An armed helicopter requires one pilot and one weapons operator, and the five helicopters attacking Li Ming were no exception.
However, as Li Ming looked at the ten corpses on the ground, he felt a slight annoyance: What if there wasn't enough mummy wrapping cloth at home?
Scratching his head, Li Ming eventually decided to strip the clothes off the ten bodies and use them as makeshift burial wrappings. After all, these ten wouldn't need clothes anymore, and it'd be a waste to just throw them away. Might as well repurpose them.
This was called environmental conservation—definitely not because Li Ming was too broke to buy proper wrapping cloth.
Besides, mummies should look like mummies. What kind of mummy wears clothes? Only by wrapping themselves in strips of cloth could they truly embody the high-class, sophisticated taste of a mummy!
Soon after, Li Ming emerged from the RV, dragging ten mummies wrapped in colorful rags.
At the RV's entrance, Potts, still shaken, finally relaxed when she saw Li Ming step out. Though she knew Kreacher would also protect her, she always felt safer under Li Ming's direct protection—especially since Kreacher looked so frail.
But when she spotted the procession of mummies trailing behind Li Ming, Potts instinctively covered her nose and mouth, stepping back in either fear at the sight of moving mummies or disgust at their rotting stench.
Noticing this, Li Ming kicked the slowest mummy, signaling the group to line up in formation on open ground. He then turned to Potts and reassured her, "Don't worry, these scumbags are my laborers." Pausing, he added boastfully, "And they're the kind who don't get paid, don't get breaks, and can't fight back no matter how much I beat them for slacking off."
At the end, he blinked playfully at Potts and asked, "Uh… you wouldn't report me to the labor union for worker abuse, would you?"Li Ming's joking tone, coupled with his presence nearby, made Potts feel much safer. Relaxing, she rolled her eyes and said, "I think you left out one thing." Pointing at the row of mummies, she teased, "You even saved on their meal expenses."
Pausing, Potts turned to Li Ming and asked uncertainly, "Mummies don't eat, do they?"
Li Ming stroked his chin, pretending to ponder. "How about I instill in them the idea that 'a mummy that eats and breathes is not a good mummy'?"
"Instill ideas? You really have too much free time," Potts said, giving Li Ming an exasperated look while curiously examining the mummies. "Who are they? Why did they attack you?"
Li Ming shrugged nonchalantly and smirked. "Who else? My place is guarded by soldiers. Only a handful of forces could get a helicopter to fly in here."
Potts tilted her head in thought and analyzed, "One group must be the ones who launched the nuke at New York, right? If they had the authority to fire a nuke, they naturally could evade military surveillance."
"As for the other group—" A sudden sense of foreboding rose in Potts' heart, and she spoke rapidly, "The other group is Killian?"
Seeing Potts' anxious expression, Li Ming activated the spell on Stark and glanced at it before saying, "Relax, your troublemaker is fine."
As he spoke, Li Ming placed his right hand on Potts' shoulder, transmitting the image of Stark hiding in a speedboat while remotely operating the Armor Suit into her mind.
However, when Potts saw Stark with a bruised face, blood still trickling from his nose and the corner of his eye, she immediately said worriedly, "Austin, could you please help treat Tony?"
"That's a bit tricky," Li Ming scratched his head awkwardly. "Stark isn't in a stationary environment—he's on a fast-moving speedboat. Unless I focus on synchronizing the Teleportation Door with the boat's movement, but that would make it hard for me to spare the energy to heal Stark. Unless he stops the boat for me to cast the spell."
After a moment's thought, Li Ming beckoned a phone to fly into his hand and said apologetically, "Potts, I'm not very familiar with the spell that transmits images to your mind, so let's stop here for today." Handing the phone to Potts, he added, "Why don't you call Stark and chat for a bit?"
"Thank you," Potts forced a smile, took the phone, and dialed Stark's number.
Once the call connected, Potts clutched her hair in frustration, pacing back and forth while saying in a near-tearful voice, "Tony, could you ask Austin to help rescue Happy? I want to end this life of constant fear as soon as possible."
On the other end, Stark, hiding in the speedboat while remotely operating the Armor Suit to rescue 13 unlucky souls who had been forced to parachute from 'Air Force One,' listened to Potts' heartbroken voice and asked in confusion, "Honey, what's wrong? Did something else happen?""I'm fine here, I'm okay," Potts wiped the corner of her eye, her heart aching as she said, "Look at the state you're in—you need medical attention."
Suspecting that Li Ming had been spying on her again, Stark instinctively touched the bruise at the corner of his eye and replied sheepishly, "It's just a minor injury, nothing serious. Maybe you should take a look at the guys I fought—none of them could stand up afterward."
After a brief silence, Stark added with a hint of apology, "I already know Killian's plan and where he's hiding. I'll hurry back to spend Christmas with you."
With that, Stark quickly hung up the phone. Right now, he just wanted to rescue Happy as soon as possible and return to Potts' side to enjoy a peaceful life.
Potts helplessly held the phone, now emitting a dial tone, silently praying for Stark's safe return. Once her prayer was over, she prepared to return the phone to Li Ming, only to see him holding a branch as thick as a thigh bone, slung over his shoulder like a bandit, lecturing the ten mummies in front of him.
"What you've eaten, you'll spit out. What you've taken, you'll return. You destroyed my sailboat," Li Ming pointed at the mummies with the wooden stick, "so you'll rebuild it for me. Otherwise—"
"Hmph," Li Ming sneered, his tone sinister. "I hear mummy powder has nourishing and invigorating effects. Believe me, I'll hang you from a flagpole to dry, scraping powder off you every day. Don't worry—once you're down to just your heads, I'll restore your bodies with magic so I can keep scraping."
Seeing the row of mummies trembling like quails, Li Ming nodded in satisfaction. He pointed the stick at one of them and asked, "Tell me, who were you in life? And what gave you the right to blow up my ship?"
The mummy being pointed at was still dazed. He had just been an insignificant helicopter pilot in life. Though he had enjoyed fantasy movies and dreamed of becoming a spellcaster one day, he never imagined real-world mages existed.
Even less did he expect that a seemingly ordinary mission would turn him into a mummy. Where was the justice in that?
Even ending up in hell after death would be better than having his soul toyed with like this.
Filled with resentment and malice, the mummy pointed at another mummy and spoke in the language of the dead: "Great Mage, I was just a nobody—I knew nothing! He was our captain in life. We only followed his orders. Please, spare me!"
As he spoke, the mummy dropped to his knees, begging Li Ming for mercy.
Li Ming curled his lip and kicked the pleading mummy aside, then turned to the captain, who was already bowing his head humbly and quickly explaining the whole incident.
Truth be told, the attack had happened because Li Ming hadn't been careful enough—or perhaps because he had underestimated technological methods.Back when Maya Hansen was sent back to New York by Li Ming, Killian found her in no time and began probing for Potts' whereabouts both overtly and covertly. However, Maya Hansen had been enchanted by Li Ming, so naturally, she knew nothing—even under Killian's brutal interrogation.
At first, Killian was helpless against the amnesiac Maya Hansen, yet intensely curious about what had happened to her. His men had clearly seen Maya Hansen's car near Stark's residence during their attack on Stark. Later, she inexplicably reappeared on the streets of New York. Meanwhile, Potts, who should have been at the villa, was nowhere to be found.
Killian was puzzled. Where was Potts? And what had happened to Maya Hansen that caused her to lose all memory from the moment she arrived at Stark's home until she mysteriously appeared on the streets of New York? Driven by curiosity, Killian conducted a thorough examination of Maya Hansen, even analyzing the soil on her shoes for environmental comparison.
Maya Hansen had been to Li Ming's home, so the soil on her shoes naturally came from there. What followed was predictable. Once Killian deduced Potts' location, he naturally seized the opportunity to use her as leverage against Stark and promptly dispatched helicopters.
But Killian's downfall was his arrogance. He thought his ability to regenerate limbs and breathe fire made him invincible, daring to provoke Li Ming without even bothering to learn who he was.
After a long while, Li Ming, his eye twitching, glared at the mummy. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He swung a wooden stick at the mummy, cursing as he struck: "My poor sailboat—just when it was finally ready to use, you blew it up? If you wanted to kidnap someone, why use missiles? What if Potts had been killed?"
The mummy, crouching on the ground covering its head, protested pitifully: "We brought first aid kits and the Extremis Virus. As long as Ms. Potts had a breath left, we could ensure she'd survive to see Killian."
Nearby, Potts, who couldn't understand the language of the undead and only saw Li Ming hitting the mummy with increasing fervor, asked in confusion: "Austin, what did they say?"
"What else could they say?" Li Ming, growing more aggrieved about his sailboat, snapped the wooden stick in half. He turned to Potts and relayed the situation with some embellishments, emphasizing that Killian's target was her and that the destruction of his home was purely collateral damage.
After hearing Li Ming's account, Potts glanced at the devastated lakeside and said apologetically, "Austin, I'm so sorry this trouble was brought on by Tony. I'll make sure he helps rebuild your lakeside home afterward."
Then, gritting her teeth, she sighed bitterly and added, "I never thought I'd become Tony's weakness. It's a shame I can't pilot the Armor Suit—otherwise, I'd teach Killian a lesson for daring to use me to threaten Tony."Li Ming noticed the look on Potts' face—one that yearned for personal vengeance yet lamented her own lack of strength. Glancing at the setting sun, he said, "Later, I'll take you to find Killian. I'll lend you a mask so you can protect yourself."
Licking the corner of his lips, Li Ming spoke in a voice devoid of warmth, "As for Killian, he's mine. I'll make him build a sailboat with his own hands, then hang him from the bow as a decoration."