Chapter 121 Breakthrough Failure
The portal closed behind him.
The golden sparks extinguished, and a faint scent of sandalwood still lingered in the air.
He stood motionless on the cold alloy floor.
Two forces hummed within him. One was green, representing Time. The other was blue, representing Space. They were of the same origin, like long-lost brothers, attracting each other, swirling, and intertwining into a slowly rotating Tai Chi symbol.
This was a signal.
There was too much, too mixed, within his body. Logan's self-healing, Steve's serum, Carol's energy, Ego's cells, Odin's bloodline, and the rudimentary understanding of Force and Space he had gleaned himself. Everything was crammed into one body, like a chaotic stew. It was usable, but always felt awkward and clumsy.
Now, it was time to melt these things into one solid iron.
He needed a place where he would absolutely not be disturbed.
Chu Hang extended his right hand towards the air in front of him, and with a gentle swipe, like unzipping a zipper, space tore open.
The other side of the rift was not any place he had been before, but a bizarre Mirror Dimension. Cities and streets twisted and folded like overgrown vines.
He stepped through, and the rift behind him closed.
With a thought, the entire Mirror New York City, like building blocks crushed by an invisible giant hand, instantly collapsed, disintegrating into the purest data streams. The next second, these data streams recombined.
A pure white, boundless void formed.
Beneath his feet was a crystal floor, smooth as a mirror, and above his head was darkness that swallowed all light.
This was his laboratory.
Chu Hang sat down cross-legged, his consciousness sinking into his body.
First thing, a new skeleton.
Ego's Celestial life form was powerful, but filled with that madman's selfishness and devouring imprint; it was too impure. Asgard's Godly Physique was pure, but too small in scope, its upper limit locked within the Nine Realms.
What he had to do was completely shatter these two things, remove the dross, extract their essence, and reforge them.
Chu Hang's will transformed into an invisible flame, igniting himself from within.
Excruciating pain instantly engulfed him.
It wasn't physical pain, but a disintegration at the genetic and soul levels.
Golden divine power was melted into the most primitive life energy, and the Celestial's cellular structure was forcibly broken down. He could clearly see those spiritual imprints belonging to Ego, like parasites, wailing and dissipating in the flames.
This process was like personally smashing every one of his own bones, then grinding them into powder with a file, and then reassembling them.
Chu Hang was expressionless.
His will was like an iceberg floating on a sea of magma, calmly controlling everything. Pain was just data, emotions were just noise.
He didn't know how long passed.
When the last trace of Ego's impurities was completely cleared, the golden divine power and the purest life blueprint of the Celestials finally merged.
They were no longer two separate things, but a brand new, stable structure radiating a faint golden light.
Every cell was like a miniature galaxy, self-circulating and indestructible.
He succeeded.
He had forged a Law unique to him—the Law of Body.
This was not comprehended from the outside, but created from within himself. This was his ship to cross the Sea of Laws, and his anchor to bear all power.
Preparation complete.
Chu Hang took a deep breath, his spiritual will detached from this brand new body, stepped forward, and entered the realm that existed only in concept.
The Sea of Laws.
Boundless.
Closest to him was a deep blue ocean, calm as a mirror, which was the Sea of Law of Space.
Chu Hang's will took on a human form and stepped directly onto it. The seawater beneath his feet automatically condensed into a solid path. He walked as if on flat ground, easily and leisurely reaching the opposite shore.
His understanding of space, originally derived from the Tesseract, was already perfected.
Beyond that shore was another crimson ocean.
Violent, chaotic, filled with the aura of destruction. Every wave was a stellar explosion.
The Law of Force.
Chu Hang frowned, feeling the blatant repulsion this ocean had for him.
He did not flinch. The newly forged "Law of Body" transformed into a close-fitting golden armor, enveloping his spiritual will. Like a diver in the heaviest diving suit, he took a deep breath and plunged in.
Boom!
Violent power instantly engulfed him.
His spirit body was torn into countless cracks in the first second. But he gritted his teeth, pushing forward with the most clumsy yet direct method, enduring pressure enough to crush a seed.
One step.
Another step.
Like a mortal climbing the event horizon of a black hole against a gamma rays storm.
His will was repeatedly crushed and repeatedly reformed. With every step forward, his understanding of force deepened.
When he finally, exhausted, burst out of that crimson ocean and stepped onto the opposite shore, his spirit body was riddled with holes, and the golden armor on its surface was dim and covered in cracks.
He looked up.
Ahead, there were two even deeper oceans.
One was green, eerily still, as if solidified time itself.
The Law of Time. Just looking at it, Chu Hang felt his thoughts wildly jumping between past, present, and future, almost causing a mental breakdown.
The other was golden, as heavy as the earth. It was the Law of Body he had just forged. He had created it, but he was far from being able to master it.
Chu Hang fell silent.
He knew he couldn't cross. His remaining spiritual power didn't even have the courage to step into one of those seas.
He was too greedy.
He muttered to himself, decisively retreated, and his will exited the Sea of Laws.
This breakthrough failed.
Chu Hang's will returned to his body. He opened his eyes and let out a long, turbid breath.
That turbid breath, in the pure white space, actually condensed into a gray, lifeless crystal, then shattered into powder.
Although he failed, it was not without gain.
His understanding of the Laws of Space and Force reached a whole new level. The various powers within his body were no longer warring factions, but were unified by these two great Laws, becoming more refined.
He was stuck at a bottleneck.
He was just one step away from pushing open that door and becoming a true Skyfather level. But this step was as heavy as Mount Tai.
"How much time has passed?"
He stood up. In the Mirror Dimension, the sense of time was blurry.
He casually opened a portal and stepped out.
The Base was exactly as he had left it, spotless.
But in the air, the scent of sandalwood was stronger.
Someone had been here.
And, he was right outside the door.
Chu Hang walked to the door, without the slightest pause, and directly pulled open the heavy alloy door.
A man stood outside the door.
He wore a faded blue monk's robe and a red Cloak of Levitation that seemed to have a life of its own, with the ancient-looking Eye of Agamotto hanging on his chest.
The man's face was etched with fatigue, his eyes sunken, his beard scruffy, but those hands, which once belonged to a top surgeon, were now steadily tucked into his sleeves. His eyes were exceptionally bright, carrying a sense of vicissitude and determination that didn't belong to his age.
Stephen Strange.
The future Doctor Strange.
"You are... Anthony Chen?" Strange looked at Chu Hang, his tone somewhat uncertain. He knew the name from the information left by Sorcerer Ancient One, but he didn't expect the Zhenren (Immortal) to be so young.
Chu Hang didn't answer, merely sizing him up, his gaze lingering on the green Time Stone for a moment.
"The newly appointed Sorcerer Supreme, it seems your first day didn't go so smoothly." Chu Hang's tone was very flat, as if commenting on today's weather, "I can smell the lingering energy of Sorcerer Ancient One's passing on you."
Strange's pupils suddenly constricted, his body instantly tensing.
Chapter 122 Lord of the Dark Dimension
Strange's eyes dimmed, like extinguished charcoal. But after only a second, that ember reignited, burning astonishingly bright.
"Sorcerer Ancient One passed her title and the Eye of Agamotto to me," his voice was hoarse, as if abraded by sandpaper, "but she also left behind a mess. Her disciple, Kaecilius, in pursuit of so-called immortality, brought the power of the Dark Dimension to Earth."
He paused, seemingly organizing his thoughts, or perhaps recalling the battle that had left him physically and mentally exhausted.
"Mordo," Strange said this name with a heavy tone, "Mordo couldn't accept the fact that Ancient One used dark magic to sustain her life. He believes magic itself is a blasphemy against the Law of Nature, a sin. Now, he is hunting down sorcerers, taking their power. His next target is the New York Sanctum."
"So, you want me to help you clean up your mess?" Chu Hang's lips curved into a subtle, almost imperceptible smile.
"No," Strange shook his head, looking directly into Chu Hang's eyes, which held no fear, only a surgeon's calm and resolve, "Sorcerer Ancient One said Mordo is my test, and I must resolve it myself. But she also said that if Dormammu broke his oath and sent a clone, it wouldn't be something I could handle. She told me to come find you."
"I owe her a favor," Chu Hang replied straightforwardly, "Mordo is yours. Dormammu is mine."
Strange's tense shoulders finally relaxed, and he let out a long sigh of relief.
"Deal."
Without further ado, Strange raised his hands, his fingertips drawing an orange-red ring of Fire. The portal rapidly expanded, and on the other side was the iconic circular stained-glass window of the New York Sanctum.
The two stepped through, one after the other.
A dark energy, so dense it was almost tangible, rushed towards them, carrying the scent of sulfur and decay.
The hall was already a ruin.
Mordo floated in mid-air, a constantly rotating black magic circle beneath his feet, and the Staff of the Living Tribunal in his hand emitted an ominous dark glow.
Across from him, the stout Master Brother was struggling to maintain a cracked magic shield, which flickered like shattering glass with every impact.
"Strange! You're finally back!" Mordo's eyes blazed with a mixture of anger and disappointment when he saw him, "Are you back to face judgment? You and Ancient One are both thieves who steal power!"
"Mordo, stop this," Strange's red Cloak of Levitation automatically flew onto him, and he took a stance with his hands, a golden mandala array appearing in his palms.
Chu Hang had no interest in their master-disciple drama. He casually walked past the confronting pair to the center of the hall, looking up at the ceiling, which had been eroded by dark energy into an abstract painting.
"Stop hiding. I can smell your rotten stench from across a Dimension."
No sooner had he spoken than the space above the Sanctum began to twist violently, like a black cloth burned through by a cigarette. A colossal, indescribable head slowly squeezed out from the crack.
The head seemed to be composed of countless purple Nebulae and billions of wailing faces, without a physical form, yet it exuded a terrifying pressure capable of crushing one's mind.
It was a clone of Dormammu.
The moment it appeared, the physical Laws of the entire Sanctum began to collapse. Solid walls melted and dripped like wax, sharp black crystal spikes grew from the marble floor, and the air filled with nauseating whispers.
"Mortal... you carry the scent of time, and... Ancient One's repulsive energy," Dormammu's voice didn't travel through the air but resonated directly in Chu Hang's mind, like billions of souls screaming simultaneously, "Do you think you can stop me?"
"We'll find out if we try."
Before Chu Hang finished speaking, he vanished from his spot.
The next second, he appeared above Dormammu's clone's head, delivering a straightforward, unembellished punch. On his fist, the crimson Law of Force and the cerulean Law of Space wildly intertwined, forming a visible spiral of power.
Simple, brutal, and unreasonable.
Boom!
A muffled thud. Dormammu's massive head was struck downwards, the Nebulae forming its face violently churning, but it sustained no substantial damage.
Countless pitch-black energy tentacles shot out from its face, like thousands of venomous snakes eager to devour, sealing off all of Chu Hang's evasion routes.
The space around Chu Hang instantly twisted into an irregular convex lens. The energy tentacles, capable of tearing apart tanks, were deflected and refracted the moment they approached, shooting wildly in all directions and smashing countless bottomless pits into the Sanctum walls.
"A bit interesting," Chu Hang smiled.
The power of this clone was firmly at the threshold of Skyfather level. Although far from Odin's true form, it was stronger than all opponents he had encountered before.
Perfect, it would serve as a whetstone.
He no longer held back; his Godly Physique was fully activated, and his body transformed into a golden lightning bolt, moving at high speed around Dormammu's clone.
At times, he would use the Law of Space for short-distance blinks, appearing in Dormammu's blind spots, unleashing a punch that caused the small area of space to collapse under the Law of Force.
At other times, he would meet it head-on, allowing Dormammu's dark energy to strike him. The [Adaptive Armor] shimmered, rapidly analyzing the energy composition, while the Law of Body converted the impact received into his own strength.
The interior space of the Sanctum had long been churned into a boiling mess. Strange and Mordo's battle was forced into the Mirror Dimension, leaving only Master Brother in the corner, staring wide-eyed at this divine battle.
"Insignificant worm!"
Dormammu was thoroughly enraged. It opened its colossal mouth, formed of Nebulae, and a purple beam of pure Dark Dimension energy erupted, annihilating all matter in its path, even erasing space itself.
Chu Hang did not meet it head-on. He clapped his hands together, and the space before him was pulled open like a curtain. A miniature wormhole instantly formed, swallowing the destructive light beam.
The next second, the wormhole opened at the back of Dormammu's head, and the light beam shot out, unchanged, striking itself.
Taking advantage of the brief chaos in Dormammu's energy body, Chu Hang's figure had already closed in.
[Skyfather level target 'Dormammu (Dimensional Clone)' detected!]
He could copy it!
Chu Hang was suddenly startled and understood instantly. He couldn't do it before because he was too weak, like a three-year-old child unable to even lift a handgun, let alone dismantle and analyze it.
Now, he was just a step away from Skyfather level; the strength of his body and soul had barely reached that threshold.
He quickly confirmed.
[Copying... Energy analysis... Law imprint stripping...]
[Copying complete!]
[Ability obtained: S-Rank - Dimensional Invasion(Elementary)]
A complex stream of information flooded his mind. This ability couldn't directly boost his combat power now, but its potential made Chu Hang's eyes light up.
This was an ability tailor-made for him; he could create countless Chu Hangs in the future, invading other Universes like a virus to exploit the powerful beings of those parallel Worlds.
In the brief moment of his distraction, Dormammu seized the opportunity.
"Feel the embrace of darkness, arrogant mortal!"
The surrounding environment changed abruptly. Chu Hang found himself forcibly dragged into a purely black space.
There was no light, no sound, no direction here. Infinite pressure came from all directions, as if the weight of the entire Dimension had condensed and pressed down on him alone.
His proud Law of Space was completely suppressed here, as if submerged in solidified cement, unable to perform any teleportation or cutting.
"It's over," Dormammu's voice echoed through the entire dark space, carrying a judgmental majesty.
Fine cracks began to appear on Chu Hang's body, and golden blood seeped from the fissures.
The newly forged Law of Body was frantically repairing, but the rate of collapse far exceeded the rate of repair.
He knew that conventional methods were useless.
Then, he would take a big gamble.
Chu Hang closed his eyes, his will completely immersed within his body. He gave up precise control over all his powers, doing only one thing—forcibly crashing the blue ocean representing the Law of Space and the red ocean representing the Law of Force together!
This was a suicidal act he wouldn't even dare to imagine during his breakthrough.
But now, there was no other choice.
Rumble!
Two fundamentally different fundamental Laws, like Water and Fire, violently collided within his body. There was no fusion as imagined, only the most primitive, most violent annihilation and explosion!
A destructive, chaotic storm, mixed with red and blue colors, erupted outward from his body as its center!
"Dual Law · Storm!"
Crack!
The dark space that trapped him shattered like glass hit by a hammer, instantly covered in spiderweb-like cracks, then completely disintegrated.
The purple Law storm, with undiminished momentum, relentlessly slammed into Dormammu's clone's massive head with unstoppable force.
"No—this is impossible!"
Dormammu let out a shriek mixed with terror and disbelief. That colossal head, composed of Nebulae and vengeful spirits, in the purple storm, melted and evaporated rapidly like an ice cube thrown into aqua regia, unable to last even a second.
The spatial rift above the Sanctum abruptly contracted, sucking back the last remnants of dark energy, as if it had never appeared.
Everything returned to calm.
Chu Hang half-knelt in the center of the hall, covered in blood, gasping for breath. The Law power within him was a chaotic mess, like tangled yarn, but he couldn't help but smile.
He seemed to have touched the doorknob of that Skyfather level gate.
He also finally understood why he could copy Infinity Stones but had never been able to copy Skyfather levelindividuals.
Infinity Stones were the physical manifestations of Laws that existed since the birth of the Universe. They were pure, tamed, and without personal imprints.
When he was weak and tried to copy them, it was like a child trying to steal a loaded gun; though dangerous, the gun itself wouldn't resist.
However, the power of Skyfather level beings, every bit of it, bore their own name.
Odin's lightning, Ancient One's magic, Dormammu's darkness, all were extensions of their will. When the former Chu Hang tried to copy them, it was like an ordinary person trying to force another person's soul into their own body; the only outcome would be to be blown apart.
It was different now. He had his own Law of Body as a sturdy container, and he had initially grasped the use of multiple Laws, finally gaining the qualification to contend with these powerful souls.
Just then, the Mirror Dimension in mid-air shattered like a mirror.
Chapter 123 New Ability: Dimensional Invasion
The Mirror Dimension shattered like broken glass, disintegrating in mid-air.
Distorted cityscapes and inverted skyscrapers—all the bizarre fragments silently dissipated, turning into the most primal energy particles.
Strange and Mordo fell out of the broken void, crashing heavily onto the cold marble floor of the Sanctum.
Strange coughed up blood, struggling to get up. His red Cloak of Levitation had several holes, and his face was bruised, but his eyes were harder and brighter than before. He had won, guarding his bottom line in his own way.
Mordo, however, was completely broken.
He knelt on the ground, hands propped on the floor, his gaze sweeping blankly across everything before him. The Sanctum was a ruin, its walls riddled with bottomless holes—traces of Chu Hang and Dormammu's clash; the floor was cracked with hideous fissures, as if the very earth was groaning.
Finally, his gaze fixed on the man half-kneeling not far away, still emitting golden steam.
That man was like a walking disaster. He himself was the greatest blasphemy against all rules.
"Do you see, Strange…" Mordo's voice was dry and raspy, like rusty iron scraping, "This is the price. This is the price for your abuse of power!"
He slowly stood up, the last trace of struggle and pain vanishing from his eyes, leaving only a chilling calmness.
"Ancient One stole power from the Dark Dimension to prolong her life, and you, for victory, wantonly toyed with the Law of Time." Mordo raised a trembling hand, pointing at Chu Hang, "If the man before you one day grows into an existence like Dormammu, it will be a disaster for the World."
A twisted, sorrowful smile suddenly appeared on his face, as if pitying Strange, pitying himself, pitying this Worldthat the Sorcerers treated as a playground.
After speaking, his body crashed heavily to the ground, lifeless.
Strange opened his mouth but ultimately couldn't utter a single word.
He dragged his weary body towards Chu Hang. Looking at the wounds on Chu Hang's body, which should have been fatal but were now healing at an astonishing speed, Strange's expression was incredibly complex, mixed with gratitude, awe, and a deep sense of powerlessness.
"Thank you." Strange's voice was low, hoarse from the ordeal, "I… I need some time. Ancient One's death, Mordo's betrayal… I need time to…"
He looked down at the cold Eye of Agamotto on his chest, his eyes filled with confusion. He had won the battle, but it felt as if he had lost everything.
"Time?" Chu Hang propped himself on his knees, slowly standing up. As he moved, his wounds quickly scabbed over and fell off, revealing perfectly healed skin underneath. He exhaled a bloody breath, his eyes like two freshly tempered knives, piercing directly into Strange.
"What you lack most right now is time."
He walked up to Strange, so close that Strange could smell the peculiar scent of gunpowder and ozone mixed on Chu Hang.
"What do you think Sorcerer Supreme is? A nice title? A Nobel Prize for magic? A certificate of honor?" Chu Hang's lips curled in a sneer, "No, it's a shackles. From the moment Ancient One handed it to you, your sorrow, your confusion, all your petty emotions, are all damn luxuries."
Chu Hang extended a finger and unceremoniously tapped the green glowing gem on Strange's chest.
He stared into Strange's eyes, enunciating each word, "Don't let your personal emotions become a loophole for others to invade."
These words were like a bucket of icy water, drenching Strange from head to toe.
He instantly sobered up.
Yes, he was the Sorcerer Supreme now. He had no time for sorrow, no right to be confused.
Strange took a deep breath, straightened his spine, and the vulnerability on his face vanished, replaced by the calm, decisive surgeon he once was.
"I understand."
"Good." Chu Hang nodded in satisfaction, then pointed to the black energy residues on the ground, which resembled oil stains and emitted an ominous aura, "Dormammu's leftover. I need some samples for research, no problem?"
Strange twitched his lips, showing a wry smile. He knew this favor wouldn't be so easy to repay.
"Of course, take whatever you want. Leaving it here would also be a menace."
"Deal."
Chu Hang didn't stand on ceremony. He extended his palm towards the ground and made a grabbing motion in the air.
The Law of Space activated. The stubborn Dark Dimension energy clinging to the walls and floor was forcibly torn away as if by an invisible giant hand, making sizzling sounds as it gathered into his palm.
The vast energy was furiously compressed and purified by his spatial power, finally transforming into a pure black crystal, no bigger than a fingernail, yet as dark as ink, seemingly capable of absorbing all light.
He casually pocketed the crystal, turned, and left, decisive and swift.
"Hey!" Strange called out behind him, "Where are you going?"
"Home, to sleep."
Chu Hang waved his hand without looking back, his figure fading into thin air where he stood, like a projection with bad signal, flickering twice before completely disappearing.
Strange stood alone in the vast and dilapidated Sanctum, looking at the mess on the floor and the sky just brightening outside the window, letting out a long sigh… New York, underground Base.
Chu Hang sat cross-legged on the metal floor, placing the black crystal he brought back from the Sanctum in front of him, and closed his eyes.
Detailed information about his new ability, [Dimensional Invasion], unfolded in his mind like a tide.
An S-Rank ability, with immense potential.
He could tear off a small portion of his power and will, projecting it into other multiverses like launching a probe. This portion of power would automatically construct a clone based on the local laws.
The clone would have independent action capabilities. Everything it saw, learned, and even new abilities it copied, would be synchronized back to his main body in real-time through a quantum entanglement that transcended space and time.
This was simply a divine skill for 'transmigrators' like him, tailored for 'milking' benefits.
But he quickly discovered the enormous limitation of this ability. The clone's initial strength entirely depended on the quality and quantity of the power he tore off from his main body.
With his current quasi-Skyfather level strength, even if he gritted his teeth and tore off ten percent of his power, the clone created would at most have the combat power to punch a man-made satellite into oblivion.
Satellite-level.
Chu Hang frowned. This level was even inferior to Carolwhen she first awakened her Twin Star Form. Sending such a weakling to other Universes, especially some high-martial, high-magic Worlds, would likely result in it being swatted down as cannon fodder as soon as it landed.
He didn't believe it and decided to test it himself.
He concentrated, his will sinking into the vast ocean of various Law powers within his body. He cautiously extended a tendril of mental power, hooking onto a small stream of his own power. Then, he pulled it out sharply!
Excruciating pain surged, as if someone had ripped a piece of flesh from his soul.
The air in front of him began to fluctuate violently, and a translucent, blurry outline of "Chu Hang" slowly formed. Its features were indistinct, and its body seemed to be made of water ripples, threatening to dissipate at any moment.
Chu Hang could clearly feel the mental link between himself and this clone; he could control it like his own limbs and also see the room through its "eyes."
But he could feel even more strongly that this clone… was very weak.
Pathetically weak.
He tried to command the clone to pick up a glass of Water on the table. The illusory hand reached out but passed through the middle of the glass without any obstruction, unable to exert even the most basic physical interference.
He then tried to make the clone speak, but it only produced an unintelligible, static-like noise.
"It seems the principal isn't thick enough yet." Chu Hangsighed, giving up on the attempt.
With a thought, he withdrew his power. The translucent clone immediately turned into countless light particles, flying back like fireflies and re-merging into his body. The soul-tearing pain slowly subsided.
He fully understood that this couldn't be rushed. For the clone to have enough strength to roam other Worlds, the prerequisite was that he himself must first firmly step into the Skyfather level.
Only at that level would every piece of 'flesh' he tore off be weighty enough, considered a quality asset, rather than a garbage stock thrown out to be wasted.
Chu Hang temporarily shelved the highly tempting [Dimensional Invasion] plan and picked up the pitch-black Dormammu energy crystal.
He planned to thoroughly analyze it, to see if this pure power of devouring and corruption could bring some new, unorthodox ideas to his multi-Law fusion path… Meanwhile, California, Malibu Beach.
The atmosphere in Tony Stark's mansion was so tense it could be wrung dry.
Pepper Potts, dressed in a sharp business suit, held a stack of documents requiring his signature, her face etched with helplessness and exhaustion.
"Tony, you haven't slept for three days straight." She looked at the man furiously typing away at a pile of holographic projections, her voice tinged with a plea, "The war in New York is over, you need to move on."
"I can't move on!"
Tony spun around abruptly, his bloodshot eyes glaring at her.
"You didn't see it, Pepper! You have no idea what it was! That damn wormhole, those endless alien armies! We almost went extinct! And I'm just a human in an iron suit! How can I protect you? How can I protect this World?"
His voice grew sharp with agitation, filled with unconcealed anxiety and a deep-seated fear. The Battle of New York had left an unhealing scar in his mind.
"So you lock yourself in here, like a madman, constantly building these iron lumps?" Pepper pointed at the rows of new, cold armor suits in the workshop, from Mark 7 to Mark 42, like a line of soulless Soldiers awaiting inspection.
"They're not iron lumps!" Tony shrieked hysterically, "They're security! They're the answer!"
The two erupted into a fierce argument, which ended unhappily.
Pepper disappointedly placed the documents on the table and turned to leave. The moment the door closed, Tony, as if all his strength had been drained, collapsed exhaustedly onto the sofa.
The moment he closed his eyes, his mind was filled with that bottomless black wormhole and the lifeless grey faces of the Chitauri.
A powerful sense of suffocation instantly gripped him.
He sprang up from the sofa, gasping for air, the blue light of the arc reactor on his chest flickering rapidly, like a heart on the verge of failure.
"Jarvis." His voice was hoarse.
"Sir, I am always here."
"Just… just activate any armor suit. Have it come keep me company."
"Very well, Sir. Deploying Mark 42 for you."
A moment later, the gold and red Mark 42 armor suit flew in from a distance, landing somewhat clumsily on the living room sofa with a loud clang, the expensive leather sofa sinking deeply under its weight.
Tony turned sideways, curling up like a wounded child, resting his head gently against the cold metal chest plate.
Chapter 128 Tony's Anxiety
In the underground Base, the black crystal, condensed from Dormammu's dark energy, hung silently in mid-air.
Chu Hang stared at it, as if staring at an unsolvable Tesseract.
He wanted to try to understand Dormammu's Universe-overlord level energy.
But he failed; neither the superpower copier on him nor the several laws of power it controlled could analyze this energy.
He tried pouring his own Universe energy into it, wanting to see if it would mix.
The result was like pouring a barrel of Water into the Sahara Desert; the energy went in and there was no reaction, not even a bubble. The crystal, instead, became even Blacker, and its texture became denser.
"So hard to deal with," Chu Hang cursed, withdrawing his hand.
Just as he was thinking, the satellite phone in his pocket, specially provided by Fury, rang. It was an encrypted line, untraceable.
A low-pixel avatar of an One-Eyed Man popped up on the screen.
"Fury," Chu Hang answered the phone, his voice lazy.
"Chen," the voice on the other end was deep, with the roar of an engine in the background, "do me a favor."
"I'm retired. I'm enjoying life, do not disturb."
"You said that last time too, and then the next day you ran off to Harlem to wrestle with a big green guy." Fury was clearly too impatient to waste words with him, "Stark has a problem."
In a few words, he quickly described Tony Stark's current situation. After the battle in New York, the man became obsessed. He suffered from insomnia and nightmares all night, locking himself in his workshop, building iron shells like a madman. The latest model had already reached Mark42.
"He's about to wear himself out, and Pepper Potts is about to be driven crazy by him." Fury's tone was heavy, with a suppressed Fire, "An out-of-control, mentally unstable Iron Man is harder to deal with than ten Loki. He's your major shareholder, and arguably your friend. If you go talk to him, it'll be more effective than me sending ten Doctors."
Chu Hang leaned back in his chair, saying nothing.
Tony Stark was an important chess piece in his future plans, and one of the few people he found not so boring after coming to this era. This chess piece couldn't be wasted like this.
"Alright," Chu Hang finally spoke, "payment."
"Name it," Fury was very direct.
"Vibranium powder, fifty grams, 99.9% purity or higher. Ultra-pure Californium-252, ten milligrams."
The other end of the phone was silent for more than ten seconds. When Fury's voice sounded again, it was as if it had just been taken out of a freezer.
"You're robbing me, Chen. Do you know what these things put together can do? They could wipe half of New York off the map."
"I know. You don't have to give them to me," Chu Hangdidn't care at all, "Then wait and see a mentally broken billionaire, flying his dozens of battle suits, randomly picking lucky cities in the sky to put on a grand fireworks show."
"...Deal," Fury's voice sounded like it was squeezed through his teeth, "Delivered to your designated location within three days. Fix Stark, make him go back to being that annoying but at least somewhat normal bastard."
The call ended.
Chu Hang smiled, tossing the phone aside. He stood up, and the air around him twisted like Water waves; his Shadow instantly disappeared.
The next second, he appeared in the cliffside mansion on Malibu Beach, California.
The workshop looked like it had been ransacked by a tornado. Empty energy drink cans, half-eaten pizza boxes, and various discarded parts and circuit boards were scattered all over the floor.
Tony Stark was sprawled over the huge holographic operating table, his eyes bloodshot, his hair a mess like a bird's nest, his expression both agitated and listless.
On the operating table was an extremely complex diagram of the human nervous and circulatory systems, with dense streams of biological data floating above it. A miniature arc reactor model was being virtually implanted next to the heart in the diagram.
He was researching the prototype of the Extremis virus. He wanted to combine arc reactor technology with biotechnology, directly extracting energy from the human body itself, transforming a person into a biological energy core.
"It seems you're quite ill."
Chu Hang's voice suddenly sounded in the workshop without warning.
Tony, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, sprang up from his chair. The robotic arm beside him "swished" out its weapon module, pointing at Chu Hang.
"Damn it! Can't you just use the fucking door once?!" Tonygasped, and seeing it was Chu Hang, he relaxed, waving his hand at the robotic arm.
"The door's too slow." Chu Hang, as if returning to his own home, pulled up a chair and sat down, pointing at the blueprints on the operating table, "Want to turn yourself into a human bomb? Good idea, very creative. But useless."
"What the hell do you know!" Tony impatiently waved his hand, turning off the holographic projection, "I'm just preparing. Next time, when those alien bastards fall from the sky again, I need stronger power."
Tony paused, then said, "Next time, I don't want to see you rush into the Universe alone to take risks."
"What you lack isn't power, Tony," Chu Hang looked at him, his words directly hitting a nerve, "What you lack is a sense of security."
Tony was completely stunned.
"That battle in New York opened your eyes. You saw gods, you saw monsters, you saw endless alien armies. In that bizarre World, the iron shell you were so proud of was as fragile as paper."
Chu Hang's voice was calm, as if he was talking about everyday matters.
"You were scared. Because for the first time, you realized you were no longer the apex predator of the food chain. You were afraid you couldn't protect Pepper, couldn't protect this World, couldn't even protect yourself. So you built these iron shells like a madman, thinking quantity could overwhelm quality. But deep down, you know better than anyone that even if you build a hundred of them, when the next enemy beyond your imagination arrives, you'll still have to kneel."
Tony's breathing became rapid, his face pale. He wanted to open his mouth to retort, to curse back with sarcastic jokes, but found he couldn't utter a single word.
Because everything Chu Hang said was true.
"Then what should I do?" He slumped into the chair as if all his bones had been pulled out, his voice trembling slightly in a way he didn't even notice, "I'm just a person."
"So am I," Chu Hang said faintly.
Tony suddenly looked up, his eyes filled with disbelief.
"You've seen what I can do, Tony. I can tear space, I can withstand nuclear bombs, I can pin gods to the ground and rub them." Chu Hang's eyes were deep, as if hiding a starry sky, "But I also get scared. Because I know this Universe is bigger and more dangerous than you and I imagine. Above me, there are even stronger existences. What we see is always just the tip of the iceberg."
He stood up, walked to Tony's side, and clapped his palm heavily on his shoulder.
"True security doesn't come from how many iron shells you have. It comes from knowing how capable you are. You're on the wrong path now; stop foolishly accumulating quantity, it's time to improve quality."
"Quality?" A glimmer of light finally flickered in Tony's eyes.
"Your armor suit is strong, but the material is garbage," Chu Hang evaluated unceremoniously, "There's a metal, alien in origin, the most molecularly stable substance known in the Universe. A shell made from it deserves to be called armor."
"What metal?" Tony's eyes lit up completely; the tech geek's instinct overwhelmed his anxiety.
"Vibranium," Chu Hang uttered two words, "Go ask your One-Eyed Man friend, he knows where to find it. But I warn you, the small amount he has is probably only enough for you to make a pot lid."
Giving a new technical goal, Chu Hang felt it wasn't enough. He thought for a moment and decided to add another layer of insurance for this ill-fated couple.
Pepper was walking in with a cup of coffee. Seeing Chu Hang suddenly appear, she jumped, almost dropping the cup in her hand.
"Don't be nervous, Miss Potts," Chu Hang smiled at her, "Considering how hard Tony works, I'll give you a small gift, consider it a year-end bonus."
With that, before either of them could react, he raised his right hand and gently tapped his fingertips twice in the air.
A tiny speck of golden light, the size of a grain of rice, emerged from his fingertip, then split into two, like two leisurely fireflies, flying separately into Tony's and Pepper's chests, flashing and disappearing.
Both of them subconsciously touched their chests, but felt nothing.
"What is this?" Tony immediately became alert, "Jarvis, scan me!"
"Sir, scan results show no foreign objects or abnormal energy fluctuations in your body," Jarvis's voice also sounded somewhat confused.
"An amulet," Chu Hang explained, "magic. When you two are about to die, it will automatically pop up a spatial shield that can protect you for five seconds. Remember, it's only once, and then it's gone."
magic? Spatial shield?
Tony's mind couldn't process it at all. He understood quantum physics, he understood celestial energy, but this thing was completely outside his knowledge system. He couldn't analyze it, couldn't understand it, and certainly couldn't replicate it. This feeling drove him crazy.
Just as he was about to ask what the principle of this unscientific thing was, Chu Hang's expression suddenly changed.
He turned his head slightly, his brows furrowed, as if listening to some distant sound.
A very distant, very urgent, but incredibly familiar voice, as if crossing countless light-years and penetrating countless dimensions, rang directly in his mind.
The voice carried the aftershocks of thunder and undisguised urgency.
"Chu Hang, Asgard needs your help!"
Chapter 125 A Cry for Help from Asgard
A voice exploded in Chu Hang's head.
"Chu Hang!"
The voice bypassed his ears; it was pure will, mixed with the noise of thunder and tearing metal, crossing an immeasurable distance to directly impact his consciousness.
Images flooded in, fragmented and chaotic.
Thor knelt in a field of dark red ruins, propping himself up with Mjolnir.
Every breath he took exhaled white mist, his golden hair matted with blood and dust, and his armor suit covered in charred cracks. The plate on his left shoulder was gone, revealing a bloody, mangled wound that was still sparking with electricity.
He was surrounded by enemies, wearing pale masks, silently encircling him.
"The Aether Particle... Jane... they have her... I need..."
The voice cut off, and the image went black.
Tony and Pepper heard nothing, only seeing Chu Hang's expression change instantly. Those eyes, usually somewhat lazy, now became cold, emanating a chill.
"What happened?" Tony asked instinctively.
The coldness on Chu Hang's face quickly receded, returning to his usual nonchalant demeanor.
"A friend is in a brawl, about to lose, and called me for help," he summarized simply.
He looked at the two bewildered people in front of him and shrugged.
"I'm going on a business trip; you two carry on."
As soon as he finished speaking, the air where he stood twisted violently. His figure became blurry, transparent, and then with a soft 'pop,' he vanished into thin air.
Only Tony and Pepper remained in the workshop, along with a smell similar to ozone.
"His... his magic, is it real?" Pepper finally found her voice after a long while.
Tony didn't answer. He quickly walked to the holographic control panel, his hands moving swiftly in the air, pulling up the indoor surveillance footage from just now, and slowing the playback frame by frame to the extreme.
On the screen, Chu Hang's body disintegrated into countless tiny specks of light within a thousandth of a second. All the light specks collapsed towards an invisible singularity, then annihilated.
"Jarvis," Tony's voice was a bit dry, "record all spatial fluctuation data from just now, create a new physical model, and pull up all papers in the database regarding quantum tunneling, string theory, and multidimensional space conjectures! I refuse to believe it; he can't really be a deity!"
Tony stared intently at the vanishing point on the screen, his eyes filled with a scientist's frustration and fervor.
He had to understand the principle behind this. This was no longer a matter of technological disparity; it was a subversion of the fundamentals of physics.
Pepper looked at his frantic appearance, walked over, and gently placed her hand on his.
"Tony, perhaps... some things are just unexplainable."
"No," Tony shook his head, his gaze stubborn, "everything that exists has its laws; we just haven't found them yet. If he can do it, it means this path exists. I must find it."
He pushed Pepper's hand away and once again plunged into the massive amounts of data and formulas. He would use his own method to chase after that figure already standing on a divine altar...
One step out, and the scene before him transformed from the sunny beaches of Malibu to a desolate World ravaged by war.
The sky was dark green, with two broken moons hanging above.
The air was mixed with the strange smell of burnt feathers, ozone, and rusting metal, dry and acrid as it entered his lungs.
Not far away, Thor was almost at his limit.
Each time he swung his hammer, he put his last ounce of strength into it, smashing one or two enemies into pulp. Lightning occasionally struck from the sky, exploding into an electric net around him, temporarily forcing back the enemies.
But there were too many enemies.
They wore pitch-black armor and pale masks, moving swiftly and coordinating seamlessly. They didn't engage in close combat, but instead spread out far away, forming a huge encirclement, calmly firing their strangely shaped rifles.
The guns did not fire bullets, nor energy beams, but rather constantly rotating black singularities that devoured light.
These black dots were deadly. When Thor's lightning struck them, most of it would be absorbed by their armor. And those black dots, though not fast in flight, once they touched anything, would devour everything around them. The ground beneath Thor's feet was already covered with circular pits of various sizes, with smooth edges.
He had been fighting here for a long time, his divine power greatly depleted, and his movements had visibly slowed. Each breath was like pulling a broken bellows.
A Dark Elf Captain seized the opportunity. He emerged from behind a giant rock, calmly raised his gun, aiming it at Thor's unguarded back.
Thor's battle instincts made him sense the danger, but his weary body could no longer keep up with his brain's reactions. He wanted to turn, but was a half-beat too slow.
It's over.
Just as the thought flashed, a figure appeared behind him.
Chu Hang extended his index and middle fingers, pinching the rapidly spinning black singularity.
The violent energy singularity was as docile as a glass marble at his fingertips; all its suction was firmly locked by a force, only able to 'buzz' in vain.
"Hey, Thor." Chu Hang turned his head, raising an eyebrow at the shocked Thor behind him, "Looks like you're not having a good day."
The ambushing Dark Elf didn't have time to react a second time before Chu Hang flicked his finger.
The black dot, ten times faster than it arrived, drew a straight black line and struck the Dark Elf's chest.
There was no explosion, no sound; the Dark Elf, along with his armor, was compressed into a tiny point within one second, erased from this Universe.
"Chu Hang!" Thor was both surprised and delighted. He fiercely smashed two enemies in front of him with his hammer, retreated to Chu Hang's side, and leaned against him, gasping, "How did you... get here so fast?"
"You shouted so loudly, it would be hard for me not to hear." Chu Hang's gaze swept over the hundreds of enemies around them, and the several scythe-shaped spacecraft landing in the distance, asking indifferently, "When did the Prince of Asgard fall so low?"
"They are Dark Elves! Their leader is Malekith!" Thorleaned on his hammer, panting heavily, quickly explaining, "They came for the Aether Particle! It's an ancient weapon, liquid, with terrifying power."
Chu Hang's heart stirred. The Aether Particle was the Reality Stone.
"Where is it?"
"It's... it's inside Jane's body!" Thor's voice was filled with anxiety and regret, "When the Nine Realms converged, she accidentally stumbled into a hidden space and was possessed by the Aether. I brought her back to Asgard, hoping my mother could find a solution, but Malekith still found us. He ambushed the palace... My mother was also severely wounded protecting Jane! I could only take Jane and flee here, hoping to draw them away, but..."
Before he could finish, the Dark Elves' legion across from them had already reacted from their commotion.
All Dark Elves, under the Commander's order, simultaneously raised their guns.
Dozens of black dots, covering the sky, flew towards the two, sealing off all space for evasion.
"Be careful!" Thor's face changed dramatically. He raised his hammer, preparing to use his last divine power to resist.
"Step back."
Chu Hang took a step forward, blocking Thor. He raised his right hand.
An invisible barrier unfolded before him.
All the flying black dots, at a distance of three meters from him, abruptly stopped in mid-air. They spun wildly, emitting a low 'buzz,' but could no longer advance an inch.
Chu Hang spread his five fingers, then clenched them sharply.
[Space · Collapse]
The dozens of black dots suspended in the air were fiercely squeezed together by an invisible giant hand. They devoured and compressed each other, and finally, with a muffled 'thump,' all their energy completely annihilated at the center point, without even a ripple spreading out.
The Dark Elves' legion across from them experienced real commotion and chaos for the first time. This power, beyond their comprehension, filled them with fear.
"Alright, warm-up's over." Chu Hang stretched his wrist, "Now it's my turn."
His figure vanished from its spot.
The next second, he had already appeared in the center of the Dark Elves' formation.
He reached out his hand, and to the nearest Dark Elf, he softly spoke one word.
"Shatter."
[Law of Force]
The molecular bonds inside that Dark Elf's body, the intermolecular forces, the strong interaction forces between quarks—all the fundamental laws that constituted his existence—were forcibly broken in an instant. From the inside out, he silently shattered into billions of dust particles finer than sand.
Then came the second, the third.
Chu Hang's steps were unhurried, without a trace of effort. Wherever he passed, all the Dark Elves silently turned into dust in the same manner. This was not a massacre; it was more like a precise, efficient cleanup.
He didn't run; he merely walked.
A Dark Elf Commander roared, ordering his subordinates to concentrate fire. A dozen guns simultaneously aimed at Chu Hang.
Chu Hang didn't even look, continuing towards his next target.
Those black dots, at a meter's distance from his body, automatically deflected their trajectories, shooting into empty space or hitting their own comrades.
Panic began to spread.
These battle-hardened Soldiers felt what it was like to be powerless for the first time. Their weapons were ineffective, and their numbers were meaningless. The person before them was not an enemy, but a natural law, Death itself, an irresistible force.
They began to retreat, their formation scattering. Some turned to run.
The several scythe-shaped spacecraft in the distance, seeing the unfavorable situation, immediately changed direction, their engines spewing pale green flames, attempting to ascend and escape.
Chu Hang stopped, looked up, and glanced at them.
"Did I say you could leave?"
He raised his hand and made a grabbing motion towards the sky.
The accelerating spacecraft suddenly halted, as if clutched by an invisible cosmic giant hand. Their engines emitted a strained wail, and countless cracks appeared on their sturdy hull. Then, they began to be squeezed and twisted little by little.
The shriek of metal pierced the sky.
Finally, with a tremendous 'boom,' the spacecraft were completely crushed into burning lumps of scrap metal in mid-air, trailing black smoke as they crashed to the ground.
The remaining Dark Elves on the ground completely collapsed. They threw down their weapons and scattered, fleeing in all directions.
Chu Hang did not pursue them. He simply stood still, watching the fleeing figures, then raised his other hand.
"Freeze."
All the running Dark Elves instantly froze in place, maintaining various comical fleeing postures, unmoving.
Time seemed to have been paused.
Chu Hang snapped his fingers.
"Disperse."
All the frozen Dark Elves, like their comrades he had pointed at earlier, simultaneously turned into dust flying across the sky.
In less than a minute, the entire battlefield became completely silent. Only the whimpering sound of the wind blowing through the ruins remained.
Thor watched all this, dumbfounded, looking at the man who had effortlessly wiped out an elite legion, feeling as if his brain couldn't quite process it.
He knew Chu Hang was strong, but he never imagined he would be this strong.
Chapter 126 Aether Particles
The wind blew, stirring up the dust on the ground. A smell of burnt metal mixed with dust.
Thor stood in the dead silence, leaning on his hammer. He looked at Chuhang, his mind a little slow to process.
Not long ago, on Earth, this man still needed his guidance on Asgardian combat techniques. Now, he had ended a war that Thor couldn't win even with all his might, in a way he couldn't fully comprehend.
That wasn't a battle; it was a cleanup. A calm, efficient, emotionless erasure.
"You... you've grown stronger again." Thor's voice was dry. After a long thought, he could only utter this one sentence. He felt his pride, along with the thousands of years of Asgard's glory, had been crushed in those few minutes.
"Not bad. Just a bit of exercise." Chuhang clapped his hands, finding nothing on them. He stepped forward, his gaze falling on Thor's left shoulder.
There, armor and flesh had melted together, forming a charred hole that was still sizzling with tiny electrical sparks. The Asgardian self-healing ability was fighting against the residual dark energy in the wound, causing his divine power to circulate poorly throughout his body.
"Don't move."
Chuhang extended his finger and touched the wound.
A green light emerged, and time seemed to flow backward.
Thor felt the chaotic divine power within him instantly calm. The flesh on his shoulder regenerated rapidly at a visible rate, and the charred skin peeled off like dead skin. The melted metal armor plates also seemed to be reshaped by an invisible hand, restoring them to their original state, without even a scratch.
This was him.
It took no more than three seconds.
Thor moved his shoulder; it no longer hurt, and his strength had returned. It was as if the fierce battle just now was merely a dream.
"What was that?" he couldn't help but ask, his tone filled with confusion. This healing ability was faster and more thorough than Asgard's Soul Forge.
"A small trick." Chuhang withdrew his hand, not wanting to explain further. "Tell me about that Aether. Is it still inside Jane's body?"
At the mention of Jane, Thor's face darkened again.
"Yes." He gripped his hammer handle, his voice full of self-reproach and helplessness. "It's like a toxin, eroding her life. I brought her back to Asgard, but even the best healers couldn't do anything. They said the Aether is transforming her, trying to turn her into a... a new vessel."
"A Reality Stone with self-awareness." Chuhang pondered. This thing was tricky.
It wasn't just pure energy; it was a concept, a rule. It could mold reality itself like clay.
"Take me to her," Chuhang said, his tone leaving no room for doubt.
"This is Vanaheim, the realm of the Dark Elves, far from Asgard," Thor explained. "The Bifrost is destroyed, so we'll have to find a usable spaceship first, and then..."
Before he could finish, Chuhang's hand was already on his shoulder.
"No need for all that trouble."
Thor only felt a blur before his eyes; the entire world was forcibly torn open by an irresistible force, twisting into countless chaotic lines of light.
He felt his body being disassembled into its most basic particles, then roughly reassembled. This sensation was ten thousand times more uncomfortable than taking the Bifrost.
When he regained his senses, the dazzling golden light made him squint. He was already standing in the grand hall of Asgard's palace.
The atmosphere in the hall was heavy, filled with a sense of oppression.
Odin sat on his throne, his face etched with unconcealed exhaustion. Queen Frigga lay on a glowing bed nearby, her face pale, her breathing weak, as several handmaidens carefully attended to her.
The surrounding guards, seeing them appear out of nowhere, immediately raised their spears, golden energy converging at the tips.
"Stand down." Odin's voice was weary, but his authority remained undiminished.
The guards hesitated, then retreated to either side, but their eyes remained fixed on Chuhang, the uninvited guest.
Odin's single eye was also fixed on Chuhang. Just now, he had felt a rude, primal spatial force tear open Asgard's spatial barrier. He had thought it was Malekith using some trump card, but it turned out to be this Earthling.
"Last time I saw you, the power within you was still very restrained," Odin's voice was low, as if he was talking to himself, yet also questioning. "Now, it's almost overflowing. What exactly have you done?"
"Good luck, and learned a few things." Chuhang's gaze swept over Frigga, then at the lingering battle marks on the hall walls. "It seems you have quite a bit of trouble."
"Father!" Thor quickly walked to the throne, kneeling on one knee. "Mother, she..."
"She's fine, just severely depleted of divine power; she needs rest." Odin's gaze finally shifted from Chuhang back to his son. "Where is Malekith?"
"He fled." Thor gritted his teeth. "But his army..." He glanced back at Chuhang, his expression complex. "They've been dealt with."
Odin instantly understood; with Chuhang's near-Skyfather level strength and multiple laws, dealing with the Dark Elves was naturally no problem.
"I want to see Jane Foster," Chuhang said directly, not wanting to waste time. "I'm very interested in that thing called the Aether."
Odin was silent for more than ten seconds, the hall so quiet one could hear breathing. He finally waved his hand at Thor.
"Take him."
In the medical bay, a chaotic, violent energy fluctuation assaulted them.
Jane Foster lay on a specially designed energy bed, her brows tightly furrowed, her body occasionally twitching slightly. A dark red, seemingly alive liquid slowly flowed beneath her skin, like tiny snakes.
This energy was extremely unstable; a trace would occasionally spill out, instantly forming various bizarre red crystals in the air, then silently disappearing the next second.
Reality itself was undergoing subtle, random changes around her.
Chuhang stepped forward, extended his hand, and hovered it above Jane's forehead, without making contact.
He closed his eyes, his consciousness sinking into his body, mobilizing all his analytical abilities to begin analyzing.
He could clearly perceive the magical rules contained within the Aether.
The Law of Space and the Law of Force allowed him to understand, from a more fundamental level, how this power twisted physical constants.
Soon, he reached a conclusion.
Jane's body structure was being fundamentally altered. A high-dimensional energy, which was the manifestation of the Reality Stone, was irreversibly assimilating with her.
It was rewriting her genes, reshaping her cells, transforming her from a carbon-based life form into a vessel more suitable to contain the concept of reality.
He could feel that Jane's life and the Aether were already deeply intertwined. If he were to forcibly copy it now, his [Super Duplicator] would directly come into contact with "reality," the most fundamental cosmic law. This contact would instantly trigger Jane's "conceptual collapse."
This person would completely vanish from all timelines—past, present, and future.
As if she had never existed.
Chuhang opened his eyes, frowning. This was more troublesome than he thought.
"How is it?" Thor watched his expression, his heart sinking little by little.
"Very tricky," Chuhang said honestly. "This thing has already taken her as its new body. Trying to get it out is like disassembling her at the atomic level and then praying you can put her back together correctly."
"So there's... no other way?" Thor's voice trembled.
"There is a way." Chuhang's gaze passed through the window, looking towards the distant, magnificent palace. "But it will take time, and it will require your father's cooperation."
He turned and strode back to the great hall.
Odin was still waiting on his throne, as if he hadn't moved.
"You've seen it," Odin said, a statement of fact.
"I have," Chuhang nodded. "A hot potato. Trying to safely remove it from that woman's body is too risky; you can't do it."
"But you want it," Odin said, hitting the nail on the head.
"That's right." Chuhang didn't hide his purpose. "I like collecting stones."
"Asgard cannot simultaneously safeguard two Infinity Stones." Odin immediately refused. The Tesseract (Space Stone) was already here; adding a Reality Stone would be like putting two nuclear bombs in the same powder keg.
"I didn't say I wanted you to safeguard it." Chuhang smiled, revealing a mouthful of white teeth. "Let's make a deal. I'll help you deal with Malekith and his Dark Elves, once and for all. In return, after we safely extract the Aether from Jane Foster's body, lend it to me for a month of study."
He held up one finger.
"Just one month. After that, I'll personally return it to you. You can hide it in any corner of the Nine Realms, or hand it over to some big-headed collector, whatever you wish."
Odin's single eye stared fixedly at Chuhang, as if trying to see through his soul.
Allowing a powerful individual of unknown strength and origin to study one of the most dangerous weapons in the universe. This was a huge gamble. This person's growth rate was terrifying; no one knew what he would become after obtaining the Reality Stone.
But at present, Asgard was indeed in a bad state. The Bifrost was gone, Frigga was seriously injured, and he himself was old, his divine power greatly diminished. Facing Malekith, who was bent on revenge and held the Aether, they had no absolute guarantee of victory.
The power Chuhang had just displayed was precisely the weapon Asgard needed most right now.
"How do you guarantee that you can defeat Malekith?" Odin finally asked, with a hint of subtle probing in his voice.
"By the fact that I defeated Dormammu's dimensional avatar." Chuhang's tone was calm, as if he were talking about a trivial matter.
Odin's single eye sharply contracted. "It seems he already possesses Skyfather-level strength." He naturally knew of Dormammu; his dimensional avatar was at least a Skyfather-level entity. Chuhang being able to defeat him already proved his strength.
Thor stood by, utterly confused.
"Who's Dormammu? A distant relative of slime?"