Dangerous Knowledge Must Not Be Widely Disseminated

At S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, in Nick Fury's office.

"How is it? May, how dangerous is this person named Zhan Liu?"

When Zhan Liu crossed into this world, the resulting spatial fluctuations drew S.H.I.E.L.D.'s attention.

However, because their technology was not precise enough and for other reasons, it took S.H.I.E.L.D. a long time to locate Zhan Liu.

By then, Zhan Liu had already opened a martial arts school in Chinatown. He openly told his disciples that he was not from this world and that his Qigong could give ordinary people superpowers.

No matter how you looked at it, such claims sounded like the tricks of a con artist or the ravings of a mental patient.

However, his martial arts school accepted everyone and charged no fees, so quite a few people still went to become his disciples.

As S.H.I.E.L.D., which took the safety of Earth as its responsibility, it was of course impossible for them to let an alien wander around the city at will, let alone open a school and take in disciples.

Who knew what he was teaching? If it turned out to be something like sacrificing to an evil god in exchange for power, that would be disastrous.

Therefore, S.H.I.E.L.D. began investigating Zhan Liu the moment they found him.

However, the first agent sent to investigate failed to accomplish the mission at all.

It was not that the agent's professional abilities were inadequate. It was that Zhan Liu only spoke Chinese. He did not understand English, could not understand it when spoken, and certainly could not speak it.

As for Chinese, whether Mandarin, Cantonese, or Southern Min, and even minority languages, he understood them all.

The only language he did not understand was English.

Any disciples he accepted also had to be able to speak Chinese. Otherwise, he rejected them without exception.

With no other choice, Nick had to send another agent to investigate.

Although quite a few agents understood Chinese, considering that the alien himself had an Eastern appearance, Nick ultimately chose May, the Chinese-American female agent.

More than a month passed, and May finally returned today to submit her report.

May first poured herself a cup of coffee, then sat down across from Nick.

"To be honest, when I first received the mission, my first thought was that you had given me a chance to take a vacation."

"We've exposed countless fake frauds like this one. I thought this time would be the same."

"But after I joined the martial arts school, what surprised me was that this time might be different."

"He teaches all his disciples the same things, but they sound systematic and perfectly self-consistent. So I decided to learn along with them and see whether they really worked."

"Oh, I almost forgot. You're our 'Cavalry.' No skill can escape your notice." Nick gave May a small compliment with a smile.

"Nick." May was not pleased by his compliment. Instead, she stared at him seriously. "This matter may be very serious."

Nick froze and sat up straight. "How serious?"

May said nothing. Instead, she held out her hand.

Nick focused his gaze. A spark of electricity suddenly appeared out of nowhere, jumping back and forth between May's five spread fingers.

To let Nick see more clearly, May moved her hand toward the coffee cup on the desk. An electric arc leaped from her fingers toward the metal spoon in the cup.

May then placed her hand on the back of Nick's hand. Nick immediately felt a faint current pass through his body, making his hand tremble.

Hiss...

Nick sucked in a sharp breath.

May was an ordinary person. Nick knew that very well.

But now, May possessed superpowers.

Nick was certain this was not an illusion or sleight of hand. It was a superpower.

"His Qigong is real. It really can give other people superpowers. Now you know how serious this is."

Nick abruptly stood up and grabbed the phone. "Crossbones, I need two teams of fully armed soldiers assembled downstairs."

Covering the phone with one hand, he turned to ask May, "How many students does he have now? And how many of them have superpowers?"

May tilted her head and thought for a moment. "Around five hundred students..."

"Damn it!" Nick cursed, then turned toward Crossbones on the other end of the phone. "I need ten teams..."

May suddenly smiled. "However, I'm currently the only student with superpowers."

"Huh?" Nick froze. Seeing May's mischievous expression, he laughed angrily. "I really ought to send you to Siberia!"

"Cancel the operation. Tell everyone to stand down. It was a false alarm."

He hung up the phone and sat back in his chair. With his hands clasped on the desk, his single eye fixed on May as he said each word distinctly, "If you don't want to take a walk with the penguins tonight, you'd better give me some good news."

May shrugged. "All right, I was just a little overexcited."

"Can you imagine it? Someone who has trained in martial arts to a certain limit suddenly seeing a path for further progress. That kind of happiness and joy is bound to make a person lose control a little."

"Besides, this is a superpower. Who wouldn't want to be different from everyone else? Don't you agree?"

Nick stared at May for a long while before finally nodding. "All right, I forgive you."

"Now, we can return to the original topic. Tell me more about this alien Martial Dao practitioner."

"He actually comes from a parallel world on another Earth. Martial Dao flourishes there, and the world is ruled by a group of beings known as War Gods."

"He never shies away from saying so. Whenever a student asks about it during casual conversation, he tells them stories about the other world. Most students simply listen to them as stories, though. They don't actually believe him."

"Although he has accepted many students, they are all nominal disciples. Only those who enter the path within three months—uh, by 'entering the path,' I mean successfully developing superpowers like I did—count as having entered. He calls this the Current Drive Realm."

"Only those who enter the path count as his formal disciples. And the key to entering the path is willpower."

"In other words, you're now his formal disciple?"

"That's right, and currently the only one." May spoke with a hint of pride.

"This is only the beginning. After several years of study, I'll become even stronger."

"But at the same time, you should be able to imagine how much destruction would be caused if people with bad intentions learned this ability."

"And the problem is that my teacher's values are somewhat different from those of other Martial Dao practitioners. He doesn't care about his students' character."

Nick listened carefully and nodded.

"That's normal. His values must have been shaped in that World of Martial Gods. In a place without government oversight, where War Gods rule the world, people's values are bound to be severely twisted."

May also put away her smile and said solemnly:

"We can't let him continue like this. We have to stop him. Dangerous knowledge must not be widely disseminated. That's common sense."