Chapter Forty: The Intruding Agent

Compared to these legendary figures, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents scattered across Earth like locusts seemed utterly harmless and innocuous.

Right, just thinking about those S.H.I.E.L.D. agents gave Zhong Shenxiu a headache.

Those people were still circling outside—once the chaotic magic enveloping Ingram Street dissipated, they would swarm in, inch by inch, just like locusts.

When that happened, it would be a miracle if Ingram Street wasn’t completely turned upside down.

And if things really came to that, the secret base Zhong Shenxiu had appropriated would be at risk of exposure.

Not that it would definitely be discovered—the base was buried deep and quite small, making it hard to find. But if these S.H.I.E.L.D. agents started searching day and night, determined to uncover the mastermind behind this temporal event,

then sooner or later, they would find it. That was almost inevitable; after all, S.H.I.E.L.D. did possess hidden secrets and strength.

Take, for example, their research on the Inhumans.

Who knows what special abilities they might have found, aside from resurrecting people—Nick Fury could have discovered something Zhong Shenxiu was unaware of.

Therefore, Zhong Shenxiu needed to divert their attention away from Ingram Street.

At least, he had to ensure their investigation was merely a post-event risk assessment, not a desperate, carpet-style search for the mastermind.

“Lü Su, Lü Su, someone has entered the chaos field, and I can’t control them!”

Wanda, bored and observing Ingram Street through the chaos magic overhead, suddenly opened her pale gray, beautiful eyes and spoke.

“Let me see.”

Zhong Shenxiu stopped thinking at her words, answered simply, and closed his eyes to sense the chaos magic outside.

Soon...

Agent May, the woman of Eastern descent, appeared within Zhong Shenxiu’s perception.

This person... Zhong Shenxiu thought carefully. She seemed to be one of the protagonists in the S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series from his previous life—supposedly a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent whose skills rivaled the Black Widow.

But logically, apart from her combat prowess and strong agent abilities, she had no superpowers, right?

Zhong Shenxiu had just tried to control her with chaos magic... and failed.

Why was that?

Could these agents have already discovered a way to immunize themselves against chaos magic’s mind control? Truly efficient.

But since a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent had breached the perimeter,

Zhong Shenxiu’s plan needed to be advanced...

He walked over to Hyde’s corpse, used Skrull shapeshifting magic to transform his blood and take on Hyde’s appearance, then quickly burned the body in a small room. Turning to Wanda, he said,

“Wanda, how long will it take you to reabsorb the chaos... magic into your body?”

After Zhong Shenxiu and Wanda’s absorption, nearly half the chaos magic outside had dissipated.

“If I hurry, it’ll only take a little while.” Wanda stared curiously at Zhong Shenxiu’s newly altered appearance.

Zhong Shenxiu had no time to explain; urgency pressed him, so he instructed Wanda,

“Stay here for a few days... Don’t look so sullen, I’ll come by soon. After all that’s happened outside, if someone as unusual as you suddenly appears, you’ll definitely draw attention...”

Thinking for a moment, Zhong Shenxiu changed his explanation: “No worries, if anything happens, you can use chaos magic to contact me, just like this.” As he spoke, he manipulated chaos magic into a floating orb beside him.

Zhong Shenxiu’s chaos magic was different from Wanda’s—hers was crimson, his was more sky-gray.

Upon hearing this, Wanda nodded her little head.

“Why does chaos magic listen to you, Lü Su?”

Wanda finally couldn’t restrain herself from asking. She even felt that, if Zhong Shenxiu wished, all chaos magic would abandon her without hesitation and flock to him.

“Because they like me, just as they like you.” Zhong Shenxiu replied perfunctorily.

Oddly enough, such offhand remarks worked well for a girl like Wanda.

She nodded again, woodpecker-like, understanding.

After a pause, Zhong Shenxiu added, “When I leave, don’t open the door for anyone but me...”

Damn... His words really made him sound like her father!

Maintaining a calm expression, Zhong Shenxiu continued, “When I use chaos magic to signal you, absorb it all as quickly as you can.”

Now that Zhong Shenxiu’s magic recovery rate had increased, with a maximum cap of a thousand points, his demand for chaos magic was much less. He could absorb it himself, but he decided to leave it for Wanda—it meant little to him, but much to her.

“Alright, Lü Su.” Wanda replied, flashing a bright smile.

————

Zhong Shenxiu’s plan was simple: shift S.H.I.E.L.D.’s focus from Ingram Street to somewhere else—anywhere, as long as they didn’t conduct round-after-round sweeps here for the true culprit.

For this,

he needed the mastermind to step into the light.

He would appear before S.H.I.E.L.D., then escape or head elsewhere, forcing their gaze beyond Ingram Street.

To accomplish this, it wasn’t difficult for Zhong Shenxiu, who possessed Skrull shapeshifting and the body of chaos.

His current transformation into Hyde was for this very reason.

Hyde’s bulky form did nothing to hinder Zhong Shenxiu’s stealthy, thief-like gait as he moved quietly between residential blocks, heading straight for his target—Agent May.

Agent May was holding a brand-new paper map,

which seemed oddly out of place with her clean, sharp modern agent style. Zhong Shenxiu understood, though—many advanced electronic devices didn’t work here, but some did.

For example, Hyde’s remote control for the base worked just fine.

It seemed their usual high-tech maps were unusable, so she resorted to an old-fashioned paper map.

But... why did she need a map?

Normally, one uses a map to find something, or to get somewhere.

For S.H.I.E.L.D. to send elite agents into Ingram Street, could there be something especially important here?

The thought stirred Zhong Shenxiu’s curiosity.

Whatever S.H.I.E.L.D. deemed important—what could it be?

Wait!

Could it be me?

The realization struck Zhong Shenxiu.

When he saw Agent May’s trajectory aligning with his own location at No. 19 Ingram Street, his suspicions became all the more certain.