What exactly happened?
I brought Gamora along for a look, really just to look, and before I knew it, she'd forgotten to come up the mountain and ended up taking all the gems!
No one knows what Gamora saw, she Dum-E and couldn't utter a complete sentence for a long time.
In his haste, Qin Xiao unleashed flames from the soles of his feet and palms, and with a whoosh, he soared to the mountaintop.
The mountaintop was completely silent, with no energy fluctuations and no sign of the Red Skull.
"Hey? Where is everyone?"
Qin Xiao circled the mountaintop but didn't see any sign of anyone.
However, some signs of human-caused slippage were found on the edge of the cliff.
Flying down the cliff, they discovered the corpse of the Red Skull. Perhaps due to being sacrificed, the entire body was gradually fading and becoming visibly ethereal.
If Qin Xiao had arrived a little later, he might have only been left with a tattered gray robe.
The large altar on the ground, covered with unknown runes, exuded a chilling power, like a formless monster that slowly devoured the Red Skull, body and soul, completely.
Qin Xiao hadn't yet ventured into the realms of the soul and spirit; he could only get a general feel for them before soaring into the sky and leaving.
Gamora didn't speak until they got back.
"What I saw was real, wasn't it? He pushed me off that place, obtained the Soul Stone, and used the Nebula to threaten me into taking him to Vormir —it's all just as you said."
"Did you use some kind of magic?"
Gamora became increasingly agitated as she spoke, revealing a strong killing intent towards Qin Xiao.
"Well!"
Qin Xiao sighed.
"You should learn to face reality. I don't have the ability to make the Soul Stone cooperate with me in such a charade. If it were all magic, I wouldn't have told you anything before and would have let you see for yourself. In fact, I was quite surprised that you went up and obtained the Soul Stone on your own."
Qin Xiao spread his hands helplessly; he knew that Gamora might not be able to accept it.
She could still believe Qin Xiao Qin Xiao deceiving her, but Soul Stone showed her made her believe it from the bottom of her heart.
"Now can you tell me what exactly happened?"
Qin Xiao remained silent for a moment, giving Gamora some time to calm herself before asking.
"After I went up the mountain..."
Gamora recounted what happened after she went up there.
After she went up the mountain, the Gem Guardian appeared, namely Red Skull, and accurately said her father's name, which was somewhat vague in Gamora's memory.
Red Skull then told Gamora the rules for obtaining the Soul Stone: soul for soul.
If you want to obtain the Soul Stone, you must bring one of your loved ones with you; otherwise, there is no other way.
Gamora simply told Red Skull that she had only come to see the place where she had died and had no intention of taking the Soul Stone.
To everyone's surprise, Red Skull's expression changed drastically after hearing Gamora's words.
It turns out that Red Skull only has three ways to leave this place.
The first option is to guard this place as a gem guardian for a thousand years, and then you will gain freedom. That's how the previous guardian did it.
Red Skull was chosen unexpectedly for this reason, and was ultimately teleported here by the Space Stone.
The second possibility is that someone forcibly takes it, which is practically unsolvable.
The third method is to encounter someone destined to become a sacrificial gem; the Red Skull can push her off the altar and take her place as the new gem guardian.
So when Gamora said those words, Red Skull's expression suddenly changed, and he inexplicably became excited.
It's unclear whether it was because he gained new privileges after learning Gamora's identity, but then Red Skull showed Gamora his entire life story.
From her birth to Thanos off the altar by Thanos, scenes flashed through Gamora's mind like a movie.
While Gamora was engrossed in her own world, Red Skull launched a sneak attack from behind, attempting to push Gamora off.
At that moment, Gamora saw the exact moment Thanos pushed her off the cliff; hearing about it and seeing it with your own eyes are completely different experiences.
The immersion was so intense that, watching herself fall, Gamora instinctively took a step forward and shouted, "No!"
In that one move, he narrowly avoided Red Skull's full-force push, missing Gamora but ending up in the fall himself.
Of course, all of this about Red Skull was learned in the Soul Realm after he fell off the cliff and Gamora accidentally obtained the gem.
"There I saw myself in my soul form, as I was as a child. She told me about the rules of the Soul Guardians. In another universe, he pushed me down and I became one of the souls within the Soul Stone."
Gamora said calmly.
Did I encounter my own soul in another universe?
Qin Xiao couldn't help but recall what he had seen online in his previous life: what happened after Tony snapped his the Snap and died.
In the so-called soul space, he saw his daughter as an adult.
It seems that the Soul Stone can not only communicate with souls, but may also have an interoperability with the Soul Stone of all universes.
However, all of this is just Qin Xiao's speculation. He will only know the truth after he has fully digested the six gems.
However, this trip was indeed quite fruitful. The unfortunate Red Skull, who failed in his sneak attack and lost his life, benefited Qin Xiao, who obtained the Soul Stone effortlessly.
Although he doesn't need them now, he has all six gems under his control. Once Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are born, Qin Xiao can directly absorb the Mind Stone. As for Vision, Qin Xiao has been eyeing Scarlet Witch for a long time. JARVIS is much more innocent and adorable.
Then there's Gamora. After a long time of processing everything, Gamora, though still somewhat wary of Qin Xiao Qin Xiao, has tentatively accepted his invitation to stay and help him take control of the entire Tivan Group.
"I know that in your heart, you consider Nebula a sister. If you have the chance, you can bring her Thanos. If Thanos finds you, I can protect you."
Qin Xiao solemnly assured Gamora, after all, she had helped him obtain an Infinity Stones.
Drax was still in jail in Xandar, and Qin Xiao had no interest in him. However, Star-Lord unexpectedly asked to stay and keep Gamora. Qin Xiao neither disliked nor liked this goofball.
After all, from the audience's perspective, Star-Lord's actions in Avengers: Infinity War made everyone grit their teeth in hatred.
Having obtained two Infinity Stones on this trip, Ronan is searching the entire universe for them. Yondu's bounty on Star-Lord is still online. Qin Xiao decides to find a suitable place to end it all.