Golden Scales Are Not Meant for a Pond, Sparks Fall on the Wasteland

Under the warehouse ceiling, the "starry sky" conjured by Guiguzi through Xuan Weizi flickered unsteadily, fragile as a guttering candle in the wind. Every ripple of energy caused glittering fragments to crack from the illusion's edges, leaving it on the verge of collapse. The air hung heavy with the bone-deep chill left behind by last night's high-dimensional impact—like countless grindstones relentlessly crushing Xiang Yi's soul.

Xiang Yi curled beneath a military blanket, his body convulsing uncontrollably. His vision was swallowed by blood-red static; every heartbeat was like a bomb detonating inside his skull, rattling his teeth. His thoughts struggled through an icy pool of asphalt, every act of thinking bringing suffocation like drowning. His body beneath the blanket was freezing, cold sweat soaking through his clothes. Worse still was the ice spike hanging over his consciousness—last night, the Ancient One's glance that had pierced through dimensions, cold as ten-thousand-year black ice! Have I been exposed? The thought gnawed at his sanity like a maggot clinging to bone.

"String-Vibration Embers have been preliminarily sealed, and the spatial ripples are weakening." Guiguzi's thoughts rang through Xiang Yi's nearly shattered consciousness, heavy with solemnity and exhaustion. The old man's withered body trembled violently, and fine golden motes spilled from his mouth as he spoke—his life essence was burning away! "But these 'embers'... are like a drop of scorching blood from another world falling into an ice lake! The stronger Stark's 'Future Light'—the Ark Energy Field—becomes, the more glaring and turbulent this drop of 'tainted blood' will be, radiating a deadly 'scent'! Last night, the Sorcerer Supreme's 'glance' made the web tremble... Tonight, it will be time to draw it tight!" The old man's voice carried the worry of someone at the end of his strength.

"The Stark Expo..." Xiang Yi's voice was hoarse as he struggled to point at Flushing Meadows Park in New York, gleaming on the surveillance screen. "The eyes of the entire world, the sharpest hounds, are all focused there! S.H.I.E.L.D.'s hawks, the military's hounds, Hydra's vipers, and those hyenas drawn to abnormal energy like flies to filth!" On the screen, Tony Stark spread his arms. "...Forget weapons! Embrace the light! I declare the Expo open!" Dozens of energy towers lit up with a thunderous roar! Enormous, pure clean-energy waves swept away the night like a warm "ocean of light"! "Before their instruments can lock onto it... we have to 'stain' it into one damn 'minor technical accident' amid this spectacle! Hammer's trash? Stark's overload? I don't care who takes the blame! As long as it disappears!"

Ding! A piercing alarm exploded in Xiang Yi's mind! A scarlet prompt box flashed frantically:

[Warning! A high-intensity clean-energy field has been established! Residual high-dimensional energy (string-vibration fingerprint) is at risk of being 'focused' and 'amplified'! Exposure probability: 19.3%... 22.7%... 25.7%!!!]

[Warning: Exposure probability has exceeded the critical threshold (20%)! Risk of triggering 'high-dimensional attention' (the Ancient One) has surged!]

"Twenty-five point seven! It's still rising!" Xiang Yi's heart sank into an ice pit, and the premonition of death overwhelmed even the pain of his soul being ground to dust. "The Ancient One... is she watching that number too?" The warm "ocean of light" on the screen had become the deadliest spotlight, mercilessly illuminating that fatal drop of "tainted blood from another world" in the warehouse!

"Mr. Guiguzi! At any cost! Cover every detection node! Confuse them, erase the 'fingerprint'! Dissolve it completely!" Xiang Yi's voice carried the roar of a trapped beast driven into a corner.

"As... ordered!" Guiguzi's response was heavy. Deep inside the warehouse, the seated old man abruptly straightened, all color draining from his face! His withered hands formed seals as swiftly as phantoms, while the boiling Xuan Weizi around him transformed into golden-red flames that seemed to burn with his very life! Dozens of energy "chains" that forcibly simulated and overlaid the local frequency spectrum shot through the air! Every tremor of a "chain" made Guiguzi's body shake violently, spiderweb cracks spreading across the floor beneath him! He suddenly spat out a brilliant spray of blood like molten gold, mixed with fragments of organs! The blood hissed as it corroded the ground! The agony of burning his essence and draining his soul branded itself into Xiang Yi's brain like a red-hot iron, plunging his vision into darkness!

Flushing Meadows Park, core control room.

"Ms. Potts! An abnormal energy disturbance has been detected in the energy matrix core! Unknown source! Its characteristics can't be locked down! It's 'devouring' detection waves and instantly becoming 'background noise'! This definitely isn't Hammer's doing!" The technician's voice cracked.

Pepper Potts's heart tightened, her fingertips turning cold. Cygnus again! The precise bottom-fishing, the enormous anonymous donation, and now this bizarre interference...

"'Cygnus'..." Her eyes sharpened. "Activate the backup sensor array! Raise the alert level to orange! Focus on the Hammer zone! For now... don't alert Tony!" She picked up an encrypted communicator, an icy thought piercing her mind: This was no simple interference! It was the most sophisticated kind of "information warfare"! Whatever secret they were concealing was a hundred times deadlier than paralyzed sensors!

Warehouse control room.

"Interference has covered 76% of detection nodes!" Guiguzi's thoughts came through amid exhausted gasps, barely concealing his pain. The golden-red flames around him had dimmed, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. "The enemy's backup system has activated. The core area remains at risk! The cost has been immense... I cannot sustain this!" His body swayed sharply.

Seventy-six percent! Not enough! Xiang Yi's nails dug deep into his palms, leaving bloody marks. He needed a more complete, more natural barrier! His gaze locked onto the screen—Tony was pointing heroically at the sky as the holographic River of the Future surged in streams of light, its brightness about to reach its peak! Searchlight beams swept across the coordinates! The countdown to the backup sensors' activation ticked in Xiang Yi's mind!

"Lanling King!" Xiang Yi's voice was a final gamble. "Target: Expo core zone, seven meters east of the energy tower, shadow beneath trash can C-19! Detonate Firefly! Timing—"

[Locked! Tony's right hand is sweeping toward the apex of the sky! River of the Future light stream at peak intensity! Searchlights sweeping simultaneously! A 0.3-second gap before the backup sensors activate!]

"—NOW! Margin of error: ±0.2 seconds!" The command was a cold blade.

In the shadows, Lanling King stood without a ripple. "Shadow obeys." His voice was low and icy. He nodded, his body gliding like ink melting into the night toward the "seam" maintained by Guiguzi—a seam trembling from energy depletion, with cracks of space-time bursting from its edges! The instant he entered it, everything below his left elbow silently turned into drifting black ash! The severed surface was smooth and bloodless, with only shadowy stardust leaking out! Lanling King did not slow. He accurately tossed Firefly into the shadows!

New York, Flushing Meadows Park.

"...This is the future!" Tony swept his right hand toward the heavens! The light of the River of the Future swallowed everything, and the crowd's cheers climbed to their peak! At that deadly instant, when the light was at its brightest, all attention utterly captivated, and the backup sensor array was about to activate—

Bzzz—pfft!

A brief pop, perfectly blending into the sound of fireworks priming, burst from the shadow beneath the target trash can! White light blinded! An EMP pulse tore through the circuits! Surveillance feeds became static, communications turned to busy signals, and the backup sensors "died"! They recovered three seconds later, disguised as a "reasonable pause during Stark's system's brightest moment." The fatal "tainted blood from another world" completely dissolved into the "technical sweat stain" of the grand fireworks display.

Ding! A cold blue box replaced the scarlet alarm:

[Residual high-dimensional energy characteristics have merged into environmental noise. Exposure risk: 0.01% (continuing to decline).]

[Note: Residual risk is linked to Sorcerer Ancient One's attention level.]

His taut nerves abruptly snapped. Xiang Yi collapsed like a rag doll, retching up scorching blood mixed with golden motes—the backlash from Guiguzi burning his essence! His blurred gaze swept across Lanling King's empty sleeve... then violent dizziness swallowed him. On the screen, the Universal Fund's—Cygnus Holdings's—total assets completed a breathtaking leap amid the roar of fireworks! That astronomical number was cold as an epitaph carved into a tombstone.

Ming Shiyin appeared soundlessly. Looking at the fortune figure capable of shaking the economy, surprise filled his aged eyes. "Golden-red stars tear through the darkness, and the momentum of wealth gathers like a great whale swallowing the sea..." His gaze fell on Xiang Yi's collapsed form. A boy curled beside his mother's cold corpse on Afghanistan's scorched earth, his eyes like dust-covered glass marbles... The image was nailed into his mind. Cygnus... the light of this constellation should not illuminate numbers alone. Xiang Yi's unfocused eyes struggled to sharpen, his lips trembling.

"Mr. Ming... take... fifteen percent... of today's net profits... maximum encryption... Afghanistan, Kabul... Red Cross... war refugees... emergency medical care and survival supplies... note..." He used the last of his strength, and his voice came out clear:

"For the Light in the Dust. We... are dust too... but someone must... try to light something... even if it means setting ourselves on fire..."

Ding!

[The host has made a large-scale anonymous transcontinental charitable donation, specifically aiding war refugees (direct victims of the Tony Stark incident). Obtained: World's Favor: Faint!]

A faint yet pure warm current, like a newborn sunrise, gently wrapped around his battered soul, briefly sealing its deepest cracks. But! The moment the light of redemption bloomed, countless greedy screeches and hungry grinding teeth echoed from the depths of dimensions! Several cold, sticky, malicious "gazes" instantly locked onto this newborn "candle flame of order"! One of them carried the stench of sulfur and decay...

Backstage at the Stark Industries Expo.

Pepper looked at the report of Cygnus's enormous anonymous donation on her communicator. Linking it to the precise bottom-fishing, as well as tonight's strange and unfathomable "technical delay" that had paralyzed the backup sensors... she picked up a direct line to Nick Fury, her voice cold.

"Director Fury, the T-17 incident—satellite intrusion—the F-9 incident—abnormal finance—and tonight's core-zone 'interference'... Cross-referenced intelligence clearly points to Cygnus. Their methods are highly professional and precise, their objectives exceptionally strategic and covert. Preliminary assessment: tonight's interference was tactical smoke concealing a deeper and more dangerous core secret. Threat assessment: temporarily designated 'observation level,' but its potential influence and uncertainty are 'high.' The data has been encrypted and transmitted. S.H.I.E.L.D. must immediately establish an independent high-priority tracking file for Cygnus. This is no longer chaotic static; it is an undercurrent with a clearly emerging 'trajectory.'"

The communicator was silent for several seconds. Nick Fury's voice was low and decisive. "An undercurrent with a trajectory? Then fish it up and see what kind of fish is hiding below. File codename: Deep Cygnus. Priority: Alpha. 'Deep Cygnus'... it reminds me of certain ancient legends about 'outsiders.' Keep watching it, Potts. Stay alert."

Extreme exhaustion, like a black tide, completely drowned Xiang Yi's remaining consciousness. In the haze, he sensed A Ke's cold snort, Lanling King's rock-steady gaze, Guiguzi's dim glimmer, and Ming Shiyin's divination disk stopping at the "Rest Gate" yet trembling...

In the final instant before his consciousness sank into the abyss, moths drawn by light... also draw dragons... hell's hounds... have smelled the sweet stench too... The system's scarlet warning overlapped with that sulfur-scented gaze from the depths of dimensions. Would this "light in the dust" ultimately illuminate salvation... or become a candle stand offered to an evil god?

The thought, like a sigh, was swallowed by darkness.

The price... clung like a maggot to bone.

Over New York, fireworks bloomed in brilliant colors like illusory scales.

Outside Kabul, Afghanistan, lay a refugee camp ravaged by war. A mud-caked truck quietly drove in during the darkest hour before dawn, then departed. Exhausted medical workers opened wooden crates stacked with emergency medicine and bandages. In one corner of each crate was a simple deep-blue nebula emblem: Cygnus.

A gaunt little girl timidly touched the cool nebula design on a bandage. A faint yet strange warmth reached her fingertips. She did not know what it was. She only knew that this tiny "glimmer" from "the darkness" had quietly fallen upon the wasteland of despair. She knew even less that beyond endless dimensions, several pairs of greedy, malicious eyes were staring fixedly at that stubborn ray of light... and one pair burned with the flames of hell.