After T'Chaka woke up, he was completely dazed.
Hadn't he just finished purging the heretics, boarded his own plane, and prepared to go home?
Looking around, he was indeed in his own palace.
"Oh, so I'm already back..." T'Chaka, still confused, suddenly narrowed his eyes as he finally recalled what had happened the moment he boarded the plane. "No, someone knocked me out!"
Then he discovered that he was bound in iron chains. His unconscious daughter was on his left, while his wife, who had only recently fallen asleep, was on his right.
"Awake?" A cold voice sounded beside his ear. "You have the best qualities among this batch."
Following the voice, T'Chaka saw a black metal mask. Three white crescent shapes—two small and one large—formed an exaggerated smiling face upon it.
He could not see the other person's eyes or mouth, yet he could clearly hear the voice. It was neither deep nor shrill, but its lingering coldness was impossible to dispel.
"Who are you people?"
T'Chaka realized that he was in Wakanda's royal palace hall, yet a group of people in red uniforms stood guard around him. Their ranks were orderly and stern, clearly an elite force.
"Don't rush. I don't want to say this twice, so I'll introduce myself after your son and the leaders of the five tribes are all here." Lin Hao turned away and began examining the decorations in the hall.
After capturing Queen Ramonda, Lin Hao immediately rushed to Shuri's laboratory. He spent some time breaking through Wakanda's central control system and took over the defenses of the entire capital in one stroke.
The shield recharged, restoring the primitive, backward savanna camouflage.
He then remotely controlled Wakanda's satellites in low Earth orbit to emit jamming signals, temporarily paralyzing foreign satellites passing over Wakanda during this period. This ensured that even if another country's satellite happened to capture footage of the battle, it would be unable to transmit it due to malfunction.
Space was filled with all kinds of radiation. It was perfectly normal for satellites to suffer interference or even damage.
Besides, Black Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. had most likely already arrived in Los Angeles by now to investigate why the Los Angeles branch had been "mushroomed." He had no time to spare for anything else.
Lin Hao had seized this opportunity to quietly conquer Wakanda.
Wakanda's population was not large, and its military was even smaller. Other than the successive Black Panthers, who became superhumans after consuming the Heart-Shaped Herb, only M'Baku, leader of the Jabari Tribe, possessed ape-like strength bestowed by the White Gorilla. Everyone else was ordinary, merely relying on vibranium weapons to throw their weight around.
According to official records, S.P.E.A.R. had 150,000 agents. The ten thousand Zheng Xian had brought out this time were all elites, and every one of them had cultivated the basic Inner Force technique derived by Lin Hao. Those who had trained for more than five years possessed speed and strength comparable to a Black Panther not wearing a vibranium suit.
Five thousand men were dispatched to capture the leaders of the five tribes, three thousand were responsible for suppressing Wakanda's capital, and the remaining two thousand stayed behind to stand guard at the Ring Fortress.
T'Challa, who had left the palace, was escorted by the royal guard to the River Tribe beside the Amas River. This tribe was the most loyal to Wakanda's royal family, and its leader's daughter, Nakia, was T'Challa's girlfriend.
Unfortunately, S.P.E.A.R.'s agents arrived first aboard hovering combat vehicles.
A level-seven S.P.E.A.R. agent pointed at T'Challa and the royal guard galloping across the grasslands below on horseback. "Old Li, I'll take ten men down to capture T'Challa. You keep heading for the River Tribe."
"Will ten be enough?" His colleague laughed. "Be careful not to get knocked flat and have to wait for me to come back and save you."
"Are you kidding? Do you think I trained my Inner Force for nothing?" With that, he led ten subordinates onto flying motorcycles and dove down.
The battle held no suspense. T'Challa had fled in a hurry and had not brought his vibranium suit. Skill alone could not stop eleven S.P.E.A.R. agents who had cultivated Inner Force.
After taking down T'Challa and the royal guard, they waited where they were for a while. Before long, they saw their colleagues returning with the leader of the River Tribe.
Victories came one after another from the five forces. Other than the Jabari Tribe in the snowy mountains and the Border Tribe, which controlled the border defenses, causing S.P.E.A.R. some losses, the other three tribes were captured with almost no effort.
After capturing the leaders of the five tribes, Lin Hao's five forces swiftly returned to Wakanda's capital without getting drawn into prolonged fighting.
As a result, when the people of the five tribes saw their leaders captured, they immediately launched a spontaneous pursuit. Five towering plumes of dust rose across the grasslands.
Seeing the enemy take their leaders to the capital, the leaders of the five tribes all paused briefly before the capital's shield. They thought of many possibilities. Some believed the nation had come under attack, while others believed the royal family intended to wipe out the five tribes and centralize all power.
But their leaders had been taken away, and they could not stand idly by. Otherwise, once their people lost heart, they would be impossible to lead.
"I'll take half our people inside. You retreat first. If we haven't returned by nightfall, go back to the tribe immediately."
The people of the five tribes all made nearly identical decisions. Even the River Tribe, the most loyal to the royal family, was no exception.
Wakanda's tribes had waged war against one another for thousands of years in ancient times. Only after the first Black Panther appeared were they forcibly united into the nation of Wakanda.
Unfortunately, the country had never truly been unified. Each tribe held part of the power. The main military authority belonged to the Border Tribe, the most important vibranium mines were excavated by the Mining Tribe, yet the Merchant Tribe was the wealthiest and controlled the nation's finances. There was also an "Ape Tribe" that obeyed orders but ignored commands, and its leader was a powerhouse second only to the Black Panther.
Honestly, only descendants of Europeans, who had never again achieved great unification after the Roman Empire, would admire such a fucked-up organizational model.
Put a country like that in the East Asian meat grinder, and they would have beaten each other's brains out long ago before being destroyed by foreign enemies. And they still expected to pass down peace for thousands of years?
After half the forces of the five tribes entered the capital, Lin Hao completely shut down the shield. The waiting S.P.E.A.R. agents joined the "pacifists" and forcibly disarmed them.
Inside the royal palace hall, when the five leaders saw the royal family lined up nice and neatly, they suddenly felt more balanced.
Good. I wasn't the only unlucky one.
"Now that everyone is here, let me inform you of something." Lin Hao's indifferent voice reached the ears of every Wakandan high-ranking official. "We, S.P.E.A.R., are reclaiming the vibranium mines that have belonged to us since ancient times."
"Absurd!"
"Ridiculous!"
"The vibranium mines clearly belong to Wakanda. Since when did they become yours, S.P.E.A.R.'s?"
"What the hell is S.P.E.A.R.? Never even heard of it."
The leaders of the Mining Tribe and Merchant Tribe were the first to jump out, as all their wealth came from the vibranium mines.
Judging by the situation before them, the entire country had been swept up in one go. The other side had surely discovered the true reserves of vibranium. Denying it outright now would only invite humiliation.
T'Chaka kept a stern face and said nothing, because he knew what S.P.E.A.R. was. Through the world history recorded by Wakanda, he even knew that S.P.E.A.R. was an organization with a long history.
Prince T'Challa, however, was still trapped in the shadow of being effortlessly defeated by S.P.E.A.R.'s agents.
He could not understand why he, who had consumed the Heart-Shaped Herb, had been so easily defeated. Wasn't the Heart-Shaped Herb a divine treasure bestowed by the Black Panther God? Wasn't it a divine treasure possessed only by noble Wakanda?
I couldn't beat them without eating it, and I still couldn't beat them after eating it. Didn't I eat the Heart-Shaped Herb for nothing?
T'Challa was only a teenager at this point, and he took victory and defeat very seriously.
M'Baku, leader of the Jabari Tribe, also remained silent. He was likewise very young and had likewise been easily defeated by the enemy just now.
The leader of the River Tribe held his daughter Nakia close as he carefully observed the situation. From time to time, he glanced at T'Challa, then at Lin Hao in the metal mask, considering whom he should give his daughter to in order to preserve the River Tribe's interests in the future.
"Let me tell you a story. About four thousand years ago, in 2620 BC, the world's first empire appeared to your north..."
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