"I'm not joking," the Ancient One said with a frown.
"Can't you see the future? In that case, you should also know I'm not joking either."
"See the future, my ass! You're an outsider to begin with, and you're far too powerful. The Time Stone can't lock onto you at all."
"Then how do you know you can't beat me?"
"I can't see your timeline, but I can see mine." The Ancient One rolled her eyes.
What did it feel like to see an old woman roll her eyes? Ling Yi shuddered outright. He felt he had asked a stupid question.
"Let's go. Take me to the Dark Dimension so I can settle my karmic debt to you sooner."
"Are you sure you can defeat Dormammu?"
"One move is all it'll take."
"Dormammu is a dimensional demon god. As long as the Dark Dimension exists, he's undying and indestructible."
"Then I'll blast the Dark Dimension apart."
The Ancient One felt a slight pain in her heart. Did he have to be this powerful? Was it actually true?
"All this blathering. Are we doing this or not?" Ling Yi was speechless. He couldn't quite handle this version of the Ancient One.
The Ancient One glanced at Ling Yi, and then the welding effects appeared...
The Ancient One had been stealing power from the Dark Dimension all along, so naturally, entering it was easy for her.
But dark power wasn't so easy to use. Although the Ancient One had gained eternal life through it, she had to resist its corrosion of her soul and body every moment.
Had the Ancient One not been so powerful, she would probably have long since lost control of the darkness's negative effects, fallen into the abyss, and become Dormammu's puppet.
This was also why the Ancient One had chosen death in the original storyline. She could no longer hold on.
Naturally, the Ancient One had no wish to become Dormammu's puppet. Choosing death was her best option.
But Ling Yi's appearance had shattered all of the Ancient One's plans.
Doctor Strange was gone, and she couldn't hold on much longer. What would happen with Dormammu then?
The Ancient One very much hoped Ling Yi could deal with Dormammu, or at least scare him away and let him know that Earth had an even stronger guardian besides her.
That was also why the Ancient One had come to find Ling Yi this time.
As for taking Doctor Strange back, she had tried countless times in the future, without a single success.
Even if Ling Yi let him go, Strange wouldn't join Kamar-Taj. After witnessing true magic, Strange saw Kamar-Taj's magic as heresy.
In a pitch-black space, Ling Yi and the Ancient One stepped out of a portal.
Dormammu sensed them the moment they appeared.
An enormous face appeared out of thin air, and Dormammu said mockingly, "Ancient One, how does dark power taste? Have you come to submit to me, Dormammu, this time?"
"Dormammu, I've come to warn you," the Ancient One said coldly.
"Hahaha, that's a very funny joke." Dormammu laughed wildly.
Ling Yi frowned and said coldly, "You're too damn noisy. Just start fighting and be done with it. Get behind me."
"We're starting already?" the Ancient One asked.
"No shit. Good grief, do you all talk this much before a fight?"
With that, Ling Yi raised his right hand... and snapped his fingers.
An utterly terrifying surge of magical power erupted instantly, like roaring mountains and a raging tsunami, engulfing Dormammu and the entire Dark Dimension in an instant.
"Wh-what kind of magic is this?" the Ancient One asked in shock.
"Magic Tide. It directly disperses all the magic power throughout the Dark Dimension. Can't you tell?"
How could the Ancient One not tell? But recognizing it wasn't the point. The point was, where had he gotten such terrifying magic power?
On the other side, Dormammu had absolutely no power to fight back. He fell straight out of the air and turned into a sleazy-looking old man wearing black mage robes.
This was Dormammu's true body.
At that moment, Dormammu resembled an ordinary old man whose candle of life was flickering in the wind, without a trace of magic power left in him.
The tide of power had dispersed all the magic power within him.
"No, impossible. How could anyone in this world possess such immense power?" Dormammu said shakily, his face filled with terror and disbelief. His twisted expression made him look even uglier.
"Heh, heh, so what if you're powerful? I'm immortal! As long as the Dark Dimension exists, I'm immortal!" Dormammu struggled to his feet and roared.
"Then watch closely!"
Ling Yi once again... snapped his fingers.
This was spatial magic, one of the most powerful branches in the Dragon Ball Magic system. Alongside time magic, it was known as the strongest elemental magic.
As though glass were shattering, the pitifully weak spatial barrier of the Dark Dimension was instantly torn into countless fragments like flimsy paper, then swallowed by the surrounding spatial turbulence.
As for Dormammu, he was already finished the instant the Dark Dimension shattered. His very life was linked to the Dark Dimension. With it gone, he was naturally finished too, without even enough time to say his last words.
Ling Yi once again... snapped his fingers...
The two of them were already back in the villa's living room.
"That's it?" The Ancient One found it somewhat unbelievable.
"What else?"
Seeing the Ancient One's pale face, Ling Yi knew she had suffered a backlash too.
With the Dark Dimension gone, the dark power sustaining the Ancient One's life had naturally vanished as well.
At that moment, the Ancient One felt weaker than ever before.
Ling Yi first tossed a Senzu Bean into the Ancient One's mouth. "Swallow it."
The Ancient One suspected nothing and swallowed it without chewing. The next moment, a surging vitality arose within her body.
Her internal organs, which had almost rotted away from the corrosion of dark power, and her dwindling vitality all seemed to recover at that moment.
The Ancient One examined her own condition, deeply astonished, but then said something that nearly made Ling Yi fall over.
"Tastes good. Got any more?"
Ling Yi took out a handful of Senzu Beans and placed them on the table. Watching the Ancient One carefully put them away one by one, he kept feeling as though he had met a fake Ancient One.
"Forget it. Consider it something I owe you." Ling Yi took out another sphere.
The sphere was the size of a ping-pong ball and dark red all over. Its surface wasn't very smooth, and it looked as though it had been made from some kind of cheap leather.
Ling Yi tossed it to the Ancient One.
"What is this?" The Ancient One knew anything Ling Yi brought out had to be a treasure, even if it looked a little low-rent.
"This is Infinite Energy. Well, it's not infinite in this world anymore. Replace your heart with this thing, and it can keep you alive for four or five thousand years."
Without dark power, the Ancient One's lifespan had returned to normal. Even though the Senzu Bean had restored her body to peak condition, Senzu Beans weren't longevity medicines. They could only repair the body, not extend its lifespan.
This Infinite Energy was the power core Dr. Gero had used when creating androids in Dragon Balls.
Perhaps because the worlds had different rules, what was Infinite Energy in the Dragon Balls world had been downgraded outright in the Marvel world.
"Replace my heart?" The Ancient One felt a little apprehensive. How was she supposed to replace it?
"Fine. I might as well be a good person all the way through."
Faith Manifestation could even resurrect the dead. Replacing a heart was a trivial matter.
The Ancient One was still wondering how Ling Yi would do it when she realized the ball in her hand had disappeared. The next moment, she noticed something different about herself.
Looking inward with her mental power, the Ancient One discovered that her heart really had become a little ball. The difference was that tiny tubes had extended from this ball and automatically connected to her original blood vessels.
But the Ancient One discovered that what the ball pumped out was no longer blood, but a special liquid. This liquid was filled with powerful energy and vitality. It was truly miraculous.
"You can even do this? Is this magic too?"
"You should leave." Ling Yi firmly showed her out.
The Ancient One glanced out the window, seemingly sensing something, and said with a slight smile, "I'll come see you again tomorrow."
With that, before Ling Yi could react, she welded a portal open and left.
"I feel like I got the short end of the stick taking on this disciple." Ling Yi looked sullen and displeased.
Sensing the activity outside, Ling Yi sat down helplessly on the sofa. Was S.H.I.E.L.D. really that fast? They'd already sent Black Widow over?
Outside the villa, besides Black Widow, there were six other agents. However, all six were hidden in corners rather than accompanying her.
Just as Black Widow was about to knock, she discovered that the door had opened by itself. After a brief pause, she walked straight into the living room.
"I'm very sorry. Your door wasn't closed. I hope I'm not disturbing you," Black Widow said cautiously, wearing an innocent expression.
"How strange. My villa is pretty remote. Showing up at my door like this, aren't you afraid I'm a bad guy? Or are you a bad guy?" If S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted to play, then he would play along. Beating the kids on a rainy day-he had nothing better to do anyway, right?
"No, no, please don't misunderstand. Something went wrong with my car, and I happened to notice the lights here, so I thought I'd come over and see if I could find someone to help."
"Then today's your lucky day," Ling Yi said with a toothy grin.