"Hmph, don't you know what things were like back then? At such a sensitive time, releasing it would only have plunged the world into greater chaos!" Tony retorted.
"Hmph, why do you and your father always get to claim the moral high ground?
How do you know the world would have fallen into chaos?
If you ask me, it might have brought about a different world, one at peace!"
Ivan Vanko shot back without giving an inch.
The two traded barbs, neither yielding as they argued.
"All right, all right! Stop!"
The argument gave Wenwu a headache. He rubbed his brow, then looked at Tony and spoke evenly. "Mr. Stark, I have a deal for you. Would you like to hear it?"
"Oh? Let's hear it."
Tony folded his arms across his chest and raised an eyebrow in curiosity.
"After wearing that reactor in your chest for so long, haven't you accumulated quite a few toxins in your body from palladium radiation?"
Wenwu pointed at the Arc Reactor in his chest and asked with a smile.
Tony's gaze shifted slightly. Naturally, he knew his own condition. He had only worn the reactor for a little over three months, and his body was already showing signs of poisoning.
According to his calculations, if he failed to find a substitute for palladium within five or six months, or did not undergo surgery to remove the shrapnel from his body soon, his life would be over.
"What do you mean? Does your deal have something to do with that?"
Tony's brows knitted tightly, and he began to feel a faint anticipation for the deal Wenwu was about to propose.
"The Ten Rings has a technique that can remove the shrapnel from your body with a one-hundred-percent success rate." After speaking, Wenwu leaned forward slightly and looked at Tony with a smile.
"What? A one-hundred-percent success rate?" Tony's expression changed, and he stared at Wenwu in disbelief.
Even with the world's best cardiac surgery team, removing the shrapnel in his body would still carry an extremely high risk, with a success rate of only around 10-20%.
There were many tiny fragments scattered around his heart. Once disturbed, they could shift and pierce his heart directly, causing massive bleeding on the spot.
Even if some were successfully removed, fragments were very likely to remain.
And now this man claimed he could remove them with absolute certainty? Was this a joke?
Wait! Surgeons couldn't do it, but what about a mutant with some kind of special ability?
Did the Ten Rings have someone like that?
Tony was somewhat tempted, but these were the Ten Rings, terrorists.
Though they had cleaned up their image a little, they were still a terrorist organization.
Only an idiot would put his life in their hands!
"Then don't trouble yourself. I have no intention of putting my life in your hands." Tony refused outright.
"Can I leave now?"
With that, Tony made to carry his armor away on his back.
"Mr. Stark, this armor is already a trophy of the Ten Rings. It isn't included in the ransom."
Wenwu looked at Tony with a smile. The others also watched him with wicked grins, especially Ivan, whose eyes were full of undisguised contempt.
"Bastard. Name your price." Tony had a bad feeling.
"This is a trophy. We intend to keep it in our collection," Wenwu said with a smile.
Anger immediately flared in Tony's heart. He knew the Ten Rings wanted to replicate his Mark IV armor.
This was armor he had only just optimized and improved. With their abilities, they really could replicate it.
"Hmph, keep it, then. By the time you replicate it, I'll have improved my armor by several generations. You'll never catch up," Tony said with absolute confidence.
Wenwu naturally knew he was not boasting.
Even now, Ivan had yet to produce anything with performance comparable to the Mark III.
The most crucial element was still artificial intelligence.
Earlier, Tony had only suffered such a heavy loss because he had been careless and had not understood Razor Fist's vibranium blade. Presumably, once he returned this time, Tony would find a way to make improvements specifically to counter it.
Tony was just about to turn and leave when a sudden, tearing pain shot through his chest!
He jerked his head down, only to see the Arc Reactor in his chest pulled free in an instant by an invisible force, bursting straight through his short-sleeved shirt. Even the alloy ring embedded around the opening was forcibly ripped out.
At the same time, countless tiny iron fragments, barely visible to the naked eye, flew out along with the reactor.
Disbelief covered Tony's face as he instinctively turned toward Wenwu.
Wenwu was manipulating the Arc Reactor from a distance. He casually tossed it onto the ground and looked at Tony with a faint smile.
Without the reactor keeping the fragments in check, Tony went limp and collapsed onto the ground.
He clamped both hands over his heart. He could clearly feel that the forced removal of the shrapnel had injured his heart, and the shadow of death instantly engulfed him.
His brilliant life as Tony Stark had only just begun. Was he really going to meet his end in this lousy place?
Seeing that Tony was about to die, Wenwu gave Hamid a slight nod.
Hamid immediately understood and took a syringe from his pocket, filled with a thick green liquid.
It was concentrated Origin Substance. The cost of this single syringe exceeded a hundred thousand dollars.
Hamid walked up to Tony, seized his arm without ceremony, roughly plunged the needle into his vein, and injected the liquid.
Anton and his son watched all of this.
"My lord, why save him?"
Ivan asked, filled with discontent. In his view, even if they did not kill Tony outright, they could simply leave him to his fate. Why save such a dangerous enemy?
"Ivan, know your place. Since when was it your turn to question our lord's actions?"
Razor Fist glared fiercely at Ivan with his large eyes and rebuked him coldly.
Ivan opened his mouth, but in the end, he could only take half a step back and remain silent.
The corners of Wenwu's mouth lifted slightly.
His mental perception was now extremely powerful, allowing him to clearly detect Ivan's mental fluctuations.
Ivan was genuinely willing to work for him now and harbored no disloyal intentions. He was simply unhappy that Wenwu had saved Tony.
But that old fellow Anton had already harbored a faint hostility toward him, even malice.
Now that he had saved Tony, the malice in Anton's heart had grown extraordinarily intense.
It really was no wonder Howard had kicked him out back then, with a mind so dark.
Still, the old fellow could barely even walk now and posed no threat. If his son Ivan behaved himself in the future, there would be no harm in sparing his life.
Before long, Tony finally recovered. He drew a deep breath and felt an unprecedented sense of ease in his body and heart.
"What is that stuff?"
Tony stared at the now-empty syringe in Hamid's hand and asked instinctively.
The stuff had actually healed his injuries instantly, and his body felt more at ease than before!
"Good stuff. Mr. Stark, I've removed every piece of shrapnel from your body. I saved your life. Ten billion isn't too much to ask, is it?"
Unable to keep the corners of his mouth from rising, Wenwu spoke to Tony with a smile.
"What? Ten billion? Why don't you just rob me? I didn't ask you to save me! You're forcing a sale on me!"
Tony was so furious he nearly spat blood.
"You can see it that way too." Wenwu shrugged indifferently.