Abandon His Physical Body? Impossible!

To avoid damaging the fabric of space in this universe, and for the sake of his old friend, Agamotto ultimately decided to help Lin Xu transcend time!

From then on, he would be immune to detection by all time magic.

"I can see that your divine power is both fierce and abundant. It carries no trace of a dimension, yet it feels somewhat familiar. Where did you borrow it?"

"From Odin Borson, king of the Asgardians." Lin Xu concealed nothing and also explained Odin's condition.

"Odin, a name from long ago. If I remember correctly, five hundred thousand years ago, Asgard and Muspelheim fought a great war. Odin and Surtur killed each other..."

Lin Xu was astonished. This universe's Odin had actually failed to defeat Surtur. In both the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Marvel Comics Universe, Surtur's Eternal Flame was kept in Odin's vault.

"What about Asgard?"

"It was burned to nothing by the Eternal Flame."

The expression on Agamotto's face eased a little as he continued, "That's for the best. Borrowed power is borrowed power in the end. Power that doesn't belong to you has too many restrictions. Sever the connection now and turn it into your own power. That will give you a better chance of transcending time."

Hearing this, Lin Xu hesitated to speak.

"What is it?"

"Well, how long will it take to convert the power, and how long will it take to transcend time?"

"Ten years at the shortest, a hundred at the longest. It depends on your talent!"

"That long?"

"That's because you have so much divine power. It took me eight hundred years back then."

"Um, could you let me go back to my cor... body first? Any longer and it'll start to stink."

Agamotto seemed taken aback by Lin Xu's words and fell silent for quite a while.

"To place yourself outside time, you must abandon your physical body."

Lin Xu: "..."

Was this some kind of international... multiversal joke? Abandon his physical body? Become a ghost immortal by abandoning his corpse?

The moment Lin Xu considered it, he rejected the idea.

He had heard enough myths to know that even children knew achieving sainthood in the flesh was the strongest path. He had once had no choice, but now he only wanted to pursue that goal!

"You want to follow the path of a dimensional demon god?" Seeing Lin Xu's expression, Agamotto immediately understood what he was thinking. "Throughout the ages, almost everyone who transcended in physical form was born naturally, including the five creation gods and the many lords of dimensions. Only a very few succeeded afterward, and all of them did so through chance. This path is not an easy one!"

He would only know how hard it was once he had walked it!

"I want to try!"

"Since you've made your choice, that must be your fate. Whether you succeed or fail, I won't interfere. But I promised to help you convert your divine power, and that promise still stands!"

As he spoke, Agamotto reached out and summoned a page from beneath Oshtur's statue.

"The incantation and the hand seals are all on it. Two hours a day at most. Bite off more than you can chew, and you won't digest it."

As Agamotto finished speaking, the page merged directly into Lin Xu's soul, and the information on it was simultaneously conveyed into his mind!

The "divine book of white magic," or, as it could also be called, the "Book of the Vishanti."

This was the very thing several Stranges had wanted but failed to obtain in Doctor Strange 2. Though it was only one page, the difference between zero and one was far greater than the difference between one and a hundred!

"Then I'll go back to my body now?" Lin Xu was a little anxious; he couldn't wait to start converting the divine power.

Laundering his ill-gotten gains into something of his own was thrilling just to think about!

"I promise I won't interfere with this world's timeline!"

"Wait!"

Agamotto called Lin Xu back, but this time his expression was noticeably different. He looked hesitant, yet there was also a hint of someone ready to burn his bridges!

"Wh... what is it?" This old geezer isn't going to go back on his word, is he?

"I've thought it over carefully. Perhaps you're right, but I don't dare gamble."

Right about what? Gamble on what?

"Perhaps your appearance was itself arranged by time, and you happened to appear there..."

At last, Agamotto seemed to have made up his mind, and his expression relaxed considerably. He slowly walked to a spot between the two statues and clenched his hand. The floor cracked, and an oval pendant flew out of it!

The Eye of Agamotto, the Time Stone's container.

But it was completely empty, with no sign of the Time Stone inside.

"This was an artifact I once used. It originally contained a stone, but that was destroyed in the great war twenty thousand years ago. I've had no use for it since giving up my physical body. It can temporarily shield you from the timeline's perception."

"F... for me?" Lin Xu could hardly believe it. Could he be Stan Lee's illegitimate son?

Odin had given him divine power in the main world, Hoggoth had given him a rib in the three-Spider world, and Agamotto was giving him an artifact in this world!

Would it be Oshtur's turn in the next world?

He struggled to suppress his elation and reached out to receive it.

"Go. Do whatever you want. It's boring when things always stay the same."

Before he could say anything, the world spun around him, and his soul returned to his body!

"Mm, mm? Wah~ blegh~"

Bang!

Deep in the forest, beside the road, a fresh grave suddenly burst open.

"Blegh, ptoo, ptoo, ptoo!" After struggling to spit all the dirt and sand out of his mouth, Lin Xu turned to examine the place where his body had been temporarily laid to rest.

No mountain behind it, no water beside it, just the side of a road beneath a big tree. The feng shui was terrible. If he were really buried here, his corpse would rise sooner or later.

Something seemed off...

As Lin Xu patted the dirt off himself, he felt something new around his neck: the Eye of Agamotto, without the Time Stone.

According to "A Detailed Guide to Artifacts," the Eye of Agamotto could see through falsehoods, dispel illusions, track magical creatures, and observe time. Its power depended on the caster, and those who lacked sufficient strength could draw on the power of the Time Stone!

In other words, if you were strong enough, you could use it whether or not the stone was inside!

What a treasure...

Lin Xu put it back around his neck, then took a closer look at his surroundings.

It was indeed where he had first teleported. When Agamotto had pulled his soul away, he had faintly heard a car, so the driver might have been the one who "buried" him.

Out here in the wilderness, anyone carrying a shovel had to be either a grave robber or a local farmer. But grave robbers dug things up; they didn't bury them.

"What a kind person. I have to thank them in person!"

As he was thinking, the roar of a car suddenly came from the distance.

What a coincidence?

The corners of Lin Xu's mouth rose. He walked briskly over to his "resting place" and stood beside it, listening quietly as the sound drew closer.

Meanwhile, inside a pickup truck carrying fertilizer and gasoline.

"Sam, you really need to work on that temper of yours. You nearly got into a fight with that man just now!"

"The gas cost more than twice as much as last time!"

"But that wasn't up to him. Didn't you hear him say this is the country's second oil crisis..."

Screech~

Creak~

"Hey, Sam, why did you suddenly stop... God! How is that possible?"

"Cassia!!!"

P.S. In Thor: Ragnarok, Thor mentioned that Odin defeated Surtur five hundred thousand years ago.