The Military Is Envious

The armed helicopter finally arrived, though quite late. Before it had even come to a complete stop, Colonel Rhodes impatiently jumped down, hurried over to Tony, looked him over carefully, and pulled him into a tight embrace.

"Thank God you're safe. Otherwise, I would have regretted it for the rest of my life."

Tony hugged him back and said with a laugh, "Rhodey, there isn't anyone in this world who can kill me yet. I'm Tony Stark!"

Colonel Rhodes rolled his eyes. "That's right, the arrogant Tony Stark."

He looked around at the corpses strewn across the ground and the prisoners who had already been rounded up and detained, then clicked his tongue.

"Did you do all this? What kind of weapon did you invent this time?"

"It's not a weapon. It's martial arts."

"Martial arts? Oh, come on, Tony. Is messing with me really that fun?" Rhodes punched him on the shoulder, not believing him at all.

Tony shrugged. "I know this is hard to believe, but... it's the truth." He held out his hand, and a lightning serpent slithered around his fingertips.

Standing shoulder to shoulder, Rhodes saw very clearly that Tony wasn't wearing any equipment on his hand, yet the arc of electricity had appeared out of nowhere—or, more accurately, it had emerged from Tony's fingertips.

"Oh, God, are you a Mutant?" Rhodes's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.

"Of course not." Tony clenched his fist and snuffed out the lightning serpent.

"Then did you modify your body?" Rhodes looked at him as if he were insane.

"How could that be? I'm definitely factory original... though I suppose we'll have to wait until I get back and have my DNA tested to know for sure."

Tony himself had no idea what was happening to him. He was also deeply suspicious that his DNA had changed and that he was no longer human.

After all, he had never heard of a human being capable of doing what he could. Of course, that excluded his extraterrestrial master.

But his words caused Rhodes to misunderstand.

"Oh, damn it, aren't you afraid you'll wreck your own DNA? As far as I know, Osborn Corporation has been researching the Super-Soldier Serum all this time. They've invested huge amounts of manpower and money, but haven't achieved a single result. All those resources have gone to waste."

"I told you, I didn't become like this by modifying my genes. I cultivated a certain kind of martial art. Well, perhaps it still counts as martial arts."

"If practicing martial arts could turn someone into a super-soldier, then Captain America wouldn't have been needed." Rhodes shot him a disdainful look, thinking his excuse was utterly lame.

"That's why I'm also wondering whether this thing really counts as martial arts. After all, it's simply too miraculous."

Seeing that Tony didn't look like he was lying, Rhodes asked, "You really cultivated this through training?"

Tony nodded with an expression like he had a toothache.

"Urgh..."

Rhodes sucked in a cold breath.

"Are there any requirements for this thing?"

"If there are requirements, it should be willpower. The stronger your willpower, the easier it is to cultivate."

"That simple? The barrier to entry is that low?"

"That simple. The barrier to entry really is that low!"

Rhodes was overjoyed. "This was practically made for soldiers!"

"Oh, right. There's one other barrier to entry." Tony suddenly remembered.

"What?"

"You have to know Chinese, or my master won't accept you."

"Chinese? That's easy too. There are so many people in the military that we can always pick out a whole group who meet the requirements. If necessary, we can even provide collective training."

"I'll propose to the Department of Defense that they invite your master over to serve as an instructor."

"An instructor? Hmph, keep dreaming." Tony let out a cold laugh. "My master has a terrible temper. If you want to learn, you'll have to go to him and become his disciple, and you'll have to follow his rules."

Rhodes frowned. "Even an invitation from the Department of Defense wouldn't work?"

Tony curled his lip. "He doesn't even give me any face. What does the Department of Defense matter?"

"Uh... Tony, arrogance is an illness. It needs treatment."

He pulled out a satellite phone and began reporting to the base. At the same time, the soldiers learned the location of the prisoners' base from them and decided to launch a purge.

"Tony, don't worry. The military won't let a single one of these people who dared attack you off the hook. Their tribes will all be wiped out."

A trace of melancholy appeared between Tony's brows. He said with a scornful smile, "I don't care about those tribes. I only care about how they got their hands on Stark Industries' missiles and why they used my missiles to bombard me."

Rhodes was briefly rendered speechless before saying, "The military will investigate this matter thoroughly. We'll definitely give you a satisfactory explanation."

Tony didn't need to personally take part in the military's campaign against the terrorists. He and Rhodes took the armed helicopter straight back to the base.

After dealing with the military higher-ups' inquiries and concern, he boarded a military aircraft and flew directly back to New York.

As soon as the plane landed and he stepped out of the cabin, he saw Obadiah and Pepper waiting anxiously on the tarmac.

Obadiah hurried over, grabbed him by the shoulders, and carefully looked him over before pulling him into a powerful embrace.

"Tony, you scared me half to death. Don't ever do this again."

A warm current surged through Tony's heart. Smiling, he embraced the elder who had always cared for him like a father.

"Sorry for making you worry. But you won't have to worry anymore. Other than a nuclear bomb, there probably aren't many weapons in this world that can hurt me."

"What nonsense are you talking about!" Obadiah glared at him, just about to scold him a few more times when the blue light that suddenly appeared before him left him stunned.

Tony took two steps back and showed off the Lightning Dragon before him as if performing a juggling trick. Then he looked at Obadiah like a child waiting for praise.

Pepper knew that Tony could manipulate electricity, but Obadiah didn't.

This completely shocked Obadiah. He staggered back two steps, pulled emergency heart pills from his chest, and stuffed them into his mouth.

Afraid that something might happen to his heart, Tony quickly extinguished the electricity, came over to support him, and explained, "Don't worry, Obadiah. I'm not a Mutant, and I didn't use genetic technology to modify my body. This is merely an ability that came along with cultivating Ultimate Limit Qigong."

"Now I can not only control electricity, but also magnetic fields. And during this attack, I discovered that my physical fitness is unbelievably powerful. At the very least, missiles and the like can no longer hurt me."

Obadiah sucked in another cold breath, and his heart felt even worse.

"Later, let's find somewhere to measure all my vital indicators in detail. I think I need to reevaluate this Qigong. Oh, right, we also need to test my DNA. I don't know whether it has changed."