During lunch break, He Shenyan finished the sandwich he had made himself. He wiped his mouth, casually picked up the newspaper the house-elves had prepared beside him, and began reading.
The headline featured a moving magical photograph. Ollivander stood there with a brilliant smile, holding up the Dragon-headed Cane. In bold black calligraphy, the title read: Ollivander's Latest Masterpiece! A Revolution in Wands!
He read the report carefully, and it was just as he had expected. The author lavished praise upon Ollivander, practically comparing him to Dumbledore. The cane itself was described as something on par with the treasures of myth and legend.
He Shenyan shook his head with a smile. He wanted to thoroughly reform this decayed Wizarding World, controlled by pure-blood families—and he did not want too much blood spilled. Therefore, handing over some of his achievements to others was an unavoidable step.
Of course, he could have waved a hand and turned those families into ashes on the wind, or made them into his puppets. But that would have been meaningless. He did not want to become a magical tyrant or a false god.
At that thought, He Shenyan found himself slipping into memories for the first time in a long while.
Strange was reading a book with great interest. Unlike other Mages, he did not enjoy making books float in the air and turn their own pages.
He was rather traditional in that regard. To him, holding a book in his hands and turning its pages had an irreplaceable significance. Call it a quirk if you liked, but Mages all had their quirks, more or less.
Speaking of Mages, he stroked his beard and thought of his senior brother again.
In Strange's eyes, He Shenyan was the strongest Mage in the world, without question.
Perhaps even Ancient One could not compare to him. Before He Shenyan appeared, every Mage in the world had to pay a price to the Dimensional Gods whenever they cast a spell.
That was because magical power was not innate, but borrowed—a debt, as They put it.
Until He Shenyan discovered that Magic Power actually existed within every person's body, rather than being borrowed from the Dimensional Gods. That meant mortals had been deceived for thousands upon thousands of years.
That discovery directly shattered the existing system of spellcasting. Knowledge was still knowledge, and magic was still magic. But there was no longer any need to pay a price, because Magic Power belonged to oneself. When you used your own things, it could not be called borrowing.
But the Dimensional Gods did not see it that way.
Whenever gods grew angry, mortals were always the ones who paid the price.
They joined forces and launched a war against the mortal world. Countless people died, directly or indirectly, and even Ancient One was gravely wounded.
They had no other choice. Ancient One took the Time Stone from the Eye of Agamotto and drove it with all her strength, using her own soul as the price, forcibly reversing time itself. Collapsed buildings returned to normal, split ground closed once more, and the dead came back to life.
Ancient One alone bore the entire cost. She died on the spot. Her soul was annihilated, her body shattered. The Time Stone vanished as well, leaving behind only the Eye of Agamotto, symbol of the Sorcerer Supreme, which was passed to Strange.
This former supreme treasure had once allowed the Sorcerer Supreme to cross through time, making reversing the years no more difficult than lifting a hand. Now, however, it retained only one function: observing the various possibilities of the Timeline's future.
Their losses had been severe. Although the Dimensional Gods no longer interfered with this world and withdrew all their influence, the sudden death of the Sorcerer Supreme also drew the attention of countless invaders throughout the universe to this planet.
Those unknown wars mostly took place in hidden corners of the universe or Earth. Fortunately, they ultimately emerged victorious, and after Ancient One, the names of He Shenyan and Strange spread throughout the cosmos.
However, He Shenyan's name was more infamous than renowned.
Those aliens called him, with fear in their voices, the Butcher's Blade of the Sorcerer Supreme, the Unspeakable Black, and the Skrull Butcher. Of those titles, Skrull Butcher was the most representative.
It all began with the Skrulls' invasion of Earth.
By chance, He Shenyan discovered that they were carrying out an all-pervasive infiltration of Earth through disguise.
At the same time, they were kidnapping humans and dissecting them to study their physiological structures.
Enraged, the Mage raided a Skrull facility in Nevada and found over a hundred corpses—men, women, old people, and children alike.
Most of them had been taken apart beyond recognition.
So, he went after the Skrull Empire alone.
Wherever the Skrulls held control, he carried out equally pervasive assassinations.
After killing the highest-ranking local official and crippling their communications network, he conducted an exceptionally brutal slaughter. First came the military and warships, then the civilians. Regardless of age or gender, if you were a Skrull, you would die.
Hiding, fleeing, and resisting were all useless. He spent three years in the universe, exterminating the Skrulls entirely by himself. After that, no one dared entertain thoughts of invading Earth again.
After all, Ancient One had merely beaten people into submission, while Strange would "negotiate terms." But He Shenyan was different. He took the lives of your entire family, wiped out your nation and your species, and even ground the stone tablets recording your racial history into powder.
More than one alien claimed to have seen a Black-Robed Mage cast a search spell spanning an entire planet from above its atmosphere, followed by countless red beams raining down from the sky.
Strange did not think what he had done was excessive. Whenever some reckless alien condemned him for sheltering such an executioner, he merely smiled faintly and retorted, "He didn't do that to you, did he? Please keep your mouths shut. His temper is nowhere near as good as mine."
The Skrulls had simply been unlucky. They had run straight into the muzzle of a gun. Ancient One's death had left He Shenyan in a particularly foul mood, and at the time, nearly every species in the universe had wanted a share of Earth.
If they did not strike hard and kill the chicken to scare the monkeys, such things would never stop. After discussing it with Strange, he simply saw the matter through to the bitter end.
Besides, the Skrulls were no saints themselves. Thinking this, Strange lifted his teacup, took a sip, and continued enjoying his hard-won rest.
Then a phone call came in.
His long face twitched. Reluctantly, he took out his phone and answered it. A young voice said urgently, "You have to help me, Doctor Strange!"
Dear god, can't I rest for even a moment? he thought despairingly.
"Really easy to get lost in memories."
He Shenyan stood up, intending to go teach his class.
By now, his preparations were essentially complete. All he needed to do was wait for the wizards on this planet to develop on their own. Perhaps they might even give him a few surprises.
Researching alone could sometimes lead one into a dead end. Most spells were broadly similar, and at his level on the path of magic, new ideas were always more valuable than new spells. If he wanted to go home, he had to possess a complete and reliable method of breaking through the World Barrier—though he already had one.
He had even learned that the World Barrier possessed a consciousness of its own. That was truly astonishing. Why had the World Barrier of their world not stopped their actions? He Shenyan could not understand it and could only hope that one day, he would return and see for himself.
By tearing off half of his own soul and merging it with the World Barrier, he had made the Outer Gods stop watching him. It had been a risky move, but he had ultimately proven it feasible.
The next step was to search the vast sea of stars for his original world.
He Shenyan could foresee that it would be an exceptionally long journey. Fortunately, he still had some ways to pass the time and keep himself from losing his humanity.
Besides, the process itself was rather interesting. He smiled.
Before you continue