Getting in Touch with an Old Friend-Why Is Magneto Here Too?!

After stepping out of the portal, Xiahou arrived at an intersection that felt both familiar and unfamiliar.

After taking a careful look around, he confirmed it. Wasn't this where Ancient One had taken him away?

He pulled out his phone and checked the signal. Full bars! He eagerly called Hannibal.

After a few rings, the call connected.

Hannibal's familiar voice came through. "Hello! Is that you, Xiahou?"

Xiahou hurriedly replied, "Yes! It's me! I'm finally back! Where are you guys?"

Once Hannibal had confirmed it was Xiahou, he happily replied, "We're in the United Kingdom right now. Werewolves and vampires have shown up here! We all came over together to deal with them. We thought we'd be able to retire!"

Hannibal's answer left Xiahou looking puzzled, but he asked, "Do you need my help? I've just been let out! I was hoping to meet up with you guys!"

"No need! We can handle it. They're a little strange, but they're still easy enough to deal with. You said you were just let out? What happened? We couldn't get in touch with you before, and we thought you'd already gone back! Abigail was sad for a long time!"

Xiahou explained, "All right, then! Don't even ask. Right after I left you guys, that old geezer the Sorcerer Supreme caught me and locked me up in Kamar-Taj until now. She's only just let me out. It brings tears to my eyes just talking about it! I lived like an ascetic every day, with no entertainment at all! I completely lost the joy of playing games!"

"Sorcerer Supreme? A mage? Why did he lock you up? Did you offend him?"

"No! She just said I'd be better off staying there and that it was the best outcome for me, but she wouldn't say why! That's why I hate these riddlers so much!"

"She? Is the Sorcerer Supreme a woman? Where are you now?"

"I'm near our old base. Yes, she's an old woman who's lived for hundreds of years! Ow!" The moment Xiahou finished speaking, a fan appeared out of nowhere and struck him on the head.

He instantly flew into a rage and cursed, "Ancient One! You old geezer, you're eavesdropping on me again! This is so far from Kamar-Taj! What business is it of yours?"

"Of course it's my business! The whole Earth is under my protection! And didn't I tell you not to say my name? I can sense it!"

Xiahou raised his middle finger at the air, then said into the phone, "Ah! She hit me again. I think her menopause came late!"

On the other end, Hannibal wore an expression that said, Are you an idiot? Xiahou had called her an old woman hundreds of years old, so of course she'd teach him a lesson. Still, that Ancient One sounded pretty powerful!

When Xiahou got no response, he asked into the phone, "Hello! Are you still there? Did you hang up?"

Hannibal quickly cleared his thoughts and said, "No, I was just shocked by the commotion on your end. Is Ancient One, that Sorcerer Supreme you mentioned, very powerful?"

Xiahou replied, "She's all right! She should be among the strongest on Earth right now! She's basically on the same level as Odin, but I think she's a little stronger than him!"

Ancient One, who was secretly watching at that moment, smiled.

"The strongest on Earth? And Odin? Is that the god king from Norse mythology, the one I know of?"

"Yeah! Why?"

"Why? He's a god king! Do you know him?"

Xiahou replied speechlessly, "I probably know of him, but he doesn't know me! By the way, are you with the others?"

"All right! We're together! Do you want to talk to them?"

"Forget it. We can talk when we meet! By the way, are you sure you don't need help? I've gotten super strong now!" Xiahou asked, still a little worried.

"No need! We can handle it. So what are your plans? Are you going to keep traveling?"

"Yeah. Since everything's fine on your end, I'll get back to my travels! I'll leave it at that for now. Let's talk again next time! Goodbye."

"All right, then! Stay safe! Goodbye!"

After ending the call with Xiahou, Hannibal said to the other members of the Nightcrawler Squad gathered around him, "You all heard that! Xiahou's still in this world! He was just taken away by the Sorcerer Supreme, that's all. He's already started traveling again. You don't have to worry about him anymore. Let's finish up here quickly, then go find him and get together!"

After hearing that, everyone returned to their work full of motivation. Only Abigail had a hint of loneliness on her face.

Meanwhile, after hanging up, Xiahou rode toward the city. He was astonished by how much it had changed, especially since some people on the streets had already started using touchscreen phones.

They were still relatively old-fashioned, and the main controls were buttons, but it still felt like a huge leap.

After making a rough circuit of the city, he didn't run into that Black guy! He'd been planning to get revenge on him! Since they hadn't met, he might as well let him off.

Mainly, he didn't want to stay in one place for long at all right now. He just wanted to wander around.

After leaving the city, he sped east, pushing the Kawasaki ZX-10R to its limit of nearly 300 kilometers per hour and overtaking countless vehicles along the way. (Speeding is dangerous. Don't try this!)

As the scenery along the way grew desolate, Xiahou couldn't help inwardly remarking that, sure enough, once you left the big cities in America, most areas were largely undeveloped. Its gloss was only on the surface!

As the sky gradually darkened, he found a motel by the road and checked in. After eating an American fast-food meal at the restaurant, Xiahou picked his teeth as he returned to the room he'd booked and started watching TV.

But all that was playing were boring sitcoms. When he switched to a news channel, however, he froze.

The footage showed a bridge flying through the air. The report said this was happening in San Francisco right now, and included words like "Mutants."

"Is this X-Men? Magneto's famous scene?"

"So this is a world that combines Marvel and X-Men?"

"Does it have to be this ridiculous? The Purple Sweet Potato Spirit is going to cry later!"

"Everyone in X-Men has cheats!"

After complaining for a while, Xiahou accepted this setting. One look at the bridge-lifting scene told him this was the nerfed movie world. Otherwise, Magneto would have stopped the Earth from spinning long ago.

He then started thinking about whether he should go hang out with them. There were many people there he wanted to see for himself, like Wolverine, Deadpool, Blink, and Polaris. Especially Mystique-that was a dream! But according to the plot, she seemed to have been turned into an ordinary person by now, so forget it!

After hesitating for a while, Xiahou decided to leave it to chance. Who knew what kind of trouble he might get tangled up in if he went now? He'd only just gotten away from Ancient One, and he didn't want to cause trouble for the time being.

Besides, after this incident, they seemed to reach a temporary reconciliation with the American government. He could go take a look when he had the chance.

He flipped through a few more channels and found nothing worth watching, so he chose to go to bed and continue wandering around tomorrow.