Chen Xiao raised an eyebrow. Just as he was about to speak, the professor's voice rose in his mind. "Vitas, don't stop me. I know what I'm doing."
"Besides, this must be done. We don't have much time left."
"Look after Ororo and the others for me. The people Erik brought won't be easy to deal with. I'm afraid they'll get hurt."
Chen Xiao sighed silently and finally nodded his agreement.
With his instructions given, Professor X wheeled himself slowly toward the small building, his profile calm. "I came today to take Jean home. Please don't stand in my way."
Magneto chuckled. "Charles, how interesting. You make it sound as though you're her biological father."
The two passed through the courtyard gate side by side.
Magneto suddenly turned, glanced at Wolverine and his two companions following close behind, then barked an order to his subordinates. "Guard the perimeter. Don't let anyone near."
No sooner had he spoken than Juggernaut, the burly man among the four with a gleaming belt and a massive iron helmet in his arms, grinned at Chen Xiao and his companions, his eyes full of provocation.
At the same time, undisguised malice appeared on the other three faces.
Their expressions irritated Wolverine. Storm's brows knitted, and her gaze abruptly sharpened.
Chen Xiao was even less polite. "You, the freak with the shiny bald head. Wipe that disgusting grin off your face, or I really won't mind teaching you what pain feels like."
Both Storm and Wolverine froze at his words.
The openly aggressive Chen Xiao before them was far too different from the composed, low-key young man they remembered.
Juggernaut hadn't expected the other man to dare provoke him to his face, either.
He stared at Chen Xiao, who stood tall in plain white casual clothes, his bearing sharp. His mouth twisted into a vicious smile. "Calling me a pervert? Kid, I'll smash you to bits in a minute."
Before he finished, the short young man behind him stepped forward with a sneer. "What, you really want to fight?"
He thrust out his chest, and dense black spikes suddenly sprouted from beneath his skin, each fifteen to twenty centimeters long, making him look like a humanoid porcupine bristling with quills.
Then Nightcrawler, whose face bore dark totemic tattoos, stepped forward slowly, her amused gaze sweeping over Chen Xiao. "Handsome, you've got quite a temper..."
"Let me see just what gives you the confidence to act so arrogant."
As she spoke, she quietly activated her ability, rapidly probing the true combat strength and levels of Chen Xiao and his companions.
But the next second, Nightcrawler's pupils contracted sharply. Utterly stunned, she stared fixedly at the black-haired young man.
In her perception, the white-haired woman was a high-level mutant who controlled the weather, powerful but still manageable; the bearded middle-aged man possessed healing and claw abilities, but his level was ordinary, nothing to fear.
Only this black-haired young man seemed to have a low ability level, falling into the energy manipulation category. By rights, he shouldn't have inspired any apprehension.
Yet facing him, Nightcrawler felt an inexplicable chill rise in her heart, as though something terrifying enough to tear everything apart lay dormant inside him. Once provoked, that power would explode and crush every obstacle.
That suffocating pressure seemed almost to approach their leader's, even nearing that of the terrifying mutant inside the house.
Names like Juggernaut, Nightcrawler, and Arclight had long-established identities in the Marvel Universe.
Juggernaut in particular had inherited the power of the evil god Cyttorak in the comics. Impervious to blades and bullets, strong enough to uproot mountains, he was unstoppable once he started moving. Even Adamantium weapons could do nothing to him, and his combat strength rivaled Hulk's.
Unfortunately, the man before him was merely a mutant with the same name. Though his abilities resembled the comic version's, he lacked that overwhelming pressure from an ancient evil god.
And right now, Chen Xiao was in an awful mood, so agitated he was almost ready to explode.
He knew Professor X's life hung by a thread, yet he could only watch because this was the professor's own choice.
In less than a month together, Chen Xiao had come to respect the old man.
He truly deserved the words "great courage," "great wisdom," and "great benevolence."
After all, not everyone could calmly face death.
Though Chen Xiao himself had "died" dozens of times in the Virtual Battlefield, he knew perfectly well that those were only illusions made of data. He could start over after dying, which was why he had nothing to fear.
The professor was different. Even if the consciousness transfer had a seventy percent chance of success, seventy percent wasn't a hundred percent.
Even the slightest mishap would mean a true end.
Even Chen Xiao, who knew some of the future's course, dared not make any guarantees. After all, this was a real world, with no room for wishful thinking.
Boom!
Suddenly, a vast surge of telekinetic power erupted inside the house. The entire small villa shook violently, and everyone outside paled.
Worried for the professor's safety, Storm rushed toward the door almost simultaneously with Wolverine, who was desperate to check on Jean.
But Magneto's subordinates immediately blocked their path. Nightcrawler raised her voice with a sneer. "The boss said nobody goes in."
Storm snorted coldly, and immense energy instantly surged from her body. In an instant, wind and clouds churned, and a nearly tangible gale wrapped around her.
Like a rapidly spinning blade, she shot forward with a howl!
Bang! Bang!
Caught off guard, the porcupine man and Nightcrawler were knocked flying by the storm-wrapped impact. They could only watch as she smashed through the door and charged inside.
Chen Xiao's eyelid twitched at the sight. What kind of mage launched herself like a cannonball?
But the moment Nightcrawler landed, she vanished in a flash, and fierce fighting immediately rang out inside.
Against Nightcrawler's close-range teleportation attacks, a ranged fighter like Storm was clearly at a disadvantage in such cramped quarters.
Boom!
Meanwhile, just as Wolverine was about to follow, Arclight, who had remained silent in a corner of the villa's courtyard, suddenly brought her palms together.
Hum!
In an instant, a visible ring of Shockwave burst outward, shaking the air and enveloping everything within more than ten meters.
Caught off guard, Wolverine was hurled backward by the savage impact and crashed heavily into a storage shed to the side.
By then, Juggernaut had fastened his helmet. He stared at Chen Xiao ten meters away with a savage grin. "Kid, I meant what I said. I'm going to smash you to powder."
Before he finished speaking, he broke into a sprint!
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The ground trembled with every step.
The instant he accelerated, a rough, violent aura surged from his body, forming an invisible force around him, like a steel war chariot charging at full speed.
As Juggernaut thundered toward him, Chen Xiao's gaze darkened, but he didn't move an inch.
He bent his knees slightly and clenched his right fist. A long-dormant power inside him awakened with a roar, turning into blazing golden light that gathered around his fist in layer upon layer.
From a distance, his fist looked plated in molten gold. Radiance flared around it, and even the surrounding air hissed faintly under the pressure.
Juggernaut charged into reach like a wild elephant, and Chen Xiao swung his fist to meet him!
Boom!
The instant the shoulder of Juggernaut, supposedly "unstoppable once moving," collided with Chen Xiao's fist, both their bodies shook violently.
Then the long-condensed mass of golden power exploded!
In an instant, the ground within ten meters shattered inch by inch. A visible shock wave burst outward from the two of them, throwing up clouds of dust and turning into a howling gale.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Amid the billowing dust, Juggernaut, renowned for being unstoppable, shuddered all over. His feet sank, the hard paving tiles shattered beneath them, and he staggered several steps backward, his soles scraping with a piercing screech.
At the same moment, an overwhelming force sent Chen Xiao sliding rapidly backward. His feet plowed two deep furrows through the concrete, tearing apart the once-dense, solid pavement as easily as tofu.
Weblike cracks instantly spread over his shoes, and the rushing air shredded his trouser cuffs.
On the surface, this probing exchange had ended with their strength evenly matched.
As the dust gradually cleared, Juggernaut looked up at Chen Xiao more than a dozen paces away. His pupils narrowed slightly, and a trace of astonishment crossed his eyes. "You... you're the first person to stop me head-on after I got moving."
Before he finished, an excited grin spread across his face. "But I only charged ten meters just now. My momentum hadn't built up all the way. Now I'm getting serious."
Chen Xiao remained calm, his tone indifferent. "What a coincidence. I was just planning to get a little serious myself."
Boom!
The energy inside him abruptly boiled over. A ring of transparent air surged around him, his hair whipping wildly as an almost tangible pressure spread outward like flames ignited by fighting spirit.
Though his words betrayed nothing, that brief exchange had shaken him slightly.
In the milliseconds when fist met palm, he had seemingly thrown just one punch, but had actually unleashed over a dozen consecutive explosive strikes. Their stacked force had multiplied more than tenfold, enough to blast a heavy Whale-class armored vehicle speeding toward him into scrap on the spot.
Yet apart from staggering backward, Juggernaut hadn't suffered the slightest injury.
That terrifying ability to withstand pressure, coupled with his astonishing explosive power, forced even Chen Xiao to set aside his disdain and directly activate level-one Energy Berserk mode.
His strength instantly increased fivefold.
And just as waves of air rose around him, Juggernaut launched another charge.
But rather than rush straight at Chen Xiao, who was close at hand, he abruptly turned toward the broad road, sprinting along a curve to build power.
He was accumulating kinetic energy.
Ten meters, fifteen meters, twenty meters...
With every footfall, the earth collapsed with a boom; with every stretch of acceleration, his aura grew heavier.
As his speed climbed, the air around his body was compressed so forcefully that it formed a visible, violent vortex, sweeping up stones and dust with a thunderous roar.
Chen Xiao watched coldly without moving.
It wasn't that he couldn't rush forward at several times his opponent's speed and interrupt the charge. There was simply no need.
What then, after winning this fight? Rush into the villa and stop Jean from killing Professor X?
Or stand aside and let things unfold?
The former would go against the professor's wishes, while the latter would inevitably bring questioning from Storm and Wolverine, leaving him unable to defend himself.
The most suitable course was to be "held up outside," then swiftly subdue Juggernaut when the time was right and complete the mission.
Besides, he really did need a thoroughly satisfying release.
By now, Juggernaut had circled the entire avenue and was charging at Chen Xiao like a massive beast unleashed, bearing down with thunderous force.
Dust billowed behind him like a churning, roaring dragon of earth, sweeping all before it.