Shortly after Fury left, several medical personnel finally arrived with first aid kits, checking Coulson's pulse and examining his pupils for light reflexes.
After confirming Coulson had no vital signs, what appeared to be the lead medic regretfully ordered subordinates to bag the completely cooled body, planning to bury their colleague in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s cemetery after disembarking from the Helicarrier.
However, the medics preparing Coulson's "death report" were puzzled. Judging by the bloodstains, Coulson's heart had been pierced in one location, yet he'd fallen in another—with considerable distance between the two spots. Generally speaking, the body requires blood to provide energy for movement. But Coulson's heart had been pierced, and the blood in his body clearly couldn't circulate, naturally unable to supply the energy needed to walk.
So what did Coulson see before his death that excited him so much his blood still flowed without a beating heart? Or did Coulson harbor some deep-seated grudge, moving despite a pierced heart fueled by sheer resentment?
Upon confirming that the footprints on the ground were indeed left by Coulson walking after his heart had stopped, the medics at the scene felt a chill run down their spines. Their glances toward Coulson inadvertently grew uneasy.
Damn, are you some kind of zombie?
Meanwhile, seeing Coulson being carried around like royalty, Li Ming scratched his head and hummed a tune as he walked out of the cell. Clearly, he was in a good mood.
And he had every reason to be relieved—resurrection had been forcefully justified, and the bar for revival had been raised in the process.
This was a resurrection ritual that required the sacrifice of kin. Surely no one would casually ask me to bring people back from the dead in the future, right? I'm seriously impressed with myself.
At the cell entrance, Stark was in no such mood. His face darkened further when he saw Coulson being zipped into a body bag and carried away.
As Li Ming stepped out, Stark glanced around and cleared his throat before whispering, "Come with me."
Without waiting for a response, Stark walked to a secluded corner.
Li Ming scratched his head again and followed, asking, "What's up?"
"You're asking me what's up?" Stark fired back immediately. "Why didn't you save Coulson? Don't give me that resurrection crap. Your time turner can take you back to the past, and your Fountain of Youth's life-restoring waters don't discriminate by allegiance!"
Wiping the spit from his face, Li Ming cut in with an innocent look. "How much do you really know about S.H.I.E.L.D.? You think they don't have their own means of resurrection?"
Stark paused. "What do you mean?"
What do I mean? I mean I had to rack my brains to cover this up!
In that moment, Li Ming pushed aside Fury's plan to use Coulson's death to unite the Avengers. Instead, he pulled out a matchbox-sized Magic Book from his pocket, flipped to the page on corpse resurrection, and handed it to Stark. "This is a notebook I acquired years ago. I gave a copy to Fury. Now..." He paused, feigning confusion. "I don't know what tricks Fury's cooked up with corpse revival tech, but reanimating a body with basic functionality is definitely possible."
While Stark's expertise lay primarily in physics, it was impossible for him to be completely ignorant of biology. Just think of the Extremis virus—proof that the guy knew more than he let on.With just a few glances, Stark, with Jarvis's assistance, had already grasped what Li Ming had shown him. His face filled with astonishment, Stark's eyes gleamed as he exclaimed, "Someone used electric eels to revive the dead before electricity was even invented? And—"
"Everything in here is purely scientific technology, with no relation to magic whatsoever!"
Li Ming shrugged, tacitly acknowledging that Stark's statement was indeed the truth.
Moments later, Stark handed the Magic Book back to Li Ming, taking several deep breaths to calm his excitement. He then said, "Although I haven't analyzed the scientific resurrection technique in detail, I assume it still has quite a few flaws."
"Uh—" Li Ming shrank the Magic Book back to its smaller size and tucked it into his pocket before replying, "Should I say, as expected of the genius Stark? You're right. This resurrection technique would cause Coulson to lose his memories." After a moment's thought, Li Ming emphasized, "All of his memories—like completely uninstalling the data from Coulson's brain, returning it to the memory state of a newborn."
"Alright, no matter what kind of resurrection technique it is, it has obvious flaws. But I didn't come here to discuss resurrection techniques with you—" Stark pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling as though his train of thought had inexplicably been derailed by Li Ming. Lowering his voice, he asked, "Why didn't you use the time turner to save Coulson?"
"I don't dare~" Li Ming's voice was thick with grievance.
"Setting aside the dangers of using the time turner, even if I went back in time, what could I do? Damn it, I can't beat Loki. At least Coulson has S.H.I.E.L.D. to resurrect him if he dies now. But me? Who's gonna resurrect me?"
Stark wanted to say he'd resurrect Li Ming, but then realized he didn't actually have any resurrection spells—how could he bring Li Ming back? Hatching an egg would be more plausible.
As for S.H.I.E.L.D. resurrecting Li Ming, Stark only entertained the thought briefly in his mind.
Li Ming was a Wizard, and a lone Wild Mage at that. If S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't seize this chance to dissect and study him thoroughly, they'd be downright foolish.
By the time Li Ming was resurrected, he'd probably find that S.H.I.E.L.D. had rebranded itself as the Magic Bureau, where every agent knew a couple of spells.
After some thought, Stark smirked and said, "Can't you bring someone along when time-traveling? Take Thor with you. I've seen firsthand how Thor bullies Loki with his hammer." He added after a pause, "And if you're worried Thor might act recklessly, we've got the big guy too."
"Good idea, but tricky in practice," Li Ming shrugged, tilting his head. "First, there's Thor—he was in the cell at the time, yet Loki tossed him out of the Helicarrier like a monkey. Plus, the rules of time travel—" Before Li Ming could finish, Stark's eyebrows shot up as he recalled something, sighing, "You can't let your past self see your time-traveling self, and Thor was right there. So bringing Thor back isn't an option."
"As for Banner," Li Ming rubbed his temples as if pained, "you saw it too—Loki took back the mind-control staff. So when Banner sees Loki, guess who the Hulk's gonna team up with to beat me? Or should I knock out the Hulk first, only to play the 'save Coulson or save Banner' game with Loki right after?"
Stark was silent for a moment before rolling his eyes. "So you're this supposedly badass Wizard, but when it comes down to it, what are you actually good for?"
With that, Stark headed to the warehouse. Since Coulson would be resurrected, there was no point dwelling on it. Better to focus on finding Loki and wrapping things up quickly.
He still wanted to go home and have a heart-to-heart with Potts by candlelight.
Li Ming scratched his head. What was he good for? As a lone Wild Mage with no backing, no real power, no family to rely on, and forced to kneel before the big shots—what could he possibly do?
Honestly, it's all tears and hardship—do you think my life is easy?
Rubbing his cheeks, Li Ming trudged dejectedly toward the command center.
Inside, Steve sat silently at the massive table, lost in thought. Stark, now out of his battle suit, slouched at the table with little enthusiasm.
Fury, noticing Li Ming's gloomy expression as he slumped into a chair, subtly twitched his lips before tossing a few bloodstained Captain cards onto the table. "These were found in Coulson's coat."
"Damn it, this was supposed to be in the storage locker, and that 'blood' on the card is just ketchup, right?" Li Ming rolled his eyes at Fury.
Not in the mood to expose Fury's little act, Li Ming rested his head on the table and continued listening to Fury's nonsense: "He'll never get the chance to ask for your autograph now."
As Steve picked up the blood-stained card, Fury explained S.H.I.E.L.D.'s predicament: "Communications are down. We can't locate the Tesseract. Thor and Banner are missing. And I... I've lost my most trusted agent."
"Lost your most trusted agent, my ass," Stark thought, struggling to keep a straight face. Not wanting to ruin Fury's performance, he forced a somber expression.
"The Avengers Initiative was about bringing together the world's most exceptional people to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles we never could."
At this point, Fury glanced at Stark and Steve, adding, "Coulson died still believing in that idea—in heroes."
Stark felt he couldn't sit through this any longer. "Typical spy—lying so convincingly it sounds real," he mused.
Maintaining his poker face, Stark stood up and left the command center. If he stayed any longer, he might burst out laughing.
Li Ming watched Stark leave and figured he had nothing better to do on the Helicarrier anyway. Might as well grab a drink before the big fight—after all, the upcoming battle would be his time to shine.
Oh, right. He still needed to deal with the Mind Stone... and find a way to undo the spell on Shavig.
Why does it feel like I've got so much on my plate?
With that thought, Li Ming patted Steve on the shoulder—a silent gesture of comfort—before turning to Fury. "I can't stand the atmosphere on this Helicarrier. Let me know when you find Loki." He paused, sighed, and added, "I might not be a match for Loki, but I can at least keep him occupied. His Illusions won't work on me, at the very least."
With that, Li Ming opened a Teleportation gate and returned to his lakeside home.
Back in his RV's collection room, Li Ming immediately took out the Matryoshka Doll containing the Mind Stone and grinned like an idiot at it.
After a moment, he wiped the drool off his face, scratched his head, and started agonizing over how to handle the Mind Stone.
First, he dismissed the idea of leaving it at home. Abomination had already teamed up with Mephisto—who knew if the demon lord had any designs on the Mind Stone?
Li Ming wasn't a gambler. He wasn't about to take that risk.
That left only one option: carry it with him. But...
The Mind Stone's power exceeded Li Ming's expectations. Even with Thanos's seal and the Matryoshka Doll's containment, its energy fluctuations could still be detected when stored in a shoulder bag.
It made him feel like he was playing with fire.
So before carrying it around, Li Ming needed to give the Mind Stone a proper disguise—at the very least, make sure not just anyone could recognize it for what it was.