Marvel: I Awake the Little Cosmos-Chapter 597 - 565: Xu Xialing and Anya (Second Update)

Chapter 597: Chapter 565: Xu Xialing and Anya (Second Update)

If Las Vegas is the West’s city that never sleeps.

Then from a certain perspective, Pengdu is the East’s Las Vegas.

Wearing a black T-shirt and jeans, outlining a perfectly toned body, Anya was sitting in a booth in a bar, sipping the bourbon before her.

She didn’t like bourbon.

But her brother loved it, and after he left, Anya tried drinking bourbon because once again, it was what her brother liked.

But she still found it a bit hard to get used to.

Just like how she still wasn’t used to her brother being gone.

But she would find him.

In her own way.

Anya sipped the bourbon in her hand, raising her gaze from the booth to scan the bar she was in.

It was a mistake to call this a bar.

Because, although it was called a bar, it was more like a casino. But unlike the usual casinos downstairs, this top-floor casino offered gambling games where the stakes were literally punches.

At the center, surrounded by black granite and reinforced glass, was a sunken octagonal cage, made highly conspicuous under several spotlights.

Numerous audience seats arranged in tiers surrounded the ring, though these were not uniform chairs, but booths like the one Anya was in, with scattered red velvet sofas and rosewood armchairs.

Anya then shifted her gaze to the surrounding walls.

Upon sight.

Huge electronic odds screens were very noticeable.

The walls retained sections of original stonework, while other parts were covered with metal plates resembling dragon scales. Columns featured simulated golden dragons in light, moving occasionally, their cold dragon eyes overlooking the arena.

This golden dragon was the purpose of Anya’s visit.

To be precise, the owner behind this golden dragon was why Anya came to Pengdu.

When she was young, Hawk had told her many, many stories.

And among these stories was a dragon.

A dragon, that if found and summoned, could grant any wish.

At first, Anya thought it was just a story, until she saw some Hydra internal documents with contents related to the East.

The East had a mythical dragon, residing in a dimension called "Tarot".

But where this Tarot was, no one knew. How to enter it, no one knew either. The only connection was the leader of the Ten Rings gang.

The Mandarin!

The real Mandarin, not the clown captured by Iron Man years ago, who was merely an actor, a pathetic one, not knowing what role he was playing.

There is a saying.

The villain can be a Tyrant, but the dimension cannot be a clown.

When you portray a major villain as a clown, it inevitably draws the villain’s attention.

And that was indeed the case.

After the clown who played the Mandarin was imprisoned, he vanished from the prison after some time.

Anya believed that if she followed this lead, she would eventually find the role played by the clown, which was the real Mandarin, and learn the location of the so-called Tarot from him.

The Mandarin would surely tell her the location of Tarot.

Because she must know where this Tarot is, then enter it, find the hidden mythical dragon, and then have it bring her brother back.

As Anya thought this, she suddenly sensed something, her gaze moving to a woman stepping out from an open-concept office.

The woman had short hair, a cool and valiant demeanor, wore a sharply tailored suit, her eyes sharp, firm, and competent.

Xu Xia Ling!

Anya called out the woman’s name in her heart.

Don’t ask how she discovered this woman was linked to the real Mandarin, just know it was through Hydra’s network.

Cut off one head, and there are eight more.

Despite a long time passing since the second uprising of Hydra had been suppressed, many Hydra members were still active, and some even held significant power.

Hydra aids Hydra.

This is why Anya had never been caught or discovered by any law enforcement agencies all these years.

Because behind Anya stood Hydra.

Similarly.

It is precisely because Hydra stands behind Anya that she felt confident that once she could find the real Mandarin, she could learn the secret of Tarot, and hence had the courage to come to Pengdu alone, knowing Xu Xia Ling was finally back.

While Anya was watching Xu Xia Ling come out of the office.

As a trained martial artist, Xu Xia Ling instantly caught Anya’s gaze and directed her own back.

Their eyes met.

Anya raised the glass in her hand.

Xu Xia Ling raised an eyebrow.

At that moment, her assistant went up the stairs and handed her a note.

Xu Xia Ling unfolded it.

Upon sight.

"Ten Rings!"

"..."

Xu Xia Ling’s pupils contracted, looked at her assistant, then followed the assistant’s direction, fixing her gaze once more on the quietly seated Anya.

After a while.

Xu Xia Ling refused the assistant’s company, walked over alone to sit opposite Anya, and slid the note to Anya, her voice cold: "Revealing others, first you should state your own identity."

Anya held the bourbon glass with both hands, lifted her gaze to meet Xu Xia Ling’s sharp eyes that seemed ready to drop her into the sea if her background wasn’t strong enough, and smiled slightly: "If you want to kill me, sorry, I doubt you have the ability, Miss Xu."

Xu Xialing laughed.

"Don’t tell me you have the gift of immortality."

"I don’t have that."

Anya smiled slightly, took a sip of bourbon, and then said with a smile, "It’s just that if you cut off one of my heads, another one will grow in its place."

When she said this.

Xu Xialing looked at Anya, who was smiling and drinking, her pupils contracted three times in an instant.

There is only one organization that dares to use such a saying.

And no one dares to impersonate them.

After all—

Being defined as an anti-human organization by the whole world, anyone with a slightly normal brain wouldn’t impersonate such an organization on a whim.

After all, members of this organization don’t need a trial; they’re the only recognized ones who can be executed on the spot once captured.

Thoughts swirled in Xu Xialing’s mind, and after coming back to her senses, she chuckled, leaned back slightly, and looked at Anya with a curious gaze rather than a sharp one: "I don’t recall the Ten Rings having anything to do with you or anything worth discussing."

Even though she, like her brother Shang-Chi, escaped their father Xu Wenwu’s control and came alone to Pengdu to establish the Golden Dragon Association.

But Xu Xialing’s understanding surpasses her brother’s.

She knows very well that the reason she was able to establish the Golden Dragon Association so smoothly in Pengdu may have something to do with her abilities, but it’s definitely not the main reason.

The existence of the Golden Dragon Association is solely because her father is called Xu Wenwu.

So—

Unlike her brother, who ran to the Federation intending to have no contact with the family and has become yellow-skinned and white-hearted, Xu Xialing doesn’t want to return but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t care about her father.

Especially now.

Hydra people came to her directly, naming her and the Ten Rings.

"My name is Xu Xialing."

"Phoenix, Anya Phoenix."

Anya looked at Xu Xialing, who extended her right hand towards her, and didn’t refuse the handshake.

Soon.

Almost immediately after Anya introduced herself, Xu Xialing’s earpiece transmitted her assistant’s voice.

"Anya Phoenix, female, born in..."

"Hydra Agent."

"On the Federation’s wanted list."

"Hiss."

"She has a brother, Hawk Phoenix, Vision, and Scarlet Witch Wanda is her brother’s lover."

"..."

It’s widely known.

In this time and space, Hydra remains wanted, and for someone like Anya, a member of Hydra, her information being so clear and transparent is quite normal.

Hearing her assistant’s intelligence in her ear, Xu Xialing’s eyes contracted again, fully convinced of Anya’s origin, and then spoke again.

"Ms. Phoenix, again, we don’t seem to have had any interactions."

"We didn’t in the past, but that doesn’t mean we won’t in the future."

"Then you’ve got the wrong person."

Xu Xialing laughed upon hearing this: "I’m no longer involved in matters, you found the wrong person for collaboration."

Anya shrugged.

"Since I came here, I naturally know I didn’t find the wrong person."

"Really?"

"I’m looking for the Mandarin, personal matter!"

"Oh."

Xu Xialing raised an eyebrow.

Looking for her father.

Personal matter?

"Can I ask what it is about?"

"Tarot!"

"What?"

Xu Xialing was slightly lost in thought.

Anya took a sip from her glass, put it down, and looked at Xu Xialing: "I want to go to Tarot, and the Mandarin is the only one who has been to Tarot and returned alive, so I want to meet him."

Xu Xialing shook her head with a smile.

"Tarot is just an imaginary place; on Earth, there’s never been a Tarot."

"Before Thor descended, people always thought all myths were imagined, but after Thor appeared, people were shocked to realize those weren’t myths but facts."

Anya’s tone was calm: "So whether Tarot exists or not, I’ll determine it myself, Miss Xu, I need to see the Mandarin."

Xu Xialing looked at Anya with eyes resolute yet subtly doubtless, squinting slightly.

"What if I don’t permit it?"

"My brother once said something."

Anya smiled dazzlingly at Xu Xialing: "Show respect once given; never act disrespectfully."

Xu Xialing’s expression changed.

And Anya’s expression also changed drastically upon uttering these words.

...