Shield and Iron Man Under Attack

The Spatial Vortex connecting the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the X-Men Universe was rather special. Its coordinates were fixed on the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s side, but not on the X-Men Universe’s side. Judging from last time, it did not seem to travel too far. Basically, wherever one had in mind was where one would appear after crossing over.

But there were always exceptions. To avoid accidents, Li Congxin felt it would be more reliable to control everything personally.

Thus, under his control, six small spaceships were sent one after another to the vicinity of six key planets in the X-Men Universe. Li Congxin himself entered last, arriving directly at the Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, a place he was relatively familiar with.

Li Congxin’s plan was near-perfect, and his scheme was proceeding with a satisfying snap. Once everything went smoothly, Dormammu would lose more than he gained.

But the problem was, as a Multiversal Level big shot himself, would Dormammu really sit by and watch the plan he had spent years preparing get so easily ruined by the Avengers?

Putting himself in Dormammu’s position, Li Congxin felt that he would definitely do everything possible to stop them.

To be safe, Li Congxin felt it would be better to find some familiar people first and investigate the situation.

However, the moment he entered, Li Congxin’s brows suddenly drew tightly together. In this reality, the Dark Energy drifting through the area was more than ten times denser than when he had come last time!

Clearly, because of the difference in the flow of time between the two worlds, while a week had passed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, much more time had passed in this world—perhaps a year, or even longer. In any case, the buildings destroyed at the school during Jean and Li Qianhuan’s battle had now been restored completely, and judging from their appearance, they had not been renovated just recently.

After releasing his mental power, Li Congxin discovered that the school was completely deserted. He could not even see a single Mutant within a hundred miles of the area.

He tried to extend his mental power farther, only to find helplessly that, in this universe heavily polluted by Dark Energy, his mental power could no longer cover a broader area.

Sure enough, that fellow Dormammu had prepared in advance!

With a thought, Li Congxin’s figure appeared atop this world’s Hokage Rock—or, uh… Mount Rushmore.

Mount Rushmore, also known as America’s Presidential Mountain, had four famous American presidents carved into its rock face. The famous Hokage Rock from one of the three major shonen manga series from Neon Country, Naruto, had been designed with this mountain as a reference.

Before crossing over, Li Congxin had seen pictures online of the back of Presidential Mountain and the like. But it had turned out that they had all been added with Photoshop. In reality, there was nothing behind the four presidential statues.

The reason Li Congxin had come here was simply because this place had absolutely nothing to do with him.

Judging from the current situation, Dormammu had probably already guessed his plan and made some targeted arrangements. The Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, an iconic structure of the X-Men Universe, being completely deserted was the best proof.

There would definitely be traps, but Li Congxin did not want to let the other side carry out its conspiracy too smoothly either. At the very least, he needed to find a place the other side would never expect and direct the whole operation from there.

Neither New York, where the Avengers Base was located, nor Los Angeles, where his villa stood, met that standard. He could only find somewhere that had nothing to do with him.

Li Congxin stood atop the First Hokage’s head, but none of the tourists below could see him. He reached up and pressed the button on the communicator by his ear, then asked into it, "The situation is a little bad. Dormammu has probably made preparations in advance. Everyone, be extra careful. How are things on your end?"

Daisy: "Everything’s going smoothly! I’ve landed safely on Morag and am calculating where to place the ‘Keystone’ and the Heaven Punishing Sword."

Daisy was leading the first team, whose members included War Machine, Nebula, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Drax, and Mantis. As Li Congxin had expected, this group was unlikely to encounter any problems, so its members were not especially powerful. On the timeline where he had never appeared, even if they all attacked together, they would at most be evenly matched with Thanos wielding a paddle-like greatsword.

Thor: "I’ve returned to Asgard as well. I have to say, this place is truly awful—absolutely awful! The Asgard of this world is actually so desolate! Still, calculating where to place the ‘Keystone’ and the Sky Slaying Sword is easy enough. The best location in Asgard is where the Golden Palace used to stand. I know its exact position."

Thor’s team was fairly standard. There were only three people: Thor, Beta Ray Bill, and Captain Marvel. If this group encountered Thanos without the Infinity Gauntlet, tearing him into pieces would not be a problem.

Hulk: "Everything’s going smoothly! Qianhuan and I are currently in Svartalfheim, calculating the location."

Doctor Hulk’s team had even fewer members, consisting only of Doctor Hulk and Li Qianhuan. Doctor Hulk was responsible for calculating the location, placing the Keystone, and piloting the ship… Li Qianhuan was responsible for handling every unexpected situation. If this group encountered Thanos, Li Qianhuan alone could beat him senseless.

Natasha: "Everything’s going smoothly! We’ve arrived on Planet Vormir. This place is really oppressive and gives people a very bad feeling. But Mr. Reed has already calculated the optimal location, so we’re preparing to place the ‘Keystone’ now. That’s all…"

Actually, Li Congxin had been quite conflicted when arranging this group. He always felt that sending Black Widow near Planet Vormir was somewhat dangerous. Moreover, this team was the weakest of all the groups. It consisted only of Natasha, Hawkeye, and the Fantastic Four, who had brought along their own supplies to help.

The ultimate reason for this arrangement was still his consideration of the vague and ethereal factor of luck.

To be honest, Black Widow’s luck was not very good. So Li Congxin had arranged a group of people with explosively good luck as her teammates, to increase her chances of survival. After all, in theory, this operation would not be very dangerous, and when facing unexpected situations, luck was often even more important than strength.

Hawkeye’s luck went without saying. He was the Avengers’ mascot.

He was in Avengers 1, and they won; he was in Avengers 2, and they won; he was absent from Avengers 3, and they lost; he rejoined the team in Avengers 4, and they won again…

As for the Fantastic Four, their luck was even better—so good there was nothing to say.

Everyone said Little Spider was Marvel’s biological son, but in Li Congxin’s eyes, Mister Fantastic was Marvel’s true biological son. Almost every good thing took the initiative to stick to them. Not only did he possess the greatest brain, but his son was also a savior-level existence. His daughter was supposedly a top student too? In any case, there was no doubt they had five-star luck.

Mister Fantastic and The Thing playing Angry Birds together had beaten Galactus flat. Could you believe that?

In the Marvel world, superheroes could roughly be divided into three major groups.

X-Men: They had to clean up the mess caused by other Mutants, and then they were targeted by humans in every possible way. They were the most miserable group.

Avengers: They enjoyed the glory when they earned credit, but were also held responsible when they caused trouble. They were the more realistic group.

Fantastic Four: They cleaned up the messes they caused themselves after inflicting considerable casualties and property damage, and then people treated them as heroes…

That was the difference—a painfully sharp difference!

With the heaven-defying luck of this group of superpowered cheaters, bringing Black Widow along should not be a problem.

Actually, Li Congxin was not very worried about the four groups mentioned above. Putting himself in Dormammu’s position, he would not make those four teams his main targets either. The ones that truly needed attention were the final two teams!

The one Li Congxin was most worried about was Captain America’s team.

Because during Li Congxin’s previous inspection of the X-Men Universe, he had not discovered the existence of any extraterrestrial civilizations. Earth’s technology was not yet advanced enough for people to enter space, so theoretically, the chances of encountering trouble were very low.

Captain America’s team, however, was carrying out its mission on Earth’s Himalayas! They had to find a suitable place there to place the "Keystone" and the Sky-Shattering Sword inlaid with the Time Stone!

The most dangerous beings in this universe were the Mutants, and the Mutants were gathered on Earth. That was why Li Congxin had assigned the most people to Captain America’s team.

Besides Captain America himself, there were Falcon, Doctor Strange, Fatty Wang, Mindy, Wanda, Quicksilver, Shuri, T’Challa, Scott, and Hope—a full twelve people!

And things indeed turned out just as Li Congxin had previously guessed. After the first four groups had reported their safety one after another, Captain America’s solemn voice came through the communicator as well. "Clark, it seems we’ve run into some trouble."

"Old people really do have bad luck. I told you before that everyone should take a bath before setting out." Before Li Congxin could answer, Tony’s mocking voice came through the receiver. But this was purely out of habit; he was not actually gloating.

After his habitual jab, Tony immediately added, "The work on my end is almost finished. Once I’m done here, I’ll head back to support you… Wait, am I seeing things? Shit! Boom!"

The communication was cut off. Sure enough, something had gone wrong on Tony’s end too!

Tony was leading the final team. Its members were Star-Lord, Gamora, Xing Hua, Tony, Little Pepper, Ava, Eris, and Little Spider—a total of nine people, men and women, young and old. Their mission was to place the "Keystone" in the Dark Dimension and the Sky Breaking Sword inlaid with the Mind Stone.

The first four swords had all been forged by Li Congxin himself with rare materials and were not irreplaceable. Even if they were destroyed, he could simply forge another.

But the final two swords were powered by Infinity Stones. Once they were destroyed or seized, not only would Li Congxin’s plan be ruined, his own path might even be severed because of it.

And Dormammu had not disappointed him. Sure enough, something had gone wrong on both sides at the same time!

The question now facing Li Congxin was: which side should he reinforce first?