Chapter 130 — Infinity Stones, Buy One Get One Free
"Oh?"
Wang Xu sensed the Red Skull's thoughts and movements, and a glint of amusement surfaced in his eyes.
"Clever thinking. Too bad fate has you standing on the opposite side from me."
The HYDRA soldiers raised their muzzles and poured a torrent of fire at Gaara and Wang Xu.
Da! Da! Da! Da! Da...
Bullets and flame wove together into a vast net thick with the stench of gunsmoke, blotting out the sky as it swept in!
Watching this, Gaara could not help but sneer.
An attack like this could not even scratch him. How could it possibly work on an old monster like Wang Zhiyao, a man who had no telling how many years under his belt?
Sure enough.
Wang Xu merely waved a hand, and the bullets reversed course.
Blood sprayed in every direction!
The HYDRA soldiers who had surrounded the two of them fell like straw before the Grim Reaper's scythe.
They all collapsed, becoming corpses that still carried the warmth of life.
The reek of rust-like blood spread through the air.
An army that holds together after losing more than thirty percent of its number can be called elite.
One that does not break after losing more than half can be called a strong army.
The performance of the HYDRA legion drew even Wang Xu's admiration.
No matter how many died, there were always more cannon fodder rushing forward, swarming in.
They were like fanatics who gave not the slightest regard to their own lives.
"The Red Skull really does have some ability. Pity he was born into the Marvel Universe."
"If he were in the world of D&D, this fellow might even have used faith to ascend to godhood."
Wang Xu shook his head, bored of the game of crushing ants.
With a thought, he exerted one percent of his power.
A psychic storm swept through, and every ordinary HYDRA soldier reeled as if struck a heavy blow, collapsing unconscious.
Across the entire base, only a very few remained awake.
That done, Wang Xu's body dissolved into particles and in an instant appeared in a secret chamber only the Red Skull knew of.
Wang Xu's sudden appearance gave the Red Skull a violent start.
But he quickly recovered his composure.
With a savage grin he hoisted a hand cannon onto his shoulder: "You're strong, but you're still one step too late!"
The cannon had a strong science-fiction air, streamlined in construction, silver-black throughout.
The Cosmic Cube was set into it, apparently serving as its power source.
Blue radiance crept along the energy chamber, resolving into bright lines of light.
These rays wrapped around the entire cannon and the Red Skull himself, like an energy armament bestowed by a god.
It made the Red Skull look imposing, as though a deity had descended to earth.
"Die!"
The Red Skull aimed the muzzle at Wang Xu and yanked the firing bolt.
Vmmm...
A laser of energy condensed almost into solid matter rushed at Wang Xu, setting the air vibrating at high frequency.
It left the Red Skull's ears ringing, drool running from his mouth, blood beginning to seep from the corners of his eyes.
But it was all worth it!
Whoever this weapon struck would be randomly teleported to any corner of the vast cosmos!
In the universe, how many regions can sustain human life?
One in a billion?
How could the odds possibly be that high!
Frozen to death, burned into a charred corpse, suffocated...
Countless ways for Wang Huai'an to die had already surfaced in the Red Skull's mind.
Gradually, he became aware that something was wrong.
Was the energy cannon's firing speed not a little too slow?
He felt that his body could still move, yet it was like a machine deprived of lubricating oil, with resistance imposed on it beyond its own power limit.
At this rate, could he move even a millimeter a minute?
The Red Skull was bewildered.
Wang Xu paid it no mind.
Moving as usual, he strolled slowly to the man's side and seized the Red Skull by the shoulder...
"No!"
The Red Skull's pupils slowly contracted, adrenaline began to secrete, his sweat glands whirring into operation.
But his lips were stiff, his whole body like a wooden carving; he could not utter even half a word.
Wang Xu grabbed the Red Skull and dragged him into the path of the spatial energy blast.
The suddenly slowed time resumed its normal flow.
The Red Skull could only watch helplessly as the spatial blast struck him.
"Aaaah!"
The scream cut off abruptly.
From that day on, the man known as Johann Schmidt, the Red Skull, no longer existed on the Marvel Earth.
Wang Linchuan crushed the weapon the Red Skull had regarded as his final trump card, and took out the Cosmic Cube.
In his palm, the Cosmic Cube condensed at a speed visible to the naked eye, coalescing into a smooth-surfaced oval blue gem four and a half inches across.
This was the Space Stone, one of the six Infinity Stones of the Marvel Universe.
Clutching the gem, Wang Xu felt as though he held the entire universe in his hand.
Within the bounds of the Marvel plane, his will could extend without limit to any corner.
If he wished, he could instantly appear anywhere in the Marvel plane, or draw objects and living beings from any corner of the Marvel Universe to his side.
Wang Xu tightened his grip on the Space Stone, his eyes half-closing.
"Eh?"
He found the Red Skull on a desolate planet.
The man's body was dead, yet his soul still lived on, draped in a filthy black cloak, like a walking corpse.
This planet was called Vormir.
"So that's how it is."
Wang Xu's lips curved upward slightly, in good spirits: "Infinity Stones, buy one get one free?"
The Soul Stone, the most revered of the Infinity Stones, was on this very planet.
A worthy bearer need only sacrifice a life to obtain it.
Across countless light-years of distance, Wang Xu hurled the narrowly-escaped Red Skull down the cliff.
Telekinetic force wrapped around the man's body and drove it savagely into the earth.
Johann Schmidt, a great villain who in the original destiny line could have lingered on for another century, was thus reduced to a puddle of bloody pulp.
A gem the size of the Space Stone, yet flickering with a faint orange glow, appeared in the sky above the planet Vormir.
"Come here!"
At Wang Xu's word, a spatial wormhole opened beside the Soul Stone.
The Soul Stone seemed different from the Space Stone, possessing a certain spirituality and intelligence.
It hesitated at Wang Huai'an's invitation.
In the end, it obediently passed through the space-time wormhole and lay itself meekly in Wang Huai'an's palm.
"He who knows the times is a wise man."
Wang Xu clenched his fist and sent the two Infinity Stones into the Coiled Dragon Ring.
With this, the most crucial link in his blueprint had been filled in.
...
Red Skull had been served his lunch early, and Hydra's momentum was spent.
Dr. Zola, clever man that he was, tried at the final moment to digitize his memory data and upload it into a supercomputer, so that he might survive on in the form of digital life.
But Wang Xu stopped him.
"A fine idea."
"And yet what I need is you as a human being, you with your capacity for creation. Not a simulated intelligence like the Red Queen."
Wang Linchuan waved a hand and twisted the man's very conception of things.
He implanted Dr. Zola with traits of loyalty and dedication.
At the same time, he preserved the man's store of knowledge, his mad inspiration, and his heart's pursuit of science and truth.
Half a month later.
Arnim Zola, Abraham Erskine, Howard Stark...
Whether righteous or wicked, whether willing or coerced, the geniuses and scientists of the world all threw themselves into the building of the new world.