Given Li Ming's current strength, it wouldn't be wrong to say he had firmly secured the second seat among Earth's Wizards.
Aside from playing the obedient junior in front of the Ancient One, Li Ming had beaten down any other Wizard who dared challenge him—one by one or two at a time.
Yet despite being the undisputed second-strongest Wizard, Li Ming couldn't help but feel a tremor of fear when facing Loki directly.
The gap between them was simply too vast.
In terms of spells, Loki wielded divine power, while Li Ming was still relying on magical energy. The difference in their power levels was incalculable—who knew how devastating a casually conjured fireball from Loki could be?
As for hand-to-hand combat? Li Ming's skills were only impressive in kindergarten or nursing homes. Going toe-to-toe with Loki would be nothing short of suicide.
So, when Barton warned him and Stark dragged him toward Loki's holding cell, Li Ming was anything but willing.
Damn it, Loki isn't in Germany anymore—he won't hold back just to infiltrate the Helicarrier. Picking a fight with him now could literally get me killed!
Unfortunately, Li Ming's scrawny frame was no match for Stark, who effortlessly hauled him along.
By the time Li Ming reluctantly arrived at the cell, Loki had already accomplished his goal and ejected Thor from the Helicarrier.
All that remained in the cell was Coulson's lifeless body and Fury crouched beside him.
Seeing this, Li Ming let out a sigh of relief.
As long as Loki's gone, that's all that matters. As for Coulson… Fury would never actually let him stay dead. So, I really don't have much reason to grieve.On the other side, seeing Li Ming—a Wizard skilled in resurrection—among those who had broken into the cell, Fury's single eye lit up as he spoke rapidly, "Austin, find a way to resurrect Coulson."
Resurrect? Not just save?! Stark visibly froze at Fury's words.
Coulson was the agent Stark had interacted with the most since becoming Iron Man. Combined with Coulson's innate "nice guy" aura, Stark had unwittingly come to regard him as an ordinary friend.
So when Li Ming regretfully shook his head, indicating he either didn't want to or couldn't resurrect Coulson, Stark shoved Li Ming aside, opened his mask to reveal a slightly panicked expression, and hurried over to Coulson. He checked Coulson's pulse while ordering Jarvis to scan Coulson's injuries, hoping he could provide some form of treatment.
Unfortunately, both the pulse and Jarvis confirmed that Coulson was already gone—far beyond the reach of the technology Stark had at his disposal.
This left Stark feeling frustrated, remorseful, and even fearful.
He, the illustrious helmsman of Stark Industries, wore many hats in daily life—playboy, billionaire, weapons genius, and so on. But among these identities, only Iron Man had any real connection to death.
Yet, laughably, despite having been Iron Man for years, Stark wasn't exactly qualified for the role. Beneath the hard exterior of his battle suit lay the soft heart of an ordinary man.
Back when he was kidnapped by terrorists and killed many with that hideous prototype armor, those lives had belonged to terrorists who themselves disregarded human life. Stark had killed in self-defense, and it hadn't weighed on his conscience.
Even later, when he hunted down terrorists, it was out of guilt for his friend, and he hadn't hesitated in the slightest.
At that time, his heart had been as hard as his armor—no question about it.
But after returning to New York? Li Ming had warned him about Obadiah's treachery, yet Stark's soft heart prevailed. Considering Obadiah had watched him grow up, his first instinct wasn't to swiftly eliminate the threat but to handle it legally.
The result? The two had clashed at Stark Industries in the dead of night, leading to the spectacle of Iron Man battling Iron Monger.
Afterward, having nearly lost his life, Stark saw Li Ming attempting to seize Obadiah's assets. Once again, his soft heart took over. Out of respect for Obadiah's past kindness, he demanded Li Ming return the inheritance to Obadiah's family—even offering to compensate Li Ming out of his own pocket.
Not only that, Stark later lied during a press conference, framing Obadiah's death as an accident to shield his family from repercussions.
In Iron Man 2, when the villain Whiplash first appeared, Stark hadn't killed him either—43. Given the opportunity, even in front of a crowd, how much trouble would Stark face afterward, considering his status and wealth?
After all, even when Whiplash held a knife to his throat in public, was Stark—a world-renowned figure—supposed to just take it lying down?
In the end, after subduing Whiplash, Stark handed him over to the police.
It just shows Stark has a kind heart. If it were Li Ming in that situation, he'd probably yank the guy's soul out and torment it for days before considering anything else. This makes it clear that Stark is still an ordinary person at heart—he lacks the decisive ruthlessness of a warrior and can't accept the sacrifice of a friend, even knowing that friend's job involves dealing with death.
With a hint of panic, Stark stood up, took a few steps back, and approached Li Ming, his voice trembling with agitation and anger. "You know resurrection spells, don't you? Why won't you bring Coulson back?"
"Resurrection spells my ass. How about I turn Coulson into a mummy and revive him that way?" Li Ming shrugged, walked over to Coulson's body, and cast a spell to return Coulson's spirit to his corpse.
Moments later, the cold, lifeless Coulson suddenly opened his eyes and sat up, rubbing his face in confusion as he looked at Li Ming. "Austin? Did you bring me back?"
Li Ming shook his head. "This isn't resurrection—it's a spectral projection spell." After a pause, he explained, "A spell that summons a deceased soul through its corpse for conversation. Think of it as a séance."
Gesturing toward Stark and Fury, Li Ming added, "These two wanted me to resurrect you, but my resurrection spell has major flaws. So I want you to make the choice yourself."
Coulson tilted his head in puzzlement. "But when you revived Obadiah, there didn't seem to be any flaws." Halfway through his sentence, Coulson recalled how Obadiah, after being revived, had been utterly compliant with Li Ming, and how Abomination had become his most loyal servant.
With partial certainty, Coulson ventured, "After resurrection, they have to obey you?"
Li Ming nodded, indicating this was one of the flaws. "You've seen what Abomination is like now, haven't you?"
When Coulson nodded, Li Ming sighed helplessly. "I had no choice but to turn him into a mummy."
"First, when a person dies, their soul begins to separate from their body. My healing spells only work on the living, so..." Li Ming pointed at Coulson's pierced chest. "I can't heal your wound, even if your soul returns to your body."
Before Fury or the others could ask why, Li Ming continued, "Once your soul starts leaving your body—even for a short time—your flesh begins losing vitality and decaying. At that point, even if I force your soul back in, your lifeless, rotting body no longer belongs to the realm of ordinary humans—it becomes part of the forces of evil.""It has nothing to do with how you behave, but rather your birth—you don't get to choose which faction you're born into," Li Ming casually explained before continuing, "And the healing magic I know comes from a book. Unfortunately, rumor has it this book was written by angels."
"As you know, angels and evil are diametrically opposed. So my healing magic wouldn't just fail to treat the resurrected Coulson—it would actually cause significant harm to his soul."
Spreading his hands helplessly, Li Ming added, "Anyway, I don't know surgical procedures, so I can't treat Abomination either..."
Unable to restore vitality to his body, even if I were to stuff his soul back into his flesh, his heart would remain damaged, and he would still die. So I might as well give him the full embalming treatment and turn him into a mummy."
Then, Li Ming turned to Fury and said, "Remember when I said I couldn't afford to mess with Hell?"
Fury nodded. This had been a point of confusion for him—if Li Ming couldn't afford to provoke Hell, why had he dared to intercept Abomination's soul? Wasn't he afraid Mephisto would come knocking?
Now that Li Ming was about to explain, Fury immediately pulled out his notebook, ready to record every word.
Li Ming: "When a person dies, Mephisto is actually already prepared to receive the 'newcomer.' But Mephisto, being a big shot, doesn't need to handle everything personally. So the task of welcoming 'newcomers' is delegated to his subordinates."
"However, Devils—greed is their nature," Li Ming said, stroking his chin with a sly grin. "So there's room for under-the-table deals here. For example, giving a Devil some benefits to get them to give the 'newcomer' special treatment."
"Back then, I sacrificed a few fresh souls to a Devil to get him to swap someone else's soul with Abomination's place, allowing me to keep Abomination's soul in my hands."
Fury was silent for a moment before narrowing his eyes and asking, "When you killed Abomination, you threw that strange scythe at the dead soldiers—did you use their souls to make a deal with the Devil?"
So, you've already detected the energy fluctuations from my actions back then. Li Ming nodded, admitting that was exactly what he had done.
After a moment's thought, Li Ming decided it would be best to spin a bigger story and added, "But relying on bribing Devils is too conspicuous. It also makes them come knocking for favors every now and then. So the best way to hide it is to trick the Devil into thinking the soul they received was Coulson himself."
"For example," Li Ming turned to Coulson with a sinister look, "we could disguise one of Coulson's blood relatives as Coulson and sacrifice them to the Devil."
"Blood relatives?" Coulson felt an inexplicable chill.
Nodding, Li Ming licked his lips like a predator and said, "The connection between soul and flesh runs deeper than you think. So someone with DNA similar to Coulson's could easily be disguised as him. And since the Devil has never seen Coulson alive, they'd easily mistake them for the real Coulson."
With that, Li Ming looked at Coulson and asked, "So, what's your choice? Do you need me to help kill one of your relatives and then resurrect you?"