His awakening, like a long-awaited ray of light, dispelled the heavy gloom following Professor X's passing and became one of the few pieces of good news recently.
Soon after the news spread, when Chen Xiao arrived, the hospital bed was already surrounded by people: Storm, Colossus, Hank, Iceman... all of them looked relaxed, their eyes shining.
"Mr. Scott, aren't you wearing your glasses?"
Chen Xiao noticed this detail as soon as he approached.
Scott was still weak, but he shook his head with a smile, "When I woke up, I found that the Cyclops were completely under my control, and the lenses were no longer needed."
His tone betrayed a hint of disbelief and astonishment,
Since the initial awakening of his abilities, he had never truly controlled these eyes in over a decade, yet now, after falling into a deep sleep, he had easily tamed them.
Chen Xiao's eyes narrowed slightly, and he had already made a judgment: this change was most likely related to the primal power that Qin had injected into his body.
At that moment, Scott, with his stubble and messy beard, suddenly looked at Chen Xiao and grinned. " Vitas, you've been hiding your good looks! You're so handsome! I bet a bunch of girls at school have a crush on you, right?"
Having relied on special glasses for years, his vision was always shrouded in a persistent reddish filter; now that his vision has returned to normal, his first reaction is to carefully examine the familiar faces around him: Storm's neat short hair, Hank's strong yet gentle arm contours...
When his gaze fell upon Chen Xiao, he paused for a moment longer.
With well-defined facial features, high brow bones, bright and clear eyes, flawless skin, and a sharp, chiseled jawline; coupled with a tall and upright figure of 1.8 meters, broad shoulders and a narrow waist, and a pine-like posture, he is a living portrait of youth.
"Cough..."
Chen Xiao felt his ears burning under the stare. He coughed lightly and took a small step back. "Professor Scott, please don't stare at me like that. I'm a total looks-obsessed person; I only like beautiful women."
"Puff,"
Before she could finish speaking, Storm friends burst out laughing.
They had just been a little intimidated by Scott's focused gaze, which seemed to be a "rediscovery of the world."
Scott showed no embarrassment, only a hearty laugh, before asking seriously, "By the way, Vitas has arrived too. Can you tell me about Jean's condition now?"
"About Senior Qin? Teacher Ororo and the others didn't mention it to you?" Chen Xiao was slightly surprised.
Scott shook his head. "They didn't say. When I asked Logan and the others, they all said they'd talk about it when you got here."
He paused, then looked around again, his brow furrowing slightly. "Speaking of which, where's the professor? I haven't seen him at all. Isn't he on campus?"
"This..."
A hint of bitterness flashed across Storm's face, followed by a wry smile. There was no time to delay any longer.
In fact, Scott had asked about this matter as soon as he opened his eyes, and at the time they only gave a vague answer that "the situation is complicated," wanting to wait for Chen Xiao to arrive before giving a unified explanation.
But the truth was too harsh: his most respected mentor died at the hands of the person he loved most. They dared not speak rashly, for fear that he would collapse on the spot.
Noticing the strange expressions on everyone's faces, Scott's heart tightened, and his voice suddenly became strained. "What happened? Jin... has something happened to her?"
Storm's lips moved a few times, but she finally lowered her eyes and sighed softly, "Jean is safe now. But the Professor... he's gone. It was Jean... who ended his life with her own hands."
boom,
The air seemed to freeze instantly.
Scott's face turned deathly pale, and he froze on the hospital bed, his pupils unfocused, unable to move as if struck by lightning.
"How... how is this possible?!"
He jerked to his feet, his voice rasping, "Explain yourselves! How could the teacher die? Was it Qin who did it?!"
Everyone fell silent, their eyes filled with reluctance.
Hank, who had watched him grow up, especially, swallowed hard, turned his head away silently, and felt a slight heaviness in his shoulders.
Just then, Chen Xiao took a deep breath, his voice low but undeniably serious. "Professor Scott, this matter is far more serious than it appears. Rather than saying the professor died at Piano's hands, it's more accurate to say that it was the end he chose."
These words not only stunned Scott, but also surprised Wolverine and the others.
" Vitas, what do you mean by that?"
Facing all eyes, Chen Xiao calmly said, "Before we set off that day, the professor used Mind Stone link to talk to me for a long time."
"He wanted to help Jean fully control the out-of-control power within her, allowing her to truly transform into Omega-Level Mutant, because this world needed a strategic entity capable of intimidating the entire world."
"For this, he was willing to give everything, including his own life."
He then laid out what he could make public one by one: the crisis behind the Peak Agreement, the real threat of the Sentinel Program, the precarious situation of the Mutants community, and the consciousness transfer plan that the Professor had already prepared.
Finally, the book adds key events that occurred after Scott fell into a coma: the beginning and end of the Alcatraz battle, the reactions of all parties, and the subsequent impact... Each word is clear and restrained.
When he pushed Jean's emotions to the brink of collapse but was still powerless to stop the Phoenix Force from going berserk, the Professor suddenly appeared and forcibly cleansed the dark personality growing within her at the cost of burning his own spiritual Origin.
Even Storm were completely unaware of this, and Chen Xiao didn't elaborate on it that day either.
After Chen Xiao finished speaking, not only Scott, but also Wolverine, Storm, Hank and the others were all stunned, and an expression of disbelief slowly appeared on their faces.
They never imagined that Professor X had been silently bearing so much in the shadows.
What was even more unexpected was that such a heavy truth was hidden behind Qin's loss of control.
In particular, in order to create an Omega-Level Mutant and deter global powers, the professor was willing to sacrifice himself.
In that instant, everyone felt an unprecedented sense of insignificance.
This insignificance does not stem from a difference in ability, but from the breadth of one's mind, the weight of one's responsibilities, and the courage to face danger alone.
Compared to Professor X, who has been constantly concerned about the survival of Mutants and single-handedly maintained a balance among all parties over the years, they have indeed done far too little.
"Wait, Vitas, why did the professor tell you all this?" Shadowcat suddenly came to his senses and stared at Chen Xiao suspiciously.
yes.
Her words awakened everyone.
Why did the professor entrust all these secrets to him? He'd only been at the school for a month, while all of them had been there for years.
Storm and Scott, in particular, are the professor's most trusted and closest people.
Even they were unaware, yet Vitas knew everything. Could he really be the professor's long-lost biological son?
This thought once again quietly crossed everyone's minds.
Chen Xiao was unaware of what was going on in everyone's minds. Faced with Shadowcat's questioning, he simply smiled and said, "Probably because the professor thinks I'm not only incredibly skilled, but also exceptionally handsome."
"..."
Regardless of Vitas's actual strength, his shamelessness is undeniable; at least none of them could utter such a statement.
At this moment, everyone's emotions visibly relaxed, and even Scott had just been filled with despair, breathed a sigh of relief.
Upon learning that the professor had not actually died, but had already prepared a plan to transfer his consciousness, the grief in my heart dissipated, and I felt much more at ease.
But their smiles had barely faded when Storm's expression suddenly darkened.
" Vitas..."
Her voice trembled slightly. "You just said that during the final battle, just as you were about to give up, the professor's consciousness suddenly entered Qin's mind?"
"At the critical moment, he burned all his Mind Stone power to help Qin dispel the dark personality, which is why Qin was finally able to control that power?"
Chen Xiao noticed something was off about her expression, sighed inwardly, and nodded, saying, "That's right."
"Then..." Storm's throat bobbed slightly, almost uttering each word slowly, "The professor who exhausted all his mental and physical strength... is he really dead?"
The room fell silent instantly, and the smiles on everyone's faces froze.
They almost missed this point, or rather, Chen Xiao deliberately glossed over the details, drawing everyone's attention to Qin's awakening, thus obscuring this fatal problem.
Can a person live when their Origin of spirit is completely burned out?
The answer is self-evident.
At this moment, Chen Xiao slowly spoke up, "Professor Ororo, for an ordinary person, there would indeed be no chance of survival. But we must trust the professor."
"Given his status as the world's most powerful Telepathy, he should have made thorough preparations long ago, such as splitting his consciousness, backing up his memories, and even reserving transfer channels."
"So there's no need to worry too much; perhaps he's already awake."
These words had some effect, and the tense expressions on everyone's faces finally eased a bit.
After the discussion was over, everyone left one by one and immediately began training.
That's right, it's training.
The battle on Alcatraz made the X-Men truly realize their weaknesses: they were so weak that they had to rely on a student who had only been enrolled for a month to turn the tide.
This is a significant blow to Wolverine, who has lived for over a hundred years, Storm, who Mutants world for decades, and Iceman, who considers himself exceptionally talented.
So after returning to school, everyone went into the individual training room to hone their skills repeatedly and figure out if they could unleash even greater potential.
At the same moment that Chen Xiao casually comforted everyone, saying, "The professor may have already woken up,"
In a remote rural town in British Columbia, Canada, lies a quiet and little-known research institute.
In a hospital room, an elderly man lay on a bed with tubes inserted into his body and connected to a ventilator.
He slowly opened his eyes.
At first, those cloudy eyes were empty and lifeless, as if they had just struggled out of a long slumber;
After a moment, his gaze gradually focused and cleared, eventually settling into the unique calm and wisdom that belonged to Professor X.
Click,
The door was pushed open, and a female researcher in a white lab coat walked in.
She was looking down at the monitoring data on the tablet when she suddenly heard a faint but clear greeting from beside the bed. "Hello, Mora."
She stopped abruptly, turned around in surprise, and her gaze met the figure on the hospital bed who was both strange and familiar, especially those eyes that had regained their sparkle of wisdom.
"... Charles."
Mora's pupils contracted sharply, her lips parted slightly, and her face was filled with disbelief.
After Chen Xiao's words of comfort, the X-Men, though still worried, also felt a glimmer of hope.
Over the next two days, the Mutants students were surprised to find that their teachers would occasionally smile unconsciously, no longer as solemn as before.