A Disciple of Lu Xiang, Please Hear My Defense

"Ma… Mage sir…"

Karina had to admit, she reacted quite quickly. After seeing Fang Mo, she was only startled for a moment before immediately putting on a fawning smile. "Why are you here?"

"Where’s Tivan?"

Fang Mo was clear about the situation. "This has nothing to do with you. I’m here to settle the score with Tivan."

"Master is… handling matters in the mining area."

Karina hurriedly said, "Mage sir, please calm down. The collectibles here are extremely valuable. If you have business with him, you can wait in the reception area. Master will be back soon."

"Why don’t you just run?"

Fang Mo glanced at Karina. "Every last one of the Cosmic Elder Council is insane. If you keep following this guy, he’ll get you killed sooner or later."

"…"

Karina fell silent as well. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to run; the problem was that Tivan’s influence throughout the universe was simply too great. Where could she possibly run? If she got caught and dragged back, her fate would probably be even worse.

Before the two could say anything else, The Collector hurried back.

"Karina, what are you doing? Why is there an intruder here?"

Collector Tivan came running over from a nearby corridor while grumbling and cursing, but the instant he saw Fang Mo and Yondu’s group, he froze in place.

"I’ll give you a chance. Guess why I came here."

Fang Mo looked at Tivan with a smile.

"Uh…"

Collector Tivan’s expression changed several times in quick succession before he barely forced out a smile uglier than crying. "Th-this… Mage sir, why have you come again?"

"If I hadn’t come, you’d have been snapping your fingers with the Infinity Gauntlet soon enough."

Fang Mo glanced at Collector Tivan, then headed straight toward his valuable collection area. "Well, well. I didn’t pay much attention when I came last time. Didn’t expect you to have so many nice things here…"

"Mage sir…"

The Collector jumped in fright and hurriedly tried to stop him.

But in the next second, Fang Mo suddenly turned around and called out to the others. "So, let me introduce this friend standing before us. He’s the younger brother of Tivan, the cosmic collector… Tivan, the cosmic philanthropist! Everyone can take whatever they want here today. What he loves most is charity. Tonight, we’re all going on a zero-cost shopping spree!"

"Haha, then I won’t hold back."

Rocket Raccoon was the first to catch on. "Mm-hmm, I’m gonna see if they have any prosthetic limbs here. Groot, come on, let’s go shopping for free!"

"I am Groot. (Thanks, great cosmic philanthropist.)"

Groot said this, then headed toward the collection area with Rocket Raccoon.

"Can we really just take whatever we want?"

Star-Lord looked around. He was still somewhat restrained, but Yondu directly dragged him forward. Who would pass up free stuff? Besides, The Collector had just cursed him out again, and he was already furious.

In the end, Drax silently headed toward the collection area as well.

"No… this… don’t!"

Collector Tivan immediately panicked. It was like an introverted nerd working overtime at a factory during the holidays, video-calling his mother, only to see relatives leading a whole pack of bratty children into his room after kicking down the door. His heart was about to stop. "Mage sir, we can discuss this! P-please don’t do this, all right?"

While The Collector was pleading here, sounds of things breaking had already started coming from the collection vault.

"Hahaha!"

Drax excitedly waved a pair of ancient rune blades in his hands. "These are far stronger than my old weapons. I can definitely stab Ronan to death with one strike. I’m taking these!"

The moment he finished speaking, another crisp shattering sound rang out.

Rocket Raccoon had grabbed an eyeball. It didn’t look like an ordinary bionic electronic eye, but something more advanced, like the body tissue of some ancient creature.

"This thing’s pretty unusual." Rocket Raccoon fiddled with the eye. "The optic nerve material is special. Feels like it can interface with metal. I’m planning to replace my gun’s scope. This will do nicely…"

Bang!

On the other side, Yondu kicked open a display case and took out a small piece of metal. After examining it briefly, he stuffed it into his pocket.

Collector Tivan watched this happen and felt as if his heart were bleeding.

These people had no idea how precious these collectibles were. It was like a brat using a newly built computer with a 4090 graphics card to play browser games, then somehow downloading a whole pile of Greedy Blue Moon, bootleg Legend of Blood servers, One Slash 999, and other garbage onto the desktop.

That alone was enough to make someone cough up blood.

Then, after opening the taskbar in the lower-right corner, he discovered Kingsoft Antivirus, the 2345 bundle, the 360 bundle, the Baidu bundle, P2P downloaders, and all kinds of other junk hiding inside.

His blood pressure maxed out one second, and his heartbeat flatlined the next.

It was even more effective than Xiong’s Old Prescription.

"Mage sir, I’m begging you, don’t let them keep doing this."

There wasn’t a trace of color left on The Collector’s face. "Can you talk to them? I’ll give them money, all right? Just don’t let them touch my collectibles anymore… I’m begging you, okay?"

"Why are you begging me?"

Fang Mo said cheerfully, "Where’s that swagger you had when you were secretly searching for the Orb of the Universe? Show some determination and courage… Come on, Oligai!"

"Th-this…"

Fang Mo’s words exposed The Collector’s secret, and an awkward expression flashed over his face. But in the next second, he suddenly changed his tune. "No, Mage sir, you’ve misunderstood!"

"Oh? How so?"

Fang Mo asked curiously.

"I really was collecting the Orb of the Universe, but… that was to give it to you!"

Tivan hurriedly said, "I knew you wanted the Infinity Stones, so I thought I’d gather it and give it to you. How could I dare compete with you for something? You’ve already collected three Infinity Stones. Wouldn’t defying you now just be courting death?"

Tivan spoke faster and faster, as if he had finally sorted out his thoughts. "You know that I love collecting precious things, and the treasures in your hands are endless. So I came up with a plan… to trade Infinity Stones with you for other precious things! Yes! That’s exactly it!"

"Your ability to argue your way out of things is pretty impressive. Who taught you?"

Fang Mo glanced at Tivan and laughed. "Don’t tell me you studied under Teacher Lu Xiang? Are you Zhang San?"

"I don’t know who you’re talking about."

Tivan anxiously shook his head. "But everything I said is true. I truly mean you no harm. Mage sir, you… you need to make these lunatics stop!"

As he spoke, another explosion rang out.

Collector Tivan didn’t even dare look. He shut his eyes in anguish, feeling as if his heart were bleeding.

"You say… you mean me no harm?"

Fang Mo smiled at The Collector, then slowly pulled out the Infinity Gauntlet from his storage space and put it on. He aimed the four stones on the back of his hand at The Collector. "Come on, take a good look at the stones on this before you speak."

"F-four of them!?"

Even Tivan was shocked upon seeing the four stones on the Infinity Gauntlet.

Even in his understanding, no one had ever gathered so many Infinity Stones. It was practically like holding more than half the universe in one’s hand. This was far too absurd, wasn’t it?

And after seeing these four Infinity Stones…

To be honest, Collector Tivan gradually calmed down.

Yes, the other party had the Mind Stone. That thing possessed the power to control hearts and minds. Using it as a lie detector would be effortless. There seemed to be no point in lying anymore.

"Th-this… um…"

Tivan’s eyes began darting around again.

After hesitating for a moment, he barely managed to continue. "Um… Mage sir, I really did intend to give you the Infinity Stones. You may be unhappy about that, but think about it carefully. I did send people to collect the Infinity Stones, but… didn’t I fail to collect them?"

"The truth is, I was only briefly captivated by the beauty of the Infinity Stones and had an irrational thought."

Tivan spread his hands in explanation. "I sent Yondu to search for the Orb of the Universe for me, but… but I regretted it immediately. I originally wanted Yondu to stop the mission, but later I became absorbed in my other collections and forgot all about it!"

"I never obtained any Infinity Stones, so it’s as if my attempt to collect them never happened…"

At this point, Tivan awkwardly smiled at Fang Mo. "So… Mage sir, can we discuss this again? Make them stop first. I guarantee that I won’t set my sights on the Infinity Stones again, and I’ll do everything I can to help you obtain the remaining stones."

"I only have two stones left to collect. I already know where the Soul Stone is, while the Power Stone has completely vanished. Do you know where it is?"

Fang Mo asked.

"I may not know where the Power Stone is, but the Tivan Group’s informants are spread throughout the universe…"

"What the hell use is that?" Fang Mo rolled his eyes. "So what if your informants are spread throughout the universe? You still failed to snatch the Orb of the Uni—"

But before Fang Mo could finish, the entire collection room suddenly began shaking violently.

Boom!!!

A massive explosion came from afar. It felt as though even the lights in the collection room paused for a moment. The people who had been happily shopping for free also walked over with puzzled looks, seemingly unable to understand what had happened.

"What’s going on?"

Rocket Raccoon asked, carrying a huge sack.

"It’s an attack…" Collector Tivan’s expression darkened. "It seems some blind fool is attacking the Void Dimension. Karina, ask the guards what’s happening."

"Yes."

Karina hurriedly ran out, tapped a few controls on a nearby console, and a dark warship stretching beyond sight appeared on the display. Karina seemed stunned by the sight and hesitantly looked up at Collector Tivan in the distance.

"Master… it’s Ronan’s Necro Fleet…"