A sudden voice rang out—so strange and subtle that even Lin Fan hadn't sensed it coming.
When he turned to look in the direction of the sound, there was nothing. Empty space.
Lin Fan's eyes narrowed.
> "A distorted sound wave hidden in an air current? Not bad."
He was right.
Moments later, from the shadows of a nearby alley, a man with long blonde hair slowly floated upward into view.
The air around him swirled like a loyal beast obeying its master.
> "Damn it! You're the reason I got held up! And now those Hellfire bastards are already here!"
Psylocke's glowing violet eyes narrowed. Anger simmered beneath her calm exterior.
> "What's the big deal? It's just one mutant," Lin Fan said, unimpressed.
> "Hmph! That 'one mutant' is Whirlwind—White Rook of the Hellfire Club"
Even though she was still irritated by Lin Fan's earlier antics, Psylocke knew now wasn't the time to fight. If she could use his strength to deal with their pursuers, she would.
From above, Whirlwind looked down arrogantly, his feet resting on invisible platforms of compressed wind.
> "Mind your business, kid. Hand over the woman, and I might let you walk away."
Lin Fan grinned.
It had been a long time since anyone dared to speak so arrogantly to him.
Not since he had taken Thanos's throne.
His smile only served to provoke Whirlwind further.
> "You're either an idiot or suicidal. Die!"
With a sharp wave of his hand, a storm erupted. Cyan air currents began swirling violently around him.
Hundreds of translucent blades of wind formed in an instant—laced with threads thinner than a human hair. Their cutting power was lethal, enough to shred a tank like paper.
> "Die!"
Whirlwind launched the wind blades at Lin Fan. Their velocity rivaled anti-materiel rounds—but to Lin Fan, they moved like snails.
> "Want to test speed? You'll regret that."
With a single step, Lin Fan vanished into a blur of light. A ghostly white trail followed behind him—residue from his energy signature.
It was his fastest technique yet:The Afterimage Technique" .
The sky exploded with thousands of afterimages, each one like a white blossom in the moonlight.
Silently, the wind blades and even the threads disintegrated into powder.
Before Psylocke could even react, Lin Fan had already reappeared.
A cold breeze blew past.
A split-second later, deep crimson cracks began to spread across Whirlwind's body.
CRACK!
Blood erupted as his body was sliced cleanly apart in mid-air, his remains falling to the ground like broken glass.
> "Peace and quiet, finally. That guy was loud. Now, let's get back to what we were discussing."
Lin Fan turned back to Psylocke casually, as if he had just swatted a fly.
> "You… you actually killed Whirlwind…"
Psylocke's hand shot to her mouth in disbelief.
This was the same Whirlwind who had chased her across nine city blocks—dead in 0.01 seconds.
> Are all aliens strong like him or is he actually a mutant ?
> An Omega-level one?
Lin Fan ignored her stunned silence and continued his questioning.
From her responses, he began piecing together the current state of the world.
The Hellfire Club had a new leader—son of the previous Black King—capable of absorbing energy and kinetic force.
The X-Men and Brotherhood of Mutants still existed.
The Avengers had formed, not due to Loki's invasion, but as a response to Ultron, an AI created by Tony Stark that nearly caused a global catastrophe.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had stepped in afterward and successfully launched the Avengers.
So, while the timeline mostly aligned with the Marvel movies, some events had clearly happened earlier or differently.
But Lin Fan wasn't in a rush to track down the Time or Space Stones.
He had found something far more interesting.
Mutants.
If mutants existed, the X-Men must exist.
And among them was a certain red-haired powerhouse—
Jean Grey.
Host of the Phoenix Force.
A cosmic power said to rival or even surpass the Infinity Gauntlet. A force said to be the ultimate energy container across the entire multiverse.
> "Can the power of Majin Buu devour the Phoenix Force?"
Now that was a challenge worth pursuing.
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