The Gap Between Us

From the moment he arrived, Old Wang had already spread out his senses, using the State Minister’s death site as the center and extending them in all directions.

After gaining Shou-Lao’s power, his physique had strengthened further. Old Wang was now a humanoid dragon, no longer a humanoid panda.

The stronger the body, the more powerful a mind it could contain.

All this time, Old Wang had been forced to suppress his mind. His powerful soul had been crammed inside a weak body, with most of his mental power dormant. Only a tiny portion, no bigger than a fingernail, had been released, slowly increasing as his body grew stronger.

The mental power Old Wang could now release had already surpassed one percent of his peak. Covering all of Tokyo was effortless, and he quickly found the Super Soldier with an East Asian face.

"Do you want to do it, or should I?" he asked, tilting his head.

"Me, me!" Skye clenched her fists, bursting with excitement.

Since gaining her shockwave abilities, she had only taken part in one battle: the fight against Whitehall outside The Laboratory.

She had only just gained her powers then. Both their strength and her control over them had been far inferior to what they were now.

She truly wanted to know how strong she had become—how long her wavelength was, how great her amplitude was, how high her crests were, how deep her troughs were.

How fast her vibrations were.

"You sure you’re okay?" Old Wang was still a little concerned.

After staying awake without rest for an entire day and night, did she need to rest physically or mentally?

"Wang, I remember you taught me a saying: the ox may die from exhaustion, but the field will never be plowed to ruin." Skye gave him a seductive, enchanting smile.

Skye, you’ve turned bad… A thread of Old Wang’s consciousness entered Skye’s body. The little girl’s mental state was quite excited, and so was her body, like a sponge thirsting for water.

Fine, you’re up! Old Wang smiled.

Against an opponent of this level, he did not need to act personally. He could simply send the Crimson Magic Belt over to bind and discipline him.

He was only a Super Soldier, not Hulk or Thanos, nor was he a powerful spellcaster. There was no way he could break free.

Of course, that would make this meaningless. The main purpose of this operation was training.

To temper Skye, Daredevil and the other two, Winter Soldier and Captain America, and make them stronger.

In different parallel universes, Skye had served as director of S.H.I.E.L.D.; Daredevil and Elektra had been the supreme leaders of The Hand; Stick had originally been the leader of the True Pure Ones Society; Winter Soldier had been Captain America; and Captain America’s charisma and command ability went without saying.

They were all leadership material, capable of standing on their own.

But this was not an ordinary world where leaders strategized from a thousand miles away. This was the Marvel World. Only those strong enough themselves had the right and ability to be good leaders.

The great undertaking was not yet complete. Heroes still had to work hard.

"Follow me."

He opened another portal and arrived in the wilderness.

A bald Chinese man was running through the dense forest.

The truly hidden concealed themselves in the city; the lesser hidden concealed themselves in the woods.

That might have made sense to ancient people who lacked methods of investigation, but in modern society—especially after angering the entire world—it was completely wrong.

Finding somewhere deserted to hide was the real truth.

Relying on Hydra’s advanced equipment, he blocked electromagnetic tracking and easily fled here. At last, he was safe.

An exceptional ace special forces soldier could evade an army’s pursuit in the wild mountains, and he knew very well that he was far stronger than any special forces soldier.

He claimed to have come from Shaolin and was himself a master fighter, vicious and decisive in combat.

After being injected with the Super Soldier Serum, he believed he was no weaker than Captain America back then or Winter Soldier later on—perhaps even stronger.

Now, with the sky vast and the sea wide, he would hide according to the original plan, wait for the heat to die down, then strike again.

Raise my head to the heavens, lower my head to the earth. The world is in my eyes, and everyone lies beneath my fists. But only those truly significant figures are qualified to be my prey.

That was the order that man had given him, and it was also the desire in his heart.

The thirst for slaughter had brought him here. All of Japan and neighboring South Korea were his hunting grounds.

The East Asia hunting ground.

"The next target… the Prime Minister of Japan!"

He opened a screen, reviewed the information, and made a plan. Then, he suddenly became alert.

He hurriedly rose to his feet. A woman in a black uniform had appeared fifty meters away.

A Chinese face, a Western figure—a mixed-race woman?

He searched through his memories and quickly recognized her. His pupils suddenly constricted.

Skye, Quake, Immortal Iron Fist’s woman!

Super Soldiers were not omnipotent. This operation had no specific targets; important figures all over the world were their prey. But there were always exceptions.

Such as the unkillable Hulk, or the untouchable Immortal Iron Fist.

His eyes remained fixed on Quake, but his peripheral vision scanned the surroundings as he listened intently to everything around him.

At last, he relaxed.

Immortal Iron Fist was not here.

He suddenly grew excited.

If he could kill Quake, or capture her, it would definitely be more meaningful than wiping out the entire Japanese cabinet—more strategically meaningful.

"You stupid woman, coming here alone is your greatest mistake!"

He raised his submachine gun, preparing to fire a barrage.

No matter how strong one’s fighting ability was, weapons still mattered. Every Winter Soldier had received the most professional weapons training. Their creed was to kill the enemy by any means possible. If they could kill from range, they would never engage in close combat.

At that moment, Skye raised both hands.

A terrifying shockwave erupted instantly. Leaves rustled throughout the dense forest, weeds along its path bowed in perfect unison, and branches blocking its way snapped apart in an instant.

It was April, and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom.

This was a cherry grove. Countless blossoms rolled and danced through the air with the shockwave, creating an incomparably beautiful scene.

No matter how sharp his eyesight, he could not see through the dense cherry blossoms to the woman on the other side.

He could only pull the trigger by instinct.

There was no sound. No recoil.

Not even a bullet came out.

In that instant, an extraordinarily precise shockwave had destroyed the submachine gun’s internal structure at a certain inherent frequency—and destroyed his internal structure as well.

His heart hurt terribly.

His internal organs felt as if they had shattered, and blood flowed from his seven orifices.

He remained standing, carrying himself like a martial artist, yet he could not attack at all. He could not even take two steps. His spine had broken, and so had his nerves.

An ordinary person would certainly have died by now, but he was a Super Soldier. No matter how severe his injuries, he would not die.

He struggled to open his eyes and watched the cherry blossoms slowly drift down, watched the woman slowly approach. He wanted to say something, but his vocal cords had snapped, and he could not make a sound.

Was this woman here to show off?

Or did she want to humiliate him at close range?

As he thought that, he saw her stop slightly to his left, offset from him by a step. Her voice rang out with a hint of pride. "Well? Well? I can control my shockwaves within a very small range now. I shattered his heart!"

Strange. Who was she talking to?

There was clearly no one around.

Was she speaking to someone far away? But was there any need to walk all the way over beside him?

The next moment, he felt as though he had fallen into an ice cellar.

"My Skye is naturally the best." A hand reached over from beside his ear, landed on Skye’s head, and gently rubbed it.

He wanted his heart to race, but he could not.

He wanted to gasp heavily, but he could not.

He could not express the shock in his heart. Immortal Iron Fist had arrived long ago and had been standing behind him the entire time?

And I never noticed?

Was the gap between us really this vast?

That was his final thought, and the last time he ever saw Quake.