Chapter 257: The Snap Falls, Laws Roar in Desperation.
Six Infinity Stones converged on the dark gold Infinity Gauntlet, forming a ripple of rules visible to the naked eye.
Lin Nuo stared at that gauntlet, his knuckles popping with a crisp friction sound.
"Pricing?" Lin Nuo's voice was extremely low. "Your life isn't even worthy of being on my acquisition list."
He stomped his right leg heavily onto the collapsed rock layer, throwing his entire body against the storm of rules capable of erasing half a galaxy, charging straight at Thanos.
Every ray of light within the storm carried the sharpness to cut through dimensions.
As Lin Nuo's bare upper body just touched that layer of six-colored halo, the dark gold sacred factors on his skin emitted a groan of being overwhelmed.
Large patches of skin were forcibly stripped away by the rules, revealing the pulsating muscle fibers beneath.
His Mutant ultimate microscopic atomic reorganization authority ran at full power.
The stripped flesh regenerated within an extremely short time, only to be shredded by the storm again.
This alternation of destruction and reorganization formed a glaring blood-colored mist on Lin Nuo's body surface.
His bones made clicking sounds under the immense pressure.
Lin Nuo did not stop his pace at all; his leather shoes stepped out deep pits on the rock layer.
Jean stood at the edge of the deep pit, the dark red Fire in her hands surging wildly.
"Get lost!" Jean let out a shrill scream, and the single-Universe-level Phoenix Force core power transformed into a massive pillar of Fire, slamming hard against that layer of six-colored halo.
She wanted to help Lin Nuo burn through this barrier of rules.
The moment the two high-dimensional energies made contact, there was no explosion.
The closed loop of rules formed by the six Infinity Stonesdisplayed an absolute repulsive force.
Although the Phoenix Force was powerful, it still belonged to an external variable in the face of this Universe's underlying logic.
The six-colored halo shrank slightly inward, then immediately erupted with an extremely savage counter-force.
The dark red pillar of Fire was forcibly snapped.
Jean groaned, her entire body sent flying dozens of meters away by this counter-force, crashing heavily onto the remaining steps of the Kamar-Taj main hall.
"Stay there and don't move." Lin Nuo didn't even turn his head, his rough fingertip brushing over a freshly healed cut on his cheek.
The level-three Reality Warping power crystal in his sea of consciousness erupted with extremely glaring radiance.
Since his physical body couldn't withstand this Universe-level erasure, he would use rules to counter rules.
Lin Nuo concentrated all his Reality Warping power onto the fingertips of his right hand.
The six-colored storm in front was forcibly torn open, creating a gap wide enough for one person to pass through.
Thanos stood in the center of the storm, his blood-stained face revealing an extremely paranoid fanaticism.
He raised his left hand, the pads of his thumb and middle finger pressed tightly together.
Endless energy surged through the dark gold Infinity Gauntlet into his body; this flesh, strengthened countless times, began to disintegrate on a large scale under the load of the six Infinity Stones.
His purple skin carbonized and fell off, revealing the bones beneath that crackled with high-energy electrical arcs.
"The Universe needs a reset." Thanos stared fixedly at the approaching Lin Nuo, every word accompanied by large mouthfuls of charred blood clots. "A tyrant like you, who only knows how to plunder, is the greatest cancer."
His left wrist began to exert force, preparing to complete the action he had plotted for ten million years.
Lin Nuo didn't give him any time for nonsense.
The violent kinetic energy of the Hulk Gene exploded completely in his right arm.
Lin Nuo crossed the final three meters, his right hand's five fingers brought together, transforming into a high-dimensional blade that tore through laws, stabbing directly toward Thanos's chest.
Squelch.
Lin Nuo's entire right arm pierced through Thanos's tattered heavy armor without any obstruction, plunging directly into his broad chest cavity.
Scalding purple blood dripped down Lin Nuo's forearm.
The extremely massive body trembled violently once.
Lin Nuo's five fingers found the still-beating giant heart inside Thanos's chest cavity with extreme precision.
He closed his fingers, gripping the organ that continuously pumped vitality.
"Cancer?" Lin Nuo's face was less than half a foot away from Thanos, his ink-colored eyes revealing extreme coldness.
"I am the sole owner of this Planet. You ran to my territory to initiate a reset; did you ask for my opinion?"
Lin Nuo exerted force with his right hand suddenly.
That incredibly tough alien heart was crushed into a pulp of flesh in Lin Nuo's palm.
Thanos's pupils dilated rapidly, and the aura of life drained from his body frantically.
Under normal circumstances, this level of physical destruction would be enough to kill any carbon-based lifeform on the spot, leaving no time for even nerve reflexes.
But this was the center of a closed loop of rules formed by the six Infinity Stones.
The ghostly green light of the Time Stone flickered extremely eerily 0.1 seconds before Thanos died.
This extremely short instant was forcibly elongated by the laws of time.
On Thanos's lifeless face, a smile of extreme cruelty and satisfaction was pulled.
He looked at Lin Nuo, his left thumb and middle finger, using that last sliver of strength, rubbing heavily against each other.
Snap.
An extremely crisp sound of a snap echoed over the ruins of Kamar-Taj.
The moment the snap fell, the entire World fell into absolute silence.
The wind stopped.
The snowflakes falling in mid-air froze completely in front of Lin Nuo's eyelashes.
The collapsing rubble hovered in mid-air, no longer falling.
Even the burning Phoenix Fire on Jean stopped flickering.
Lin Nuo stood in place, his right hand still inserted into Thanos's chest cavity.
He could clearly feel a grand power, indescribable in words, starting from the Infinity Gauntlet on Thanos's left hand, transforming into a glaring White light, sweeping out.
That White light penetrated Lin Nuo's body, penetrated the ruins of Kamar-Taj, penetrated Earth's atmosphere, and swept across the entire Universe at a speed countless times faster than light.
The Reality Warping power crystal in Lin Nuo's sea of consciousness emitted an extremely sharp buzzing sound within the extremely short time the White light swept past.
Immediately following, this high-dimensional rule, which had always been invincible, actually experienced a stagnation.
The White light came quickly and went quickly.
The snowflakes in mid-air continued to fall, and the rubble hit the ground with dull thuds.
Lin Nuo pulled out his right hand.
Thanos, having lost the support of his heart, saw his massive body fall heavily backward, crashing onto the collapsed rock layer and kicking up a cloud of dust.
The six Infinity Stones on the dark gold Infinity Gauntletdimmed completely, losing all their luster.
This tyrant who had swept across half the Universe finally died at the hands of Lin Nuo.
But there was no joy of victory on Lin Nuo's face.
He shook off the purple flesh from his hand, turned around, and looked toward the edge of the deep pit.
On the steps not far away, the Sorcerer Ancient One sat slumped there.
Ashes were spreading upward along the old nun's knees.
"The contract of the Vishanti... is broken."
The Ancient One's hoarse voice revealed a sense of complete liberation.
She did not struggle, letting her body dissipate into the air bit by bit.
Chapter 258: Ashes to Ashes, The Collapse of the Hegemonic Map
At the bottom of the deep pit, the massive body of Thanosslammed heavily into the bedrock.
Purple blood flowed out from the massive hole in his chest, soaking the surrounding debris.
The six Infinity Stones on the dark gold Infinity Gauntlethad completely lost their luster, turning into stones without any energy fluctuations.
This tyrant, who had pushed across half the Universe, was dead.
Lin Nuo stood beside the corpse and shook off the purple flesh clinging to his right hand.
He did not spare a second glance at the corpse on the ground.
The quantum terminal on his wrist erupted with an extremely shrill alarm.
On the screen, the green data streams representing the Star Umbrella global defense network were turning red at an eerily rapid pace.
Red warning boxes popped up one after another, filling the entire display area.
This was not a standard battle damage alert.
"Connect."
Lin Nuo pressed the communication button.
A holographic projection unfolded in mid-air.
Wanda appeared on the screen.
Her wine-red hair was stuck messily to her cheeks. She braced her hands on the main console, her fingers tapping on the keyboard with a rhythm entirely unlike her usual precision.
"Master."
Wanda spoke, her speed rapid and her breathing extremely ragged. "Something has happened. Massive personnel casualties. No warning, and no physical attack."
"Give me the specific data."
Lin Nuo's voice was steady.
"Three helicarriers in near-Earth orbit have lost half their operators."
Wanda pulled up a set of surveillance footage and pushed it to the center of the main screen.
"The surveillance shows that whether they were walking in the corridors or sitting at their stations, their bodies turned to ash without any warning. Armor, weapons, and clothing remained intact; only their carbon-based bodies disintegrated."
Lin Nuo watched the surveillance footage.
A security guard wearing a Star Umbrella uniform was patrolling with a gun. Halfway through a step, he simply scattered into a pile of black ash, and his uniform and weapon clattered onto the metal floor.
The person next to him was startled and tried to grab the clothes, but caught nothing.
"The New York underground command center is the same."
Wanda turned the camera behind her. "The operator who was just reporting deflector shield data to me disintegrated right before my eyes. Half the command center is empty."
Lin Nuo turned his head and glanced at the dark gold Infinity Gauntlet at the bottom of the pit.
The rule-based closed loop formed by the six Infinity Stones had completed a Universe-level erasure of life in that tenth of a second.
Thanos was dead, but the hijacker had detonated the explosive charge before he died.
Lin Nuo pulled open his collar, ripped off the remnants of his black shirt, and threw it on the ground.
The muscular lines of his bare upper body revealed an aggressive silhouette in the cold wind.
"Lock down all Bases."
Lin Nuo issued the order. "Activate the highest level of backup power. Take control of all drones and automated defense systems. Anyone who dares to take advantage of the chaos will have their neighborhood leveled by orbital bombardment."
"Understood."
Wanda operated the console with both hands rapidly.
Before Wanda could cut the communication, the terminal on Lin Nuo's wrist erupted with another signal that was forcibly connecting.
The communication frequency was extremely unfamiliar, carrying strong static interference from crossing quantum channels.
The screen flickered a few times. Emma's face flashed by, and then the screen was forcibly locked onto the underground training ground of the Star Umbrella Manorin North America.
It was a signal from the Mutant parallel Universe.
The resonance between the Space Stone and the Phoenix Force had opened a channel, and the erasure rule of the snap had spread extremely aggressively through this channel to another Universe.
Anna Marie was standing in front of the console.
She was wearing a black tight-fitting tactical suit, and the strand of silvery-white hair on her forehead was soaked with sweat, sticking to her cheek.
"Lin Nuo."
Anna looked at the screen, her voice very soft.
Lin Nuo took a step and walked to the front of the holographic screen.
Anna raised her right hand.
Her fingertips were disintegrating.
Black ash was spreading from the edges of her nails toward the back of her hand.
Skin, flesh, and bone were turning into nothingness under an irresistible rule.
She did not scream, nor did she call for help from the guards around her.
"I don't feel any pain."
Anna held her disappearing hand in front of her, looked at it for two seconds, and then shifted her gaze back to Lin Nuo on the screen. "But I can't hold onto anything anymore."
The Level 3 Reality Warping power crystal in Lin Nuo's sea of consciousness was operating at full power.
The violent physical reconstruction force was forcibly pushed back along the signal frequency band of the quantum channel.
"Lock it down."
Lin Nuo spoke, his words filled with an extremely arrogant command.
He was attempting to cross the cosmic dimension to reconstruct Anna's disintegrating body.
It was useless.
The underlying rules superimposed by the six Infinity Stones possessed absolute priority at this point in time.
The Reality Warping power could change physical constants, but it could not reverse a Universe-level erasure program that had already been executed.
Anna's palm had completely disappeared, and the ash had spread to her wrist.
She looked at her gradually incomplete body, then looked at Lin Nuo on the screen.
"Emma taught me a lot about the rules of managing the corporation. Raven has been accompanying me for combat training every day."
Anna stood up straight, letting the ash consume her forearm. "I can already fully control my abilities. I can proactively touch others without losing control anymore."
The black ash was crawling up along her shoulder.
Her tactical suit fell to the ground, and Anna's lower body also began to blur.
"I have always stayed here."
Anna looked at Lin Nuo, a smile pulling at the corners of her lips. "I had originally thought that when you finished solving the trouble outside and came back, I would be able to help you."
The ash had spread to her neck.
"Lin Nuo."
Anna's voice grew weaker and weaker. "I won't be able to wait for you to come back and inspect it."
As her voice faded, Anna completely disintegrated.
A pile of black ash scattered on the console of the underground training ground, and the strand of silvery-white hair drifted in mid-air before finally turning into nothingness.
On the other side of the screen, only an empty tactical suit remained.
Lin Nuo watched the holographic screen.
He felt no pity, nor the sorrow of a savior who had lost a companion.
It was a kind of extremely pure, extremely violent rage.
It was the rage of a capitalist watching his most valuable core asset being smashed to pieces right in front of him by an outside hijacker.
Anna was the perfect weapon he had personally trained, a private asset into which he had poured a massive amount of effort to polish.
Now, this private asset had been forcibly scrapped.
Lin Nuo clenched his right fist, and the Asgardian Divine Factor erupted with a blinding dark gold halo on his knuckles.
He turned and slammed a heavy blow against the nearby rock wall.
Boom.
The rock layers within a radius of several dozen meters were pulverized by this unreasonable kinetic energy.
The remaining hall of Kamar-Taj completely collapsed amidst a violent shaking.
"Stealing my things."
Lin Nuo turned his head and looked at the massive purple corpse at the bottom of the pit.
He strode over, his leather shoe stepping directly onto Thanos's smashed head.
He crushed down with force.
The sound of bone fracturing echoed over the ruins.
Lin Nuo straightened his right fingers into a blade, his ultimate micro-atomic reconstruction power strengthening his palm into a high-dimensional blade.
He directly severed Thanos's left arm, which was wearing the Infinity Gauntlet.
The severed arm, along with the gauntlet, was held in his hand.
Jean Grey walked out of the ruins.
She did not care about what was happening around her.
She walked to Lin Nuo's side and wrapped her arms around his waist.
She could sense the violence within Lin Nuo that was almost tearing the entire Planet apart.
Lin Nuo did not push her away.
The communication indicator light on the quantum terminal lit up again.
Wanda's voice came through, even more rapid than before, even carrying obvious panic.
"Master, the losses of civilians and soldiers are still being counted."
Wanda was typing on the keyboard with extreme force. "But the list of core targets has already been partially confirmed."
Lin Nuo raised his head, his gaze falling on the screen.
"Miss Potts turned to ash right in front of the Agents while she was coordinating drones on the top floor of Stark Tower."
Wanda read out the list.
"Jane Foster went missing in the lab at Culver University, leaving behind only a protective suit."
"Gwen Stacy was participating in the evacuation on the Brooklyn Bridge, and surveillance caught her turning into ashes."
Wanda paused for a moment.
"Half of our core has been erased."
Chapter 259: Extreme Fury, The Possibility of Reversing Causality
Lin Nuo raised his right foot, the sole of his leather shoe aimed at the headless, purple-yam-like corpse in the deep pit.
Accompanied by a teeth-gritting sound of bones cracking, Thanos's sternum, along with his remaining internal organs, was crushed into a shapeless pulp of flesh by that single stomp.
This was nowhere near enough to calm the violent rage boiling madly in the sea of Lin Nuo's consciousness.
The perfect weapon he had poured countless resources into and personally trained had just been reduced to ashes by the tricks of an outsider robber.
The crystal of Reality Warping power was running at an overload deep within Lin Nuo's brain.
Uncontrolled high-dimensional laws overflowed from his body, directly interfering with the underlying physical constants of the ruins of Kamar-Taj.
The gravitational field within a kilometer radius was in complete chaos.
Collapsed bluestone slabs, massive wooden load-bearing pillars, and even the remains of the dead Outriders all lifted off the ground, suspended in mid-air.
Immediately after, these materials were forcibly crushed and ground into extremely fine powder by an unreasonable force under the extremely distorted spatial gravity.
The snowflakes falling from the sky vaporized three feet away from Lin Nuo before they could even touch the ground.
The violent Asgardian Divine Factor coursed over his bare, muscular frame, the dark golden halo exuding an aggressiveness as if it wanted to devour this Planet alive.
Jean stood a dozen meters away.
The single-Universe-level Phoenix Fire stirred within her, attempting to soothe the anchor's emotions.
She took half a step forward, wanting to approach the man radiating an aura of destruction.
"Get lost."
Lin Nuo didn't even turn his head, his low voice laced with an irresistible pressure.
Jean's movements came to an abrupt halt.
She felt no grievance at being scolded; instead, extreme obedience flashed in her scarlet eyes.
She obediently stepped back twice, hands hanging at her sides, and even forcibly suppressed the Phoenix Firearound her body back into herself.
She knew very well that the current Lin Nuo was a living volcano that could detonate the entire galaxy at any moment, and any attempt to touch him would be seen as a provocation.
Hela knelt half-way on the edge of the ruins in the distance.
The Asgardian Goddess of Death buried her head deep against her chest, the Night Sky Sword pressed firmly against the ground by her.
She didn't even have the courage to look directly at Lin Nuo's back.
That Raider aura, which transcended death, made her spine chill.
Lin Nuo strode forward, his leather shoes treading on the powder-covered ground, walking out of the deep pit step by step.
The building debris suspended in mid-air automatically retreated to both sides as he stepped forward.
He walked straight toward the remaining steps of the great hall.
The Ancient One sat slumped there, her eyes filled with despair, the rise and fall of her chest extremely weak.
Lin Nuo walked to the steps, his right hand darting out like lightning.
His rough knuckles clamped onto the Ancient One's neck with extreme precision, his five fingers tightening, lifting the Sorcerer Supreme who had protected Earth for centuries into the air with one hand.
"Turn time back."
Lin Nuo raised his head, his ink-black pupils locked onto the Ancient One, his tone righteous and unyielding, leaving no room for negotiation.
The Ancient One hung in mid-air, her throat tightly gripped, her breathing completely cut off.
Her hands hung limply at her sides, she did not struggle, nor did she use any mystic arts to resist.
"Half of my people are gone."
Lin Nuo increased the force on his knuckles, pulling the Ancient One close to his face. "I don't care what method you use, now, immediately, pull the timeline back to before the snap for me. Spit back what belongs to me, intact."
The Ancient One's withered face flushed red from lack of oxygen, and mouthfuls of black blood mixed with organ fragments spilled from the corners of her mouth.
"I... I can't."
Broken syllables squeezed out of the Ancient One's throat.
Lin Nuo pulled a twisted, malicious sneer.
"Old nun, you've guarded the eye of agamotto for centuries, playing with the timeline like a ball of yarn every day. Now you're telling me you can't do it?"
Lin Nuo grabbed the Ancient One's tattered mage robe with his left hand. "Are the mystic arts of Kamar-Taj just for show?"
"The River of Time... has broken."
The Ancient One moved her lips with difficulty.
Lin Nuo looked at her coldly, with no intention of letting go.
"The moment Thanos snapped his fingers, the laws of the Universe were forcibly rewritten."
The Ancient One coughed, blood splattering on the back of Lin Nuo's hand. "The Time Stone was also part of this directive. It participated in the erasure. The current rules of the Universe have defined the disappearance of this half of life as an established fact that absolutely occurred."
"Then change this fact."
Lin Nuo's tone was icy. "Isn't reversing causality what you mages love doing most?"
"It cannot be reversed."
Total despair showed in the depths of the Ancient One's eyes. "The River of Time has been tied into a dead knot by the snap. Even if you held an intact Time Stone right now, you couldn't return to the second before the snap occurred. The time dimension of the entire Universe was forcibly severed at that moment."
Lin Nuo's eye twitched, violent blood energy emitting a dull thunderclap at his fingertips.
"This Planet is my private property."
Lin Nuo said, word by word. "Without my signature, no one is allowed to liquidate my assets. Laws locked? Then I'll tear the laws apart and restructure them."
"Don't you understand yet!"
The Ancient One suddenly burst out with the strength of a dying flare, roaring with a hoarse voice. "This is the limit of the Universe's carrying capacity! The energy of the six stones has already pushed the basic dimensions to the verge of collapse. If you forcibly reverse an erasure of this scale in this Universe, the timeline will completely collapse. The remaining half of life, including this Planet, will be turned directly into nothingness by the backlash of the laws!"
Lin Nuo's movements paused for half a second.
"If you snap your fingers again, or use your high-dimensional power to forcibly backtrack, there is only one result."
The Ancient One stared into Lin Nuo's temperatureless eyes. "The entire Universe, along with the rest of your women, will all be buried with it."
Dead silence.
Only the rustling of the wind sweeping over stone debris remained in the ruins of Kamar-Taj.
Conventional paths were completely blocked.
Within the framework of this single Universe, the disappearance of half of life had become a deadlock that could not be solved using the rules of this Universe.
Lin Nuo loosened his five fingers.
The Ancient One lost support and fell heavily onto the steps, clutching her neck and gasping violently.
Lin Nuo didn't pay attention to the old nun on the ground.
He took out a white handkerchief and slowly wiped away the bloodstains on the back of his hand.
"Buried with it?"
Lin Nuo tossed the soiled handkerchief in front of the Ancient One, looking down at her condescendingly. "You've got one thing wrong. I never do business at a loss. If my things are gone, I'll go rob someone else's to fill the deficit. If the Universe is going to collapse, then let it collapse."
The Ancient One trembled all over; she heard a madness in Lin Nuo's words far more terrifying than Thanos's.
Lin Nuo turned around, no longer paying attention to this Sorcerer Supreme who had lost her utility value.
He strode toward the edge of the deep pit.
Lying there was a thick purple arm that had been severed at the root.
Thanos's left arm.
That dark golden Infinity Gauntlet was still on the severed arm.
The metal on the surface of the gauntlet was severely twisted and deformed, and the six Infinity Stones that once represented the supreme authority of the Universe were now dull, covered in fine cracks, looking no different from waste stones on the side of the road.
Lin Nuo walked to the severed arm and stopped.
He was bare-chested, looking down at the broken gauntlet.
The power of microscopic atomic restructuring leaped at his fingertips.
He knew very well that the Ancient One was telling the truth.
The laws of this Universe had become a pool of stagnant water; forcibly rolling in this mud pit would only cost him all his remaining assets.
But this didn't mean he would accept defeat.
"Since the rules of this Universe are useless."
Lin Nuo squatted down, his right hand grabbing the dark golden gauntlet extremely violently, ripping it forcefully from Thanos's severed arm.
Holding the heavy gauntlet, he looked past the ruins of Kamar-Taj toward the pitch-black night sky overhead.
"Then I will go to another Universe, smash their pots, take their stones, and fix my plate."
Chapter 260: Mad Decision, Forcing a Dimensional Retrospective
Lin Nuo casually tossed the withered Ancient One onto the ruined steps.
The Sorcerer Supreme had lost even the strength to lift her eyelids, and could only slump in the pile of ashes, gasping for air.
Lin Nuo didn't spare her another glance.
He raised his left wrist, his fingertip swiping heavily across the cold, hard screen of his quantum terminal.
The cross-dimensional communication frequency was instantly and forcibly connected.
A holographic projection unfolded above the snow-swept ruins.
On the left side of the screen was Emma in the New Yorkunderground main laboratory. The White Queen's usually meticulous golden bun was half-undone, and on the large screen behind her, red-letter alerts for the global financial network and Base defense systems were scrolling frantically.
On the right side of the screen was Hank at the parallel Universe Star Umbrella research Base. His huge, furry blue hands were pressed against the console, and his body was shrouded in the blue light of alien specimens and spatial rift monitors.
"Emma, report computing power reserves."
Lin Nuo's voice betrayed no fluctuation from the battle he had just experienced; it held only a bone-deep chill.
"The New York mainframe has sixty percent computing power remaining, and the parallel Universe quantum network is intact."
Emma didn't waste any words, her blue eyes locked onto the lens. "The group's global assets are being passively evaporated, and half of the security system is paralyzed. I need your next authorization."
"Lock down all computing power from the quantum networks of both Universes and merge it all into the temporary coordinate point at Kamar-Taj."
Lin Nuo issued the order directly, "Hank, within three minutes, change the underlying logic of the cross-dimensional energy matrix for me. I want to force open the Time Stream at the top of the Himalayas."
Hank on the right side of the screen shuddered, his blue fur practically standing on end.
"Officer! That's impossible!"
Hank's voice was completely distorted by extreme terror. "The energy fluctuation that just swept through both Universes was a forced erasure of fundamental laws! The spatial curvature and time anchors of the entire Universeare currently vibrating violently. If you force open a cross-dimensional matrix at the coordinate point now, not only will you be unable to locate the past, but you will also trigger a chain reaction of dimensional collapse!"
"I am not discussing physical constants with you."
Lin Nuo took a step forward, his leather shoe crushing a stone that had turned into a raven corpse. "I am notifying you to get the matrix set up for me."
"You will drag both parallel Universes we are in into the void!"
Hank typed frantically on the keyboard, pulling up a dense chart of red data lines and pushing it to the forefront of the holographic screen. "Look at these dimensional rifts! The Universe's carrying capacity has reached its limit. Any additional energy injection exceeding the single-Universelevel will cause the timeline to explode just like a snapped steel wire!"
Lin Nuo stared at the pulsing red lines, a vicious arc curling at the corner of his mouth.
"So what if it explodes?"
Lin Nuo's tone was steady. "Half of my assets have already been forcibly wiped to zero. Potts, Jane, Gwen, and Annahave all turned to ash. If I don't nod, no one is closing the books on this deal. Hank, if you say one more word of nonsense, I'll have Emma cut off your lab's oxygen supply and find someone who can listen to orders to man the keyboard."
Hank's massive body froze in front of the screen, his breathing as heavy as a bellows.
Emma, on the left side of the screen, didn't hesitate for a split second; her slender fingers had already blurred into afterimages on the virtual keyboard.
"Quantum mainframe computing power has been redirected."
Emma's voice was as cold as ice. "The parallel Universenetwork has been forcibly connected, and the Kamar-Tajruin coordinate is locked. Hank, connect the matrix port; don't make the Officer say it a second time."
Hank gritted his teeth, his blue face filled with despair, but in the end, he slammed his fist down on the confirm key.
"Matrix port is open."
Hank's voice was hoarse. "But Officer, conventional energy simply cannot tear open the current dimensional lock. The Time Stone is destroyed; you don't have any conventional fundamental power in your hands that can serve as a drive core."
"Who said I was going to use conventional energy?"
Lin Nuo turned around, his gaze sweeping across the entire battlefield.
He held the tattered dark-gold gauntlet in his right hand, and with his left, he pointed directly at Jean, who was standing a dozen meters away, enveloped in dark red flames.
"Jean, come here."
The red-haired woman didn't hesitate in the slightest; the bluestone slab beneath her feet was instantly vaporized by the high temperature.
She walked up to Lin Nuo in a few steps, tilted her head back, and scarlet light, extremely obedient, pulsed in the depths of her eyes.
"Draw out all of your Phoenix Fire and pour it into the underground ley lines."
Lin Nuo stared into her eyes. "Don't worry about spatial stability, don't hold anything back. I want you to use core temperatures on a single-Universe level to force-burn through the dimensional interlayer beneath Kamar-Taj for me."
"Okay."
Jean didn't even ask why.
She slammed her hands down into the air, and the dark red Phoenix Fire stopped radiating outward, instead transforming into a solidified, extremely thin pillar of fire that plunged straight into the depths of the rock layer beneath her feet with extreme violence.
The Earth began to shake violently.
The ice and snow that had accumulated on the Himalayan mountain range for thousands of years melted and evaporated over a large area in a very short time, white steam interweaving with the dark red firelight, dyeing the entire sky a blood-red color.
Lin Nuo turned his head, his gaze falling on the Goddess of Death kneeling behind him.
"Hela."
Hela stiffened, quickly gripping the Night Sky Sword as she stood up, walking quickly to a position two steps away from Lin Nuo and bowing her head.
"Officer."
"Dismantle that puppet of Black Dwarf."
Lin Nuo's tone was cold and ruthless. "Drain all the Asgardian Death Divinity you can muster, and press all the death energy into the dimensional rift that Jean burned out. The Phoenix is responsible for burning through the physical space, and you are responsible for holding those law-based gaps that are trying to close shut."
Hela glanced at the ground, which was still spewing a pillar of fire, gritted her teeth, gripped her sword with both hands, and made a grabbing motion in the air toward the massive undead corpse of Black Dwarf.
The massive corpse instantly disintegrated into a sky full of ink-green bone powder.
Hela pushed the pure death power within her to the limit, and the ink-green death energy transformed into countless hideous bone spurs and chains, surging frantically into the depths of the Earth along the passage burned through by the Phoenix Fire.
"Hank, aim the matrix guide line at the ley line core for me!"
Lin Nuo barked at the holographic terminal.
"It's already aimed!"
Hank in the screen had bloodshot eyes, watching the energy peaks soaring crazily. "Officer, the Phoenix Forceand the Death Divinity are having a violent repulsive reaction in the dimensional interlayer! The energy conflict is three times over the critical point; the ley lines are going to explode!"
"They won't explode."
Lin Nuo raised his right hand, tossing the tattered Infinity Gauntlet he had torn from Thanos into mid-air.
At the same time, deep in his sea of consciousness, the fragment of the Space Stone's essence, which he had obtained long ago in a critical hit, was completely activated.
A deep blue light shone from Lin Nuo's chest, transforming into a materialized blue beam that smashed heavily into the tattered gauntlet in mid-air.
The remains of the Space Stone on the gauntlet, which were originally covered in cracks and completely dim, erupted with a piercing, resonant shriek the moment they made contact with the homologous essence fragment.
Deep blue, dark red, ink-green.
Three extremely violent, completely unreasonable high-dimensional forces, under Lin Nuo's near-barbaric forced suppression, smashed into each other in the void directly above the Kamar-Taj ruins.
Space did not shatter into ravens, nor did it turn into bubbles.
Instead, under extreme physical and rule-based compression, it collapsed inward, tearing open a pitch-black abyss a hundred meters long.
Inside the abyss, it was no longer the scene of the Dark Dimension, but a rushing, ceaseless silver-white river flickering with countless fragmented images.
The Time Stream.
That dimensional river, which Thanos had forcibly tied into a dead knot with six stones and completely severed, had a huge opening torn into it at the break by Lin Nuo using the most violent means.
The Ancient One lay on the steps, struggling to lift her head to look at the completely out-of-control silver-white river in mid-air, which was exuding an aura of destruction. Her withered face was left with only a deathly gray.
"Madness…" The Ancient One's hoarse voice was extremely weak amidst the airwaves. "Causal backflow… The entire space-time will be dragged into absolute nothingness by you…"
Lin Nuo was shirtless, dark-gold divine factors circulating wildly on the surface of his body, resisting the temporal turbulence pouring back out from the silver-white river.
Those turbulent currents scraped across his skin, emitting explosions like metal being cut.
He walked directly beneath the dimensional rift, tilted his head slightly, and watched the blurry fragments constantly flashing in the river.
Inside the holographic screen, Hank's alarm had turned into a desperate roar.
"Officer! The dead knot of the Time Stream simply cannot be untied! The matrix is being assimilated in reverse by the temporal turbulence! In thirty seconds at most, the Kamar-Taj coordinate will completely collapse and tear Earth in two!"
Lin Nuo didn't take a single step back, letting the violent energy tear the cuffs of his black dress pants.
He turned his head and, facing the terrified blue-furred Beast in the holographic terminal, pulled a vicious, bone-chilling sneer.
"Then let it tear."
"As long as my goods are still alive, even if I have to blow this Universe into slag, I will cross over and take back what belongs to me."
Chapter 261: Law Backlash, The Raging Torrent of the River of Time
Above the ruins of Kamar-Taj, silver-white time turbulence poured down from the rift, carrying terrifying kinetic energy capable of crushing all matter.
Lin Nuo stood directly beneath the turbulence, the muscles of his bare upper body tense.
The dark golden halo of the Divine Factor hissed as it was battered by the turbulence; fine bloody lacerations constantly burst open on his skin, only to instantly heal under the effect of extreme microscopic atomic restructuring.
He raised his right hand, the light of the dark blue Space Stone fragments forming tangible chains, locked tightly onto the tattered Infinity Gauntlet in mid-air.
Three streams of energy, each capable of tearing apart a single Universe, converged above Lin Nuo.
Jean stood to his left, pressing her hands firmly against the ground.
A dark red pillar of Phoenix Fire pierced deep into the Earth's veins, completely melting the permafrost of the Himalayas, with boiling magma churning beneath the ruins.
Hela knelt on one knee to his right, her dark green death divine power forming a dozen thick, bone-like chains, pulling tightly at the edges of the dimensional rift to prevent the space from closing.
The three-colored beams of light shot straight into the sky, forcibly propping open the gray-white time rift in the void.
Lin Nuo, ignoring the turbulence washing over him, stared fixedly with his ink-colored pupils at the images flashing within the silver-white river.
Those were the few minutes Earth had just experienced.
In the images, Potts was on the top floor of Stark Tower; the dispatch terminal in her hand dropped, and her entire body turned into black ash.
Jane was in the laboratory at Culver University, disappearing along with the white lab coat she was wearing.
Anna was in the basement of a parallel Universe, looking at her mangled palm as she completely disintegrated.
These were his private assets, the core spoils he had invested resources to polish.
"Hank, lock the coordinates."
Lin Nuo issued the command to the quantum terminal, his tone so steady that not a hint of emotional fluctuation could be heard.
On the holographic screen, Hank's massive blue hands smashed against the keyboard, leaving afterimages.
"Coordinates locked, but Officer, the flow rate of the River of Time is resisting violently!"
Hank stared fixedly at the frantically jumping red line, his blue fur standing on end. "It's rejecting us! The underlying logic is starting a self-check program, and the energy peak has already exceeded the upper limit of the conventional monitors!"
"Push all the computing power of the quantum main brain into it."
Lin Nuo ordered coldly, "Use the computing power of the Star Umbrella to forcibly crack its self-check program. Emma, connect all the backup energy from the parallel Universe."
On the other side of the screen, Emma's face was incomparably cold.
"All connected. But Officer, the connection channel between the two Universes is enduring extreme high pressure."
Emma's slender fingers operated rapidly on the control console. "If we continue to apply pressure, the Earth of the parallel Universe will also be implicated. The crustal movement index is skyrocketing."
"Then let it be implicated."
Lin Nuo's tone had no fluctuation. "If my assets are damaged, the entire Universe will have to pay the price."
Lin Nuo's right arm lifted suddenly, and without any hesitation, he reached directly into the surging silver-white river.
The moment his skin touched the time turbulence, the Level 3 Reality Warping Authority and extreme microscopic atomic restructuring power went into a frenzy.
Lin Nuo's arm cycled crazily between aging, disintegration, and regeneration.
White bone was revealed, only to be quickly enveloped by newly grown flesh.
He forcibly reached his hand toward Anna, who was turning into ash in the image.
Just at the moment his fingertips were about to touch the silver-haired girl's wrist.
The underlying laws of the entire Marvel Universe were completely enraged.
This was not a simple magical backlash; this was the absolute erasure initiated by the single Universe against an intruder to maintain its own logical loop.
Deep within the silver-white River of Time, monstrous waves suddenly surged.
Gray-white bolts of law lightning were generated out of thin air, carrying an irresistible pressure as they struck the three nodes of the energy matrix.
Crack.
The first bolt of lightning struck Hela's death chains.
The dark green death energy was instantly dispersed by more than half.
Hela's knees buckled, and she knelt heavily in the pile of rubble, a large mouthful of blood mixed with black energy gushing out.
Her tattered black cloak was torn apart by the aftermath of the lightning, revealing her pale skin.
"Officer!"
Hela clutched the Night Sky Sword tightly with both hands, trying to re-condense her divine power. "I can't hold on! This is simply not a power we can contend with! The Earth's veins are collapsing!"
"Shut up."
Lin Nuo didn't even turn his head, his right arm continuing to push forward into the River of Time. "Even if you can't hold on, you will hold on for me. My goods haven't been retrieved yet; who gave you permission to stop?"
The second gray-white lightning bolt struck toward Jean.
Jean lifted her head, the scarlet light in her eyes flaring violently.
The single-Universe-level Phoenix core flame transformed into a massive barrier, pushing hard against the lightning.
The two high-dimensional forces collided violently in mid-air.
There was no explosion, only the ear-piercing friction of rules devouring each other.
Several cracks appeared visibly on the Phoenix barrier.
Blood spilled from the corner of Jean's mouth, and the bones in her hands made cracking sounds from the unbearable pressure.
"Burn through it."
Jean gritted her teeth tightly. Instead of retreating, she squeezed out the remaining Phoenix essence within her without reservation, frantically channeling it along the Earth's veins.
The third lightning bolt, ten times thicker than the previous two, struck straight down at the top of Lin Nuo's head.
Lin Nuo did not dodge at all.
The crystal of the Level 3 Reality Warping Authorityrotated at full power in his sea of consciousness, propping up a rule-deflection force field above his head.
The lightning slammed into the force field.
The bluestone slab beneath Lin Nuo's feet, along with the mountain beneath it, collapsed downward by more than ten meters.
His bare upper body was torn and bloody, and purple-red blood instantly stained his trousers.
But his right hand, which had reached into the River of Time, still gripped Anna's wrist tightly in the image.
"Come back to me."
Lin Nuo's voice was low, and a violent pulling force erupted along his arm.
The River of Time let out a shrill, piercing shriek.
The space-time dimensions of the entire Universe twisted violently at this moment.
The silver-white river began to backflow, attempting to drag Lin Nuo, along with the images he had grasped, into absolute nothingness.
The gray-white lightning became increasingly dense, forming a massive web of electricity that enveloped the entire ruins of Kamar-Taj.
Mordo and the other surviving mages didn't even have time to scream before they were ground into powder by the overflowing aura of the laws.
Lin Nuo's right arm was mangled in the river, the bones of his fingers ground flat by the turbulence.
But he still locked onto Anna's phantom tightly, dragging it out bit by bit.
Anna's originally disintegrating body, under the forced intervention of the Reality Warping authority, actually began to show signs of materialization.
Not just Anna; with a wave of Lin Nuo's left hand, the Space authority followed the crack in the River of Time, forcibly hooking onto the phantoms of Potts and Jane.
The three phantoms struggled violently in the time turbulence; every time they were dragged closer to reality, it triggered even more violent tremors in the River of Time.
The underlying laws of the Universe sensed this violation, and the backlash force doubled instantly.
The gray-white law lightning transformed into tangible spears, stabbing toward Lin Nuo from all directions.
Lin Nuo's bare back was pierced by the spears, and purple-red blood gushed out, but he didn't even frown.
The extreme microscopic atomic restructuring authority forcibly decomposed the law spears that had pierced into his body.
"You aren't qualified to erase my tab."
Lin Nuo stared fixedly into the depths of the River of Time, and a violent power erupted once again.
Hela collapsed completely to the ground, her death chains snapping one by one.
The Night Sky Sword in her hand shattered into pieces, and she twitched in pain on the ground, even the strength to stand back up completely stripped from her.
Jean's Phoenix barrier was covered in spiderweb-like cracks, and the dark red flames were suppressed by the gray-white lightning to only a thin layer.
A shrill alarm blared from the holographic terminal.
"Officer! The matrix structure collapse progress has reached ninety percent!"
Hank's voice was filled with a distorted despair, and the red lines on the screen had merged into one. "The dimensional rift is about to close! The law backlash has locked onto the origin coordinates of the three of you!"
In mid-air, a huge crack appeared on the surface of the tattered Infinity Gauntlet.
The light of the Space Stone origin fragments began to flicker unsteadily.
"Let go!"
The Ancient One lay on the steps in the distance, roaring with her last bit of strength, her withered fingers clutching the ground tightly. "If you don't pull back, you will all be completely erased by the River of Time! You can't save them, and you'll drag everyone here down with you!"
Lin Nuo stared at Anna's gradually solidifying outline in the river, then glanced at the swaying Jean on his left.
Jean spat out a large mouthful of blood, her scarlet eyes fixed on Lin Nuo.
"Lin Nuo."
Jean's voice was extremely hoarse, yet it carried a sickly stubbornness. "Don't worry about me, pull her out."
Lin Nuo's eyelid twitched, and violent blood energy surged crazily within his body. He forced his free left hand into a tight grip. "I've already claimed this batch of goods!! My people—not a single one can be missing!"
Chapter 262: Tyrant's Protection, Forcibly Swallowing the Bitter Fruit
Veins bulged on Lin Nuo's right arm, and the flesh festered continuously under the scouring of the time turbulence.
The Level 3 Reality Warping Authority crystal deep within his brain emitted an unbearable shriek.
The will of the River of Time was thoroughly enraged, and the originally gray-white lightning suddenly turned into blinding pure white.
Tens of millions of pure white electric arcs wove into a giant net that locked down the dimension, descending directly over the ruins of Kamar-Taj.
Jean knelt on the ground, bleeding from her seven orifices, her hands still gripping the rock layer tightly.
The dark red pillar of Phoenix Fire was suppressed to be extremely weak by the pure white electric net, and the firelight that had originally shot straight into the sky was forcefully pressed back to the surface.
Hela completely lost consciousness, lying in the pile of rubble, even her weak breathing forcefully cut off by the violent energy storm.
In the holographic screen, Hank smashed the console's alarm with one punch.
"The matrix has completely collapsed! Coordinate points have deviated! Energy conflict has reached the critical point!"
Hank's hands typed frantically on the keyboard, and the red lines on the screen had connected into a dead end.
"Officer, retreat! What you are pulling back right now is not the physical entity at all, but a reflection of the River of Time! If you don't leave now, even the three of you will be assimilated by the River of Time!"
Wanda's communication channel was full of harsh static.
"Master, retreat! The life support system of the New Yorkunderground Base is paralyzed on a large scale, and the energy net cannot withstand this level of dimensional backlash!"
Wanda's voice had completely lost its usual calm, and her wine-red long hair was in disarray.
Lin Nuo stared at the three phantoms of Anna, Potts, and Jane in the silver-white river, which were within reach but being frantically dragged by the time turbulence.
Anna's phantom was extremely unstable in the turbulence.
She looked at the hand Lin Nuo reached out, her lips moving up and down.
No sound came out, but the lip movements clearly said: "Let go. Emma said, cut your losses in time."
"Shut up, you don't need to teach me how to manage my ledger."
Lin Nuo gritted his teeth, his right arm pushing forward another half an inch.
Pull for one more second.
As long as he pulled for one more second, his assets could cross the boundary between life and death and return to reality.
The pure white electric net overhead pressed down heavily.
Jean let out a scream, and the Phoenix barrier shattered completely.
The pure white electric arc struck directly on her back.
The smell of scorched flesh permeated the ruins.
Lin Nuo turned his head.
He saw Jean's bloodshot eyes.
This woman was clearly in extreme pain, yet she was still gritting her teeth, desperately squeezing the last bit of Phoenix essence within her, even attempting to use telekinesis to help Lin Nuo grab Anna's phantom.
"Get lost! Who told you to touch my goods!"
Lin Nuo scolded sharply.
Jean's movements froze in mid-air, coughing up large mouthfuls of blood.
The corner of Lin Nuo's eye twitched violently.
He was a capitalist, a Raider who treated all women as private property.
He calculated the account.
If he continued to pull, Anna wouldn't come back, and Jean and Hela would be completely scrapped.
That was called a total loss.
A capitalist could accept an investment failure, could accept smashing the other party's plate after being robbed.
But he would absolutely not accept putting in his last remaining high-quality trump cards just to salvage assets that were already lost.
A one-for-one trade, he wouldn't do it.
Lin Nuo's free left hand swung out fiercely.
The dark blue light of the space essence turned into a sharp blade, directly severing the connection with the broken Infinity Gauntlet in mid-air.
The three-colored light pillar supporting the dimensional rift snapped on the spot.
The broken gauntlet in mid-air lost its energy support and smashed heavily into the pile of rubble.
The River of Time let out a deafening roar, and the silver-white rift began to shrink inward in an extremely twisted posture.
The originally suppressed law backlash lost its vent, turning into an energy torrent capable of wiping out the entire Earth, pouring down towards Jean and Hela.
Lin Nuo did not retreat.
He withdrew his bloodied right arm, completely giving up on dragging Anna and the others.
Striding forward, Lin Nuo crossed the distance of more than ten meters directly, blocking in front of Jean and Hela.
He spread his arms.
"Swallow it all for me!"
Lin Nuo raised his head, facing the destructive torrent of laws, and let out a roar.
The pure white energy torrent slammed solidly onto Lin Nuo's bare chest.
There was no loud noise of physical explosion.
Only the harsh friction of high-dimensional rules forcibly stripping away the source of life.
Lin Nuo's Hulk-level violent body, which could be called perfect, began to shrivel over a large area within a very short time of contacting the torrent of laws.
The plump muscle fibers were forcibly drained of vitality, the skin lost its luster and clung to the bones.
Blood vessels burst one after another, and the purple-red blood had just surged out of the epidermis before being directly evaporated by the power of the laws.
The dark golden halo of holy factors was stripped away layer by layer, eventually extinguished completely.
The Quicksilver speed factors hidden deep in the genes were forcefully locked by the rules of the River of Time.
Lin Nuo's optic nerves, which could originally see the trajectory of the time turbulence, became completely dull, and even the most basic neural reflexes were suppressed to the level of an ordinary person.
In his sea of consciousness, that crystal-clear Level 3 Reality Warping Authority crystal was wrapped layer by layer by gray-white chains of laws, its light completely dimmed.
Thick black blood gushed out of Lin Nuo's throat in large mouthfuls.
The blood sprayed onto the bluestone slab at his feet, and without even a sound of corrosion, it turned into nothingness.
"Lin Nuo!"
Jean lay on the ground, looking at the man blocking in front of her.
For the first time, extreme panic welled up in her scarlet eyes.
She tried to stand up, tried to use the remaining Phoenix Fire to help Lin Nuo share the pressure that crushed everything.
"Back off."
Lin Nuo did not turn back, his tone terrifyingly steady, yet revealing a majesty that left no room for negotiation.
Jean's movements froze.
"This is my plate."
Lin Nuo gasped for breath, every breath bringing out blood foam, "My people, only I can touch them. It's not this damn river's turn to claim their lives."
In the holographic screen, Wanda dug her hands into the edge of the console, her fingernails splitting, and blood flowed onto the keyboard.
The red Chaos Magic halo flickered frantically on the other side of the screen.
Wanda tried to transmit magic over through the quantum communication signal to help Lin Nuo block the backlash.
"Withdraw that magic!"
Lin Nuo stared at the screen and shouted sharply, "Go protect the people in the underground Base! If you dare to disobey orders, I will destroy you first!"
Wanda cried and typed on the keyboard, forcibly cutting off the magic transmission.
Lin Nuo ignored the crying in the communication terminal.
He used the last bit of his strength to push all the remaining power in his body forward, forcibly swallowing the entire torrent of laws into his own shriveled body.
After swallowing enough price, the rift in the River of Time finally began to close.
But the backlash of the laws did not end.
An extremely tyrannical spatial suction force erupted from the center of the closed rift, directly locking onto Lin Nuo's body, which had been almost completely drained.
Lin Nuo's heels left the ground, and his whole body was forcibly pulled toward the unknown dimensional gap in mid-air.
Jean lunged forward like a madwoman, trying to grab Lin Nuo's ankle.
"Don't follow me."
Lin Nuo looked down at Jean on the ground, an extremely wicked smile tugging at his shriveled face.
"Tell Emma to wait for me to come back."
"When I'm not here, whoever dares to touch my plate, I will kill their whole family."
Chapter 263: Dimension Jump, Falling into a New World
The violent spatial suction force forcibly dragged Lin Nuointo that unknown dimensional rift.
Gray-white turbulence raged all around, turning into countless invisible high-dimensional blades, slicing at his shriveled shell.
The ruins of Kamar-Taj, along with Jean's bloodshot eyes, twisted rapidly in his field of vision, eventually turning into an infinitely shrinking black dot.
Lin Nuo didn't even look back.
His bare upper body was covered in wounds torn open by the backlash of the laws, purple-red blood constantly seeping out, only to be directly vaporized by the surrounding turbulence.
The temporal turbulence, strong enough to grind ordinary gods into powder, scraped across his bones, emitting a teeth-aching sound of metal friction.
Deep within his brain, the mechanical voice of the forgiveness-green great love system rang out without warning.
[Detected that the host has suffered from a single-Universe level law backlash, life essence is severely damaged.]
[Initiating the highest-level emergency life-preservation mechanism.]
The mechanical voice had no emotional fluctuations, broadcasting the asset liquidation list one by one.
[Hulk-level violent physical body has been forcibly frozen, all blood energy is being transferred to the gene chain repair program.]
[Quicksilver super-speed factor has been fully locked, used to maintain the minimum activity of the brain's neural center.]
[Level 3 Reality Warping Authority crystal has entered deep sleep to resist assimilation by high-dimensional dimensions.]
[Ultimate microscopic atomic reorganization permission is temporarily closed.]
[Phoenix Master achievement connection severed, cross-Universe anchor point temporarily lost.]
Listening to these prompts, Lin Nuo pulled a trace of an extremely wicked arc at the corners of his chapped mouth.
He was a capitalist who calculated accounts down to his bones.
In his view, trading these abilities he had already obtained to buy back the lives of Anna, Potts, and Jane was a completely worthwhile deal.
Thanos, that old exterminator, thought he could reset the Universe with a snap of his fingers; it was simply ridiculous.
The operation of capital is never limited to just one plate.
What did it matter if his abilities were frozen?
As long as his shell wasn't completely scrapped, and as long as he remained the absolute controller of the Star Umbrella.
Once he reached a new territory, he had plenty of means to grab back his lost capital tenfold.
Emma would guard the base he left behind; that woman's ambition and methods were enough to stabilize the situation in the parallel Universe.
Raven would take the cleanup team and send all the politicians and warlords who tried to resist in the chaos to hell.
Wanda would maintain the hegemony of the Star Umbrella in the original Universe; her Chaos Magic was enough to make those remaining resistors shut up.
Hela and Jean would tear apart all the enemies who tried to lay hands on his assets.
When he returned to that Universe, whoever dared to touch his private property, he would dismantle their bones to make soup.
[Current available assets: Asgardian Divine Factor in a weak state, Space Stone origin fragment in a damaged state.]
[Warning: Detected an unknown Universe barrier of extremely high intensity ahead.]
[Warning: About to penetrate the unknown Universebarrier, please prepare for impact.]
Within a very short time after the system prompt fell, the gray-white turbulence in front suddenly tore open a huge rift.
Blinding strong light penetrated the dimensional channel.
Lin Nuo's body lost all gravitational constraints and smashed straight into that strong light.
The surrounding temperature dropped sharply, and a strong salty, fishy smell filled the air.
Boom.
A huge impact sound exploded in his ears.
Lin Nuo's shriveled body smashed into a deep blue sea area with a posture exceeding the speed of sound.
The violent kinetic energy smashed a huge depression with a diameter of tens of meters on the sea surface.
Tons of seawater were lifted into mid-air, turning into a sky-filling rainstorm pouring down.
The cold, piercing seawater instantly swallowed him whole.
Huge water pressure squeezed in from all directions, crazily backflowing through the unhealed wounds on his body surface.
The salt stimulated the everted flesh, bringing heart-piercing pain.
Lin Nuo opened his eyes in the seawater.
All around was bottomless dark blue.
Sunlight penetrated the water surface, refracting distorted beams of light in the seawater.
He tried to mobilize his limbs to swim upward.
But after the Hulk body was frozen, this shell couldn't even complete the most basic muscle contraction.
The oxygen in his lungs was forcibly squeezed out, turning into a string of fine bubbles rising upward.
Seawater mercilessly poured into his alveoli through his nasal cavity and trachea.
The feeling of suffocation, accompanied by tearing pain, crazily impacted his remaining neural center.
Lin Nuo didn't struggle.
He knew his physical condition very well; any extra movement would only accelerate the consumption of oxygen.
He let his body fall towards the deep seabed under the action of gravity.
In the sea of consciousness, the damaged Space Stoneorigin fragment emitted an extremely faint, deep blue light.
This little bit of light was not enough for him to launch a space jump, it could only barely protect his heart from being crushed by the water pressure.
The weak Asgardian Divine Factor flowed extremely slowly in his blood vessels, repairing those fatal visceral cracks.
His vision began to blur.
Darkness swallowed his perception bit by bit.
He could feel his body temperature slipping away rapidly.
Just at the very last moment when Lin Nuo was about to completely lose consciousness.
The water flow around him suddenly experienced an extremely violent disturbance.
A vigorous figure broke through the seawater at an extremely fast speed, coming straight towards the direction he was falling.
That was not an ordinary marine creature, but a human body with extremely perfect streamlined muscle contours.
The person did not hesitate at all, swimming directly behind Lin Nuo.
A pair of powerful forearms passed through Lin Nuo's armpits, locking onto his chest with extreme precision.
The power contained in those arms was astonishing, completely surpassing the limits of ordinary humans.
Lin Nuo's shriveled body was held up by this force, stopping the fall.
Immediately after, the other party exerted force with their legs in the seawater.
The surrounding water flow was arrogantly pushed aside.
The two of them rushed straight towards the sea surface at an extremely violent speed.
Splash.
Water splashed everywhere.
Lin Nuo's head was forcibly lifted out of the water.
Fresh air, mixed with the salty smell of sea breeze, poured into his shriveled lungs.
Lin Nuo coughed violently, spitting out the backflowed seawater in big mouthfuls.
The weak Asgardian Divine Factor operated with difficulty in his body, barely maintaining his last trace of clarity.
He was tightly locked in the arms, unable to turn around to see who saved him at all.
But he could clearly feel that the body pressed against his back exuded a kind of extremely wild and aggressive heat.
The leather armor on the other person rubbed against his bare back, bringing a rough stinging sensation.
That person locked Lin Nuo's neck with one arm, while the other hand paddled extremely steadily in the seawater, carrying him towards the nearby coastline.
Lin Nuo squinted his eyes, his vision crossing the rolling waves.
Ahead was a huge island shrouded in dense fog.
The edge of the island stood with extremely steep cliffs, and white waves hit the reefs, making a deafening roar.
This was definitely not any known sea area on Earth.
There were no traces of modern civilization, no signs of any shipping routes passing by.
There was only the most primitive natural power and an indescribable ancient coercion.
The person dragged Lin Nuo to the shore and threw him onto the soft beach extremely roughly.
Lin Nuo lay on the beach, his fingers digging hard into the wet sand.
He panted heavily, every breath tugging at the severe pain in his lungs.
Heavy footsteps sounded on the beach and stopped in front of him.
Lin Nuo raised his head with difficulty.
A pair of lower legs wrapped in metal combat boots appeared in his vision, and above that was a dark red leather combat skirt.
"Outsider."
A woman's voice rang out above Lin Nuo.
The voice was extremely penetrating, revealing a majesty of long-term high position and undisguised vigilance.
The other party questioned word by word in an extremely stiff tone.
"How did you come here! Who are you?"
Chapter 264: Ultimate Disguise, The New Prey of Paradise Island
Lin Nuo lay on the wet beach, coughing violently.
He lifted his head with difficulty, his gaze piercing through the messy black hair on his forehead, meeting a pair of exotic eyes filled with wild beauty.
The woman in front of him wore a dark red leather battle skirt, outlining perfect muscle lines without an ounce of fat.
The metal bracers shone with a cold, hard luster under the glaring sun.
Lin Nuo could clearly sense that the woman before him contained a violent power far surpassing that of an ordinary person.
"I don't know."
Lin Nuo's voice was hoarse, revealing a perfectly measured weakness and confusion.
He panted heavily, letting his tattered chest heave violently, displaying an utter lack of ability to resist.
"My ship encountered a storm... all instruments failed... I am a researcher."
"Researcher?"
The woman frowned, clearly unfamiliar with this modern term.
She looked Lin Nuo up and down, observing his gaunt, bare upper body covered in fine cuts.
Those were marks left by the turbulence of time, looking extremely tragic.
The chaotic sound of horse hooves came from the dense jungle behind the beach.
Dozens of fully armed female warriors charged out on tall warhorses.
They wore uniform ancient Greek-style leather armor, holding sharp spears and bows and arrows.
The warhorses stopped abruptly on the beach, kicking up a large cloud of sand.
Sharp spears instantly surrounded Lin Nuo.
Dozens of spear tips pointed directly at his throat, heart, and vital points.
"Diana!"
The lead female warrior dismounted and scolded sharply, "Back off! This is the first man to step foot on Paradise Island in thousands of years! He brings the filth of the outside World and unpredictable danger!"
The woman called Diana did not retreat.
She moved her hand away from the hilt of her sword and stood up.
"General Antiope, he is dying. He doesn't even have the strength to stand; he poses no threat."
The crowd parted to the sides.
A woman wearing a golden crown and a gorgeous cloak rode a pure white warhorse to the front.
She glanced at the dying Lin Nuo on the ground, her gaze extremely cold, without any pity.
"The barrier of Paradise Island is an absolute defense granted by the gods, and it has never been broken."
Queen Hippolyta's voice was majestic, filled with unquestionable determination, "Lock him in the stone cell. When he wakes up, interrogate him about the cause of the barrier's breach. Once it is confirmed that he is related to the God of War, execute him immediately."
Two extremely strong female warriors stepped forward, grabbed Lin Nuo's arms roughly, and dragged him up from the beach.
Lin Nuo did not make any futile struggle.
When his muscles, torn by the laws of physics, were pulled, he let out a stifled groan of extreme endurance.
He frowned slightly, turning his face away to avoid the female warriors' rough pulling, perfectly portraying the image of a refined, frail victim who endured inhuman treatment through gritted teeth.
Diana looked at Lin Nuo's pale face and his broken glasses, and took a step forward.
"Mother, he needs medical treatment."
Diana spoke, her tone carrying a hint of unbearable pity, "His internal organs are severely damaged. If not treated, he won't last until the interrogation."
"Shut up."
Hippolyta interrupted her and turned her horse around, "Amazons do not need to show mercy to a man. Take him away."
In the dark and damp stone cell, only a torch stuck on the wall provided a faint light source.
Lin Nuo leaned against the cold stone wall.
The weak Asgardian Divine Factor was repairing his ruptured internal organs extremely slowly.
He closed his eyes, calculating the current situation.
This closed matriarchal society had deep-rooted hostility toward men.
That high-and-mighty Queen would definitely not give him any chance to negotiate.
But he noticed the woman named Diana.
There was a curiosity and simplicity in her eyes that had not been polluted by the World, which was the only breakthrough point for him to tear open a gap in this new World.
Very slight footsteps came from outside the door.
The heavy iron grate was pushed open.
Diana walked in carrying a wooden bowl.
She had changed out of her battle armor into a white linen dress, her movements showing a bit of unfamiliarity; clearly, she rarely took care of people.
"Drink it."
Diana brought the wooden bowl to Lin Nuo's mouth, "This is an herb from the island; it can heal your wounds."
Lin Nuo did not take it.
He opened his eyes and looked at Diana through the broken lenses.
He did not show any anger at being imprisoned, nor did he question why he was locked up.
He pulled out an extremely gentle, even slightly apologetic smile.
"Thank you."
Lin Nuo's voice was very soft, revealing a perfectly measured weakness, "But I cannot drink it."
"Why?"
Diana was very puzzled, "Do you want to die?"
"Your Queen said I carry filth."
Lin Nuo lowered his eyes slightly, his gaze falling on Diana's fair wrists, "You came to save me secretly; if discovered, you will be punished because of me. I am just an ordinary person who encountered a shipwreck; it is not worth it for you to defy your mother for me."
Diana was stunned.
In the education she received since childhood, her mother and mentors told her that all men are cunning, greedy, and creatures that only bring destruction.
But this man in front of her, wearing strange glass lenses, was clearly being roughly locked in a cell, covered in wounds, yet his first reaction was actually to worry about her situation.
"I am the Princess of the Amazons."
Diana pushed the wooden bowl forward, a hint of stubbornness in her tone that even she hadn't noticed, "I am not afraid of punishment. Drink it."
Lin Nuo raised his hand.
His gaunt fingers, covered in scars, brushed against the back of Diana's hand quite naturally.
There was no lewdness, but rather a sense of gratitude when accepting charity.
He took the wooden bowl, did not avoid Diana's gaze, and drank the bitter herbal medicine in one gulp.
"Your name is Diana."
Lin Nuo put down the bowl, his gaze lingering on her face, his tone extremely sincere, "My name is Lin Nuo. You saved me twice. In this strange place, you are the only one willing to show me kindness."
Diana felt a bit uncomfortable being looked at by him and avoided his gaze.
She took back the empty bowl and stood up.
"You are not at all like the men Mother described."
Diana muttered softly, "Rest well. I will find a way to figure out how you got through the barrier and prove that you are not an enemy."
"I believe you."
Lin Nuo leaned back against the stone wall.
The iron door of the stone cell was locked again.
Diana's footsteps faded away completely.
The mask of gentle weakness on Lin Nuo's face completely peeled off in a very short time.
He took off the half-broken gold-rimmed glasses and threw them on the haystack aside.
The ink-colored pupils regained the violence and calculation unique to the Raiders.
The mechanical voice of the forgiveness-green great love system sounded on time in the depths of his brain.
[Detected current coordinate positioning: DC.]
[Target locked: Diana Prince.]
[Target interception value: Demigod bloodline, Olympian divine power.]
Lin Nuo leaned against the stone wall, listening to the system's broadcast, his chapped lips pulled into an extremely wicked arc.
"Diana, Wonder Woman, haha."
Lin Nuo whispered the name.
The assets he lost finally had the perfect substitute.