The Hive
"For the next period of time, I will need to leave Earth... The location where the Reality Stone is stored is not yet ready to appear, so there's no need to worry about SHOCKER or anyone else finding it. As for the knowledge of how to use it, I need to go to the far reaches of space to learn."
Wei Xiuming looked at Nick Fury and said, "So for the time being, stability should be the priority."
Black Eggplant pondered for a moment, then said, "I have a small spaceship in my secret vault; I can lend it to you if you need it."
"No need, I have a more convenient way." With that, Wei Xiuming pulled a teleportation gun from his waist, shook a bottle containing Space Stone particles, inserted it into the slot, and then pointed the gun at Nick Fury: "So, tell me, who exactly are you? Worms, Skrulls, or Substitute Robot?"
"He's my double!"
The real Nick Fury stepped forward, looked at Talos who was pleading for help with his expression, and said, "You should leave now!"
"When did you start cooperating with the Skrulls?"
After Talos left, Wei Xiuming said in a questioning tone, "Don't you understand the principle that those who are not of our kind will surely have different hearts?"
"Talos is an old friend of mine, and I trust him," Nick Fury began. "How did you recognize his disguise? They can change their appearance at will, impersonating someone else, and their memories can be copied as well. Unless they deliberately expose themselves, no person or instrument can detect them."
"Don't forget, Worms can impersonate anyone," Wei Xiuming said seriously. "I don't care what your relationship is with this Skrulls, be careful of them—be careful that the Secret Invasion doesn't happen again."
"Imagine a massive Skrulls invasion, using their abilities to infiltrate every faction on Earth—every superhero, every comrade, every family member could be Skrulls in disguise, and people lack the means to detect them. Former close allies begin to turn against each other due to sowing discord, distrust, and even engage in a world war."
After a pause, Wei Xiuming stared at Nick Fury, his gaze sharper than any sword. "Both are beings that infiltrate human society, but the Worms are Beast with immense power, while the Skrulls are intelligent hunters. Beast act only on instinct, while hunters set traps."
"Moreover, although the Skrull Empire has declined, it is still one of the three great empires in the universe, and even a hair on its head is thicker than Earth's. It just so happens that their home planet was destroyed, and Earth, a planet on the edge of the Milky Way, is outside the attention of many forces, and human civilization has not developed it well... It would be very good as a colony."
Can you imagine what it would be like for colonists, exiled to the American Continent as convicts, to discover just how rich and fertile this land was?
Even if the Skrulls you know is kind, can you be sure that all the other Skrulls are kind?
Before Nick Fury could answer, Wei Xiuming opened the portal and went inside.
The other side of the door wasn't some cosmic expanse, but rather a Hydra base—belonging to Gideon Malik's faction.
Adhering to Hydra's original creed, Gideon Malik was sent to the planet where the Hive was located every so often, as if by sacrifice, through the black stone portal left by the Kree, to be offered to the Hive as a servant or food.
To increase the success rate, Malik once funded a project with NASA to improve the survival chances of the "sacrifices," to find the Hive as much as possible and bring it back, so as to help Hydra take over the world.
This tradition, which has been passed down for thousands of years, will be severed today.
Everything is ready!
Malik was not surprised by Wei Xiuming's sudden appearance. Although Nick Fury remained tight-lipped about the details of the Battle of New York, Wei Xiuming, as a partner, did not hide his role in the matter.
"Do you need a spacesuit prepared for you?"
Although people have been teleported to the other side of the door more than once, Malik is unsure what the scene inside is like, so it is necessary to spend a lot of money to have NASA develop a spacesuit.
"No need. I'm just using that planet as a transit point. Wearing a spacesuit to space is like wearing a fur coat just plucked from Beast to a high-class banquet."
Wei Xiuming said coldly and arrogantly that although only Malik and some of his subordinates responsible for debugging equipment and security were present, the heads of the other Hydra branches were observing the situation through video broadcasts, and he had to maintain a proper demeanor.
Five stones cut from the Black Stone portal were placed on a device called the altar. After the device was activated, the Black Stone turned into liquid, like mottled ink, and the portal opened.
"Open the door in thirty-five minutes."
After taking the recording device handed to him by the staff, Wei Xiuming leaped into the portal.
An exoplanet that has lost its name.
It originally had a name called "Maveth," which was the name given to it by the intelligent races on this planet. However, names are just one element of civilization. Once this civilization is destroyed, the name given to this planet by this civilization, similar to Earth's name for humanity, will disappear.
This planet is like that. There was once a highly advanced civilization here, consisting of nine cities. It was technologically advanced and socially stable, until one day the exiled Hive arrived here.
Perhaps to vent their anger at being exiled, or perhaps due to an innate tyranny, the Hive instigated a conflict among nine cities, causing this civilization to vanish in an internal war.
But it wasn't just this civilization that was destroyed, but also the planet's ecosystem. Everything here is gray and gloomy—the earth and the sky are both deathly gray.
After passing through the heavily polluted atmosphere, the light from stars cannot bring enough warmth to the earth, but it is not cold enough to drop to freezing point either; after terrestrial life is wiped out, algae in the ocean provide a large amount of oxygen.
But this is the only friendly aspect of this planet towards large creatures. Perhaps after hundreds of thousands of years of life reproduction, a completely new life system will evolve, but this planet will not live to see that day.
After arriving on this planet, Wei Xiuming activated the portable high-altitude monitoring device. Its anti-gravity engine started up, and it slowly and steadily ascended into the air with the recording device. Then, it turned on the wide-angle camera to film the scene below.
Because of the vast distance between galaxies, Hydra's technology couldn't support the portal remaining open for extended periods, so they had to resort to this method.
"At the level of 250,000 Shattered Stars, it's time to test the strength of this power."
Wei Xiuming stretched his limbs, then unleashed his full magnetic field power.
"Magnetic Field Rotation, Sea Tiger Explosion...!"
With a loud shout, Wei Xiuming's medium-length hair stood on end, moving even without wind. Apart from the first time he faced the Master Gu Yi, this was one of the few opportunities he needed to unleash his full potential.
An immense magnetic force emanated from his body, spreading along the planet's atmosphere and strata, and then merging with the planet's own magnetic field.
At this moment, Wei Xiuming's heart was calmer than ever before, as still as a deep well, yet as vast and magnificent as the workings of the universe—a state of harmony between humanity and nature.
To enhance his power, the Great Leader repeatedly shared his experience in using power with Doctor Death, including the secrets of achieving the Complete Realm and reaching a power of one million horsepower through "unity of heaven and man." Now it was time for him to test his power without any reservations.
Back then, with the massive logistical support of the Divine Spear Bureau, Rain Master was still able to transform the power of atmospheric movement into a continuous thunderstorm. Wei Xiuming is even stronger than her and can do it more easily.
A fierce wind howled, lightning flashed and thunder roared, and dust on the ground was blown up, forming a wall of dust thousands of meters high that pushed towards Wei Xiuming's left and right sides. The dust particles rubbed together violently, and under the exchange of electric charges, bolts of lightning resonated with the lightning created by Wei Xiuming's magnetic field power, increasing his power.
The flying sand and stones demonstrated extraordinary destructive power. Driven by the gale, they could easily pierce through human flesh and blood. Huge, unshakeable rocks shattered under their impact, turning into smaller pieces that joined the raging winds that destroyed everything on the ground.
Like Moses parting the sea, Wei Xiuming single-handedly separated the planet's atmosphere, allowing sunlight, previously blocked by layers of dust, to shine back onto the earth, causing the ground to heat up rapidly—however, the thin atmosphere could not effectively block ultraviolet rays, and the surface temperature rose quickly enough to kill off life.
But this was only a small portion of Wei Xiuming's power that had leaked out. All of his power had penetrated deep into the planet, passing through the crust and mantle, reaching the core, and then he had taken control of the planet's operation.
"Got you!"
Wei Xiuming had been contemplating the mysteries of the unity of man and nature with his eyes closed, suddenly opened them and looked towards a certain place. On the sun-drenched earth, a patch of air stood out conspicuously due to its distortion—not because of uneven heating causing light to refract as it passed through air of different densities, but because there was something in that patch of air.
That is the so-called Hive, the slave leader specially bred by the Kree to control the Inhuman race, and the Hive that Hydra desperately wants to bring back to Earth!
And within that distorted mass of air was the Hive —or rather, the parasites that make up part of it. These parasites are measured in nanometers, making them almost invisible to the human eye; they can only be detected when they gather together and distort light.
This is the Hive's ability, a change deliberately induced by the Kree during the Terrigen experiments. The Hive delivers these Inhuman into the Inhuman's brains through respiration or other means, affecting their brain hormone secretion or nerve impulses, thereby controlling them.
Wei Xiuming used the power of Magnetic Field Rotation to interfere with Gideon Malik and Alexander Pierce's judgment, and it was in this way that the SHOCKER combatants were brainwashed.
Of course, the Hive can also obtain nutrition by devouring humans through parasites, and incidentally acquire their memories. Hydra's sacrifices over the years have given the Hive complete control over the development of the Earth. The level of education is no longer that of hunters in primitive tribes, but rather that of modern high-achieving students. Recently, Malik sacrificed a NASA astronaut, and the knowledge requirements for being selected as an astronaut are extremely high.
The fluctuations from the portal caught the Hive's attention—one of the few sources of amusement it enjoyed after destroying the planet's original civilization.
Each offering he brought would be played with like a cat toying with a mouse, first driven mad by it before being killed, and finally eaten, or it would take over the body as a parasite.
Because of the plot requirements, the Hive can only parasitize corpses; otherwise, it would transform into thousands of parasites like the "Blood God Child," a demonic treasure in sword-fighting novels, devouring its target completely before leaving.
But this offering exuded a dangerous aura, and upon arriving, it began to manipulate the planet's atmosphere, tearing it apart, which aroused the Hive's suspicion—was this Inhuman?
Sensing the arrival of a new offering, the Hive immediately devoured the body it had previously occupied, dispersing into countless parasites that lurked nearby. However, the one before them instilled fear in every single parasite that made him up—a primal instinct of biological evolution.
With a grab of Wei Xiuming's magnetic field power, all the parasites coalesced into a single entity, forming a monster with tentacles covering its face, giving it a very "King of the Rings" appearance.
Grabbing him in front of him, Wei Xiuming asked, "I know you can understand what I'm saying, slave!"
In the previous planetary environment, the Hive's stealth would have been perfect, concealed by the harsh atmosphere and frequent dust storms. But now it's different; its appearance is so obvious, like a swarm of insects swarming under a summer streetlamp—except that no matter the environment, it couldn't escape Wei Xiuming's discovery.
"Who exactly are you!" Although it doesn't have a usable body, the Hive has never stopped developing its abilities for thousands of years. The parasite vibrates at a certain frequency, causing the air to resonate and producing a sound that is very similar to a human voice.
"Just a Kamen Rider's passing by, remember that!"
With a change in the Electromagnetic Force in Wei Xiuming's hand, a microwave electric field was generated that enveloped the Hive, causing the polar molecules that make up the Hive parasites to start interacting and generating high temperatures, causing all the parasites to explode one after another.
The Hive, which embodied the hopes of Hydra generation after generation, was thus killed—of course, due to the special nature of its life state, Wei Xiuming could not guarantee that the parasites he caught were the entire Hive.
But that's not a big deal. He just needs the surveillance system above his head to capture the whole thing. As Yangming once said, "It's easy to defeat the bandits in the mountains, but difficult to defeat the bandits in one's heart." What Wei Xiuming wants to do is to break the image of the Hive of the Inhuman King in Hydra's heart.
The Hive had no chance of turning the tables on him.