Seal of Vishanti

With the addition of Wakanda's high-tech savages, the battle soon came to an end.

Sanctuary II was dismantled. At Tony's direction, Wakanda took away most of the wreckage, while he kept only the teleportation projection module and the cosmic space-jump module.

As for the American government?

Sorry, Tony only wanted to protect Earth now, not arm America. Or rather, he didn't trust Thaddeus Ross, who was currently in power.

By the time the battle ended, Captain Marvel finally arrived, late as usual.

But that worked out perfectly. Lin Xu handed Ebony Maw over to her. The ugly thing was no help sitting around at his side, so he might as well put that waste to use by sending him out to do good in the universe.

Of course, the main reason was that Ebony Maw's psychic power was an innate racial gift, not magic. There was nothing worth learning from it.

Wong took Strange back to Kamar-Taj, while T'Challa returned to Wakanda with his army. After being gone for so long, there was plenty of government business to hand over.

Since Spider-Man regretted missing Tony and Pepper Potts's wedding, Tony decided to hold another one.

Just keep spoiling him!

The venue was Tony's villa in the woods in Nassau County on Long Island, New York.

"Tony, happy second marriage~!"

"...Shit, that's not how you say it. Since you're not from Earth, I'll let it slide!"

"Hahaha!" Lin Xu knew perfectly well he'd said it wrong, but they had "fought side by side," after all. A harmless little joke was fine.

If only he knew when that old geezer Ancient One's birthday was, he'd order a big cake and wish her "a long life" while he was at it!

"Hi, Morgan?" Lin Xu then turned his gaze to Morgan Stark, who was serving as the flower girl. Beside her was Hawkeye's youngest son, today's ring bearer.

"Hi, who are you?" Morgan Stark, who had never lost her father, was fairly cheerful. Hearing Lin Xu call to her, she spoke up in a clear voice.

"Hmm~ You can call me Uncle Lin, or Uncle Fengxian~"

"Uncle Fengxian... No, no, Fengxian is Uncle Thor's uncle's name. I should call you Grandpa~"

Lin Xu first glanced at Tony, who was pursing his lips, then asked with a laugh, "Hahaha, who told you that?"

"Nate~" Morgan pointed at the little boy beside him.

Nathaniel Pietro Barton, Hawkeye's youngest son. His first name came from the first syllable of his godmother Natasha's name, and his middle name commemorated Pietro Maximoff, who had died in Sokovia. Nate was his nickname.

Lin Xu crouched down beside Nate. "Little Nate, how did you know that?"

"Uncle... Uncle Thor told me, just now. Uncle Thor bought me and my brother and sister lots and lots of toys. He said... he said it was compensation..."

"Ha~" Hearing that, Lin Xu turned toward the river, where Thor and Captain America were skipping stones.

"Come here, you two. Let's play a little game."

"What game~?"

"Close your eyes, and I'll press my fingers against your foreheads. As long as you don't open your eyes, you each get a piece of candy."

"Can I have juice-flavored ice cream instead of candy?"

"Sure~"

When the two children closed their eyes, Lin Xu held his thumbs to their foreheads. Two Seals of Vishanti formed instantly, and strange runes flashing with platinum light appeared on their foreheads for an instant before vanishing.

"All right, you win. I'll get you your ice cream and candy later. Go play!"

"Yay~!" Morgan and Nate cheered and skipped away.

Lin Xu stood up and clapped his hands. Seeing Tony's questioning look, he explained, "The Seal of Vishanti. It's a protective White Magic rune I just learned last night. It doesn't affect normal life, but if they're attacked, it can protect them for a long time. As for how strong it is, you probably couldn't break through it right now~" (In What If...?, Wong cast it on Strange before he died.)

Tony's eyes lit up at once. "Thank you!"

"No problem. Get her an ice cream later. Oh, and some candy for little Nate~" With that, Lin Xu turned and headed toward the river.

"Okay... Huh? Wait, weren't you the one who promised them?"

"Where am I supposed to find that stuff out here in the middle of nowhere? Figure it out yourself!"

Tony turned and looked around. All right, his villa in the woods really was pretty remote.

"Hey, has anyone seen the Elf Prince? His son wants candy~"

Soon, Lin Xu reached Captain America and Thor.

"Gentlemen, who won?"

"Me." ×2

"Hey, Steve, I threw mine all the way to the other side of the river!"

"Thor, that's not how it works. Mine skipped more than twenty times, and yours only skipped twice~"

Lin Xu was a little speechless at how seriously the two were taking it. Was it really necessary? He picked up a flat stone and threw it into the river!

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~

It skipped more than fifty times in a row before landing on the opposite bank.

"Ha, farther than Thor's and more skips than Steve's. Looks like I win!"

Captain America gave him a thumbs-up, but Thor looked skeptical.

"Uncle, did you use magic?"

"I swear on my name, Fengxian, I didn't!"

The commotion soon drew the others' attention, and Spider-Man and Doc Green joined in.

Without exception, they were all defeated.

On that, Lin Xu had this to say: the Water-Repelling Technique was really useful!

Tony's wedding gave everyone a chance to release the emotions they had bottled up for five years, and everyone had a great time.

Of course, Strange was the happiest of all. Super Agent Natasha hadn't died, Tony hadn't died, and he had absorbed a great deal of power from the Hell Dimension. None of it had been within his expectations.

After this, he decided to train hard in the "Images of Ikonn," a duplication technique, and use his duplicates to lure Mephisto out of Hell while his real body continued to steal... ahem, borrow power!

That evening, while everyone else was roasting meat around the campfire, Strange went to find Lin Xu. Lin Xu was sitting alone in a corner, his eyes closed and three fingers pressed against both sides of the peerless blade.

"Hey, should I call you Lin or Fengxian?"

"Either is fine~"

"Then I'll call you Lin."

"If you need something, say it. I'm busy!"

"Ahem, Tony plans to return all the Stones tomorrow, so..." Strange looked at the pendant on Lin Xu's chest and swallowed.

Hearing that, Lin Xu opened his eyes and looked at Strange. He didn't believe this universe's Strange would upset the balance of another universe for his own benefit, but for him to make this request at such a critical moment, there had to be something important!

"What do you want to do?"

"Ahem, open a time-loop space and practice a few mystic arts. As you know, without the Time Stone in this universe, things could get difficult for Kamar-Taj. For the sake of..."

Smack~

Before Strange could finish, Lin Xu slapped the Eye of Agamotto into his hand.

"Open it, quick, and take me in too!"