Chapter 154: Conquering the Chitauri

Lin Yu did not know he was a guest who had breached the boundary; the chat group had always been in a countdown state of activation, ensuring that even past and future along the same timeline maintained identical time flow rates.

But Lin Lie was different—he was originally a member of this world’s group and did not need to keep the chat group constantly active.

To understand what influenced the time flow rate, he’d have to wait until he returned…

As Lin Yu thought this, he took out the Time Stone and returned it to Wong as agreed.

“Looks like everything went smoothly.”

Female Wong smiled as she accepted the Time Stone and placed it inside the Eye of Agamotto.

Lin Yu shook his head and sighed softly: “Too smooth—it’s suspicious.”

“Normal,” chuckled White Beard Wong. “Those who toy with time shall be toyed with by time… except you.”

The four group members gathered around, asking about what had happened in the future.

White Beard Wong, seeing this, smiled and said: “Since the matter is settled, I should return. Lin Yu, do not forget our agreement…”

With that, White Beard Wong’s body burst with golden light and vanished through a small dimensional portal.

Lin Yu glanced at the direction he had disappeared and smiled faintly: “Don’t worry—I won’t forget.”

Afterwards, he and the other group members remained at the New York Sanctum, chatting about events in the future universe and their impressions of using the six Infinity Stones to snap, while waiting for Lin Lie’s return.

After about two hours, Lin Lie finally appeared on the rooftop of the New York Sanctum.

Lin Yu waved his hand, teleporting him into the living room, then asked: “How did it go?”

Lin Lie smiled: “I didn’t fail you!”

The four group members exchanged glances, astonished: “Did you really bring Natasha back to life?”

Lin Lie emphasized: “Not me—it was my future self!”

Then he began recounting his experiences with his future self.

After listening, Lin Yu murmured in amazement: “Your system actually has some tricks—it managed to bypass the Soul Stone’s rules and swap Natasha’s soul back!”

“Just a clever workaround—it still can’t match the chat group.”

Lin Lie shook his head. To restore Natasha required the Soul Stone; without it, Vision and Gamora couldn’t be revived. In a sense, this still operated within the Infinity Stones’ rules.

The chat group was unaffected by world rules—no matter how it split, it remained singular, proving its rank far surpassed his system.

Fan Xian chuckled: “Low stats don’t mean weak mechanics—this revival coin alone is impressive!”

Lin Yu changed the subject: “By the way, there’s another question—your 2014 universe has been drastically altered. Has it become an independent parallel universe?”

“Correct!”

Lin Lie nodded: “Of the three timelines, only 2013 remained unchanged. The other two are parallel universes.”

Su Haoming mused: “If they’re parallel universes, then losing the Infinity Stones shouldn’t matter, right?”

“… ”

Lin Lie smiled, then flipped his hand and pulled a purple stone from his system inventory.

Su Haoming’s eyes lit up: “I knew it!”

Lin Lie turned to Lin Yu and handed him the stone, smiling: “I talked with my future self—we agreed to keep this Power Stone. Since 2014 is now a parallel universe and Thanos is dead in 2023, it’s better to bring it back to you than leave it for future Ronan.”

Here, Lin Lie paused, regretful: “Too bad I couldn’t tell the future Avengers—so I couldn’t ask future Tony to build an Infinity Gauntlet…”

Lin Yu smiled slightly: “No problem—I have a better container.”

Saying this, he raised his hand and removed the pendant from around his neck.

A silver glow erupted as the fingertip-sized pendant transformed into a thick holy scripture.

The engraved relief of Longlong Rock on its cover twisted and sank, revealing six hollows.

The next instant, three stones glowed and slowly embedded themselves into the scripture, perfectly matching the hollows.

Thus, Lin Yu had collected the Space Stone, Mind Stone, and Power Stone—only the Time, Reality, and Soul Stones remained.

Gazing at the three stones pulsing with power on the cover, Lin Yu smiled in satisfaction, then flipped his hand and produced a copied dimensional secret technique, handing it to Lin Lie.

“What’s this?”

Lin Lie took it curiously.

Lin Yu smiled: “It’s a copied dimensional technique from the original Book of Dark Gods—it can cross dimensions to locate parallel world counterparts in the multiverse.”

“If you master this technique, you might even communicate across dimensions with your parallel selves.”

“What’s it called again? Simultaneously traveling the Marvel multiverse?”

Hearing Lin Yu’s teasing remark, the group members exchanged glances and couldn’t help but complain: “System flow, chat group, simultaneous travel—you’re clearly the real protagonist!”

“Not at all, not at all!”

Lin Lie felt embarrassed but eagerly accepted the dimensional technique.

He’d been worried the time was too short to learn more sword techniques from his future self!

With this, not only could he consult his future self about sword arts—he could even create a Lin Lie group spanning all universes!

…

…

About forty hours later, Su Haoming and the other four group members returned to their own worlds.

Lin Yu did not rush to the neighboring universe; instead, he planned to stay here for a while.

The reason was simple: Ling Hua No. 2, which he had named “War Goddess,” had taken control of the mothership and returned to the Chitauri homeworld while he was in the future, preparing to recruit and reinforce troops.

But unfortunately, the Chitauri’s supreme leader, TheOther, had already sworn allegiance to Thanos.

Without Lin Yu present, Ling Hua No. 2 dared not rashly challenge his authority.

To bolster Ling Hua No. 2’s standing, Lin Yu personally arrived and unveiled the Demon God Scripture embedded with three Infinity Stones.

In an instant, TheOther’s mothership was engulfed by the purple light of the Power Stone and utterly erased into nothingness.

Witnessing Lin Yu’s terrifying power and the Power Stone’s might, Chitauri nobles not under the Hive Network’s control defected, pledging loyalty to Lin Yu.

Such drastic power shifts could not escape Thanos’s notice.

Sensing the Chitauri rebellion, Thanos erupted in rage and immediately led his army to crush it.

But before departing, he finally received the final intelligence transmitted by TheOther before his death.

Thanos already knew the outcome of the New York battle and had acquired intelligence on the mysterious cosmic deity from Earth.

When he discovered that Lin Yu—the wielder of three Infinity Stones—was behind the Chitauri’s downfall, Thanos’s expression changed. After hesitation, he chose to follow his instincts and aborted this suicidal campaign.

After all, he had more than just Chitauri as his lackeys—letting them go to Lin Yu was no loss.

Compared to these cannon fodder with only numerical strength, he preferred not to confront a cosmic deity under these circumstances.

Thus, Lin Yu effortlessly conquered the Chitauri and made Ling Hua No. 2 the sole Hive Consciousness, leading the entire Chitauri race into a new era of development and journey.

During this process, other group members of the chat group were also busy digesting the gains from this journey.

Among them, Li Shimin—who had not participated in this event—reaped the greatest rewards.

The reason was simple: as Emperor of Shu Han, he possessed the ability to change his nation top-down, making his actions far easier than those of group members unwilling to claim kingship.

Moreover, after the New York battle, group members including Fan Xian and Xiang Yunye had seized numerous black technologies.

Alone, the Chitauri’s foldable energy rifles exceeded four hundred—truly a bountiful harvest.

Such a massive quantity of Marvel-world black-tech energy weapons naturally rendered obsolete all modern firearms previously purchased by them in the One Man Underworld.

But obsolescence didn’t mean destruction; after surveying their options, the group members realized only Li Shimin, also a group member, could benefit from them.

A windfall from heaven—Li Shimin grinned broadly and accepted everything without refusal.

In the end, he acquired all the firearms at an extremely low price, combined with the armor he had commissioned from He Jing, finally arming a thousand-man Xuanjia Firearm Army.

The so-called Xuanjia armor was made of titanium alloy and modern special steel.

The joints were reinforced with modern fibers like Kevlar, the inner armor layered with composite inserts of modern fibers and rubber sheets, plus non-Newtonian fluids and artificial cartilage as shock absorbers—capable of resisting blade attacks while absorbing partial blunt-force impacts.

Paired with the armor was a helmet forged from titanium alloy and fiberglass—lightweight, durable, unobstructing vision, and possessing terrifying defense against volleys of arrows.

This armor would be an overwhelming advantage if deployed in the Three Kingdoms era.

Aside from direct hits by siege crossbows or being doused with molten metal during assaults, Li Shimin could think of no way to counter it.

Even without firearms, he was confident he could lead this steel army to conquer the world.

Even if Cao Cao were resurrected and all eighteen warlords united, they would be nothing but weak chickens and frail dogs before him!

Faced with the emperor’s endless stream of wondrous inventions, Zhuge Liang and the Shu Han ministers were utterly astonished.

But for some reason, everyone silently agreed to keep quiet, merely accepting the divine artifacts, arming the troops, and preparing for next spring’s second northern expedition.

Yet deep down, everyone—including Zhuge Liang—knew full well.

This time, the outcome will be utterly different from the last!

(End of Chapter)