Tony Stark’s return made Fei Ni feel an even greater sense of urgency.
It meant that the appearance of Mark III and the Iron Monger was not far away.
However, even if they were incredibly powerful, it was impossible to build them in just a day or two, so he still had plenty of time.
At the same time, there was some good news: he had already come up with an idea for dealing with the Iron Monger.
When opening a portal, the more detailed the image of the destination in his mind, the clearer the scene would be, the faster the portal would appear, and the easier it would be to control.
For Fei Ni, there were two places where opening a portal was easiest.
The first was his home in New York, and the second was Kamar-Taj.
After that came places like his school and the Himalayas.
And the key to defeating the Iron Monger lay in the Himalayas.
It was the highest mountain range in the world, with an average elevation of more than seven thousand meters.
It was also home to the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, where temperatures could drop as low as sixty degrees below zero.
When Tony first built his Iron Man armor, he hadn’t properly considered the problem of ice forming on its surface, which had once caused the system to malfunction.
Fortunately, he discovered it early and promptly switched to space-grade materials.
Obadiah, however, hadn’t thought that far ahead.
Of course, it was also possible that because he didn’t have Tony’s miniature Arc Reactor, he hadn’t been able to conduct all kinds of tests, which led to this oversight.
Regardless, low temperatures were one of the Iron Monger’s weaknesses.
Fei Ni’s idea was very simple: open a portal and directly drag the Iron Monger to the summit of Mount Everest to fight.
This would both weaken his opponent and allow him to escape in time if he couldn’t win, gradually wearing his opponent down.
It would also prevent New York from being destroyed and protect the safety of countless ordinary people.
It could be said to accomplish three things at once.
The only thing worth worrying about was whether his opponent would focus entirely on escaping.
Without the Mirror Dimension, and with his opponent capable of flying, Fei Ni really wouldn’t have an easy time catching him.
So he felt that perhaps he could bring Tony along when the time came.
He could restrict his opponent while also farming experience from fighting Iron Man!
Actually, if he really wanted to defeat the Iron Monger, there were many ways to do it.
Obadiah was just an ordinary person.
With his knowledge of the future, dealing with him would be far too easy.
But what Fei Ni wanted was the experience gained from battle, not simply victory over Obadiah.
That was why he was going to such lengths.
The environment on Mount Everest was extremely harsh.
While it would restrict the Iron Monger, Fei Ni himself would inevitably be affected to some extent as well.
However, compared to his opponent, the effects were still acceptable.
Compared with the Iron Man armor created by Tony, “Incarnation of the Demon” might be inferior in many aspects, but in just as many ways, it far surpassed it.
Looking purely at adaptability and portability, considering the speed at which Tony upgraded his armor, “Incarnation of the Demon” could still remain ahead of him by many years.
After settling on his plan, Fei Ni asked the school for a week off.
He didn’t have many classes to begin with, and his grades were quite good, so his instructor agreed without giving it much thought.
The weather was freezing cold, and snowflakes drifted through the air.
Mount Everest truly lived up to its reputation as the world’s highest peak.
Even while wearing “Incarnation of the Demon,” Fei Ni could still feel waves of cold in a place that wasn’t even the summit.
For the next week, he would have to train hard in this environment and break through his own limits.
The cultivation methods of Kamar-Taj were mainly used for practicing magic, so they weren’t particularly effective for improving physical endurance.
Therefore, this time, he chose a different method.
Rock climbing!
He would climb the world’s highest peak with his bare hands, all the way to the top.
Although, even with the protection of “Incarnation of the Demon,” falling from such a height might not necessarily kill him…
Apart from the difficulties of climbing, the most important thing was controlling his own limits.
If he forcibly canceled “Incarnation of the Demon” after reaching the absolute limit of his physical strength, and then found himself unable to open a portal in his normal state, he really would die in this temperature.
One day, two days, three days…
Before long, six days had passed.
During those six days, although Fei Ni’s climbing speed and distance improved every day, he still failed to break through.
Fei Ni knew exactly why.
He was afraid.
He was afraid that he would really push things too far and accidentally die here.
So every time he felt that he had reached his limit, he would unconsciously retain a little strength.
It was precisely this hesitation that prevented him from breaking through.
“This won’t do!”
Today was the final day of his leave.
Fei Ni had to make a decision.
This time, he didn’t continue climbing upward.
Instead, he sat quietly on a wide stretch of open ground.
This was the battlefield he had chosen for the battle ahead.
The biting wind howled, and snowflakes danced through the air.
Sitting in the snow, Fei Ni endured the cold as “Incarnation of the Demon” slowly drained his physical strength.
The sky gradually darkened, and the temperature continued to fall.
“I’m about to reach my limit…”
Fei Ni could feel the weakness spreading through his body.
At this moment, “Incarnation of the Demon” made him feel as though he were truly being tormented by a demon, suffering together with the wind and snow.
“No. If I go back now, won’t I just end up the same as the past few days?”
Fei Ni gritted his teeth and forced himself to hold on.
But as he looked at the darkness surrounding him, thoughts of giving up continued to spread through his mind.
As the saying went, there was no difficulty in this world that couldn’t be overcome—as long as one was willing to give up.
Fei Ni’s mind was filled with thoughts of why he had to push himself so desperately.
Wouldn’t it be fine to simply cultivate step by step?
And so on.
At that moment, Fei Ni failed to notice that as he gritted his teeth and persevered, the bright silver armor covering his body was becoming darker and darker.
It seemed to be merging with the darkness.
It looked as though it were about to disappear, yet at the same time, it seemed as if it were turning invisible.
“Maybe there’s no need to do this, but I fucking want to!”
Fei Ni suddenly muttered to himself, as though answering the doubts in his own heart.
“I’m just an ordinary person. Besides being a little handsome, if I don’t even have the willingness to work hard, what else do I have left?”
“Am I supposed to bet everything on a fifty-fifty chance and rely on others just to survive?!”
“Maybe I can’t become a hero, but I’ll never be a coward!”
Fei Ni clenched his fists and stood up.
In the darkness, his figure grew fainter and fainter, while the crimson eyes on his helmet grew brighter and brighter.
A force slowly flowed through the armor.
A wave of weakness washed over Fei Ni again and again.
He felt that “Incarnation of the Demon” could automatically deactivate at any moment, leaving him to collapse onto the ground and lose consciousness.
A cold snowflake landed on his face.
The bone-chilling cold instantly swept through his entire body.
A long sword floated before him.
“Incarnation of the Demon” automatically deactivated!
“Am I going to die here?”
Looking at the long sword before him, Fei Ni could barely remain standing as he silently thought to himself.
But he was unwilling to accept it.
Amid the howling wind, he struggled to extend his hand.
“Incarnation of the Demon!”
Fei Ni shouted hoarsely, using the very last trace of strength left in his body.
A roar rang out beside his ears, as though answering his call.
A happy smile appeared at the corner of Fei Ni’s mouth.
He had succeeded.
He had finally broken through his own limits.
Without needing to borrow the command of the “Golden Great Derivation Technique,” Fei Ni opened a portal purely through the state granted by “Incarnation of the Demon.”
He staggered through the portal.
After that, Fei Ni truly had no strength left.
“Incarnation of the Demon” slowly dissipated once again, and he collapsed to the ground, losing consciousness.
Fortunately, in the final moment before his consciousness disappeared, the last thing he saw was Skye’s frightened little face.
(End of Chapter)