The Ancient One Intervenes, Iron Monger's Final Battle

Lu Qi looked at the suddenly appearing Ancient One and nodded. Since a big shot had shown up to carry him, he could just lie back and relax.

He channeled all his energy to the Ancient One. Drawing on that power, she unfolded the Mirror Dimension and sealed Andrews inside it.

Andrews sensed the shift in space and turned to look at the Ancient One.

"How is this possible? You can casually create a space parallel to the Material World?!"

The Ancient One ignored him. With a flick of her hand, the space around them twisted.

Andrews' eyes widened as multicolored energies erupted from his body, but the Ancient One casually scattered them all. They were as powerless as a child throwing wild punches.

The Ancient One grabbed Andrews by the throat. Looking into his terrified eyes, she did not hesitate. A spell formation unfolded, and Andrews in her hand was directly beheaded by it.

Watching Andrews, who had been evenly matched with him, get casually crushed to death, Lu Qi could only shout, "Big shot, 666!"

The Ancient One turned around and looked at Lu Qi.

"If the Dark Dimension hadn't stopped supplying me with energy, I really wouldn't have known you were in trouble," the Ancient One said helplessly, waving her hand to dispel the Mirror Dimension.

"It's fine for now. Your Shadow World is right next to our world, so I can cross over easily and replenish my energy directly in this Dark Dimension. But if you get farther away from the Material World in the future, never cut off the energy supply. Otherwise, I might actually die on the spot."

Lu Qi nodded and returned to his Shadow Dimension, but he still could not sense the surrounding space.

Lu Qi directly supplied energy to the Ancient One through himself while diverting some energy to wear down the seal. Only then could he restore his connection to the Shadow Dimension.

After watching the Shadow Ninjas eliminate the enemy, Lu Qi ordered them to wipe out the enemies in the world on the other side as well. Only then could they completely occupy that world.

The Ancient One went to the Dark Dimension on the other side and looked around for a while. When she returned, she added several more coordinates to that little booklet.

"These are several ownerless Dark Dimensions that dimension is currently mining. You can mine them too, and you'll be much faster than it."

"But you need to wear down this spell formation quickly. Otherwise, once your Dark Dimension loses its connection with you, it'll turn into an ownerless dimension. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to get in so easily."

As she spoke, the Ancient One gave Lu Qi another glance.

"By the way, you're getting stronger really fast. It's just still not enough."

Lu Qi smiled helplessly. His recovery speed was already 480 energy points per second, yet it still was not enough to make this big shot use her real abilities. She had only stretched a little, which made him feel that he still had a long way to go.

After observing Lu Qi's Shadow Dimension for a while, the Ancient One told him to come retrieve the coordinates of the Small Dimensions sometime later, then left directly.

According to her, she had recently been modifying various spells so that their energy source would become Lu Qi. That way, once Lu Qi became strong enough, she could cast spells using the energy he supplied.

Lu Qi did not mind. He generally did not fight himself anyway; he always commanded the Shadow Army to do it. Besides, supplying energy would not reduce his maximum capacity, so he had nothing to fear. He could even cling to the Ancient One's thigh.

But what came next was rather boring. Since he had lost contact with this dimension, Lu Qi could not return to the Material World through it. The big shot had not taken him along when she left either, so he could only slowly wear down the seal in this world.

Maybe the big shot had deliberately not taken him because she was afraid he would run around instead of wearing down the seal?

Fortunately, the Shadow Ninjas could still go to the other world and bring Lu Qi food. Otherwise, he might have starved to death here.

Five days later, Lu Qi finally wore down the seal and restored his connection to the Shadow World.

He transferred the supply channel between himself and the Ancient One to the Shadow World, then established a supply channel between himself and the Shadow World.

After this battle, Lu Qi could do these things himself without relying on the system.

Returning to the main world, Lu Qi flopped onto his bed and comfortably rolled over.

He picked up his phone. Since there was no signal in the Shadow World, Lu Qi could only have the Shadow Ninjas download some DC Comics for him to read.

When he opened his phone, he found more than a dozen text messages. Around ten were from Tony, while the rest were from Coulson.

Lu Qi frowned and called Tony first.

On the other end, Tony had finally recovered from the paralysis and was staring at the hollow in his chest. Obadiah had just taken his Arc Reactor, and Tony felt as though his heart could barely beat.

The phone in his hand suddenly lit up, showing an incoming call from Lu Qi. Tony brightened and answered it.

"Hey, Tony. I've been busy these past two days. What's wrong?"

"Can you come over? My Arc Reactor was taken."

Tony said it with all his strength.

"Uh, I'll be right there!" Lu Qi had not expected the plot to have reached this point already, so he hurriedly drew a circle toward Tony's location.

(In my setting, portals can only be used in the Material World and the Mirror Dimension that relies on the Material World. The Ancient One used another method to enter the Shadow World.)

Tony watched in shock as a Spark Door unfolded before him and Lu Qi stepped through it.

A Shadow Ninja went downstairs, found "Tony's Heart," brought it back, and swiftly installed it for Tony, making Tony feel strong again.

After recovering, Tony went downstairs and put on the newly invented Mark 3 Armor as he spoke.

"Obadiah was the mastermind behind my kidnapping. Sorry, brother. I suspected you before."

Tony put on the armor, intending to find Potts. Obadiah had just said that he would make a move against Potts!

"Tony? Where are you?" Rhodey's voice came from upstairs.

"Hey, Rhodey!" Tony called out, and Rhodey ran downstairs.

"Tony, what are you wearing?" Rhodey stared at the armor on Tony's body in shock.

"Uh, my prosthetic limb? By the way, why are you here?"

Rhodey glanced at Lu Qi beside him, not knowing how he had gotten mixed up with Tony, but he still said, "Potts said Obadiah was behind your kidnapping and asked me to come protect you."

"Okay, you're late. Where is Potts now?"

"She took five agents to arrest Obadiah."

"Five agents won't be enough." Tony recalled the armor Obadiah had mentioned. "Lu, can you use that door from earlier to take me to Stark Industries? Potts might be in danger."

Lu Qi nodded and swiped his hand. A portal appeared.

"Holy..." Rhodey stared at the portal and cursed in fright.

"Hey, Rhodey, are you coming?" Tony and Lu Qi walked through, then saw Rhodey still standing on the other side and called out to him.

"Okay." Rhodey answered, then carefully jumped through.

"Regarding this portal, I hope you two will keep it secret." Lu Qi only relaxed after getting promises from Rhodey and Tony.

Tony was fine, but Rhodey had the U.S. Military behind him. If they found out, they would bother him to death.

"Tony?" A voice came from behind them, and the three turned around.

"Potts?" Tony looked at Pepper and relaxed. Potts had not gone inside yet.

"Lu Qi, why are you here?" Coulson stood nearby with several agents and spotted Lu Qi.

"Why didn't you reply to my messages?"

Just as Lu Qi was thinking about how to make excuses, the concrete ground before them suddenly flipped over, and a massive armored suit appeared in front of him.

"Iron Monger? Tony, didn't you say that prosthetic limb of yours would be destroyed?" Lu Qi looked at Tony in confusion.

"That shouldn't be possible. That explosion, plus the chain explosions it triggered afterward, should definitely have destroyed that armor!"

"Chain explosions?"

"Yeah!"

"Then it's fine."

?

Ignoring Tony's confused expression, Lu Qi looked toward Iron Monger.

This was not his Shadow World, where Dark Energy was everywhere. The greatest power he could unleash here was only 800 energy.

Eight hundred energy was comparable to a tank's main cannon round. It was quite powerful, but Lu Qi did not think it could defeat Iron Monger. Even Tony's Mark 3 could withstand tank fire, and the defense of this oversized iron doll was probably no weaker than Tony's.

"Coulson, I don't think your little pistols will hurt that thing. I suggest you retreat and evacuate the bystanders."

Seeing more and more people gathering around them, Lu Qi said helplessly.

Watching excitement was not exclusive to Chinese people. These foreigners were even more eager to court death. The atmosphere here was obviously wrong, yet they still dared to crowd over with their phones.

Coulson looked at the small pistol in his hand, then at Iron Monger, which stood several people tall. He nodded and led Potts, Rhodey, and the agents away to evacuate the crowd, while Lu Qi and Tony faced Iron Monger.

"Will your ninjas work against that thing?" Tony looked at Iron Monger and whispered to Lu Qi.

"Maybe." Lu Qi was not sure either. Although each Shadow Ninja now possessed physical abilities eight times that of an ordinary person, and the Blade Soldiers had greatly enhanced agility, that did not necessarily mean they could knock that thing over.

Shadow Ninjas appeared one after another behind Lu Qi. Obadiah frowned, unsure what these things were.

But with Iron Monger, he was unusually swollen with confidence, believing himself invincible.

A rotary machine gun on his arm began spinning, spewing a stream of fire toward the Shadow Ninjas.

The ninjas charged forward one after another. A single ninja could slash down several bullets before being pierced by the ones that followed, but a group of ninjas forcibly blocked the barrage and bought time for their comrades.

Some ninjas flanked him from the side, only to be blasted away by Iron Monger's missiles. But Lu Qi's killing move was not them.

Blade Soldiers appeared silently one after another and pounced directly onto Iron Monger. Their sharp claws carved streak after streak across his body. The Ninja Soldiers seized the opportunity to leap on as well, and their physiques eight times stronger than ordinary humans directly knocked Iron Monger to the ground.

Lu Qi stepped forward as well, bringing the Shadow Ninjas within his range of influence. He had them try to sneak into Iron Monger through the gaps and kill Obadiah directly, but to their surprise, Iron Monger's armor was packed with dense wiring.

Countless wires intertwined as energy from the reactor continuously surged throughout the suit. They actually obstructed the Shadow Ninjas' stealth. Many Shadow Ninjas turned into shadows and slipped inside, only to find themselves in what seemed like a maze, greatly slowing their progress.

Lu Qi shook his head. Electricity counted as a form of energy too, and it could obstruct the Shadow Ninjas' stealth. The walls they usually encountered only had a few wires inside, which did not affect the Shadow Ninjas' movements. But Iron Monger was packed with countless dense wires, forming a maze of cables. Still, given some time, the Shadow Ninjas could bypass the wire clusters and get inside.

They only needed to suppress Iron Monger for a little while.

But just as feared, Iron Monger was pinned to the ground and directly activated his thrusters to escape, throwing all the ninjas on him away.

Iron Monger's flight speed was not slow either. He quickly flew beyond Lu Qi's range of influence, leaving the Shadow Ninjas with no choice but to exit their stealth state and take human form—only to be crushed apart by Iron Monger's armor.

"Damn it!" Lu Qi said unhappily. He would have killed Obadiah directly if they had just had a little more time.

Tony was equally helpless and flew toward Iron Monger in the sky.

"He probably won't land again. Can you fly?"

Lu Qi sighed. None of his Shadow Ninjas could fly yet. Although he could use Shadow Energy to fly, he would be much slower than he was on the ground.

"Wait, Tony!" Lu Qi suddenly had an idea. He caught up to Tony and directly transformed into a shadow, covering the surface of Tony's armor.

"What the hell?" Tony watched in surprise as Lu Qi disappeared in front of him, while some black paint-like markings appeared on his armor.

"I'm in shadow form right now. When you get up there, touch him once and I'll use the chance to jump onto him."

"Your superpower really is pretty good." Tony nodded and chased after Obadiah.

"Hey, asshole, where are you running?" Tony fired two pulse cannons directly at him, but they could not penetrate Iron Monger's armor at all.

Iron Monger mocked him a few times and tried to use his rotary machine gun and cannon against Tony, but those ranged weapons had already been targeted and destroyed by the Blade Soldiers.

With no other option, Iron Monger charged straight into Iron Man. He refused to believe that his massive frame was weaker than Iron Man's smaller body!

Just as Iron Monger expected, Iron Man was sent flying by the impact. But he did not notice a black shadow transfer from Iron Man onto his own body.

"Hello, asshole!" Lu Qi whispered, startling Obadiah.

"Who?" Obadiah shouted with a frown, thinking someone had connected to his communications channel.

But Lu Qi directly manifested on him. A fist empowered by Dark Energy smashed hard into Iron Monger's helmet. With the Dark Energy enhancement, the impact of that punch reached dozens of tons, directly leaving a fist mark in Iron Monger's helmet.

"Asshole!" Obadiah looked at the displayed damage level of Iron Monger. He had not expected that punch to be so powerful, and immediately swung a fist at him.

Lu Qi hurriedly turned into a shadow and vanished again, reappearing behind Obadiah the next moment.

Dark Energy condensed in his hand into a broken blade, which slashed directly at the back of Obadiah's neck. Since Dark Energy possessed extremely strong corrosive and assimilative properties, a savage wound immediately appeared on the back of Iron Monger's neck.

Inside the armor, Obadiah felt the threat of death. He continuously maneuvered, trying to shake Lu Qi off.

Lu Qi had no choice but to retreat back into the shadows, clinging to Obadiah like bone-deep maggots.

Watching Obadiah keep whipping around, and knowing he would be flung away the moment he appeared, Lu Qi simply kept summoning Shadow Ninjas and had them enter Iron Monger through the opening he had just cut.

Obadiah gritted his teeth and maneuvered despite the dizziness, but he did not expect a gleaming ninja blade to extend from nowhere and press against his throat, making him freeze instantly.

"Now that's better. Go down, or that blade will cut your throat in a moment!"

Tony watched from a distance as Obadiah kept making maneuvers, but his armor was weaker than Obadiah's large suit, and his ranged weapons could not break Iron Monger's defense, leaving him utterly powerless.

After going back, he would research some armor-piercing weapons!

Just as Tony set his plan for the next stage, he saw Iron Monger stop maneuvering and fly toward the ground.

What happened?

Tony followed him down and saw Iron Monger standing obediently in place, while Lu Qi had detached from him and was standing on the ground.

"What happened, Lu Qi?"

Lu Qi turned back and waved to Tony, then faced Iron Monger and said, "Deactivate the armor immediately!"