Salvation

Alex did not give Adam another chance to speak. He eagerly pleaded, "Adam, can you send me back to Earth?"

"Earth?" Adam froze when he heard that. A trace of reminiscence flashed across his face before vanishing in an instant. With a soft sigh, he regained his calm. "Yes, but before that, I need you to help me with something!"

"What?" Alex looked miserably at Adam, his tone far from pleasant, yet his head nodded immediately, completely beyond his control.

Seeing Alex’s rather comical reaction, Adam could not help but chuckle. "Thanos used the Soul Stone to control too many people. I need your Mind Power to free them."

"What do you need me to do?" Alex did not want to waste even a moment. He impatiently asked, as though he wanted to finish Adam’s task at once.

Seeing Alex’s anxiety, Adam did not deliberately delay things. He slowly raised his hand, and the Soul Stone that had just entered his forehead slowly floated back out.

"What is this?" Alex furrowed his brow slightly and stared at the Soul Stone in Adam’s hand in surprise. Then he looked up at Adam, his eyes filled with confusion. The Soul Stone was still the same Soul Stone, but it was somehow different from before. It now carried an inexplicable aura of brutality, like a trapped killer filled with madness.

Adam’s expression became somewhat troubled. With a long sigh, he slowly said, "Because Thanos gathered souls so frantically, a self-awareness was born within the Soul Stone. Before, with my will present, this self-awareness could remain benevolent. But I never expected that when my consciousness awakened and broke free, it would also lose control and become like this."

Alex cried out in shock. He had never known that the soul within the Soul Stone had come into being this way.

"But there’s no need to worry. With me here, nothing will happen!" Adam mistook Alex’s cry for concern and hurriedly explained, his tone full of confidence.

Alex merely shrugged, unconcerned. He did not care about that soul in the slightest.

"All the souls controlled by Thanos are inside this Soul Stone. Before releasing them, you first need to restrain this newly born self-awareness." As he got to the point, Adam’s expression turned exceptionally grave, and his tone became deadly serious.

Alex had encountered that self-awareness before. After hesitating for a long while, he said uncertainly, "That consciousness is very powerful. I’m afraid I won’t be able to suppress it." After all, even Thanos had fallen to that self-awareness. Alex truly had no absolute confidence.

"Don’t worry. Without my will, its strength has been weakened by at least seventy percent." Adam replied casually, though the pride on his face was impossible to conceal.

Alex glanced sideways at Adam, pondered for a moment, then nodded. "What happens after I suppress it?"

Through Alex’s research into the mind and soul, he knew that the self-awareness born within the Soul Stone had actually been stimulated by the fusion of countless minds. Simply put, the souls controlled by Thanos within the Soul Stone were inextricably connected to that self-awareness. Separating them would not be easy.

"Suppress it, then control it, and release those souls."

"You make it sound so easy. Is it really that simple?!" Alex could not help rolling his eyes as he looked at Adam irritably.

Adam chuckled and handed the Soul Stone to Alex. With a confident expression, he said, "With the Soul Stone and my help, we can definitely do it!"

Alex took the Soul Stone instinctively. He raised his head and stared at Adam for a moment before nodding in agreement. Even then, he did not forget to remind him, "Remember, when this is over, you must send me back to Earth!"

"Don’t worry. Once this is done, I’ll send you back to Earth immediately!" Before Alex could say anything else, Adam grabbed his shoulder. In a flash, the two vanished from Xandar and instantly appeared in the starfield Thanos had turned into a Dead Zone.

Alex glanced around without saying much, then lowered his head to look at the Soul Stone in his palm. He took a deep breath, and his Mind Power immediately enveloped the Soul Stone.

As Alex’s Mind Power penetrated deeper, the Soul Stone’s emerald glow grew increasingly brilliant. Its violent aura also intensified, even showing faint signs of breaking free from the Soul Stone.

Alex had expected the self-awareness within the Soul Stone to be powerful, but he had not expected it to be this powerful. Even with his current Mind Power, he was beginning to struggle.

Fortunately, Adam acted at that moment.

With Adam’s intervention, the Soul Stone’s radiance instantly dimmed. That self-awareness seemed to have had its marrow drained away, immediately weakening until it could not offer the slightest resistance against Alex’s Mind Power.

"Good, act now!" Adam’s expression was incomparably solemn, and his tone was extremely urgent. "There isn’t much time. I can’t hold on for long!"

"Okay!" With that response, Alex poured his Mind Power into the Soul Stone like a flood, suppressing the self-awareness until it could not move in the span of a breath.

The rest was simple. The self-awareness, utterly unable to resist, was easily brought under Alex’s control. Yet just as Alex prepared to release the souls within the Soul Stone, he suddenly froze.

Noticing Alex’s abnormal reaction, Adam asked anxiously, "What’s wrong?"

"Where are these souls supposed to be released?" Alex had never considered that question before. Only now did he suddenly realize he had forgotten such a crucial issue.

"You don’t need to worry about that. Once they break free from the Soul Stone’s restraints, they’ll return on their own." Adam looked at the serious-faced Alex with a helpless smile, nodded, and explained, "Don’t worry. Nothing will happen!"

Hearing that, Alex let go of his concerns and immediately began.

As Alex moved, the Soul Stone, which had just dimmed, erupted with dazzling radiance once more, brighter and more blinding than ever before.

Within the glaring light, countless faint spirit forms surged out of the Soul Stone like a school of fish crossing a river. They rapidly spread throughout the universe, gradually vanishing into countless planets.

The opening had already been made. Alex only needed to maintain it, so it did not require much effort.

Looking at the spirit forms filling the starry sky, Alex felt his scalp go numb. Thanos’s madness made his heart tremble with fear. Still shaken, Alex turned to Adam and asked worriedly, "Will these souls be all right?" After suffering such torment, they would likely never forget it for the rest of their lives.

"Life is forgetful. No one will remember any of this." Adam sighed softly, a faint sense of desolation appearing on his face.

But Adam did not know that there was someone who remembered everything, though he was still only a child.