After seeing Wanda off, Lyon sat back down on the sofa and resumed his cultivation.
This had been his daily routine over the past month.
Aside from occasionally assigning tasks to personnel in various fields and providing 'funding' to the Natasha sisters every night, he spent almost all his time immersed in cultivation.
As for why he made time to give Wanda psychological counseling—
Well, part of it, albeit a minor and trivial part, was because he was tempted by her body.
But the more important reason was because Wanda had immense potential, and practically no upper limit.
Helping her now was essentially helping his future self.
In Lyon's view—
Wanda belonged to a very unique category among the many superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Not only was her potential extraordinary, but her personality and mental state were also unique.
If Tony could rival the gods with a mortal body... Wanda, on the other hand, used the heart of a mortal to command the power of a god.
From the beginning of the revival arc to the end, where she let go of everything and sacrificed herself to bring closure, she was always just an ordinary girl from Sokovia longing for a peaceful life.
Every stage of her growth came through tragedy.
Every act of protection she performed was always propelled by the force of her own superpowers.
She lacked strong personal desires—even becoming a superhero was only because she awakened her powers and felt obligated to do something.
Much like Spider-Man after losing Uncle Ben.
But unlike many others, her resolve to be a hero was never firm—what she truly longed for deep down was a quiet, normal life.
If she were given the chance to use Chaos Magic in exchange for the safe and happy lives of her loved ones, she would absolutely jump at the opportunity and urge, "When can we start the trade?"
For someone like Wanda, anyone who treats her well would be repaid with even more in return.
Lyon couldn't find a single reason to refuse helping her.
"Wanda… I hope she really will go back and diligently train her Chaos Magic techniques."
Lyon sighed on the sofa.
He had a strong feeling that Wanda would return tomorrow—probably with the excuse that the spellcasting techniques were too hard and she needed him to soothe her nightmare-ridden spirit again.
Ding~ Just as he was about to resume training, the doorbell rang again.
In the next moment, the apartment door opened automatically—it was Tony.
Tony had full access privileges to come and go from the apartment.
"What are you doing here?" Lyon frowned.
"Why wouldn't I be here? Wait, what's with that face? You're not even happy to see me?"
Tony tilted down his flashy sunglasses, putting on a grief-stricken look as he peered over the frames at Lyon.
"Or is it… our dear Clark came to the big city and now thinks his old farm bro is just a country bumpkin who's too much trouble?"
Lyon rolled his eyes. "I was in the middle of training. If it's something important, you could've just had Jarvis tell me."
"Can't I just drop in to see you?" Tony clutched his chest in mock pain.
"What is it? Anxiety flaring up again, so you came to vent?" Lyon asked, glancing up.
After the dimensional war ended, it wasn't just Wanda who started having nightmares and needed psychological counseling.
Tony had also been having some issues—he had inexplicably developed mild anxiety.
Most days, he couldn't sit still at Avengers Tower and would run over to Lyon's apartment.
Once he saw Lyon, he'd feel somewhat reassured, and then he'd return to Avengers HQ to continue working.
This condition only started to improve after Tony helped little Sherry resolve a school conflict and was touched by something she said.
Lyon considered it a win-win for everyone.
That said, Tony was still a little anxious.
And whenever he got anxious, he liked to tinker with all sorts of strange things.
According to Jarvis, Tony had recently been obsessively studying the knowledge stored in the light brain from the Swallowed Star World.
He planned to build a starship—as a kind of Noah's Ark for the day Earth was inevitably overrun by dimensional gods.
—But not a Noah's Ark meant for escape.
Rather, one equipped with a planet-buster cannon, capable of taking Earth and the dimensional gods "down together" before leaving.
However, the project was still stalled due to two problems: Tony hadn't finished learning the relevant science and technology, and he lacked the ultra-durable metal materials required.
To this, Lyon pointed at the map where Wakanda was marked and said there was a clear path there.
Tony immediately sent Hawkeye to lead a team into Africa to investigate.
Currently, Hawkeye had been missing for three days.
However, Tony didn't intend to let Lyon get involved—he chose instead to send more special agents.
Lyon suspected Tony had come today precisely to talk about this matter.
"Hawkeye—found him?" Lyon asked.
"Yeah, but the people of Wakanda won't let him leave."
Tony, now familiar with the place, casually opened the liquor cabinet and dug out a bottle of Napoleon Cognac.
Lyon didn't drink, and no one else in the house drank either.
All the bottles in that cabinet were placed there by Tony himself, all his personal favorites.
"Hawkeye uncovered their most critical secret—important enough that they'd consider sinking him into the Indian Ocean."
"But Hawkeye is part of an international organization. They wouldn't kill him, but they also wouldn't release him."
Pop—Tony uncorked the bottle and poured himself a glass of the clear brandy.
"Unfortunately, they underestimated Hawkeye. That crucial intel was transmitted the moment he reappeared to confirm he was still alive. You guess what it is?" Tony swirled the liquor like mouthwash, took a sip, then quickly capped the bottle again.
He'd once sworn off alcohol and gambling, so unless there were beautiful women involved or he'd just won a battle, he wouldn't drink.
This time clearly counted as a victory.
"There's a mountain of Vibranium buried beneath Wakanda," Lyon said casually.
Tony's eyes widened. "Shit, you actually knew! And you couldn't just tell me outright?"
"If I told you directly, you'd still have to negotiate with Wakanda," Lyon replied. "Now that they've detained Hawkeye, it actually gives you leverage to pry things open."
"Damn! Fair point... but still, you should've just told me in the first place." Tony nodded.
"Next time, for sure. Anyway, I get the picture—you can leave now." Lyon waved his hand, signaling Tony could be dismissed.
"Alright, then I'll go… wait a minute!" Tony stood up, suddenly pausing mid-step.
"Right! That wasn't even what I came here for!"
Lyon looked puzzled. "Then what did you come to say?"
Instinctively, he lifted the suppression on his super-hearing, and a few seconds later, his brow arched slightly.
"So… you found Captain America frozen beneath the Arctic ice? Hm… Coulson's overseeing the excavation."
"I swear, the way you randomly pick up on secrets is seriously annoying," Tony muttered, adjusting his sunglasses.
Lyon raised both hands. "My bad. Let's pretend I didn't say anything earlier. Come on, enlighten me about Captain America. Satisfy my curiosity."
"Hah, you little punk trying to get a rise out of me again?" Tony swirled the bottle in his hand. "But what I wanted to tell you isn't even that."
"Oh? Then what is it?" Lyon said. "This time I won't guess—go ahead and enjoy the spotlight."
"Remember those green-skinned aliens under Nick Fury's command during the Hydra takedown?" Tony's voice turned serious as he spoke. "They've shown up again… and they've infiltrated the Avengers!"
"Skrulls?" Lyon sat up straight. "Half a month ago, I already had the Men in Black start collecting evidence on them. I was planning to dismantle SWORD while we were at it. So, what—now there's concrete proof?"
"Yeah, JARVIS detected someone inside trying to breach the system and steal your data…" Tony's face darkened as he spoke. "Wait—hold on, when did you start gathering evidence? Isn't SWORD a space agency? Why are you trying to dismantle it? You've seriously been running secret ops with the Men in Black and didn't tell me anything?"
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Read ahead of WN at Patreon.com/LiveLifeLove