Goodbye Coulson (Part 1)

"This is the other world." Passing through the Anomaly Point to its opposite side, Ada looked around at the surroundings, her face full of confusion.

Even as a top-tier agent, suddenly encountering something like this naturally raised questions in her mind.

"The facts are right in front of us, aren't they?" Shen Fei said, ignoring Ada as he walked straight ahead. About five hundred meters ahead stood a tall altar made of dozens of stone steps. If nothing went wrong, the Stairway of the Sun should be atop that platform.

Shen Fei had already seen a similar altar on the other side, as well as in the murals inside the cave.

The altar on the opposite side was likely built as a replica of this one. As for how this altar was constructed, that remained unknown.

It had to be said that even primitive tribes possessed wisdom not to be underestimated. At the very least, building such an altar in that era was no easy feat for ordinary people.

"I want to look around a bit." After carefully observing the surroundings, Ada said this.

"Be careful. This island might not be very safe. Also, don't waste too much time."

"No problem."

Both sides of the Anomaly Point were islands. This might be the real reason the secret of the Stairway of the Sun had been preserved for so long.

To protect that secret, Spencer and the others had once massacred the entire primitive tribe in a frenzy. Even now, human bones and ruined buildings could still be seen on the island.

Back then, to maintain secrecy, the three of them agreed never to reveal the island's location to outsiders. Whenever they needed to collect the Stairway of the Sun, one of them would come personally.

As for the guards who had escorted them to the island, they were all poisoned to death after the three left.

On the opposite side of the Anomaly Point, aside from the tall altar, there were no signs of human presence or buildings. However, the bones of some beasts could be seen. The main difference was that compared to ordinary animals, the beasts here were much larger.

"No sounds of birds or insects. This place looks like a life-forbidden zone." Although Shen Fei had no wilderness survival experience, he still knew some basic knowledge, especially with Ada by his side.

During their time together, Shen Fei had been constantly asking Ada for tips on spycraft—not to become a spy himself, but to guard against them.

For example, how to detect bugs, cameras, and such. Without professional training, some things were hard to spot.

An excellent agent, especially someone like Ada or Black Widow, needed to master too many skills. First was driving proficiency—able to fly planes, pilot submarines, and drive all kinds of vehicles.

Next was hacking proficiency. In the modern world, without this skill, one couldn't be considered a top-tier agent.

Then there were weapon proficiency, wilderness survival proficiency, combat proficiency, and so on.

"A lot of people died for this thing." Approaching the altar, Shen Fei noticed various bones scattered on the stone steps—some human, some from other creatures. At the very top of the steps, there were even more bones.

Trying to become stronger by eating the Stairway of the Sun was a life-or-death gamble for ordinary people or animals. Success meant becoming the tribe's king, enjoying wealth and glory—though in Shen Fei's eyes, the wealth of a primitive tribe was nothing special, but to the tribe members, it was true luxury.

Failure meant instant death.

A small chance turned one into a monster. This was likely why the island showed almost no signs of life.

"The Stairway of the Sun." The Stairway of the Sun was a flower with vibrant colors, growing only in the central part of the altar's topmost soil.

"Special soil, huh." Shen Fei used the Op-Op Fruit's ability to analyze the soil composition beneath the Stairway of the Sun. Most of the results were beyond his understanding.

"It should be similar to the Heart-Shaped Herb." When Spencer and the others first tried to transplant the Stairway of the Sun, they spent a huge amount of money on research. In the end, they found that once transplanted, the flower became ordinary, losing its miraculous properties—even if the soil was moved along with it.

Just like the orange tree: grown in the south, it yields oranges; grown in the north, it becomes trifoliate oranges.

"Sorry about this." After saying that, Shen Fei swept all the existing Stairway of the Sun into his inventory, then planted several powerful bombs around the area, planning to completely destroy this place.

If a botanist saw what Shen Fei was doing, they would definitely fight him over it. This was a unique plant! Even ignoring its effects, such an act of extinction deserved condemnation.

Unfortunately, Shen Fei was no botanist. And even if he were, he wouldn't preserve this plant. The risk was too great. Though it might seem like borrowing trouble, ensuring safety made this necessary.

Earth already had too many dangerous viruses. Adding another was unacceptable. And as the Stairway of the Sun disappeared, this virus lineage would gradually dwindle over time.

The T-Virus, extracted from the Progenitor Virus, was the source of all viral enhancements. As everyone knew, viruses couldn't survive alone; they relied on a host's life force to reproduce.

This was the fundamental weakness of most viruses.

But compared to other viruses, the T-Virus had a unique trait: it could rewrite a lifeform's genes. Most viruses couldn't do this.

The only thing capable of the same as the T-Virus, so far, was the Heart-Shaped Herb.

Human genes were inherently exclusive. That was why only a radioactive spider could create a Spider-Man. And even then, not all radioactive spiders could achieve this.

Spider-Man's appearance was both accidental and inevitable. If someone else were bitten, they wouldn't gain superpowers—they'd get a ticket to the hospital, or worse, a ticket to hell.

But if the T-Virus were combined with spider genes, creating another Spider-Man wouldn't be difficult. Strictly speaking, Ant-Man, Octopus-Man, and Lizard could all be manufactured.

According to traditional Chinese medicine theory, the T-Virus acted as a catalyst for genetic modification, guiding gene changes.

The T-Veronica Virus was created by combining the T-Virus with the genes of an ancient queen ant.

Of course, this was only theoretical. Perfect fusion came with all sorts of problems, most of which were unsolvable for the vast majority of scientists.

But for Shen Fei, these were completely solvable problems.

"I wonder what this world is like." At the island's shore, Ada gazed at the endless sea in the distance, speaking softly.

"Who knows."

As for this world, Spencer and the others naturally hadn't limited themselves to the Stairway of the Sun. Unfortunately, leaving the island to explore other places was far too difficult for them.

The Anomaly Point was too small to bring modern ships through. Building boats or rafts from island materials to sail the sea, without plot armor, was practically suicide.

Spencer and the others had once sent several groups to explore this world, but none ever returned. By then, Spencer's focus had shifted to the Progenitor Virus and the T-Virus, so no more expeditions were sent.

Whether those sent out had all died, discovered something, or even integrated into this world—no one would know until someone came back.

"Don't you want to go see?" Ada smiled at Shen Fei as she spoke.

For ordinary people, exploring this world might be extremely difficult, but for Shen Fei, as long as he wanted to, it wasn't all that hard.

First of all, his Dimension Magic could be used in this world, which meant this world had some unknown connection to Earth—whether it was a world of the past or the future, it wasn't impossible.

Moreover, even though the Anomaly Point was now closed, Shen Fei could still use magic to open a Portal back to Earth. That was the wonder of Dimension Magic.

He could even leave a magic mark in this world if he wanted, so he could return anytime later.

Unfortunately, Shen Fei had no intention of coming back. With his current strength, opening such a Portal would probably leave him needing a long rest afterward.

That wasn't a big deal—he could just avoid using magic afterward. The real issue was that no one knew what this world was really like. Without a map of this world, his Portal could only open to places within his line of sight.

As for opening a random Portal, unless he had a death wish, it was best not to try.

Going to other worlds—once his strength was sufficient, he could open the Gate of Opening anytime. There was no need to take risks now.

With so many Stairway of the Sun plants, Shen Fei's magical power could grow even stronger in the future.

Just as Kamar-Taj could heal the body through the soul, a powerful body could also make the soul stronger.