Ultimate Harvest in the Waters off Cuba

As their understanding of Project Shaw deepened, the location of the final battle was pinpointed to the waters off Cuba.

Li Wei followed Charles, Erik, and the Original X-Men aboard Shaw's massive submarine. Events unfolded much as they had on the original track, with a fierce battle erupting inside the vessel.

But Li Wei's goal had never been merely to defeat Shaw.

Amid the chaotic battle, he moved like a ghost.

When Alex Summers—Havok—released his energy, Li Wei quietly used telekinesis to collect the dispersed energy signatures.

As Erik fought Shaw and attempted to pierce his energy shield with a coin, Li Wei silently recorded the entire process of Shaw absorbing and releasing energy.

He even used Startrail's concealment to quietly collect Shaw's blood sample before Erik finally killed him with the coin—an ideal carrier for the energy absorption ability.

[ Ding! Successfully obtained a key X-Gene sample: Sebastian Shaw (Energy Absorption/Conversion). Beginning in-depth analysis... ]

After Shaw's death, the crisis did not end. The Soviet Union and United States fleets faced off in the open sea, with war ready to break out at any moment. Due to his ideological differences with Charles, Erik attempted to aim the submarine's missiles at the fleets and force humanity into submission.

At that critical moment, Li Wei moved.

He did not stop Erik. Instead, he flew directly out of the submarine and hovered high in the air between the two fleets! He unleashed his immense telekinesis at full force, along with the bio-energy field enhanced by the T-virus and Extremis Virus, and the orderly radiance of Kamar-Taj Magic!

A godlike pressure instantly blanketed the entire sea! Clouds churned overhead, and the waters froze still! Whether they were mutants within the submarine or soldiers aboard the fleets, everyone felt fear and reverence born from the difference in their very levels of life!

"Humans, mutants..." Li Wei's voice boomed like thunder in everyone's minds, infused with telepathic techniques. "Your disputes are nothing more than the screeching of ants to me."

He raised a hand toward the several missiles flying in from the sky, attempting to shoot him down. To everyone's horror, as soon as those missiles came within a thousand meters of him, they seemed to sink into a swamp. Their speed plummeted, and they were ultimately disassembled and annihilated with ease by the blue telekinesis swirling around him!

"I, Li Wei, hereby declare on behalf of the Myriad Realms Secret Society," his voice was cold and authoritative, "that from this day onward, this planet and the mutants upon it shall fall under my observation and... protection. Any large-scale persecution of mutants, or any genocidal act by mutants against humanity, shall be regarded as a provocation against me."

His gaze swept over Charles and Erik below. "The future of mutants requires strength, but it also requires wisdom. It will never be achieved through fear and destruction. Xavier, Lensherr, take care of yourselves."

With that, he ignored the stunned crowd below and raised a hand to tear open a massive portal. It did not lead back to the submarine, but directly to his Mirror Dimension base.

Then he looked toward the submarine and sent an invisible mental summons to Raven—Mystique—as well as the young Jean Grey and Ororo Munroe, whom he had marked in advance and who were handling logistics at the base.

Raven's disappointment in Charles, her hesitation toward Erik's radical path, and her curiosity about the vast world Li Wei had revealed left her with almost no struggle at all. She leaped toward the portal.

Meanwhile, Jean and Ororo, far away at the base, were directly drawn away by the teleportation array Li Wei had arranged in advance.

"Raven!" "Jean! Ororo!" Charles and Erik cried out, but there was nothing they could do to stop them.

Li Wei looked at them and delivered one final sentence. "With me, they will receive better guidance and uncover their true potential. Perhaps we will have an opportunity to cooperate in the future."

The portal closed, and Li Wei vanished from the skies above the waters off Cuba with the three female mutants he had chosen to recruit, along with a full load of X-Gene samples.

What remained was a completely altered history, the dumbfounded X-Men and Magneto, and the immense shadow cast by the Myriad Realms Secret Society and Li Wei over the highest levels of power across the world.