Fury Must Die!

Old Wang had no idea what Fitz had understood. Otherwise, he would have scolded him on the spot and given him a lesson in mental health.

At such a young age, he had already been corrupted by society. How could that be okay?

Since he was a scientist, his thoughts ought to be a little purer. Even if he did not care about technological development or humanity’s progress, he should at least care about grain and vegetables. He should watch fewer educational films from island nations and fewer research novels from his homeland about racial reproduction.

No matter how beautiful Jia Ying was, Old Wang would not entertain improper thoughts about her. He had long since risen above such lowbrow interests and begun pursuing loftier things.

Compared to physical pleasure, he cared more about spiritual cultivation. That was thanks to the spiritual communion he had shared with "Green Dragon Queen Ysera" in the Emerald Dream… Besides, Jia Ying was not his type—

She was too bewitching, a seductress with a face like a flower beaded with dew, her jade-like form glowing with light…

Ahem.

Old Wang was very pure. He genuinely thought Jia Ying was highly suited to becoming a Monk, perhaps even more suited than he was. He meant well.

Afterlife was small, and there were few Inhumans, but it was still a society, with its own intrigues and power struggles. Jia Ying and the Council of Elders had limited authority and limited methods. To forge the Inhumans into a single united force, they needed not only sufficiently firm leadership, but sufficiently forceful means.

Jia Ying possessed the former, but was far too lacking in the latter.

Old Wang certainly would not give up this living force of Inhumans.

What he wanted was a powerful Inhuman army, not a fading people divided at heart.

As their leader, Jia Ying had to become strong enough.

Old Wang decided to first help Jia Ying build a solid foundation, quickly converting the enormous amount of life force within her body into True Qi. Once she became a kung fu master and tasted its benefits, she would surely become addicted.

Once she experienced the power and confidence True Qi brought her, she would never give it up.

Compared to Skye, Daredevil, and even Stick, Jia Ying’s cultivation speed in True Qi was clearly much faster. Of course, that was mainly because Old Wang was far wealthier than before and could exchange for large quantities of Well of Eternity Water essence without sparing the expense.

A vast amount of life force filled every inch of Jia Ying’s skin and every one of her cells, reaching saturation. Quantitative change produced qualitative change, and the first wisp of True Qi finally appeared.

Everything was difficult at the start. Once there was a first time, there would be countless more, each one more comfortable and pleasurable than the last.

Old Wang personally guided her, helping Jia Ying complete ten full Grand Circulations before finally stopping and wiping away a cold sweat.

Practice made perfect.

A complete Grand Circulation had already formed, and repeated cycles had imprinted it with memory and inertia. Even without Old Wang’s help, it would operate on its own, continuously converting the life energy in her body into True Qi.

Mature True Qi naturally had to learn to circulate by itself.

Her True Qi was growing even faster than Old Wang’s had in his previous life.

"One year to master, three years to grandmaster, five years to surpass Old Chen, ten years to catch up with Shaohao?" Old Wang stroked his chin.

It was a bit exaggerated, but not impossible.

As long as he was ruthless enough.

As long as he was willing to spend enough.

The first step was complete. All he had to do now was wait for Jia Ying to wake up. Once she had tasted the benefits of True Qi, she would naturally come running to find him, and he would not be able to drive her away even if he tried.

Earth’s Inhumans were not the lunar Inhumans. They were ultimately only a minor problem, and Old Wang did not want to waste too much energy on them.

He had other things to do.

Because the modifications had to be kept secret, they could not be done on an assembly line. The three Quinjets could not be modified simultaneously and had to be handled one at a time.

The first had been modified long ago, primarily emphasizing reconnaissance capabilities and stealth measures. It had been given to the Winter Soldier, who flew it to Greenland to search for Captain America.

The second was a transport aircraft, so its modifications naturally focused on transport capacity. Its interior space had long been fixed and could not be expanded for the time being, so the main emphasis was on improving speed and safety.

Tony personally designed it, installing the newest engines and using a medium Arc Reactor for power. Though it was less maneuverable than Mark 6, it was actually faster, barely reaching Mach 10 and even surpassing every active fighter jet in the world.

Most missiles could not catch it. Combined with its visual cloaking device and radar-absorbing coating, it could evade every type of radar scan in the world, naturally guaranteeing its safety.

In Tony’s words, even if this transport plane flew over the White House and dropped a lump of bird droppings on the president’s head, it would never be detected.

It could move as though no one were there.

It also possessed high-altitude flight capability, with a maximum altitude exceeding one hundred kilometers.

The third was the primary combat aircraft, with a greater focus on combat capability.

Although Stark Industries had shut down its weapons division, it was only no longer selling weapons externally. Tony himself was still constantly designing new weapons, many of which had been installed on this fighter.

This included Jericho Missiles and high-power laser weapons.

The total weight of this fighter’s weapon systems was three times the aircraft’s own weight.

The cost of modifying the three Quinjets was even higher than their original construction cost. Together, the money could have bought several Mark 6 suits. Tony had certainly shown enough sincerity—

Of course, perhaps it was simply because he had too much money and did not care.

The more advanced the aircraft, the simpler it was to operate.

Old Wang specifically called Egghead and borrowed Melinda May to help with training. "Black Sky" Elektra learned quickly and was soon handling it quite competently.

Old Wang expressed his deep gratitude and threw in a small portion of Whitehall’s memories as a bonus.

This earned him Egghead’s full resentment.

"It’s about time."

Old Wang calculated the time. It had been nearly a month since Egghead received Whitehall’s first set of memories.

Over the past month, Egghead had been making plans, reallocating personnel, and employing all sorts of methods, all with secrecy as the highest priority. He absolutely could not alert the enemy—

However, both Egghead and Old Wang knew perfectly well that Hydra was not the sort of snake that would be startled only if the grass was disturbed.

Pierce was S.H.I.E.L.D.’s true master. No disturbance, however slight, could escape his eyes.

On the surface, all was calm, but beneath it, turbulent waves surged.

S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra exerted their strength at the same time, stirring up storms across the entire world.

The war had yet to begin, but victory and defeat had already been decided.

A government building.

Pierce sat behind his desk, listening to Sitwell’s report. He knew very well that the situation was not good.

Over the past month, S.H.I.E.L.D. had undergone many personnel changes and material reallocations. Every single one looked perfectly normal, and no one could spot anything wrong, yet he simply felt that something was off.

That feeling stemmed from the intuition cultivated over his many years in politics.

Just as many scientists turned to theology when science could no longer explain something, Pierce could only trust his intuition when wisdom could not provide an answer.

That intuition had saved his life several times.

Perhaps this time included.

"How is Whitehall doing?" Pierce asked.

"This… I don’t know."

Sitwell wiped away a cold sweat. "Secretary, Whitehall is in the hands of the Immortal Iron Fist, at Azeroth Laboratory. You know that place is forbidden territory for us. Over this past month, we sent seventeen of our most capable agents there one after another. Not a single one returned."

Pierce spun his pen.

What worried him most was Whitehall.

That man knew too many of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s secrets, as well as his true identity. If he opened his mouth, the consequences would be severe.

Unfortunately, if the missile system had not malfunctioned for no apparent reason and caused that missile to explode in San Juan, Whitehall should have died long ago. There would not be so much trouble now.

"We can’t wait any longer."

Pierce frowned. He knew very well that Fury already suspected him and had been investigating him in secret.

Originally, he had not wanted to move against him before Project Insight was complete, because the impact would be too great and could easily cause the project to fail.

But now, it seemed they could not wait any longer.

"Pass down the order."

Pierce gave the order decisively. "Fury must die within three hours!"

Plans could not keep up with changes… A family of neighbors we are fairly close with went to Rizhao—they went at this time of year, and I have no idea what they were thinking—to celebrate my little girl’s birthday. Then the older brother next door’s online female friend treated us to dinner. Since it was their first meeting, he was worried about being scammed, so he insisted on dragging our whole family along. We did not get back to the hotel until after nine. My little girl would not let go of me, and I finally managed to coax her to sleep. Typing on a laptop is exhausting, and I’ve been writing until now… No choice, I owe one update. We’ll return to Xuzhou tomorrow or the day after, and I’ll definitely make it up then.