"That mysterious little showman…" Magneto scoffed, his eyes tracking the retreating figures of Huang Wen and Logan as they vanished around a corner. "Still playing the cryptic master. Fine. As long as his personal agenda doesn't interfere with the destiny of our species, he's merely background noise."
He gave Mystique a quick, non-verbal signal—a twitch of the chin—and the two accelerated their pace, their immediate priority the location of the Cerebro control chamber. Simultaneously, the remaining students from Xavier's Academy, led by Ororo, rushed toward the designated prison cells to liberate the captive mutant children.
However, they ran headlong into a deadly, unexpected obstacle: Cyclops, Scott Summers, controlled and weaponized by Jason Stryker's insidious psychic manipulation.
"You two, go! Find the children! I'll handle him!" Jean Grey recognized the vacant, dangerous look in her boyfriend's eyes and instantly stepped forward, a mental shield already flickering into existence. She positioned herself between the hypnotized Cyclops and her terrified companions, urging Ororo and the others to continue their vital rescue mission.
"Swoosh!"
Cyclops, treating Jean like an enemy combatant, tore off his visor with mechanical speed. An immense, ruby-red optic blast—a sheer shockwave of concussive force—shot from his eyes, aimed directly at Jean's center mass. He had been stripped of his conscious mind, leaving only the pure, terrifying power of his mutation.
"Scott! Stop this now!" Jean screamed, her teeth clenched against the overwhelming mental strain. She pushed her telekinetic force field out, hardening the air directly in front of the blast, attempting to absorb the kinetic energy.
But Cyclops didn't pause; driven by Jason's dark commands, he increased the output. The force intensified instantly, overwhelming Jean's psychic defenses and pressing the boundary of her mental shield back toward her body.
"Caw!"
A sound, faint yet utterly primal, echoed deep within Jean Grey's spirit. A flicker of something incandescent—a deep, chaotic red-gold flame—flared in the very depths of her emerald eyes. It was the volatile, untamed power of the Phoenix Force, rising to meet a lethal challenge.
"K-BOOOM!"
In that microsecond, the stored concussive force shattered. The resulting psychic-kinetic explosion ripped through the narrow corridor. Both Cyclops and Jean Grey were hurled backward as if struck by a lightning bolt, bouncing off the hard metal walls.
Though their superhuman physiology spared them fatal injury—mutants, even non-enhanced ones like these, possessed far greater resilience than ordinary humans—the collateral damage was catastrophic.
The walls of the underground base, already compromised by Magneto's hasty entry, cracked violently. More ominously, the intense shockwave vibrated up through the bedrock.
This entire facility was nestled beneath the Alkali Lake Dam, and the sheer force of the explosion had struck a structural keystone. Cracks spiderwebbed across the tunnel ceiling, and a faint, trickling sound of water began to permeate the air.
"I—I'm so sorry, Jean… I couldn't control myself…" Cyclops groaned, the psychic control momentarily broken by the physical trauma. His consciousness swam back, and he stumbled toward Jean, scooping her up in an immediate, apologetic embrace, instantly prioritizing their relationship over the battle.
"Hmm? That was unnecessarily intense," Huang Wen, now several hundred meters away and deep within the facility, felt the distant, powerful tremor. He raised an eyebrow in surprise. Cyclops's power is strong, but to nearly rupture the dam? That must be the instability of Jean's emerging Phoenix power meeting his concentrated blast head-on.
Huang Wen was unconcerned about the structural damage, however. With his Dream Butterfly Escape perfected, the collapse of a mere dam was nothing more than a minor inconvenience for him.
Meanwhile, Logan was being led by an instinctual, animalistic dread. "So familiar…" he muttered, his adamantium-laced skeleton resonating with the terrible history of this place.
Images flashed violently behind his eyes: stainless steel, restraints, needles, agonizing heat, and a raw, untamed rage. He had always dismissed the anger as a byproduct of his mutant nature, but now, he realized the emotion was intrinsically linked to this place, this memory, this betrayal.
They arrived at a large, brightly lit subterranean laboratory. Dominating the room was a massive, empty water tank—the chamber of his involuntary transformation. Nearby, a secondary apparatus contained a swirling, silver-gray liquid: molten Adamantium alloy, waiting for the next victim.
"What… what is this place?" Logan asked, his voice barely a rasp. His eyes immediately fixed on the deep, vicious scratch marks gouged into the side of the tank—marks identical to the ones his own claws made.
As he traced the grooves with his finger, a clearer, sharper memory pierced through the haze: his agonizing struggle to break free of the tank, moments after the alloy was bonded to his bones.
"Experiment… steel skeleton…" Logan's gaze drifted to the shimmering liquid Adamantium. He fell silent, the rage and the confusion battling for supremacy.
"That, Wolverine, is the strongest man-made metal on Earth: Adamantium alloy. It is a material that can only be shaped under intense heat and pressure, but once it solidifies, it is entirely indestructible," a familiar, smug voice echoed in the sterile room.
William Stryker stepped out from the shadow of a large console, a cruel smile etched onto his face. Beside him, standing silently, was a woman dressed in military combat gear, her face emotionless and her long, dark hair pulled back severely.
"It's you! Who are you to me? And who… am I?" Logan roared, his voice thick with the desperation of a man starved for truth, staring directly into the architect of his pain.
"Wolverine. I always thought you were the perfect weapon. The most singular subject," Stryker sneered, glancing dismissively at Huang Wen.
"But I later learned that you were merely a prototype. Your friend here… he has a far more interesting set of abilities." Stryker's smile faded, replaced by cold, calculating menace. "Regardless, you will both die here today. Yuriko, kill them both. Immediately."
"Yes, Colonel," the woman, Yuriko, responded in a flat, mechanical tone. She blocked Stryker's escape route, her eyes fixed on Logan and Huang Wen. With a faint shick-shick-shick sound, her fingernails elongated and hardened, not into mere bone, but into ten razor-sharp claws of pure Adamantium.
"Uncle Wolf, remember how you asked what I could teach you?" Huang Wen turned, his expression serious but calm, the moment of confrontation having finally arrived. "Well, let me give you a preview."
A sudden, blinding golden aura exploded from Huang Wen's body. Every muscle, every sinew, every fold of his skin took on a polished, metallic sheen. He looked less like a man and more like a statue carved from solid gold. The profound internal Qi flow of the Vajra Indestructible Divine Skill had been fully activated.
"Is that… Colossus? No, Jin Gang?" Logan blinked, utterly astonished. He unconsciously muttered the names of other metallic mutants he vaguely remembered. "How is it possible that you look more like a mutant than I do?"
"This, my friend, is the Invincible Vajra Divine Art!" Huang Wen chuckled, taking a step toward the silently advancing Deathstrike. "Come on, little kitten. Let's see if your shiny new toys are a match for the ultimate defensive technique!"
"WHOOSH!" Yuriko, moving with the deadly speed of a trained assassin, launched herself at the glowing target. Her ten Adamantium claws tore forward, aiming for Huang Wen's chest and neck.
"Sizzle-SKKRR!"
A sickening sound, like high-frequency grinding against a granite countertop, filled the air. Huang Wen stood his ground, letting the blows land. His Invincible Vajra Divine Skill held firm; the claws did not pierce him. However, a profound, alarming sensation ran through his body.
He felt the metallic Ki field protecting him being scraped away, the Adamantium slicing through the dense energy. The contact points on his golden skin were momentarily indented, and a faint, acrid smell of burnt Qi hung in the air.
Huang Wen's expression shifted, a flicker of true surprise replacing his calm smile. He felt a minuscule tear in his golden defense. The injury was almost instantly healed by the Rebirth Dragon Chapter, but the fact that the injury occurred was a huge revelation.
It holds! The Vajra Skill wasn't penetrated, but it wasn't perfect either! A thought flashed through Huang Wen's mind with lightning speed. This is because my spiritual, energy, and vitality stats—even boosted by the Dragon Chapter—have only just reached the lower end of the Legendary tier.
Adamantium is too hard, too pure, too sharp. If my Vajra Skill were at the absolute peak of the Legendary tier, the claws would have simply shattered or bounced off. As it is, the metal's hardness slightly exceeds my defense's current capacity.
With a fierce, thunderous "BANG!", Huang Wen abruptly terminated the defensive exchange. He unleashed a short, focused kick—not a killing blow, but a demonstration of raw power—that sent Yuriko flying with impossible velocity.
The female mutant, still in her golden-eyed rage, slammed into the distant, hard metal wall, sinking into the indentation she created and sticking there like a morbid, human fly.
"Uncle Wolf, look closely. The Invincible Vajra Divine Art is more than just a shield," Huang Wen said, turning back to Logan with a wide, confident grin, dispelling any hint of his inner analysis. With a casual wave of his hand, he yanked the stunned Yuriko out of the wall's indentation, drawing her toward him through the air as if she were a metal puppet.
"What… What kind of power is this? Magnetism? But you are glowing!" Logan stared, utterly speechless, his mind reeling from the physical and energetic impossibility of the display. "And she's dead, isn't she? Why bring her back?"
"Dead? This is the female version of you, Logan. She doesn't die easily," Huang Wen shook his head, pointing to the spot where his kick had landed on Yuriko. The crushed ribs and internal trauma were visibly knitting back together at a terrifying speed, thanks to her shared, potent healing factor.
"Her healing abilities, her Adamantium skeleton—they are exactly like yours. Oh, and here's a fun fact: after achieving this level of the Vajra Skill, you never have to worry about Magneto controlling your Adamantium again. The golden Ki field completely isolates you from his manipulation."
"I need that. I must learn that!" Logan nodded vehemently, all doubt extinguished, his feral eyes locked onto the glowing martial artist.
"No rush. You have a more important task right now: your revenge," Huang Wen smiled, pointing toward the direction Stryker had fled. "He holds the answers to who you are, Logan. If he refuses to give them, then I will tell you everything. But your confrontation needs to happen now."
"Fine!" Logan took one deep, steeling breath, sensed the direction Stryker's fear-scent had gone, and bolted down the tunnel in pursuit, his claws springing out instantly.
"That was a close call. We nearly crashed," Huang Wen muttered to himself, the golden aura collapsing as he deactivated the Vajra Skill. He looked down at the barely-healing Yuriko, then back at the swirling pool of liquid Adamantium.
"It truly is Adamantium. It's amazing, but damnably hard. We need to reach the Legendary tier properly to truly surpass it. But no matter, with the Rebirth Dragon Chapter backing me up, I'm not afraid of any minor failure. The goal is still achieved."
He watched Yuriko slowly stir, her body regenerating from the inside out, and began to formulate a plan to acquire the lethal, liquid metal—the true prize of this detour.