Farewell to the Living Tribunal

As the music began, a coordinate immediately surfaced in Li Congxin’s mind. It was the exact location of the Living Tribunal.

The other party was extremely far away from Li Congxin. The straight-line distance between them was definitely greater than the distance spanning an entire Singular Universe.

If it were anyone else, even with the Space Stone, making a long-distance teleportation through Hyperdimensional Space would be no easy feat.

However, Li Congxin had already fused with the stone. As the God of Vengeance who had completely mastered its power, his authority over space far surpassed that of any multiversal big shot. This distance posed no challenge to him.

There was nothing more to say. He activated his spatial ability directly, and with a single teleport, arrived before the Living Tribunal.

The space around the Living Tribunal was completely empty. There were no streams of Cosmic Energy, nor any celestial bodies or buildings.

The only thing that could barely be considered an object was perhaps the enormous chair beneath the Living Tribunal’s backside?

But the less there was, the more pressure it gave people.

After all, awe and such feelings were often produced naturally only when people faced the unknown.

Once you knew something inside and out, would you still feel that it was beyond your reach?

Of course not!

When the Living Tribunal arranged his residence, he naturally would not consider how to make others feel awe. Yet he had still done so instinctively.

Was this what they called a realm?

"Impudent!" Just as Li Congxin appeared via teleportation and began sizing up his surroundings, the Lord of Order, located on one side of the Living Tribunal’s head, immediately berated him. "Is the Hall of Life somewhere you can barge into?"

The Lord of Chaos beside him chuckled. "A little fellow who dares to break established rules. Interesting!"

"Ahem!" The Living Tribunal gave a light cough, and the two enormous heads immediately fell silent. He then turned to Li Congxin and asked, "Vengeance, what brings you here?"

Li Congxin waved his hand, and a large quantity of mooncakes, fruits, and melons appeared before him. "Today is our Earth’s Mid-Autumn Festival. I came especially to give you a gift."

Of course, he had not come here to give a gift. He had come to ask the other party for help. Because of an indescribable traditional virtue from his memories, Li Congxin felt that he should show some sincerity. After all, one could never go wrong with giving too many gifts.

As for why he had brought these worthless things as gifts?

Li Congxin felt that, at the Living Tribunal’s level, there was nothing he could possibly lack. Giving him money, artifacts, or anything like that would simply be insulting. Although Li Congxin himself would not refuse that kind of insult, the Living Tribunal was on a much higher level, and his outlook was surely different.

Compared with those things, these more human gifts would be better.

It definitely wasn’t because he was reluctant to part with anything good. Absolutely not!

However, the Living Tribunal was completely unmoved by Li Congxin’s small gesture. He waved his hand, and everything Li Congxin had just conjured vanished. From what Li Congxin sensed, those things had returned to his personal space.

His attitude was perfectly clear: the Living Tribunal did not accept gifts!

Continuing to gaze at Li Congxin, the Living Tribunal calmly said, "Get to the point. What is it?"

Li Congxin shrugged. He had already shown his intentions, and whether the other party accepted them was no longer his concern. After organizing his thoughts, he went straight to the point. "Here’s what happened. Dormammu…"

Li Congxin had only just begun when the Living Tribunal said, "This matter falls within the scope of the universe’s natural laws. It has not damaged the balance of the universe, so I will not intervene."

Unwilling to give up, Li Congxin continued asking, "What if you just tell me where that Kaecilius went?"

"No."

The Living Tribunal’s answer was firm and absolute, leaving no room for negotiation.

Meanwhile, the BGM continued…

"Give a salute, shake my hand. You’re my good friend…"

As the music played, Li Congxin was considering how to persuade the other party to help him, when the Living Tribunal suddenly waved his hand. The next moment, Li Congxin had already appeared on the rooftop of his own villa.

At the same time, the Living Tribunal’s voice once again rang out in his mind. "Goodbye!"

Li Congxin helplessly rubbed his nose and wondered whether he had just been driven out by the Living Tribunal.

Although Li Congxin was somewhat annoyed that the Living Tribunal refused to help, he could not really say he was disappointed. He had never placed much hope in this fellow to begin with. The other party refusing him was only natural; agreeing to help would have been the abnormal reaction.

Still, he had come here. What if the other party happened to act abnormally?

Given the Living Tribunal’s duties, he basically belonged to the type who never meddled in minor matters, yet might not necessarily be able to manage major ones. Apart from occasionally showing his face to prove he existed, he had little practical value.

In the comics, he could deal with Thanos wielding the Infinity Gauntlet, but did not want to. He wanted to deal with Thanos wielding the Heart of the Universe, but was killed by Thanos instead.

Looking across all the major and minor events in the Marvel Universe, there had never been a single crisis resolved through his intervention. He had not even provided truly crucial assistance.

It was clear that the Living Tribunal had already given him considerable face for the sake of this "Vengeance."

But obviously, his face was not enough to make the other party intervene in matters outside the rules. Not even revealing a little information was allowed.

It seemed that the troubles on Earth still had to be resolved by him personally. As the saying went, it was better to rely on oneself than to ask others for help!

With that thought in mind, Li Congxin turned and walked toward the rooftop.

He decided to get a good night’s sleep.

Although, with his current strength, neither his body nor his mind needed sleep to recover, he still decided to sleep.

This sleep did not come from any physiological or psychological need. He simply wanted to sleep.

Over the next period of time, Li Congxin wandered all over the world and even throughout the universe. It was not because he was bored and wanted to clear his head, but because he wanted to see whether he could find an opportunity to activate the next stage of the Bonfire Assignment.

It was not that he was lazy and unwilling to use the more reliable method of taking out the Soul Stone and comprehending it directly.

In fact, after becoming the God of Vengeance, he had already established a connection and bridge with the six Infinity Stones. As long as he obtained the stones and comprehended them step by step, he was confident that he could advance further within ten years, even without the support of Moving Heaven’s BGM, and completely fuse the Soul Stone into a part of his body.

However, two portions of the Phoenix Force and a Kaecilius were hiding in the shadows, plotting to cause trouble.

Besides them, Star-Lord’s father, Ego, was also preparing to devour a large number of planets in the universe at any time, including Earth.

Those fellows would not wait until his strength broke through again before emerging to cause trouble. The hidden dangers might erupt at any moment.

Given Li Congxin’s personality, his first choice for dealing with problems was naturally to act proactively. The problem was that he could not find the Phoenix Force, Kaecilius, or even the location of Ego’s planet. The first two went without saying. Ego’s planet was also an extremely secretive place in the universe and did not appear on the Star Chart of any power in the universe.

Li Congxin had specifically asked Yondu about it. Even he did not know the planet’s exact location. Back then, when he and Ego had agreed on the location for trading Star-Lord, it had merely been a famous black market somewhere in the universe.

Since he could not find the enemy, he could only work hard to improve himself and respond to change with constancy.

This approach was actually quite similar to Tony’s. The only difference was that Tony researched armor while Li Congxin improved himself.

However, the Bonfire Assignment’s randomness was simply too great.

Without knowing its exact activation conditions, he could only wander aimlessly throughout the universe and hope to stumble upon good luck. As a result, after nearly a year, Li Congxin had donned plain clothes, carried a wooden sword, disguised himself as a novice, and challenged the experts of the universe’s three great empires and all the other major powers. He had thoroughly enjoyed all kinds of pretending to be weak before crushing the strong and humiliating arrogant opponents, yet he had accomplished nothing of importance.

He had not found any of the three enemies he was looking for, nor had he gained the slightest clue about triggering the Bonfire Assignment.

Aside from giving him a more direct understanding of the Marvel world’s culture, structure, and power system, it had provided no tangible assistance.

K’tharr was a neutral planet caught in the middle of four-way conflict. Now, however, it had become a battlefield between the Kree Empire and the Shi’ar Empire. Cannon fire flew everywhere, and nine out of ten homes stood empty!

Being chosen as a battlefield by two cosmic giants, the residents of this planet could only say that they had suffered spectacularly bad luck.

If something like this had happened on Earth, Li Congxin would have long since had a heart-to-heart with the Shi’ar royal family and the Kree’s Supreme Intelligence.

However, for a planet that had nothing whatsoever to do with him, he would generally activate a slight invisibility mode and silently observe from the sidelines. At first, he would occasionally intervene when the mood struck him, playing the hero and helping the weak.

But after seeing too much, he no longer had the inclination.

"Grandpa, that bastard’s calling again!"

Suddenly, the phone on Li Congxin rang. After pulling it out and glancing at the screen, he immediately blocked out the sounds of the outside world and softly asked into the receiver, "Is that Tony? What’s up?"

Tony’s voice immediately came through the receiver. "Clark, where are you?"

"At the border between the Kree Empire and the Shi’ar Empire, at one of their battlefields."

Tony’s voice was clearly tinged with surprise. "You joined the battle?"

Li Congxin shook his head. "I’m watching."

Received Impression Points from Tony Stark +66666!

As an advocate of order, Tony truly could not understand Li Congxin’s perverse enjoyment of watching others fight. After two seconds of silence, he quickly got to the main point. "Clark, have you ever heard of vampires?"

Why did that line sound so familiar?

Li Congxin slightly furrowed his brows. The next moment, his figure vanished from the war-torn planet and appeared in Tony’s laboratory at Avengers Base.

Tony, Old Pi, Banner, and a group of other scientists were gathered around a corpse, discussing something. Li Congxin quietly walked in and said with slight surprise, "It’s this guy again."