Chapter 1161: Stepping Into the End of the Prime Timeline (First Update!)

The sky was gray-yellow.

Like a tattered linen cloth repeatedly washed and rubbed before being discarded, the light struggled to pierce through this gray-yellow curtain, dyeing the entire sky into its current hue.

The earth groaned beneath his feet.

Having passed through the Hell Dimension Gate and successfully sneaked into the 616 Prime Timeline without a sound, Hawk looked at the surface before his eyes.

The surface was covered in deep, wide cracks, resembling a riverbed dried up for billions of years, or like a massive mouth full of black wrinkles, brutally torn open by an invisible giant hand.

And in the distance, the cities had vanished; they could no longer even be called houses or buildings.

Now, they were merely twisted black bones growing out of the earth.

Reinforced concrete beams and columns pierced the filthy sky at eerie angles, much like arms struggling to stretch out before death.

On the walls that had collapsed halfway, charred window holes still remained.

A complex smell permeated the air as well.

A heavy scent of earth.

An inescapable smell of burning.

But the most important was another scent.

Death!

Having recovered his senses, Hawk walked through the city ruins that had currently already become a wasteland, feeling the deathly aura around him that could not be erased, seeping almost into the very marrow of the bricks and stones.

The entire city was empty; Hawk walked within it and could not even hear the sound of a crow, only his own footsteps, which were very clear in this now spacious city.

What happened here?

Did the universe itself feel it had destroyed its timeline, grew too lazy to fabricate a new one, and thus absolutely forced this spacetime to step into the end?

Hawk thought as such, and for a moment, felt like using the Infinity Gems to investigate what this spacetime had experienced after his departure.

But he could not!

In this sub-timeline, he could still wield a portion of the Infinity Gems' power without being detected by the 616 universe itself.

But in the Prime Timeline, the moment he used even a sliver of the Infinity Gems' power that no longer existed in this spacetime, he would be instantly detected by the 616 universe itself.

Although Hawk did not mind doing so, that was only after he figured out exactly what had happened here.

So—

Just as Hawk was thinking about what to do next, even without relying on the Infinity Gems, his naturally sharp hearing captured a faint footstep coming from three blocks away.

It sounded like the silent walking in Delta Force.

Hawk raised an eyebrow.

The next second.

He vanished from the spot.

And in a ruin three blocks away from Hawk, a woman wearing a garment resembling plain linen, which wrapped her entire body tightly, was currently carrying a large bag, walking cautiously among the ruins' cover, and occasionally stopping her steps to look at the gray-yellow sky through the cover.

It seemed as if some huge danger was hidden above that sky.

Hawk also looked at the gray-yellow sky following the woman's gaze, then, looking at the woman in front of him who had her back to him and seemed to sigh with relief after withdrawing her gaze, he could not help but speak out.

"What are you looking at?"

"..."

Hearing the voice coming from behind her, the woman's figure suddenly stiffened.

The next second.

Swish!

A battle axe that looked somewhat aged appeared in the woman's hand; immediately after, the woman instantly turned around and swung an axe at Hawk, who had appeared behind her at an unknown time.

Hawk's sword eyebrows raised, and he extended his right hand.

Clang!

The moment his right hand gripped the battle axe, a sound of metal colliding instantly rang out; the sound itself was not loud, but in this now silent city, it was like the great bell in a temple being struck in the dead of night.

Hawk very clearly saw the change in the eyes of the woman before him who had covered herself tightly, revealing only her pair of eyes.

When the woman saw him catch her axe with his bare hands, her eyes held only shock, but after this sound rang out, her eyes shifted from shock to terror in one second, and this terror was the kind of terror that came from the marrow.

The next second.

Before Hawk could think deeply, he saw the woman before him almost without hesitation release her right hand holding the battle axe, then turn around without looking back and run frantically but very quickly toward the depths of the ruins.

Watching the woman's somewhat strange behavior, Hawk frowned slightly, but did not choose to follow her; instead, he continued to raise his gaze, looking at the gray-yellow sky the woman had just been looking at.

If nothing unexpected happened, the thing that made the woman so frantic should come from within the gray-yellow sky, and that thing seemed to be attracted by sound.

Hawk was very curious what this Wanyi Society would be.

But just as he was preparing to wait for this thing to descend, the woman who had originally been running quickly toward the depths of the ruins suddenly stopped her steps, turned her head to look at Hawk who was still staying in place, looking at the sky with incredibly clear eyes, her thoughts turned rapidly at this moment, then she gritted her teeth, quickly turned back, grabbed Hawk's arm, and spoke in an urgent voice.

"Run quickly!"

"..."

By the time Hawk reacted, the woman was already pulling him and running toward the depths of the ruins.

Hawk hesitated slightly, did not refuse the woman's invitation, and followed the woman, quickly shuttling through the city ruins.

The woman seemed to be extremely familiar with the terrain of these ruins; in the skill of a blink, she brought Hawk to the city's original sewer system.

The moment Hawk followed the woman into the sewer that had currently already dried up and was similarly covered in dust, he felt two cold weapons pressing against his body, while two voices deliberately lowering their volume came through.

"Don't move!"

"Don't speak, be quiet, shut up!"

Hawk did not speak; he only watched as the woman who had brought him in, with the help of another person, jointly stitched up the hole they had just drilled through, and after that, the other person even took out a device and quickly filled the gaps in the hole with something resembling expanding foam.

But after finishing all this, the woman and her companion did not relax because of it; instead, they both pressed their ears against the hole, seemingly listening intently to the movements outside.

Even the man holding Hawk hostage with two cold weapons looked up at the ceiling of the sewer pipe with a serious and tense expression, also listening intently to something.

At this moment, Hawkeye naturally did not speak up to ask what they were doing; instead, he mimicked these people and listened for sounds from outside.

Indeed.

He really heard it.

Someone seemed to have arrived in the sky, hovering directly above the spot where he and the woman had just been standing, as if observing something.

The woman and her companion heard it too, and the tension on their faces visibly intensified.

Hawkeye severely suspected that at this moment, these people's hearts had already risen to their throats.

However, the visitor who appeared outside did not stay long; after observing that nothing was amiss, they flew away from here.

Yes.

Flew away.

But just as Hawkeye was about to speak, Yu Guang caught the woman's expression not relaxing, so he instantly fell silent.

Indeed.

After flying away, the visitor outside flew back again, continued to hover overhead, and then remained motionless once more.

Good lord.

Playing military strategy now?

Hawkeye thought to himself.

The next second.

The sound of flying away came again; after three minutes passed and no more sounds came from outside, the expression on the woman's face finally eased slightly.

After seeing the woman's state, her companion also involuntarily let out a sigh of relief.

The next second.

The woman fixed her gaze on Hawkeye.

Just as Hawkeye was about to open his mouth, the woman made a shushing gesture directly at him, then nodded toward the companion beside her.

The companion understood, took an earpiece and a bone-conduction device from a pocket, stuffed the earpiece into Hawkeye's ear, and pressed the bone-conduction device against Hawkeye's Adam's apple.

Immediately after, a voice appeared in Hawkeye's ear.

"Who are you?"

"Hawkeye!"

Hearing this clear, cold voice, Hawkeye looked at its owner—the woman who had just brought him here and was clearly the leader here as well: "You are..."

"Andy!"

The woman...

No.

Although wrapped in a full-body linen cloth, the woman Andy, whose defined figure was still faintly visible, looked at Hawkeye with wary eyes.

"Where did you pop out from?"

"I came from hell."

"..."

Hawkeye spoke the truth.

But clearly, this woman named Andy in front of him did not believe it.

Hawkeye was direct.

"Who are you hiding from? What happened in this timeline?"

"..."

Upon hearing this, Andy's gaze at Hawkeye changed: "You don't even know about the Cleaners?"

"The Cleaners?"

Hearing this name with a distinct Celestial style, Hawkeye frowned, then looked at Andy: "What about the Avengers?"

Upon hearing this, Andy looked at Hawkeye with a strange expression: "You don't know about the Cleaners, yet you know about the Avengers?"

Hawkeye smiled slightly: "I am also curious; you know about the Avengers, yet you don't know me."

After all, from a certain perspective, he counted as one of the Avengers.