Can I Destroy the Earth?

In the suburbs of San Juan, somewhere three kilometers from the Darkhold Laboratory.

Old Wang and Skye suddenly appeared.

"Wang, why didn’t we go straight to the laboratory?" Skye asked, confused.

According to Old Wang, the farther the teleportation distance, the greater the deviation.

From the ancient underground city to the Darkhold Laboratory was no more than a hundred kilometers. There shouldn’t have been much deviation.

So Old Wang had never planned to go to the laboratory from the start?

"Take a look around yourself." Old Wang released Skye’s slender waist.

Around them?

Skye looked in every direction.

Something was wrong.

All the trees were swaying at different frequencies. Whether dead leaves or green ones, they rustled constantly. Small animals such as wild rabbits and pheasants were clearly restless. One rabbit nearby ran less than twenty meters before collapsing, its legs kicking, eyes rolling back, and foam spilling from its mouth.

In the stream farther away, ripples spread across the calm water before turning into small waves. Unidentified fish swam and leaped without stop, and quite a few floated to the surface belly-up.

It reminded Skye of a poem she had learned only two days ago:

"Boundless falling trees rustle down; the endless Yangtze River surges on."

What was happening to them?

Then she suddenly heard a mournful cry.

Skye looked up and saw a bird falling from midair.

What exactly was going on?

"They’re vibrating. Everything around you is vibrating because you are vibrating."

Old Wang glanced at Skye’s hair and her faintly trembling chest, inwardly surprised. "Your ability is to manipulate shockwaves. You still aren’t familiar with it and can’t control it. On top of that, you’re emotionally agitated right now, so you’ve been unconsciously generating shockwaves—shockwaves of all kinds of frequencies."

Skye parted her lips slightly as the physics she had learned in high school resurfaced in her mind. "Shockwaves at different frequencies caused different materials to resonate, creating all this?"

"Exactly."

Old Wang narrowed his eyes. "You need training to control this ability. The more precise your control, the stronger your power."

Skye understood.

Every wave had a frequency, and the differences between them could be enormous.

If she could precisely control shockwaves of any frequency, she could make a person’s heart explode instantly from hundreds or even thousands of meters away, collapse a bridge, or reduce a building to rubble in an instant.

She could even accelerate someone’s heartbeat beyond what they could endure—or stop their heart altogether.

A butterfly in the tropical rainforest of the Amazon River basin in South America could occasionally flap its wings a few times and cause a tornado in Texas, United States, two weeks later. This was the famous "butterfly effect."

If she could precisely control every vibration and layer crests and troughs over one another, how terrifying would the resulting power become?

Could she melt Antarctica’s eternal glaciers?

Could she unleash unprecedented tides that swept across all of North America?

Could she sink Oceania in earthquakes and bring Atlantis back into the world through earthquakes?

Could she trigger eruptions at Yellowstone Park and Mount Fuji, crash the Pacific Plate into the Eurasian Plate, kill every animal, pulverize every plant, and make the Earth…

Explode like popcorn?

"This is your future. A wonderful future."

Old Wang spoke softly. "I said I would give you power no weaker than Ghost Rider’s. This is the first step."

Ghost Rider’s potential was unimaginable. At his peak, he was absolutely among the top tier of Super Heroes. In the comics, he had even achieved the astonishing feat of defeating Doctor Strange.

Quake seemed to be somewhat weaker.

As a "kung fu master" who had cultivated True Qi, her physical condition was far superior to what it had been in the television series.

Generating shockwaves would cause a certain degree of damage to her body, and this was the greatest limitation on her ability. The Skye from the television series did not even possess the power to destroy a single building.

But things were different now.

Her sufficiently powerful physique had allowed her to destroy more than half the underground city the moment her ability awakened.

With enough training, she might be able to destroy S.H.I.E.L.D. Triskelion Headquarters within seconds.

And as her physique continued to improve, the upper limit of her strength would grow higher and higher.

If she became as strong as Hulk, perhaps the shockwaves she generated really could…

Destroy the Earth?

If she could withstand the scorching heat on the Sun’s surface, she might even be able to destroy the Sun, prematurely ending the life of the still-young star and turning it into a red giant that devoured the Earth.

"I seem to be… very dangerous?" Skye suddenly panicked a little.

She could sense the existence of this ability, but it was controlled by her thoughts and influenced by her emotions. It changed with her mood, and whenever she became agitated, it was difficult to control.

If that was the case…

Could one careless mistake cause a disaster comparable to the Tunguska Explosion?

Could she hurt Wang?

"Don’t worry. With your current physical condition, you can’t sustain overly powerful shockwaves. Besides… before you master this ability, I’ll have Fitz make you some support equipment. It’ll help you generate shockwaves more effectively and precisely, and it can also suppress them when you’re unconscious."

Old Wang raised his left hand and placed it on Skye’s shoulder. "Most importantly, you have me."

A large amount of True Qi surged from his body and began vibrating at a certain frequency, doing its best to overlap its crests with Skye’s troughs.

There was more than one martial art related to sound waves in wuxia novels. Lion’s Roar could instantly shake dozens or even hundreds of people to death. That was also an effect of True Qi, and Old Wang was an expert in this area.

It wasn’t only women who could make waves.

Men could too.

You come and I go, you rise and I fall, you advance and I retreat, you retreat and I advance—this was not merely battlefield strategy, but also an art between men and women.

Old Wang was deeply versed in this art.

In this respect, he was a great artist.

As long as he was by Skye’s side, he could make every shockwave vanish soundlessly before it layered and amplified to a certain degree.

This was called "taming."

So the animals stopped panicking, the leaves stopped swaying, the fish stopped leaping, and the birds stopped falling.

The entire world returned to calm.

"I’ve already instructed Fitz to design a pair of bracers and a high-tech suit for you."

Old Wang said softly, "Before then, perhaps we should enjoy some wonderful time alone together."

"But aren’t you afraid that S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra will discover that we’re gone and suspect we’re connected to what happened here?" Although Skye was happy, she did not want to ruin the larger plan.

"Egghead isn’t stupid. Neither are Pierce or Whitehall."

Old Wang’s tone was calm. "Of course they’ll know. They should know. They must know."

Skye understood a little, but not entirely.

Right now, she was more concerned about another question. "Wang, do you know where Whitehall is? I want to avenge my parents."

Old Wang rubbed Skye’s head. "Don’t rush. He’ll come to us on his own."

Skye was puzzled.

S.H.I.E.L.D. would definitely be watching this place. Wasn’t Whitehall worried about danger?

"That’s because you don’t know how important the Obelisk is to him."

Old Wang smiled. "He believes the Obelisk possesses the power to explain death itself. He believes it can grant him incomparably powerful strength and… eternal life."

No one could resist the temptation of immortality.

Especially not Whitehall, who had experienced "rejuvenation."

Thanks to Fiery Wine Scorching Lips for the 500 tip, and Crossing the Air for the 100 tip.