After returning to the base, Charles encountered his wood clone handling business. As the wood clone was dispelled, he absorbed its memories.
Learning that Tony had called, he merely smiled.
Today's spoils had not yet been dealt with; he intended to hand over Xu Wenwu's corpse to Orochimaru for research, hoping he might discover something.
As for the Ten Rings, Charles took out the sealing scroll and, upon releasing the seal, the Ten Rings appeared before him.
Charles picked up one of the rings, and immediately, a system notification sounded in his ear.
Ding! Rechargeable item detected. Would you like to proceed with the recharge?
No!
Without any hesitation, Charles refused the recharge.
The Ten Rings possessed great power, granting their bearer immense strength and longevity. Although the exact lifespan they provided was unknown, it was clearly over a thousand years.
Moreover, the power of the Ten Rings was formidable, capable of molding someone into a powerful individual.
Holding the ring in his hand, with its blue light glowing, Charles frowned slightly.
In his memory, the Ten Rings had two forms: one with blue light in Xu Wenwu's hand and another with yellow light in Shang-Chi's hand.
But now, in his hand, the ring hadn't turned yellow—is there some reason behind this?
Charles realized he needed to study the Ten Rings further. Their material was neither Vibranium nor any known Earth metal, and they weren't forged using any known magical techniques.
He wondered if Kamar-Taj had any information on the Ten Rings, though it seemed that Wong, the librarian, wasn't familiar with them. Perhaps the Ancient One might know something.
Charles wasn't particularly concerned about the power or longevity offered by the Ten Rings. When he inherited Merlin's magic, he had already gained a long lifespan, making it difficult for him to die of natural causes.
However, simply recharging the Ten Rings felt wasteful.
Equipping his subordinates with the Ten Rings would be an excellent use of them.
After some thought, Charles decided to store the rings for now and try to uncover their true story later.
With a wave of his hand, he stored the Ten Rings in his inventory space and then entering the system space.
At this point, his strength was already very close to which was required by Odin, but he still needed a bit more. Charles had his own speculations about Odin's next task.
What he needed to do now was stack his defenses. Against the enemies he would soon face, the thicker his defenses, the safer he would be.
You think breaking through his first layer of defense would harm his body?
No, he had a second layer of armor waiting. And when you think you had finally pierced through the second, he would still have his immortality to greet you.
Harming Charles Doyle? Impossible.
Currently, he had the Dragon Ring, Merlin's Robe, and Merlin's Staff as his first line of defense. The second layer was his system's equipment.
Opening the equipment menu, he saw all six pieces of his gear were of the Jonin level. Charles knew it was time to upgrade them, as Jonin-level gear no longer suited his.
He glanced at his balance of 1.1 billion coins and immediately transferred the $2 billion that Ginny had sent into the system.
Charles then began upgrading his equipment. As the coins were consumed, the first piece of equipment was finally upgraded from Jonin level to Kage level. Looking at the coins, he noted that the upgrade had cost him 100 million coins.
Shaking his head at the sheer price, Charles realized that if he weren't so wealthy, it would be hard for anyone else to afford such upgrades.
He continued upgrading the rest of his equipment. After spending a total of 600 million coins, he now had a full set of Kage-level gear.
Equipment: Kage-level Kunai, Kage-level Headband, Kage-level Vest, Kage-level Manual, Kage-level Necklace, Kage-level Ring.
Satisfied with his new gear, Charles nodded. The Kage level was sufficient for his needs at the moment, though he planned to test the gear's effectiveness in the system's training ground.
With this in mind, he didn't delay and entered the training ground to begin testing.
…
Meanwhile, at the Ten Rings headquarters-
After nightfall-
The headquarters of the Ten Rings, now in ruins, was completely silent. However, one wall still stood firm, seemingly untouched by the destruction.
At that moment, a door in the underground portion of the mountain opened, and a group of Ten Rings soldiers emerged. Leading them was a Western man with a severed arm.
This man, Razor Fist, was one of Xu Wenwu's top subordinates. Before the battle, he had been in the underground training facility.
He had watched the initial events unfold via surveillance—Iron Man, ninjas...
However, the final battle had been so intense that all the surveillance equipment had been destroyed.
Razor Fist led the Ten Rings soldiers to clean up the battlefield, but they found no trace of Xu Wenwu's body or the Ten Rings.
Gazing at the devastated Ten Rings soldiers before him, Razor Fist spoke, "We must find the young master and the princess."
"As long as we find them, they who carry the master's bloodline will surely be able to avenge him."
"We must repay blood with blood!"
At Razor Fist's command, the other members of the Ten Rings army all raised their arms and chanted, "Blood for blood! Blood for blood!"
Razor Fist, Xu Wenwu's trusted aide, knew that the master's children carried the blood of both Xu Wenwu and Ying Li, and they would undoubtedly possess even greater power.
He recalled the master once saying that Shang-Chi had the blood of the Ten Rings and an unawakened Dragon Heart.
Razor Fist took another look the scene and nodded.
The Ten Rings army was vast, with different factions spread across the world. If they didn't find the leader's son to inherit the position, internal chaos would be inevitable.
"Clean up the site, then follow me to find the young master."
"Yes, sir!"
At Razor Fist's command, the Ten Rings army began clearing the battlefield and searching for Shang-Chi and Xialing.