Investigation Triggered

The Sorcerer Supreme did not use the Eye of Agamotto to turn back time and save Salomon's life. Many people would never allow such a thing. There were plenty of stubborn people in Kamar-Taj who believed that using the Eye of Agamotto disrupted the natural flow of time. They did have some valid points, and the Sorcerer Supreme also believed that rewinding time on Salomon might cause his contract with the Vishanti to disappear.

So The Venerable One used White Magic from the Book of Vishanti to help him heal on his own. This magic consumed Salomon's own life force, which was why he felt weak when he woke up. Such aftereffects were not unbearable. Allowing someone with severe burns to be reborn was already something modern medicine could not achieve. Restoring skin alone required an extremely long and painful course of treatment, yet Salomon had not felt any discomfort during his magical treatment.

When the Sorcerer Supreme brought Salomon back, every inch of his skin had already been charred black, and the flesh beneath was nearly cooked through. If The Venerable One had not acted so quickly, Salomon could have died at any moment. However, this treatment required Salomon to possess powerful life force. Fortunately, his body had already been strengthened by Positive Energy. He only needed a few days of proper rest to recover. Even his formerly lost long curls had grown back, though they were a little short. Salomon was quite satisfied with that. He simply could not stand having hair only as long as a fingernail. That felt worse than death.

Once Salomon was able to get out of bed and eat, he also took the opportunity to inspect the scorched black shell he had shed during treatment. In fact, when The Venerable One treated him, she had peeled him out of those black shells as though peeling chestnuts. His newly regenerated skin was also far too delicate. Not only had he lost the calluses left behind by martial arts training, but the skin on his face had become fair and soft again. This led to attacks from the female sorcerers of Kamar-Taj. Every one of them had to pinch his cheeks twice whenever they passed by.

"Ugh..." Salomon sat in his room, dipped a quill into ink, and drew scrolls on parchment. He believed that a large part of the operation's failure had been caused by not bringing all the scrolls he needed. If he had not had two Protection from Evil and Good scrolls with him at the time, his and Master Wong's fates would have been far worse. Those possessed by evil spirits rarely met good ends. If they had been possessed, they would not even have had the chance to wait for the Sorcerer Supreme's rescue.

Following the Sorcerer Supreme's orders, he still needed many more days of rest before he could move about normally. Master Zhang, who taught Baji Quan, did not want to see Salomon looking so weak and feeble either, so he no longer needed to attend self-defense classes. Even now, Master Zhang still believed Salomon had been attacked by a Black Warlock because he had not studied self-defense properly.

Thus, Salomon became the negative example in self-defense class.

The excuse of "being attacked by a Black Warlock" had fooled almost everyone. Aside from The Venerable One and Master Wong, no one knew the truth. As for that Black Warlock? Since The Venerable One had personally acted, he was surely dead. His soul could not even reach hell.

Salomon set down his quill and raised his hand, carefully examining the three rings on the fingers of his right hand. The sapphire ring on his index finger, the orange sapphire ring on his middle finger, and the pink diamond ring on his ring finger were all perfectly clean, without a trace of scorching. Their gemstones shone with captivating brilliance under the sunlight. Though they looked extremely expensive, they were no different from ordinary rings. They had no connection to magical items and carried not the slightest magical glow. No one would have imagined that these rings could control the power of the Vishanti.

He cautiously tried to remove them, only to discover that the rings had not only automatically adjusted to his fingers, but also clung to them fondly. Salomon gradually applied more force, but in the end, he found that he simply could not pull off any of the three rings.

Salomon sighed.

Fine. These rings were now clinging to him like drunk hooligans. In the knowledge of sorcerers he had learned, such behavior meant that the contract had been established. He could now openly use the power of the Vishanti. No matter what considerations the Vishanti had, Salomon could only wait calmly for their arrangements. Still, compared to the contracts of the others at Kamar-Taj, his was far more lenient and exceptionally easy to dissolve, so he had the right to refuse—provided he could remove the rings. And for him, the benefits of wearing them went beyond being able to use vast amounts of the Vishanti's power. Through them, he had also gained an initial grasp of controlling the Holy Marks.

But there was no point thinking about so much now. Salomon sighed again, picked up a ruler and protractor, and continued drawing scrolls. For him, expanding his spellbook and stock of scrolls was what he should be doing now.

What happened in Salem Town naturally drew the attention of certain agencies, and they promptly arrived at the scene to handle this supernatural phenomenon. Since the affected area was neither too large nor too small and was located in the suburbs, the incident was not serious enough to be reported to the World Security Council. However, due to protests from Salem Town's senator, S.H.I.E.L.D. sent an experienced agent to handle the matter.

"Mutant? Terrorist attack? Or accident?" Coulson, dressed in a black suit, accepted the tablet from his colleague. He removed his sunglasses and glanced at it before handing the tablet back. Then he looked toward the staff examining the scene. "Have you found anything else?"

"Nothing." Sylvert shook his bald head. "But according to the Salem police report, Senator Ricky White of Salem Town was robbed that day. Apparently, someone used a Flashbang Grenade at the scene and then took a ring from the senator's finger—a ring with a pink gemstone. But we can't determine whether the robber was connected to this mutant."

"No tinnitus, so it wasn't a Concussion Grenade. It might have been a homemade flashbang. What about witnesses?" Coulson sighed. He had already prepared himself to face an out-of-control mutant, and he had brought light weapons with him to Salem Town this time. Ever since Melinda experienced the Bahrain Incident, she had transferred to administrative work. If Melinda had been here, Coulson would have felt more at ease. Against a mutant, these weapons gave him nowhere near the sense of security Melinda's presence did.

"None. After the sudden flash of light, Senator Ricky White realized he had been robbed. The only useful information we extracted from him was the bruising on his wrist." Sylvert adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses. "We can use that to estimate the attacker's height and weight. However, most of the people present at the time were arrested by the police, and we couldn't find anyone who matched the criteria."

"The real robber must have fled the scene. We're not here to find a robber for the senator, nor are we here to look for beggars, gamblers, and drunks. Our goal is to investigate the supernatural incident. Leave the robber to the local police. If the local police hadn't failed to find bomb debris, they wouldn't have come to us. No terrorist attack would deliberately be carried out in the suburbs. But..."

Coulson tapped the asphalt beneath his feet. In front of him, all the asphalt on the road had melted. It was clear that the high temperature had spread outward in an arc. The degree of melting varied according to each section's distance from the center. The asphalt nearest Coulson was only slightly raised, while the ground at the very center had clearly melted into liquid before. For an experienced agent, this scene contained more than enough evidence to investigate. Coulson had never expected to find any leads from surveillance footage.

He pointed at the ground before him. "There's a footprint here, leading toward the center. We can easily calculate the physical characteristics of the person who left it. Once the trace analysis results come out, we can compare that information with the robber's. I have a feeling they may very well be the same person. And his companion—the person at the center of the high temperature—is probably the mutant we're looking for. But the problem is, we haven't found any footprints leading out. Maybe the owner of this footprint is a mutant too."

"You mean he can fly?"

"Achoo—"

"Achoo—"

Master Wong and Salomon, who were mooching a meal at the Hong Kong Sanctum, had no idea that S.H.I.E.L.D. had already traced the investigation to them.

P.S. Please invest, QAQ! And send recommendation votes too! More updates for investments!

Good night.