120. The Great Battle Ends, the Akatsuki Emerges

The sudden appearance of the toad instantly drew the attention of countless people.

It wasn't just the military; the Chitauri began to consciously send reinforcements to this sector. Dozens of Leviathans and countless Chitauri soldiers launched a charge, converging into a black torrent.

Seeing this, the Great Toad Sage stopped leaping. Instead, he stood firm in the midst of the torrent like a rock, continuously brandishing the massive embroidered spring blade in his hand.

When Leviathans approached, they were sliced in two with a single strike. When Chitauri soldiers rushed in, they were met with a combination of the long blade and his long tongue, supplemented by the occasional jutsu that blasted them into dust.

To put it bluntly, the Great Toad Sage alone formed the most solid line of defense, contributing more than the entire Avengers team combined.

However, as the battle progressed, Su Ye noticed something peculiar. The Great Toad Sage spent most of his time using taijutsu, wielding the dozen-meter-long blade as if it were a flower, never needing a second strike to fell a Leviathan. As for ninjutsu, he cast very little. Even when he did, it was almost exclusively Water Style: Water Gun Jutsu, and from start to finish, he had not used a single Fire Style technique. He also hadn't asked Su Ye to assist with Fire Style to unleash the powerful Fire Style: Toad Oil Flame Bullet.

This struck Su Ye as quite strange, and eventually, he asked directly, "Great Toad Sage, why don't you use Fire Style? Wouldn't that kill the enemies faster?"

As he asked, Su Ye thought to himself that perhaps the Great Toad Sage was being compassionate, not wanting to add more suffering to a city that had already endured so much—a city that could hardly withstand another fire fueled by oil.

However, the Great Toad Sage gave an answer Su Ye hadn't expected.

"Although these guys are trash, their bodies and the technology they carry are decent materials, so..."

So what? Su Ye remained bewildered.

"Xiao Tian asked me to bring some back."

Xiao Tian—that was Su Mutian, Old Su. Had he already communicated with the Great Toad Sage beforehand and asked him to bring the goods back?

Bring them where? Mount Myoboku? That seemed unlikely; Mount Myoboku was only for toads, and bringing back these inedible things would only pollute the environment and waste space.

So, the "bringing back" clearly meant bringing them to Old Su. What would Old Su do with so much stuff? He wouldn't just sell it to a scrap yard, would he? Naturally, he would turn it over to the state...

Su Ye sighed, feeling for the first time that he had lost to Old Su in terms of foresight. Even though Old Su hadn't appeared on the battlefield and the great dragons were thousands of miles away, he had used this method to help the Great Dragon family secure a considerable amount of war spoils. Moreover, since these spoils were personally harvested by the Great Toad Sage, the Americans had no ground to complain.

Amazing, my old man!

Su Ye decided to shut his mouth, watch the show in silence, and remind himself once again to recognize the fact that the system belonged to Old Su, not him.

The storm stirred up by the embroidered spring blade lasted for a full half-hour. During this time, a mountain of Leviathan and Chitauri corpses piled up beside the Great Toad Sage, reaching a height of over a hundred meters, with an uncountable number of bodies inside. There were even wrecks of downed fighter jets, such as F-22s and F-35s, some of which remained remarkably intact.

After half an hour of swinging, the Great Toad Sage's stamina had dropped significantly, and his chakra was nearly exhausted; his breathing had become heavy. Fortunately, after realizing the sacrifice was disproportionate to the gains, the Chitauri stopped their blind assault on this sector and shifted their focus elsewhere.

"Little Yezhi, did you have fun today?" The Great Toad Sage sat atop the high pile of remains, his voice calm.

The atmosphere was like a grandfather taking his grandson to an amusement park for the day, preparing to tell the child it was time to go home for dinner. Honestly, when Su Ye first came out, he found it quite novel. Sitting there watching the Great Toad Sage hack away at monsters was like piloting a giant robot; watching giant monsters being sliced in half from a first-person perspective was quite staggering. It was just a pity that he wasn't the one in control, so the experience was only mediocre.

But if he said that directly, the Great Toad Sage, who had been hacking away for half an hour, would surely be unhappy.

"Great Toad Sage, can we continue? There are still plenty of monsters over there!" Su Ye asked with a smile.

"Hehe, not enough playing?" As expected, the Great Toad Sage chuckled. "If it's not enough, we'll do it again next time. We've been out long enough; if we don't go back, people at home will worry. When there's a chance, I'll take you to Mount Myoboku to play."

As the Great Toad Sage spoke, he put away the embroidered spring blade, and Su Ye’s eyes lit up. Go to Mount Myoboku? To play what? Toads? Of course not! If he really went to Mount Myoboku, he would definitely be there to learn Sage Mode. If he returned, could he activate Sage Mode? When that time came, his strength would see a qualitative leap, and he wouldn't have to keep relying on Spider-Man's old assets like he was now.

After speaking, the Great Toad Sage reached into his robe and fiddled around, eventually pulling out a massive scroll. It was over ten meters long; no one knew where he had hidden it.

He spread out the giant scroll, which was covered in various characters and patterns, and slapped it down onto the ground. With a "poof," a massive cloud of smoke erupted, engulfing the entire mountain made of Leviathan corpses, Chitauri soldiers, and aircraft wreckage.

When the mist vanished, both the Great Toad Sage and the mountain were gone, leaving only Su Ye and Hinata standing on the empty ground, dazed.

"Wow, he actually took it all," Su Ye scratched his head. The Great Toad Sage had taken away nearly half of the Leviathans and Chitauri soldiers that had appeared on the battlefield. Old Su’s appetite was truly massive. If the military saw this, would they cry themselves to death?

"Let's go too, so we don't get seen and cause unnecessary trouble." Su Ye signaled to Hinata, and the two quickly used the Transformation Jutsu to change their appearances before quietly slipping away from the scene.

At this moment, the speed at which Chitauri soldiers and Leviathans were pouring onto the battlefield finally began to slow. The war between humanity and the Chitauri seemed to have reached a turning point.

Simultaneously, the Avengers received good news. After some searching, they had finally tracked down Loki. Unlike what everyone had imagined, he wasn't hiding somewhere plotting a more sinister scheme. Launching an alien civilization-extinction war against Earth was already his grandest plan. The reason Loki had disappeared was that he had accidentally wandered into the territory of the sorcerers, the New York Sanctum, encountered the Ancient One, and had been trapped in the Mirror Dimension, unable to get out.

Heaven knows what Loki's unfortunate mouth had said, but when the Avengers arrived, the Ancient One, who usually remained detached from the world, showed rare signs of dissatisfaction and even anger on her face. Later, it was only after Thor invoked his father, Odin, and offered a sincere apology that the Ancient One tossed out the Scepter of Mind, while Thor and Loki remained trapped in the Mirror Dimension.

That's right, Thor had been locked in the Mirror Dimension too. Without being hammered, shocked, and tested by the Ancient One, Thor would never learn how to spell the word "respect." So, getting locked in was a matter of course.

With the Scepter of Mind in hand, it didn't matter if the Asgardian brothers got out or not. The Avengers took the scepter back, preparing to close the portal. It was then that Su Ye offered a small suggestion.

"This nuke isn't doing much here anyway; why not give it to them as a thank-you gift?"

This proposal was instantly met with unanimous approval from the Avengers, who all agreed that when it came to reciprocity, Su Ye, the big boss of the Great Wall Guards, knew how to handle it.

Su Ye shrugged. What was the big deal? If people don't offend me, I don't offend them; if they do, I will definitely retaliate. The principle was simple, yet thought-provoking.

On the roof of Stark Tower, the case with the embossed bat pattern was opened. Su Ye lifted the several-hundred-kilogram nuke out of the box with one hand. This simple action made the Avengers knit their brows. Such immense physical strength—the only person on their side who could do that was Captain America. This big boss of the Great Wall Guards was really something.

Su Ye nonchalantly tossed the nuke to Max. "Courtesy demands reciprocity. Go ahead and show them some courtesy!"

Max's large, buck-toothed smile shone with excitement. "Mission guaranteed!"

Half a minute later, the tail of the nuke ignited, turning into a streak of fire as it shot toward the portal in the sky. Max transformed into electricity and followed the nuke to provide cover, while Iron Man flew up as well. Under their escort, the nuke successfully entered the portal and, in their eyes, blossomed into a burst of fire.

"Now! Close the door!"

With a loud shout, the Scepter of Mind pierced the shield of the Tesseract, the energy emission ceased, and the portal began to close. Max and Iron Man fell from the sky.

At the very moment the portal closed, the Leviathans and Chitauri soldiers flying and attacking above the city instantly lost consciousness and mobility, as if they had been unplugged. Although the falling corpses caused some degree of collateral damage to military personnel, it could not stop their cheers for victory.

"Yeah! We won!"
"We held the line! We protected the Earth!"
"We are the strongest!"
"Victory! Victory! Victory!"

The Battle of New York seemed to have finally come to an end.

But just as everyone was cheering for victory, on the roof of a battered, ruined building in the city, several figures appeared out of nowhere. They varied in size and height, but they clearly belonged to the same organization, as they all wore identical uniforms: black, high-collared robes embroidered with red cloud patterns.