"T-Ten... Ten Rings...!"
Raza did not recognize Wenwu, but the sight of the ten rings on his arms, their runes faintly glowing, instantly brought a possibility to mind!
Legend had it that the leader of their Ten Rings was an Asian man who wore the divine artifacts known as the Ten Rings on his arms.
Everything matched!
Legend said he commanded the power of a god.
But Raza had always scoffed, privately thinking he was nothing more than a mutant freak. What god?
So he had never felt any reverence and had even planned to break away and establish his own faction.
But when he saw five hundred armed men surrounding them, while he had only a hundred or so, he instantly lost his nerve!
"How dare you, Raza! This is our lord! Get over here and pay your respects!"
An armed commander behind Wenwu stepped forward and angrily berated Raza.
Raza's expression stiffened. Then he came to his senses and hurried out from behind the outpost's defenses, looking terrified as he prepared to kneel.
Yet Wenwu remained expressionless, his voice utterly cold:
"Have I gone so long without taking action that you dare disregard my authority?"
As he finished speaking, he took a slight step. With a thought, a single ring flew from his right forearm, crossing dozens of meters in an instant and appearing before Raza!
Fast!
Unbelievably fast!
Bang!
A terrifying, dull impact rang out!
The ring, carrying blue and gold energy, struck Raza squarely in the chest!
Crack-!
The distinct sound of breaking bones echoed throughout the valley!
The expression on Raza's face froze completely. Blood sprayed from his mouth, and his entire chest instantly caved in and deformed!
His massive body flew backward like a kite with its string cut, slamming into the outpost's fortifications. He died on the spot!
Dead silence fell over the scene!
Every one of the hundred-odd armed men in the valley went rigid, as did the five hundred men Wenwu had brought.
At that moment, their minds went blank, and their guns nearly slipped from their hands!
It was their first time seeing Wenwu take action. They had never imagined he was this powerful!
"Dare betray the Ten Rings and disregard our rules, and this is your end?"
Wenwu spoke calmly. His voice was not loud, yet it carried the supreme authority of one looking down upon ants, rolling through the valley and making everyone's soul tremble beneath its weight.
Hum-!
Just then, Wenwu stirred his mind!
The divine Ten Rings instantly trembled. Ten rings of deep blue energy mixed with gold and red abruptly left his body and hovered around him!
Boom!
Wenwu shot high into the sky, then crashed into the valley outpost like a meteor.
Vast, surging artifact energy erupted, and terrifying pressure instantly swept through the entire valley!
Boom!!
An invisible wave of energy exploded outward!
Every armed man was violently flung away by the terrifying energy shock wave!
They slammed into the ground, their bodies wracked with pain and their hearts gripped by terror, unable to muster even the slightest thought of resistance!
"The... Ten Rings... They really are the divine Ten Rings!!"
Someone finally came to his senses and recognized the world-shaking divine Ten Rings. His face instantly turned ashen, and he dropped to his knees with a thud!
The rumors were true after all. The leader of the Ten Rings wielded the divine Ten Rings and had awed the world for a thousand years.
All the armed men knelt in unison. This was too terrifying. That strike had nearly rivaled a heavy missile!
He was simply too powerful!
The armed rebels trembled all over in fright, dropping to their knees and begging for mercy.
"We have sinned! We know we were wrong! Please spare us, my lord!"
Throughout the valley, only overlapping pleas for mercy and cries of repentance remained.
Wenwu coldly looked down upon the ants, showing no further emotion.
Killing these ignorant rebels would serve no purpose. Kept alive, they could still serve as cannon fodder.
"Get up."
Wenwu spoke calmly.
The commander behind him also led his men into the outpost to take control.
Then Wenwu ordered them to knock out Tony Stark and the doctor, Yinsen, and covertly install surveillance covering every angle without a single blind spot.
Half an hour later, all the prepared miniature cameras had been installed, extremely well concealed, while the previous visible surveillance cameras remained in place.
Finally, Tony and Yinsen slowly regained consciousness, not understanding what these terrorists had done.
But what Tony did not know was that, from this moment onward, all his secrets, all his coming struggles, all his research, and all his creations would be laid bare before Wenwu's eyes!
Wenwu stood with his hands behind his back, watching Tony Stark on the surveillance feed, a gleam flashing in his eyes.
The Arc Reactor!
The Mark I armor!
He would watch Tony Stark personally build these two examples of top-tier Marvel supertech, bit by bit!
Record the entire process and replicate them completely!
When the time was right, Tony's technology, all his achievements...
Would belong to him!
Time trickled by.
Tony leaned against the cold rock wall. The crude magnetic device on his chest was connected to a bulky car battery, wires tangled around it, and every breath brought a faint, stabbing pain.
The shrapnel inside him threatened his heart at every moment. This hastily cobbled-together device could lose power and fail at any time.
Yinsen sat nearby, sorting through the crude tools and discarded weapons components delivered by the Ten Rings. Looking at Tony, who could die at any moment, he spoke gravely:
"That thing won't last long. The battery could run out at any moment. Once it loses power, the shrapnel will pierce your heart. You won't last a minute."
Tony looked up, his gaze sweeping over the bulky, inefficient car battery, without a trace of panic in his eyes.
"I'm going to replace it."
Yinsen froze. "Replace it? You don't have any medical equipment or precision instruments. How are you going to replace it?"
Tony propped himself upright, his face full of confidence:
"I'm going to build a new device. Not a temporary magnet. A miniature Arc Reactor."
"At my factory in Stark Tower, I have a giant Arc Reactor. It powers the entire building. Now I'm going to shrink it down to the size of my palm and use it to replace this lousy battery."
Yinsen was utterly stunned, staring at him in disbelief:
"Are you insane? That's an energy system that supplies an entire factory, and you want to miniaturize it in this lousy cave with a pile of scrap metal?"
Tony gave a faint smile, his confidence as a genius on full display:
"Yes. It'll be small enough and stable enough to hold the shrapnel inside me in place permanently."
"And it'll have enough power to keep me alive for fifty lifetimes."
This was not arrogance, but absolute confidence in his technical ability.
With that, Tony formally listed the materials he needed, all drawn from the discarded Stark Industries missile components stockpiled by the Ten Rings:
"Help me dismantle all the discarded missiles and extract the palladium. I need 0.15 grams of palladium metal for the reaction core. Then get me copper wire, silicon plates, coils, voltage-stabilizing capacitors, small electromagnets, and conductive chips."
Yinsen understood completely. Tony had never intended to build weapons for the terrorists. He would use the enemy's resources to build his own path to survival.
Next, the god-making project in the cave officially began.
In the dim prison, sparks flew, and the sounds of metal cutting, grinding, and circuit soldering continued day and night.
Wenwu watched the surveillance footage, the corners of his mouth lifting!