Blood-Red Choice in the Underground Cave

Deep within the underground cave, the air was thick with the earthy stench of soil and a strange energy hum like static. Li Wei held his breath as he stood before the enormous CHP Crystal, which emitted a faint blue glow. Nebulae seemed to swirl within the crystal, breathtakingly beautiful and suffocatingly dangerous.

Without hesitation, he activated the [Mind Protection Ring]. An invisible mental barrier carrying the tranquil qualities of the Astral Visualization Technique enveloped him. The crystal seemed to sense the foreign mental power, and an invisible psychic shockwave surged toward him like a tide, crashing against the barrier and sending ripples across it—only to be firmly blocked. It works! Li Wei steadied himself and immediately pressed the [Energy Siphon Array Disk] in his hand against the crystal's surface.

The runes on the disk lit up at once, like a precision instrument beginning to operate. An exceedingly faint yet steady suction force emerged, carefully stripping and guiding streams of the purest Psychic Force Essence, resembling liquid blue light, from the crystal's immense energy mass into the Voidspace Stone at its center. The process went even more smoothly than expected. The Voidspace Stone gradually turned a deep azure, and the psychic energy contained within it made even Li Wei's heart tremble.

[Energy Extraction Progress: 17%... 24%... 31%...]

The system calmly reported the progress. At this rate, he would be able to leave fully loaded and unnoticed in just a few minutes. However, just as the extraction reached 39%, a sudden change occurred!

"Hey! What is that?!" "Someone's here! Someone's in the cave!" "Andrew, Matt, look!" Three somewhat youthful but shocked voices came from the cave entrance, accompanied by chaotic footsteps and flashlight beams. Li Wei's heart sank. The worst-case scenario had happened!

The three protagonists—Andrew, Matt, and Steve—had actually arrived at the underground cave at this moment! They had clearly seen Li Wei "casting a spell," as well as the strange array disk in his hand extracting energy from "their" crystal. "What are you doing to our stuff?! Let it go!" Andrew, the most impulsive of them and the one who would later rely most heavily on this power, felt an inexplicable surge of panic and anger when he noticed that the crystal seemed slightly dimmer than he remembered.

Without even thinking, he instinctively thrust a hand toward Li Wei! An invisible psychic shockwave blasted toward him! Li Wei frowned. His left hand maintained the stability of the array disk while his right swiftly traced a circle. A miniature Shield of Seraphim appeared before him in an instant. Bang! The psychic blast struck the magical shield with a dull thud.

Li Wei's body swayed, but he remained firmly on his feet. Andrew's attack, made so soon after gaining his abilities, was not enough to shake his defenses. "Andrew! Calm down!" Matt tried to stop his cousin. He could sense that this strangely dressed man with bizarre methods was not someone to provoke. "Calm down? He's stealing our power!" Andrew's eyes reddened slightly. His dependence on power and inner insecurity were magnified at this moment. He gathered his psychic force again, this time lifting a chunk of rubble from the ground and hurling it at Li Wei like a cannonball! Steve also nervously took a stance, trying to use psychic force to restrain Li Wei's movements.

Troublesome. A trace of impatience and a cold resolve flashed through Li Wei's mind. His plan had been disrupted, and his whereabouts exposed. If he let them leave, the trouble afterward would be endless. They would certainly call the police, draw an investigation, and might even alert S.H.I.E.L.D. to the abnormalities in this world. More importantly, they had become obstacles and had launched the first attack. In plundering across the multiverse, mercy was often a path to death.

"System, reassess the situation. How much will killing the three of them affect the world's rejection?" he quickly asked in his mind.

[Assessing... The three are connected to the current world's fortune, but are not irreplaceable pillars of the world. Killing them will trigger a moderate degree of world rejection, manifesting as unknown chain changes to future events, but it will not result in immediate expulsion. Recommendation: deal with them cleanly and leave no traces.]

The assessment made Li Wei reach his decision. His gaze instantly turned as cold as frost. Facing the flying stone and the psychic force trying to bind him, Li Wei no longer held back.

Buzzz—! The immense psychic force he had just absorbed but had not yet fully refined erupted alongside the pure Kamar-Taj magic within him! A terrifying pressure far more powerful and condensed than Andrew's, Matt's, and Steve's—carrying the sense of magical order—instantly blanketed the entire cave! The three of them felt their breathing seize up, as though invisible giant hands had clamped around their throats. Their psychic force was effortlessly crushed before this power as if it were a child's plaything! "What?!" "That's impossible!" Matt and Steve cried out in terror.

Andrew's face was filled with disbelief and madness. "My power... Give me back my power!" Li Wei gave them no chance. His left hand still steadied the array disk as it continued extracting energy

(Progress: 45%...)

, while his right hand formed into a sword gesture and slashed fiercely toward the three of them! Kamar-Taj offensive magic—Spatial Severing! A faint black thread, nearly invisible, flashed through the air. Andrew, who was charging at the front, suddenly froze. He looked down and saw a thin line of blood across his waist. His mouth opened, but no sound came out. The next moment, his upper body slowly slid down, blood gushing out like a waterfall and instantly dyeing the ground beneath him red.

"Andrew!!!" Matt's eyes split with rage as he let out a heart-rending scream. Steve was so terrified that he collapsed to the ground, his pants instantly soaked. Li Wei's expression did not change in the slightest as his fingers moved again. "No! Please..." Matt's plea came to an abrupt end. The same black thread swept past, and he and the collapsed Steve followed Andrew's fate. The underground cave fell into deathly silence, leaving only the faint hum of the Energy Siphon Array Disk and the horrifying sound of blood steadily flowing.

The thick stench of blood overwhelmed the smells of soil and energy. Li Wei expressionlessly watched the three corpses rapidly lose their warmth. His heart was not entirely unmoved, but the feeling was soon suppressed by stronger reason. This was a necessary cleanup. The road of plunder was destined to be uneven, and staining his hands with blood was inevitable sooner or later.

He accelerated the energy extraction.

[Energy Extraction Progress: 68%... 79%... 92%... 100%!]

When the Voidspace Stone had completely transformed into a deep-blue gemstone and could no longer hold any more energy, Li Wei decisively stopped the siphoning. The CHP Crystal was now noticeably dimmer and had shrunk by a size, but it had not collapsed. He put away the fully charged Voidspace Stone and the array disk, then glanced at the mess on the ground.

"Can't leave any traces." He drew upon the immense psychic force he had just acquired, combining it with magic to compress and break down the three corpses, every trace of blood, and the items they had brought into the finest particles, which dispersed into the air. At the same time, he cast a powerful Confundus Charm at the cave entrance, making anyone instinctively overlook the place. After finishing everything, he sensed the surging Psychic Force Essence within him, urgently awaiting refinement, along with his slightly unsettled state of mind after killing.

"System, return." A flash of light passed, and the underground cave returned to silence as though nothing had happened. Only the greatly dimmed crystal silently testified to the brutal plunder that had taken place here. Li Wei returned to his apartment in the Marvel Universe, but his mindset was completely different from when he had left. He had truly experienced the cruelty of the multiverse and the cold power over life and death that strength brought.