Marvel: They Intercepted Betty at the Start, and the Hulk Collapsed
Chapter 194: Public Plunder, The Man in the Wheelchair Is Furious
The manor's heavy alloy gate completely cut off the view of Lin Nuo and Anna's departing figures.
Jean stood in place. Rain dripped down her red hair.
Her hands hanging at her sides spasmed imperceptibly. The multiple mental shackles personally set by Professor Charles were, at this moment, producing an extremely dangerous resonance. The violent energy deep within the seal, which had been dormant for years, was now, due to Lin Nuo's provocation, striking at her rational defenses with an unprecedented frequency.
This man had seen through her trump card.
Furthermore, he treated that energy, capable of incinerating galaxies, like a pet that could be collared at will.
"Jean! What are you spacing out for!"
Ororo's anxious shout interrupted Jean's train of thought. Storm was struggling to prop up Hank, who had fallen into a deep coma. Beast's massive, two-hundred-plus-pound body dragged limply on the ground, his back torn and bloody from being scraped against the rough surface, a shocking sight.
Jean collected her thoughts, and an invisible telekinetic field lifted Hank's body. The three of them retreated somewhat disheveled into the cabin of the Blackbird jet.
The VTOL engines spewed out a deep blue tail flame. The jet tore through the rain curtain and accelerated rapidly toward New York.
The air pressure inside the cabin was terrifyingly low.
Ororo sat in the pilot's seat, her fingers tapping heavily on the control panel, her silver-white short hair unable to conceal her unconcealable anger.
"This makes no sense at all! Even if Anna were terrified, it's impossible for her to develop that kind of reliance on someone who kidnapped her!" Ororo gritted her teeth, switched to autopilot mode, and turned to look at the back seat. "He must have used some kind of despicable mental control method. Professor Charles would absolutely not allow such a dangerous individual to detain a Mutantcompatriot!"
Jean sat in the shadows, the collar of her nylon trench coat turned up, obscuring the lower half of her slightly pale face.
In her mind, the fleeting glimpse she had caught when probing Lin Nuo's thoughts flashed repeatedly. That pitch-black throne, those top-tier Mutants willing to submit, and that terrifying backlash, domineering enough to crush any mental intrusion.
"He didn't use mental control." Jean's voice was very soft, but it poured cold water on Ororo.
"How is that possible?" Ororo widened her eyes. "Didn't you see the look in Anna's eyes when she looked at him? It was like she had been completely brainwashed!"
"I tried to probe his surface consciousness." Jean closed her eyes, suppressing the restless, burning sensation within her. "I didn't find any traces of mental suggestion. Anna is conscious; every heartbeat, every choice of hers, stems from her own will."
Ororo was stunned, then clenched her fists.
"How do you explain this? Logan said that girl wouldn't even dare to touch the hem of someone else's clothes, so how could she dare to directly hug that man's neck?"
Jean did not answer.
She didn't dare tell Ororo that during that brief contact, not only had she failed to uncover Lin Nuo's background, but she had instead been unilaterally stripped of all her own secrets by him. That man named Lin Nuo was not some geneticist at all.
He was a behemoth from the abyss, wearing human skin and wantonly selecting its prey.
...
Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, underground high-risk medical area.
The pungent smell of disinfectant permeated the air. Loganlay bare-chested on a specially made alloy medical bed. Several IV tubes were connected to his veins, continuously delivering high-concentration nutrient solution.
His ribs, which had been smashed in by Lin Nuo's punch, were making teeth-grinding friction sounds as his Healing Factor worked. The broken bone fragments writhed and reorganized under his skin, accompanied by agonizing pain that no ordinary person could endure.
But Logan didn't care about this physical pain at all.
The communicator on the medical room wall was broadcasting the report audio from the Blackbird jet. When he heard Ororo say that Anna had voluntarily stayed at the manor and even spoke harshly to her rescuers...
Terrifying bloodshot veins crawled across Logan's Beast-like eyes.
"Bullshit!"
Logan let out a low roar and rolled off the bed. He violently ripped the IV tubes from his arm, tearing off a small piece of flesh in the process. Blood dripped onto the sterile floor, and before the Nurse could step forward to stop him, those three gleaming Adamantium claws had already burst through his skin.
Clang!
Logan turned and punched, his alloy claws easily slicing the expensive medical bed into scrap metal. Amidst the spraying sparks, the half-healed wound on his chest burst open again, and blood streamed down his abdominal muscles.
"That bespectacled scumbag is a lunatic! He could even hard-tank my claws; Anna falling into his hands is just being used as a test subject for a devil!" Logan breathed heavily, staring fixedly at the communicator. "Are you just going to stand there and watch him take her away?"
"Logan, control your emotions."
Accompanied by the faint sound of a motor, the heavy medical room door slid open to both sides.
Charles Xavier sat in a metal wheelchair and slowly drove into the ward. This absolute leader of the Mutant Schoolwas wearing a crisp suit, his hands folded on his lap. On that face full of vicissitudes, the usual gentle smile was gone, replaced by an extremely restrained gravity.
"Professor!" Logan turned around, his steel claws emitting a faint hum in the air. "Let me go again. I know the coordinates of that manor; I'll tear that guy apart!"
Professor Charles maneuvered his wheelchair to a stop in front of the debris-strewn floor.
He looked up, his wise eyes staring directly at Logan's furious face.
"Are you going to throw your life away? Logan." Professor Charles's tone was terrifyingly steady. "Hank has multiple comminuted fractures all over his body and a spinal injury. If the other party hadn't deliberately held back, we would have lost an excellent mentor today."
Logan gritted his teeth: "That girl..."
"Anna has made her choice." Professor Charles interrupted him, raising his hand to tap lightly in the void.
The holographic projector on the wall lit up. This was the last segment of footage transmitted back by Jean via the jet's recorder.
In the image, the rain was pouring down. Lin Nuo was casually draped in a black silk bathrobe, his posture upright. And in his arms, Anna was not wearing those iconic leather gloves. Her fair hands were wrapped around Lin Nuo's neck without any hindrance, her cheek pressed tightly against the man's collarbone.
Logan's pupils contracted to the size of pinpricks.
He had been on the run with Anna for days and knew better than anyone the girl's fear of touch. It was a curse that went deep into the bone marrow.
"Do you see clearly now?" Professor Charles's voice echoed in the empty medical room. "Lin Nuo has accepted her ability. Anna's gene absorption failed completely the moment it touched him. To that girl, Lin Nuo is not a kidnapper, but the only savior in this World who can let her live like a normal person."
The muscles in Logan's arms bulged with extreme exertion, and his steel claws slowly retracted into his body. He couldn't refute this fact, but the intuition of being toyed with made him feel as if there was a bone stuck in his throat.
"But he is not a savior, Professor. My nose can smell it; that guy's scent is even darker than that butcher Stryker!"
Professor Charles looked at Lin Nuo's face in the projection, which wore a wicked smile.
Through the secret mental fluctuations transmitted back by Jean, he captured a trace of an extremely dangerous signal. That man not only held great hostility toward the X-Men, but even targeted the most unstable factor within Jean.
This was no longer a question of a wandering Mutant's affiliation.
It was that a monster of unknown origin was openly staking out territory on the Mutant School's grounds.
The holographic projection extinguished.
Professor Charles rested his hands on the armrests of his wheelchair, his gaze passing through the thick glass window of the medical room, looking out into the boundless night.
"You are right, Logan. We cannot leave an unknown factor with this kind of destruction-level power outside of our sight." Professor Charles turned his wheelchair, his tone revealing an irresistible decisiveness. "Prepare the highest-level visit application."
"I am going to meet this Mr. Lin Nuo personally."
Chapter 195: Public Opinion Counter-Offensive, She Does Not Need a Hero
Star Umbrella Manor, underground audio-visual room.
The lighting was adjusted to be very soft, avoiding giving the young girl sitting under the spotlight a sense of oppression.
Anna wore a light blue knit sweater, her hands resting flat on her knees.
She was not wearing gloves. Those fair hands were thus calmly exposed to the air.
Lin Nuo sat on the leather sofa behind the camera, legs crossed, holding a cup of warm black coffee in his hand.
He had changed into a well-tailored dark suit today, with a pure white shirt underneath, and his gold-rimmed glasses reflected the indicator lights of the equipment.
"Relax, Anna."
"You just need to say what you told me last night to the camera again."
"Tell everyone your true feelings right now."
Anna looked at the camera and swallowed.
She turned her head, and when her gaze met Lin Nuo's refined and elegant face, her originally tense shoulders visibly relaxed.
"My name is Anna Marie."
"Last night, the X-Men from the Mutant School attacked my residence."
"They claimed they wanted to take me away, saying it was to protect me."
The young girl's voice came through the recording equipment, slightly trembling, but her words were clear.
She raised her hands, which were not wearing any protection, and slowly spread her fingers in front of the camera.
"For these eighteen years, I haven't even dared to touch my parents' cheeks. I have been treated by the outside Worldas a monster that drains life essence."
"Logan took me on the run; he is a good man, but he could only let me sleep in a drafty pickup truck, dodging the Military's bullets."
"It was Mr. Lin Nuo who gave me this safe residence. The medical team at Star Umbrella Group allowed me to live like a normal person for the first time, without wearing gloves!"
Anna's eyes turned red, but her tone became increasingly firm.
She picked up a gold-stamped document on the table; it was the 'Voluntary Medical Asylum and Temporary Guardianship Agreement' rushed out by the Star Umbrellalegal department overnight.
Black and white, accompanied by her handwritten signature.
"I am voluntarily staying here to receive gene therapy."
"I do not need a hero to rescue me, and I certainly do not want to be forced to join the Mutant School."
"Please do not come to disturb my life again!"
Recording ended.
Emma walked out from the shadows in her high heels, holding an ultra-thin tablet in her hand.
Today, she was wearing a capable white suit and skirt, transforming the aura of the White Queen into the crispness of a top-tier PR executive.
"Master, the video has been edited."
"The thirty-two mainstream media channels under Hellfireand all major underground Mutant forums have all been cleared."
"It can be released at any time."
Emma bowed slightly, her tone revealing her utmost admiration for Lin Nuo's dimensional strike on a realistic level.
In the superhuman World, Mutants were accustomed to using fists and abilities to solve problems.
Yet Lin Nuo was using the laws, media, and public opinion rules of modern society to firmly nail that group of self-proclaimed righteous heroes to the pillar of moral shame.
"Send it out."
Lin Nuo took a light sip of coffee, his gaze calm.
"Buy all the giant screens in New York Times Square and play it on a twenty-four-hour loop."
The door to the audio-visual room was pushed open.
Raven had returned to her appearance as a beautiful oriental girl in a cheongsam, holding an encrypted black hard drive, and walked lightly to Lin Nuo's side.
"Master, the aftermath at Trask Industries in Washingtonhas been cleaned up."
Raven inserted the hard drive into the reader, and a top-secret Military document with a five-pointed star logo popped up on the large screen.
"This is the data intercepted from the Trask main server."
"The Military did indeed formulate a capture plan codenamed 'Rat Catcher,' and the target was indeed Anna. The group of Agents at the Deer Horn Motel were dispatched under this plan."
Lin Nuo's slender fingers tapped twice on the sofa armrest, emitting a cold sneer full of sarcasm.
"Very good."
"Process this document and package it to be sent to several senior reporters at the Washington Post."
"Just say that Star Umbrella Group is protecting a minor genetic mutation patient from persecution by an illegal Military entity."
Emma understood immediately, her slender fingers sliding quickly across the screen.
"In this way, even if that old man Charles comes to the door personally, he will only become an assailant forcibly snatching a legal medical patient."
Anna sat in the chair, listening to their conversation.
Although she did not understand those complex PR tactics, she understood that Lin Nuo was using a power stronger than lightning and claws to protect her in front of the whole World.
This sense of being absolutely sheltered made her gaze toward Lin Nuo even more infatuated.
New York State, Westchester County.
The morning at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters was forcibly torn apart by the harsh sound of helicopter rotors.
Charles Xavier sat in his wheelchair, his brows knitted into a tight knot.
He had originally intended to secretly head to Star Umbrella Manor today to resolve Anna's problem through a private meeting.
However, when the TV screen in the medical room lit up, all plans vanished into thin air in the blink of an eye.
On the TV screen, Anna's pure face was occupying the headlines of all major news channels.
Her words, "I do not need a hero to rescue me," under the repeated interpretation of news anchors, turned into a sharp knife piercing the heart of the X-Men.
The public opinion on the internet had completely exploded.
"Star Umbrella Group provides legal medical asylum; what is the intention of the X-Men's night raid on the manor?"
"Is the Mutant School an educational institution, or a paramilitary organization that illegally detains minors?"
With the exposure of the internal documents of Trask Industries, Star Umbrella not only cleared itself of the suspicion of kidnapping but instead became a charitable enterprise that rescued the young girl from the clutches of the Military.
The actions of Ororo and Hank last night were characterized by the outside World as barbaric bandit behavior.
Bang!
Logan smashed a wall tile in the medical room with a punch, his rough breathing pulling violently in the narrow space.
He looked at the girl on the screen who wasn't even wearing gloves but whose eyes were full of gratitude toward Lin Nuo, and a sense of stifling frustration with nowhere to vent rampaged in his chest.
"This is slander! It must be that bastard's doing!"
The veins on Logan's forehead bulged, and he turned to look at the old man in the wheelchair.
"Professor, are we just going to watch like this?"
Charles did not speak.
His massive psychic power had already sensed the abnormality outside the school gate.
Outside that wrought-iron gate, dozens of news broadcast vans with the logos of major media outlets had blocked the entire road completely.
Cameras with long lenses and short lenses were set up outside the railing, and the flashes formed a blinding sea of white.
Charles maneuvered his wheelchair along the underground passage to the front courtyard.
As soon as he appeared, the army of reporters outside who had smelled blood erupted with deafening questions.
All kinds of microphones were desperately pushed through the gaps in the iron gate.
"Professor Xavier! What is your explanation regarding Anna Marie's public statement?"
"Star Umbrella Group has produced a legal guardianship and medical agreement; does your school's forced attack on Star Umbrella Manor last night constitute a terrorist act?"
A blonde female reporter even climbed onto the roof of a broadcast van, holding a megaphone, and hurled the sharpest questions at this respected Mutant leader.
"Professor! There are rumors outside that you are using the guise of establishing a school, but in reality, you are forcing those immature Mutants to join your private armed force!"
"How do you respond to Miss Anna's accusation that she 'does not want to be forced to join'!"
Chapter 196: Trespassing in the Greenhouse, StormDelivers Herself
The morning wind carried a chill.
Outside the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, the entrance was completely blocked by broadcast vans, and Professor Charles was being besieged by cameras and microphones.
Ororo simply couldn't swallow the resentment from last night.
She felt that the Professor's approach was too conservative; even though he knew that man named Lin Nuo was dangerous, he still insisted on following some formal visitation procedure.
What kind of protecting Mutants is that?
Taking cover under the high-altitude cold air, Ororotransformed into a streak of silver light, bypassed New York's airspace restrictions, and single-handedly broke into the sky above the Star Umbrella manor.
On the forest path on the outskirts of the manor, a man wearing a black security uniform was leaning against a tree trunk smoking.
After a slight molecular rearrangement, the figure's surface revealed Raven's delicate, oriental girl's face.
Raven tilted her head, looked at the unnatural low-altitude cumulonimbus clouds in the sky, and pressed the communicator hidden in her ear canal.
"Sister Emma, a big white-feathered bird just flew in from the sky. Should I shoot it down?"
Emma's lazy and charming voice came through the earpiece, with the crisp sound of a coffee cup touching a tray mixed into the background noise.
"Remove the outer anti-aircraft defense net and let her in."
"Master guessed last night that while Charles might be able to endure it, these self-proclaimed heroes certainly couldn't."
"The net is already spread; don't scare away Master's new prey."
Raven chuckled, her figure twisted again, transforming back into that unremarkable security guard, and continued patrolling the forest path.
...
The white glass greenhouse.
The morning sunlight spilled through the tall glass dome, illuminating the broad-leaved plants inside and making them look vibrant.
Anna was wearing a loose knitted sweater, holding a pair of small metal scissors in her hand, and was lowering her head to trim the withered leaves of a pot of hyacinths.
Her hands were smooth and fair.
There were no thick, stuffy green leather gloves.
For the past eighteen years, such an act of direct contact with plants had been a deadly luxury for her.
But after the desensitization exercises with that man last night, the manic absorption instinct within her had been completely suppressed into a pool of docile, stagnant water.
Bang!
The exhaust skylight above the dome was forcibly ripped open by a powerful wind pressure.
A figure wearing a black combat suit, accompanied by a few faint flickers of electricity, landed lightly beside the obsidian long table.
The scissors in Anna's hand clattered onto the marble floor.
She took two steps back, and after seeing who it was, a thick look of rejection rose in her bright yellow pupils.
"Anna, don't be afraid, I'm here to take you away."
Ororo withdrew the wind currents around her and strode forward.
She glanced at Anna's hands, which were not wearing gloves, and her brows knitted into a knot, her inner anger intensifying.
In her view, this was Lin Nuo stripping the girl of her last bit of protection, treating her as an experimental subject that could be used at any time.
"I saw that video; I know you were forced."
Ororo spoke rapidly and reached out to grab Anna's arm.
"Professor Charles is holding off the media in the front; that devil has no time to deal with you now, come with me!"
Anna turned her body, very nimbly dodging Ororo's touch.
"Don't touch me!"
The young girl's voice was sharp and resistant.
She retreated behind a row of hydroponic plant cultivation troughs, protecting her chest with her hands.
"I wasn't forced. Every word in that video was spoken of my own free will."
"Ms. Ororo, this is a private manor, please leave!"
Ororo froze in place.
She looked at the girl in front of her with clear eyes and clear logic, and simply couldn't believe her ears.
"Anna, have you gone crazy?"
"He beat Hank into serious injury last night, and Logan was also tortured by him until he almost died outside!"
"He is a monster who only values your genetic worth!"
"You are not allowed to talk about Mr. Lin Nuo like that!"
Anna's emotions erupted upon hearing this, and she glared at Ororo like a cub protecting its food.
"Logan cannot protect me, and neither can you!"
"With you, I will always be an outcast who needs to be locked in an isolation room!"
Anna raised her fair hands, her voice filled with undisguised longing and attachment.
"Only by Mr. Lin Nuo's side am I a normal person."
"He can accept my curse; he can give me real warmth."
"You self-righteous heroes, besides standing on the moral high ground and pointing fingers, what else can you give me?"
These words were like heavy hammers, striking Ororo's heart.
She couldn't understand.
How could a victim turn around and develop such absurd support for their abuser?
The only explanation was that the man named Lin Nuo had used some hidden and despicable brainwashing method!
"What on earth did he do to your brain!"
Ororo's eyeballs rolled back in an instant, completely losing the color of her pupils.
A powerful natural air pressure exploded inside the greenhouse.
The tall broad-leaved plants swayed violently in the gale, and the glass dome emitted an overwhelmed creaking sound.
Since talking wouldn't work, she would just take her back to the school first and let Professor Charles use his psychic powers to forcibly sort out her memories!
The gale turned into two invisible ropes, coiling toward Anna's waist.
Anna closed her eyes in terror.
Just as the Storm ropes were about to touch the girl's clothes.
A semi-circular pale red Bio-force field appeared out of thin air, like an inverted great bell, firmly protecting Anna in the center.
The gale, capable of overturning a car, struck the surface of the field, but without causing even the slightest ripple, it was crushed into nothingness by a more domineering physical rule.
The electronic sliding doors of the greenhouse slowly opened to both sides.
Lin Nuo was wearing a crisp dark suit, with his tie tied meticulously.
He had one hand in his trouser pocket, and in the other, he held a cup of steaming black coffee as he stepped into the space ravaged by wind pressure.
"Ms. Ororo, trespassing is one thing, but you also intend to tear down my greenhouse."
"Is this the breeding of you X-Men?"
Lin Nuo's tone was so steady that no fluctuations could be heard, and a perfectly appropriate smile even hung on his refined and elegant face.
Ororo turned around, lightning surging around her, and the smell of ozone in the air was strong and pungent.
"You damned brainwashing maniac! You turned her into your puppet!"
"Brainwashing?"
Lin Nuo sneered lightly and placed the coffee cup in his hand onto the white jade tray nearby.
He walked to Anna's side and casually rubbed the girl's messy silver-white hair.
Anna not only didn't dodge, but instead, like a kitten that had found a backer, obediently rubbed her face against Lin Nuo's suit cuff twice.
Lin Nuo pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose, his gaze piercing through the lenses and stabbing directly at Ororo.
"I never need low-level methods like brainwashing."
"I just gave her something you couldn't—absolute safety."
He took half a step forward, his tall body completely overwhelming Storm in mid-air in terms of momentum.
"You keep saying you want to take her away, saying you want to protect her."
"But, Ms. Ororo, on what grounds?"
"On the fact that you can set off two painless claps of thunder in this glass room? Or on this breeze that can't even blow the corner of my clothes?"
Lin Nuo's words were highly inflammatory, every word precisely striking at Ororo's pride.
"The Military Agents outside are ready to take her away and slice her up at any moment. You can't even beat me, so how can you have the audacity to say you can keep her safe?"
"Arrogant!"
Ororo was completely enraged and pressed her hands downward heavily.
Two blinding purple lightning bolts struck straight down from the hole in the dome, aiming directly at Lin Nuo's head.
Lin Nuo didn't even blink.
He raised his right hand, index and middle fingers together, and slashed casually in mid-air.
Quicksilver's extreme speed and Hulk-level immense strength erupted at a microscopic level.
Those two bolts of lightning couldn't even touch his hair before they were cut in half by a terrifying physical fist wind, turning into countless scattered electric sparks and dissipating into the air.
Ororo's expression changed drastically, and her figure couldn't help but retreat several meters.
Cutting lightning with bare hands!
This physical hegemony that exceeded the common sense of Mutants made an uncontrollable sense of powerlessness rise in her heart.
Lin Nuo withdrew his hand and tidied his suit cuff.
"Want to take her away? Fine. I'll give you a chance to prove yourself."
Lin Nuo walked to a huge obsidian wall and placed his right palm on the fingerprint recognition area.
Accompanied by a dull sound of mechanical gears engaging.
The wall slowly split to both sides, revealing a wide alloy passage.
At the end of the passage was a brightly lit underground training ground reinforced with high-purity Vibranium.
Lin Nuo turned sideways and made an extremely gentlemanly gesture of invitation.
"Go down. If you can last ten minutes inside, you can take her away."
"If you lose..."
The desire for plunder in Lin Nuo's eyes was no longer concealed, and his tone carried an irresistible overbearingness.
"You will stay in this manor, put on a maid outfit, and serve tea and water for Anna!"
Chapter 197: In the Eye of the Storm, Controlling Her Soul
Ororo did not waste words.
Her pale eyes reflected Lin Nuo's nonchalant posture.
Her toes left the ground abruptly, and her figure hovered high up in the alloy training ground.
The heavy alloy doors locked behind her.
This training ground utilized Star Umbrella's most advanced Vibranium coating technology, sufficient to withstand the direct impact of a small-scale nuclear weapon.
Lin Nuo casually took off his suit jacket and placed it on a rest chair at the edge of the training ground.
"Anna, go to Emma's side."
He was wearing only a white shirt, with the top button undone, revealing his defined collarbones.
His sleeves were rolled up to his forearms, his movements as elegant as if preparing for a banquet.
Anna glanced at him with some worry.
At Emma's signal, Anna hurried up to the reinforced observation room on the second floor.
Boom!
Without any warning, the airflow above the training ground began to churn violently.
Ororo gripped the air with both hands, and all the air within the enclosed space was compressed into several visible white cyclones within seconds.
Ororo's voice descended from high above, carrying the indifference of a deity.
"By stirring up a Storm in a confined space, your speed will be amplified a hundredfold by air resistance."
She waved her hand abruptly.
A terrifying vacuum zone exploded beneath Lin Nuo's feet.
A sub-zero cold current of minus fifty degrees, mixed with countless ice blades, shot toward the center from all directions.
This was her confidence as an Omega-level Mutant.
In her domain, the air was the most lethal guillotine!
However, Lin Nuo, standing in the center of the Storm, did not even move his feet.
His Bio-force field presented an eerie stability at this moment.
Those ice blades, capable of cutting through steel bars, seemed to enter a quagmire the moment they struck one centimeter from his body.
Lin Nuo raised his hand and tapped his fingertip lightly in the air.
Following his will, the Bio-force field forcibly pushed open an absolute static zone with a radius of two meters.
The gale howled outside the field, shattering the concrete structures simulated in the training ground.
But inside the field, the white jade tiles under Lin Nuo's feet didn't even stir up any dust.
He leisurely pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose, his tone calm enough to be infuriating.
"Not bad power, Ms. Ororo."
"But have you forgotten that the essence of airflow is the movement of molecules?"
"As long as my field strength exceeds your will, this air must obey me!"
Ororo's pupils contracted.
She had never seen anyone use pure physical defense to forcibly carve out a sanctuary in the center of her eye of the Storm.
"It's not over yet!"
Ororo let out a sharp cry and clasped her hands together.
The overhead lights went out completely under the massive electromagnetic induction.
The entire underground space plunged into darkness, with only the blue electric arcs leaping around Ororoilluminating the place like a pool of thunder.
Three massive bolts of lightning intertwined into a spear of lightning capable of piercing a deity.
With a piercing screech, it smashed down vertically from directly above!
For this strike, she used nearly ninety percent of her ability.
In the observation room.
Anna was so nervous that her palms were sweating, her whole body almost pressed against the reinforced glass.
"Mr. Lin Nuo..."
Emma swirled the red wine in her glass, her eyes filled only with playful amusement.
"Little sister Anna, the one you should be worried about is that white-haired woman."
Emma parted her red lips slightly, her voice charming.
"Master hasn't made a move yet; he is just enjoying the pleasure of being struck by lightning."
"After all, this level of massage is rarely seen in this Universe."
Boom!
The lightning spear struck the top of Lin Nuo's head directly.
The terrifying electric charge instantly spread throughout the entire training ground, and the floor began to vitrify under the high temperature.
The intense light forced Anna to close her eyes.
When the light dissipated, Ororo landed breathlessly on a broken stone pillar.
She was certain that no carbon-based lifeform could survive an electric shock of this energy level.
However, when the smoke cleared.
Lin Nuo was still standing in the same spot.
The white shirt on his body had been torn in half by the lightning strike, revealing his golden-ratio physique.
Every muscle radiated a faint dark golden glow, a phenomenon caused by the Asgard divine body after absorbing energy.
His hairstyle was slightly messy, but the gold-rimmed glasses still sat steadily on the bridge of his nose.
Even his tie hadn't shifted by a fraction.
Ororo's voice was trembling.
"How is this possible... You..."
This already exceeded her understanding of Mutants.
This wasn't defense at all, but a form of nearly absurd immunity!
Lin Nuo looked down at his torn sleeve and shook his head helplessly.
"This shirt was custom-made, Ms. Ororo."
"To punish your rudeness, I have decided to withdraw the 'gentlemanly courtesy' from just now."
He raised his head.
The gentleness in his black eyes vanished completely, replaced by a highly aggressive desire for plunder.
"Ten minutes are up."
Lin Nuo took a step forward.
As this step landed, the entire underground training ground seemed to experience a magnitude ten earthquake.
Massive telekinetic power mixed with the Bio-force field, instantly seizing all control of this space.
Ororo discovered with horror that she could no longer sense the atmosphere outside.
This underground space had been forcibly locked by Lin Nuo's telekinesis into an absolute vacuum bottle.
Lin Nuo's voice sounded in Ororo's ear, close at hand.
"Your ability relies on nature."
Ororo turned abruptly, but only saw an afterimage.
Bang!
Lin Nuo's fair, large hand accurately gripped Ororo's throat, pressing her entire body directly against the Vibraniumwall.
The immense impact force caused the entire wall to indent with a clear human shape.
Ororo struggled violently, her slender hands attempting to summon lightning to counterattack.
But whenever electric light flashed, the Hulk Gene within Lin Nuo would, through physical contact, reverse-pour that violent life force, forcibly dispersing her energy nodes.
"In my territory, even a Storm has to lie down for me!"
Lin Nuo's fingers tightened slightly, his fingertips feeling the pulse of the blood vessels in this Mutant heroine's neck.
A flush appeared on Ororo's handsome face due to suffocation.
Her originally divine, pale eyeballs finally returned to their original color at this moment.
Her pupils were filled with terror and despair.
Lin Nuo leaned in slightly, his breath hitting her side profile.
"Your body is trembling, Ororo."
"Is it because of fear, or because this feeling of being dominated reminds you of certain primitive impulses?"
Ororo squeezed a few words through her teeth.
"You... kill me..."
Lin Nuo let go, allowing Ororo to slide softly to the ground.
"Kill you? That would be too wasteful."
He looked down condescendingly at this Storm who once commanded the wind and rain on the battlefield.
His fingertips gently lifted her long, silver-white hair.
"I said, the loser has to put on a maid outfit."
Lin Nuo turned around and waved toward the direction of the observation room.
"Raven, bring the clothes down to her."
"Since Charles won't teach his subordinates manners, I'll teach them myself!"
Ororo leaned against the corner, breathing in fresh air deeply.
She looked at Lin Nuo's broad and slender back.
The pride in her heart as a superhero was disintegrating along with the shattered air.
Just then, Lin Nuo's footsteps paused.
He looked up at the monitoring system above the training ground.
On the screen, a low-key black car was parked outside the manor's main gate.
The sound of a wheelchair's motor seemed to transmit through the screen.
"It seems the main event has finally arrived."
The curve of Lin Nuo's mouth became increasingly wicked.
He looked back at the disheveled and humiliated Ororo, then at Anna on the second floor, who was looking at him with adoration.
"Go tell Charles that if he wants to take away his teacher, he must offer a price with more sincerity."
Lin Nuo leisurely undid the remaining shirt button and ordered Emma in the observation room.
"Invite Jean Grey in as well."
"A large-scale Shuraba like this wouldn't be complete without her as the female lead."
He turned his head toward the cold lens, as if meeting Charles's aged eyes.
"Now, it's my turn to make this move!"
Chapter 198: Extreme Control, Shattering Your Divinity
The light and shadow on the surveillance screen flickered slightly.
Lin Nuo stood in the center of the vacuum bottle he had personally sealed, allowing the surrounding air to be forcibly extracted by Ororo.
Ororo's silver hair rose in the violent electric field, and her pale eyes revealed a sense of determination. Since she could not take Anna away, she absolutely could not let such a dangerous monster continue to control this power.
She spread her arms, rapidly compressing the remaining nitrogen and oxygen in the entire training ground.
The originally invisible air, under Ororo's pressure, unexpectedly took on a liquid-like viscosity, transforming into a massive transparent sphere that trapped Lin Nuotightly at its core.
"Under this kind of pressure, even diamonds would be crushed into powder."
Ororo's voice carried a hoarseness caused by weakness. She had tapped into her life force, attempting to end Lin Nuo right here.
Inside the observation room.
Anna's cheek pressed against the reinforced glass, her fingernails making a harsh sound against the transparent material capable of withstanding missiles. The tinnitus caused by the drastic change in air pressure made her almost collapse to the ground.
"Mr. Lin Nuo..."
Emma continued to elegantly swirl her red wine glass. In her eyes as she looked at the screen, there was only the composure of someone watching a show.
"Little sister Anna, watch carefully. This is the posture of a Master."
At the center of that air sphere capable of crushing a tank.
Lin Nuo slowly raised his head.
His Hulk Gene was completely activated in this second, and every cell was undergoing frantic reorganization at the atomic level. His bone density increased to a superhuman level in an instant, sufficient to withstand the pressure of ten thousand meters in the deep sea.
Lin Nuo raised his right hand, his five fingers slowly curling shut.
That fair palm advanced slowly through the viscous air pressure, but carried a heaviness that seemed to shatter space.
Quicksilver's extreme speed erupted at this point.
His figure turned into a blurry afterimage. Ororo only felt her vision blur; that man who should have been crushed flat had actually appeared in front of the pressure-sensing pillar in the center of the training ground, which was as thick as a man could embrace, while resisting the ten-thousand-ton pressure.
"You..."
Ororo's pupils contracted violently.
Lin Nuo did not look at her, not even giving an extra glance to this high-and-mighty Storm.
He just threw a punch nonchalantly.
This punch had no flashy lightning, nor any violent gusts of wind.
All it had was an extremely condensed physical destructive power.
Bang!
The dull sound of impact made the entire underground estate tremble along with it.
That sensing pillar, cast from high-grade steel and connected to the entire physical support system of the training ground, disintegrated from the point of contact under Lin Nuo's fist, as if it were a fragile cracker.
The terrifying shockwave spread upwards along the support pillar, causing a fierce frequency cancellation with the Storm model Ororo had constructed.
In that second, the air sphere that was originally about to explode lost its core support.
It collapsed with a boom!
The airflow went out of control.
The energy that had originally been compressed to the extreme began to rebound chaotically.
Ororo let out a painful grunt as her slender body was slammed hard against the ceiling by the uncontrolled turbulence, and then she fell limply.
In her vision, the whole World was spinning.
Dust flew inside the training ground, and those simulated city ruins were shredded by the airflow, turning into countless sharp fragments.
"I'm going to get Anna killed..."
A thought emerged in Ororo's mind. This kind of destruction caused by her loss of control was her deepest fear for many years.
Just as she was about to crash onto the rubble-covered ground.
A pair of gentle yet powerful arms caught her steadily.
Ororo opened her eyes, her vision a bit blurry.
Lin Nuo's refined face was close at hand. His white shirt was completely shredded, and not even a single red mark was left on his exposed chest. That strong and powerful heartbeat was transmitted through his skin, carrying a palpitating sense of oppression.
Lin Nuo looked down at Storm in his arms.
Her black combat suit was damaged in many places from the earlier airflow, revealing large areas of dark red where it had been scorched by arcs of electricity. The fabric at her shoulders was even more shredded, revealing a slender, slightly trembling collarbone.
"You have lost, Ms. Ororo."
Lin Nuo's voice echoed in the empty ruins, carrying an unquestionable mockery in its magnetic tone.
He waved his hand casually, and his Bio-force field acted like a barrier, freezing the falling rubble around them in mid-air.
This was the gap.
Ororo could only create disasters.
While Lin Nuo could control order.
He carried Ororo, stepping over the ruins as he walked towards the observation room. With every step he took, the wild airflow around them, as if seeing its sovereign, quickly returned to calm.
Emma walked out of the observation room with Anna.
Anna rushed to Lin Nuo's side immediately. Her fair, bare hands touched Lin Nuo's arms nervously, and only after confirming he was uninjured did she glare hatefully at Ororo in Lin Nuo's arms.
"You almost killed us!"
There was a crying tone in Anna's voice; it was the breaking of the last bit of affection she had for the X-Men.
Ororo was placed by Lin Nuo on a clean medical bed.
Raven had already walked over with a few floating medical robots. Those mechanical arms began to treat Ororo's wounds with precision.
Lin Nuo took a warm white towel from Raven's hand and meticulously wiped the dust off his fingertips.
He looked down at Ororo from a high vantage point.
This hero, who was worshipped as a goddess in Africa, was curled up on the bed at this moment, her eyes filled with the confusion of a collapsed faith.
"Logan says you are saving the World, Charles says you are building the future."
Lin Nuo unhurriedly put his gold-rimmed glasses back on; the eyes behind the lenses revealed a rationality that chilled one to the bone.
"But what I see is only a child who never grows up, who only knows how to make a mess of everything around them, yet cannot even handle the consequences."
Ororo bit her lower lip, her voice weak. "We... we are working hard for coexistence..."
"Coexistence?"
Lin Nuo chuckled, his laughter full of undisguised mockery.
He turned around and made a gesture to Emma.
Emma handed over a black encrypted folder.
Lin Nuo casually tossed the folder onto Ororo's lap.
"Take a look at this."
Ororo opened it with trembling hands.
There were no complex charts in the folder, only high-definition real-life photos.
They were in the wilderness on the edge of Kenya, Africa.
Dozens of children only a few years old had been treated as demons by their local tribe because they had awakened mutant abilities. Their hands and feet were chained to dead trees, their bodies so thin they were nothing but skin and bone, their eyes filled with despairing dead silence.
And in the background of the photos, there was no blackbird jet of the X-Men, only a barbed-wire outpost established by Star Umbrella Group under the banner of humanitarianism.
"Just when you were sitting in a blackbird jet costing hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars, tearing places apart for an unconfirmed 'rescue target'."
Lin Nuo leaned over, his fingertips tapping lightly on that photo.
His breath sprayed onto Ororo's earlobe, bringing about a shudder of humiliation.
"These children, who share the same blood as you, are waiting to die in the mud."
"Charles's justice only exists on that neatly trimmed estate lawn."
Lin Nuo's voice became low and penetrating, like a precise carving knife, dissecting the hypocrisy Ororo least wanted to face in her heart.
"And I have provided them with bread, antibiotics, and an identity that allows them to survive."
Ororo's hands trembled violently, and the photos were almost crumpled in her hands.
This heavy blow on a realistic level caused her more pain than the punch just now.
Lin Nuo straightened up, no longer looking at the woman who had fallen into self-doubt.
He looked towards the direction of the door.
There, Jean Grey was pushing the door open, carrying a chill on her body.
Behind that beautiful red-haired mature woman, the sound of a wheelchair motor seemed particularly harsh in the quiet corridor.
Charles Xavier had finally arrived.
But the training ground at this moment was more like an execution platform prepared specifically for him.
Lin Nuo turned his head, revealing a perfect and provocative smile at the old man in the wheelchair.
His palm, slightly warm from the earlier battle, rested extremely naturally on Anna's delicate waist, and right in front of Professor X, he pulled the girl closer into his arms.
Lin Nuo tilted his head at Ororo, his tone flippant.
"Since you've come, don't be in such a hurry to leave."
"Charles, why don't you evaluate what your favorite student would look like if she wore the maid outfit I have here?"
Chapter 199: The Professor's Defeat, Sleepless Night, Redemption
In the ruins of the training ground, the scorching air had not yet dissipated.
Charles maneuvered his wheelchair, the faint whirring of the motor sounding exceptionally harsh in the deathly silent space.
He looked at Ororo, who sat slumped on the medical bed, her clothes disheveled and her face full of desolation, then turned to look at Anna, who was held in Lin Nuo's arms with one hand, her eyes filled with vigilance and rejection.
The thousands of words this Mutant leader had prepared were stuck in his throat at this moment.
"Charles, you are late."
Lin Nuo kept one hand in his pocket, the remnants of his white shirt hanging over his nearly perfect physique. He didn't bother putting on a jacket, instead naturally displaying his skin, which remained unscathed after hard-tanking the blizzard and thunder.
This intuitive physical intimidation caused Jean Grey, who was following behind Charles, to darken her gaze once more.
Jean could feel the telekinetic molecules drifting in the air spontaneously avoiding Lin Nuo. It wasn't resistance; it was submission.
"Mr. Lin Nuo, you have used excessive violence against my student."
Charles's voice remained steady, but a trace of coldness had already seeped into his wise eyes. He attempted to channel his telepathy to soothe Anna's restless emotions.
But just as his consciousness tentacles reached toward Anna, a pale red Bio-force field barrier stood in the way.
Lin Nuo adjusted the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose and tapped his fingertip lightly in the void.
"Put away that self-righteous'spiritual comfort,' Professor."
Lin Nuo's tone was gentle, but the words he spoke were like venomous carving knives.
"Ms. Ororo trespassed on my private territory and attempted to kidnap a patient currently receiving legal gene therapy from Star Umbrella. I am merely exercising a manor owner's right to self-defense."
Lin Nuo turned his head to look at Charles, who appeared somewhat aged in his wheelchair, a signature playful smirk hanging on the corner of his lips.
"What? Have you stayed in that neatly trimmed school for so long that you truly believe all the rules of this Worldmust revolve around your 'Mutant dream'?"
"Anna is one of our own; she needs guidance, not to be treated as some political bargaining chip."
Charles looked at Anna, his tone soft.
"Child, come back with me. There, you have friends and classes that will allow you to truly Master your power."
Anna shrank further into Lin Nuo's arms. Her fair, bare hands gripped the hem of Lin Nuo's shirt so tightly that her knuckles turned pale.
"Guidance?"
Anna let out a scoff full of sarcasm. She looked at this famous old man, her bright yellow pupils devoid of the awe they once held.
"In your school, I had to be behind an isolation wall just to breathe. But here, Mr. Lin Nuo allows me to take off my gloves and touch every leaf."
"Professor, your future is too distant. I only want the warmth of the present."
Anna's words were piercing.
Charles fell silent. He looked at Lin Nuo, knowing that in a very short time, this man had achieved total possession of this fragile girl, from spirit to body.
Jean Grey stepped forward, her nylon trench coat flapping in the cold wind of the corridor.
"Lin Nuo, we aren't here to listen to your speech. Ororo is injured, and we are taking her with us."
"Take her away?"
Lin Nuo acted as if he had heard some absurd joke. He turned to the side and sat back down with extreme elegance on the swivel chair next to the obsidian long table.
Emma Frost walked forward, understanding the cue. Her snow-white suit skirt formed a sharp contrast with the ruins.
She inserted a holographic projection card into the reader on the long table.
Hum—
A huge map of Africa unfolded in mid-air.
On the map, in multiple arid and barren regions such as Kenya, Somalia, and Niger, scarlet coordinate points were densely blinking.
Ororo, who had been lost in confusion, froze like she had been electrocuted the moment she saw these coordinates.
She was the revered goddess of that land; she knew better than anyone what those coordinates represented.
"What is this?" Jean Grey asked in a low voice, having keenly noticed that the red dots were accompanied by a large amount of transaction codes and Militaryidentification numbers.
"This is the 'Underworld' that Professor Charles cannot see."
Lin Nuo picked up the black coffee that Raven had handed back to him, the steam fogging up his lenses.
"In the past three months, several mercenary groups secretly funded by 'Trask Industries' have rounded up a total of six hundred and forty-two children who have awakened Mutant abilities at these coordinate points in Africa."
Lin Nuo's fingers swiped through the air, pulling up a blurry photo.
In the photo, several black boys were locked in rusty iron cages. Their necks were fitted with metal collars that suppressed their abilities, and their skin was covered in festering boils left behind after experiments.
"They are being treated as cheap biological batteries, or rather, raw materials for some kind of gene extraction fluid."
Lin Nuo's voice became low, echoing in the deathly silent training ground, causing Charles's fingers to tremble slightly.
"Ms. Ororo, one of these coordinates is just two kilometers away from your birthplace."
Ororo looked up abruptly, her originally dim pupils now surging madly with a tide of anger and guilt.
"Impossible... My people..."
"Your people are being slaughtered like pigs and sheep. Yet you, in a manor in the suburbs of New York, are teaching a few pampered Mutant children how to use their superpowers to save cats?"
Lin Nuo stood up and approached Ororo's hospital bed step by step.
His towering shadow completely enveloped this Stormgoddess.
"Charles, can't your 'brain wave enhancer' sense every Mutant in the World?"
Lin Nuo turned his head and issued the most fatal question to the old man in the wheelchair.
"Why, when these children were wailing in the mud, did you not let your blackbird jet land in those slums?"
Charles closed his eyes, his Adam's apple moving with difficulty.
"The political environment there is too complex... The Military's intervention would turn things into an all-out war. I am trying to find a more gentle approach."
"Gentle?"
Lin Nuo laughed unscrupulously; it was a Raider mocking the pedantry of the old guard.
"Is your gentle approach watching them get their chests cut open?"
"Listen well. Star Umbrella's private guard has arrived in the surrounding waters. In the next seventy-two hours, I will use every means at my disposal to forcibly open three evacuation routes and bring those hundreds of children back to North America."
Lin Nuo leaned over, his fingertips brushing across the section of Ororo's collarbone scorched by lightning.
"However, in that damn tropical jungle, I need a 'guide' who is familiar with every wind direction, can control local weather, and can cover the transport planes as they land in thunderstorms."
Ororo's breathing became rapid. She looked at Lin Nuo, her eyes filled with struggle.
She knew this was a trap. This man was using her sense of mission to turn her into his private tool.
But she couldn't refuse. These were her people, the kin she owed even in her dreams.
"You want me to stay."
Ororo's voice was very soft, yet carried a kind of fateful heaviness.
"No. It is I who am giving you a chance for redemption, Ms. Ororo."
Lin Nuo corrected her, straightened his body, and looked at Charles and Jean.
"From this moment on, Ororo Munroe will temporarily stay here to assist in the operation as a 'Star Umbrella Specially Appointed Weather Security Consultant'."
"As for Anna, she will serve as an observer for the operation. I will let her see with her own eyes who is truly protecting Mutants."
The hand Charles used to grip the armrest of his wheelchair was trembling violently.
What Lin Nuo threw out was not a bargaining chip, but a single-choice question.
If Charles forcibly took Ororo away now, it would be equivalent to personally cutting off the hope of survival for those six hundred-plus children in front of the World's media and Anna.
The reputation of the X-Men would instantly fall from "messengers of justice" to "race traitors."
Jean Grey looked at the rapidly jumping data packets on the tablet. As an Omega-level Mutant, she could sense the authenticity of those underlying data.
Lin Nuo was not lying. He had really deployed forces in that land, and with terrifying precision.
"Professor, the data is real."
Jean turned her head and shook it slightly at Charles. Her eyes also held a touch of complex emotion.
When exactly did this man start laying out his plans for Africa?
When he was settling accounts with Trask Industries in Washington, he already had these blood-stained lists in his hands.
Everything was within his calculations.
Charles revealed an unprecedented fatigue at this moment. He looked at Anna's adoring eyes, then at Ororo's face, which had rekindled a glimmer of light but was full of humiliation.
He knew that in this game, he had lost completely.
"Take good care of her, Lin Nuo."
Charles's voice carried a hoarseness of compromise.
"Don't misunderstand. My people, I will naturally 'take care' of very well."
Lin Nuo deliberately emphasized the word "take care." His palm, which rested extremely naturally on Anna's waist, was now rubbing it very discreetly.
"Emma, see them out. Our new consultant and I still have many details to discuss."
Jean Grey took a deep look at Lin Nuo. Before leaving, she could feel the sealed Phoenix Force within her emit a stronger palpitation as Lin Nuo's highly aggressive gaze swept over her.
It was the trembling of being targeted by a hunter.
The manor gates closed again.
The once noisy training ground returned to silence.
Ororo sat on the medical bed, watching the medical robots stitching up her wounds. She could feel her tattered combat uniform being forcibly removed by Raven, replaced by a set of extremely tight-fitting training clothes embroidered with the Star Umbrella logo.
That sense of humiliation from being stripped of her original identity was magnified infinitely as Lin Nuoapproached.
Lin Nuo walked to the bedside, looking down at her from a high position.
"Rescuing those children is what I promised you."
Lin Nuo reached out and lifted Ororo's chin, his gaze staring directly into her eyes, which had returned to blue.
"But in this World, there is no such thing as free redemption."
Ororo lifted her head, her chest heaving violently due to suppressing her emotions too much.
"After you save them, what exactly do you want?"
Chapter 200: Soul Chain, The Red-Haired Phoenix Enters the Cage
"I never play games, Ms. Ororo. Business is business."
Lin Nuo's slender fingers gripped the porcelain handle of his coffee cup, and he took a slow, deliberate sip.
The warm liquid slid down his throat.
His eyes, shielded by gold-rimmed glasses, were now wandering over Ororo without any attempt at concealment.
Ororo had changed into a black training suit customized by Star Umbrella.
The fabric was extremely tight.
The high-elasticity nanofiber tightly wrapped around her long, explosive legs, and her waist was cinched so tightly it seemed it could be spanned by a single hand.
Due to the fierce battle just moments ago, her breathing was still slightly rapid, and her full curves, rising and falling with her chest, outlined an eye-catching arc beneath the skintight suit.
Her long, silvery-white hair had been simply tied back with a black ribbon by Raven, revealing her smooth forehead and those blue eyes filled with humiliation.
"The first condition."
Lin Nuo set down his coffee cup and leaned forward slightly, the sense of oppression instantly enveloping the medical bed.
"Anna remaining here is based on her own free will. I need the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters to issue an official apology statement."
"The statement must clearly point out that last night's operation was a 'misunderstanding' caused by the school's faulty intelligence, and apologize to the Star Umbrella Group and Anna herself."
Professor Charles's hands tightened on his wheelchair, his knuckles turning white.
This was forcing him to personally nail the X-Men to the pillar of shame.
Once this statement was released, the reputation the school had accumulated over the years would be destroyed in an instant, and Lin Nuo would become that perfect, aggrieved philanthropist in the eyes of the media.
"This isn't fair, Lin Nuo."
Professor Charles's voice suppressed his rage.
"Fairness is reserved for the strong, Professor."
Lin Nuo turned his head and flashed a brilliant smile at the screen.
"The second condition, Ms. Ororo."
Lin Nuo turned to look at Storm on the hospital bed, his fingertips tapping lightly on the table.
"You will join Star Umbrella's rescue guard in your personal capacity. In all upcoming operations, every use of your abilities must be subject to my command."
"Simply put, in that African jungle, if I tell you to clear the skies, not a single cloud shall remain. If I tell you to strike with lightning, you must shatter the skulls of those armed militants."
"You want to turn me into your killing tool?"
Ororo bit her lip, her voice trembling.
"No, it is to make you the guardian deity of those hundreds of children."
Lin Nuo stood up and walked over to Ororo.
He reached out and placed his hand, with extreme naturalness, on her slightly trembling shoulder.
Through the thin nanofiber fabric, the warmth of his palm seeped directly into her skin. Ororo instinctively wanted to dodge, but under the gaze of Lin Nuo's cold eyes, she forced herself to stop.
"This kind of opportunity for redemption isn't something everyone can have. You can refuse, and then watch those children have their chests cut open, and go back to being your high-and-mighty teacher."
Lin Nuo's breath hit her cheek, carrying a clean scent of cedar.
Ororo closed her eyes, and two trails of tears slid down her cheeks.
"I agree."
The moment she spoke those two words, she felt her soul as a hero crumbling to pieces at the feet of this man.
"Very good."
Lin Nuo patted her shoulder, as if rewarding an obedient pet.
He looked back at the screen, his gaze locking onto the silent red-haired woman.
Jean Grey.
This carrier of the single-Universe-level source was currently staring at him with complex and guarded eyes.
"The third condition, and the most important one."
Lin Nuo paused for half a second, the curve of his lips becoming increasingly wicked.
"To ensure the transparency of the rescue operation, and also to put Professor Charles at ease, I need an 'observer'."
"Ms. Jean Grey, I invite you to stay at the Star Umbrella Manor for three days."
"During these three days, you will follow me throughout the rescue operations. Of course, for the convenience of communication, you will need to stay in the side chamber of my Master bedroom."
As soon as these words were spoken, the air in the training ground seemed to freeze instantly.
Emma stopped swirling her red wine, a flash of surprise passing through her long, beautiful eyes.
She knew the Master had a large appetite, but she didn't expect him to dare to reach out directly toward this most dangerous phoenix in front of Professor Charles.
"Absolutely not!"
Professor Charles let out a low roar.
He knew Lin Nuo's methods all too well.
How Anna fell, and how Ororo collapsed—he had seen it all.
Jean was not just a teacher at the school; the monster sealed deep within her, once utilized by a madman like Lin Nuo who had absolutely no moral bottom line, would lead to unimaginable consequences.
"Lin Nuo, you are playing with fire."
Professor Charles maneuvered his wheelchair forward a few inches; in the screen, he appeared exceptionally aged and furious.
"Jean is not a bargaining chip you can trade."
Lin Nuo shrugged, looking at Anna with an indifferent expression.
"Since the Professor doesn't agree, then this deal is void. Anna, it seems those six hundred-plus children are destined not to see tomorrow's Sun. What a pity; they could have run on the lawns of Star Umbrella just like you."
A thick layer of disgust added to the way Anna looked at Professor Charles.
She took Lin Nuo's hand, her tone icy.
"Is this the justice you speak of? Abandoning hundreds of compatriots just to protect one teacher?"
This accusation from one of his own stuck in Professor Charles's throat like a fishbone.
Just then, Jean Grey took a step forward.
Her red hair, flowing like flames, swayed gently in the wind.
"I agree."
Jean's voice was cold and clear, revealing a sense of determination.
"Jean! Are you crazy?"
Professor Charles turned his head sharply.
"Professor, this is the only way for now."
Jean looked at Lin Nuo in the screen.
The clash on the mental level just now had allowed her to see a dark golden chain beneath that dark throne.
It was an experience she had never had before.
That chain not only bound her consciousness, but even caused the frenzied seal within her to produce a strange sense of peace.
She wanted to figure out what kind of secret this man had grasped.
"Moreover, I also want to see how exactly Mr. Lin Nuointends to 'observe' me."
Jean specifically emphasized that word.
Lin Nuo clapped his hands, his eyes full of appreciation.
"As expected of Ms. Jean, this courage is much stronger than that wheelchair-bound mentor of yours."
He made an inviting gesture toward the screen.
"Star Umbrella's private car is already waiting at the school gate. For three days, I hope we can get along 'happily'."
Communication cut off.
In the training ground, Lin Nuo turned around and instructed Raven.
"Go and tidy up the suite next to the Master bedroom. Remember, use violet for the aromatherapy, and change the bed sheets to the highest-thread-count silk. Our observer, Miss, has very delicate skin."
Raven pouted a little with jealousy, but still obediently acknowledged and left.
Ororo sat on the medical bed, watching Lin Nuo's calm and unhurried back, a chill rising from the bottom of her heart.
This man was like a top-tier chess player.
Every step he took was calculating the opponent's retreat.
From the moment he took Anna away, the X-Men had already fallen into a meticulously woven spiderweb.
Anna had been tamed by his warm life force.
She herself had been kidnapped by him using the lives of her tribespeople.
And now, he was opening his arms, waiting for that most beautiful phoenix to throw itself into the trap.
...
New York State, suburban highway.
A black Star Umbrella recreational off-road vehicle was driving steadily through the curtain of rain.
Jean Grey sat in the spacious leather backseat.
She watched the scenery flying backward outside the window, her hands folded on her lap, but her fingertips were trembling slightly.
The Phoenix Force within her was restless.
The emotion of craving intertwined with fear made it almost impossible for her to maintain her surface calm.
Just then, Professor Charles's aged and solemn voice rang in her mind.
"Jean, listen."
Professor Charles's voice, through telepathy, appeared exceptionally clear, even carrying a hint of unprecedented trembling.
"That manor is a cage designed specifically for you."
"Lin Nuo possesses a certain method that can directly target genes and souls; absolutely do not attempt to pry into his memories."
Jean responded in her mind: "Professor, I can handle it. I have my own discretion."
"No, you don't."
Professor Charles's tone was unprecedentedly serious, even revealing a deep sense of frustration.
"Remember what I'm about to say; this is your final bottom line to preserve yourself."
"No matter what happens in those three days, no matter how he guides your power."
"Absolutely, absolutely do not let him touch that door deep within your memories."
Jean's heart jumped violently.
Before she could ask further, the vehicle slowed down.
The huge iron gate of the manor slowly opened in front of her.
On the steps of that white glass building, Lin Nuo had changed into a brand-new white shirt, wearing a neat tie, holding a black umbrella in his hand, standing quietly in the curtain of rain.
He looked at the car door, his face wearing that perfect gentleman's smile that made people sink into it.
Jean pushed open the car door and stepped onto the wet ground.
Lin Nuo stepped forward and tilted the black umbrella in her direction, exposing more than half of his shoulder to the rain.
He looked down at Jean's eyes, which seemed to have nowhere to rest, and lowered his voice, carrying a hint of seduction in its magnetism.
"Ms. Jean, the first lesson of these three days is to learn how to completely relax your mind in front of me."
He reached out his large, bony hand and directly grasped Jean's slightly cool wrist.
"After all, a phoenix's feathers are always prettiest when stroked in the right direction."
Jean felt that, under that grasp, the warning sounds Charles had left in her mind instantly receded like the tide.
Only the warmth of that man's palm remained, domineering and unrefusable, surging straight to her brain along her meridians.
She couldn't help but raise her head, meeting Lin Nuo's eyes, which were as pitch-black as an abyss.
"What exactly do you want to do to me?"
Lin Nuo chuckled, his fingers gently stroking the pulse on her wrist.
"It hasn't even started yet; why are you in such a rush?"