The Himalayas.
The Ancient One stood proudly on the edge of the cliff, her aged figure shrouded in blizzard, yet her wide robes remained perfectly still.
He looked up at the black crack in the void, slowly clasped his hands together, and a golden magic circle unfolded beneath his feet, gently closing the black crack.
The next second, everything around them froze.
The swirling snowflakes stopped in mid-air, and the howling wind vanished. The Ancient One's eyes shone with golden light, and her consciousness passed through the barrier of reality, entering the river of time once more.
He had to determine where the world was headed next.
Countless images flashed before my eyes.
In New York, an out-of-control sports car veered off the road, rolled, and crashed into a cliff. The car was completely mangled, and blood flowed from the shattered windows.
The Ancient One saw Strange lying in the driver's seat, his chest pierced by a steel bar, already lifeless.
No injured hands, no Kamar-Taj, and no future Sorcerer Supreme.
He didn't even have time to embark on the path of magic before he died in the car accident that should have only destroyed his hands.
The Ancient One frowned slightly and raised his hand to part the timeline.
"Unlucky."
The image then shattered.
Another future is rapidly emerging.
Within the Dark Dimension, Strange, draped in a tattered Cloak, stood wearily on a desolate planet.
Before him, Dormammu's enormous face filled the entire sky. Two eyes burning with purple flames looked down at him with malice.
" Dormammu, I'm here to negotiate."
Strange looked up, his voice already hoarse.
Dormammu laughed.
A massive, sky-covering hand descended from the void, crushing Strange and the planet beneath his feet.
Time begins anew.
Strange reappears.
Dormammu, I've come here to...
Before he could finish speaking, he was blasted into ashes by a burst of energy.
The third time, the fourth time, the ten thousandth time.
Strange was resurrected time and time again, only to die tragically each time. But this time, Dormammu didn't give up out of boredom; instead, he gradually began to enjoy this game that would never end.
"Continue."
Dormammu opened his palms, his smile growing increasingly sinister, "Human, you have cast yourself into an Eternity prison."
The Ancient One's expression changed slightly, filled with surprise and uncertainty.
"They changed that too? Looks like I'll have to find a way to intensify Strange's training."
Before he could continue observing, the surrounding Dark Dimension collapsed with a roar, and another scene forced its way in.
On Titan, Thanos, clad in tattered armor, slowly moved forward, dragging his double-edged sword.
Behind him, Tony lay in the rubble, his chest ripped open. Steve's shield snapped in two, and Thor lost the arm that had been gripping Stormbreaker.
Thanos stepped over the Avengers ' corpses and embedded the last Infinity Stone into the Infinity Gauntlet.
"The universe needs balance."
He snapped his fingers.
Countless lives turned to ashes, and the entire universe fell into a deathly silence.
The Ancient One fell into deep thought.
Where is Chen Mo?
The next moment, the image suddenly distorted.
It's still Thanos, but without the Infinity Gauntlet, and there's no cosmic balance.
This cosmic overlord, who instilled fear in countless civilizations, knelt on one knee, bowed his head, and held a blood-stained heart atop his head.
Before him, the Goddess of Death sat languidly on her throne, her pale fingers gently lifting his chin.
Thanos did not resist.
His eyes held no ambition to conquer the universe, only an almost humble obsession.
Everything I've done is to please you.
The Ancient One fell completely silent. What the hell was all this?
The same person, two completely different choices.
Even what Thanos actually wants to do remains a mystery, and time can no longer provide a definitive answer.
More of the future is beginning to emerge.
In some worlds, New York was razed to the ground by an alien fleet. In other worlds, the alien fleet had barely appeared when it was enveloped in a mass of black and red flesh, and both the people and the warships vanished without a trace.
In another timeline, Tony leads tens of thousands of suits of armor out of Earth, shouting that Stark Industries is expanding into the space market, followed by a group of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. with faces full of despair.
As for Chen Mo...
The Ancient One could only see a continuously expanding black shadow.
That dark figure appears in every future, yet belongs to no particular timeline. Sometimes he stands on Earth, sometimes he floats in the depths of space, and sometimes he even sits on Thanos's throne, looking down and fiddling with the Six Infinity Stones.
Countless possibilities arose because of him, only to be overturned by his own hands in the next second.
The river of time has been completely thrown into chaos.
The Ancient One attempted to delve deeper, a blinding green light suddenly appeared from the end of the long river.
You've taken the wrong turn!
All the images shattered simultaneously.
The Ancient One suddenly opened his eyes, and the magic circle beneath his feet instantly went out. He took half a step back, his chest heaving violently, and a trickle of blood appeared at the corner of his mouth.
The snowflakes that had been hovering in mid-air began to fall again.
"It's already unobservable? It seems the variables are out of control."
The Ancient One wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his expression becoming extremely grave.
What was once a clear future has now become a tangled mess. If Earth's existing defenses continue to be prepared at the original pace, they will inevitably be completely breached by some sudden possibility sooner or later.
We can't wait any longer.
The Ancient One closed her eyes and formed a hand seal in front of her chest. A translucent celestial body stepped out from her aged body, then passed through space and cast a mental link towards Asgard.
Deep within the Golden Palace.
Odin sat on his throne, holding the Gungnir, his face deathly pale.
Sensing the arrival of the Ancient One's consciousness, he sat up straight again, his weakness temporarily concealed by divine power.
" Sorcerer Supreme, you have overstepped your bounds."
Stop pretending, Odin.
The Ancient One's voice echoed in the hall, "You know better than I how long your Odinsleep can last."
Odin's eye twitched slightly.
This old guy is still as bad at conversation as ever.
What did you see?
"Confusion."
The Ancient One didn't hide anything. " Strange has died more than once, and Thanos's goals keep changing. All futures are shifting, and we no longer have time to wait."
Odin paused for a moment, then gripped the Gungnir tightly.
"So what?"
"We need to accelerate Thor's growth; you need to get Loki moving ahead of time."
The Ancient One spoke calmly, but without any intention of negotiation. "According to the original plan, we'll use the Space Stone as bait to test Thanos's reaction. Once he makes a move, we'll be able to determine which future we need to guard against."
"You make it sound so easy."
Odin scoffed, " Thor has only been exiled for a few days. You can't expect me to shove Mjolnir back into his hands now and tell him his training is over and he can go home for dinner."
"I've seen it; he's beginning to understand the courage of ordinary people, and he's doing it faster than we expected."
The Ancient One paused for a moment, then added, "Besides, with Chen Mo on Earth, he won't die."
Odin's expression darkened further.
That statement makes a lot of sense.
But for some reason, he always felt that his son would eventually be turned into a different person by Chen Mo.
" Odin, the defenses are on the verge of collapse."
The Ancient One urged in a deep voice, "Stop pretending to be dead. We must accelerate the plan immediately."
Odin finally couldn't hold back any longer.
He gripped the armrest of the throne with a frustrated expression, his Five Fingers pressing clear dents into the hard Uru metal.
The next second, the old god-king's furious voice traveled through the mental link and crashed back to Earth.
"You want me to speed things up? Chen Mo snatched the Space Stone and used it as a glass ball! Tell me, how can this plan possibly proceed normally?!"