Return to Earth

"What are you talking about? Hurry up and apologize!" Thor's bearded face twisted with urgency as he whispered to Li Nian, then hurriedly turned to "Odin."

"Father, he's a robot. He doesn't understand human etiquette, you—"

"How dare you! Seize him at once, or I'll strip you of your title as prince!"

Before Thor could finish, "Odin" cut him off sharply.

Even Thor, dense as he was, realized that something was wrong with the father before him. No matter how grave Thor's past mistakes had been, Odin would never casually threaten to strip him of his status as prince. If Thor was no longer prince, who would rule Asgard? Loki had enough political cunning, but he lacked the strength to fend off foreign enemies!

Watching Thor slowly rise, suspicion gradually appearing in his eyes, Li Nian could not help but curl his lips into a gloating smile.

He knew Loki was in for it now!

"Loki?" Thor asked tentatively. He could only suspect that the father before him was Loki in disguise. With Heimdall guarding the way, no outsider could possibly enter Asgard and secretly replace its king.

"Hm?! What Loki... Isn't he dead? What nonsense are you spouting?"

Thor's single question nearly made Loki reveal his true form. A flash of panic appeared on his face, then vanished in an instant.

When did this idiot brother of mine become so sharp? A few hundred years ago, I would've had him dancing in the palm of my hand.

Loki sighed inwardly. Even his brother was no fun to play with these days.

Then, he fixed his gaze on Li Nian—or, more precisely, on the Mind Stone embedded in Li Nian's forehead. He was intimately familiar with that thing. Back then, he had held the Mind Scepter and swaggered through New York, bestowing divine generosity upon those mortals by allowing them to become his subjects. Yet those ungrateful fools had not only failed to appreciate it, but had even beaten him senseless!

The thought made Loki's anger flare, but then a green figure suddenly flashed through his mind, instantly crushing his momentum.

"Loki?!" Seeing the momentary panic on his father's face upon the throne, how could Thor not know that he had guessed correctly? He shouted in shock and delight.

Since he had truly been exposed, Loki no longer bothered to fool around with his idiot brother. A burst of green light flashed, and the figure on the throne returned to its original form.

With beautiful black hair, dignified bearing, noble features, and eyes that gleamed brilliantly, Loki was undeniably a graceful young nobleman when it came to looks—strikingly handsome.

The first time Li Nian truly saw Loki, even he was briefly impressed by his looks.

"With a face like that, he's probably one-tenth as handsome as I used to be!"

Li Nian could not help but praise him.

"So it really was you!" Unlike Li Nian, Thor might not have been the sharpest, but he had still pieced together what had happened.

Thor's muscular body leaped onto the throne in an instant. He grabbed Loki by the collar and demanded furiously,

"Where is Father? What did you do to him?!"

Thor's eyes were practically breathing fire. He was so angry that white vapor seemed to billow from his nose, while Mjolnir in his hand twitched restlessly, ready to give his brother a hammering at any moment.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Don't get worked up. Put the hammer down first!"

Loki still had that roguish look, his tone seductive and alluring. It really was difficult for a man to act like that.

"The old man is perfectly fine. I exiled him to Midgard—what you call Earth."

Though Loki was being held by the collar, he looked as though he were the one in control. He did not take his foolish little brother seriously in the slightest.

In truth, although he dearly loved his brother, an occasional harmless prank was not enough to shake their bond, even if he had been adopted.

Loki was a complicated, charming, infuriating bastard whom people both loved and hated!

"Ahem, Thor, I think you can deal with your family matters later."

Li Nian reminded him. He had come here on business and could not let Loki hold him up.

"Who is he?" Looking at Li Nian's clown-like face and recalling how close Thor had been with him earlier, Loki felt a little displeased.

"The Tesseract is underground. Follow the stairs and you'll find it." Thor gave Li Nian a perfunctory answer, but Li Nian understood. Thor had only been away from home for a few years, and his father had already gone missing. Anyone would be anxious in that situation. It was only a Tesseract, not as though they would not return it. Finding his father was the urgent priority.

Li Nian was dismissed just like that. Behind him, he could still hear Thor and Loki arguing, but that was no longer his concern.

"Unbelievably smooth!" Li Nian looked at the Tesseract in his hand, glowing with a faint blue light. The Mind Stone on his forehead seemed to sense its kin, flickering with golden radiance. The two lights reflected off one another, creating a marvelous color.

Li Nian felt his connection with the Mind Stone return. As though it had found a powerful ally, the Mind Stone no longer feared the Black Lantern Ring and even actively released energy to drive it away.

The Black Lantern Ring was a greedy thug. Since you were willingly releasing power, there was no way it would refuse to absorb it.

Li Nian had no time to care about the scheming between divine artifacts. He tried to activate the Space Stone in his hand.

In an instant, a dazzling blue light flashed, gradually forming a vortex neither too large nor too small—just big enough to swallow Li Nian whole.

Whoosh!

Li Nian landed on his backside and fell flat on his back.

"This thing... couldn't it be a little gentler for the sake of family?"

Li Nian rubbed his pain-free backside and complained to the Tesseract.

"Looks like Stark didn't turn my room into a game room." Li Nian looked around and found that his room was exactly as it had been when he left. There was not much dust either, so someone must have cleaned it regularly.

Li Nian strolled out of his room and scanned the Avengers Compound. To his surprise, aside from a few logistics staff, there was not a single Avenger inside.

"No way. Could that old bastard Ross have already been promoted to Secretary of State and started pestering the Avengers to sign the Sokovia Accords?"

Li Nian lowered his head in thought, though he was actually gathering the latest news about the Avengers from his mind. It was now 2016, the very year the Civil War took place.

It seemed time passed at the same rate in the old Spider-Man world and this world.

"Found it!"

Li Nian stared intently at the news he had found about the Avengers. "Sure enough, Wanda still accidentally injured a great number of civilians."

The more Li Nian read, the more serious his expression became. In recent years, ordinary citizens had grown dissatisfied with the heavy casualties caused during Avengers missions. The many crimes involving superpowered individuals, in particular, had pushed the public's tolerance for the Avengers lower and lower.

The Battle of New York, Killian kidnapping the president, Project Insight, Hulk, the Sokovia Incident...

Every incident had provoked the public's nerves, slowly turning their initial gratitude toward the Avengers into increasing resentment. Some even believed the Avengers were responsible for these disasters.

And the result was the government's Superhuman Registration Act.

The fuse that ignited the Civil War!