The Supreme One's Fury, Whispers from the World of Bones

The light on the Thunder Temple's teleportation platform had not yet fully faded, and the lightning still dancing around Lin Ye carried a trace of post-battle agitation when The Ancient One suddenly appeared in the center of the hall as though she had torn through space itself. Brilliant golden rings, not yet fully calmed, surrounded her. Rare anger and gravity showed on her usually placid face as her lightning-sharp gaze instantly locked onto Lin Ye, who had only just steadied himself.

"Lin Ye!" Her voice was no longer calm, carrying an urgency and authority that pierced the soul. "What did you just destroy?! Do you know where that gate led?!"

Lin Ye was somewhat surprised by The Ancient One's abrupt arrival, but he did not panic. He dispersed the remaining lightning over his body and looked at her calmly. "A rat's nest calling itself the Inheritors, along with an unstable spatial passage they were trying to open. What, Sorcerer? Do I need to report to you before exterminating pests?"

"An unstable spatial passage?" The Ancient One stepped forward, her tone growing sterner. "That was a directional gateway to the Endless Bone Graveyard, forcibly stabilized through countless blood sacrifices and ancient secret arts! It was no ordinary unstable passage! It was forbidden!"

"Endless Bone Graveyard?" Lin Ye frowned slightly. The name alone did not sound promising.

"A death dimension that the major guardian systems of the multiverse had long designated as an absolute taboo!" A trace of barely perceptible apprehension entered The Ancient One's voice. "It is the burial ground of countless ancient horrors, where the consciousnesses of ancient dead sleep—beings even Dormammu would not provoke lightly! More importantly, its spatial structure is extraordinarily peculiar and fragile. Any violent burst of energy from forcibly opening or... especially forcibly closing it is like tolling a death knell in a silent tomb. It could awaken things that should have slept forever, or even... tear an unhealable wound into the fabric of reality!"

With a wave of her hand, a golden curtain of light unfolded in the air. Blurred yet chilling images flashed across it: mountain ranges formed from the bones of unknown creatures as large as planets, shattered thrones floating in the void and radiating decay, and countless cold flames of souls peering from the darkness...

"You destroyed the gateway. The explosion's energy and spatial shockwaves have already spread through that world of death like the brightest beacon and the most piercing alarm!" The Ancient One stared hard at Lin Ye. "You think you only destroyed a threat, but you may have awakened one—or a whole group—of nightmares older and more terrifying than anything before! You may even have left a 'marker' pointing here on Earth's spatial barrier!"

Lin Ye's expression finally darkened. He had not expected matters to be so complicated. Those madmen from the Inheritors had not been fleeing or summoning reinforcements; they had been trying to open a door to a forbidden dimension that even The Ancient One feared? And his act of destruction might have worsened the crisis instead?

"My choice at the time was to stop the gateway from stabilizing completely," Lin Ye stated calmly. "If I had let the passage open fully and allowed those things to come through directly, wouldn't that have been worse?"

"Stopping it was correct! But the method..." The Ancient One took a deep breath, struggling to calm herself. "...was too crude. Dealing with something involving a forbidden dimension requires the most precise sealing and redirection, not a clash of pure destructive energy! It's like smashing a room filled with flammable, explosive gas with a sledgehammer!"

She looked at Lin Ye, her gaze complicated. "Your power is strong and pure. That is an advantage, but it can also become a flaw. Not every problem can be solved through destruction, especially when dimensional laws and ancient taboos are involved. You need to be more cautious."

Lin Ye fell silent for a moment. He admitted that The Ancient One had a point. This operation had been driven more by his fury toward the Inheritors and confidence in his own strength. He truly had not fully considered the deeper cosmic laws and taboos that might lie behind whatever they had been meddling with.

"How bad is the situation now?" he asked directly.

The Ancient One closed her eyes, seeming to sense something. After a moment, she slowly opened them. "There are no signs of a large-scale invasion for now. That world's awakening will take time. But Earth's spatial barrier has indeed developed faint, directional ripples. It is like throwing a stone into a calm lake—the ripples will eventually spread slowly to the shore. Before that happens, we must reinforce the barrier and smooth out those ripples."

She looked at Lin Ye, her tone softening somewhat but remaining serious. "Kamar-Taj will take over this matter. We will do our best to reinforce the dimensional defenses and monitor the movements of the Endless Bone Graveyard. But I need you to promise that from now on, you must consult with me in advance about any actions involving dimensions, especially when they concern ancient beings and taboos you do not understand!"

This was not a request, but a demand bordering on a warning.

Lin Ye looked at The Ancient One's solemn expression and knew that he was indeed somewhat in the wrong this time. Moreover, he might truly need Kamar-Taj's specialized knowledge to deal with this mess afterward.

"Fine." He nodded. "I will be careful when it comes to dimensional matters. But I will continue purging the Inheritors' remnants and searching for dangerous items they may have left behind."

The Ancient One seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. She had truly feared that Lin Ye would stubbornly go his own way. "The Inheritors' headquarters has been destroyed, and their core members have all perished. Their remaining forces are insignificant. But the ancient artifacts and knowledge they collected must be handled carefully. Many of those items carry powerful curses or contamination themselves. Once found, it would be best to hand them over to Kamar-Taj for sealing."

"We'll see." Lin Ye did not agree completely. He felt those things might have research value as well, though he would naturally be extremely careful.

The Ancient One seemed to see through his thoughts. She sighed but did not press him further. "Take care of yourself. I must return to Kamar-Taj immediately to arrange the defenses. Notify me at once if anything unusual happens."

With that, golden light flashed beneath her feet, and her figure rapidly faded away. She had come quickly, and left just as urgently.

Lin Ye was left alone in the hall. He walked to the console and pulled up the follow-up monitoring data from the explosion site in the Sahara Desert.

"Remy, conduct a deep scan beneath the blast zone. Search for any important surviving items or data repositories. Adjust the scan mode to low-energy penetration to avoid triggering another energy conflict."

"Scan mode adjusted. Scanning in progress. Multiple underground shelter structures have been detected, partially collapsed. Weak energy-shielding responses detected, suspected high-risk item storage sites..."

"Lock onto the locations. Prepare small engineering robots for cautious excavation and retrieval."

"Orders issued."

Lin Ye sat back in his chair, lightly tapping the armrest with his fingers. The Ancient One's warning echoed in his mind.

"Endless Bone Graveyard, ancient dead..." he muttered. This enemy seemed different from the Chitauri, and even Dormammu—stranger and more beyond reason.

He realized that his understanding of this universe was still far too limited. Power could crush obvious enemies, but ancient horrors hidden behind the laws of reality and involving souls and dimensions required greater knowledge and reverence.

"Remy, filter out all information related to the Endless Bone Graveyard, ancient dead, dimensional taboos, and similar subjects from the Temple database and the materials previously obtained from S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra, and elsewhere. Raise access authorization to the highest level."

"Task created."

At the same moment he issued the command, at the edge of the enormous blast crater deep within the Sahara Desert, where wisps of heat still rose from the ground.

Within a narrow crevice deeply buried beneath scorched black rocks, half of a shattered, charred humanoid body moved with difficulty. It was the Hermit! At the final moment, he had narrowly escaped into a blind spot of the blast wave by using an ancient life-saving rune stone, but his body had been severely destroyed, leaving him barely alive.

His only remaining eye peered through the crack at the apocalyptic scene outside, filled with boundless resentment and madness. With the last of his strength, he crushed a pitch-black communication rune stone in his hand, one that looked as though it had been carved from bone.

"Plan... Plan B..." he rasped out, before his consciousness sank completely into darkness.

A faint, nearly imperceptible ghostly glow flashed across the shattered rune stone. An extremely secret stream of information crossed space, vanishing toward an unknown destination.

On the other side of Earth, inside a cryogenic chamber in a secret laboratory, the indicator light on a freezing pod labeled "Winter Soldier Program—Highest Compatibility Subject" suddenly flickered faintly.

The crisis had not ended with the destruction of the Inheritors' headquarters. On the contrary, it was quietly continuing in another, more concealed and insidious form.

(End of Chapter Thirty-Nine)