133. The Akatsuki retreats, and the Extremis virus breaks out.

"Of course, the premise for all of this is that I have a way to resurrect Uncle Yahiko. It just depends on whether you, Uncle Nagato, trust me."

Strictly speaking, Nagato was never a particularly good leader or strategist. Of the original three founders of the Akatsuki, Nagato and Konan possessed excellent execution skills, but it was Yahiko who served as the face of the organization, gifted with true charismatic leadership. Unfortunately, those who possess such charisma are easily targeted. Thus, just as the Akatsuki began to grow and flourish, Yahiko was ensnared in a trap and died at Nagato's hands.

With Yahiko gone, the two remaining founders were left unchecked. Every threat and every fear had stemmed from Yahiko; eliminating him had been enough. The reason Nagato and the Akatsuki had devolved into their current state lay entirely in Yahiko's death. Therefore, if Yahiko could be resurrected, all problems would be solved.

The issue, however, was that Su Ye currently had no way to resurrect him. The Reanimation Jutsu could bring someone back, but first, Su Ye hadn't learned it, and second, resurrection via that technique might not be considered a "true" return. For someone long dead, one would need to perform the Reanimation Jutsu as Uchiha Madara had, followed by the Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique, and only then could the person be fully restored to their original state.

In practice, this didn't seem too difficult. As for the Reanimation Jutsu, Su Ye could study it; it was in the Scroll of Seals, which was already in his possession. As long as "Old Su" provided the method to break the seal on the subsequent ninjutsu, he could learn it. As for the Samsara of Heavenly Life, Nagato's Rinnegan could perform it. Regarding the side effect of the user's death, that could potentially be mitigated through other means, such as the Yang Power of Naruto’s Six Paths state. Furthermore, in the Marvel world, there were the Infinity Stones; if one gathered all six, resurrecting a single person would be a trivial matter.

However, since none of this could be executed immediately, Su Ye had to rely on the power of "Talk-no-Jutsu" to stabilize Nagato and prevent him from doing anything foolish in a fit of rage. He needed to reach two points of consensus with Nagato: first, to resurrect Yahiko whenever possible, and second, to work together to change this flawed world rather than rejecting it entirely.

When Su Ye stated he could find a way to resurrect Yahiko, Nagato was already moved. As the son of Old Su, a man who had defeated the Six Paths of Pain with one hand, Nagato even felt that the Deva Path’s escape had been intentional on Su Ye’s part—as if Su Ye had simply wanted to give him a chance to unleash the "Almighty Push." With Konan beside him, her uncontrollable excitement upon hearing that Yahiko could be brought back, Nagato finally compromised.

"Very well. You have convinced me."

Su Ye couldn't help but want to roll his eyes. *What is it with you middle-aged men? I already said I don't sleep with men!*

Regardless, Nagato was handled, which meant the Akatsuki's offensive was effectively neutralized. Now, it was just a matter of waiting to see what new tricks Uchiha Dai and Uchiha Madara would come up with once they realized their plans had been thwarted. As a condition of their cooperation, Su Ye returned the six corpses of the Paths of Pain to Nagato, and Nagato sent Konan to stay with Su Ye, serving as a bridge between the two sides.

"By the way," Su Ye asked Nagato before they parted, "Uncle Nagato, I have a question. Why were there seven of you in the Six Paths of Pain?"

Besides the Deva Path, Su Ye had captured six corpses belonging to five paths, including two Animal Paths—one male and one female. In the original story, there were also two Animal Paths, but after the male one was defeated by Jiraiya and taken away, Nagato had created a female replacement. Now, there were simply two. Was this to fulfill the trope where the "Four Heavenly Kings" actually consist of five people, so the "Six Paths of Pain" had to have seven?

Nagato glanced at Su Ye and whispered, "In my eyes, the men and women of this world are no different from beasts..."

"Right. Understood." Su Ye nodded.

*Heaven and Earth are heartless, treating all things as straw dogs. Nagato is heartless, treating men and women as beasts.*

The conversation concluded, and Su Ye departed with Konan. Kisame Hoshigaki also left with them. In his words, the battle with that yellow-green monster hadn't ended yet, and he intended to see it through to the end—to decide the victor and who would live or die. Before he was a loyal subordinate, Kisame was, first and foremost, a warrior. Su Ye didn't object.

Uchiha You, however, chose to stay behind, and from beginning to end, he showed no signs of intimacy toward Su Ye.

"I’ll stay to keep an eye on these people and pick up some work while I'm at it. They are restless characters; they will surely bring surprises to this country." This was the answer Uchiha You gave when Su Ye contacted him via telepathy.

Hidan and Kakuzu were a pair, and since Kisame had left, Uchiha You happened to pair up with Sasori, who was now without a partner. Su Ye agreed immediately. After absorbing the Avengers, the Guardians were already overflowing with talent; having one more like Uchiha You wouldn't be the deciding factor. It was better to keep him as a hidden card, letting him operate among the populace—just as he said, he might just bring some surprises to the Americans. Uchiha You had also promised that whenever Su Ye needed him, he would be there. That was enough.

Bidding farewell to the Akatsuki, Su Ye headed back with Konan, who had changed her attire, and Kisame. The Akatsuki would continue to engage in special freelance work across the United States, and that black robe with red clouds would surely leave a deep—and negative—impression on the Americans for a long time to come. It was better for Konan, who was planning to turn over a new leaf, and Kisame, who had been unilaterally recruited by Su Ye, to change out of their uniforms.

When Su Ye arrived back at Tony Stark’s seaside villa with Konan and Kisame, it caused quite a stir among the superhero camp. First was Konan; having shed her robe for casual clothes, she wore a blue dress with a slit that perfectly accentuated her mature figure. Coupled with her cold, icy, and ascetic-looking face, almost instantly, a number of "bad men" appeared who wanted to become Su Ye's uncle-in-law. This was especially true for someone like Max, who, despite being quite unattractive, believed he possessed great charisma and that every woman on earth was inadvertently drawn to him, interpreting every glance as a sign of interest.

"Hey, yeah! Your aunt is also from Long Country, right? Can you teach me some common Chinese greetings?"

Su Ye thought for a moment and replied, "Niu bi! Zhen te ma de hao!" (Awesome! It's f***ing great!)

Max walked away full of confidence, while Su Ye didn't give it another thought and headed outside the villa, where a duel was about to begin. The combatants were Kisame and Abomination, picking up where they had left off. The location was an open field not far from the villa, the designated site for the Great Wall Guardians' base, which happened to require excavation. Once they were done fighting, the digging work would be saved.

Incidentally, the English name for the Great Wall Guardians had been decided. There were two words for "guardian"—"guardian" and "defender." The former implied guardianship, while the latter implied support, so they settled on "Guardian." The English name was "Guardia Wall," abbreviated as "GGW," and further shortened to "GG"... From now on, whenever someone needed to call the Great Wall Guardians for help, they could just type "GG" on their screens. The scene would be, well, something else.

The battle between Abomination and Kisame was a clash between two highly skilled brutes, similar to a fight between two technical boxers. It had both the bone-crushing, adrenaline-pumping strikes and the kind of extreme dodging that made one gasp and feel the rush. The Guardians moved their chairs to the side to watch the fight, Thor included. To clarify, Thor had also come to Los Angeles and, following the Avengers, had joined the Guardians.

As for Loki, he was still locked in the Ancient One’s mirror dimension. The condition for the Ancient One to release Loki was for Thor to work on Earth; once his "performance" was sufficient, she would release Loki so Thor could take him back to Asgard to face judgment under Asgardian law. Thor hadn't wanted to agree, but he couldn't beat the Ancient One, and Loki had indeed brought disaster to Earth, so he had to swallow his pride and stay. His sense of superiority as an Asgardian and his arrogance—thinking Earthlings weren't fit to judge Loki—meant nothing to the Ancient One. In this regard, Su Ye felt he was starting to like the Ancient One. *No, no, she’s too old, too flat, and too ugly. Can't do it.*

However, Thor soon grew fond of life on Earth. There were fights to be had, beer to drink, friends to make, and Jane. It was everything he wanted. If it weren't for the fact that Loki still needed to be escorted back for judgment, Thor would have wanted to just stay on Earth and become Jane’s live-in son-in-law. This was far better than being some God-King in Asgard. Among the spectators, Thor’s cheers were always the loudest. He had a strong urge to drop his hammer, strip to the waist, and join the two muscle-men in a three-way brawl.

At the same time, as lively as things were for the Guardians, Nick Fury at S.H.I.E.L.D. was equally agitated. The New York incident could be blamed on the military's poor performance and the suddenness of the alien invasion. But now, just as S.H.I.E.L.D. was moving west, a massive explosion had occurred in Los Angeles, and S.H.I.E.L.D. truly couldn't escape the blame. After all, they had only been in Los Angeles for two days before the attack happened.

Just as Fury was painstakingly explaining to his superiors that the attack had nothing to do with S.H.I.E.L.D. and that the superheroes had done their best, another major event occurred in Los Angeles. The day after the Joker stole the Extremis virus from Aldrich Killian, a police station in Los Angeles was blown up. Based on the footage, the attacker’s identity was quickly uncovered. He was an ordinary man, a law-abiding citizen with no bad habits—no guns, no drugs, no debts—and seemingly no motive to attack a police station.

However, when the police investigated his family relations, they discovered he had an older brother who had been killed by police via a knee-to-the-neck maneuver not long ago. The incident had caused an uproar at the time, but months later, there was still no satisfactory answer. In truth, everyone knew how this went: legal proceedings were agonizingly slow. This was the reality of the judicial system—it required evidence and trials.

But that attacker clearly couldn't wait that long. Under the Joker's instigation, he had walked into the police station with the Extremis virus and detonated it. It was said that over a dozen police officers were killed on the spot, with dozens more injured. The event immediately drew high-level attention from both society and the government. The CIA, the FBI—everyone intervened, and S.H.I.E.L.D. was no exception, as the case involved an unknown but highly destructive explosive. The authorities suspected it was related to the previous alien invasion or super-criminals.

Before S.H.I.E.L.D. could reach the scene, another factory exploded. The perpetrator was an ordinary worker who worked hard every day for a meager wage. His child had just fallen ill, but his boss was firing him for taking time off. When he tried to reason with his boss, he was chased away and beaten by security. In desperation, he chose to go out in a blaze of glory. Site surveys of both explosions revealed the same explosive components.

"Director, this may be a premeditated series of bombings, and I analyze that these two are not the end, but the beginning," Phil Coulson said with a solemn expression in the office.

Across from him, Nick Fury looked grim. "Is there any way to identify the specific components of the explosive and find the source?"

"We are investigating," Coulson replied.

"Notify the Guardians; we may need their help," Fury had just finished saying this when Coulson’s phone rang. After hanging up, Coulson looked grave. "A third one has occurred!"

Fury’s expression darkened further. Soon, explosions began to sprout up across the city like mushrooms after rain—one after another, blooming everywhere, making the city look as lively as a Christmas celebration. Furthermore, the perpetrators of these explosions were essentially people who had histories of being oppressed themselves or having loved ones who were. Whether it was due to skin color or the fact that they were the proletariat—working hard only to be exploited and living in extreme hardship—the contradictions prevalent in American society were brought to the surface by these continuous explosions, becoming an issue no one could avoid.

On the Guardians' side, Tony Stark began using Jarvis to help S.H.I.E.L.D. analyze and locate the components and sources of the explosives, while other heroes stood by, ready to strike. If such dangerous explosives weren't found, they posed a threat to everyone. It was fortunate that Konan hadn't done anything before being captured by Su Ye; otherwise, with her ability to manifest countless paper bombs, she might have been a suspect or a target of fear.

As for Su Ye, he contacted Alfred the butler, preparing to purchase or build a castle near the Great Wall Guardians' headquarters to serve as his future lair. Yes, this man—he wanted to settle down.