Tap tap tap...
Strange and Mordo hurried over, both looking utterly disbelieving when they saw the Ancient One's tragic state.
"No…"
"Stephen, where's Wanda? She's not here?" Ye Li asked Stephen Strange.
Logically speaking, if Wanda were here, the Ancient One wouldn't have been able to go through with her staged death like this.
"Ye, you've come too... but unfortunately, you're too late…"
Stephen Strange looked at the yellow-robed figure on the ground with regret and said, "Miss Maximoff was asked by the Ancient One to stay in Kamar-Taj. If she were here, maybe things would've been different..."
'Seems like when someone is truly determined to die, there's no stopping them…' Ye Li was also a bit speechless about the Ancient One's elaborate effort to die.
"Ye…"
Stephen looked at Ye Li nearby, as if he had found his pillar of support, and asked unwillingly, "She just... died from falling? She's the Sorcerer Supreme, how could she just..."
'I'm guessing you're thinking… how could she die in such a lame way, right…'
Ye Li muttered to himself and shrugged, "Maybe you should try to save her."
As a once top-tier surgeon, Stephen wouldn't give up without at least trying.
"But…"
Stephen Strange held up his blood-covered hands and said, "My hands were slashed by Kaecilius during the fight…"
Ye Li: "...." 'Man, your lefty and righty sure go through a lot...'
…..
Metro-General Hospital
"Hurry, hurry, hurry!!"
"Christine! We need to save her!"
"It's not atrial fibrillation! It's myocardial stunning!"
Stephen Strange anxiously pushed the Ancient One's stretcher and sought help from his slightly ambiguous coworker, Christine Palmer.
Although Christine Palmer's surgical skills weren't quite at Stephen's level, she was still an excellent doctor.
Seeing Stephen so panicked, Christine helped push the Ancient One into the emergency room while asking, "Neurogenic shock?"
Stephen Strange: "Yes..."
"I'll do my best!"
Christine Palmer put on her gloves and closed the emergency room door with her nurses.
Beeeeeeep—
As the emergency lights came on, the rescue began.
"Swab."
"Lower her cranial pressure."
"Her heart rate is dropping."
Heart monitor: Beep~—Beep~—Beep~—
"She's fading fast, give her more oxygen!"
Beep~———Beep~———
"Her pupils are dilating."
Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep
"No reflexes. No detectable brain activity."
…..
Outside the emergency room.
Ye Li leaned calmly on a waiting chair, listening to the flurry of activity inside, shaking his head with a smile: [Her soul is literally off doing her own thing right now, floating around who knows where. Of course you can't detect any brain activity.]
Right now, the Ancient One's soul was probably passing the torch to Stephen, handing him the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme.
…..
Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep
The heart monitor flatlined. Christine Palmer shook her head helplessly and went to wash off the blood.
Resuscitation had failed.
Click—
The emergency room door opened. Ye Li walked in calmly.
"Who are you?"
"No unauthorized personnel allowed."
The nurses all shouted at him.
Christine Palmer, thinking he was family, softly consoled, "Are you her relative? My condolences."
Ye Li ignored them, walking straight to the Ancient One's body covered by the white cloth, reaching toward her.
"What are you doing? Don't touch her." A nurse tried to stop him but was held back by Christine Palmer.
In Christine's eyes, Ye Li must've been trying to close the Ancient One's open green eyes to let her rest in peace.
She had heard that many Easterners did this, and she'd seen some Asian families do the same before.
But—
Ye Li's next move stunned both Christine Palmer and all the nurses.
His hand hovered from the top of the Ancient One's head all the way down to the foot of the bed—
And as his palm passed over, a deep blue cold frost began slowly covering the Ancient One's body inch by inch...
Oh my god…!
"Is this some kind of tech?"
"Or superpower?"
The nurses were completely stunned...
"Could this be..."
Christine Palmer, having seen Stephen Strange's portals before, guessed, "Could this be... magic?"
Ye Li didn't care how shocked the nurses or Christine were. He placed his hand atop the freezing cold ice and softly whispered to the Ancient One.
"We will meet again. I'll find you, once I have the chance to meet Eternity…"
"You..."
Christine Palmer overheard Ye Li's soft words and felt something wasn't right...
Saying to a dead person: We'll meet again?...
Saying: I'll find you...?
Even saying something about Eternity...
Doesn't this sound like he wants to die to follow her?
Could it be this man with magic... was her lover? A Dao companion?
Christine Palmer looked at the youthful appearance of the Ancient One—honestly, she and Ye Li did look quite compatible...
Her mind instantly filled in a grand, magical love story, and she quickly tried to stop Ye Li, saying, "Don't do anything drastic! I know you're devastated by her passing, but your beloved would want you to keep living. Stay strong!"
Ye Li: "???" 'The hell are you talking about?'
'Stephen's girlfriend really has a wild imagination... Looks like I'd better keep my distance from him from now on… Or she might imagine something even weirder between us... Ugh, people who love wild guesses are the worst...'
Ye Li chuckled and didn't linger. A flash of blue light appeared in his hand, and he vanished along with the ice-covered body of the Ancient One...
Christine Palmer: "Huh?"