Chapter 314

North America, Stark Tower.

"What? Thanos is here?"

Hearing Star-Lord’s words, everyone felt a shock in their hearts. They had heard Star-Lord say before that Cull Obsidian was merely one of Thanos’s four adopted children, and his combat power was actually at the bottom among the four. Now that Thanos had arrived, the other three Dark Order commanders had certainly come as well.

Then, their true test had arrived. This time, whether they could protect Earth was really hard to say.

"It’s a pity Jean is already dead!" someone sighed. The combat power Jean displayed during her last battle against Cull Obsidian was striking, practically as if she were cheating, but unfortunately she ended up dying at the hands of Xiao Hen.

"Where is the person who killed Jean? He should still be on Earth, right?" someone asked.

"His name is Xiao Hen. I don’t know if he’s on Earth, but I once met him in the Milky Way Galaxy, and the Power Stone was also in his hands!" Star-Lord said. "This time Thanos’s goal is the Infinity Stones. From what you’ve said, the Mind Stone should also be in his hands, so he will definitely have a battle with Thanos!"

"Because Thanos also has two Infinity Stones in his hands!"

"If they want to gather all the Infinity Stones, a battle between the two of them is inevitable!"

As for Thanos’s arrival, Xiao Hen was truly the first person to know. His divine sense monitored the movements of the entire Solar System at all times, and the very first moment Thanos’s space battleship arrived, he knew.

"This moment has finally arrived. The Infinity Stones, the Reality Stone and the Soul Stone, plus the Infinity Gauntlet—Thanos, have you prepared for the final battle?" Xiao Hen stood up from his chair, took a single step, and his person had already exited the hotel room where he was staying. The spot where his figure appeared, however, was in the vacuum of space outside Earth, where in the distance a space battleship was flying at high speed.

The moment Xiao Hen appeared in space, the observatories on Earth discovered this anomaly immediately and hurriedly reported it to the United Chief Headquarters, while the news was also transmitted to the superheroes and mutants.

"Is that Xiao Hen?"

"To be able to go alone and appear casually in the cosmic void—his combat power is truly formidable!"

"He’s actually able to survive in the cosmic void. Is he a mutant? What kind of ability is this?"

"Regardless of that, his combat power is definitely very strong. Perhaps he can fend off this time’s enemy?"

"Maybe…"

In the gaze of all Earth’s high-ranking officials and superheroes, Xiao Hen stood single-handedly, blocking the path in space, standing proudly in the cosmic void to bar the way for Thanos and the others heading toward Earth.

Inside Thanos’s spaceship, Proxima Midnight, who was piloting the spacecraft, immediately spotted Xiao Hen suddenly appearing in the cosmic void and reported the situation to Thanos at once.

"Oh? He has appeared?" Thanos opened his eyes with interest and looked at the virtual image. The human figure displayed on the screen was precisely the appearance Xiao Hen had left behind with Thanos before.

"It’s him. Setting the other stones aside, at least the Power Stone and the Mind Stone are on him!" Thanos said with a calm smile. "To encounter such good news right upon arriving on Earth is truly not bad!"

"My lord father naturally ought to gather all the Infinity Stones; this is the favor of the universe’s will," Ebony Maw flattered.

"Father, leave this fellow to me to handle! I will definitely take the Infinity Stones from his corpse and present them to Father!" Corvus Glaive swung the huge battle-axe in his hand, blood-colored light flashing in his eyes as he looked at Xiao Hen in the holographic projection just like looking at a dead man.

"Since it is so, go!" Thanos looked at him calmly, then nodded in agreement. "Use your full strength. This fellow has the guts to collect the Infinity Stones, so he certainly isn’t trash!"

"Rest assured, Father!" Corvus Glaive gave a ruthless smile and then strode away.

The space battleship traveled very fast, arriving at Xiao Hen’s location in less than half a day. The warship decelerated and stopped tens of thousands of kilometers away from Xiao Hen—such a distance, on a cosmic scale, was already very close.

Xiao Hen looked at this space battleship, his expression completely unmoved by it. Such a space battleship had a technological level that was merely the product of a Level 6 Civilization, and moreover it wasn’t a top-tier warship, just an ordinary Level 6 warship. One could imagine that it wasn’t that Thanos couldn’t get anything better, but rather that even the top-tier civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy could only manufacture warships of this degree.

The civilization development level of this Milky Way Galaxy in the Marvel Universe isn’t very high! Xiao Hen shook his head and stopped paying attention to these matters. What he needed to face right now was the overlord-level figure of Marvel: Thanos. No amount of caution could be considered excessive.

Just as he was thinking, a stalwart and tall figure carrying a huge battle-axe flew out from the spaceship to meet Xiao Hen. A desire for battle was unmaskedly present on his face, and the bloodthirsty, fanatical fighting intent in his eyes erupted without concealment, surging straight toward Xiao Hen’s location.

"Who is this? Which Dark Order commander?" Xiao Hen did not recognize Corvus Glaive and thus didn’t know which commander of the Dark Order he was. However, whichever one it was didn’t matter; no matter how strong these commanders’ combat power was, they couldn’t compare to him. Only Thanos was his true, ultimate opponent, while the rest were merely cannon fodder. To him, they weren’t worth paying attention to at all.

"Brat, I am Corvus Glaive of the Dark Order, and I’ve come to take your dog’s life today. If you know what’s good for you, quickly hand over the Infinity Stones, and this general can still leave you with an intact corpse. If not, I will definitely chop you into minced meat and then take the Infinity Stones from your body!" Corvus Glaive sneered with chilling murderous intent.

"Oh, so you are Corvus Glaive? Not bad, your appearance is quite ferocious; I just don’t know how your combat power is!" Xiao Hen nodded and commented.

"You’re facing death yet you’re still stubborn. Since you refuse to see reason, today I’ll let you properly learn how a weakling should speak to the strong!" Corvus Glaive spoke coldly, already holding his giant axe and flying toward Xiao Hen, his entire body emanating a terrifying and formidable aura.

"Well said!" Xiao Hen actually nodded, then continued: "As for how a weakling should speak to the strong, today you should also learn it properly!"

"Didn’t Thanos send you out just to test the waters with me? What kind of thing do you think you are?" Xiao Hen spoke with a blank expression, standing motionless in the void as he waited for Corvus Glaive to attack. Such an attack didn’t amount to much to him; Corvus Glaive was merely sent by Thanos to test him. Since that was the case, he would chop off this probing paw. Weren’t Ebony Maw and Proxima Midnight still behind? If they came as well, he would kill them all. Once he killed them clean, wouldn’t Thanos come out?

"Since you want to test me, then let me show you my power!" From within Xiao Hen’s ordinary, mortal-like figure, an arresting aura suddenly erupted. It was magnificent and grand, causing the entire void to tremble. The massive orbit and rotation of Earth behind him paused and solidified because of it, and all humans on the ground experienced a momentary stagnation of thought. Only top-tier powerants like Charles, Magneto, and Wanda could sense that terrifying-to-the-extreme majesty in the void. As for the others, they didn’t even have the qualification to sense it; their thoughts and bodies had already stagnated, just like the Earth itself.