RNP Page 38
Page 38
The key question now is: what exactly is the cost?
Bai Zhi quickly answered their question.
"Well, according to the practice of magic, every mage borrows power from a higher being, such as Vishanti for white magic and Dormammu for black magic. Vishanti is relatively gentle, so the price is not high, but this god's power is mostly used for defense and healing."
"Dormammu's dark dimension power is more inclined towards offense and violence, but similarly, the price this dark dimension lord takes is your entire being, both body and soul, which will eventually be corrupted by the power of the dark dimension."
"So, what we're going to learn is white magic?"
Tony Stark asked.
Although Tony Stark was somewhat tempted by the power of the Dark Dimension, his brilliant mind told him that sometimes ignoring the advice of those who came before could lead to disastrous consequences, especially when it came to a power that could directly threaten him.
"Of course not. You can borrow power from me. I also possess the power of the Dark Dimension. Moreover, unlike Dormammu, I will not assimilate your thoughts. It's just that the price of my power is tiered. The more you gain, the more you have to pay."
"To borrow your power?"
Nick Fury frowned. It wasn't that he looked down on Bai Zhi, but rather that Bai Zhi's short stature and cute appearance made her seem less like a god who had mastered the power of the dark dimension and more like a mascot.
Moreover, possessing such power, he personally recruited...
This made him quite hesitant.
However, just as he was hesitating, a loud cell phone rang.
"Sorry, I'll take a call first."
After Nick Fury finished speaking, he immediately took out his phone, without trying to hide it from the group of people.
"Coulson, what's up?"
"What?! You're saying that while assisting Pepper in investigating the Stark Industries, you encountered Obadiah in the industrial park, and that guy was chasing you while wearing full armor?!"
Upon hearing this, Tony Stark jumped up from the bed, but then collapsed weakly to the floor.
The energy of the dragon talisman granted him a strong spirit, allowing him to converse freely, but this did not mean that his physical injuries had disappeared.
"Jingyuan, please, help Pepper."
As Jing Yuan helped him back to his hospital bed, Tony Stark gripped Jing Yuan's hands tightly, his eyes filled with a pleading look.
"Of course, that's no problem. I'll also show you my strength."
Jing Yuan did not answer, but Bai Zhi spoke instead.
“Ancient One, I’m counting on you again this time,” Bai Zhi said, turning to Ancient One.
Gu Yi felt somewhat helpless. What did they take her for? A personal driver?
However, she was also quite curious about what Bai Zhi's power was. Could it still be the flying sword she had shown in the square of Kamar-Taj? Or was it some other, more magical power?
Driven by this curiosity, the Ancient One easily opened the portal, and on the other side were Pepper Potts, who was being chased, and the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Meanwhile, Obadiah's Iron Monger was waving its limbs, firing various bullets and small missiles, causing explosions one after another.
"What an outdated mech! Even the security mechs that Interstellar Peace Corporation discarded hundreds of years ago are much better than this."
Looking at the Iron Monument, Fu Xuan thought for a second and quickly came to this conclusion, then muttered to himself.
"Hey, Fu Qing, this mecha is still better than those mass-produced security mechas. Let's stay here and watch Xiao Baizhi's performance."
Jing Yuan shook his head, silencing Fu Xuan. "Bai Zhi finally made a move, and you're saying this? What about our dignity?"
Fu Qing's emotional intelligence really needs a lot of work to develop.
The others didn't notice Jing Yuan and Fu Xuan's conversation; instead, they focused all their attention on Bai Zhi, who was flying towards Tie Ba Wang.
"Huh... why is there another creature flying towards me in the air on the HUD (Heads-Up Display)?"
Inside the Iron Monger, Obadiah, who was controlling the Iron Monger to wreak havoc, looked at the prompts displayed on the virtual screen with some confusion.
But with a belief in science, Obadiah still looked up and saw Bai Zhi floating in the air, looking down at him.
Obadiah was a little confused when he saw Bai Zhi. What was going on? A little girl who looked like she was cosplaying was floating in the air.
Although he was confused, it didn't stop him from pressing the trigger to fire the weapon.
No matter what it is, as long as it's a carbon-based life form, a single burst of bullets will eventually lead it to its final resting place in the graveyard.
"Isn't this a bit too hasty? As a villain, aren't you going to say anything cool or impressive before you die?"
Bai Zhi reached out her hand, and the bullets and small missiles were controlled by the chicken talisman and then suspended in mid-air.
"What is this? Gravity control technology, or some other high-tech stuff?!"
Upon seeing this scene, the thought instantly popped into Obadiah's mind. As for other superstitious and mysterious things, he was a major shareholder of the weapons company and wouldn't believe in such things.
"I don't care about gravity control or anything like that, take this punch first!"
His mind worked quickly. The Iron Monger's jetpack emitted a huge plume of flame and then rapidly ascended into the air, attempting to engage Bai Zhi in a brutal hand-to-hand combat.
Faced with this situation, using a flying sword to fight the enemy is the ideal solution for Bai Zhi, because this powerful monomolecular blade from the Immortal Boat can easily cut through Iron Tyrant's supposedly powerful alloy armor.
It's as easy as cutting tofu.
But Bai Zhi didn't want to do that, because this was the first time she had fought a named minor boss since arriving in the Marvel world.
Naturally, we can't use that kind of attack method that instantly kills the grunts; instead, we need to use a more trendy method that we want to try.
And this method, naturally, is... the Sheep Talisman.
This temporarily unlocked talisman was of little use against a powerful being like the Ancient One, so she never used it.
Now, Obadiah is a good practice partner.
"Hmm... the Sheep Talisman can create illusions, and these illusions can cause real damage... As expected of a talisman representing the soul. Well then, let me give it a try..."
The power of the sheep talisman flashed in Bai Zhi's eyes, and the power of her soul and mind erupted instantly, covering everything around her with the landscape of her mind.
"It was just an illusion?!"
Bai Zhi was truly astonished to see the power unleashed by the Sheep Talisman forming an existence akin to an inescapable barrier.
She originally thought that the illusion created by the sheep talisman was actually an illusion formed in the other person's mind, and the damage caused by this illusion would be transmitted to the body in sync.
But she never imagined that the so-called illusion was actually the mind's thoughts overriding reality.
But thinking about it carefully, it seems quite normal. The sheep charm represents the power of the soul and mind, so it is only natural that it can project the inner landscape into reality.
The area eroded by the mental landscape is not large, only about 30 meters in radius.
But that's enough.
Upon seeing this heart-shaped landscape, Bai Zhi had already come up with plenty of fun ways to explore it.
"Then, I will... turn everything upside down!"
Bai Zhi reached out her hand, making a grasping motion, and everything in the mental landscape seemed to condense in that instant, and she grasped it in her hand.
In Obadiah's eyes, however, the world turned upside down, and he shrank infinitely in the blink of an eye, while Bai Zhi's figure became infinitely tall.
Not only that, but endless chains bound the world, and under the influence of these scarlet chains, the world rapidly shattered, and I was cut countless times in this broken world.
"Yeah!!"
Obadiah's eyes bulged as if he were being slowly sliced to death. When he reappeared in the mental landscape, his Iron Monarch armor was tattered and torn, as if it had been cut by countless sharp blades, and sparks were constantly flying out.
77 Fu Qing, have you ever divined Bai Zhi's past life?
"Hmm...it seems this move is indeed limited in strength."
Bai Zhi shook her head. Everything in the world of her mind was under her control, but unfortunately, the level of the sheep talisman was not high enough and its range was too small. If she could expand the range under her control, she felt that she might be able to exert greater power.
Otherwise, how could a simulated Herrscher of Knowledge ultimate attack only deal this little damage?
"What... exactly are you?"
Obadiah stared at Bai Zhi in horror. A creature that could fly suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and then inexplicably beat him up. Moreover, the attack method used by the creature was something he had never heard of before.
Is that feeling of the world breaking apart really something that technology can achieve?
“Sir, it’s not polite to call someone a ‘thing’. But I’m a kind person, so I’ll use books to teach you what politeness is.”
"what?"
Obadiah was bewildered by Bai Zhi's words. He had been beaten up earlier and thought his life was about to end there. Now she was saying she would teach him manners with books. Did she mean she was going to let him go?
Bai Zhi reached out, and a thick, red book with a domineering dragon head printed on its cover appeared in her hand.
"Just lie down!"
Holding the book, Bai Zhi slapped it directly at Obadiah.
To be fair, the weight of knowledge is indeed reassuring. Obadiah's damaged but still thick armor couldn't withstand the attack of the Encyclopedia of Spells at all. It was like a brick hitting an egg, easily smashing the opponent's body away and sending it flying to the side of the stunned S.H.I.E.L.D. agents below.
"What a coincidence? Fine, you can have this guy. Do whatever you want with it."
Obadiah, on the other hand, felt much worse. Even though he was wearing armor and had so many powerful shock-absorbing devices inside, he still had the illusion of being hit by ten trains.
After that, he felt nothing at all, and the agents around him knew exactly why.
Except for the head, the entire abdomen of this Iron Monger's body was smashed flat, a mixture of flesh, steel, and various electronic instruments. The fact that its mind remained clear was a testament to the strength of the armor's built-in life support system.
Even so, the agents present could still see Obadiah's eyes slowly dimming.
"Little Angelica has really given us a lot of surprises."
Having witnessed everything, Jing Yuan said with great interest, "I'm really curious about what Xiao Baizhi was in her previous life, to have such diverse abilities at such a young age."
"How would I know?" Fu Xuan rolled his eyes at Jing Yuan and said speechlessly.
Jing Yuan laughed heartily, "Fu Qing, do you think she might be the reincarnation of the Immortal Dragon God? We all know that as descendants of the immortals, the Vidyadharas can be reincarnated, so how could the Immortal Dragon God have fallen like this?"
"Perhaps she is the reincarnation of the immortal dragon god."
"General, you really have a wild idea, but I have to admit that it is indeed possible."
"Then, Fu Qing, can you divine who Bai Zhi was in her previous life?"
Jing Yuan asked meaningfully.
"General, do you think I've never done divination? Back when Bai Zhi had that ability, I did divination out of curiosity."
"And what was the result?" Jing Yuan asked curiously.
"The result was nothing, just emptiness. I couldn't even divine who Bai Zhi was in her past life. It was as if she had never existed in this world before. It was very strange."
"Ok."
Jing Yuan shook his head helplessly. He was just curious. In any case, given Bai Zhi's abilities, whoever she was in her previous life, she was a top-notch figure in the Immortal Ship.
After Jing Yuan and Fu Xuan finished their chat, Bai Zhi flew back through the portal.
As soon as she entered, Bai Zhi asked Tony Stark and Nick Fury, "Gentlemen, how was it? Did you see the power of magic?"
"I saw it, I saw it. Thank you, Miss Baizhi."
Tony Stark was the first to speak. Having saved his beloved, he naturally didn't hesitate to say nice things. Moreover, he was genuinely curious about this power. The mental landscape that Bai Zhi had just released, with its ability to twist and turn everything, had astonished him.
It gave him the feeling of living on a fantasy movie set.
"So how should we study?"
Nick Fury asked some practical questions. Compared to Tony Stark's interest in exploring the principles, he was actually more concerned with the actual ways and scenarios in which magic was used.
As for paying a price, those are minor matters. If an agent can't even accept these things, what kind of agent are they?
"Well, as for learning, although I know the basics, the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj are more familiar with them, so I can only ask the Ancient One for help."
"Furthermore, we will design something very powerful that will allow you to use magical items even when you don't know much about magic in the early stages."
Bai Zhi said mysteriously, while Gu Yi shook her head helplessly. She felt that she was being too much of an accomplice to evil.
However, the Ancient One was also very curious about what it would be like if Tony, this genius scientist, learned magic.
With his intelligence, could he be more talented than Strange?
“Karmar-Taj? What’s that place?” Nick Fury frowned. He felt he knew nothing about these mysterious forces, which made him feel rather incompetent as an agent.
"You can think of it as a school for wizards. Have you seen Harry Potter? It's similar to Hogwarts, but of course, without the complicated series of grudges and feuds."
Bai Zhi gave a very straightforward description that Nick Fury understood immediately.
"Does that mean owls will deliver the acceptance letters?"