Despite saying that he won't go to the Stark Expo, Li Yue still watched the live broadcast of the opening ceremony on his computer. It was a glorious event. Tony jumped down from a plane in his armor, landing on the stage in a kneeling pose as firework sparks filled the air around him. The audience below the stage gave a deafening cheer.
Mechanical arms reached from below him to disassemble the armor, revealing Tony's expensive suit underneath. Tony walked off from the mechanical arms, and even more intense cheer erupted from the audience.
The applause and cheers lasted for more than ten seconds. Tony silently basked in the attention, saying nothing, and simply put his hand behind his ear, gesturing that he was listening to the cheers. His face was full of pride.
After the applause died down, Tony began giving his speech. Every single word that came out of his mouth was laced with narcissism, what with "privatization of world peace" and whatever.
Li Yue kept complaining in his heart. Tony really was the most narcissistic character in the series. In the movie, the opening ceremony happened under the palladium poisoning arc, and Tony said a lot of nonsense during his speech. Now that he was free from the threat of palladium poisoning, his bullshit only amplified.
The audience below the stage cheered at every single word that Tony said.
The live broadcast that Li Yue watched contained nothing of note regarding the Expo theme or the involved parties. It was more like a personal performance of the superhero Iron Man.
...
Despite all the nonsense at the opening ceremony, Li Yue didn't dare tune the show away. He was still worried that Tony would be attacked during the Expo, but it didn't seem like anything had happened at the venue.
Tony's speech for the Stark Expo opening went without a hitch, so Li Yue stopped paying attention and began his cultivation. He planned to bid farewell to Ancient One tomorrow and go back.
Tony was immediately swarmed by a large crowd of people after stepping down from the stage. There were fans of Iron Man that asked for his autographs, top models who wanted to get close to him, and company executives who wanted to make business deals with him.
With his bodyguard Happy's help, he got rid of those people and arrived in front of his sports car.
Standing beside the car was a blonde beauty. The current Tony was much less of a playboy than his past self, but he couldn't hold himself from teasing the woman.
Unfortunately, this beauty was a police officer. She had come to deliver a subpoena to Tony and ask him to attend the Senate Hearing at nine o'clock the next day.
Tony had seen this coming. It's unsurprising that the military would make a move, but they were still a hundred years too early to try and have their hand on Tony Stark's belongings.
With his mood ruined, Tony started his sports car, leaving only the roar of its engine.
...
Li Yue woke up very early the next morning—technically, he was never asleep. At night, he cultivated his soul by using Astral Projection and letting his body rest, and he would be full of energy when he returned to his body the next day.
Li Yue walked out of his room after waking up. He washed up and began his morning cultivation on the training grounds with the group of mages.
There were all kinds of mages here. There were asian people, black people, and white people. Some people had healthy bodies, and some had disabilities. For example, there was a white-bearded old man in a Taoist robe that only had one of his hands left. Li Yue remembered him; he was the one that gave a harsh lesson to Doctor Strange.
Li Yue stared at that man for a long time back when Li Yue first found him, to the point that he felt creeped out.
Kamar-Taj's morning cultivation routine included some basic magic, including the portal spell, magical shield, magical whips, and so on. Li Yue had already mastered these magic, but he still insisted on joining the cultivation with other mages.
After the morning training, Li Yue felt that it was time to tell Ancient One about his resignation, as well as thank her for her guidance. This month was a new beginning for him, a very important period of his life.
After finally grasping the principles of dimensional travel, Li Yue had some theories about the starry sky that he saw when he crossed universes. It seemed that to travel to a specific world, he would need to illuminate the corresponding star in the sea of his mind.
The sea had two illuminated stars now. The first represented the Marvel universe, and the other represented the X-Men universe. He would have to cultivate his space energy until he could illuminate the third star and travel to a new world.
The sudden travel that happened last time occurred because he had come into contact with the Tesseract and absorbed a surge of space energy, forcibly lighting up a second star. Li Yue concluded that getting access to the Space Stone would be the fastest way to travel between universes.
However, these were only Li Yue's conjecture. He would have to do some testing before knowing the real situation.
...
Li Yue walked while letting his mind run wild, and before he knew it, he arrived at the entrance to the main hall Ancient One was usually in. Li Yue entered the hall; he believed that Ancient One would already know that he was coming.
Li Yue entered the room and saw Ancient One sitting with a teapot and two cups on the table in front of her. Ancient One was brewing tea, her movement neither fast nor slow. She moved as if ordained by a universal law.
"Master Ancient One, I think..."
"Mage Li Yue, please, sit down and have a cup of tea," Ancient One interrupted Li Yue with a smile and invited him to sit with her. She personally poured a cup of freshly brewed tea for Li Yue.
Li Yue was not in a hurry, so he sat down as ordered and slowly drank the tea. Li Yue still had no idea what makes good tea, but instead of drinking the tea hurriedly, he savored the fragrance of the tea.
"I already knew what you wanted to discuss. I won't ask you to stay, but there are still some things I need to tell you," Ancient One finally broke the silence after Li Yue drank two cups of tea. She openly stated that she already knew what Li Yue wanted to talk about.
"Venerable Ancient One, I thank you for your guidance for the past month. I will definitely remember your teaching in my heart. Please, if you have further instructions, I will do my best to complete them," Li Yue solemnly replied.
Ancient One had not taught Li Yue for all that long, but Li Yue was still very grateful. He considered her his master.
"It wasn't something so strict like an instruction. I trust you to do what you think is right. But I must remind you, the future has changed. You cannot rely too much on what you know. After your arrival to this world, much of the future is obscured—even to me."
Li Yue pondered the meaning of Ancient One's warning.
"You can't see the future even with the Time Stone, Master Ancient One?" Li Yue blurted his question.
"I can see it, but it was...blurry. There are many possibilities. Before you came to this world, I had foreseen Kaecilius' fall to darkness in the next few years. I had foreseen Doctor Strange's arrival to Kamar-Taj, seeking to cure his hands, before saving the world. And I had seen my own death," Ancient One said slowly. The tone of her voice never changed, as if she was just a detached observer.
"But now, the future has changed. No one can predict what is about to happen."