Chapter 154 Spying in the Dark
Chu Hang said to Wanda and Steve, who stood beside her with a complex expression, "Alright, we're not too late."
As soon as he finished speaking, his brow furrowed, and he sharply turned to the west.
Trouble was brewing in New York.
"Don't waste any more time," Chu Hang's voice cut through everyone's thoughts.
He looked at Wanda, who was clutching his clothes tightly, her eyes filled with fear that he would disappear again.
A small pebble was tossed into the cold sea within Chu Hang's heart.
He reached out and ruffled her hair, his tone gentle in a way he didn't even notice: "I'll take you with me. Hold on tight."
With that, he made a gesture with his other hand.
Space, like a piece of cloth, was torn open, revealing a pitch-black rift.
He pulled Wanda and stepped through it.
Steve was about to speak, but the rift had already closed, as if it had never appeared.
The air in New York was filled with the smell of burnt concrete and ozone.
A gigantic donut-shaped spaceship hovered over Manhattan.
Chu Hang pulled Wanda out of the spatial rift, appearing on the rooftop of a building.
Below, the battle was fierce.
Tony's nano armor suit was being pounded like a sandbag by a giant beast named Black Dwarf. Red and gold nanoparticles constantly peeled off and reassembled, looking like it could fall apart at any moment.
The other side was even worse. Strange was suspended in mid-air by an invisible force, slowly being dragged towards the tall, slender figure named Ebony Maw. His Cloak of Levitation desperately pulled back, but it was useless.
Ebony Maw wore a smile on his face, his fingers almost touching the Eye of Agamotto around Strange's neck.
"One big brute, one talkative one," Chu Hang commented, "Thanos only sent these few people?"
Wanda, beside him, had a pale face, and the red energy of Chaos Magic flickered at her fingertips. But Chu Hangheld her hand, and a steady force calmed her rampaging emotions.
Chu Hang's gaze first fell upon Black Dwarf.
He simply looked, and a thought flashed through his mind.
Black Dwarf, who was swinging his giant axe at Tony, froze.
His thick right arm, along with his weapon, silently detached from his shoulder and fell to the ground.
There was no blood; the cut was as smooth as a mirror.
Black Dwarf froze for a second, then let out a roar filled with pain and confusion.
Tony seized the opportunity to blast him away, creating distance. When he saw the familiar figure on the rooftop, he yelled through the public channel: "I knew you bastard wouldn't die! One more second and my new car paint would've been scratched!"
"Deal with the stronger one first," Chu Hang ignored him, turning his gaze to the astonished Ebony Maw.
He pulled Wanda, stepping down from the rooftop as if walking down invisible stairs, landing in front of Ebony Maw.
Ebony Maw's pupils constricted to pinpricks.
His proud telekinetic field was completely ineffective around Chu Hang. This man was like a black hole independent of the Universe; all physical laws twisted around him.
He immediately abandoned Strange, slamming his hands down onto the ground.
The asphalt, underground pipes, and steel rebar of the buildings across the entire block were pulled out under his will, twisting, compressing, forming dozens of sharp black earth spikes that shot towards Chu Hang and Wanda from all directions.
Chu Hang raised his other hand and lightly snapped his fingers.
The dozens of earth spikes stopped three meters away from them.
Then, starting from their tips, they quietly turned to ash, inch by inch.
The horror on Ebony Maw's face was beyond description. He felt his connection to those materials forcibly severed by a higher-level power.
In the instant he lost his composure, Chu Hang, with Wanda, had already appeared before him.
"You know nothing of laws," Chu Hang's voice resounded directly in his mind.
The next second, Chu Hang extended his index finger and lightly tapped Ebony Maw's forehead.
Ebony Maw's body trembled, his eyes completely lost focus, a bizarre smile hung on the corner of his mouth, and he began to mumble repeatedly:
"Hear my command, and rejoice..."
"Hear my command... and rejoice..."
He had become a broken record, left with only instinct.
On the other side, Black Dwarf, with one arm severed, saw Ebony Maw's miserable state, and was completely overcome by fear, turning to flee.
But Thor, wielding Stormbreaker, had already blocked his path.
Thor raised his axe high, and a rainbow-colored light glowed on the axe blade.
"Not here!" Tony roared through the comms channel.
Thor didn't hear; he just wanted to try out his new axe. He roared, and the axe, imbued with the energy of the Bifrost Bridge, swung down fiercely.
But the spatial portal didn't open.
Chu Hang had appeared beside him at some point, one hand pressing down on his axe.
"Don't tear up the place here."
His other hand casually waved at the fleeing Black Dwarf.
The space beneath Black Dwarf's feet caved inward, forming a funnel. His massive body slid uncontrollably into it.
Immediately after, that patch of space suddenly contracted inward, becoming an invisible black dot, and then it was gone.
Black Dwarf was gone with it.
The battle was over.
Tony retracted his armor suit and walked over with Strange and Wong. They looked at Ebony Maw, who was still repeating himself, then at the large crater on the ground, and for a moment, they didn't know what to say.
Chu Hang released Wanda's hand and walked in front of Ebony Maw, seemingly contemplating how to deal with this idiot.
Just then, his brow furrowed again, and he abruptly looked up.
That feeling of being spied upon had returned.
It was clearer and more persistent than last time.
It was observing, analyzing.
An invisible scanning beam, unseen by mortals, projected from an unknown dimension, locked onto Chu Hang.
Chu Hang could feel his own law composition and energy intensity being analyzed and archived by the other party.
He let out a cold snort, his will transforming into an invisible blade, cutting back fiercely against the scanning beam.
"Scram!"
This will transcended dimensions.
Beyond distant time and space, an alien in a blue uniform with a large, smooth head suddenly trembled.
On the holographic screen before him, the data model representing Chu Hang was instantly covered in garbled code, and a bright red warning popped up:
["WARNING: Target has acquired reverse tracking capability. Threat level elevated to Red. Recommend terminating connection."]
For the first time, a hint of surprise appeared on the Watcher's perpetually placid face.
He immediately cut the connection.
In New York, Chu Hang felt the gaze retreat in a hurry.
Chapter 155 Avengers: Infinity War (Part 1)
Chu Hang ignored the prying gaze.
He walked up to Ebony Maw, who was still chanting excitedly like a broken record player, and placed his hand on his bald head.
A massive surge of mental power rushed in, like a crude scraper, sifting through the opponent's memories.
A few seconds later, Chu Hang released his hand.
Ebony Maw's eyes rolled back, and he collapsed to the ground, completely unconscious. His mind was a mess.
"Thanos has obtained the Power Stone, and Xandar has been destroyed," Chu Hang's voice was calm, as if he was talking about an unimportant trivial matter. "His next target is the Reality Stone in The Collector's possession."
Tony and Strange's expressions changed.
They had just witnessed the power of Thanos's subordinates, and now they learned that it was just an appetizer.
"So what do we do now?" Steve walked over, his expression solemn, subconsciously gripping his shield. He had grown accustomed to feeling more like a Soldier than a Captain in front of Chu Hang.
"Split into three groups," Chu Hang's gaze swept over everyone present.
"Thor, take your new axe and return to Asgard. Thanoswill likely send people to seize the Space Stone, and Helamight not be able to hold them off alone."
Thor nodded, which was exactly what he wanted. He glanced at Chu Hang, his eyes complex, then raised Stormbreaker high. A rainbow beam of light descended from the sky, enveloped him, and then he disappeared.
"I'm going to Knowhere," Chu Hang continued, "The Reality Stone cannot be lost again."
"What about me then? The Time Stone must not leave Earth!" Strange immediately retorted, his Cloak of Levitation fluttering uneasily behind him.
"I know," Chu Hang looked at him. "So the rest of you, all go to Wakanda. The Mind Stone on Vision's head, and the Time Stone around your neck, both of these are on Earth. Thanos will come personally. Wakanda is the only place on Earth that can withstand his first wave of attack."
"How do we get there? Fly a quinjet?" Tony asked, glancing at the mess behind him.
"I left something for you," Chu Hang said. "Go to the Avengers Base; there's a fleet waiting for you there. Remember, your mission isn't to win, it's to buy time until I return."
After speaking, he looked at Wanda beside him, her eyes filled with fear that he would disappear again.
A small pebble was tossed into the cold sea within Chu Hang's heart.
He reached out and ruffled her hair, his tone gentle in a way he hadn't even noticed: "They need your help here. I'll be back very soon."
Then, with his other hand, he drew a line in front of him.
Space, like a piece of cloth, was torn open, revealing a pitch-black rift.
He stepped into it.
Steve and Tony exchanged glances, both seeing seriousness in each other's eyes.
The real war was just beginning...
Hours later, at the Avengers Base.
The atmosphere was as heavy as a waterlogged sponge.
Steve, Sam, and Natasha watched Tony, Banner, and Strange disembark from the quinjet.
This was their first reunion since the Civil War.
There were no hugs, no pleasantries.
Steve merely nodded and said, "Tony."
Tony took off his sunglasses, his eyes weary: "Captain."
The invisible rift between them had not automatically healed with the arrival of the end of the World. But no one had time for such trivial matters now.
In the Base's underground hangar, they found the fleet Chu Hang had left behind.
They weren't spaceships, but an entire army of robots.
They were pure silver-white, with sleek lines, completely different from Ultron's grotesque killing machines, and bore the Stark Industries logo on their chests.
Tony stepped forward, reaching out to touch the cold metal shell. He could feel that the core technology of these robots had a familiar flavor, yet it far surpassed his current level.
"Friday, analyze them," Tony commanded.
"Sir, the core AI of these units is derived from Ultron's early code, but it has been thoroughly reconstructed and simplified. They are programmed as pure War Machines, possessing independent Hive minds, but the highest authority is locked behind a protocol I cannot crack."
Tony's mouth twitched.
"That show-off bastard," he muttered under his breath...
Wakanda.
Black Panther T'Challa had mobilized the entire nation. Warriors from the border tribes, clad in energy cloaks and wielding sonic spears, stood ready behind the massive energy shield. Members of the Dora Milaje solemnly guarded their King.
In Shuri's lab, Vision lay on the operating table. Shuri was using her technology to carefully separate the Mind Stonefrom Vision's neurons. This was a surgery precise to the atomic level, requiring time.
And time was what they lacked most.
Suddenly, a piercing alarm blared throughout Wakanda.
At the edge of the energy shield, space began to distort, and countless landing craft rained down like dumplings, crashing into the shield and exploding in bursts of Fire.
Immediately after, countless four-legged monsters, the Outriders, poured out in a tide from the landing craft's breaches, furiously assaulting the shield. They fought without fear of death, tearing at the energy barrier with their bodies and Talons, trying to find a weak point.
"YIBAMBE!" T'Challa shouted.
He ordered a section of the shield to open, deliberately releasing some enemies to alleviate pressure on the entire defense line.
"Wakanda FOREVER!"
The warriors of Wakanda roared and charged forward; the war had begun.
Steve and T'Challa charged side-by-side on the front line. Banner, wearing the Hulkbuster armor Tony had brought, clumsily swung his fists on the battlefield, almost tripping several times.
Just as the defense line was about to be breached, a sharp whistling sound came from the sky.
Hundreds of silver-white robots descended from the sky, their energy cannons firing precise beams that instantly cleared a large area of Outriders.
These robots formed a steel defense line, mercilessly reaping the lives of the enemies, with terrifying efficiency.
They were Chu Hang's contingency, an Ultron army that was absolutely obedient and tireless.
The defense line was temporarily stabilized.
But everyone knew, this was just the beginning.
The scene in the sky changed again. Three more ferocious, blade-like landing craft ignored the dense ground fire and, in a suicidal manner, directly crashed into the same point on the energy shield.
The massive energy impact caused the entire shield to flicker violently, and finally, with a piercing wail, a breach was torn in the shield.
Two Shadowy figures flashed through the breach, moving too fast for the naked eye to catch. Their target was not the front-line battlefield at all, but directly the royal palace in the rear, where Shuri's laboratory was located.
Steve's pupils suddenly constricted.
"Natasha! Sam! Stop them!" He immediately turned and chased after the two Shadowy figures himself.
Natasha and Sam reacted extremely quickly, flanking them.
But the two Shadowy figures were faster.
One of the figures was Proxima Midnight, who had escaped earlier in Edinburgh. Her trident spear drew a deadly arc, directly slicing two attempting White robots into pieces.
The other figure was a man wielding a double-bladed glaive; his movements were even swifter than Proxima Midnight's. It was Corvus Glaive, who should have died.
He seemed to have been resurrected by some power and had become even stronger.
His glaive seemed to defy physical rules, directly piercing through a Dora Milaje warrior's Vibranium spear and impaling her chest.
Steve's shield whistled as it approached, but Corvus Glaive easily knocked it away with his glaive staff. Natasha's Widow's Bite struck him, but failed to even spark.
The tide of battle instantly turned.
Just as Corvus Glaive was about to rush into Shuri's laboratory, a crimson energy barrier appeared out of thin air in front of him.
Corvus Glaive crashed into it, thrown back by the immense recoil.
Wanda slowly emerged from the laboratory entrance, her eyes already filled with crimson energy.
She raised her hands, and the scattered robot debris, broken stones, and even dirt around her floated up under the influence of Chaos Magic, transforming into hundreds of deadly projectiles that rained down on Corvus Glaiveand Proxima Midnight.
Proxima Midnight swung her spear, shattering most of the attacks, but Corvus Glaive was forced to retreat repeatedly by this unreasonable force.
Just as Wanda, by herself, suppressed Thanos's two strongest generals, everyone felt a tremor deep in their souls.
The entire ground of Wakanda began to shake slightly.
The sky seemed to darken, not because of storm clouds, but an indescribable sense of oppression, as if an invisible giant hand had clutched everyone's hearts.
Banner, who was fighting the Outriders, heard a sharp alarm from the Hulkbuster armor's sensors, and all the data on the screen turned into a chaotic red.
He looked up at the sky, his voice trembling with fear.
Chapter 156 Avengers: Infinity War (Part Two)
Knowhere was burning.
Chu Hang emerged from a spatial rift, his feet on molten metal that still glowed red. The air was filled with a strange smell, a mix of char and ozone.
Everything around him was dead; The Collector's precious artifacts were now unrecognizable piles of junk.
A colossal purple figure stood in the center of the ruins, his back to him.
It was Thanos.
His left hand wore the Infinity Gauntlet, with the purple Power Stone embedded in it emitting a steady glow. In his right hand, he held a constantly writhing mass of red energy—the Reality Stone.
The Collector Tivan's body lay twisted to one side, his face frozen in extreme terror.
Thanos turned around, his deeply furrowed face calm, his eyes showing no surprise, as if he had been waiting for him.
"You've come."
"I'm a step late. I didn't expect you to move so fast; it seems you've already been to Xandar."
Chu Hang's gaze fell on the Reality Stone, "That's not yours."
"No," Thanos denied, "It belongs to no one; it belongs to the destiny of the Universe. Just like here, everything is too bloated, too chaotic, and needs cleansing."
He raised his gauntleted left hand, and the Power Stone's light flickered slightly.
"The resources of the Universe are finite, yet life expands endlessly. From Titan, where I was born, to Earth, where you came from, it's all the same. I am merely here to correct this inevitable error."
"So your method is to randomly kill half the population?" Chu Hang asked.
Thanos did not answer directly. He raised the Reality Stone in his right hand and gently waved it at the surrounding ruins.
The burning flames instantly extinguished, the collapsed buildings re-erected, the shattered glass display cases became whole again, and Tivan's body vanished, as if he had never died.
A second later, the illusion shattered, and everything reverted to burning ruins.
"No," Thanos's voice carried a near-fanatical obsession, "It is salvation. The remaining half will usher in abundance and gratitude. They will thank me, for I have given them a future without hunger and war."
"Reality wrapped in lies is ultimately false," Chu Hangshook his head, "You are just a self-righteous tyrant."
Thanos stopped speaking. For him, arguments about ideals were meaningless.
He pressed the red energy mass towards the Infinity Gauntlet. The Aether Particle obediently flowed into the second slot, transforming into a crimson gem.
On the gauntlet, the lights of the two Infinity Stonesshimmered in harmony.
"Then let me show you what true reality is."
As soon as his voice fell, Chu Hang moved.
He took a step, his figure vanishing from the spot. The next second, he appeared before Thanos, delivering a straight punch imbued with the Law of Force, aimed at Thanos's face.
This punch was powerful enough to shatter stars.
Thanos neither dodged nor blocked.
The punch landed squarely on his chin.
It was useless.
The power that could disintegrate all things was absorbed and smoothed out by a purer, more brutal rule the moment it touched Thanos's skin—it was invalidation at the Law level.
"Your power is not bad," Thanos moved his chin, a rare look of approval for a worthy opponent appearing in his eyes, "But that's all."
With that, he also threw a punch.
Simple, direct, without any frills.
This punch was the pinnacle of the Law of Body; anything struck by it was destined to shatter.
The space in front of Chu Hang instantly distorted, forming an invisible barrier.
Crack.
The barrier shattered.
Chu Hang was forced back half a step by the residual shockwave of the punch, his entire arm tingling.
He looked at Thanos, and Thanos looked at him.
Both understood that conventional methods were useless against each other.
The next second, the battle erupted again.
Chu Hang raised a hand and pointed.
[Law · Crushing Pressure]
The air around Thanos instantly solidified, as if compressed into an invisible block of steel. But he merely sank slightly, a faint purple aura appearing on the surface of his muscles, and he pushed the force away.
Chu Hang's five fingers formed a claw, and he made a sweeping gesture.
[Law · Severing]
An invisible blade slashed towards Thanos's neck, but upon approaching within a centimeter of his skin, it seemed to strike an absolute barrier and shattered on its own.
His body was, in itself, the most unyielding Law.
Chu Hang stopped.
Thanos also stopped.
"Your Laws are miscellaneous (miscellaneous/complex)," Thanos spoke, like a teacher critiquing a student, "Space, Force, and even a shadow of Reality. But they lack a foundation; they are merely superficial applications."
Chu Hang ignored his critique.
He took a deep breath, no longer probing.
He spread his arms, and an invisible domain, centered on him, instantly expanded, covering a hundred-meter radius. Within the domain, the burning flames solidified, and the scattered dust stilled.
He spoke, his voice like a divine oracle within the domain.
"Wherever my domain extends, the Laws of all things shall be reshaped by me."
He looked at Thanos and set the first rule.
"Here, there are no Gods."
As his voice fell, Thanos's massive body suddenly sagged.
He felt that the connection between himself and the indestructible Law of his body had been forcibly severed by a higher power.
He was no longer the immortal Titan; he reverted to flesh and blood.
Chu Hang vanished again, reappearing once more before Thanos.
It was the same punch.
Without Law enhancement, it was the pure power of the super soldier serum combined with Godly Physique.
Bang!
The punch connected with Thanos's chest, emitting a dull sound of cracking bone.
Thanos staggered back three steps, each step leaving spiderweb cracks on the glowing red ground.
He lowered his head, looking at his chest.
A fist-shaped indentation was deeply sunken, and purple blood seeped from the cracked skin.
He was injured.
This was the first time in ten thousand years that someone had been able to truly harm his body with pure physical force.
Thanos raised his head, his eyes devoid of pain, only cold fury and a hint of excitement at having found a worthy opponent.
"A very interesting domain," he said in a low voice, then slowly raised his left hand, wearing the Infinity Gauntlet.
The Reality Stone glowed with an eerie red light.
"But you seem to have forgotten, I dictate Reality."
A red light flashed.
The indentation on Thanos's chest vanished.
It wasn't healing; it was directly erased. The wound, the fist mark, the blood, all seemed to have never existed.
Chu Hang's brows furrowed tightly.
He could rewrite physical Laws, but Thanos could use the Infinity Stones to directly rewrite Reality itself. In front of the Infinity Stones, his domain was like a child's self-made rules.
He spoke, then spread his right hand.
A blue cube lay quietly in his broad palm.
The Tesseract.
Chu Hang's pupils sharply contracted.
Loki.
The God of Lies, whom he had imprisoned, and who Thorhad taken back to Asgard.
He had given the Tesseract to Thanos.
Thanos savored the fleeting look of surprise on Chu Hang's face, then abruptly clenched his right hand.
Crack!
The Tesseract's outer shell shattered inch by inch.
Blue Space energy erupted violently but was forcibly suppressed in his palm by the Power Stone.
A brilliant blue gem emerged from the fragments.
Thanos picked up the Space Stone and urgently pressed it into the third slot of the Infinity Gauntlet.
Hum—
An energy fluctuation, several times more terrifying than before, swept through all of Knowhere.
Chu Hang's domain trembled violently under this fluctuation, cracks beginning to appear at its edges, threatening to collapse at any moment.
"Now, it's my turn to set the rules," Thanos's voice carried a hint of mockery.
He raised his hand, and the Space Stone shone brightly with blue light.
Within Chu Hang's domain, space began to distort.
The ground beneath his feet stretched for kilometers, while distant rubble was suddenly within reach. Up was down, left was right, gravity sometimes vanished, sometimes increased a hundredfold.
The stable Laws he had established were completely disrupted by the Space Stone at their fundamental logical level.
"The balance of the Universe, no one can stop."
Thanos's figure twisted and folded in place, finally transforming into a point of light and disappearing.
Only Chu Hang was left, standing amidst a ruin of Laws, his face extremely grim. He tried to tear open space to return to Earth, but the Space Stone's influence had not yet dissipated.
Chapter 157 Avengers: Infinity War (Part 3)
Vormir.
The sky was a murky orange, with no Sun and no clouds. The wind blew, stirring up salt particles on the ground, making a soft rustling sound.
Other than that, there was no sound at all.
Thanos, gripping Gamora's arm, walked across the desolate salt flats. His footsteps were heavy, each one firm and solid.
Gamora no longer struggled. She was just being dragged, her face streaked with dried tears, her eyes filled with an all-consuming hatred.
"You'll never get that Stone," her voice was dry and hoarse, as if abraded by sandpaper, "I swear."
Thanos didn't answer, merely pulling her along towards the black cliff in the distance.
At the edge of the cliff, a Shadow clad in a black robe floated out, suspended in mid-air.
"Welcome, Thanos, son of A'lars."
The voice was hollow, ancient, like wind blowing from a tomb.
Thanos stopped. His deeply lined face was calm as he looked at this uninvited guest. "You know me?"
"My curse is to know everyone who comes here."
The black-robed figure pulled down his hood, revealing a scarlet skull face. In his eye sockets, two blue flames burned.
It was Red Skull.
"Gamora, daughter of Thanos." Red Skull's gaze then turned to Gamora.
Gamora turned her head away in disgust.
"Where is what I seek?" Thanos's voice was devoid of emotion. "How do I obtain it?"
Red Skull's withered finger pointed towards the rolling sea of clouds below the cliff.
"It is there, waiting for a sacrifice." His voice was devoid of any emotion. "To acquire the Soul Stone, you must offer the soul of the one you love most in this life. A soul for a soul."
Gamora froze.
A second later, she burst into laughter.
Her laughter was sharp, tearful, filled with extreme mockery and relief.
"You see, you lost!" She pointed at Thanos, new tears uncontrollably welling up, "The entire Universe knows that Thanos loves nothing! You monster, your plan failed! You lost!"
A muscle in Thanos's cheek twitched.
He wasn't angry; it was an unconcealable sadness.
A tear, from his weathered eye, slid down and splattered on the cracked earth beneath his feet, soaking in.
Gamora's laughter stopped abruptly.
The mockery on her face froze, turning into incomprehensible terror. She stared intently at the wet mark, as if she had seen the most terrifying thing in the World.
She understood.
This monster, who had slaughtered half her race and raised her as a weapon, this tyrant she had hated her entire life… actually loved her.
This realization terrified her more than Death itself.
"No…" She began to retreat uncontrollably, her voice trembling with fear, "No, you can't…"
Thanos seized her arm with immense strength, like iron pincers.
He dragged her, step by step, towards the edge of the cliff.
Gamora struggled frantically, punching and kicking, but it was useless.
"Let go of me! You lunatic! Let go!" Her screams were torn to shreds by the wind.
Thanos stopped at the very edge of the cliff. He lowered his head, looking at his daughter, whom he held suspended in mid-air, her face full of tears and despair.
Thanos looked at her, his eyes filled with bottomless sorrow.
"I'm sorry, little one."
He let go.
Snap.
The distorted space of Knowhere finally straightened out like a bent steel plate, returning to normal.
Chu Hang's gaze was as cold as ice.
Asgard.
He took a step, and his figure vanished from where he stood.
Throne Room.
Loki leaned against Odin's throne, toying with an ornate golden cup, a hint of a smug smile on his lips.
The next second, Chu Hang's figure appeared before him.
Loki's smile froze on his face, and the golden cup in his hand clattered to the ground, rolling far away.
Chu Hang reached him, without a word, directly gripped his neck, and lifted him into the air with one hand.
"You gave him the Tesseract?" His voice was devoid of warmth.
Loki's face instantly turned purple, his limbs struggled weakly, and he barely managed to squeeze out a few words from his throat: "I… I didn't, the Tes… seract is here with me."
Chu Hang let go, no longer looking at him.
It no longer mattered.
He knew what lay beyond Skyfather level. It wasn't about collecting more abilities like stamps, but about forging the Laws he controlled into a complete, self-consistent World. His own World.
His domain was the embryonic form of that World, an unstable framework.
But Thanos was different.
He had only followed one path, the Law of Body, and he had reached its end. Pure, simple, and utterly unreasonable.
His own Law of Force couldn't penetrate it, and the Law of Space couldn't cut it.
Moreover, the opponent now had three Stones.
He needed a sharper knife. A knife that was equally unreasonable, capable of breaking through everything.
His gaze fell on the motionless figure like a statue on the other side of the hall.
Hela.
Law of Death.
Chu Hang struggled for a moment in his heart.
Adding a sixth, and an extremely exclusive power like Death, into his already unstable Law furnace would geometrically increase the difficulty of advancing further in the future. He might even be permanently stuck at Skyfather level.
But he had no choice.
If he couldn't defeat Thanos, what was the point of talking about the future?
He walked up to Hela, placing his hand on the mark on her brow, which was composed of five Laws.
"Replicate, Law of Death."
A cold, lifeless power drilled into his body through his fingertips.
This power didn't merge like the previous energies; it was like a black venomous snake, coiled deep within his consciousness, incompatible with the other five Laws, emanating an aura of ultimate termination.
It was done.
Chu Hang opened his eyes, a faint glimmer of light flashing in their depths.
He glanced at Loki, who was still gasping on the ground.
Loki lay on the ground like a pile of mud, clutching his neck and coughing violently.
Then he pulled out a Tesseract.
Chu Hang was startled; he clearly sensed that this Tesseract was undoubtedly genuine.
An unforeseen influencing factor—the Time Variance Authority!
Only they would be bored enough to provide Thanos with Stones to maintain their desired Sacred Timeline.
"Watch over Asgard."
With that, his figure vanished… Meanwhile, in Wakanda.
The deafening shouts of battle ceased.
Tens of thousands of Outriders, as if paused, stopped outside the breach in the energy shield, simply encircling it, unmoving.
In front of the shield was the silver-White robot army left by Chu Hang. They formed a steel defense line, their bodies covered with claw marks and energy scorch marks. The air was filled with the acrid smell of burnt metal.
Steve knelt on the ground, supporting himself with his shield, panting heavily.
Tony's nano armor suit was dented and pitted, with multiple sections of armor stripped away, revealing the mechanical structure beneath.
The hulkbuster armor driven by Banner had lost an arm, sparks flying from the broken joint.
Everyone was exhausted, but no one dared to relax.
The suffocating pressure grew stronger and stronger, like a giant boulder pressing down on everyone's hearts.
It wasn't the kind of darkness caused by storm clouds, but the light itself being devoured.
A massive purple vortex slowly opened above the clouds, like a giant eye looking down on all living things.
A tall figure descended from the vortex.
He walked down step by step, treading on invisible stairs.
He wore heavy golden armor suit, and with each step, the entire battlefield trembled.
On the Infinity Gauntlet on his left hand, the light of four Stones shone.
Chapter 158 Avengers: Infinity War (Part 4)
Thanos landed.
The battlefield fell silent.
It wasn't a silence born of fear; it was a physical dead silence. Sound, light, even the wind became sluggish around him. He did nothing; merely standing there, the ripple of laws emanating from the four Infinity Stonesmade this space groan under the immense pressure.
"Banner!" Steve roared.
Dr. Banner, piloting the hulkbuster armor, was the first to move. He roared, charging towards Thanos like an out-of-control locomotive.
Thanos didn't even look at him.
He simply raised his gloved left hand casually, and the Space Stone flashed blue.
The charging hulkbuster armor, along with a hundred meters of surrounding ground, was instantly cut, folded, then crumpled like waste paper and embedded into a distant mountain, leaving only a massive metal lump, motionless.
"Open fire!" Tony's voice rang out in the comms channel.
His chest reactor's energy output was maxed out, palm cannons and shoulder-mounted micro-missiles firing simultaneously. War Machine Rhodey also coordinated, unleashing all his ammunition.
The devastating firepower was enough to flatten a small city.
Thanos merely waved his hand gently.
The Reality Stone's red light flashed.
All cannon shells, lasers, and missiles in mid-air transformed into colorful soap bubbles, floating lightly upwards, then bursting silently in the sunlight.
This was more despair-inducing than simply blocking the attack.
Steve charged forward.
He knew he was insignificant, but he had to charge.
Thanos finally looked at him directly, with a hint of faint approval in his eyes, but more so, indifference.
He raised his hand, and the Power Stone glowed purple.
He didn't punch; he just pressed his hand vaguely towards the ground.
Boom!
A purple Impact wave exploded from him as its center, and the ground rolled like ocean waves. Steve, Tony, Rhodey, and all the Wakandan Soldiers struggling to stand up in the distance, were all sent flying by this force, like fallen leaves in a storm, completely helpless.
Thanos took a step, walking towards Vision, who lay in Shuri's lab, his fate unknown.
He paused as he passed Doctor Strange.
"Your struggle is meaningless," Thanos's voice was calm, as if stating a fact, "I am merely correcting an inevitable error, allowing everything to return to its proper trajectory. You, Guardian of Time, should understand this best."
Strange clutched his chest, coughing up a mouthful of blood, but said nothing.
Thanos no longer looked at him, continuing forward.
With every step he took, the Avengers' hearts sank further.
No one could stop him now.
Just then, a colorful beam of light, like a sharp spear, descended from the sky, striking fiercely in front of Thanos.
As the light dissipated, Thor, wielding stormbreaker, his eyes flashing with lightning, appeared on the battlefield.
"Thanos!"
Thor roared, fiercely hurling stormbreaker from his hand. The axe transformed into a bolt of lightning, tearing through space with a shriek, heading straight for Thanos's chest.
Thanos raised his left hand, the Power Stone on the Infinity Gauntlet flared with purple light, and a pure energy beam shot towards the axe, attempting to deflect it.
But stormbreaker was unstoppable; it cleaved through the energy beam, only slightly deviating its trajectory, and embedded itself deeply into Thanos's left shoulder.
Purple blood gushed out.
Thanos's massive body swayed. He looked down at the axe in his shoulder, a look of surprise appearing on his face for the first time.
"You... should have aimed for my head."
He gripped the axe handle with his other hand, and the Power Stone's light erupted again, pushing the axe deeper into his flesh, while a destructive energy surged through the axe handle.
Thor screamed, blasted away by this force, crashing into a distant mountain wall, his fate unknown.
Just as Thanos was about to pull out the axe and walk towards Vision, a black Shadow silently appeared behind him.
Chu Hang.
A punch, enveloped in a thin layer of black mist that seemed to devour all light, solidly struck Thanos's back.
Thanos's massive body suddenly stiffened.
That black power was not absorbed by his body's laws; instead, it directly penetrated, like the most venomous curse, frantically eroding his life force. His immortal Titanbody, for the first time, showed large areas of necrosis and decay.
Excruciating pain struck him. He let out a suppressed groan, and his entire body was propelled forward for a hundred meters by this force, falling to the ground in a sorry state.
He struggled to turn his head and saw that familiar figure.
"It's you."
"It's me." Chu Hang's voice was cold.
He didn't attack again. Instead, he spread his arms, and an invisible domain instantly enveloped the entire battlefield.
"Wherever my domain reaches, pain is but an illusion."
Within the domain, all the injured Avengers and Wakandan Soldiers had their wounds healing at a visible rate. Steve stood up again, Tony's armor began self-repairing, Banner broke free from the mountain, and Thorin the distance also opened his eyes.
Thanos struggled to stand up. He looked at the black decay continuously spreading across his chest and back, his eyes filled with apprehension. He unhesitatingly activated the Infinity Gauntlet, and the lights of the Time Stone and Reality Stone simultaneously flared.
Green light reversed time, and red light reshaped reality. That deadly necrotic area, under the dual effect of his laws and the Stones, was forcibly suppressed and repaired.
"Wherever my domain reaches, you all are but dust."
Chu Hang's voice rang out again.
Within the domain, all the Outrider Soldiers' bodies, except for the Avengers, silently decomposed and dissipated, turning into fundamental particles.
Tens of thousands of monsters were cleared out in a large area within a few breaths.
"I said, in my domain, I am the only truth!"
Chu Hang's voice was like a divine oracle, but Thanosmerely sneered. He raised the repaired Infinity Gauntlet, and the lights of the four Stones merged into a chaotic beam, fiercely striking Chu Hang's domain.
"Your truth is worthless!"
Boom!
The domain vibrated violently, and spiderweb-like cracks appeared at its edges.
Chu Hang's face paled.
He could suppress Thanos himself with the domain, but he couldn't suppress the combined power of four Infinity Stones.
"It's too small here; I can't fully unleash myself." Chu Hang looked at Thanos, his eyes filled with mad battle intent, "Let's play somewhere else."
He waved his hand, and a massive spatial rift opened between the two of them. The other end of the rift was the dead silence of the Universe's starry sky.
"Coming?"
Thanos glanced in Vision's direction, then at Chu Hang, and stepped in without hesitation.
The rift closed.
On the battlefield, only the bewildered Avengersremained.
In the dead silence of the Universe, two figures faced each other several kilometers apart.
Chu Hang's law domain was fully expanded, like a giant transparent bubble, enveloping both of them. Within the domain, starlight solidified, and meteorites stood still.
Thanos floated in the center of the domain, the four Stones on the Infinity Gauntlet emitting a terrifying glow. He looked at Chu Hang, his eyes no longer holding contempt, but pure killing intent.
"Your growth has exceeded my expectations," Thanos's voice directly echoed in the vacuum, "and it has exceeded theirs."
Chu Hang's heart stirred. He thought of Loki's extra Tesseract, and of that Strange organization that called itself the Guardian of Time, yet delivered the Stones to Thanos.
"Who are they?"
"A group of arrogant people who think they can prune the branches of time." Thanos snorted disdainfully, "But they don't understand that the Universe doesn't need pruning; it needs rebirth after burning."
Before his words finished, Thanos moved.
He didn't use the Stones, but unleashed a punch with the purest physical strength.
Within Chu Hang's domain, the speed of this punch was suppressed to its limit, its trajectory clearly visible. Chu Hang dodged sideways, while simultaneously delivering a hand chop, enveloped in a rich Law of Death, towards Thanos's neck.
Sizzle!
The black mist touched Thanos's skin, emitting a corrosive sound like sulfuric acid on steel. A deep, bone-visible wound appeared, and the black power of Death rapidly spread along the wound.
Thanos cried out in pain, striking Chu Hang's chest with a back elbow.
Chu Hang didn't dodge, letting the elbow strike him. His body instantly caved in, the sound of bones shattering clearly audible. But the next second, the Time law flowed, and his injuries instantly recovered.
Trading blows.
This was the only way Chu Hang could think of to deal with this physical monster.
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