Dream Walking
Xu Mo had barely risen to his feet when the warrior reappeared before him.
The man's blade blurred, its shadow sweeping straight for Xu Mo's neck.
Too fast!
Just before the strike landed, Xu Mo triggered his space-freezing ability.
The world stopped. The warrior froze mid-swing, body locked in midair, unable to break free. Rage flashed in his eyes, and Xu Mo felt the sudden surge of violent energy erupting from within him.
His expression hardened—then he vanished.
"Boom!"
The warrior self-detonated. The explosion shook the grassland, a storm of raw force swallowing everything around it. Xu Mo reappeared hundreds of meters away, space-freeze flaring again to shield himself from the devastating blast.
He let out a shaky breath.
"Huff—"
Fear lingered on his face.
The warriors generated by the system weren't simple opponents. Their combat instincts were honed to perfection. Xu Mo, by contrast, had only just begun training. His combat experience was a fraction of theirs. Without his innate ability, he would have been annihilated instantly.
Even when cornered, his foe hadn't hesitated to attack again, fighting to the death. And when he realized escape was impossible, he had chosen self-destruction without a moment's doubt.
It was ruthless. Terrifying. A glimpse of what true warriors were like.
If I ever faced someone like that in reality, Xu Mo thought grimly, even if I were one or two levels stronger, I'd likely be defeated.
---
With the battle over, the scenery shifted. Xu Mo returned to the starry void.
"Please select your opponent's strength," the system prompted.
This time, Xu Mo chose an opponent equal to himself. And he made another decision: he would not rely on space-freeze.
His goal was to build combat experience, not hide behind a broken ability.
The grassland formed around him once more.
Half a minute later, his body was split in two. He reappeared in the starry sky, pale and twitching from the pain.
In pursuit of realism, he had set the simulation's pain sensitivity to 100%. When the blade cut him in half, the agony had nearly knocked him unconscious.
"Again," he muttered, jaw tight.
Two minutes of rest. Then he returned to battle.
The cycle repeated—fight, die, resurrect, fight again.
At first, Xu Mo could last only thirty seconds. Then a full minute. Then two. By the end of the day, he had endured over ten minutes against his equal-strength foe.
When the simulation chamber finally opened, Xu Mo staggered out. His temples throbbed from the strain of constant concentration. Exhaustion weighed on him, but his spirit burned hotter.
He headed straight to the training room.
Inside, he adjusted the flow of time to tenfold, and the energy density to one hundredfold. Too much energy would only make control harder, but this level was perfect.
The chamber was sparse—just a bed and a table. Xu Mo sat cross-legged, entering meditation. Slowly, the [Genetic Energy Cultivation Method] circulated through him, easing the fatigue of battle and feeding both body and mind.
This became his rhythm in the following days:
Endless combat in the simulator to sharpen instincts.
Deep meditation in the training chamber, practicing both [Genetic Energy Cultivation] and the [Spirit-Forging Technique].
And in his spare time, studying the Darkhold.
The deeper he delved into the Darkhold, the more dangerous its secrets grew. And among its countless spells, he found one that fit his current path perfectly—
Dream Walking.
Wanda Maximoff had once used this very magic to traverse the multiverse.
The spell allowed one to possess an alternate self in a parallel universe. Unlike crude soul transference, Dream Walking left no permanent damage—the borrowed body would return to normal once the caster departed.
It was the soul's equivalent of dimensional teleportation.
True dimensional travel required a hundred million points to unlock—far beyond Xu Mo's current means. But with Dream Walking, he could harvest points across parallel worlds now.
Still, this spell was no simple portal technique. Even among the Darkhold's highest-grade incantations, it was one of the most dangerous. He would need time to comprehend it fully before daring to attempt it.
Once his forces in this world stabilized, his subordinates would harvest points here, while he Dream Walked into other worlds to gather even more. A two-pronged advance. His strength would grow exponentially.
And when Thanos finally arrived, Xu Mo intended to crush him utterly.
---
A Few Days Later – New York
In a mountainside villa, Tony Stark poured two glasses of whiskey.
"Hey, man," Tony grinned. "Looks like marriage really is the grave. Haven't seen your name in the tabloids lately."
He slid a glass across to Xu Mo and took the opposite seat.
"You're one to talk," Xu Mo smirked. "I haven't seen you making headlines either."
Tony shrugged, his usual arrogance tempered ever since he started dating Pepper.
"Well, I doubt you came here just to compare halos with me," he said, waving his hand.
"Of course not," Xu Mo replied. He lifted his glass. "I came to make a deal."
"Oh?" Tony leaned back, intrigued. "Let's hear it."
"I need a suit of Iron Man armor."
Tony blinked. "You're kidding."
Xu Mo shook his head. He didn't need the armor himself—his vibranium suit already surpassed it. But Wanda would soon be attending school, and before awakening, she was still just an ordinary girl. Pietro was already strong enough to protect himself. Wanda needed protection.
Tony, however, wasn't swayed. He chuckled, shaking his head.
"Come on, Xu. At the press conference I said it—the suit and I are one. Giving it to someone else would be like selling part of myself. Do you think I'd do that?"
Xu Mo smiled knowingly. "Don't be so absolute, Tony. You'll change your mind."
Tony laughed. "I'm a man of my word. If I say no, I mean it."
"Yeah?" Xu Mo's smile widened. His eyes flicked meaningfully to the glowing arc reactor in Tony's chest.
"If I'm not mistaken, that big magnet you're carrying is what's keeping the shrapnel out of your heart… right?"
Tony froze.
"W-what!?" he sputtered, jolting upright. The whiskey spilled down his shirt, forgotten.
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