Mandarin's arrangements, in Rhodey's view, were somewhat like the formations from novels in his previous life.
He watched Mandarin move around the Crystal Cave.
Every now and then, he would imprint a mark on a crystal.
The entire process lasted for about half an hour.
He finally completed the final arrangements.
After successfully imprinting more than a dozen different marks into the largest crystal, Mandarin also retreated back to the cave entrance.
"It's about to begin!"
He took a deep breath and said.
The next second—
He formed hand seals, and the Ten Rings energy on his arms surged wildly into the hand seals.
Accompanied by a beam of blue energy being blasted into the earth, the entire Crystal Cave suddenly trembled violently, and circles of crimson energy continuously burst forth from each crystal, transmitting back and forth within the cave!
The shocking scene before them made the onlookers standing outside subconsciously take a step back.
"Are you sure this cave won't collapse?"
Tony asked with some concern.
"Don't worry, even if it collapses, I can hold it up."
Wanda spoke from the side, strands of scarlet energy coiling around her fingers.
Just then—
Boom!
With an explosion, the largest crystal in the center of the Crystal Cave suddenly shattered.
Mandarin's face also showed a look of worry.
After all, he had only found the details of this formation in some ancient texts, although it stated that it could absorb the life energy within massive life forms and reverse life and death.
But honestly;
Mandarin had never actually used it.
So he wasn't sure if this reversal of life and death would actually work.
"It must succeed!"
Mandarin prayed in his heart.
The next second—
Countless shattered crystal fragments suddenly hovered in mid-air.
This lasted for about two or three seconds, then suddenly they contracted back towards the origin, reassembling into a complete crystal body!
At the same time;
The ground beneath everyone's feet also began to tremble.
Earthquake?
Many people were a little worried.
And in fact, at this moment, it wasn't just their side.
In fact, all places globally, whether land, mountains, or oceans!
At this moment, they were all experiencing tremors like slight earthquakes.
This was an abnormal geological phenomenon affecting the entire World, causing panic for a time, and countless experts subsequently appeared on television to explain the cause of this abnormal geological phenomenon.
And on the other side;
As the source of this series of events.
At this moment, inside the Crystal Cave, everyone was looking in surprise at the woman slowly floating up from the massive red crystal.
"She's revived!"
"Oh my God~! She's really alive?!"
Seeing someone who had been dead for who knows how many years, opening her eyes at this moment, many people, even though they were mentally prepared, were still shocked by this scene.
If death could be reversed, did that mean they would never have to experience the pain of losing their loved ones?
At this moment;
Many people thought of many things.
Tony thought of his parents.
But unfortunately!
His parents had died many years ago, their bodies had long since decayed, making revival impossible.
The reason Mandarin's wife could be revived was because Mandarin had preserved her body very well, preventing any decay, which allowed for her revival!
But his parents clearly could not.
Unless he could reverse time, going back to when his parents had just died.
But if he could really reverse time.
Why wouldn't he just go back to when his parents were still alive?
On the other side;
Steve also thought of his beloved woman, Carter.
Because he had been asleep for decades, when he woke up, his beloved woman had not only married and had children, but was also already old and frail.
Just a short while ago, Carter had passed away.
Steve had even attended her memorial service.
And Carter's body, due to the current popularity of cremation, had long since been burned, leaving only ashes.
It was even more impossible to revive her!
Some other people also thought of their deceased relatives, or good brothers.
Wanda's eyes were also red at this moment.
She thought of her brother again.
But Pietro's body had also been cremated.
Unable to be revived!
Rhodey saw her distress, reached out and embraced her, gently comforting her.
Just as everyone here was feeling emotional, the revived woman in the Crystal Cave slowly landed on the ground.
At this moment, her originally indifferent face also showed vivid expressions.
The woman looked around blankly until she saw Mandarin walking towards her excitedly, then she opened her mouth and asked, "Wenwu, where is this? We—"
Before the woman could finish speaking, Mandarin excitedly embraced her.
"I've missed you so much!"
He was so emotional that tears welled up in his eyes.
This man, who had never shed a tear even when bearing darkness and facing the entire World alone.
At this moment;
In front of the woman, he cried like a child!
The woman held him dearly, although she didn't know what had happened, but looking at this group of people, seeing their wildly different styles, and even their strangely dressed armor (Iron Man:?), she guessed some things.
"I've missed you too."
The two embraced, as if time itself had stopped.
After a long while;
Mandarin finally let go, then looked at the woman before him again, as if fearing that if he looked away, he would lose her again.
"Do you know, I've waited for this day for far too long!"
"Thankfully!"
"Heaven didn't give up on us."
The others smiled as they watched this scene, not interrupting them.
A moment later, Mandarin led the woman by the hand and walked over.
"What I wanted is done, who among you will go next?"
He asked.
Hearing this;
The Avengers also became excited.
Especially Tony.
He was the one among them who most wanted to live forever.
It wasn't that he was so afraid of death.
Rather, he was too reluctant to leave his beloved Pepper.
And he didn't want to see Pepper leave him!
So;
He wanted to live!
Live for a very, very long time!
To see his children grow up, to see his children marry and have children!
He had too many things he wanted, but the prerequisite for all of this was that he could live to that time.
"I'll go!"
So Tony stepped forward.
Deciding to lead by example and be the first to try.
"Tony, are you sure? We could actually just grab someone random."
Rhodey said.
"No need, I'll do it!"
Tony shook his head, he also knew that they could actually just grab someone to be a guinea pig.
But doing that would be too inhumane.
Tony was unwilling to sacrifice innocent people for his own selfish reasons, so he rejected Rhodey's proposal.
"Alright."
Rhodey nodded, understanding Tony's character and his unwillingness to do such a thing.
...
Inside the Crystal Cave.
This time, Mandarin didn't carve as many imprints.
It was only about a fifth of what he had done before.
After all, the previous time was to reverse life and death, which required a much more complex array.
But this time, it was only to extract life energy and infuse it into a healthy human body, so a complex array wasn't needed.
Soon;
The array was set up.
Mandarin once again used the Ten Rings' energy to activate the array.
In fact, activating the array didn't require specific energy.
But besides the Ten Rings, Mandarin only had the evil demonic power on him.
He was worried that the demonic power would have some side effects, which is why he didn't use it.
Instead, he used the Ten Rings' energy.
The array was activated once again!
This time, the commotion wasn't as great as before.
Only a reddish, smoke-like energy lifted Tony entirely.
Visible strands of life energy poured into Tony's body.
And as the life energy flowed in, Tony visibly transformed, becoming younger.
In a short while;
Tony, who originally looked to be in his forties, suddenly looked like he was in his twenties.
He had become so much younger!
At this moment;
The ground beneath everyone's feet trembled again.
"It's happening again. Could this be the Celestials inside the Planet resisting?"
Daisy looked down at her feet and guessed.
"Very likely."
Rhodey nodded and said, "Although that fellow hasn't fully matured yet, he should still have basic consciousness. So, feeling his life energy being inexplicably drawn out, he's bound to resist a bit."
0···Requesting Flowers 0··
But resistance was useless;
The birth of the Celestials required life energy to reach a peak.
And if this peak wasn't reached, the Celestials, still in gestation, had absolutely no ability to act.
Furthermore;
His existence wasn't even in this main space!
Otherwise, such a massive behemoth inside the Planet would have surely been discovered by now.
After a while;
Tony, floating in mid-air, slowly descended.
He opened his eyes.
He looked at his restored young hands in disbelief.
He also touched his face.
He felt the young, elastic skin.
He jumped up, completely thrilled.
"Oh my God~! I'm so young!"
He ran over and said to everyone.
"Yes, looking at you now, I feel like I'm looking at your son."
Natasha smiled and said.
Tony was excited right now and didn't mind Natasha's teasing.
"Tony, do you feel any discomfort?"
Rhodey walked over and asked him.
Hearing this, Tony carefully felt himself and also had Friday inside his armor scan his body, finding that besides being incredibly healthy, he had no problems at all!
"It seems there are no side effects."
...
He said.
At this, everyone else also felt relieved.
"I'll be the second one."
Natasha walked up and said.
No one else competed with her.
After all, women!
They love beauty.
But in recent years, Natasha had aged, and her looks had indeed declined quite a bit compared to seven or eight years ago.
So, her urgent desire to return to her youthful appearance was understandable.
As for the others?
They were either grown men or still young.
Of course, they wouldn't snatch this second spot from Natasha.
"The previous array can still be used. This time, just go directly."
Mandarin said.
He directly sent a burst of energy into the ground, activating the array before them.
Immediately after, just like Tony earlier,
Natasha floated up, and a continuous stream of life energy was infused into her body.
And her appearance also continuously transformed back to her youthful self.
At this time;
Tony curiously asked Mandarin.
"By the way, how long will the life energy I just absorbed allow me to live?"
Hearing this, Mandarin replied, "Not much, probably enough for you to live another thousand years or so."
A thousand years?!
Tony clicked his tongue in surprise.
This isn't much?
Feeling like he had become an unaging, immortal monster, Tony couldn't help but chuckle strangely.
This made Steve and the others next to him look at him with disgust.
His laugh was truly unpleasant!
But at this moment, Tony was immersed in the joy of being able to live for a thousand years.
He completely ignored their gazes.
At this time, the ground trembled again.
"This is the third time."
"It really seems to be the Celestials making the commotion."
Everyone thought to themselves.
However, apart from a slight tremor, this un-matured Celestials obviously couldn't cause any greater disturbance.
Since that was the case;
Everyone didn't pay attention to these things.
But while they didn't care,
The people outside were terrified!
When the first tremor occurred, some people panicked, but soon experts came out to explain, telling everyone that it was just normal plate movement.
No need to worry.
But not long after the first tremor, the second one came again!
People's little hearts, which had just settled, were raised again.
But the second tremor didn't last long before it quieted down again.
People thought it should be completely over now, right?
But they didn't expect it to be just a few minutes?
And a third one came!
What's going on?
Is it ever going to end?!
.....