Ch 391: Playing The Villain Again

It seems everyone left. A couple of the remaining people are old acquaintances, the tight-lipped kind. And then there’s one more… damn, he smells so good. Compared to Logan, it’s like the difference between a firefly and the sun; the gap is simply immeasurable.

So, not at all ashamed, Dark Phoenix wiped her mouth, then opened her mouth and sucked. The life force she had just expelled was drawn back in.

Uh… as for whether something else was added… hey, don’t worry about that. Anyway, when the Phoenix devours an entire planet and absorbs its life force, there are always things that cause human discomfort.

Let’s just pretend we didn’t see it.

Look, Professor X and Magneto are so considerate; they’re just pretending not to see it.

“Speak!” Dark Phoenix stared intently at Ye Xiao, her desire to consume utterly unrestrained. If Ye Xiao agreed, she felt she might have found a long-term meal ticket. “You deliberately sent them away, leaving only us. It’s not just that we and they are on different paths, is it?”

“Now, Lao Wan, this is your fault. Didn’t you tell me the Phoenix was an idiot?” Ye Xiao feigned being tricked, looking at Magneto with dissatisfaction. “Look at how smart she is! You didn’t even realize she’d already asked the question. No wonder you’ve never succeeded all these years; it’s because you lack brains. By the way, is stupidity hereditary? Oh~ Are you afraid your daughter won’t find a husband, so you’re asking me to take over?”

Regardless of whether he has a daughter, even if he did, it was a long time ago. He witnessed humans hunt down his young and innocent daughter, and from then on, he embarked on a path of opposing humanity.

Certainly, he yearned to secure the rightful power for mutants, but wasn’t that also a way to take revenge for his daughter?

However, there was one point Magneto refused to admit.

“When did I ever say the Phoenix was an idiot?”

He was afraid that if he didn’t clarify, Dark Phoenix would come looking for trouble. He could see the look in Dark Phoenix’s eyes was already off.

“Hey, no need to explain, there are no outsiders here!” Ye Xiao vigorously slung mud at Magneto, casually spouting unfounded things. “You forgot, the last time we had dinner together, you said the Dark Phoenix was easy to fool, that you could trick her into being your henchwoman with just a few words. You also said that if Wolverine hadn’t interfered, you would have already succeeded. Though you would have died in Dark Phoenix’s indiscriminate attack, the power she revealed would have been enough to intimidate all of humanity.”

“You used your own death to prove to humanity that the Dark Phoenix is capricious. If humanity wants to fool Dark Phoenix, they should first consider whether they can withstand her anger if she finds out!”

“Fine, even if you don’t admit that, you have to admit the Charles thing, right?”

“Previous technology might not have been able to, but it’s the twenty-first century now, and medical technology has made great strides. If Charles went to the hospital for a checkup, even if he couldn’t be completely cured, he could still walk normally!”

“Besides, aren’t there mutants if medicine can’t solve the problem?”

“Mutants have all kinds of strange abilities. Not to mention the distant ones, just take a recent example: Charles’s son, Legion, could easily cure his father’s legs.”

“But why hasn’t Charles been successfully treated?”

“You said it yourself; it was your doing. You spread the word in the underworld that anyone who dared to treat Charles was your enemy!”

“You, the famous Magneto, have been in the top five of the world’s most dangerous terrorist organizations for years!”

“If you don’t admit this, I have more evidence to prove you’ve been talking badly about others behind their backs!”

“It can’t be cured!” Dark Phoenix suddenly interjected. “Jean Grey tried!”

The Phoenix Force possesses powerful life force. Its host, even with instinctive use, can achieve near immortality when applied to themselves and rapid healing for others.

Logically, unless they’re dead or in special circumstances, like Deadpool’s self-related illness, the life force should work.

Let alone Professor X’s leg disability due to spinal cord injury; even if he suffered a complete comminuted fracture and became a bedridden vegetable, the life force could restore him completely.

But it just wouldn’t work. Jean Grey tried many times, and the life force, upon entering Professor X’s body, was like sinking into the deep ocean.

It might have something to do with the amount injected. Injecting too much would awaken the dormant Dark Phoenix.

Professor X’s mental barrier simply couldn’t contain the Dark Phoenix; she’s just too lazy to move.

After all, every time she’s active, it consumes a lot of energy, and she doesn’t get it replenished. If Wolverine hadn’t come later, allowing her to secretly absorb some to replenish herself, the energy in the Phoenix fragments would have eventually been depleted by Jean Grey.

“Well, I know!” Ye Xiao certainly knew. It was related to the writers’ settings. Each generation of versions has a different god. The Magneto from this other world is a lonely man; his wives and children all died. The Magneto he knew had Wanda and Pietro, and another daughter, Northstar, he didn’t even know about.

The latter is practically his clone, just without his powerful control abilities.

“Alright, no more fooling around. Let’s talk business,” he said, seemingly killing Kang with a single blow. But the causal power of the kill had almost depleted all of Ye Xiao’s energy. “Following the usual steps, after killing Kang, I’ll destroy this entire universe and take all the energy to replenish myself. You can think of me as a mercenary; after all, nobody would do this thankless job without some benefits, right?”

After roughly explaining his purpose for being there, the Sacred Timeline, the time loop, and the reasons for killing Kang, Ye Xiao continued, while even Dark Phoenix was still dazed, digesting the information: “This is unavoidable. If I don’t do this, the infinitely expanding world will accelerate the self-destruction of the entire multiverse. In fact, the multiverse’s self-preservation has already begun…”

The Vishanti entrusted the Ancient One, the Ancient One entrusted Wong, Wong couldn’t find Ye Xiao, so he entrusted Jiang Chen and others. Jiang Chen and others couldn’t find Ye Xiao, so they entrusted Deadpool, who might know Ye Xiao’s whereabouts, and Harley, who knew his whereabouts for sure.

After going around in circles, the news reached Ye Xiao.

When they met in Fatty’s world, the Ancient One told them that a major event was about to happen in the Marvel world, something affecting everyone.

This major event was the “Multiverse Collision Event!”

Kang’s Sacred Timeline seemed to unify the time of different universes to a certain extent. But different universes have different developments. In some, Big Shots could do what Kang did, or even better. Why didn’t they unify?

Because they couldn’t bear the consequences of unification!

Suppose one universe’s lifespan is ten billion years, while another’s is twenty, thirty, or even more billion years. The shorter-lived universes would be the first to perish.

Life generates energy; death also generates energy.

The entire Marvel Universe can be seen as a large pool; the amount of water in the pool is fixed. The multiverse can be seen as individual pipes.

One end of the pipe connects to the pool, and the other end connects to another pool. This pool is also called Marvel, but this pool also has pipes, connecting to the former.

The pipes are one-way; one end can only output water, and the other end can only input water.

If the former is numbered one and the latter is numbered two, when the water from pool one flows into pool two, the amount of water in pool one decreases.

When the amount of water in pool two reaches a limit, it will replenish pool one.

While flowing back and forth, there is also a slight loss of water, and the intense sun also causes the water in the pool to evaporate.

With this increase and decrease, when a balance is barely reached, the total energy of the entire Marvel Universe is constantly being lost. When the total energy is completely lost, the Marvel Universe will be completely destroyed.

Of course, whether it will restart is unknown, but even if it does, it has nothing to do with those who lived in the previous restart.

The time of different universes is like the pipes; the quality of the pipes varies. The lower-quality pipes fail prematurely, which is equivalent to losing that flow line.

With the line gone, the increase and decrease between the two pools will be reduced. Given that the evaporation rate remains unchanged, the total water in the two pools will be consumed more slowly.

Kang’s actions were equivalent to replacing some poor-quality pipes with good ones, thus allowing some lines that should have been cut off to continue.

And he cleverly thought of the time loop, which was equivalent to building a new pool himself, stealing water sources from the two pools.

The water in the two pools was already constantly decreasing, and he built a new pool, which undoubtedly accelerated the total water loss and depletion in the two pools.

He was enjoying himself, hiding in the time loop, playing different roles, experiencing different lives, and enjoying the pleasure of being the only one awake while the world is drunk.

The Marvel Universe wasn’t happy!

His energy was stolen by a thief, and this thief wasn’t satisfied with stealing one thing at a time. He set up a conveyor belt in his house, with the other end splitting into countless small conveyor belts. Each conveyor belt’s destination was a different house, but the owners of these houses were the same person!

This thief was almost buying up the entire neighborhood using the stolen resources.

If countermeasures weren’t taken, the thief would eventually usurp the entire neighborhood.

And didn’t the other residents know that his door was open?

They knew!

But why didn’t they dare to steal anything?

Was it because he was home?

No, it’s because he built the entire neighborhood. It’s fine to live there for free and consider yourself the owner, but if you want to change the name of the neighborhood, he’ll show you his power!

Kang, as the child of the neighborhood’s owner, had the right to continue living there.

Fine, live there. Want other houses? Fine, I’ll give you one; there are plenty of ownerless houses in the neighborhood.

But you actually became a thief, targeting me, the developer. Why should I keep you?

You’re powerful now, and you occupy many houses. Fine, I’ll tear down this neighborhood and rebuild it!

The Marvel Universe sensed an internal crisis and activated its disinfection program. The multiverse collision was a preemptive warning, informing other residents that it was time to rebuild the neighborhood. Those who could move should move quickly; those who couldn’t, well, there’s nothing I can do.

“Since you say the collision of universes will happen sooner or later, aren’t you doing something useless?” Dark Phoenix didn’t seem pessimistic at all. If she didn’t know, fine. But knowing this, she wouldn’t let herself die in the universe collision.

Before that, she would frantically devour life force, bringing her power back to its peak. When the universe collision came, she would escape first.

However, aimless devouring was too slow, and it also needed purification, which wasted time. But there was a ready-made energy source in front of her!

She had already tasted it; there was no need for further purification; she could consume it directly.

Dark Phoenix had made up her mind to stay by Ye Xiao’s side, regardless of Jean Grey’s opinion. If she didn’t want to die, she’d agree whether she liked it or not.

At worst, she could say: Jean, you don’t want me to go around killing innocent people, do you?

“It’s not entirely useless!” Ye Xiao shrugged. “If we eliminate Kang, even if the universe collision occurs, the overall rate of decline of the entire multiverse will be greatly slowed, slowed to the point that almost no one will see that scene!”

The Void Land is the last glory before the End of Time.

What comes after the End of Time? A new universe, or nothingness?

Ye Xiao hadn’t been there; he didn’t know. After dealing with Kang, he planned to go and see.

“Then what are we fighting for?” Professor X muttered, his expression somber; he clearly couldn’t accept what Ye Xiao had said.

“I’ve been working towards peaceful coexistence between mutants and humans. But everyone will eventually die, and the entire multiverse will perish. No, perhaps we won’t even see that scene; we’ll die in the universe collision. Ha…”

Just as he was about to say “how ironic,” Magneto slapped Professor X’s somewhat reflective head, scoffing, “Idiot!”

For a moment, he even suspected that his longtime friend was possessed by someone else. He usually had a firm will, so how could he become so despondent because of someone else’s words?

Magneto had no doubt that if someone offered Professor X a knife at this moment, Professor X would most likely take it and slit his throat.

“Here,” Ye Xiao handed a knife to Professor X. “Don’t thank me. Seeing you so down, you probably don’t want to live anymore. Go ahead, the sooner you die, the better. When you meet Death, remember to mention Wade’s name. If his name doesn’t work, use mine. She’ll at least give us some face. Remember to cut the line and let her send you to the animal realm so you don’t have to think about it anymore!”

Professor X hesitated, slowly reaching out.

‘No!’

Magneto watched anxiously, but found he couldn’t move or speak.

Dark Phoenix, who had bound Magneto, sneered, “Charles, your students think you’re strong-willed despite your disability. Many see you as a role model. But if they knew that their idolized figure often cries in his quilt, what do you think would happen?”

“Oh? Is that so?” Ye Xiao’s eyes widened, and his ears perked up. “I only know that Lao Wan made him cry; he also cried in his quilt? This doesn’t fit his strong persona!”

“Cry? Why wouldn’t he cry?” Dark Phoenix mercilessly recounted Professor X’s dark history, without any regard for the person involved. “Imagine, he used to be a handsome young man with a full head of hair, growing up under his parents’ protection, a fool who never experienced the cruelty of the outside world. Suddenly, he becomes disabled, loses his hair, needs someone to watch him go to the toilet, needs to be watched while showering, and his girlfriend leaves him. With such a huge psychological gap, how could he not cry?”

“That’s true!” Ye Xiao agreed, realizing, “No wonder his strength hasn’t improved for so many years; he was traumatized. His talent is truly strong; even without cultivation, he could still surpass all mutants!”

“His students are probably the capital of his strong facade. If one day there are no more students at the school, he might commit suicide in some deserted corner.”

“Tsk tsk, such poor psychological resilience, and he always likes to preach!”

“He lives on those maxims!” Dark Phoenix seemed to sympathize. “Without those maxims to brainwash himself, he wouldn’t have lasted this long!”

“Ultimately, he’s a coward!”

“He claims to fight for mutant rights, but there has been no substantial progress for so many years. He hasn’t made as much of a contribution as Magneto. At least Magneto’s existence makes humans think for a moment whether they can withstand his revenge when they harm mutants.”

“He, on the other hand, leaves the impression of weakness on humans. Because he’s easy to bully, the school is attacked again and again. He doesn’t even dare to move; he just stays in that broken mansion, passively rescuing his compatriots, but he doesn’t think about the consequences, and he never thought of investigating which country is relatively friendly to mutants.”

“There’s no space for mutants to survive on Earth, and he doesn’t think of looking for solutions in space!”

“There are many ownerless planets in space. He has the ability to help mutants immigrate, but he doesn’t dare…”

“Because the mansion is his home, his only home!” Ye Xiao picked up the conversation. “He hasn’t considered that it’s only his home, not the home of mutants. It’s like a wealthy man passing by a beggar; he might casually throw down a huge sum of money in the eyes of ordinary people, perhaps out of sympathy, without thinking about whether the beggar can keep that money.”

“From beginning to end, I’d say that only Lao Wan has really done something for mutants. Charles hasn’t gotten over the fantasy that he’s no longer wealthy. He takes in mutants, establishes a school, both to satisfy his loneliness and his need for adoration!”

“Without students, he wouldn’t dare hire outside caregivers; without students, no one would worship him!”

“Do you know why no one stopped him when he founded the school?”

Dark Phoenix seemed genuinely curious: “Why?”

“Because capturing other mutants requires running around. Keeping the school is like having a fixed point for extracting experimental materials!”

It wasn’t Ye Xiao who answered her, but Magneto.

Magneto’s mouth curled into a bitter smile, his face grim: “Whenever they need experimental materials, they’ll come to the school to choose!”

Professor X, sitting in his wheelchair, broke out in a cold sweat, feeling the guilt of having his psychology exposed and the anger of being deceived by his friend: “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Magneto looked at him coldly, and after a long time, said disappointedly: “Didn’t I tell you? Which time did you listen? I’ve always told you that humans can’t be trusted. Have you ever kept a single word of mine in your heart?”

“Have you ever paid attention to where your graduating students went?”

“Have you ever asked if they’re happy?”

“Have you ever wondered why many graduating students end up returning to teach at the school?”

“They can’t survive in the outside world!”

Magneto seemed to be venting years of grievances, almost shouting: “They enter society without even the most basic life skills!”

“What have you taught them all these years?”

“You teach them to endure in the outside world, and you teach them to coexist peacefully with humans!”

“But you never teach them about the evil of humanity, and you never teach them to fight back!”

“You’ve worn away their fighting spirit. Have you ever thought about how the weaker students will be bullied if they don’t even know how to fight back?”

“Have you ever considered that every time you stop me, it leads to the deaths of other compatriots?”

“Charles, look into my eyes and answer me. Have you ever truly considered the future of mutants?”

“Pfft!”

Professor X had no strength to answer; the questioning had put an unbearable pressure on his conscience, and his longtime friend’s accusations were even harder to accept.

A mouthful of blood spurted out; Professor X clutched his chest. The release of pressure didn’t ease his chest tightness; he still felt like he couldn’t breathe.

A buzzing roar in his ears blurred his vision. He vaguely saw many mutants with terrible wounds.

Some were very young, too young to remember things; some were very old, with white hair and wrinkled faces; some were young, at the height of their youth…

The crowd included mutants of all ages, but without exception, they had all died on an operating table they should never have encountered.

“No, don’t come near!”

Professor X waved his hands, trying to drive them away.

But his hands passed through their bodies, and they didn’t stop. They walked forward, their expressions numb, holding hands, their steps faltering.

There was darkness ahead!

“No, don’t go there, don’t go in…”

Professor X roared, trying to hold them back.

“Professor!”

One person turned back, as if Professor X’s call had awakened their clarity.

He smiled and waved goodbye to Professor X.

“Professor, don’t blame yourself; we never blamed you!”

“Yeah, Professor. The time I spent at the school was the happiest time of my life!”

Another person turned back. He was very young, about seven or eight years old.

He wrinkled his nose, fearfully suggesting, “Could you tell Ororo not to always have a stern face? I’m most afraid of her class!”

“Professor, take care of yourself!”

“Professor, could you buy me some new clothes? I haven’t worn new clothes in ages!”

“Professor…”

“Professor…”

Amidst the calls, his students, with reluctance and determination, slowly walked into the darkness.

“Haha, alright, alright, I promise you!”

“I’ll take care of my health!”

“I’ll scold Ororo for you. How does she teach? She makes her students dislike her!”

“There are new clothes; go to your room and check your wardrobe!”

…

“He’ll be alright, won’t he?” Magneto was worried about his old friend’s condition.

Professor X had his eyes closed, muttering in his sleep. His clothes weren’t stained with blood, only vomit from before.

“Hmph!” Ye Xiao, puffing on a cigarette, waved his hand. “It’s fine; I have experience. The Charles I know also changed his mind after I lectured him!”

“You two, Lao Wan too, you can’t be the bad guy, so you let me be. But he has chips; what do you have?”

“Uh…” Magneto, who didn’t have a daughter, guessed that Ye Xiao wouldn’t care for him, an old man, so he said, “I’ll buy you a few dragons?”