176 To Save or Not to Save?

Star-Lord shouted because he saw someone he least wanted to see besides Ronan—Yondu.

Yondu was the leader of the Ravagers, the very person who had gone to Earth to kidnap Star-Lord and later trained him as his subordinate. Naturally, Star-Lord felt no gratitude toward the man who had abducted him from his homeworld, and had constantly plotted to escape. Eventually, upon hearing rumors that someone was willing to pay a hefty price for the Orb, he set out on his own and managed to find it first. Of course, back then, he had no idea that the glowing stone was actually the Power Stone.

Ever since he secured the Power Stone, Yondu had been hunting him relentlessly, even placing a bounty on his head—which was the exact reason the raccoon was trying to capture Star-Lord in the first place. Therefore, the moment Star-Lord saw Yondu and his crew appear, he cried out and bolted.

The others were stunned, thinking the newcomers were merely a couple of dozen men without any heavy weaponry, hardly a threat formidable enough to warrant such a panicked retreat given their combined combat prowess.

However, the moment Li Daniu laid eyes on Yondu, genuine terror gripped him, and he took off running even faster than Star-Lord.

Yondu did not make many appearances in the film, but his combat ability was undeniably terrifying. He possessed a conscious-controlled, arrow-like hidden weapon capable of instantly slaughtering over thirty of Ronan’s subordinates in the blink of an eye. Li Daniu had zero desire to test whether his movement techniques could successfully evade Yondu’s arrow.

Just as the rest of the group were wondering why Star-Lord and Li Daniu were fleeing, dozens of spacecraft whined through the air.

Gamora gasped aloud, "The Sakaaran fleet! Ronan is here."

Hearing the name Ronan, the raccoon and the tree creature also turned tail and ran. Compared to the unfamiliar Yondu, Ronan’s formidable and ruthless reputation struck deeper fear into everyone's hearts.

Several Necrocrafts landed directly on the street, yet not a single employee from the Tivan Group stepped forward to stop them. This indicated that the Tivan Group's systems had been completely paralyzed by the earlier explosion, or perhaps Tivan had already abandoned the facility.

As Ronan descended from one of the Necrocrafts, Drax the Destroyer leaped out from the shadows.

"Ronan! You finally stand before me! I will kill you and avenge my dead wife and daughter!"

Ronan was entirely unsurprised by Drax's appearance; the number of enemies he had across the universe was immeasurable.

Drax charged at Ronan with dual blades. Meanwhile, Ronan's subordinate Nebula, having spotted Gamora climbing into a Milano spacecraft, pulled out a scanner. After running a quick check, Nebula reported, "Gamora is escaping with the Orb."

"Take a team and go after her!" Ronan waved his hand dismissively, walked forward a few steps, and squarely met the charging Destroyer.

With Ronan's warship parked just outside Knowhere, he certainly wasn't worried that Gamora could truly get away.

Putting aside the battle between Drax and Ronan, Star-Lord and the raccoon—seeing Gamora's Milano being pursued by the Necrocrafts—each scrambled into their own Milano spacecrafts in preparation for takeoff.

"You stay here," the raccoon told the tree creature trailing behind him. "You're too big; you won't fit."

Although Li Daniu knew that the Power Stone currently in Gamora's possession would soon be snatched away by Ronan's men, he was completely helpless to stop it. He had no idea how to pilot an alien spaceship, let alone the supposedly foolproof Milano.

Watching Star-Lord and the raccoon pilot their Leonard-class spacecrafts in pursuit of Gamora, Li Daniu could only drag the tree creature off to the side, managing to steer clear of the approaching Yondu and his crew.

Seeing Star-Lord depart, Yondu and his men turned and sprinted back toward their own ship.

"I am Groot!" the tree creature shouted at Li Daniu.

"I have no idea what you're trying to say," Li Daniu muttered, privately marveling at how the raccoon could possibly extract so much meaning from lines distinguished only by subtle shifts in tone. Perhaps that was precisely why the two of them were inseparable.

Seeing the tree creature laboriously weave a pattern with its branches, Li Daniu finally realized that the tree creature was talking about Drax.

Rescue Drax? Holy crap, Drax was currently engaged in a one-on-one death match with Ronan! Just how monstrous was Ronan's combat power?

Drax's physical strength exceeded a hundred tons, and his skin was nearly indestructible. Yet even someone as powerful as Drax was being utterly brutalized by Ronan, which gave a terrifying glimpse into just how overwhelmingly strong Ronan truly was.

Moreover, Ronan's strength was not merely physical. Li Daniu vividly remembered a scene from the movie where Ronan casually waved his weapon and crushed one of Thanos's subordinates to death from afar using energy projection.

If Ronan possessed purely physical strength, Li Daniu would be confident in relying on his own footwork and agility to evade attacks. But since Ronan also wielded special supernatural powers, Li Daniu genuinely dared not go toe-to-toe with him!

Just as Li Daniu hesitated, the tree creature was already rushing toward the site of the battle between Drax and Ronan. Terrified though he was, Li Daniu followed along anyway. *I won't fight him head-on; watching the situation from a safe distance should be fine, right?*

When Li Daniu and the tree creature arrived at the scene, they arrived just in time to see Ronan toss the unconscious Destroyer directly into the Tivan Group's collection vat of corrosive fluid.

Li Daniu had initially expected the tree creature to charge forward recklessly, but to his surprise, the tree creature wasn't entirely foolish. It hid obediently to the side, waiting until Ronan boarded his Necrocraft and departed before coming out of hiding.

The collection vat was where the Tivan Group stored the dissolving fluid used to process the ancient Celestial's head. The liquid inside was intensely corrosive. Even with a body as resilient as Drax's—tough enough that even Ronan could not easily breach his skin—being knocked unconscious and thrown into the vat meant he would certainly drown, if not dissolve outright.

After all, even the Destroyer required oxygen.

The tree creature extended its arm straight into the vat. Li Daniu clearly saw the tree creature's hand begin to dissolve at a visible rate the moment it made contact.

However, the tree creature possessed the ability to rapidly regenerate its own body mass, allowing it to completely offset the rate of dissolution.

After hauling Drax out, Li Daniu hurried forward to help lay him flat on the ground, then attempted to compress Drax's chest to expel the corrosive liquid he had inhaled. To his shock, even when Li Daniu exerted nearly all his strength, he found he couldn't even budge Drax's body.

The tree creature squatted down, manipulating its form to sprout a thin twig from its hand, which it thrust directly into Drax's mouth and wiggled around.

"Blech..."

After spitting up a mouthful of corrosive liquid, Drax began coughing violently. Before Li Daniu could even feel the joy of Drax being revived, he let out a miserable shriek.

A stray splash of the fluid expelled from Drax's mouth had landed on Li Daniu's leg, instantly melting away his trousers. Even though he instantly channeled his Nine Yang Divine Skill to shroud his body in protective internal energy, that tiny droplet of fluid actually began to eat through his protective barrier.

Fortunately, the amount of liquid was minimal, leaving only a scorched scar on his calf.

"Damn it all to hell!" Li Daniu had never imagined the corrosive fluid would be so immensely potent. Had he known beforehand, he definitely would have had the reflexes to dodge it.

This terrifying display further underscored just how formidable Drax's physique truly was, and highlighted the unfathomable realm of power possessed by the Ronan who had so effortlessly crushed him.

"I'm sorry!" the newly conscious Destroyer apologized with profound dejection. He had desperately wanted revenge against Ronan, but having never fought him directly before, he had completely underestimated Ronan's true might. This time, not only had he failed to exact vengeance, but he had also placed his companions in grave danger.

Though Li Daniu was irritated by Drax's recklessness—which had ruined his chance to alter the course of the plot—he couldn't bring himself to scold the man, knowing full well that Drax was already suffering the deepest despair.

With a loud clatter, a Milano spacecraft touched down nearby. The raccoon crawled out from inside, looking utterly dejected as he muttered, "It's over. The Power Stone was stolen, and Star-Lord and Gamora were captured by Yondu."

Li Daniu was neither surprised nor particularly emotional upon hearing this. Right now, his primary concern was where to hide out until the crisis blew over.

As for joining the upcoming conflict between Ronan and the Nova Corps?

That was pure, unadulterated suicide! Li Daniu certainly didn't believe he possessed the protagonist plot armor of Star-Lord and his crew.

Seeing Drax slumped on the ground, the raccoon's temper flared anew, and he roared hysterically, "Are you satisfied now?!"

Drax lowered his head and rasped, "I am sorry. I will go save Star-Lord and the others."

"Save them? Are you out of your mind? Yondu has an entire warship!" Having finished his outburst, the raccoon turned to the tree creature and said, "Groot, let's go. Daniu, are you coming with us?"

Groot shook his head and said, "I am Groot!"

"What? You're going to save Star-Lord too?" The raccoon asked in astonishment, before turning his gaze back to Li Daniu.

"So, what's your decision?"