Contract

Solomon was somewhat surprised. Earlier, he had found Mercenary Tao in Norway and entered into a contract with him.

He had invited Mercenary Tao to set aside their infighting and join forces to reap the entire world.

He wanted the abilities of every member of the Far East Magic Society, while also demanding that Mercenary Tao stop obstructing his plan to obtain the Darkhold.

In return, Solomon would begin a slaughter in New York, massacring vast numbers of living beings and causing the power of flesh and blood to run rampant, allowing Mercenary Tao to activate the Flesh Furnace and recover from his injuries.

Moreover, until the contract was fulfilled, neither of them could attack the other.

This was the contract’s most crucial provision. Solomon had adhered to it with utmost seriousness. Even though he had a contingency that could destroy the contract at any time, his spiritual intuition kept him from rashly tearing up the agreement and attacking Mercenary Tao.

At this moment, it seemed that the wariness lurking in the unseen had received an answer.

Mercenary Tao truly was not dead, and by some means, had recovered to his peak condition!

The red coat on Wanda’s body had already transformed into a scarlet robe. As Chaos Magic ran rampant, her urge to destroy continued to spread.

In truth, Wanda could no longer be considered a qualified hero. When fighting Solomon, she had no regard whatsoever for ordinary people.

She merely wanted to wipe out these outsiders who harbored ill intent toward herself and Vision.

Only Captain Marvel, enveloped in blazing light, had rushed back at full speed after receiving the emergency call. Yet New York was already devastated beyond recognition, as though Nick Fury’s Avengers had lost their ability to defend Earth.

Descending from beyond Earth with terrifying energy in tow, she blasted the bizarre angel hanging upside down above New York out of the sky. Now, she frowned as she looked at everyone present.

To her senses, it was difficult to say which of these people could be called a "good person."

The Witch brimming with sinister magical power, the half-black, half-white angel whose body had nearly become energy itself, and the Asian man who had appeared last—seemingly the most unremarkable of them all, yet whose mere arrival had changed the atmosphere.

Whoosh.

Bai Cangshu flashed and arrived before Solomon. At this point, hardly any flesh could be seen on Solomon’s body. A half-black, half-white sheen enveloped him, while his Heterochromatic Eyes appeared somewhat dim.

Yet the life level Solomon radiated at this moment was extraordinarily high. In Bai Cangshu’s perception, though it was still far from comparable to Crimson Pope Lawrence of the D45 World—the Life Furnace—

It had already far surpassed the level of a Second Generation Dragon King.

As though he could not see Wanda or Captain Marvel, Bai Cangshu crouched before Solomon.

"Solomon, it looks like you obtained quite an extraordinary ladder. And these eyes…"

Bai Cangshu extended a hand, his fingers nearly touching Solomon’s Heterochromatic Eyes themselves. Even so, Solomon still did not attack.

Bai Cangshu’s fingers froze. The smile at the corner of his mouth finally spread fully across his face, and then he clapped his hands and laughed loudly.

"Truly remarkable, Solomon. How did you do it?"

"Even with such a trump card, even when I had weakened to that extent, why didn’t you still attack me…"

"Are these eyes really that miraculous?"

Because of the contract, Bai Cangshu ultimately could not attack Solomon.

It made Bai Cangshu feel as though he had discovered another uncut gem, and he acknowledged Solomon’s value.

This fellow clearly had a contingency capable of destroying the contract, yet whether he had seen through Bai Cangshu’s trump card or had simply been that lucky—

Until Bai Cangshu recovered, Solomon had not torn up the contract.

Captain Marvel descended from the sky, while Wanda walked toward Bai Cangshu step by step, raising both hands as Chaos Magic lit up once more.

"Stop, wait, Wanda!"

Tony Stark’s voice came from within his armor. He had discovered that even his flight speed could not keep up with Mercenary Tao’s physical movement speed.

The other party truly was the monster who had killed Odin, the absolute core of that trio.

Tony Stark descended from the sky and looked at the miserable scene all around him. The death toll today was already impossible to estimate. The Avengers had undoubtedly suffered a crushing defeat.

But before that, there was one thing he needed to confirm.

"Mercenary Tao, didn’t you say you would stand with humanity?"

Tony Stark asked tentatively. Wanda’s condition was clearly problematic, and the blonde woman’s origins were unknown. At this moment, he felt that if he could secure this powerful human’s genuine support—

Whether for the current situation or the future, it would be an exceedingly rare boon.

Tony Stark found it hard to imagine that such a thought would come from him.

Bai Cangshu turned his head halfway, his eyes seeming to shift to the back of their sockets.

"Of course, Tony. I’m already standing with humanity. After all… I chose not to slaughter, didn’t I?"

Bai Cangshu was not lying. He had not prioritized the Life Furnace plan. Though the greater reason was that he felt the plan’s results were not good enough, objectively speaking, he truly had not directly used Origin Substance to complete the Life Ladder and activate the Life Furnace.

Had he done so, everyone in New York would likely have died beneath the power of himself and Solomon.

After all, at this very moment, hundreds of thousands of yin spirits were entrenched throughout every corner of the city.

As he spoke, Wanda could no longer endure it. With a wave of one hand, she sent Iron Man flying with an immense force. Though he was not injured, her will had become unstoppable.

Bai Cangshu turned around, looked at Wanda’s gloomy expression, and smiled.

"Wanda, although I deliberately guided you into becoming what you are now, there was no falsehood in my words."

"Aren’t you curious why all of this happened to you?"

Bai Cangshu raised one finger and pointed at the sky.

"There is a will, a force, guiding everything in this direction…"

Wanda no longer wished to listen to this artificial monster’s bewitching words. She suddenly brought both hands down toward Bai Cangshu as though clapping.

Bzzzz!

The world seemed to turn black and white in an instant. Countless pitch-black lines fell from the sky. Wanda’s expression changed as well, while Captain Marvel clutched her chest. A phantom figure slowly condensed before Bai Cangshu.

This figure’s face was entirely black. Looking closely, one would discover it was covered in countless tiny patterns and wrinkles, etched upon it.

It held a katana horizontally before itself, and terrifying Spiritual Pressure erupted without restraint.

Tony Stark, who had been blasted away moments earlier, and War Machine Rhodey, who had flown over to support him, both saw darkness before their eyes and could barely breathe.

Before Black Face, a translucent blue-white barrier condensed. Chaos Magic collided violently against it.

Black Face gripped the katana with its other hand and slowly drew it.

Bai Cangshu rose from before Solomon, his back to him.

"Solomon, I’ll leave this place to you. Heh, you need to survive—with those eyes."