Mission Accomplished

"No, I just feel like he's in too much danger on his own. Maybe we should go help him!"

Inside the secret room at the bottom of the cave, Tony paced back and forth for quite a while. When he vaguely heard what seemed to be screams coming from outside, he pulled something resembling an arm from beneath a concealed crate in the corner.

During this time, he and Dr. Ethan had appeared to be helping Laza manufacture weapons, but in reality, they had been secretly using materials obtained from Laza to build the Mark I humanoid armor.

There had simply not been enough time. They had only managed to make an incomplete arm and several components.

Inside that arm was a small rocket Tony had made himself. Its power was limited, but it should have been enough to blast open the iron door.

"You're right."

Kind-hearted Dr. Ethan picked up an iron rod from nearby, clearly agreeing that they should go out and help.

Tony held the mechanical arm in one hand and pulled Dr. Ethan along with the other. Only after backing up to a safe enough distance did he activate the switch on the arm and fire a small rocket, roughly thirty centimeters long, at the iron door.

However, at that moment, the iron door was opened from outside, and a figure happened to walk in. It was Li Chuan, who had returned after taking out every Ten Rings member in the base.

"Oh no, get out of the way!"

Seeing that it was Li Chuan who had opened the door, Tony and Dr. Ethan were instantly horrified and hurriedly shouted at him.

Li Chuan had obviously noticed the rocket flying straight at him as well. The corner of his mouth twitched as he cursed the two idiot teammates under his breath, while his hands formed seals and he used the Substitution Jutsu, instantly switching places with a chair in the room.

Boom!

With a deafening explosion, the entire iron door was blown away by the small rocket.

"Mr. Tony, I came all this way to save you out of the goodness of my heart, and this is how you treat me?"

Li Chuan looked at Tony irritably.

Seeing Li Chuan dodge the rocket with that miraculous method, Tony immediately breathed a sigh of relief. Then he explained in a somewhat embarrassed tone:

"We only heard the commotion and wanted to go out to see if we could help you somehow. We never expected this to happen. Really, I'm sorry!"

"Fine. I've always been a magnanimous person, after all. I've already dealt with everyone outside. You can leave now."

Li Chuan did not dwell on it too much. He knew Tony had not done it on purpose; it was simply a case of good intentions nearly leading to disaster.

"You dealt with all of them?!"

Tony and Dr. Ethan could not help crying out at the same time.

Li Chuan had taken out so many fully armed terrorists by himself in such a short time. Not even the super spies in movies could do something like that.

But after thinking it over, they felt somewhat relieved. After all, he might have been the sort of superhuman with special abilities.

Thus, the two followed Li Chuan out of the secret room and through the winding cave passage toward the outside.

Before long, they saw the charred guard and the corpses of dozens of Ten Rings members whose throats had been slit.

To be honest, the moment they saw those bodies, both of them sucked in a sharp breath.

However, those terrorists had murdered countless people and committed enough sins to go to hell dozens of times over. Their deaths were well deserved, so neither man felt any sympathy for them.

What had truly frightened them was that Li Chuan had accomplished all of this alone without suffering a single injury.

"The taste of freedom is amazing. Chuan, thank you so much for saving us. Once we get back, I'll introduce you to a few gorgeous women—all Hollywood."

Stepping outside the cave and feeling the long-missed sunlight, Tony's mood instantly improved considerably, and some of his usual flair returned to his speech.

This brush with death had brought great changes to Tony's heart. In particular, under Dr. Ethan's influence, he had gained a deeper understanding of his own actions and the meaning of his life.

Still, his sharp tongue, love of jokes, and fondness for beautiful women had not changed much at all.

"No, that won't be necessary. I'm already married, so that kind of thing isn't appropriate for me. You just need to come find me in New York after you get back and fulfill your promise."

Li Chuan raised a hand and interrupted Tony before he could finish.

Hearing Li Chuan's words, Tony's eyes widened in disbelief.

"You're married? You don't look very old."

"I just turned twenty this year. I've been married for nearly two months."

A rare trace of happiness appeared on Li Chuan's face.

Seeing this, Tony secretly shook his head.

"Marriage is the grave of love. I can't believe you stepped into the grave at such a young age. That's far too irrational."

Marriage had no place in his life. He only liked having one- or two-night relationships with different beautiful women, after which they could say goodbye.

That was why, despite being nearly forty years old, he was still single.

"I don't agree with that at all, and I'm sure Mr. Li Chuan doesn't either."

Dr. Ethan, standing nearby, refuted Tony's words.

Li Chuan smiled and nodded.

"Of course not!"

"Fine. Once we get back, I'll definitely make time to visit both your homes and see whether your marriages are really as wonderful as you claim."

Tony shrugged.

Hearing Tony's words, Li Chuan replied directly:

"Sorry, but you're not welcome in our home. To be honest, my wife really hates you."

"Hates me?"

Tony blinked twice, looking innocent.

Tony Stark might have been a world-famous playboy, but in truth, he was still very popular with most women.

"My wife is Sokovian. Her parents were killed ten years ago by missiles manufactured by your company, so if you came to my house, she'd probably chase you out with a broom."

Li Chuan looked at Tony as he replied.

Hearing Li Chuan's words, Tony fell silent. After quite a while, he finally answered, "I'm sorry. That really was my fault. If I get the chance, I can apologize to your wife in person—even if she hits me with a broom."

"Alright, we'll talk about that later. Let's get out of here first."

Li Chuan waved a hand. Tony bore responsibility for this, but he could not truly be blamed for all of it. It was like a blacksmith forging a knife, only for someone else to use that knife to kill someone—the blacksmith could not bear all the blame.

If Tony had truly killed Wanda's parents, Li Chuan would never have saved him on the way. He would have dealt with him himself long ago.

"There are vehicles down there. We can drive out."

Yinsen pointed at the dozen or so vehicles parked near the valley's exit.

"No need. There are military search-and-rescue reconnaissance planes around this desert all the time. As long as we make enough noise, they'll spot us soon enough. Then someone will naturally take you back safely."

Li Chuan leaped down and moved some of the missiles, bombs, and other Stark-marked explosives in the valley into the cave.

Then he led Tony and Yinsen up to the top of the valley, directly across from the cave.