Chapter 873

New York.

Manhattan.

The first snow of 2016 had already fallen quietly last night; in the span of one night, it had covered the entire New York City in a thick white cotton coat.

And in the backyard of 521A Palm Street, there was a snowman sitting cross-legged under a tree.

Looking from afar, the snowman's outline was distinct.

Looking closely—

Hawk's eyes were slightly closed, sitting cross-legged under the tree, letting the heavy snow that had fallen all night dress him up like a snowman.

Within the Phoenix Universe.

Above the River of Time.

Hawk, who had now stepped into the forbidden zone of the Eighth Sense of Life, looked at the Eighth Sense gate that was close at hand but seemed far away, his eyes flickering.

The next second.

Hawk once again stepped his right foot toward the portal symbolizing the Eighth Sense of Life.

But!

The moment he stepped his right foot out, the originally quiet and empty surroundings began to howl with evil winds, and immediately, seemingly endless vengeful spirits emerged, ignoring his defenses, appearing before him, behind him, and beneath his feet, and then instantly wrapped around him, attempting to stop his advance.

More vengeful spirits screamed and merged, wrapping around his right foot, trapping it tightly so he couldn't put his foot down forward.

"Jie jie jie!"

"You cannot!"

"Hawk Phoenix, you are an executioner!"

"Murderer."

"You are not qualified to step here."

"Return the hundreds of thousands of lives in Wakanda!"

"Return the hundreds of thousands of lives in Talokan!"

"Return my Heaven dimension..."

"Return my..."

"Boom!"

Sitting under the tree, Hawk, who was trying to follow the Buddha's path of 'enlightenment under the tree', suddenly opened his eyes amidst the countless vengeful and desperate roars of the spirits.

The aura of the Phoenix erupted, appearing from Hawk's body and sweeping across the surroundings in a ring.

The next moment.

The white snow in the backyard melted instantly, and the ground was no longer damp.

At this moment, Hawk was like a god and a demon.

Hawk, sitting under the tree, had his right leg bent at the knee, stepping firmly on the ground, while his left leg hung naturally to the side, and phoenix flames almost swallowed his entire body.

And under the fierce burning of the phoenix flames, roars and screams constantly emerged from the black smoke steaming from the flames.

Phoenix fire is the fire of life, and even more so, the fire of karma.

By the time the phoenix flames dissipated, the countless vengeful spirits that had followed Hawk from the Eighth Sense gate to this universe were all burned to nothing.

Hawk was expressionless, his eyes staring straight ahead.

After that one time he burned an entire galaxy to see his wife Gwen in the 828 universe, he hadn't gone anywhere else after returning to Earth.

After Hawk returned, he stayed at home, ignoring the world outside, focusing on comprehending the Eighth Sense, whose essence is life.

For the Sixth Sense, he took a shortcut by using the 'Phoenix never dies, only reincarnates' characteristic, letting himself walk on the edge of death.

For the Seventh Sense, he also took a shortcut by using the 'Mind Stone, infinite mind' characteristic, successfully entering the Seventh Sense Golden Universe.

But...

When it came to the Eighth Sense, because the essence of the Eighth Sense is life,

So!

There is no shortcut for the Eighth Sense.

Because everyone's understanding of life is different.

If the Eighth Sense were replaced by something in the Marvel universe, it would be divine fire.

And the comprehension of the Eighth Sense of Life, metaphorically, is equivalent to how you ignite your own divine fire.

Only by igniting the divine fire can the essence of your life truly be called a god.

The Celestial Ego's definition of his own life was infection.

He tried to use his own bloodline as a virus to erode and occupy the entire universe.

And Odin...

Odin's definition of his own life was conquest.

Conquering the Nine Realms, conquering the universe.

Unfortunately, both of them could be considered to have started their business but collapsed halfway.

But whether it was Ego or Odin, their definitions of life were only their own, not Hawk's.

Hawk could learn from them, but he couldn't imitate them.

To imitate is to die.

Therefore, in the days since he returned, Hawk hadn't stepped out of his door, trying to find his own life by understanding Odin's and Ego's insights on life.

Hawk had also found it.

Unique!

This was Hawk's own definition of his life.

He is unique.

Because he is a transmigrator, his soul is unique; even if there are 'him's in the multiverse, those 'Hawks' still have essential differences from this 'Hawk'.

Also, all his great power belongs to himself.

He is the Phoenix, he is the Wutong World Tree, and he is the Phoenix Universe.

So—

Unique, this was Hawk's definition of his Eighth Sense of Life, and it was precisely when Hawk made the definition of 'unique' for his life that the portal to the Eighth Sense appeared from the void with a bang.

As long as he could push open the portal to the Eighth Sense, he could truly merge with the source of the Phoenix Universe that was perfectly compatible with him, completely completing the transformation of his life essence from 'human' to 'god'.

The moment he blasted open the Eighth Sense portal, he would no longer be Hawk Phoenix, but the Phoenix Main God.

A true main god.

Unfortunately.

He still couldn't walk to the Eighth Sense portal.

There were two reasons.

The first was the universe itself.

This universe did not allow a second existence that completely transcended its time to appear.

Regardless of whether it was the universe's instinct in charge or Grees.

In a word.

This universe would never allow someone as awesome as Zeus to appear again.

Therefore, even though Hawk had clearly seen the Eighth Sense portal, every time he stepped out, known enemies and unknown enemies on his timeline would swarm out, desperately pulling his legs, making it difficult for him to take a step toward the Eighth Sense portal.

Of course.

Besides the malice of the universe itself, there were also his own reasons.

But!

"Damn Zeus!"

"What on earth did you do when you transcended."

Adhering to the principle that it's better to insult others than to have internal friction, Hawk couldn't help but complain, wishing he could run to Zeus's divine court, grab Zeus by the collar, and angrily ask him what he did when he transcended back then.

Because theoretically, the universe should be very happy about his transcendence, not the malicious way it was now.

Let's put it this way.

The universe was already disgusted and full of malice toward him, but unfortunately, the universe couldn't drive him away.

And now that Hawk was transcending and could leave this universe, from this perspective, the universe couldn't be said to be celebrating, but at least it should be happy to see it happen.

But what happened?

Every time he tried to walk toward the Eighth Sense gate, the universe's suppression of him became infinitely large, giving him the intuition that it would rather die than let him transcend.

This was completely unreasonable.

Unless...

Thanos lied, and Grees hadn't actually left, but was still hiding in this universe.

But this was impossible.