Mephisto left, just as he had arrived quietly with nothing, departing without taking even a wisp of cloud with him.
Johnny Blaze also left, though it was unclear whether he felt his newfound superpowers made Rosie unworthy of him or if he simply wanted to protect her from being kidnapped by demons again. In the end, Johnny Blaze chose to leave Rosie.
However, before leaving, Johnny Blaze eagerly rushed Rosie back to the city. Li Feng guessed that aside from escorting her home, Johnny Blaze also wanted to take advantage of the daytime—when the Ghost Rider wouldn't interfere—to book a room and have a deep conversation about the ups and downs of life with Rosie. After all, Li Feng couldn't help but feel that Johnny Blaze had been suppressing his desires for too long, reaching a point where he'd either explode or implode.
With everyone who needed to leave gone and all available energy signatures collected, Melinda led the team briskly toward the van, while Coulson lingered behind with Li Feng, walking slowly at the rear. Before long, after putting some distance between themselves and the team, Coulson whispered, "What you mentioned earlier about Mjolnir and the Rainbow Bridge seems to be related to Norse mythology."
Li Feng glanced sideways at Coulson and nodded. "Sometimes, myths aren't necessarily all lies. Take me, for example." He pointed at himself. "In what kind of books would you find records of mages? Certainly not in history books, right?"
Coulson paused, then asked uncertainly, "Are you saying the gods in Norse mythology were actually a group of powerful mages?" Seeming to realize something, he added with slight surprise, "How long have these mages lived?"
"Uh—" Li Feng scratched his head. "You misunderstood. I meant that the gods in myths are, in a sense, truly gods. For instance, Thor, the owner of Mjolnir we mentioned earlier, is the Thunder God in mythology—and in reality, he's still a god."
Li Feng organized his thoughts and continued, "To put it in terms you'd understand, Asgard, where the Norse gods live, is actually the name of a region on another planet. Thor is an alien with a 5,000-year lifespan and superhuman abilities. Imagine what ancient humans would describe such an alien as when he came to Earth in ancient times?"
With an incredibly long lifespan, immense superhuman powers, and technology far surpassing Earth's—given that they could travel here—what else could primitive humans call them but gods?
"So that's how 'gods' came to be?" Coulson nodded in understanding, then asked curiously, "What did you mean earlier when you mentioned a prince?"
Li Feng thought for a moment. "I heard Odin, the ruler of Asgard, has been in poor health in recent years. After all, he's quite old. He has two sons. The eldest, Thor, has been groomed for years as the next leader of Asgard—practically the designated heir to the throne."
"And Thor has a weapon he never parts with, not even when going to the bathroom—Mjolnir." Li Feng pointed at Coulson's phone. "Yes, that's the hammer you showed me."
"Now that this weapon has appeared on Earth, what do you think that implies?"
If you describe Thor carrying his hammer even to the bathroom to emphasize how much he loves Mjolnir, how could I not guess?
Without hesitation, Coulson replied, "It means Thor, the heir of Asgard, is either already on Earth or will arrive soon to reclaim Mjolnir."
"Exactly," Li Feng said, his face showing an unreadable expression of concern. "The question is, what could have happened to make Mjolnir leave Thor's side?""Besides, even if some minor prince visits another country, the host nation would at least arrange a welcoming party, let alone when the prince of Asgard—whose territory is countless times larger than Earth—comes to our planet," Li Feng said with a smile, glancing at Coulson. "S.H.I.E.L.D. is, after all, an international organization. Welcoming Thor isn't too much to ask, is it?"
Coulson thought for a moment and nodded cheerfully. "And while we're at it, we could ask if he has any other purpose for coming to Earth besides searching for Mjolnir?"
Li Feng spread his hands and said, "That's your business. I just want to meet Thor. After all, Asgard has its own magic—this is a chance to learn extraterrestrial spells."
Coulson gave Li Feng a helpless look, then suddenly seemed to understand. "No wonder you wanted to join my mission. There's something in it for you, isn't there?"
Li Feng rolled his eyes, too lazy to respond to Coulson, and strode straight toward the van. But halfway there, he seemed to remember something and turned back toward San Venganza Town.
As he rushed past Coulson, Li Feng said hurriedly, "I left some devil-suppressing magic arrays in the church that haven't been used yet. The materials can still be recycled. Wait for me in the van—I'll grab them and be right back."
With that, Li Feng transformed into a black mist and flew swiftly toward the church.
Coulson watched Li Feng's retreating figure with confusion. He had been inside the church himself and hadn't seen anything unusual. Was there some secret hidden there?
After a moment's thought, Coulson realized that uncovering a secret deliberately concealed by a mage would be no easy task.
Acknowledging his inability to pry into Li Feng's affairs, Coulson gave up on the idea and headed back to the van alone.
Meanwhile, Li Feng, now back at the church, stood at the entrance, silently watching until Coulson and the others disappeared from view.
Once he was absolutely certain that even setting off firecrackers inside the church wouldn't draw Coulson's attention, Li Feng immediately took out the Jet-Black Gourd and the San Venganza Scroll, summoning the Evil Spirit.
In the movies, there was a reason Mephisto met Johnny Blaze in San Venganza Town—the scroll itself didn't contain the Evil Spirit. It was more like a door, a gateway to the hidden realm of the Evil Spirit. This was also why Li Feng hadn't collected the spirit into the gourd earlier.
Soon, a desiccated corpse-like Evil Spirit crawled out from the ground and flew toward Li Feng, reluctantly entering the Jet-Black Gourd.
One after another, more Evil Spirits emerged—from underground, from the corners of the walls, even from the dried-up well outside the church—forced to enter the gourd.
In no time, Li Feng had sealed away over a thousand Evil Spirits inside the Jet-Black Gourd.
With these spirits, not only would his Dementors have enough food for the near future, but Li Feng could also use them to cultivate a powerful Evil Spirit King, much like breeding insects in a contest of survival. Or let the Evil Spirit King organize an army of Evil Spirits, allowing him to command another force.
Li Feng patted the gourd contentedly. Now that the Evil Spirit had also been secured, it marked the official conclusion of the first part of the Evil Spirit Knight's storyline.
Before long, a thoroughly pleased Li Feng returned to the RV. After casually starting the vehicle, he sprawled lazily on the soft sofa like a quadriplegic and called out, "Kreacher, bring me a beer."
Nearby, Coulson had Melinda take the wheel while he sat down beside Li Feng and said, "Just now, Stark called looking for you."
"Stark?" Li Feng took a big swig of beer before asking in puzzlement, "What does he want with me? To treat me to a feast?"
Coulson subtly rolled his eyes: Other than mooching off the rich, do you ever do anything productive?
"Mr. Stark would like to ask for your help for a few days—to have you act as temporary bodyguard for Ms. Potts."
Now Li Feng was even more puzzled. If Stark were in danger, Li Feng would believe it—after all, Stark's personality was what it was. The man couldn't go a day without offending someone without feeling restless.
But Potts facing danger? He'd never heard of that. Aside from the Extremis virus incident, Potts always seemed to live a peaceful life.
Li Feng asked curiously, "Who wants to target Potts?"
"It's not that someone is targeting Ms. Potts," Coulson explained, "but that someone wants to go after Stark. Stark is worried they might use Potts against him, so he's asking for your help."
As Coulson continued explaining, Li Feng finally understood the situation.
It was simply Whiplash—the villain from Iron Man 2—making his appearance with that crude arc reactor.
Only, Stark's arc reactor had already been upgraded. When Whiplash realized he was outmatched, he quickly fled. Later, for some reason, he teamed up with Justin Hammer and began secretly plotting Stark's demise.
Unfortunately for them, Stark caught wind of it all.
Stark himself wasn't afraid of being targeted. Back before he became Iron Man, plenty of people had wanted him dead—had any succeeded?
The problem was the old saying: "You can't stay on guard forever." And what if they took Potts hostage?
At first, Stark considered making a suit of armor to protect Potts. But after Whiplash joined forces with Justin Hammer, they could produce armored suits too. Though Stark scoffed at Whiplash's armor's defensive capabilities, those twin electrified whips packed quite a punch.
Moreover, an armored suit wasn't something you could just put on and start fighting with. It was like driving a car—some could drift a Wuling Rongguang, while others couldn't even drive normally on the road. Using an armored suit for combat required training time Potts simply didn't have, what with her busy schedule managing Stark Industries.
In the end, Stark naturally thought of Li Feng. If Li Feng could protect Potts for a while, Stark could focus on putting Whiplash and Justin Hammer behind bars.
However, Li Feng was currently occupied, so Coulson helped decline Stark's request on his behalf while offering Stark an alternative suggestion.
Need a powerful bodyguard? Since Stark could build armored suits, why not have his friend Colonel James Rhodes wear one and play bodyguard for Potts for a few days?
As for whether Colonel James Rhodes could operate the suit—the man was an active-duty soldier who could pilot both jets and tanks. With JARVIS's assistance, one night should be enough for Colonel Rhodes to learn how to operate an armored suit. After hearing Coulson's proposal, Li Feng just wanted to give him a thumbs-up and praise him a few times: Damn it, I originally thought that without the reactor, Stark wouldn't be suicidal or squander his fortune, so naturally, James Rhodes wouldn't have anything to do with wearing the Iron Man suit. But now, you're making James Rhodes become War Machine after all?
Well played, Coulson. Are you here to fix the plot on behalf of the world's consciousness?