"Pinpoint my current location," Nick ordered directly over the video call.
A few minutes later, Nick turned off his phone, his face filled with shock.
"So don't use your ignorance to judge the unknown," Ling Yi said with a smile.
"How did you do it? Who exactly are you? What exactly are you after?" Nick fired off three questions in succession. He really felt as though his worldview was about to collapse.
Ling Yi chuckled. This was only the beginning. Hopefully, this Black Braised Egg wouldn't be scared shitless in a moment.
With another snap of his fingers, the three of them appeared in an unfamiliar star field.
Before them was a dark red planet.
"This is Planet N185 in Orion. Its volume and mass are about the same as Earth's."
"What are you going to do?" Nick Fury had a bad feeling.
Ling Yi snapped his fingers. Then, before Nick Fury's eyes, the dark red planet began to crumble, break apart, and finally vanish into the universe.
There was no explosion, much less any energy collapse. It was as though someone had wiped it away with an eraser.
Ling Yi had erased a planet with just one snap of his fingers? At that moment, Nick was a little dumbfounded.
"So destroying the world really is just a snap of the fingers."
With that, Ling Yi took the three of them straight back to his villa.
However, looking at the ransacked living room and the masked men in special operations uniforms rummaging through it, Ling Yi grew a little angry.
The people in the living room clearly hadn't expected Ling Yi's group of three to appear so suddenly in this fashion, either.
"Heh, you Hydra people really are courting death. I was in such a good mood today, and you've ruined it. As expected of Hydra. Do you leave your brains behind when you do things?"
Ling Yi waved his right hand through the air, and the men were immobilized on the spot.
When they discovered that they couldn't move any part of their bodies, not even bite down on the poison in their mouths, the Hydra men were dumbfounded.
"Who gave you the nerve to come looking for trouble with me? Or do you think Hydra is already invincible under heaven, and no one can wipe you out?"
"You're nothing but rats in the gutter. I didn't want to bother with you, but since you're courting death, I'll just make Hydra disappear from this world."
Ling Yi directly activated Faith Manifestation. This was the wish-granting power he had once analyzed from Shenron in Dragon Balls, and it had now reached Heaven Grade, making it who knew how many times stronger than Shenron in Dragon Balls.
This was already a conceptual power, the power of the laws of cause and effect.
Thanos needed the Infinity Stones to erase half the universe's population, but Ling Yi only needed to expend Power of Faith.
Ling Yi snapped his fingers and said in an utterly icy voice, "Hydra, annihilate!"
Not only did the people present hear Ling Yi's voice, but it also rang out in the minds of every Hydra member on Earth.
Their bodies began disintegrating from their feet upward, like windblown sand, disappearing bit by bit. Ling Yi deliberately slowed the process, too. It would take three minutes for them to vanish completely.
At that moment, Nick strode over to one of the Hydra men and pulled off his face covering.
"Rumlow? Damn it..." Nick Fury instantly understood something.
Meanwhile, inside S.H.I.E.L.D., large numbers of agents began disintegrating at the same time.
The disintegration was painless, but the psychological pressure it brought was truly terrifying.
In particular, the utterly icy words in their minds, "Hydra, annihilate!" plunged almost every Hydra member into an abyss of terror in an instant.
At that moment, Pierce, who had been chatting with Hill, also entered a countdown to death.
Looking at his feet, which had already disappeared, Pierce cried out in fear.
"Oh. My. God!" Hill stared, dumbstruck, at Pierce as he disintegrated upward bit by bit, her speech becoming somewhat incoherent.
Pierce had never imagined that he would die this way, or that Hydra would be completely erased because of one person.
He felt regret and fear. He didn't want to die.
He pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed Nick Fury directly. He didn't know Nick was at Ling Yi's place, but he knew Nick had met Ling Yi before Rumlow and should be with him now.
The call connected, and in his panic, Pierce turned on the speakerphone.
"Pierce, you really have taken me by surprise," Nick said through almost gritted teeth.
"No, Nick, this isn't the time for that. Give the phone to Ling Yi. Quickly."
"I have you on speaker. Mr. Ling Yi is right beside me."
Pierce was sweating all over with nerves. By now, his body had almost disintegrated up to his waist.
It was bizarre. He was now suspended in midair, with windblown sand drifting below him, looking a little like Aladdin's genie.
"Mr. Ling Yi, I was wrong. Please spare me. From now on, Hydra will never trouble you again."
"No, no, no. From now on, Hydra can submit to you. You will be Hydra's leader. You should know that Hydra has over 1.3 million subordinates worldwide. We can do many things for you."
Looking at the bizarre power that had already disintegrated his body up to his waist, Pierce was on the verge of tears.
"Sir..."
"Beep, beep, beep, beep..." The sound of the disconnected call plunged him into instant despair.
At that moment, he regretted it beyond measure. Why had he provoked such a terrifying being? But everything was already beyond saving. Like every other Hydra member, he could only be erased in despair.
Hill was dumbfounded. What the hell? Pierce was Hydra? Could this get any more absurd? If Pierce was Hydra, didn't that mean S.H.I.E.L.D. was already riddled like a sieve?
Hill suddenly thought of something. Ignoring Pierce, who was already babbling incoherently, she rushed out of the office.
When she saw that most of the people in S.H.I.E.L.D. were disintegrating just like Pierce, her suspicions were confirmed. Looking at the few remaining unaffected S.H.I.E.L.D. agents staring at the horrifying scene in bewilderment and fear, Hill was rather speechless.
"Nobody panic. Sharon, contact S.H.I.E.L.D.'s other branches immediately and find out what's happening. Johnson, monitor the internet. No information about this incident-and remember, I mean anything, even a single comment-is allowed to appear online..."
Hill lived up to her position as S.H.I.E.L.D.'s deputy director. With one order after another, she soon stabilized the agency's current situation.
One snap of Ling Yi's fingers had terrified Nick. His mind wasn't even on Hydra now. Instead, he was considering how to keep this terrifying being from snapping his fingers again.
By now, Ling Yi had restored the villa, once again using Faith Manifestation (Heaven Grade). This ability was simply too useful, far more amazing than any Infinity Stones or magic. After all, it was a conceptual causality skill.
Nick left, taking the two steamed buns Ling Yi had given him.
After getting into the car, Nick ate one himself. Feeling his strength increase by leaps and bounds, he let out a long breath. At least the outcome was good.
Indeed, for S.H.I.E.L.D. and Nick Fury as they were now, the outcome couldn't have been better.
Although he hadn't known about Hydra before, and although Hydra had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. until it was riddled like a sieve, Hydra was gone now.
As for S.H.I.E.L.D. having only a handful of stragglers left? That was a minor matter. These two steamed buns were enough for Nick to intimidate those higher-ups who occupied their posts while doing nothing.
However, as soon as he returned to S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury heard another piece of bad news.
Nick hurried over to S.H.I.E.L.D. Base 245.
"Dr. Erik, how bad is the situation?" Nick asked, his expression grim.
"The bad part is, we don't know how bad it is," Erik said helplessly as he looked at the Tesseract, which was emitting a blue glow.
"It's gone out of control. Something seems to have stimulated it."
"Then shut it off."
"No, we can't. It's its own power source. Someone seems to have activated it from somewhere else."
Nick Fury pressed his earpiece. "Barton, what do you see?"
"Sorry, sir. Nothing unusual."
"Then stop watching and come over here."
Hawkeye Barton soon appeared before Nick. Without another word, Nick shoved a steamed bun into his hands.
"What? Is it mealtime? And we're only having steamed buns?" Barton was rather speechless. What was with handing him a steamed bun the moment they met?
"Eat it. I'll explain afterward."
Barton frowned and sniffed it. It smelled very good, with a pure malty fragrance. After one bite, he immediately discovered how delicious it was and finished the bun in a few mouthfuls.
"Director, if you open a restaurant, I'll definitely come support you," Barton said, still craving more.
Nick rolled his eyes. "Pay close attention to your strength. We might be in trouble."
Only then did Barton realize that his strength was increasing at an unimaginable speed. It wasn't just his physical strength, either. His reflexes and all five senses had improved dramatically.
Just then, the Tesseract's light suddenly intensified, and a shock wave abruptly spread outward, instantly knocking S.H.I.E.L.D.'s remaining agents to the ground.
Only Nick and Barton were unaffected, apart from their clothes being somewhat disheveled.
A blue portal appeared beside the Tesseract, and our second princess of Asgard, Loki, officially made her entrance...