Gods, and Mother Boxes. Keep Steve for now; Ares hasn't shown up yet, so he still has value as a bait."
Lin Nuo brought up the image of the Kryptonian from Metropolis, projecting it in front of Diana.
"This alien is called Superman. His power comes from a yellow star, and his body stores an extremely high concentration of stellar radiation. Stabilize the base, and after I finish dealing with the mess here, I will go over personally and turn him into Star Umbrella's biological battery."
Diana did not question it.
She looked at the man flying over the city in the video, simply viewing him as another strong individual who might threaten Lin Nuo's territory.
"If he refuses your arrangement, Paradise Island will fight alongside you. Whether the enemies come from the sky or the divine realm, I will stand by your side."
"Very well, wait for me to return for review."
Lin Nuo cut off the cross-dimensional communication.
The dual-Universe industrial map merged above the desk.
On the left was the Marvel Earth largely controlled by Star Umbrella, and on the right was a new chessboard composed of Gotham, Central City, Paradise Island, and Metropolis.
Emma pushed open the door and walked into the study, placing a global asset acquisition list on the desk.
She saw the cross-dimensional image that had not yet faded, and her footsteps paused for half a beat.
"Boss, major global energy companies have accepted the offer. There are still seven countries refusing to transfer their communication networks, and they are jointly forming an anti-monopoly investigation committee."
"Hand the list to Wanda; she will make those committees change to a quieter office location."
Lin Nuo closed the asset map and stood up, walking toward the terrace.
Just as he pushed open the glass door, all the terminals in the study lost signal simultaneously.
Outside lunar orbit, Star Umbrella's thirty-two deep-space satellites went dark one by one.
Before losing contact, the last probe transmitted back a scarlet frame.
In the center of the image, an ancient eyeball with a diameter exceeding a thousand kilometers was opening in the depths of the Universe.