Chapter 293: Clear-Eyed College Students
Calming the restless magic within his body, Lu Chen stood up from the ground.
The order power of Vishanti was indeed useful; although it failed to completely wash away the marks of those dimensional demon gods, it turned the high-interest loan that was about to be due into an indefinite bad debt that could be haggled over slowly.
Raising his hand, he was just about to outline the portal leading to Kamar-Taj once more when Yuheng's voice came over.
"Sir, there is new progress in the underground laboratory. Dr. Banner and the two researchers, Fitz and Simmons, have completed the first prototype, and the Dr. hopes you can go take a look in person."
"So fast?"
Lu Chen raised his eyebrows somewhat unexpectedly.
He originally thought that even with the assistance of those two geniuses from S.H.I.E.L.D., Banner would still have to fuss around for three to five days before producing results.
He didn't expect that after such a short time, the actual object had already been assembled.
It seemed that these two young people he had detained from Coulson's hands were indeed more capable than he imagined.
The direction of the portal shifted, and golden sparks traced an arc before him.
Lu Chen stepped through, directly crossing into the special-grade laboratory of Vought Tower.
The laboratory was filled with the low humming sound of instruments.
Seeing Lu Chen walk out, Bruce Banner's eyes revealed a unique excitement typical of researchers.
"Lu, you've come just at the right time."
Banner hurried forward and handed a metal instrument to Lu Chen, which looked extremely crude in shape and resembled an oversized temperature-measuring gun no matter how you looked at it.
"Take a look at this." Banner wiped his greasy forehead and said with a smile, "Discussing with the two college students you brought over these past few days made me feel several years younger. I must say, the brains of young people nowadays turn really fast, and many whimsical ideas helped me bypass quite a few detours."
Fitz, standing behind the console, lowered his head somewhat bashfully, scratched the back of his head foolishly, and showed a flustered, silly smile.
"You bet." Lu Chen casually weighed that temperature-measuring gun in his hand and replied casually, "This is a precious darling I traded my capable subordinate Pietro for at a rate of one for two. If he doesn't even have this bit of skill, wouldn't I be losing to my grandmother's home?"
Simmons smiled with pursed lips nearby, her eyes filled with the joy of being recognized by Dr. Banner.
Lu Chen fiddled with the piece of iron in his hand, touched his thumb against the trigger, and looked up at Banner.
"Dr., how do you use this gadget? How far is the effective range?"
Only then did Banner restrain his smile, habitually scratch his head, and walk back to the holographic screen to pull up a string of extremely complex genetic double helix models.
"Conventional methods simply cannot deal with them." Banner pointed at the screen and explained, "Faces, irises, fingerprints, and even routine DNA sequencing are all decorations to Skrulls. As long as they change their appearance, even the red and white blood cell ratio in their blood can be disguised to be identical to that of humans."
Lu Chen nodded slightly, signaling him to continue.
"But as long as it's a living organism, there must be an indelible underlying logic." Banner changed his tone and brought up the tissue samples of the four captured Skrulls, "I extracted their living cells and repeatedly stimulated them with different wavebands. Finally, Fitz and Simmons reminded me that since their mimicry is driven by specific telomerases and unknown hormones within the nucleus, no matter how they change, that core regulatory gene segment responsible for controlling transformation will absolutely not change."
Banner pointed to the temperature-measuring gun in Lu Chen's hand.
"I set that core conserved gene as the detection target. As long as you pull the trigger of this instrument, the generator at the front will release a miniature directional gamma radiation pulse toward the fan-shaped area ahead."
Speaking of this, Banner's expression became rigorous: "Rest assured, the radiation dose is kept very strictly by us, completely within the safety line that ordinary people can tolerate. Even if it shines on an infant, there will be no aftereffects at all. But the nuclei of Skrulls are extremely allergic to this specific waveband of gamma rays. Once scanned, their epidermal cells will undergo a tiny mutation reaction lasting one to two seconds. The instrument will capture this abnormal signal, and the warning light at the top will immediately turn red."
Lu Chen followed his words and looked over; a small red indicator light was indeed embedded at the top of the gun body.
"What about the range?" Lu Chen asked.
"It's still the first-generation prototype, limited by the purity of the transmitting crystal." Banner shrugged somewhat helplessly, "The effective range is only about thirty meters in the fan-shaped area directly ahead. Any further and the signal decays too fast, resulting in huge errors."
"Tens of meters is enough. Thank you for your hard work, Dr."
Lu Chen sincerely expressed his gratitude. To be able to completely pull an unsolvable disguised race off its pedestal in such a short time, Banner, this top-tier scientist, truly lived up to his worth.
"It's nothing; most of it was piled up from experimental data." Banner scratched his messy hair again, waving his hand somewhat bashfully, "If we really want to talk about credit, it's those two helpers you found that made the progress much faster. Many algorithms were put together by them overnight."
Lu Chen turned around, his gaze falling on the somewhat restrained Fitz and Simmons.
"Not bad, keep up the good work." Lu Chen's eyes were calm, "Considering that you brought out the real deal, that damn business of your team hacking into my server without saying hello from before, I'll pretend it never happened and won't pursue it."
Hearing this, Fitz and Simmons's tense shoulders visibly slumped, and they let out a long sigh of relief.
Lu Chen reached out and swiped on the control panel, taking over the other two assembled prototype units nearby as well.
"Dr. Banner, I'll take these few units to test their effects first. Next, please continue to follow up with them and make the coverage area of this detection device larger, the larger the better. It would be best to install it on drones or satellites, creating heavy equipment that can sweep across an entire city or even a country all at once."
"No problem, I and they were just planning to start with the material of the focusing lens." Banner nodded immediately in agreement.
Lu Chen put away the instruments and was about to turn and leave when he found the two young people opposite each other frantically exchanging glances.
Fitz bit his lip and quietly pushed Simmons under the table. Simmons took a deep breath and finally mustered the courage to step half a step forward.
"Um... Mr. Lu, please wait a moment." Simmons's voice was a bit nervous.
Lu Chen stopped his steps, turned back to look at her: "Anything else?"
Simmons's fingers intertwined tightly in front of her, her pretty face carrying undisguised worry.
"Um... Officer Coulson and the others, are they currently investigating Skrulls outside? Is this matter extremely dangerous?"
"Of course it's dangerous." Lu Chen nodded without any evasion, "Those aliens got their hands on Hulk's blood samples and are even figuring out how to create monsters with multiple abilities. Facing such things, if you're not careful for a split second, you'll die without a whole corpse."
Lu Chen looked at her leisurely, waiting for her following words.
Simmons bit her teeth, mustered up the courage and raised her head: "We know that Vought Company has recently been distributing a serum for free across the city that can strengthen the physique of ordinary people. Um... could you please also inject some to the members of Coulson's team? At least it can give them a bit of self-preservation ability. Fitz and I guarantee that we will work for you with all our might if we stay here, to repay your kindness!"
Looking at those two pairs of impurity-free eyes in front of him, filled with the clear and foolish demeanor of a university campus, Lu Chen couldn't help but resume his old profession.
"Did you two misunderstand something?"
The smile on Lu Chen's face faded, and his tone turned somewhat chilly: "The reason you can stand here and do research today is essentially to make amends for your act of illegally hacking into my company's system. You made the detector, and I waived accountability for you; this account just balances out. Now you haven't established a single merit, yet you turn around and dare to ask me for expensive transcendental serums to subsidize your former employer?"
Lu Chen leaned forward slightly: "Do you think this is appropriate?"
The air suddenly became heavy.
Fitz and Simmons shrunk their necks under Lu Chen's gaze, their complexions turning from red to white.
Having spent years tinkering with data in laboratories, how could they understand these deceitful interest exchanges?
Thinking carefully about Lu Chen's words, it seemed indeed to be the case.
S.H.I.E.L.D. was in the wrong first, and being detained to work was naturally a deserved punishment; what qualifications did they have to demand more?
The heads of the two young people slowly lowered, and the light in their eyes dimmed as well.
"However..."
Looking at their frost-bitten eggplant-like appearance, Lu Chen suddenly changed the subject.
"Considering that you both work really hard and have sharp brains, as a boss, I don't mind doing a good deed occasionally and advancing a bit of salary to outstanding employees in advance."
Fitz and Simmons abruptly raised their heads.
The two pairs of clear eyes that had originally dimmed instantly lit up with light again, their faces full of incredible surprise.
"Really? Thank you so much, Mr. Lu is truly a good person!" Simmons's voice was trembling with excitement.
Banner, standing aside, witnessed this whole process of tug-of-war, smiled somewhat helplessly, scratched his head, shook his head, and tactfully didn't interject a single word.
Give a slap and then a sweet date; these two worldly-inexperienced college students would probably be locked down by Vought Company.
Chapter 294: Kamar-Taj! I'm back!
Lu Chen didn't waste words. After checking Pietro's current coordinates, he raised his hand and briskly traced a circle in the void with two fingers.
Whoosh!
Golden sparks burst open once again, and a circular portal steadily hovered in the center of the laboratory.
On the other side of the portal was the interior of the cabin.
Inside the passenger plane's cabin at this moment, Coulson, Mei, Ward, and Skye were gathered around the holographic projection table, fiercely discussing tactics.
Several suspicious coordinates marked with red circles were labeled on the desktop; they had clearly just locked onto a few suspected targets, but were at a deadlock because they couldn't tell the real from the fake.
The portal suddenly unfolded nearby, giving Pietro, who had been boredly munching on an apple, such a start that the apple in his mouth almost dropped to the ground.
"Mr. Lu?" Coulson walked over quickly.
His gaze passed through the portal, and at a glance, he saw Fitz and Simmons behind Lu Chen, his face revealing obvious worry and concern.
Across the portal, Fitz and Simmons vigorously waved at Coulson.
Lu Chen didn't step across the threshold; he just stood in place and gave a wave of his hand.
Several blue Compound Vs sealed in precision constant-temperature boxes, along with those two freshly baked, bizarre-looking prototype detectors, floated smoothly from this side of the portal and landed steadily on the conference table in front of Coulson.
"This is the benefit Fitz and Simmons fought for you."
Lu Chen glanced casually at the suspicious Coulson team and spoke, "The blue one is the human enhancement serum, and as for the gun beside it, it's the Skrulls identifier that Dr. Banner just made."
Coulson's heart trembled, and he reached out to carefully touch the temperature gun-like device.
"Just pull the trigger aiming at the target within thirty meters. If the other party is a disguised alien, the red light on top will light up."
Lu Chen's voice came through the light gate.
"I've already given you the things, don't let me down. Hurry up with the screening and dig out that group of green-skinned rats' stronghold for me."
Coulson took a deep breath, solemnly met Lu Chen's gaze, and nodded hard.
"Rest assured, we will take action immediately."
The golden portal shrank abruptly, turning into specks of starlight that completely dissipated in the air.
But Lu Chen's voice sounded in Pietro's mind: "Keep an eye on Skye; she is not an ordinary human. Report to me if there is any situation."
On Pietro's end, before he even had time to think about how to reply in his mind, the portal inside the passenger plane cabin completely closed.
The starlight extinguished, and the laboratory returned to stability.
Fitz and Simmons were still standing blankly in front of the console.
Their two pairs of eyes were filled with the clarity and bewilderment unique to college students.
Simmons touched her burning earlobe, carefully put down the parts in her hand, and looked up at Lu Chen.
"Mr. Lu, you... you really are a good person."
"You're too kind. Vought has always treated its employees like family."
Lu Chen casually pulled over a swivel chair and sat down, fished a thick stack of labor agreements from the drawer, and handed them to Simmons.
"Work hard, and starting next month, we'll supplement your medical and research annuities to the top-tier standard."
"As long as you extend the detector's range to cover the entire city, your year-end bonus will be a Manhattan studio apartment."
"Thank you, boss!"
Bruce Banner beside them twitched the corners of his mouth twice.
This great physics doctor silently turned around and continued tinkering with that bulky directional focusing lens, pretending to be deaf.
Lu Chen stood up, his fingertips tracing a neat arc in the midair before him.
"All right, you guys keep busy, I still have to go collect some rent."
Golden-orange sparks crackled and burst, and the void rippled.
On the other side of the halo appeared bone-chilling flying snow and antique cyan-gray stone bricks.
The supreme next Sorcerer Supreme officially arrived once again today at his loyal Kamar-Taj.
Lu Chen stepped across the threshold.
The front hall plaza was bustling with people, just catching the time node when major sanctuaries rotated back to the mountain for relief guard duty.
Mages from London, New York, and Hong Kong gathered in groups of three or five in the courtyard; some were wiping magical artifacts, while others were sparring and practicing.
Lu Chen stood under the colonnade, his eyes darting around.
They were all walking skill packs.
Lu Chen tidied his collar and strolled over with the steady pace of inspecting the grassroots.
"Hard work, guarding the sanctuary must be boring, right?"
He familiarly sidled up to a tall mage and heavily patted the other's sturdy arm.
[Mystic Arts LV3 solidified]
"Eh, this time it's people from the Hong Kong Sanctuary, we hit it off right away."
Lu Chen turned a corner, strode up to a middle-aged Asian mage with a goatee, grasped the other's palms with both hands, and shook them up and down enthusiastically.
[Mystic Arts LV3 solidified]
The middle-aged mage was shaken a bit dazed, stammering in response: "Lu... Mage Lu, it's an honor."
"You're too polite, we compatriots must help each other out."
Lu Chen was running his mouth with nonsense, but his eyes aimed at a young apprentice practicing with a long whip nearby.
"This spell is not bad, pretty cool, show me a couple of moves?"
He approached in two or three steps, his palm naturally resting on the young apprentice's shoulder.
[Mystic Arts LV2 solidified]
The young apprentice was startled, the fire whip in his hand swaying twice, almost directly lashing onto his own thigh.
The originally solemn and dignified cultivation atmosphere of the entire plaza was forcefully led by Lu Chen into the rhythm of a neighborhood committee's comfort performance in the countryside.
"Boss!"
A crisp and jubilant shout came from the corner of the corridor.
Wanda
A red magic halo lightheartedly leaped on the bluestone steps, and a slender figure trotted over stepping on the red light.
Wanda was wearing a loose beige hooded sweatshirt, randomly wrapped in a red Kamar-Taj mage robe outside, a mix-and-match with a unique flavor.
She trotted all the way to stand in front of Lu Chen, with both hands behind her back, her toe gently turning circles on the ground.
"You're finally back!"
Wanda tilted her head up, her eyes reflecting the sparks on the plaza, the arc of her grinning mouth unable to be suppressed no matter what.
"I brought you internet-famous cheesecake from Manhattan."
Lu Chen took out a metal food box from his arms and handed it over.
A brilliant smile bloomed on Wanda's face, holding the food box tightly in her arms with both hands.
Her fingertips even emitted a few wisps of fragmented chaotic red light, carefully wrapping around the box to keep it warm.
The surrounding single mages watched with twitching eyelids, silently distancing themselves while muttering in their hearts.
This grand-auntie would demolish mountains and shatter rocks whenever she practiced in the back mountain; who would dare provoke her with even half a sentence.
Inside the library.
It should have been a place of quiet cultivation, peaceful and serene with ancient scrolls fluttering.
Wong
Wong sat upright behind the huanghuali wood desk, with a heavy and quaint codex spread out in front of him.
With one hand forming a seal, he was trying to forcefully enter a state of meditation as still as water.
However, the noise outside the grand hall passed through the window lattices like flies, continuously drilling into his ears.
"Hard work, guarding the sanctuary must be boring!"
"Master Brother of the Hong Kong Sanctuary, I'll treat you to hotpot later!"
"Boss, you have a piece too!"
Wong was panting heavily, the blue veins on his temples bulging and throbbing.
He abruptly stood up, bypassed the chair, lifted his big feet wearing thousand-layer cloth shoes, and kicked hard twice against the hard, thick mahogany table leg!
"Thud! Thud!"
A heart-piercing spasm of pain came from his toes.
Wong gasped a breath of cold air, standing on one foot in place like a golden rooster standing on one leg, his face twitching and distorted in pain.
He touched his chest, forcefully suppressing the roiling anger, closing his eyes to breathe deeply and rhythmically.
"Hoo... These are all tests from the heavens for me."
While rubbing his toes, Wong muttered and chanted the mind-clearing incantation.
"Don't get angry, no one can replace you if anger makes you sick."
"The Sorcerer Supreme has said that worldly distractions are all tempering; when the mind is tranquil, all things are silent..."
Muttering it three times to himself, Wong finally recovered his strength, tidied up his dark blue spliced-trimmed mage robe, put on a stern face again, and sat back down in front of the desk, striking the dignified demeanor that a librarian should have.
The next second.
The two heavy wooden doors of the scriptorium were pushed open a crack.
Lu Chen swaggered across the threshold and walked in, with Wanda holding the cake box obediently following behind.
"Old Wang, haven't seen you in a few days, your energy is quite full."
Lu Chen familiarly pulled out the high-backed chair opposite the desk, sat down with a thud, and casually rested both feet on the footstool.
Wong's eyelids twitched fiercely twice.
"Mage Lu, please call me by my dharma name, or the Librarian."
Wong put on a fat face, his voice stiff.
"This is a holy land for studying magic, shouting is forbidden, carrying snacks is forbidden, and it is even more forbidden to form cliques everywhere in the plaza!"
Chapter 295: Mordo's Interrogation
Lu Chen lazily leaned against the Hainan huanghuali high-backed chair, pinched a piece of cheesecake with two fingers and tossed it into his mouth, chewing with great relish.
Behind the long table, Wong's chubby face was flushed red, and the finger he was pointing at Lu Chen was even shaking.
He felt his fists hardening.
"Master Lu! This is the restricted library archives of Kamar-Taj!" Wong emphasized his tone, trying to reclaim his majesty as the librarian.
"I know, I know, the rules and all." Lu Chen swallowed the cake, brushing it off vaguely.
Wanda stood obediently to the side, holding a metal food box in her hands. Seeing that Lu Chen had swallowed, she immediately picked up a piece with a small fork and carefully delivered it to Lu Chen's mouth.
"Boss, try this flavor, this one is also good, eh."
Lu Chen took a bite and commented with satisfaction: "Not bad, better than that place last time."
Seeing that he liked it, Wanda's eyes crinkled into two curved crescents with a smile, and she forked another piece, carefully holding it up to Lu Chen's mouth.
Lu Chen readily opened his mouth and ate it.
Watching these two feeding each other unconcernedly among the sacred magic tomes, the corners of Wong's eyes twitched fiercely twice. He touched his smooth forehead and once more began to silently recite the Cleansing Heart Incantation.
See no evil, hear no evil.
I don't look, I don't listen, I won't get angry.
This kid is someone valued by Sorcerer Ancient One, hold back, hold back...
"Old Wong, stop pulling such a long face." Lu Chen tapped the table, pulling the topic back on track, "I came to see you today for something important."
Wong irritably tidied his robes and sat back down. "Speak, I'll answer depending on the situation."
Lu Chen said, "Let me ask you, does Kamar-Taj have that kind of oversized magic array that can directly identify or lock onto specific soul fluctuations?"
"Identify souls?" Wong was slightly stunned, his brows furrowing as his thick fingers tapped unconsciously on the desktop.
He actually started rummaging through his mind. Lu Chen's request sounded eccentric, but Kamar-Taj's collection of books was vast as the sea, so it was impossible to say there was none at all.
"A large-scale soul-tracking array..." Wong rubbed his head, "It seems that on the bottom floor of the third library, there is a piece of sheepskin scroll left over from the Old Babylonian period, which records something similar. But that's used to track the true names of demons. If you need it, I can go look for it for you, but you have to promise..."
Before Wong finished speaking, the door of the library was heavily pushed open.
"He doesn't need it."
A cold and rigid voice came from the doorway.
Mordo was wearing dark green robes, wearing that eternally unchanging gloomy face, taking large strides across the threshold, his gaze nailed onto Lu Chen.
Lu Chen raised an eyebrow, not even changing his posture, just observing this fundamentalist wizard with keen interest.
This old fossil Mordo really couldn't help jumping out after all. Lu Chen laughed inwardly. This guy's paranoia about order had reached a morbid degree; seeing himself, an "heretic," swaggering about in Kamar-Taj, he must have been full of pent-up anger for a long time, and today he finally found an excuse.
"Mr. Lu." Mordo walked up to the table, staring down condescendingly at Lu Chen with a stern tone, "magic is a weapon to guard reality, not a tool used to satisfy your personal selfish desires."
He turned to look at Wong: "Wong, as the librarian, are you going to condone him abusing the heritage of Kamar-Taj?"
Wong rubbed his hands awkwardly, trying to explain: "Mordo, Master Lu was only asking..."
"Asking won't do either!" Mordo directly interrupted Wong, aiming his spearhead at Lu Chen once again, "The mystic arts are the power bestowed upon us by the Vishanti. Their only legitimate purpose is to maintain the barriers of the three Sanctums, resist the invasion of extra-dimensional demon gods, and protect the reality dimension of Earth from violation!"
Lu Chen almost laughed out loud hearing this.
This is truly standard precursor dialogue for a villain's awakening. Later on, when you find out that your most beloved teacher Ancient One is also borrowing power from the Dark Dimension to extend her life, you'll probably go crazy on the spot.
"Master Mordo." Lu Chen lazily leaned back against the back of the chair, crossing his hands in front of his chest, "How do you know that I'm not looking for this magic to guard reality?"
Catching Skrulls in New York, in a sense, was indeed protecting Earth's reality.
Mordo snorted coldly, his eyes filled with undisguised disgust.
"From the first day you came to Kamar-Taj, I have been observing you." Mordo lowered his voice, his tone carrying a strong warning, "Undeniably, you are gifted and learn faster than anyone else. But!"
Mordo raised his volume: "In order to obtain greater power, you actually went without hesitation to contact, and even massively study and use evil forces from other dimensions! Do you think others can't tell?"
Mordo stepped closer, resting both hands on the table: "Order is above all! Any magic that destroys the natural laws, regardless of whether your motivation is good or bad, is an unforgivable original sin!"
The smile on Lu Chen's face faded a bit.
This black bro had sharp eyes indeed, actually being able to tell that there was magical residue from other dimensions on him. It seemed that that previous usury debt-collection storm had still allowed him to catch a whiff of it.
"Looking at you like this, you should have already tasted the taste of backlash, right?" Mordo stared coldly at Lu Chen, "I originally thought that you, having tasted bitterness, would understand the cost of borrowing evil powers and know how to restrain yourself. I didn't expect that not only did you not repent, but you got even worse, and now you even want to meddle in the forbidden arts of the soul domain!"
The atmosphere in the library instantly tightened to the extreme.
The metal fork in Wanda's hand deformed with a "clang" sound as she squeezed it. She stepped forward, blocking Lu Chen's side, red Chaos magic faintly emerging at her fingertips, her pair of eyes glaring hostility at Mordo.
Seeing this posture, Wong grew anxious. If a fight broke out in the library here, all those precious ancient books of his would be completely finished.
"Master Mordo, calm down." Wong hurriedly stood up, his body blocking between the two of them to smooth things over, "Young people, being curious about magic is very normal. Plus, Master Lu learns really fast with a solid foundation, so contacting a little other knowledge should be no problem."
Wong deliberately emphasized his tone: "After all, he is someone personally favored by the Sorcerer Supreme."
Mordo didn't buy it at all; he pulled a long face and scolded Wong right along with him.
"Condoning him to contact magic from other dimensions, Wong, this is also an accessory act of yours! You are pushing the entire Kamar-Taj to the edge of danger!"
Wong's chubby face stiffened from the scolding, and he opened his mouth wanting to retort.
A hand patted Wong on the shoulder.
Lu Chen stood up from the chair and casually pulled Wong behind him. He turned his head slightly, using his gaze to appease Wanda, who was on the verge of erupting.
Catching Lu Chen's calm gaze, Wanda took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the red light at her fingertips, but still stared closely at Mordo, ready to strike at any time.
Chapter 296: All Guests Rejoice
"Mordo." Lu Chen looked at the rigid sorcerer, his tone revealing neither joy nor anger, "In what capacity are you shouting at me here and trying to dissuade me?"
Mordo froze for a moment, clearly not expecting Lu Chen to ask such a question.
"Exactly, exactly!" Wanda chimed in loudly, full of confidence, "Even Ancient One hasn't said anything. What right do you have to point fingers here?"
Mordo's dark face turned purple from holding it in. He opened his mouth, wanting to pull out the rules of Kamar-Taj and emphasize his duties as a senior sorcerer. But in the face of Sorcerer Ancient One's tacit approval, all his reasons seemed pale and weak.
He held it in for a long time, pointed at Lu Chen's nose, and squeezed out a sentence through gritted teeth.
"Lu Chen, you will regret this!"
As soon as those words came out, Lu Chen couldn't keep a straight face.
It was too classic.
Lu Chen curved the corners of his mouth, slightly raised his chin, and retorted as he looked at Mordo's exasperated face:
"Hmph, Mordo, I am the next Sorcerer Supreme."
Mordo was trembling all over with anger from these words.
He abruptly turned around and strode towards the door of the library, preparing to use a deafening slam of the door to express his final anger.
Right at the moment Mordo turned around.
Lu Chen's right hand, hanging by his side, pressed onto the table, aiming his ability at the door.
Matter Transmutation activated.
Reorganizing atomic arrangement, wood fibers transformed into high-density alloy.
The entire process did not make a single sound. On the surface of that originally rustic and heavy Hainan huanghuali wooden door, even the wood grain and color did not change, but the internal molecular structure had completely changed. From lightweight timber, it mutated into a solid, high-density titanium alloy weighing several tons.
Mordo walked up to the door without even looking, reached out and grabbed the door handle, intending to pull the door open forcefully and then slam it shut fiercely.
He pulled.
It didn't budge.
Mordo froze for a moment. He thought the door hinge was stuck, so he took a deep breath, the muscles on his arms bulging chunk by chunk, and gave a backward tug using the subtle strength unique to sorcerers.
That door remained motionless, as if it had grown into the wall.
No one spoke in the library; it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Mordo's hand was still frozen on the door handle, his back looking somewhat comical. With a dark face, he quietly let go of his hand, pretending nothing had just happened, and then raised both hands, pressed them against the door panel, and pushed forward with all his strength.
Still motionless.
Mordo stood in front of the door, unable to advance or retreat. He could feel the playful gazes staring at him from behind.
[Image]
Mordo
He finally gave up struggling and let out a cold snort, which served to mask the embarrassment of not being able to push the door open. Afterwards, he raised his hand, drew a golden portal in mid-air, stepped directly into it, and vanished without a trace.
The golden sparks dissipated.
The library was quiet for two seconds.
"Pfft." Wanda was the first who couldn't hold it in, covering her mouth and laughing out loud.
Lu Chen walked forward, reached out, and knocked twice on that "wooden door", producing a muffled metallic clang.
"This door is of good quality, old Wong." Lu Chen turned his head, looking at Wong who was still in a daze, "Seeing the posture with which he pulled the door just now, I thought he was going to tear down your library."
Wong had originally been forcing a stern face, trying to maintain his dignity as a librarian, but looking at Mordo's flustered retreating figure, the corners of his tense mouth twitched a few times, and his shoulders began to heave uncontrollably.
A few seconds later, he finally couldn't hold back either, letting out a burst of suppressed muffled laughter.
For a moment, the serene and solemn library was filled with a joyful atmosphere.
At the same time, Coulson's team, having injected the serum, had their share of joys and worries.
"So noisy! Can you all make your hearts beat more quietly!"
Skye covered her ears tightly with both hands, curling herself up in the corner of the interrogation room.
But this was completely useless. She no longer needed to listen through her ears. All vibrations within tens of meters were unscrupulously drilling into her brain, forcefully constructing clear audio-visual maps one after another.
The plane's engine pulled at her ears like a broken bellows, and the sound of oil flowing in the hydraulic lines was louder than a waterfall. Even the few tiny metal fatigue points on the cabin shell were creaking in her brain.
Even scarier were the living people outside.
"Thump, thump, thump."
Mei's heartbeat was as slow as an old monk's, but every pump of blood was extremely powerful, and the sound of blood rushing through the blood vessels could be heard clearly. Ward's heartbeat frequency was very fast, carrying a certain suppressed excitement. Coulson's heartbeat was so steady it made one want to sleep.
And there was one most fatal fellow.
A gust of wind blew into the interrogation room, kicking up a few sheets of paper flying wildly in the air.
Pietro was holding half a bag of potato chips in his hand, chewing rapidly with a crunching sound in his mouth.
"Are you alright? Do you want some cucumber-flavored ones?"
In Skye's perception, Pietro's heartbeat was practically like an overclocked sewing machine, his blood flow rate was as fast as a race car, and the frequency of his vocal cords slightly trembling pierced her brain with pain.
"Get out!" Skye grabbed a notebook from beside her and threw it over.
Pietro didn't even dodge; with a flick of his wrist, that notebook steadily landed in his hand.
"Such a big temper, is the side effect of the boss's given serum so fierce?"
He curled his lips and swept out again like a gust of wind.
Skye hugged her knees, feeling like crying without tears. She used to envy superheroes a lot, thinking she could finally be badass for once. As a result, this crappy ability almost drove her crazy. She had to find a way to turn off this damn passive skill, or she would get a nervous breakdown sooner or later. I am fucking human radar right now.
Meanwhile, in the cargo hold's temporary training area.
"Thump!"
A special punching bag weighing two hundred pounds flew high up, smashed into the metal crossbeam of the ceiling, and burst open directly. The iron sand and rags inside spilled all over the ground with a rustle.
Ward withdrew his fist and looked down at his hand. He clenched his fists hard, his knuckles making crisp cracking sounds like popping beans.
Power. Endless power.
He could feel that his muscle fibers seemed to hide explosives, capable of erupting with terrifying destructive power at the slightest movement. That blue serum given by Lu Chen was simply a miracle.
Level 4 Super Physique. Ward now felt that even if Captain America stood before him, he would dare go up and arm-wrestle him. If John Garrett saw me like this now, he would definitely go crazy with joy. This was much stronger than any centipede serum, and completely without side effects.
He had to find an opportunity to transmit the intelligence of this serum back to HYDRA. Ward calculated in his heart.
"Your strength has increased, but your brain has slowed down."
A cold voice came from behind.
Ward turned his head abruptly. Mei was wearing tight combat gear, leaning against a pillar with her arms crossed.
"Want to try?" Ward hook-fingered provokingly. His confidence was bursting now. Previously he couldn't beat Mei, but now this body's panel data definitely crushed the opponent. The times have changed, old woman.
Chapter 297: Discovering Traces
Mei didn't speak, she just took a step forward.
Ward let out a shout, kicked off the ground, and charged forward like a bull.
His speed and strength were more than several times faster than before, and the wind he whipped up howled inside the cargo hold.
But he didn't even touch a corner of Mei's clothes.
Mei's body twisted at an incredible angle, dodging the heavy punch while kicking Ward right in the back of his knee.
Ward staggered, and before he could stabilize his center of gravity, Mei's elbow strike had already smashed into the back of his neck.
"Thud!"
Ward fell heavily onto the iron plate, and the entire floor of the cargo hold shook along with it.
"Your muscle density has increased, but you've lost your composure."
Mei looked down at him, "Greater strength doesn't mean you can win. Your movements right now are full of openings in my eyes."
Ward gritted his teeth and climbed back up.
His proud LV4 physical constitution couldn't even last a single move in front of this woman.
On the surface, Mei looked calm and collected, but deep down she was extremely satisfied with her current state.
Her physical constitution was weaker than Ward's. According to the standards given by Vought, it should be at the LV3 level, and purely comparing strength, she indeed couldn't match Ward.
But that all-around enhancement of physical functions perfectly matched her years of combat instincts.
High-difficulty moves that she couldn't do before could now be executed at will.
To make Skye feel a bit better, Coulson took Pietro and went out, arriving at the New York Police Department.
Coulson was talking face-to-face with a high-ranking official of the New York Police Department.
"Listen, Officer, the surveillance footage of those blocks involves internal secrets. With S.H.I.E.L.D.'s current mess, its credibility has long gone bankrupt. Why should I give you the access permissions?"
The high-ranking police official looked impatient, his fingers tapping on the desk.
Coulson smiled, his tone gentle, carrying an irresistible affinity.
"Old buddy, we've known each other for so many years, do you still not trust me? I'm Phil, the one who took drinks on your behalf at the pub next to the police academy."
Active skill, LV3 Instant Camaraderie.
The high-ranking police official was slightly stunned.
His eyes grew dazed for two seconds, and his expression immediately turned warm.
"Phil? Oh, look at my brain, there have been too many cases lately, I almost didn't recognize you! We share a life-and-death friendship, thanks to you that time. Which street's surveillance do you want? I'll open the bottom-layer permissions for the entire district directly to you! Do you want me to send two teams of SWAT Officers to help cover you?"
"Permissions are enough, thank you, brother. I'll treat you to a drink another day."
Coulson left with a smile.
Pietro, who had come along with him, was dumbfounded.
As soon as he returned to the plane, he asked impatiently: "Did you use Mind Control on him? You guys have never met before, right."
"No, we just talked about non-existent past events."
Coulson straightened his tie, feeling somewhat creeped out inside.
This ability was too weird.
As long as he guided the conversation, the other party would treat him as a trusted insider, willing to strip down to their underwear to show him.
This was simply a divine skill for interrogation and logistics.
But this old-school Agent was both excited and resistant.
Tahiti's memories still lingered in his mind.
He couldn't help wondering whether those good memories in his own head were also forcibly stuffed in by someone using a similar method.
He had to control it.
He couldn't rely too heavily on this thing.
Coulson warned himself in his heart.
The team members soon converged in front of the command console.
Skye walked over with a pale face, wearing a pair of heavy-duty industrial noise-canceling headphones rummaged out from the cargo hold.
Although the headphones couldn't block the vibration imaging in her brain, they could at least give her some psychological comfort.
"This is the newly acquired surveillance audio and architectural blueprints."
Coulson pushed the data onto the holographic tabletop, "The coordinates marked by those few red circles have recent high power consumption and massive unknown cargo movements, making them the Skrulls' most likely hiding strongholds."
"Thirty meters means we must conduct face-to-face inspections."
Ward's eyes were gloomy, "If the enemy really is an alien monster disguised as a human, once we get close and startle the snake, we will likely fall into encirclement."
"And we can't tell who the monster is."
Mei hit the nail on the head.
Coulson braced his hands on the tabletop, his brows tightly locked.
This was indeed a difficult point.
Not knowing the number of enemies, not knowing what the enemies looked like, thirty meters distance was too short, and the risk was too high.
"I can tell."
A muffled voice sounded.
Everyone turned their heads to look at Skye.
Skye took off the industrial headphones, hung them around her neck, took a deep breath, and pointed at the stronghold audio files on the holographic screen.
"Play these live recordings for me. They don't need to be very loud, just the original track will do."
Without hesitation, Coulson tapped the keyboard and played an ambient recording located in an abandoned industrial area in Brooklyn.
The rustling sound of current, the howling of wind blowing through broken windows, car horns occasionally coming from distant streets, and the sound of dripping water pipes.
In the ears of ordinary people, this was just a section of environmental noise.
But in Skye's mind, this was a completely new way of World building.
As long as there were sound waves and vibrations, even weak frequency bands restored through recording equipment, she could reshape the acoustic image of that space in her mind.
Walls, cavities, metal pipes, the crawling of rats in the sewers—all of them turned into clear lines and points of light the moment she closed her eyes.
"This abandoned factory has two security guards on the surface. Their heartbeats are very slow, their breathing is steady, they should be asleep."
Skye closed her eyes, speaking extremely fast, "There are four people playing cards in the cubicle on the second floor. Their heart rates fluctuate, occasionally accompanied by heavy vibrations of the vocal cords, most likely cursing."
Ward looked at her with some surprise.
Just relying on a piece of noise recording to tell how many people were inside?
This ability used for intelligence infiltration was simply a cheat code.
"Keep playing the next one."
Coulson perked up.
The recording switched to an underground warehouse area on the edge of Manhattan.
Skye listened for a while, and her brows gradually furrowed.
"It's very quiet here. On the surface, only three security guards are patrolling."
She tilted her head, seemingly trying hard to capture some extremely subtle vibration.
"Wait."
Skye suddenly opened her eyes, her expression turning extremely ugly.
"What's wrong?"
Coulson noticed something was amiss and immediately pressed the pause button.
Skye pointed at the main building of the underground warehouse on the holographic map.
"Behind the wall... behind the wall cavity of the third underground floor, there are still heartbeats."
She swallowed a mouthful of saliva: "That is not the heartbeat of a normal human. The frequency is too fast, and... the quantity is horrifyingly large. They are densely packed and squeezed together."
Coulson stared at the red circle on the screen: "How many are there?"
"At least seventy."
Chapter 298: Infiltration
"Seventy?"
Coulson stared at the underground warehouse on the holographic map, tapping his fingers twice on the desktop.
Seventy aliens disguised as humans gathered underground; this was most likely one of their strongholds. But the bigger trouble was Rosa. The geneticist from the Vought Company was still in their hands, and Lu Chen wanted her alive.
"Just listening to the audio isn't accurate enough." Coulson raised his head, his gaze sweeping across the crowd. "The recording can only capture audio signals; Skye needs to go to the scene. Only by closing the distance to within thirty meters can she pull a complete three-dimensional structural map in her head."
Skye tugged at the industrial headphones around her neck, her cheeks puffing out as she wanted to protest, but swallowed the words back down.
She was a super-powered hacker now, after all; there was no way she could shrink back at the very first hurdle.
"Fine, the human radar is ready." Skye took a breath. "But if my head gets blown apart from the noise, the work-injury compensation must be calculated at the maximum rate."
Ward silently tightened his tactical vest and checked the silencer pistol at his waist. The abundant strength brought by the Level 4 physique flowed through his body, making an irrepressible aggressiveness ooze from his bones. In the past, when executing missions like this, he had to calculate retreat routes; now, he just wanted to bulldoze straight through.
Mei saw through Ward's restlessness and glanced at him: "Keep your murderous aura in check; we're infiltrating, not demolishing a building."
Ten minutes later, a black modified van stopped in the shadows diagonally across from the abandoned warehouse district in Manhattan.
Skye sat in the back seat with her eyes closed. When she focused all her attention on the drab red-brick building directly ahead, a marvelous scene unfolded in her mind.
The density of the concrete walls, the slight bending of the steel beams under pressure, and the collision of airflow in the ventilation ducts all turned into grayish-white sound wave lines. In those cavities and rooms were clusters of pulsating light spots representing life.
"There is one in the front door duty room." Skye kept her eyes closed, her lips moving slightly: "The heartbeat is much faster than a human's; it's a Skrull. Three people are patrolling on the second underground floor, and the third underground floor... they're all there."
She took a sharp breath, cold sweat breaking out on her palms.
"At the deepest part of the third underground floor, there is a heartbeat frequency that is very low and weak, only forty-something times a minute. It's an ordinary human female, locked in a separate compartment. There is also a regular metallic ticking sound... No, it's an electronic pulse. That machine is counting down, and there's not much time left."
"It's Rosa." Coulson's eyes darkened.
Coulson opened the car door, straightened his suit, and said: "I'll go pull out the outer scouts first."
Ward frowned: "Officer, the outer guards might sound the alarm at any time; taking them down directly with tranquilizer guns is the safest bet."
"If we knock them down, the patrol team will get suspicious the moment they find the signal interrupted." Coulson waved his hand, his expression calm and composed: "Leave it to me."
He walked unhurriedly toward the front door duty room.
Most of the duty room's windows were pasted over with old newspapers. A middle-aged white man in a security uniform was sitting inside, vigilantly eyeing the outside. Seeing a bald man in a suit swaggering over, the guard's right hand was already placed on the red alarm button under the desk.
Coulson knocked on the glass.
The window opened a crack, and the guard's expression was gloomy: "This is private property, get lost."
A trademark gentle smile appeared on Coulson's face, his eyes carrying a hint of just-right surprise: "Hey! Buddy! How come you're the one on duty here? I've been looking for you for over half a circle!"
The guard was stunned, his finger pressing on the alarm button freezing.
"You... know me?"
"Look at what you're saying, George! Last week at old John's bar on Seventh Street, you drank whiskey and threw up all over me, and in the end, it was me who paid your cab fare." Coulson reached out and patted the window ledge.
Level 3 Kindred Spirit activated.
The guard's pupils dilated for a second, and immediately, that cold, defensive face relaxed at a speed visible to the naked eye. He scratched his head, even showing a somewhat embarrassed wry smile on his face: "Ah, Phil... Look at my memory, I drank too much and blacked out that day. What brings you running all the way here?"
Ward in the car watched this scene through binoculars and the communication channel, the corners of his eyes twitching.
This guy didn't even know what the other person's name was, yet he opened his mouth and said George, and the other person actually believed it. In the field of Agents, this kind of soft-control ability was ten times more terrifying than mere fists.
"Higher-ups asked me to deliver a batch of documents to the boss inside." Coulson sighed, wearing the helpless look of a wage earner: "This ghost place doesn't even have a road sign, and my access card demagnetized. Could you open the side door for me? I'll treat you to beer later."
"Ah, what a big deal, come on in." Without a word, the guard directly pressed the release button for the large iron gate, and even considerately pointed to the side door: "The elevator on the underground passage side is broken, walking the fire stairs is faster. But keep your movements small; the big shots inside are in a bad mood today."
"Thanks, bro."
Coulson turned back and made a covert gesture toward the van in the shadows.
The team quickly followed up.
Crossing the dusty outer corridor, Ward and Mei were in the front, Skye in the middle, Coulson in the rear, while Pietro jumped between the beams and pillars like an invisible shadow.
"Second underground floor, two people at the corner are walking toward the stairwell." Skye closed her eyes, broadcasting in real-time on the communication channel: "The one on the left has a large stride and the center of gravity leans right; the one on the right is carrying a long-handled weapon. Distance to the corner is eight meters... five meters... three meters."
Ward and Mei exchanged a glance, both flashing out from behind the pillars simultaneously.
The explosive power of the Level 4 physique was fully displayed at this moment. Almost the instant he slid close to the ground, Ward closed in on the left Skrull guard, his five fingers clamping onto the guard's windpipe like steel pliers and slamming him fiercely downward!
The guard rolled his eyes and went limp directly.
At the same time, Mei's movements were even more ethereal. Utilizing the force of her sprint, she stepped onto the wall in mid-air, twisted back with that leverage, and wrapped her legs tightly around the right guard's neck like a pair of scissors, her waist and abdominal strength erupting completely as she gave a fierce twist in the air.
Crack.
The two hidden sentries were completely taken down within two seconds, not even able to emit half an exclamation.
Ward exhaled, flicked his wrists, and the tyrannical pleasure in his heart grew stronger and stronger. This was the taste of absolute power; there was no need for any complex combat skills. As long as speed and strength formed an overwhelming suppression, killing people was as simple as pinching to death a chicken.
"Don't daze off, keep moving." Mei reminded coldly, bending over to drag the corpse into the shadows of the nearby ventilation duct.
Skye's face grew paler and paler.
As they penetrated deeper underground, the sounds of those more than seventy rapidly beating hearts converged into a noisy drumbeat in her head.
"It's right behind that heavy blast door ahead." Skye pointed to the end of the corridor: "Rosa is inside, but there are four guards standing outside the door, and another one inside."
Coulson decisively ordered: "Ward, Mei, draw the firepower from the front. Pietro, break the door and grab the person, retreat immediately once you have her!"
"Watch me."
Chapter 299: Monster's Raid
"Just watch."
A silver stream of light flashed and vanished.
Almost at the moment Ward and Mei rushed out of the corner, a fierce wave of air burst into the open air.
The four Skrulls guards standing in front of the explosion-proof door hadn't even clearly seen who was coming when their chests were simultaneously hit hard. Their entire bodies slammed against the concrete wall like a kite with a broken string, and when they slid down, they were already motionless.
A dazzling spark of electricity burst from the keyhole of the ten-centimeter-thick explosion-proof door, and Pietro's figure materialized in front of the door, swinging a piece of hydraulic latch that had been violently torn off in his hand.
"Done, the door is open." Pietro turned back and raised an eyebrow at Coulson.
Ward clenched his pistol and strode into the room.
In the center of the room stood a complex circular instrument, covered with flashing green light and jumping data streams, and an unknown glowing tissue was soaked in the petri dish in the middle.
And on the iron chair beside the instrument, a young female wearing a stain-covered white lab coat was tightly bound by restraint straps, her hair disheveled.
"Rosa!" Coulson stepped forward quickly, pulling out a tactical dagger to cut the restraint straps.
Rosa abruptly raised her head, revealing a bloodless face.
Her eyes were covered with bloodshot veins, her pupils dilated to the extreme, her lips bitten into a mess, and her mouth full of blood blisters.
"Kill me... Please... Kill me..." Rosa roared incoherently, her hands frantically scratching her neck, even scratching bloody trails into her skin. "They put things inside... There are bugs crawling in my brain! They're eating my memory!"
Skye looked at Rosa's crazy appearance, unable to help taking half a step back, her heart tightening.
Is this the end of falling into the hands of the Skrulls?
"Take her away!" Coulson grabbed the incoherent Rosa. "Pietro, carry her on your back and go straight back to the car!"
Pietro put away his playful smile and hoisted Rosa onto his shoulder: "Hold tight, lady, you might get a little motion sickness."
However, the moment Pietro was about to speed up and rush towards the exit, Skye suddenly stiffened in place.
She took off one earphone, her eyes looking a bit vacant.
"What's wrong?" Coulson asked vigilantly.
"Heartbeats... are moving." Skye's voice trembled slightly. "Those more than seventy Skrulls on the third underground floor... are all gathering towards the passage exit."
A murderous intent flashed in Ward's eyes: "Then let's slaughter our way out. It's a good time to test my current upper limit."
"No." Skye shook her head fiercely: "They aren't here to surround us."
The group rushed out of the core laboratory and entered the long underground main evacuation tunnel.
The scene before them made everyone's scalp tingle.
On both sides of the wide underground tunnel, densely packed figures stood.
There were white-collar workers in suits, workers covered in grease, and even Police officers wearing New York Police uniforms.
They had all torn off their human disguises, revealing green wrinkled skin and sharp ears.
As many as dozens of Skrulls crowded densely on both sides of the aisle.
However, not a single person pulled out a weapon.
Not a single person roared and rushed up.
These alien monsters simply quietly clung to both sides of the wall, lowering their heads slightly, automatically making way for a wide and straight passage that led all the way to the escape iron door leading to the ground.
That kind of silence was even more harsh than thunder in Skye's perception.
Dozens of rapidly beating hearts pulsated at a bizarre synchronous frequency, as if welcoming the end of a certain ritual.
Ward was stunned on the spot.
Pietro stopped, carrying Rosa, his eyes scanning the faces of those green-skinned monsters, feeling somewhat at a loss for the first time.
Coulson looked at the retreating Skrulls guards on both sides, a surge of indescribable chill welling up in his heart.
"Go! Don't look at them, move fast!"
Coulson's voice was kept very low, and the shirt on his back was thoroughly soaked in cold sweat.
Two rows of Skrulls stood with their hands down on both sides of the corridor like lined-up stone carvings, their green pointed ears not even twitching once.
This kind of silence was even more creepy than bullets flying straight at them.
Clearly capable of surrounding the team, they deliberately made way instead.
When things are abnormal, there must be demons; these alien monsters definitely kept a backup plan.
Pietro bounced Rosa slightly on his shoulder, slightly lifting his feet: "I'll take her up first, then come back to pick you up."
Before the words fell, a muffled, tremendous sound came from the depths of the entire underground facility.
It was like thousands of tons of explosives detonating deep underground, causing the ground to undulate violently and the cement surface to crack open into several fissures with a snap.
An eerie light lit up in the direction of the entire building, followed by a city-wide low-frequency Impact sweeping across the ground without any warning.
Ordinary people could only feel stuffiness in their chests, their eardrums blocked like being stuffed with cotton.
Yet Skye let out a miserable scream at this very moment.
"Ah!"
With both hands grabbing her hair tightly, she directly knelt down on the gravel ground.
A massive amount of chaotic vibration frequencies frantically pierced into her brain marrow.
The frictional sound of crustal dislocation, the bursting sound of underground water pipes, and the screeching of high-voltage cables all turned into heavy hammers in the exact same second, fiercely smashing against her newly awakened nerves.
Two streaks of dark black blood flowed directly out of her nostrils, and red water also oozed from the corners of her eyes and ear canals.
"Skye!" Coulson rushed over to support her.
Skye's pupils were unfocused, her lips trembled, unable to spit out even half a word, and her body slid downward softly.
The humanoid radar was completely ruined.
Snap!
The emergency fluorescent tubes on top of the corridor burst one after another, and the surroundings plunged into pure black.
"On guard!" Mei pulled out her pistol, leaning her back against the wall and shouting sternly.
In the darkness, a large hole directly exploded open in the ground ahead.
Dirt and broken cement chunks smashed down head-on, and a residual image too fast to see clearly broke out of the ground.
Chapter 300: Ultimate Amalgam
Among the people present, only Pietro's eyes kept up with this shadow.
The afterimage headed straight for the terrified Rosa.
Rosa cannot die!
This was the boss's mission; if she died, there would be no way to explain it when they got back.
Pietro gnashed his teeth until they creaked, and the Vibranium dagger at his waist slipped backward into his right hand.
The Level 6 Super Physique erupted completely, and the ground under his feet exploded into dust as he charged out to the rhythm of ultra-high speed.
In the ultra-slow motion time that ordinary people could not perceive at all, he held the dagger and stabbed it directly at the monster's temple.
Combined with the hardness of Vibranium, the ultra-high speed could pierce through the armor of a main battle tank like cutting tofu.
Clang!
A harsh metallic crash exploded.
Pietro's pupils shrank violently.
His full-strength thrust was caught.
Without even turning its head, the monster's two fingers precisely pinched the tip of the Vibranium dagger.
The terrifying kinetic energy brought by the high speed actually came to a complete halt between those two fingers, without even grazing a layer of skin.
What the hell is this damn thing?!
Pietro screamed inside that something was wrong, and a sense of crisis frantically sounded alarms in his mind.
The monster turned its head.
That was a distorted and festering face, half of which was the green wrinkles of the Skrulls, and the other half covered with coarse human keratin.
Before Pietro could retreat, the monster's other arm suddenly expanded.
The muscle fibers swelled and churned like a python, and the skin quickly turned dark green, several times larger than the other ordinary arm, simply like a battering ram.
That was Hulk's arm!
Just as this thought flashed through Pietro's mind, that giant green fist had already smashed over.
Bang!
The bones in Pietro's chest shattered on the spot, and his whole body was sent flying backward, crashing through three cement walls and getting buried in a pile of ruins a dozen meters away.
"Pietro!" Coulson shouted.
But the monster didn't give them any time to breathe at all.
Its massive body swayed in place and actually vanished into thin air.
The next moment, a chilly airflow appeared directly above Skye and Rosa's heads.
"Get down!"
Mei suddenly stepped forward, kicked Coulson in the chest, and knocked him and the unconscious Skye into the adjacent utility room.
She had to hold this thing back.
Coulson was the Captain, and Skye was still a child; her life should have been left in Bahrain long ago.
Mei did not hesitate for a second, sliding forward with incredible flexibility, holding tactical batons in both hands, using all her lifetime combat experience to directly strike the monster's ankle joints, while borrowing momentum to spin around, stabbing the tactical batons fiercely into the soft tissue of the monster's back neck.
This was her thoroughly tempered finishing move, but the monster's legs turned into Abomination's thick legs, and its back muscles bulged.
Thud!
The batons snapped into two pieces, and the high-strength alloy exploded all over the sky.
The monster's body only swayed slightly.
A contemptuous expression appeared on its pustule-filled face, and it casually waved a hand.
That green Hulk arm swept directly against Mei's waist.
Mei's whole body was whipped flying horizontally by this terrifying force, heavily slamming into the main load-bearing column. Her chest cavity completely caved in, and when she slid to the ground, her body was already twisted out of shape, losing all signs of life on the spot.
"Mei!"
Coulson crawled out from the utility room, his eyeballs bloodshot, and a Beast-like low growl issued from his throat.
"Go fuck yourself, alien scum!"
Ward, like a starving wolf driven to a desperate situation, pounced towards the monster.
He threw his right punch, the wind whistling past his fist edge, smashing directly onto the monster's chin.
A wave of intense pain came from his wrist.
It was fractured.
The monster's chin was as hard as a compressed high-density alloy, and not even its skin was broken.
The monster looked down at Ward, and its other hand reached out, so fast that it left a string of afterimages, grabbing Ward by the neck and lifting him completely off the ground.
Ward's feet kicked wildly in the air, his hands desperately prying at that pliers-like big hand, his complexion turning from white to purple.
Looking into the monster's lifeless eyes, endless despair finally surged from the bottom of his heart.
Made of paper.
The so-called Level 4 was simply as ridiculous as a three-year-old child in front of this ultimate amalgam.
Crack.
The monster's fingers closed, and Ward's cervical spine was crushed.
Like throwing away trash, the monster tossed Ward's limp corpse into the corner of the wall, and blood slowly trickled down the cracks of the wall.
Far away in Nepal, inside the library of Kamar-Taj.
Lu Chen was casually flipping through an ancient sheepskin book when suddenly, his movements stopped.
That mental imprint he left deep in Ward's mind completely shattered into powder in that very second.
Ward was dead?
Lu Chen closed the ancient book, casually threw it on the table, and his face turned gloomy.
"What's wrong, boss?" Wanda noticed the change in Lu Chen's mood, walked over carrying a food box, and looked at him with some concern.
Meanwhile, in the New York underground ruins.
Dust filled the sky, and Coulson firmly blocked in front of Skye and Rosa, holding a pistol with an emptied magazine, his fingers still unconsciously pulling the trigger, making clicking empty sounds.
The monster walked over step by step, its huge green hand dragging on the ground, scraping out harsh sparks.
"Get away! Monster!" Coulson gritted his teeth.
The monster's giant claw lifted, casting a large shadow.
A silver storm crashed over once again!
Pietro was covered in blood, his left shoulder drooping and obviously dislocated, blood continuously overflowing from the corners of his mouth.
Using his remaining right hand, he hugged Coulson's waist, desperately accelerating. Just an inch before the giant fist smashed down, he narrowly slid away, then turned back, grabbing Skye and Rosa by their collars with one hand.
He was going to take everyone out.
But his speed was much too slow.
The sternum fracture compressed his lungs, and every breath felt like swallowing a handful of broken glass. Even more fatally, he had three people hanging on him.
Coulson, the unconscious and dying Skye, and the out-of-mind Rosa.
Injuries plus these three dead weights slowed his speed down by at least thirty percent.
Whoosh!
The monster had already seen through his trajectory and jumped up in place. Its heavy body crashed heavily to the ground, landing right in front of the only escape exit.
The retreat route was completely sealed off.
The monster split its big mouth open, and its green arm swept across, the wind pressure it whipped up even sweeping all the gravel on the ground into mid-air.
Just at the final moment when Pietro was prepared to close his eyes and make a desperate last stand.
Rrip!
A dazzling golden-orange spark bloomed violently behind him.
The sparks spun wildly, pulling open a huge circular aperture in the pitch-black underground space.
Heat waves swept out from the aperture, dispersing the room-filling smell of blood.
Lu Chen stepped out from the aperture, the hem of his coat swaying slightly. Not a trace of expression could be seen on his handsome face, but his eyes were as cold as eternal unmelting ice.
Beside him, Wong held the Staff of Watoomb, glaring with stern brows.
Wanda held her hands at her waist, dark red chaos magic already swirling and wrapping around her fingertips like a venomous snake.
Three pairs of eyes locked onto that monster lifting its giant fist at the same time.
Chapter 301: Mirror Dimension
Wanda's gaze fell upon the bloody, mutilated clump of silver hair in the pile of ruins.
Pietro knelt on one knee, his left shoulder collapsed by a section, foam mixed with blood still trickling from the corner of his mouth, while his other hand tightly gripped Coulson's collar without letting go.
"Brother..."
The next second, dark red light burst forth from her body.
All the rubble in the underground passageway suspended into the air, buzzing and spinning in mid-air. Two rows of Skrulls standing against the wall were slammed into the wall by this wave of air, clutching their heads as they slid down one by one.
Lu Chen looked at Wanda's power, making a rough judgment in his heart.
The newly awakened Chaos Magic was only at LV5, and after taking pills, due to mental stimulation, it reached LV6. After that battle with the Eternals, coupled with studying under the Ancient One these past few days, it was at least at the LV7 level.
"You hurt him."
Wanda raised her right hand, her five fingers spread open, and pushed forward fiercely.
A beam of dark red magic directly struck the monster's chest. That patchwork monster, which had just raised its giant Hulk arm, didn't even have time to react before it was directly blasted away, crashing the emergency iron door along with its frame into the soil layer behind.
Before it could climb up, the dark red magic caught up with the monster, wrapping around its limbs and neck like countless long whips, pressing it firmly to the ground. The nearby cement, steel bars, and rubble floated up together, and then began to disintegrate.
The monster let out a sharp howl.
The areas entangled by the magic gradually became transparent. Those matters were losing their original shapes. The reality-rewriting power of Chaos Magic bared its fangs in Wanda's hands for the first time.
She was going to directly delete this thing from this World.
Wong held the Wand of Watoomb, his other hand held upright in front of him, as a golden-orange rune shield expanded to tightly cover the wounded behind him.
"Her attack style..." Wong stared at the clump of dark red light, his Adam's apple moving, "It wasn't this ruthless when she was practicing."
"Our Wanda is like this." Lu Chen casually replied, already squatting down beside Mei.
Mei's chest cavity was deeply depressed, the broken ends of her ribs puncturing her lung lobes. Her heartbeat had stopped, and only a trace of weak electrical signals remained in her brain.
Still in time.
Lu Chen raised his hand, and the pools of uncoagulated blood on the ground were drawn back into the wounds as if attracted by a magnet. The broken blood vessels were reconnected one by one by him, and the crushed heart pumped for the first time under his control.
"Cough!"
Mei arched her body, coughing up a large mouthful of stagnant blood.
Lu Chen turned and went over to Ward's side. His cervical vertebrae were shattered, and his spinal cord was half broken. Lu Chen wrapped the shattered bones with blood, piecing them back together piece by piece.
To be honest, this HYDRA undercover agent could die if he died, but that mental imprint was something he had spent effort planting and hadn't yet played its role; if the person just died like this, he would suffer a bit of a loss.
As for the others, Coulson's hand bones, the burst capillaries in Skye's brain, Pietro's sternum and lung lobes... Lu Chen went through them one by one.
"Boss..." Pietro grinned, blood still hanging on his teeth, "If you had arrived two seconds later, I would have had to appear in my sister's dreams."
"I'll get you a set of armor to play with when we get back."
Lu Chen looked at the cheered-up crowd, and just as he stood up, his brow furrowed.
A layer of golden light lit up on the monster entangled by the dark red magic.
The Chaos Magic entangled around it not only failed to continue erasing it, but was instead swallowed by that layer of golden light. The half-arm that had already disappeared was re-solidifying at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Absorbing external energy, transforming and strengthening itself.
This method looked very familiar, and Lu Chen recalled it in his mind.
It was Captain Marvel's ability.
How many things did these Skrulls stuff into this thing? Hulk, Abomination, Carol Danvers... treating gene samples like Lego blocks to piece together?
"Wanda, stop."
"Boss, it's still alive!" Wanda gritted her teeth, her eyes frighteningly red.
"If you feed it for another two minutes, it will turn around and eat your magic as a meal." Lu Chen walked to her side, holding down her trembling wrist, "Leave it to me."
Wanda's hand stiffened in his for two seconds, and finally, she pulled it back.
Lu Chen raised his left hand, two fingers pressed together and slashed downwards.
Space folded layer upon layer like peeled cellophane. The entire underground passageway, the warehouse above, and even half of New York further out, were all Copied and pulled into the Mirror Dimension.
"Wong, take the people out."
"You alone?"
"Even if this place is smashed to pieces, we don't need to pay for damages." Lu Chen stretched his neck, "It's a good time to test something out."
Wong glanced at him and said no more. With a flick of his Sling Ring, a portal opened behind the wounded. Mei was dragged in by her arm, and Coulson carried Skye right behind.
Wanda left last, turning back to give Lu Chen a look.
"Be careful, Boss."
"Mhm."
The portal closed.
Only Lu Chen and the patchwork monster remained in the Mirror Dimension.
The monster had already crawled out from the soil layer, all the wounds on its body fully healed, and the golden light was even brighter than before. It grinned with its half-rotten mouth, gurgling sounds coming from its throat.
Lu Chen didn't speak, raising his foot and taking a step forward.
The next second, Lu Chen's fist slammed into the monster's chest.
One punch.
A bloody hole collapsed into the monster's chest.
The remaining force of the punch exploded backward, and the entire Manhattan block behind the monster was like pushed-over building blocks, with high-rise buildings breaking from the waist one after another. Broken glass and steel bars rolled into a grey wave, flattening seven or eight blocks all the way.
The monster was smashed into the ground, and Lu Chen followed it down, delivering a second punch, then a third.
LV8 Super Physique, combined with Makkari to finally break through LV7 Super Speed. In his field of vision, every time the monster attempted to raise its hand to block, its actions seemed to be slowed down by several times.
Lu Chen delivered a knee strike to its chin, sending the monster's entire body flying into the sky, and he appeared above its head a step earlier, stomping down with one foot. The ground split open a deep trench several kilometers long, and the Water of the Hudson River poured back in.
Interesting.
This thing had taken so many hits, its bones breaking and regrowing, regrowing and breaking again, with an absurdly fast self-healing speed. Its physical strength was probably only a notch lower than his own.
If placed outside, even if the Avengers went up together, they might not be able to hold it down.
The monster finally realized the gap. It burst forth from the deep trench, its energy erupting all at once.
A huge Impact swept across the entire Mirror Dimension. It no longer attacked Lu Chen, but instead crashed frantically all around. With every collision, large cracks appeared in space, and distant buildings warped like shattered glass.
Want to run?
Lu Chen snorted coldly.
In the Mirror Dimension, this place was his.
He raised his hand, and the entire city began to twist. Streets rolled up like noodles, skyscrapers hung upside down in the sky, the Empire State Building was pulled out of the ground and plunged back in, and the Brooklyn Bridge looped into a closed circle, trapping the monster right in the middle.
The monster smashed through a building, only to find another building behind it. Turning a street corner, the intersection connected right back to the original street. It rampaged inside, its pointy ears standing straight up, and by the time the energy absorbed by the monster was exhausted, it finally had no other way out.