The Eye That Sees Heaven and the Uninvited Guest

Deep within the Kunlun Mountains, inside the Hidden Star Court stronghold converted from an abandoned weather station, the air seemed frozen into lead, every breath carrying crushing pressure. The core control room was dimly lit, with only the enormous virtual star map floating at its center casting a cold, ghostly glow. On the map, the region representing Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, was marked by a pulsing scarlet ring, like a bleeding living eyeball glaring fiercely through the darkness.

Xiang Yi sat cross-legged beneath the star map, seated within a Spirit-Gathering Formation meticulously drawn by Ming Shiyin. Faint blue streams of light seeped from the runes like living creatures and flowed laboriously into his body. His eyes were shut tight, his brows knotted deeply. Under the eerie blue light, his face was so pale it was nearly translucent. His immense spiritual power, like threads being pulled from a spool, poured continuously into the floating Xuan Weizi Core node before him—a delicate structure made of countless silver particles finer than dust, now under Guiguzi's full control.

Xiang Yi

Spiritual Power: 287/310 (Operating at limit, +0.2/minute)

Energy Points: 350

Mission: Observe the Ten Rings Syndicate (Clue Collection: 15%)

Warning: Spiritual power output nearing safety threshold!

Xiang Yi ignored the warnings ringing in his mind. His consciousness had been forcibly divided. One part desperately operated the Returning to the Hidden Formula, squeezing every ounce of potential from his body; the other crossed mountains and seas, merging with Guiguzi's senses and plunging into the chaotic torrent of information transmitted from the Afghan desert.

"My lord, the Xuan Weizi has penetrated the third layer of the American military's 'Fortress' firewall and is attempting to parasitize the downlink data channel of the 'Keyhole-12' satellite." Guiguzi's voice sounded directly in Xiang Yi's mind, carrying an unusual electronic tremor. He floated beside the node, his broad sleeves moving without wind. His gaunt fingers rapidly traced patterns in the air, each movement precisely guiding the Xuan Weizi particles to instantly assemble into ancient glowing talismans or phantoms of intricately structured mechanical gears. Runes and data streams intertwined and circulated in a strange harmony, forming a torrent of commands that crossed the boundary between matter and information.

"American encryption... a Hydra variant system... analyzing... Xuan Weizi simulating key structure..." Countless Xuan Weizi particles suddenly scattered, becoming billions of silver nano-fish invisible to the naked eye, frantically devouring, simulating, and reconstructing the quantum key's composition! A complex Talismanic Key made of pure deep-blue energy instantly condensed amid the raging data torrent. Carrying irresistible force, it viciously pierced the deepest keyhole of the Fortress system—Bzz! The forcibly opened channel shuddered violently, and the satellite's real-time visual feed came flooding in!

Bzz—!

The sudden light that burst in pierced through Xiang Yi's tightly shut eyelids! Within the link of his consciousness, a cold eye floating ten thousand meters in the sky abruptly opened!

From the overhead view, the scorched earth below was visible in every detail. Several Humvee wrecks had been twisted like toys mauled by some giant beast, black smoke billowing as their metal frames glowed dark red from the heat. Charred craters were ugly sores ripped open across the earth, while the yellow sand was stained with dark brown, long-dried blood.

Xiang Yi's consciousness became an invisible probe. It swiftly swept past the broad devastation and focused on finer details: Stark Industries metal fragments half-buried in the sand... several unusually distinct drag marks crossing the desert, leading straight toward a rocky area in the distance!

"Magnify the rocky area! Scan for energy traces!" His mental command was cold and urgent.

"Understood!" The Xuan Weizi node flared brightly, simulating the satellite's complex zoom and spectral-analysis functions.

The view rapidly drew closer, revealing the rough texture of the rocks. At the edge of a crack in the cliff face blasted open by the explosion, several unremarkable black fragments caught their attention. Their material was strange—not cloth, not leather—and the tactile feedback was cold and tough. Under a specific energy spectrum, incomplete dark-gold ring patterns on the fragments suddenly lit up! Two circles nested together, their edges flowing with a faint yet unsettling evil glow—an exact match for the dark-ring markings of the Ten Rings described in the intelligence reports!

[Key clue discovered: Ten Rings Syndicate armed remnants (Energy match: 92%)!]

[Clue Collection → 30%! Energy Points +50!]

The surge of excitement that rose in him was immediately suppressed. Xiang Yi's mind tightened like a drawn bowstring. "Search within a fifty-kilometer radius! Focus on large heat-source clusters, abnormal electromagnetic signals, and signs of personnel assembly!"

The satellite's "gaze" swept calmly over the monotonous desert like an invisible searchlight. The scenery rushed past. Then, roughly thirty kilometers northwest of the attack site, in an area of rolling dunes, more than twenty clustered high-temperature heat sources suddenly appeared on the thermal map! They moved slowly, precisely, and silently, like puppets manipulated by invisible strings. They carried an inhuman discipline and a cold, deathly stillness.

"Lock onto them! Magnify the image!"

The view closed in once more. In the shadows on the leeward side of the dunes, the outlines of the heat sources gradually became clear: elongated shapes, likely modified pickup trucks; tracked structures, small armored vehicles or transports; massive and irregular forms, perhaps heavy cargo or bound prisoners. Most crucially—beside one of the elongated heat sources, several searing ring-shaped high-temperature zones extended from a humanoid outline's arm! Their form was exactly that of the metal arm rings described in the intelligence reports!

[Abnormal heat-source cluster discovered! High-energy reaction detected (highly suspected Ten Rings weapon energy signature)!]

[Clue Collection → 45%! Energy Points +50!]

"The main Ten Rings Syndicate transfer route!" Xiang Yi's heart lurched. "Guiguzi! Try tracing the signal back! Track the source of their communications! Any frequency, any encryption method—dig it out for me!"

"My lord! This is like driving straight into the heart of an 'iron beast'! To forcibly trace the source, the Xuan Weizi Network will have to clash head-on with the satellite core's spiritual defense AI! If we expose ourselves, the backlash alone will be enough to tear apart our mental link, and we will immediately draw the wrath of Cyclops!" Guiguzi's voice carried unprecedented gravity.

Five hundred Energy Points and the vital mineral-vein coordinates were within reach. The temptation of touching the core secrets of this world overwhelmed the bone-deep chill rising within him. I'm taking the gamble! Xiang Yi's will was firm and beyond question.

"Execute it!"

"Understood!" Guiguzi hesitated no longer. The floating Xuan Weizi Core node suddenly collapsed inward, condensing into a needlepoint-sized silver light of terrifying brightness. With utter resolve, it stabbed toward the satellite marker on the star map!

Bzz—!

Xiang Yi's consciousness was instantly hurled into the center of a cold, violent cosmic storm made entirely of zeros and ones! Countless rapidly spinning binary ice shards, their edges lined with razor-sharp teeth, carried poisonous firewall spikes and deadly communication-encryption fog as they crazily battered his mental defenses! Indescribable agony surged back at him like a tsunami! Xiang Yi's body jolted violently, and his face instantly turned white as paper!

[Spiritual Power: 210/310 (Warning! 125% overload!) →

195/310 (Severe cranial pressure! Blood-red static at the edge of vision!) →

180/310 (Thunderous ringing in ears! Salty blood seeping from gums!)]

The numbers flashed wildly as violent dizziness and needle-like headaches ravaged his nerves. Xiang Yi clenched his teeth so hard that the heavy taste of blood spread through his mouth. Stubbornly, he held up that crumbling mental dam.

Meanwhile, at S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Triskelion Headquarters command center in Virginia.

A piercing alarm abruptly exploded without warning! On the main control display, the icon representing the KH-12 satellite instantly changed from safe green to glaring crimson! Warning messages cascaded across the screen:

[Highest Alert! Abnormal data intrusion detected! Target: KH-12 core processor!]

[Intrusion type: Unknown! Technical signature cannot be matched to any known database!]

[Intrusion intensity: Extremely high! Deep parasitic mode!]

[Automatic countermeasure program activated... encountering resistance from unknown algorithm! Low efficiency!]

[Analysis of residual intrusion-source data: ...abnormal mental-intent spectral characteristics?! And... Eastern ancient-seal rune structures with living, writhing properties (???) are consuming firewall code!]

"What the hell?!" Agent Phil Coulson shot up from his seat. The habitual gentle smile on his face vanished instantly, and his hawk-sharp eyes locked onto the twisted, writhing rune afterimages and the utterly bizarre energy readings projected in one corner of the main screen.

"Report! The intrusion began ten seconds ago! The firewall... the firewall was breached instantly! Their target is the satellite's real-time surveillance authority and core control!" The technical agent's fingers became blurs over the keyboard, sweat running down his temples. "The residual algorithmic logic... it's evolving on its own! It completely violates the Turing paradigm! The energy disturbance map shows... pure mental intent is interfering with reality! And those graphic fragments... my God, they're like living, writhing ancient Eastern characters, and they're... eating our firewall code!"

A chill mixed with extreme shock, intense vigilance, and profound unease coiled around Coulson's spine like an icy venomous snake. The mysterious intrusion source behind the New York factory fire... the sudden satellite hijacking at a sensitive Afghan node... a force beyond the scope of modern technological understanding... the outline of an extremely dangerous unknown entity lurking deep in the shadows rapidly formed in his mind.

"Deploy the secondary surveillance array of the Insight Initiative! Lock down the intrusion source at any cost!" Coulson's voice was as cold as a Siberian wind. "Notify Director Fury immediately! We have a 'guest'—an extremely dangerous, unprecedented 'guest'!"

Kunlun Mountains, Hidden Star Court.

"My lord! I caught communication fragments!" Guiguzi's exhausted yet excited voice cut through the raging data turbulence!

Amid the chaotic torrent, several fragmented pieces of information were forcibly stripped out and decoded by the Xuan Weizi:

[Fragment 1 (distorted voice clip): "...cargo... intact... being transferred to the 'Sand Nest'... guard him closely... the 'Blacksmith' needs him alive..."]

[Fragment 2 (garbled text): "...Stark... blueprints... reactor core... progress delayed... 'Whiplash'... dissatisfied..."]

[Fragment 3 (encrypted coordinates): A set of geographic coordinates (pointing deep into Afghanistan) and identification code: "WhipLash_01"]

"'Whiplash!'" That codename stabbed into Xiang Yi's memory like a red-hot steel needle! Andrei Vanko! Ivan Vanko! That Slavic father-and-son pair with their pathological obsession with the Arc Reactor, madness flowing in their blood! They had already become entangled with the poisonous snake that was the Ten Rings Syndicate at this point in time?!

Before the shock could spread, Guiguzi's hoarse warning reached him in a broken voice. "My lord! Danger! They've initiated reverse tracking! They've locked onto our channel! It's... it's Cyclops's net of heaven and earth!"

Boom—!

A horrifying will descended without warning—cold, vast, as ruthless and absolutely ordered as the laws of the universe themselves! It became a Spear of Judgment made purely from logic and informational entropy, ignoring all disguises and distances as it surged upstream at a speed beyond physical limits! Its tip pointed directly at the vulnerable spiritual cores of Xiang Yi and Guiguzi!

"Pfft!" Guiguzi's body was struck as though by an invisible sledgehammer. His floating form swayed violently as pale golden fluid sprayed from his nose and mouth! The suspended Xuan Weizi node let out a piercing cry on the verge of collapse, its light flashing frantically!

Xiang Yi felt as though a red-hot iron rod had been driven through his skull! The unprecedented pain plunged his vision into total darkness!

[Warning! High-intensity spiritual/data backlash sustained!]

[Spiritual Power: 50/310 (Severely wounded)! Guiguzi Link Stability → 30%!]

[Extreme danger! Backlash source about to lock onto current coordinates!]

"Disconnect!!!" Xiang Yi let out a beastlike roar from the depths of his throat! His remaining spiritual power, flickering like a candle in the wind, erupted toward the Xuan Weizi node like a burst dam!

Silver light exploded from Guiguzi's eyes! His gaunt hands suddenly slammed together!

Bang!!!

The floating Xuan Weizi Core node went from blinding radiance to dead blackness in an instant, its structure explosively scattering apart! The connection on the physical level was forcibly severed!

In the instant before the channel completely collapsed, the Spear of Judgment seemed to let out an unwilling, silent roar! The final image that flashed through Xiang Yi's consciousness link showed a Slavic man standing beside burning Humvee wreckage, glimpsed through the gaps between swirling yellow sand and leaping flames. He wore filthy, grease-stained work clothes, and his face was covered by a thick beard. His gaze was as sinister as a starving wolf in the desert. Several fresh, radial burn scars stood out hideously on the arm wrapped in rough cables! At the corner of his mouth hung a cold, mocking sneer at the devastation before him!

Andrei Vanko!

The image vanished!

"Urgh—!" As if every bone in his body had been removed, Xiang Yi pitched forward and smashed his forehead heavily against the cold, hard floor! Rolling blood-red haze and dense darkness swallowed everything before his eyes. Every convulsive breath came with a burning pain as though his lungs were being torn apart and an overwhelming stench of blood! The emptiness brought by complete spiritual exhaustion drowned him like an icy tide!

Guiguzi slumped on the ground like a guttering candle. The Xuan Weizi radiance around him had completely dimmed, pale golden blood continuously spilling from his nose and mouth and spreading across the floor in glaring golden stains, giving off a faint energy aura.

"My lord!" Lanling King's figure instantly solidified from the shadow in front of Xiang Yi like an unbreakable shield! A Ke's figure appeared in the corner as well, her short blade already drawn three inches from its sheath. Cold, bloodthirsty light flowed along its edge, and her chilling killing intent made the room temperature plummet!

"I'm... fine..." Xiang Yi raised his head with difficulty and wiped the blood from his lips with his bloodstained sleeve. His voice was hoarse as a broken gong. In his bloodshot eyes burned the lingering terror of survival and an almost crazed calmness. He looked at the collapsed Guiguzi. "That last... image..."

Guiguzi nodded weakly as he wiped the golden blood from his lips, his expression incomparably grave. "I caught it... coldness, resentment... a pathological obsession with mechanical creations... definitely not an ordinary thug."

Xiang Yi forced himself back into a cross-legged posture and desperately operated the Returning to the Hidden Formula to restore his depleted spiritual power. The communication fragments and that fleeting profile of the Slavic man echoed endlessly in his mind.

Blacksmith—Tony, perhaps? Sand Nest—the prison? Whiplash—Andrei Vanko. And S.H.I.E.L.D.'s horrifying Spear of Judgment... every piece of the shattered puzzle carried the scorching scent of blood and fire.

"We've been discovered." Xiang Yi's voice was low, beneath its calm surface a raging undercurrent. "They are the sharpest hunting hounds. They've already caught our scent. This time, we severed the tentacle they extended. Next time... what awaits us will surely be a thunderous extermination!"

Within the stronghold, lingering energy turbulence gave off the low moans of a dying beast. The air was filled with the faint scorched smell of spiritual burning and the inescapable stench of pale golden blood. He raised his head, his gaze passing over the weakened yet resolute Guiguzi, Lanling King and A Ke with their tangible killing intent, before finally returning to the Afghan region still flashing crimson on the star map.

"The storm is coming." His voice echoed through the deathly silent control room. "But at the heart of that storm, the fire of Tony Stark's rebirth is being lit in that dark cave."

"And we..." Xiang Yi closed his eyes, circulating his cultivation method with all his strength to recover. Every word was like a blade being sharpened. "Before the storm truly arrives, we must become stronger and hide deeper! Guiguzi, prioritize healing your injuries. Make certain every possible tracking mark has been erased! Lanling King, A Ke, raise the alert level to maximum! Hidden Star Court... effective immediately, enter silent dormancy. Beneath Cyclops's shadow, we... must sink deeper into darkness, sharpen our claws and fangs, and wait for the right moment!"

"Yes!" The three answered as one, like steel striking steel, before their figures swiftly melted into the surrounding shadows.

Only Xiang Yi's heavy, labored breathing and the low hum of the main instruments remained within the stronghold. In the darkness, he could almost clearly feel that somewhere across the ocean, a pair of hawk-sharp eyes was piercing through layer upon layer of fog, coldly scanning the entire world and searching with all its strength for that "eye" bold enough to peer into heaven's secrets.

Upon the invisible chessboard of this struggle, the smoke of war had already silently spread.