Chapter 54: Lan Xingyu's Plan
Lan Xingyu sensed Destroyer the moment it appeared on Earth. Looking at the food still being served, his face was full of regret.
It wasn't easy to finally have a meal where I could let loose, but then this happened. So annoying! Loki, just you wait. I'll remember this grudge.
Seeing Xingyu stop, Tony asked curiously, "Xingyu, are you full?"
Indeed, anyone would ask if someone who was just feasting suddenly stopped.
"No, I still want to eat, but trouble has arrived. It's so annoying!" Lan Xingyu scratched his head in frustration.
Just then, a huge gust of wind blew outside the restaurant. Since they weren't at a location like Jane Foster's lab where they could see the Bifrost Bridge, Tony didn't notice it at first.
"Tony, go notify everyone to evacuate. There's going to be a fight," Lan Xingyu said calmly.
"It's the Bifrost Bridge. Has something arrived this time?" Sif and The Warriors Three, who had come out together, said as they saw the Bifrost Bridge dissipate.
"Yeah, it feels like it should be Odin's set of armor. It's no big deal," Lan Xingyu said nonchalantly.
Indeed, that set of armor was truly nothing to Lan Xingyu; even if Odin wore it, it would only take one move. But since he had to help Thor realize and Awakening this time, Lan Xingyu had to think it through carefully.
"Do you guys want to play around with it, or should I?" Lan Xingyu asked Sif and the others.
Sif and the others hesitated. After all, if Lan Xingyu weren't there, they would certainly charge forward. But now that there was a big shot around, they didn't feel the need.
"How about we give it a try? It's not every day everyone gets a chance to fight Destroyer. Besides, Xingyu is here to back us up. Why not try?" Volstagg said at this moment.
This sparked the interest of Sif and the others. Right, they had Xingyu to cover for them. They didn't have to fear an accident, and if they could defeat Destroyer, wouldn't that be a unique honor?
Fine! Let's do it. Sif and The Warriors Three exchanged looks, all reading those words in each other's eyes.
"Then you guys go first. I'll assist Tony in evacuating the crowd." After saying this, Lan Xingyu turned into a Flash and zipped through the town, carrying people out one by one. This included the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents monitoring them.
Lan Xingyu had secretly used telepathy to read their thoughts, and fortunately, none of them were from HYDRA. He didn't know if Coulson was lucky or unlucky; when he went to pick up Thor today, Lan Xingyu did a full mental sweep of them. It turned out three-quarters were HYDRA, but luckily, those sent to monitor were still with S.H.I.E.L.D.
The reason Lan Xingyu didn't use Golden Body Transformation this time was that he no longer wanted to hide from S.H.I.E.L.D. As long as his identity wasn't revealed to the public, it was fine.
As for why Lan Xingyu suddenly decided to expose himself, he looked at Pepper Potts in the sky, notifying and helping people leave. He smiled slightly; sometimes, only by showing some muscle can you better protect those around you.
———— I am a divider ————
Now let's turn the camera to Coulson. Looking at this suit of iron armor, he didn't care much at first.
"Is this something Iron Man made again?" asked Agent Sitwell, the weakest bald man in Marvel history. One had to complain—he really didn't live up to his bald head. Look at any other bald character in Marvel; aren't they all incredibly powerful?
Ancient One, Thanos, Professor X, and Director Braised Egg—aren't they all figures at the Peak of their respective fields? And they are all bald.
"I don't know. That guy never reports to us." Coulson was also helpless. So exhausted!
Just as Coulson was about to talk to Destroyer, his pager rang. What was going on? Why did things suddenly get so busy?
Having no choice, Coulson had Agent Sitwell take his place while he stepped aside to listen to the report from the Agents tailing Lan Xingyu and the others.
"Sir, a major discovery. The kid Tony brought home is the Golden Light Man, New York's nighttime myth, Flash!" On the other end of the line, the Agent reported excitedly.
"What! Xingyu is that Flash! How is that possible! Ah—" Before Coulson could react, a laser beam streaked past not far from him, leaving a long scorch mark.
Seeing the armor that had wiped out more than half of their combat power in one hit, Coulson immediately ran to a car and headed toward the town.
In his mind, perhaps only Xingyu could deal with this monster now.
Seeing Coulson flee, Destroyer didn't rush to keep attacking him; its target was Thor!
Just as Coulson arrived at the town and found it empty, and was about to park to look for Lan Xingyu, he suddenly felt a push on his back and found himself outside the town, reunited with his Agents.
"Uncle Coulson, you'd better start calming the citizens. I need to go back up the fight. I'm leaving now." Before Coulson could react, Lan Xingyu's voice rang out from beside him. But when he turned around, only a golden Flash remained.
Lan Xingyu brought Thor to the side of the road. At this moment, Sif and The Warriors Three had already encountered Destroyer.
Truth be told, Sif and The Warriors Three looked quite imposing walking side by side like that. Lan Xingyu had already taken out some popcorn, while Thor's eyes were full of worry.
"Distract him," Sif said, then circled behind The Warriors Three and climbed onto a roof.
"Hmm, not a bad plan," Lan Xingyu said.
"But they might die; you're taking too much of a risk. They aren't you, Xingyu," Thor said urgently to Lan Xingyu.
He hadn't heard the previous conversation between Lan Xingyu and them, so he spoke with an urgent tone.
"Combat inevitably comes with injury or even death, and war even more so. Isn't even the current situation caused by yourself?" Lan Xingyu said to Thor.
Thor was stuck for a moment, not knowing what to say.
"As a king, are you prepared to make sacrifices? Have you thought through the responsibilities of a king? Have you seriously considered the oath Odin made you take before?" Lan Xingyu continued.
"But I don't have my hammer right now..." Thor was about to say he couldn't fight without his hammer.
"Forget the damn hammer! You are the God of Thunder, not the God of Hammers! The hammer is just to help you control your power; the power that belongs to you has always been inside your body!" Lan Xingyu was a bit disappointed. This big dummy really was like an Alaskan Malamute—equally stupid.
His stupidity was different from a Husky's. A Husky is stupid because its brain is wired wrong, but Thor, this Alaskan, was just plain stupid.
"I still have people to save. Whether you want to help your companions or just watch them die from the sidelines, decide for yourself!" After saying this, Lan Xingyu turned into a golden light and vanished.
In reality, everyone in the town had been saved; Lan Xingyu was just hiding nearby while invisible. Despite what he said, he still intended to protect them.
Seriously, Odin, you're training your son, so why am I the one who's so exhausted? I have to both enlighten and protect people. Did something go wrong somewhere?
Shaking his head, Lan Xingyu refocused his attention on the battle between Sif's group and Destroyer.
Just like in the original plot, they had the hilarious maneuver of throwing Volstagg at Destroyer, only for him to be slapped away.
Just as Destroyer was about to finish off Volstagg, Sif dropped from the sky and pierced straight through Destroyer's back.
But before Sif could feel triumphant, Destroyer's entire body spun around, rotating 180 degrees.
Seeing this, Lan Xingyu wanted to complain: "You're not Destroyer, you're Kayako! If you were a human in a horror movie, you wouldn't even need special effects."
This move by Destroyer immediately turned the tide, and it began to slaughter Sif and the others. Seeing this, Lan Xingyu felt that Asgard's tactical literacy was too poor. Facing a powerful enemy, if you don't pick a main and off-tank before pulling the boss, you deserve to lose aggro.
Just as Lan Xingyu was about to step in, a bolt of lightning struck Destroyer. Indeed, this lightning strike was released by Thor.
Lan Xingyu's words had completely inspired Thor. From the morning's "He who wears the crown must bear its weight," which told Thor of a king's responsibility, to the previous words that made him realize his true self—finally, at the moment his companions' lives were in danger, like a protagonist in a hot-blooded anime, he awakened his Divine Power!
Sif's group and Loki, who was observing through Destroyer, were all astonished. Even without Mjolnir, Thor still released a powerful bolt of lightning.
At this moment, having awakened his thunder god power once more, the obstacles in Thor's heart were cleared, and confidence returned to his face.
Then, with a wave of Thor's hand, Mjolnir, still in the crater, instantly burst through the air and returned to his side.
"Loki! Now we can have a proper talk!" Holding Mjolnir, Thor was instantly clad in armor. With lightning swirling around him, he spoke to Loki with an imposing Aura.
After saying that, he swung Mjolnir at Destroyer, smashing it to pieces with a single blow. It was evident that Thor was much stronger than he was at this point in the original story.
Thor didn't have time to slowly savor his power now. He had to return to Asgard to ask his younger brother exactly what kind of nonsense he was up to.
"Not bad! My words weren't wasted on you," Lan Xingyu's voice came from behind Thor.
"Xingyu, thank you. Now I'm going to resolve the trouble I caused in my ignorance. I'm leaving now. Next time we meet, let's have another fight," Thor thanked Lan Xingyu.
Having restored his Divine Power, he also sensed that the town was empty, meaning Lan Xingyu had only done that to inspire him.
"Sure, anytime. Alright, you'd better go. I have plenty of things to keep me busy here," Lan Xingyu started shooing him away. After all, the S.H.I.E.L.D. crew was still waiting for him over there.
"Thor, you've restored your Divine Power! What happened just now? Why could you use lightning without Mjolnir?" At this time, Sif and her group ran over.
"It's nothing. I'll explain next time. Let's go to the spot where the Bifrost Bridge just brought you. I need to have a good talk with Loki."
"Uh... did you guys forget about me?" Lan Xingyu said helplessly.
He raised his hand, opened a portal, and said to them, "The Bifrost Bridge is right there. Go ahead."
"Thank you, Xingyu. We're off then." Thor and the others bid farewell to Xingyu together.
"Yeah, goodbye. Give my regards to Aunt Frigga." Lan Xingyu waved back to them.
After saying goodbye, Lan Xingyu called Tony, who was still outside the town, over. For no other reason than to pocket these Uru Materials from Destroyer.
Uru metal is a special metal specifically used to forge the weapons of the God King; even Lan Xingyu found it difficult to obtain.
Furthermore, this stuff requires the temperature of a star to smelt and forge. It would have been useless to bring back before. But it's different now; our Lan Xingyu has the power of the Mera Mera no Mi. As mentioned before, if Lan Xingyu wanted to, he could easily create a sun. Smelting this would be a piece of cake.
After getting some Vibranium in the future, Tony might be able to last a few more rounds with Thanos. Looking at the collected metal Materials, Lan Xingyu was very happy because today, after deciding to expose himself, he thought of a plan... the "Sled Three Idiots Upgrade Plan." (Everyone, try to guess who these three idiots are.)