Shen Mu found Little Phoenix playing with the elves and casually tossed the necklace into her hand.
"Teacher, is this for me?" Little Phoenix asked, a little surprised.
Shen Mu said as usual, "Of course. Since you call me Teacher, then according to tradition, I should prepare a gift for you."
"But, didn't Teacher already help me solve a big problem?"
Shen Mu knew she was talking about the Phoenix Force.
"That doesn't count."
"Try on the necklace and see. If it doesn't fit, I can adjust it for you."
Although he said that, Shen Mu didn't think what he prepared would be unsuitable.
"Teacher, the necklace fits perfectly, but it doesn't look very good!"
"However, since it's the first gift from Teacher, I will cherish it dearly."
Although Little Phoenix still thought the necklace didn't look very good, she happily put it on, thinking it was the first gift from her Teacher!
"Hmph! This necklace isn't for you to show off. All the knowledge you need to learn in the future is in the crystal on the necklace!"
"As long as you inject your mental power into it, you'll be able to browse all the knowledge I've inscribed within it!" Shen Mu told Little Phoenix about the necklace's function.
"Teacher, aren't you going to teach me anymore?"
Little Phoenix's face immediately fell, looking as if she was about to cry.
"What are you thinking? It's just that your talent is too outstanding! These are just some adjustments made to your learning progress."
Shen Mu gently tapped her head with his finger.
Hearing Shen Mu praise her, Little Phoenix's face immediately cleared up.
"Alright, that's enough for today. Get ready to go back!"
With that, he was about to open a portal, but Little Phoenix interrupted him!
"Teacher, let me do it!"
Little Phoenix confidently extended her hand and drew a portal in the void.
On the other side of the door was her home.
It seemed that during this time, she had made significant progress in this spell.
"Alright, since you can open the door yourself, go back on your own!"
"I have some other things to do, so I won't go back with you!"
Hearing Shen Mu say that, Little Phoenix didn't ask any more questions and obediently went home!
After all, she also knew that Shen Mu had other identities besides being her Teacher.
The moment Shen Mu returned to Earth, a vast psychic force, like a large net, enveloped him.
Without needing to think much, based on that familiar feeling, Shen Mu knew who it was!
"Charles, you are being a bit too presumptuous! I really dislike this feeling of being spied upon."
Shen Mu spoke directly into the air, knowing the other party would surely hear him.
However, after Shen Mu finished speaking, the psychic force did not disappear. His intuition told him something was wrong.
Indeed, the next moment Shen Mu felt his spirit appear in a purple alternate dimension.
Appearing before Shen Mu was not Charles, but a fellow he had been looking for a long time—Apocalypse.
With Apocalypse's appearance, the space immediately changed, gradually transforming into a massive pyramid.
"It seems some interesting things have happened on Earth during the half-month I was away!"
"I didn't expect the fellow who only dared to flee in a hurry when he saw me would now dare to actively seek me out!"
"Let me guess what gave you the courage. Is it Charles's most powerful human brain?"
"You wouldn't think that with this level of mental power, you could kill me, would you? If that were truly the case, then it would only make me think you are an imbecile."
Shen Mu was slightly surprised by Apocalypse's appearance before him.
He truly didn't understand what had happened.
It all started after Charles and his group left with Magneto!
Because ever since Professor X learned of the existence of Apocalypse, the ancient Mutant, he began using Cerebro to search for his whereabouts.
He wanted to find and defeat him before he could carry out a great purge.
However, they never expected that Apocalypse already knew of Charles's existence and was just waiting for this opportunity.
When Apocalypse sensed the omnipresent psychic force, he knew the time was right. He immediately turned the tables, forcibly taking control of Professor X.
And in an instant, he appeared with Sabretooth in the Xavier Institute's underground where Cerebro was stored.
Using Professor X's power, he completely controlled Magneto, who was without his helmet, and everyone else in the Institute, putting them directly into a mental slumber.
He sent Sabretooth to prepare what was needed to sustain Charles and the other Mutants' lives.
As for Magneto, who had betrayed him, Apocalypse did not choose to kill him directly but planned to make him his own after the task was completed.
From that moment on, Apocalypse began preparing to eliminate Shen Mu!
"I have prepared a super big gift for you!"
"Although humans are fragile and inherently weak, their creative ability is truly astonishing, especially the weapons they create."
"To utterly destroy you, I prepared everything a week ago, just waiting for your appearance!"
"Now, your spirit will remain here. Once your body is annihilated, your soul will naturally go where it belongs."
"With this power, I can more easily complete the purification of this World."
Outside, as Apocalypse spoke those words, all countries in the World possessing nuclear bombs instantly launched them towards Shen Mu's location!
Excluding those held as strategic reserves, even just the nuclear bombs in a ready-to-launch state amounted to nearly five thousand.
Now, all of them were flying towards the location of Shen Mu's body.
Humanity across the entire Earth was in an uproar in an instant.
Because the scene of these five thousand nuclear bombs launching simultaneously was like the end of the World.
They didn't know what was happening, and endless panic arose.
No one dared to imagine how much powerful energy would be generated when all these nuclear bombs exploded together. Perhaps more than four-fifths of the life on Earth would directly perish as a result.
And the polluted environment and altered ecosystem would destroy the remaining people and other animals in the time that followed.
In this instant, humanity plunged into despair.
They didn't even know why they were being destroyed.
In the consciousness space, after Shen Mu heard Apocalypse's words, he understood his plan.
Control his spirit, then use destructive weapons created by humans to destroy his body, and finally leave his soul rootless.
It must be said that this plan indeed seemed very complete.
However, he completely underestimated Shen Mu and also underestimated the Guardian forces on Earth.
Even if Shen Mu did nothing, he could guarantee that he would be perfectly fine, and so would Earth.
However, since the other party had provoked him right to his face, Shen Mu naturally wouldn't indulge him.
"Then have you ever considered if you can truly trap me?"
After Shen Mu finished speaking, he immediately began a mental battle with Apocalypse.
Apocalypse, seeing that Shen Mu still had the power to resist, instantly activated his ability. In this special mental space, Apocalypse's body became incredibly tall, and he threw a punch fiercely at Shen Mu.
However, even though Apocalypse had all the advantages of time and place, how could Shen Mu, who had even thrashed the Phoenix Force, lose to him?
He instantly reverted to his true dragon form, and the situation reversed in an instant. Shen Mu's consciousness body became taller than mountains, and he stomped Apocalypse beneath his foot. The scene of the entire space began to change again.
It turned into the desolate mountains of Vanaheim, where Shen Mu was first born. This meant that Shen Mu had completely taken back control of the place.
The next moment, Shen Mu's consciousness returned, sensing the warnings coming from all directions.
However, he showed no panic at all. He calmly took out the Space Stone from his system space.
Although Shen Mu didn't take these clumsy weapons seriously, he also didn't intend to stubbornly resist them head-on.
Upon seeing the flying nuclear bombs, Shen Mu directly activated the Space Stone to freeze that area of space.
Then he used the power of spatial teleportation to send all the nuclear bombs into the boundless Universe.
The explosive energy, greatly weakened in the Universe, did not cause even the slightest ripple.
"Apocalypse, are you not planning to escape this time?"
Using Charles's power, Shen Mu discovered that Apocalypse had not opened a portal to escape, but was still in the Xavier Institute, seemingly waiting for him.
He did not disappoint him. Shen Mu, holding the Space Stone, directly initiated a teleportation, instantly appearing before Apocalypse.