Li Chuan's Counterattack

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"

Li Chuan formed hand seals with both hands and spat out a massive fireball, smashing it down onto the weapons piled like a small mountain outside the cave.

A thunderous explosion rang out as all the explosives were detonated in succession. Flames shot into the sky, and moments later, the entire valley had completely collapsed.

What he had done was not only meant to attract the attention of the military forces searching for Tony, but more importantly, to erase any traces of his activities.

Mission: Kill Laza and destroy his base completed. Mission rewards have been issued to the Mission Space.

As the explosions died down, a pleasant mission notification sounded in Li Chuan's ears.

Meanwhile, Tony and Yinsen, standing beside him, had both widened their eyes to the limit.

"Have I gone too long without seeing the sun? Are my eyes playing tricks on me? I saw him spit out a huge fireball!"

"Actually... I saw it too!"

What had they just witnessed? They had actually seen Li Chuan casually spit a massive fireball from his mouth.

If Li Chuan's previous abilities had merely surprised them while remaining within the bounds of comprehension, then shooting huge fireballs from his mouth had completely shattered everything they knew.

Changing one's appearance was, in Tony's view, not entirely impossible with sufficiently advanced holographic technology.

So aside from his initial surprise, he had not found it quite so unbelievable afterward. He had even suspected that Li Chuan might be carrying some kind of high-tech holographic device.

As for taking down all the terrorists in an entire base alone, that was terrifying, but still something he could accept. It simply meant Li Chuan was exceptionally skilled at fighting.

But with one spit, a fireball nearly as large as a person had come blasting out. There was simply no way to explain that with science.

Could Li Chuan be a robot with a flamethrower installed in his mouth, using gasoline in his stomach as fuel to spray flames just now?

Well, that was obviously not the right answer.

"The rescue team will probably arrive soon. I hope the two of you can keep my secret, because I don't want S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra coming after me. They're troublesome."

Li Chuan looked helplessly at Tony and Yinsen, whose mouths were hanging wide open.

"Of course. We won't tell anyone else about you. But I know Hydra. Weren't they wiped out during World War II? And what exactly is S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

Tony nodded, then asked in confusion.

Hydra was an organization that probably every American knew about, because it had always been the main villain in Captain America cartoons, films, and stage plays.

It was recorded in textbooks as well.

When he was a child, he had often heard his father, Howard, talk about Captain America. The two had once been close friends and had fought together.

But everyone knew that organization had been destroyed by Captain America during World War II, and Captain America had sacrificed himself because of it.

As for S.H.I.E.L.D., he had never heard of it at all.

"You actually don't know about S.H.I.E.L.D.? That's the organization your father helped establish."

Li Chuan deliberately put on an astonished expression.

Tony was clearly even more shocked than he was.

"My father?"

"All right, I'll explain briefly. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s full name is the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. It was established by your father, Peggy Carter, and Chester Phillips.

It has now developed into a global organization dedicated to protecting the security of the entire Earth. Its main purpose is to deal with terrorist organizations that could endanger the planet, people with superpowers or special abilities, and possible extraterrestrials.

People like me, with certain special abilities, would probably be immediately captured and imprisoned if discovered. Even if we had done nothing wrong, we would be monitored for life, with no freedom whatsoever."

Li Chuan gave them a general introduction to S.H.I.E.L.D.

Tony frowned.

"They really are overbearing. As long as someone isn't breaking the law, no one has the right to control another person's freedom like that."

Having just been kidnapped and imprisoned for nearly a month, Tony now hated this sort of behavior more than anything.

"If that were all, it wouldn't be so bad. But from what I know, S.H.I.E.L.D. is no longer that pure, because Hydra agents have already infiltrated its ranks.

At the very least, I know several senior agents whose true identities are actually Hydra. The ridiculous part is that their director, that guy named Nick Fury, doesn't know a thing.

So if someone like me were discovered by them, I'd probably end up secretly transferred by Hydra agents, then dissected for human experimentation!"

Li Chuan spread his hands.

Hearing Li Chuan's words, Tony's expression turned serious as well.

"Don't worry, Chuan. No matter who asks, Yinsen and I won't reveal any information about you."

"Haha, no need to be so serious. Just knowing is enough. If they really come after me, I'm not someone to be trifled with either."

A cold glint appeared on Li Chuan's face, and Tony and Yinsen nodded instinctively.

In truth, he had deliberately said all that for Tony to hear.

Earlier, when Garrett and those Hydra people had caused him trouble, he had not retaliated because it was not the right time to completely fall out with Hydra. But that did not mean he could simply let the matter go.

He had considered exposing Hydra's identities to Nick Fury, but why would Nick Fury believe a stranger like him instead of his former superior, who had passed the director's position to him, and the subordinates he had personally trained?

Even if he could make Nick Fury suspicious, it would put himself in the spotlight. Killing a thousand enemies at the cost of eight hundred of his own was not worth it.

Later, he thought he might be able to reveal the matter anonymously to Nick Fury without exposing himself, perhaps by using the Transformation Technique to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters and leave behind a note or something.

But it would still be difficult to make Nick Fury believe him. Worse, if Hydra discovered it first and moved against the few genuine S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, then S.H.I.E.L.D. would be finished ahead of schedule.

More importantly, in Li Chuan's eyes, S.H.I.E.L.D. was not much better than Hydra. Letting them fight among themselves was what he truly wanted to see.

So he would first reveal this information to Tony, then have Tony pass it on to Nick Fury later. That way, he would not expose himself, while still making Nick Fury genuinely wary.

Then S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra could fight it out while he slowly developed in the meantime.

At the same time, he could draw Tony to his side and make sure Tony would not completely stand with S.H.I.E.L.D.

In fact, Tony had always been wary of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the original film. He did not trust them much and was disgusted by many of their methods.

"The people coming for you are here. I'll be leaving first!"

Seeing the faint black dots appearing in the distant sky, Li Chuan knew the rescue team had noticed the anomaly here and was rushing over to investigate.