Under the cover of night, with the help of intelligence personnel, S.H.I.E.L.D. field Agents had obtained a list of all of White's clients through various means.
Excluding Kreecher, who had already been arrested, the remaining twenty-two people were scattered in various corners of Queens.
For safety and information confidentiality, the Agents, following S.H.I.E.L.D.'s internal field regulations, formed groups of three and began to contact each of White's clients.
Their actions stirred up invisible ripples in this World, spreading towards the sky, penetrating the World's barrier, and converging into Xie Huiming's body.
After glancing into the River of the World and confirming that Dormammu and the Ancient One's entanglement had not yet ended, Xie Huiming continued his actions.
He reached out, picked up the remains left by a deceased person, mixed in some power of fate, and threw them back into the River of the World.
At the same time, He solidified a portion of his power into a book, attached it to the chess piece, and then waited for the storyline to advance.
It was another late night. Cole, having reviewed all known intelligence, felt a bit tired. He glanced at the work at hand that had made no progress, then stood up, ready to go back and rest for a night.
Sitting in the vintage car he had bought at a high price, Cole turned the steering wheel and headed towards the Manhattan district of New York City.
There stood a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent apartment building, with a sign outside that read 'Stark Industries Employee Dormitory' as a disguise.
The last kilometer.
The vintage car suddenly began to sputter, and the engine's sound became erratic.
Cole felt an inexplicable unease. He stepped on the brake and pulled the car over to the side of the road.
Bang.
With a sound, the vehicle completely lost power and stopped by the roadside.
Cole looked around: dim streetlights, an empty street.
His Agent's sixth sense told Cole that something was wrong; danger seemed to be lurking nearby.
Click.
Cole manually locked the car. This vintage car had also undergone basic modifications, with bulletproof glass and bulletproof layers added.
In an unknown situation, hiding in the car was definitely much safer than getting out.
"Hello, this is Cole. I'm currently on Bell Street in the Tribeca area. I suspect I'm under ambush. My vehicle has broken down, and I need support..."
As Cole spoke, a flash of light caught his eye.
He looked closely and saw a winding trail of oil, as if it was flowing out from under his car.
The fuel tank is leaking?!
Suddenly, Cole's scalp tingled. He unlocked the car, kicked open the door, and lunged towards one side of the street.
Just then, the old streetlights short-circuited, and crackling sparks fell from them, igniting the un-dissipated gasoline vapor in mid-air.
In an instant, the burning gasoline vapor led the flames to the ground, spreading all the way towards the vehicle.
Boom!
By coincidence, the flames entered the leaking fuel tank, and a huge explosion instantly turned the vehicle into a sea of Fire.
Cole, tightly pressed to the ground, felt the Impact of the explosion spread over his body, hitting the storefronts along the street.
A burning sensation came from his back; it seemed the flames from the explosion had licked his skin.
Cole pushed himself up from the ground, and suddenly heard a whooshing sound again.
He instinctively stepped aside, and a flowerpot grazed his body before smashing onto the ground.
This flowerpot seemed to have been shaken down by the Impact of the explosion; it appeared to be just a coincidence.
But an Agent doesn't believe in coincidences, let alone a series of them.
Huff, huff...
Breathing heavily, Cole drew his pistol, his eyes sweeping across the dark corners.
Creak.
The next second, the screws of an old GG sign loosened, the sound reaching Cole's ears. Just as he looked up, the GG sign fell directly down, heading straight for Cole.
Damn it!
Will it ever end?!
Cole leaped to dodge this attack. With visible warning signs, such a simple attack couldn't affect an elite Agent like him.
Having just finished dodging, Cole heard the sound of footsteps.
"Who's there!"
Cole raised his gun, aiming towards the direction of the sound.
In the moonlight, the alley was empty; it seemed like he had just imagined it.
Bang!
Cole fired without a word.
The figure in the alley suddenly blurred, a Shadow lunging to one side.
But he misjudged the direction, was hit by the bullet in mid-air, and fell heavily to the ground.
Seeing this, Cole fired three more shots: two to the chest and one to the head.
If he could still get up after that, Cole would have no choice but to accept it.
After killing the hidden enemy, Cole still dared not relax his guard, leaning against the wall until his teammates arrived.
The other Agents arrived quickly; after all, the apartment wasn't far, and the sound of the car explosion could be heard from the apartment.
"Don't worry about me, go see if he's dead!" Cole shouted.
An Agent walked to the edge of the alley and checked the figure.
"He's dead. No explosives on him either."
Cole then limped over and looked at the body on the ground.
The face of this body was blurred, and a piece of metal was embedded in his foot, likely injured by the aftermath of the car explosion.
There were also obvious signs of twisting on his ankle, which should be the source of the footsteps that exposed him.
There were four clear bullet holes on his body, but the amount of bleeding was clearly problematic; it was too little.
In the deceased's hand was a scroll, composed of parchment and a cast iron cover, with three counter-clockwise rotating brass gears embedded in the spine.
The cover read, 'seven calamity wheel book,' in Arabic script.
"Cough, cough, take him back to headquarters, be careful," Cole said to the person beside him.
As he spoke, an Agent walked over and handed the phone to Cole, "Call from headquarters."
Cole took it, and a familiar voice came from the other end; it was Black Widow.
"Cole, the morgue was robbed. The body you brought back earlier is gone."
"I understand. I'll head back now."
After hanging up the phone, Cole wiped his face, his mind constantly replaying that series of coincidences.
If those coincidences were all caused by this dead man in front of him, then how could he see the signs?
And how did he create these coincidences? What was written in that book?
Full of questions, Cole, under the protection of others, returned to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters.
After being treated by a Doctor, Cole's upper body was covered in bandages.
According to the Doctor, his luck was quite good; the Impact from the explosion didn't even push a single pebble onto him.
Coupled with taking the best evasive action in advance, he only sustained some superficial injuries.
Cole just smiled. He didn't know whether he was lucky or unlucky.
After putting on a shirt, he went to Nick's office. Natasha and Nick were already waiting for him there.
The first thing Cole saw upon entering was the computer facing him, and on it, the constantly flashing and repeating images.