All the heavens, starting as the ruler of the universe

Name your price.

Coulson paused, then asked, "...What?"

"This armor," Lin Yan lightly tapped the silver-gray wreckage on the ground with his toe, "you can't keep it."

Coulson's gaze involuntarily drifted to the wreckage.

The dents on the visor, the cracks in the chest, and the exposed metal cross-section of the Uru all looked as if it had been damaged.

"It has a self-repairing function," Lin Yan said. "Once it's repaired, it will stand up on its own and return to Asgard. By then, you won't be able to touch a single fragment."

Coulson was silent for a few moments, then raised his eyes.

"Even so, I cannot let you take it away. This involves a diplomatic incident—Asgardian property has come to Earth and is being handled by S.H.I.E.L.D., and its subsequent disposal needs to be done through official channels."

He spoke very steadily, each word as if he had carefully considered it while drafting a report in the office, but the fine sweat on his forehead was even thicker than before.

"Who said I'm from Earth?" Lin Yan glanced at Coulson.

Coulson's mouth was open, but no sound came out.

"Tell the person in your earpiece that it's better to have something you can have than something you can't keep," Lin Yan said to Coulson, and Nick Fury, who was at headquarters, also heard it.

"Say yes." Nick Fury's old face remained expressionless.

"So what can you give us?" Coulson asked, discussing business like a businessman after receiving the prompt.

Lin Yan's hand shimmered with starlight, and then two items appeared before Coulson's eyes.

A talisman, with a bull's head totem engraved on its surface, made of a material that resembles both stone and jade, gleaming with a dim light in the sunlight.

There was also a crystal the size of a matchbox, completely transparent, with a slowly rotating wisp of pale golden mist inside, like a solidified nebula.

"A talisman." Lin Yan held up the ox talisman. "One of the twelve Holy Lord talismans, representing 'power.' The wearer can gain superhuman strength. A well-trained agent wearing it could probably flip an armored vehicle with his bare hands."

Coulson's Adam's apple bobbed.

"This is the Awakening Crystal." Lin Yan held up the crystal in his other hand to the light, and the pale golden mist inside slowly rotated in the sunlight.

"Swallowing it will automatically awaken a superpower, with no side effects."

Coulson remained silent for several seconds.

His gaze darted back and forth between the talisman and the crystal twice before finally settling on Lin Yan's face. "...Two things?"

"Choose one of the two."

Coulson didn't answer immediately. He subconsciously raised his hand and pressed a button on his headset. "Choose Crystal."

"Choose a crystal." Coulson cautiously stepped forward, and only after seeing that Lin Yan didn't react much did he take the Awakening Crystal with both hands.

After Coulson took the crystal, the talisman turned into starlight and dissipated in the air.

"How do I use this?" Coulson placed the crystal in a small box.

"Swallow it," Lin Yan said. "After you swallow it, the energy inside the crystal will be released in your body, automatically adapting to your genetic sequence and awakening a superpower that suits you. The type of power varies from person to person and is completely random."

"Is it possible to awaken some... somewhat inconvenient ability?"

"Yes," Lin Yan said calmly. "For example, your skin might turn completely green and you might photosynthesize, or your voice might make people around you sneeze. The probability is low, but not zero."

"This armor is yours." After getting the answer he wanted, Coulson handed over the Destroyer armor without hesitation.

"A wise choice."

Lin Yan stretched out his hand, and a layer of starlight appeared on the surface of the Destroyer's remains.

The next moment, the three-meter-tall silver-gray armor seemed to be folded up by an invisible hand—not in a physical sense, but in a spatial compression. The cross-section of the Uru metal rearranged in the light, the runes moved to new positions like living things, and even the cracks that Thor had smashed into it were closing up.

A few breaths later, the Destroyer was compressed into a palm-sized silver-gray cube, which quietly hovered above Lin Yan's palm.

"Leaving it on Earth will cause you trouble." Lin Yan put the cube into his pocket. "I'm taking it with me. If Asgard wants it, tell them to come find me."

"How can I contact you?"

"No need, you'll know when the time comes." Lin Yan didn't offer any further explanation and turned to leave.

Coulson heard Nick Fury's voice through his earpiece, "He's gone?"

"I'm gone."

"I will send a plane over there. During this time, don't let Crystal out of your sight."

Coulson glanced down at the slightly bulging pocket on his chest. "Understood."

------

When Lin Yan left Jiuqiao Town, the setting sun was painting the desert a golden red.

Instead of opening the portal and leaving immediately, he walked along the road for a while.

Behind him, the S.H.I.E.L.D. camp was being packed up. Coulson, holding the Awakening Crystal, climbed into a helicopter, and the roar of the rotors gradually faded into the distance.

The silver-gray cube in his pocket rested quietly against the side of his thigh. The Destroyer armor, compressed into its original form, was devoid of any warmth, like a silent piece of metal.

He walked out of the edge of the desert, stepped over a patch of low bushes, and golden sparks bloomed at his feet.

The next moment, the dry, sandy smell was replaced by the cold air from Eastern Europe.

Sokovia.

The city's name was only briefly mentioned in the Marvel script, and it ultimately met its demise with a high-altitude crash.

Lin Yan stood on a dusty street, flanked by old tenement buildings from the Soviet era, their walls mottled and their balconies' iron railings rusted.

A few teenagers were squatting on the steps at the street corner, sharing a pack of cigarettes, while the clanging sound of a tram rolling over the tracks could be heard in the distance.

He put his hands in his pockets, his senses spreading outwards.

After walking through three streets, past a bakery with a faded sign, I turned into a narrow alley. At the end of the alley stood an old apartment building, its yellow paint peeling off to reveal the dark gray cement underneath.

A young man and a young woman were standing at the entrance of the building.

The boy was tall and thin, with silver-gray hair swaying slightly in the evening breeze. His hands were in the pockets of his sweatpants, and his shoulders were slightly hunched, like a cheetah ready to take off at any moment.

The girl stood half a step in front of him, her long, dark brown hair cascading over her shoulders, her fingers unconsciously twisting a pendant hanging around her neck.

Her eyes were grayish-green, and she was looking towards the alley entrance.

Wanda Nara (Scarlet Witch) and Pietro (Quicksilver).

The two made their first appearance in the Marvel universe in the storyline of Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Lin Yan, however, found the two of them several years earlier.

At this moment, neither of them possessed the superpowers of mutants, nor did they show any signs of later modifications made through Hydra experiments.