Gaia, Sleeping on the Brink of Death

After leaving Asgard, Lin Xu returned to Kamar-Taj.

At this moment, the Ancient One was studying in the library with Strange.

"Hey, where's the king?"

Ancient One glared at him, annoyed. "How dare you say that?"

"What does this have to do with me!" Lin Xu spread his hands, looking completely innocent.

Did you get him a lifetime free pass to the Nine Sun Restaurant?

"Mmm~"

"He goes there every day at noon now, saying he wants to eat back the cost of the Sling Ring."

Lin Xu:...

"Give it to me!"

Seeing Ancient One extend her hand in front of him, Lin Xu looked annoyed; he had only just gotten his hands on her.

Forget it, I can't beat them...

Then, with a pained expression, he placed the Orb of Agamotto into the Ancient One's palm.

Ancient One glanced at the Kamar-Taj relic in his hand, his lips twitched slightly, but he pretended nothing had happened and silently put it into his pocket.

"Anything else?"

"The Casket of Ancient Winters isn't from Kamar-Taj, is it?"

"You also took the Casket of Ancient Winters?"

"What do you mean by 'still... wait'?"

Lin Xu's eyes widened instantly, his gaze fixed intently on Ancient One.

"So, you didn't know I took the Orb of Agamotto?"

Ancient One remained silent, turning away quietly. Since his sparring session with Lin Xu a few days ago, he was filled with confidence for the future.

From then on, he stopped paying attention to Lin Xu's every move, and even stopped trying to read his mind...

All we know is that he went to another planet, then to Asgard, and was asked by some God of Stories to do something for him. That's all we know.

"So, what were you just about to ask me for!"

Ancient One remained silent, but kicked Strange, who was watching the show.

Strange quickly interjected, "The teacher probably wants a lifetime pass to the Nine Sun Restaurant."

Then, Strange took two more kicks.

Ancient One: I told you to make amends, why didn't you just tell the truth?

Hearing Strange's words, Lin Xu was speechless. If you want to freeload, just say so. Why beat around the bush?

Give me back the ball and I'll give you the card!

"Ahem, you're still too young, this isn't suitable for you."

"I'll be thirty this year, no, if you include other universes, I should be 36 now!"

Ancient One turned to Strange: "Tell him how old you are."

"41 years old." (The movie doesn't explicitly state this, so I'm using the actor's age as an example.)

"Look, Strange is 41, and as for me, needless to say, you're small no matter what."

Ancient One's words were spoken with absolute certainty.

He dared not hand over the Orb of Agamotto to Lin Xu; this thing could open the gates to the Multiverse, and the Orb of Agamotto was different from Quantum Tunnel travel.

It is itself a time-manipulating artifact; the two universes it links to will be time-anchored and synchronized.

In other words, however much time has passed in another universe, the same amount of time has passed here.

What if one day, Lin Xu uses this thing to travel through time, but fails to return in time?

He was hoping to retire!

Lin Xu stared at Ancient One with dead fish eyes.

Knowing he was in the wrong, the Ancient One dared not meet his gaze, after all, this thing was brought back from Asgard by him.

"Ahem, why don't you go check out the New York Sanctum? You can take any magical artifacts you like."

"I want..."

"The Cloak of Levitation won't work!"

"Then I want..."

"Wand of Watoomb won't work!" (From Chapter 57, when the wielder is powerful enough, they can break through dimensional channels)

"This is what you meant by 'I can choose whatever I want'?"

Just as Lin Xu was about to explode, Ancient One at Lin Xu's waist and her eyes lit up.

"How about Dragonfang? Three hundred years ago, I stole... cough cough, one from Asgard. With this one of yours, the two swords combined are unstoppable!"

"Will it help in that future battle?"

"No."

"Then what are you talking about?" Lin Xu waved his hand casually. "Alright, I'll go get the Dragonfang when I have time. Let's get down to business."

Okay~

Seeing Lin Xu suddenly become serious, Ancient One knew it must be something important. He no longer used his Telepathy with Lin Xu.

Of course, the main reason is that Lin Xu is now powerful enough to freely control his thoughts. Unless it's something urgent, he simply can't read them...

"Stephen, you stay here and keep an eye on things. I'm going out for a walk with your senior brother."

"Okay, teacher~"

Tsk, Stephen is much more polite, unlike that unfilial apprentice.

The summit of Lhotse.

Although Lhotse is the secondary peak of Mount Everest, it is not low in altitude, ranking fourth in the world at 8,500 meters.

However, the steeper cliffs make it far more difficult to climb than the main peak.

Lin Xu and Ancient One sat there, leaning against the snow, watching the group of mountain climbers opposite them.

"I went to find another Strange had turned evil."

Ancient One turned to look at Lin Xu, somewhat surprised and amused.

"What did he say?"

"Aside from overwhelming force, the only options are unwavering courage and the utmost compassion."

When it came to overwhelming power, Lin Xu paid special attention to Ancient One's expression. To be honest, he was a little unsure of the old man's absolute strength.

Based on his senses, Lin Xu believed that if Old Deng got serious, Dark Strange wouldn't be a match for him.

However, his usual behavior suggests that he and Strange are eager to grow faster.

Before he could think any further, Ancient One's next words completely stunned him.

"The ultimate mercy is found only in Oshtur and Gaia. Oshtur is too gentle in both magic and personality. Only Gaia's power can overcome fear. After all, Atum, the God Eater who hunts down Chthon, was born of Gaia." (1982 Thor Yearbook)

But... Gaia is now in a near-death slumber...

"What?"

Lin Xu could hardly believe his ears; that was Gaia!!

"What happened?"

Ancient One sighed and rubbed his forehead.

"Thirty years ago in this universe, a major event occurred in the Multiverse: an avatar of Oblivion became independent and devoured an extradimensional evil god, thus becoming even more gluttonous than Galactus. He wanted to devour the entire multiverse..." (Thor: Blood Oath, 2006)

"The Chaos War broke out. Gaia used a secret technique to forcibly extract the power from all the other beings in all the Multiverses, briefly reaching the level of a powerful multiverse. Together with several other gods, she lured the Chaos King into a hollow universe, making him believe that he had devoured everything. After this war, all the Gaias in all universes fell into a deep sleep." (The Chaos War, 2010)

"Gurgle~"

After hearing this, Lin Xu wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, unsure whether it was from the cold on the snowy mountain or from being frightened.

Marvel is still too dangerous; no matter how careful you are, you can be affected in some unnoticed moment.

He was originally very confident in his abilities, after all, it had only been a few years since he went from being an ordinary person to where he is now.

Once you get past that Dark Strange obstacle, the sky's the limit.

But after hearing what Old Deng said, what's the point of flying?!

Improving our capabilities is now an urgent matter.

"I can take you to see Gaia, but in His current state, communication might not be possible..."

These two chapters are a bit too sentimental; I don't know if everyone likes this kind of reading.

The main problem is that there are just too many Marvel magazine and comic book versions, and many contradictions. Sometimes I even have to help them reconcile these contradictions myself.