The Plot to Obtain the Soul Stone

And so, Lin Xu followed Thor to the Avengers Compound.

Many of the Avengers welcomed the ancient god who had seemingly returned by accident from another universe. Naturally, the conceited Tony Stark was not among them.

As soon as Lin Xu arrived at the Avengers Compound, Tony fixed his gaze on his chest.

Only after Thor went to the track to resume his weight-loss journey by pushing his Audi with the handbrake on did Tony come over to Lin Xu and ask, "What's that on your chest?"

"The Eye of Agamotto, a magical artifact that's fully compatible with the Time Stone."

"Can you buy those things wholesale? And does Asgard teach the same kind of magic as Earth's sorcerers?"

"The Eye of Agamotto is unique in every universe. And Earth's sorcerers are powerful. Their disciples are spread across the universe. The Ravagers Star-Lord used to be with, for instance, have sorcerers among them too." (They appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.)

Tony turned to look at Rocket.

Rocket shook his head. "I've never been a Ravager."

The normally quiet Nebula spoke up. "If you mean people who can draw circles to open wormholes, then yes, they do have them. That's also the main reason the Ravagers can run wild across the universe."

Tony trusted Nebula a great deal. After all, they had been through life and death together. He turned back to Lin Xu.

"You just said, every universe..."

"That's right. Just like what you're planning to do now, I brought this Eye of Agamotto back from another universe."

Rocket's eyes lit up. "Then can you..."

"No. When I travel between universes, I can't pinpoint the coordinates. It's too random."

"All right."

"Wait, aren't we planning to travel through time? Why are we talking about other universes?" Scott, who had been listening for a while, finally couldn't resist butting in.

Nebula glanced up at Scott, then turned and walked away, with Rocket following close behind.

Tony turned toward the track. "Hey, Thor, that car's a custom model. If you want a workout, I can get you something bigger."

As for Lin Xu, the moment Scott asked the question, he headed toward Captain America, who was busy some distance away.

Soon, only Doc Green and Scott were left staring at each other. Doc Green spread his hands and looked at the eager-to-learn Scott.

"All right, Scott. To understand a single timeline and multiple timelines, we should first understand what wave function collapse is, and what it means for the wave function to never collapse..."

As Lin Xu walked, he pondered a question.

How could he obtain the Soul Stone without anyone getting hurt? After all, the price of a soul for a soul was far too high.

He had three backup plans.

First: catch Thanos right after he obtained the Soul Stone and steal it before he woke up. But Thanos would already have the Reality, Power, and Space Stones by then, making the risk too great.

Second: without Dr. Banner's initial mistake during the experiment, they now had enough extra Pym Particles for three more people. They could bring along a pair of death row inmates who loved each other. As long as they got the Soul Stone, releasing one of them wouldn't be a problem. But they were death row inmates, after all. You could never know what they were really thinking. What if the sacrifice failed?

Third: Kamar-Taj had a forbidden spell called Mephisto's Temptation. To put it plainly, it was brainwashing, but it did involve the soul. And although Mephisto was best at manipulating souls, there was still no telling whether it could fool the Soul Stone.

One person's thinking was limited, so he decided to have the Avengers come up with ideas together. But how would he tell everyone he knew about this? Finding the right way to bring it up was important!

With that in mind, Lin Xu came up to Captain America and held out his hand. "Captain, long time no see."

His words not only startled Captain America, but also made Rhodey, Hawkeye, and Black Widow look over.

"Have we met?"

"I've met you in another universe."

Before Captain America could speak, Rhodey was the first to chime in with a tease. "Was the captain in that universe also a hothead who couldn't parachute?"

The mild joke eased the atmosphere.

Lin Xu smiled too and began making things up. "In the universe I visited, Captain America never got the chance to parachute. What you should be asking is why Captain Carter didn't parachute."

"Captain Carter?" all four said.

"That's right. In that universe, Steve didn't receive the serum. Carter did. But Steve still took part in the fighting as a technician."

And so, everyone listened with relish to the cobbled-together, heavily altered version.

"...At the last moment, Red Skull opened the Tesseract. To save the city, Captain Carter flew the ship into a glacier, while Steve and Red Skull were both banished by the Tesseract!"

After hearing the story, Natasha was the first to raise a question. "You said Captain Carter was the one who received the serum, but the way you just addressed Steve..."

"Hahaha, I never said I was addressing Captain America..."

"If not Captain America, what other captain could it be?"

"It could also be... Captain Marvel."

Seeing the "marveling" looks on their faces, Lin Xu's lips curled up. His gaze drifted, as if he were recalling the past, though he was really making it all up.

"It was a day in the year 1979 by Earth's calendar. To escape pursuit by Dormammu, the dimensional demon god, I left Earth and went into space. One day, I found the captain, who had been brainwashed. His Earthling heritage made me feel close to him, so I used a secret art to undo the brainwashing. He also told me a great deal about himself."

He looked around at the group, who were still in shock.

"You're probably wondering why I'm telling you all this. Because what comes next is the important part. That captain told me that Red Skull, who was banished with him, had been imprisoned on Vormir to guard the Soul Stone. And the rule for obtaining it is... a soul for a soul!"

"What does a soul for a soul mean?" Captain America no longer cared about his counterpart in the other universe and had even put aside his pleasant surprise over Captain Carter. His attention was entirely focused on those words. A rule like that, so similar to a contract with a demon, gave him a bad feeling.

"You exchange the soul of the person you love most for the Soul Stone!"

"Are you joking? How could there be a requirement like that?" On hearing this, Rhodey cut in before Captain America could speak. But just as he finished, Nebula walked over.

"What he said might be true. My father took my sister away that day and brought back the Soul Stone. After that, my sister never appeared again..."

Nebula's confirmation silenced everyone present. If sacrificing themselves could bring those people back, they would gladly die on the spot. But the prerequisite was that the person they loved most had to be there, and many of them could not meet that condition.

Hawkeye raised his hand. "Does it have to be a human soul?"