Poor Dormammu, the Suddenly Arriving Hammer

Time flew by.

Ever since they brought back the Reality Stone, a month had passed in the blink of an eye.

Over that month, Clea had grown accustomed to this place and accepted her identity as an alchemist.

Moreover, thanks to her physique far surpassing that of Earthlings, she had gone straight to the Body Tempering Third Stage as soon as she entered the Body Tempering Realm.

This left Natasha, Mordo, Kaecilius, and the others envious for quite a while. They practically hated themselves for not being aliens!

At the same time, the spiritual energy concentration throughout the sect had risen to another level after the Reality Stone was added to the Spirit-Gathering Formation.

If they could add one more, the density of spiritual energy would be roughly on par with the Dark Dimension.

According to Ancient One, if they one day gathered all six Infinity Stones to form a super Spirit-Gathering Formation,

then ordinary people could enter the Ethereal Ascension Sect and gain the benefits of prolonged life and a strengthened body just by taking a breath of air.

The cultivation speed of the sect's disciples would probably increase more than tenfold!

Those words immediately made everyone in the sect covet the Infinity Stones, wishing they could all rush out and bring them back.

Especially the Space Stone in S.H.I.E.L.D. If Ancient One had not stopped them, they would probably have already stormed over to steal it!

Alchemy Peak.

Clea's courtyard.

"Hey, Clea, when exactly will you be able to refine Body Tempering Pills?"

Natasha leaned against a Dark Dimension portal. As she absorbed spiritual energy to temper her body, she turned to ask Clea, who was tending the medicinal herbs across from her.

"I'm already at Body Tempering Eighth Stage. If you don't refine them soon, I'll practically have no use for them!"

The Body Tempering Pills Natasha mentioned were pills specifically used to break through the Body Tempering Realm.

They were auxiliary cultivation pills. Everyone could take one during the Body Tempering stage, but a second one would have no effect.

And depending on the pill's grade, a low-grade one could raise a person by one stage, a mid-grade one by two stages, and a high-grade one directly by three stages!

"Keep dreaming. This is a top-tier second-rank pill. Even Hamir can't refine it, so just cultivate properly."

Clea curled her lip. Did Natasha really take her for some grandmaster alchemist?

At present, she could only barely refine first-rank pills, and all of them were low-grade. She was nowhere near as skilled as the ordinary alchemists of Alchemy Peak!

Though her progress was already incredibly fast, it would still take at least one or two years before she could refine a top-tier second-rank pill.

"Ugh!"

Natasha spread her hands and sighed, wearing an expression that made Clea thoroughly annoyed.

"So in the end, I still have to cultivate the hard way. I got excited for nothing."

"Working hard at cultivation is the proper path, you idiot!"

Clea could not stand it anymore. She yanked up a medicinal herb and hurled it at Natasha.

Natasha was extremely nimble. She twisted aside and dodged, while the herb flew straight into the portal and fell into the Dark Dimension.

"Hey, it's already been a month. Why haven't Yelena and the others come yet? Was the address I left not clear enough?"

Natasha suddenly thought of her dear younger sister again. Yelena had promised so readily, yet there had been no word from her at all.

Just as Natasha was sighing over it, the Dark Dimension portal suddenly trembled.

Then the herb that had fallen inside was thrown back out, and the portal was immediately shut from within.

This sudden change made Natasha's face darken. She could not help spitting on the ground.

"Pah! Damn Dormammu! I opened my portal in the middle of nowhere, and he still found it? He's going too far!"

"Once I get stronger, I'll move the sect into the Dark Dimension and absorb his energy right in front of him!"

With an angry look on her face, Natasha waved her hand and opened ten portals at once.

Yet before the portals could last two seconds, they were rapidly shut down one after another.

Natasha was determined to fight him on this. Every time Dormammu closed one from inside, she immediately opened another outside.

Before long, an uncontrollable aura of fury seeped out from the portals.

But the scene of the Dark Lord descending upon the world never came to pass.

Only portals kept flashing as they opened and closed over and over.

Clea: "..."

Honestly, for one brief moment, she felt Dormammu was rather pitiful.

Someone had bullied him right at his doorstep and was practically spreading their legs in front of him, yet he did not even dare make a peep.

Just as this farce was about to continue without end,

Natasha and Clea suddenly sensed something and looked up at the sky together.

A silver streak cut across the heavens, flew over their heads, and plummeted straight toward the very center of Kamar-Taj.

The two exchanged a glance, both wearing strange expressions.

"Clea, doesn't that thing look familiar?"

"Of course it does. It's that Thor guy's whatever-whatever hammer!"

Clea was certain of it. After all, only a month had passed since the previous incident.

And Asgard had even brought them quite a substantial enrollment deposit, so the two of them had a rough idea what was going on.

"The deposit was delivered so long ago. It should be that stupid eldest prince Thor and that effeminate second prince Loki arriving now."

Clea also thought Natasha's guess made sense, so she turned and asked,

"We can count as old acquaintances. Want to go take a look?"

"Let's go!"

Kamar-Taj's central square.

By the time Natasha and Clea arrived, the place was already packed with sect disciples who had come to watch the commotion after seeing the hammer.

Through the crowd, they immediately spotted the beautiful little silver hammer standing at a slant in the middle of the square.

"Only the hammer, no people?"

"What's going on?"

Filled with confusion, Natasha and Clea moved closer.

But as soon as they approached, they saw the two old hands, Mordo and Kaecilius, step forward, push through the crowd, and stand before the hammer.

"If you weaklings can't lift it, move aside. My cultivation is higher. This thing is definitely destined for me!"

After hearing everyone discuss how the hammer could not be lifted, Kaecilius immediately concluded that it was a precious treasure.

Shamelessly shoving Mordo aside, he was the first to reach out and grip the hammer's handle.

Mordo could not be bothered to argue with Kaecilius. He helped block the others who wanted to come forward and urged him,

"Quit yapping. Grab it and let's go. Natasha will be here soon!"

Hearing Mordo say Natasha was coming, Kaecilius stopped wasting time and immediately used all his strength to lift it.

"Aaargh!!!"

His muscles bulged all over his body, veins protruding like coiling green snakes, and his face turned bright red from the strain.

Yet the hammer before him did not move in the slightest, as steady as the Himalayas around them.

"Damn it, this thing is actually so heavy!"

Seeing that even Kaecilius, at the Body Tempering Sixth Stage, could not lift the tiny hammer, Mordo was stunned.

"You can't lift it even with your strength? Move aside. Let me try!"

Refusing to believe it, Mordo pulled Kaecilius away and decided to try it himself.

But the result was the same. No matter how hard he exerted himself, he could not lift the hammer.

This sight made Natasha, standing in the back, frown deeply.

"Thor's little hammer really is something. Kaecilius has sixty thousand jin of force in both arms at Body Tempering Sixth Stage, and he still can't lift it?"

"Could it be enchanted with some kind of magic that only allows its owner to use it?"

"That's possible." Clea nodded, then pulled Natasha through the crowd to the hammer.

"The energy used by magic isn't as amazing as spiritual energy. Hurry and use your spiritual power to see whether you can lift it."

Not only did Natasha hear Clea's words, but Mordo and Kaecilius, who had been pushed aside, also fell into thought.

After all, spiritual energy truly was miraculous. It could not only be converted from other forms of energy, but could also be absorbed and used by the human body!

"Alright." Natasha did not waste words and grabbed the hammer.

The spiritual power within her surged and flowed out through her arm and palm, quickly enveloping the entire hammer.

The hammer wrapped in spiritual power soon began to change. Translucent magical patterns started flickering across its surface.

At the same time, Natasha, gripping the hammer, felt her connection with it grow increasingly close, as though the hammer had become an extension of her body!

Then the hammer gave a soft hum and trembled lightly before Natasha effortlessly lifted it.