This Is What "Since Ancient Times" Means!

"In 2620 BCE, an alien creature known as the Brood invaded Earth. It was the hive mother of the Zerg." Lin Hao began telling his story in Wakanda's royal hall.

"I've seen this legend in the historical records left by our ancestors." The weak Princess Shuri had finally come around and picked up where Lin Hao left off. "But they were wiped out, and the battlefield was in Egypt. What does that have to do with Wakanda?"

"Don't rush." Seeing someone step forward to corroborate him, Lin Hao was in a much better mood, and his attitude became far more amiable.

T'Chaka turned and shot his daughter a fierce glare. Had this unlucky child studied herself stupid?

"As Princess Shuri said, the aliens who invaded that time were defeated by humanity. Imhotep, the designer of the pyramids, led an army to destroy the Brood and founded a far-reaching organization—the S.H.I.E.L.D. Brotherhood."

"After defeating the Brood, Imhotep was revered as a god and worshipped by the people. The spear and round shield he used to defeat the Brood came to be regarded as the Holy Spear and the Holy Shield..."

"The Holy Shield was kept by the S.H.I.E.L.D. Brotherhood and became his totem, while the Holy Spear eventually made its way eastward and was inherited by Zhang Heng, the founder of our S.P.E.A.R. From then on came the saying: 'The spear lies in the East, and the shield lies in the West.'"

Little Shuri was utterly engrossed in the story and instinctively pressed on, "What does this have to do with Wakanda?"

Though eleven- or twelve-year-old Shuri was a genius, she was still a child in the end.

"Here comes the relevant part."

The previous details could at least be traced back to something. From this point onward, Lin Hao began spouting nonsense with a straight face.

"From the historical events I just described, everyone should understand that humanity is not alone in the universe. For thousands of years, aliens have continued to visit Earth."

"More than five thousand years ago, a group of natural gods was born on Earth. For example, Shiva and Vishnu in India; Amon Ra and Horus in Egypt; Izanagi in Japan; and the Jade Emperor and Antarctic Immortal Elder in China..."

"Of course, there was also your Black Panther Goddess." Lin Hao finally brought up Wakanda.

The eyes of every Wakandan official gathered on him. Because Princess Shuri, their nation's genius, had vouched for him, they no longer believed Lin Hao was talking complete nonsense. Naturally, they became curious about these ancient secrets.

"To distribute the power of faith, quell conflicts between believers, and defend against alien threats, these native gods joined with Odin, the God-King of Asgard, and Zeus, the god-king of Olympus, to establish the Council of Gods. They agreed that the gods of every people could participate in the council and discuss the major affairs of Earth."

Having laid out the background, Lin Hao finally revealed his true purpose. "China's divine organization, the Celestial Court, stationed the Antarctic Immortal Elder permanently in the Council of Gods. Once, your Black Panther Goddess approached the Antarctic Immortal Elder and said Wakanda's metallurgical standards were too poor at the time. She proposed that both sides jointly develop the vibranium mines."

Every Wakandan official looked at Lin Hao as if he were an idiot.

Heh. He actually had the nerve to tell such lies meant for children?

Did he take them for fools?

Even Shuri, the child, did not believe him. "What evidence do you have?"

"I do!"

Lin Hao gestured to his subordinates, who carried over an exquisitely made combination lock case. As they opened it, he continued speaking.

"The two sides developed the mines together, on and off, for more than a thousand years. Then the Council of Gods decreed that all gods were forbidden from interfering with human life, and the Black Panther Goddess and every god of the Celestial Court withdrew from the world."

"Later, a heavenly maiden descended upon Luoyang, the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty. She told Zhang Heng, president of the Royal Academy of Sciences, that the Celestial Court had once made this agreement with Wakanda's goddess. It happened to solve Zhang Heng's problem of finding materials to build a seismoscope."

As he spoke, Lin Hao actually displayed an antique scroll painting. It depicted Zhang Heng standing atop a pavilion and meeting with the heavenly maiden.

Then he took out another scroll depicting a Han Dynasty fleet sailing out to sea.

"Upon receiving the heavenly maiden's message, Zhang Heng was overjoyed. He immediately dispatched a fleet across the ocean to the Persian Gulf. I believe Wakanda's history should contain corresponding records."

"It only records that you reached the Persian Gulf. It never mentions developing vibranium mines!" Honest little Shuri blurted out impatiently.

T'Chaka rolled his eyes wildly, wishing he could sew his daughter's mouth shut. Unfortunately, he was bound in alloy chains.

The other Wakandan officials had never cared about such distant history. Although they could all access the royal library, aside from Shuri, that studious little genius, who would be bored enough to dig through piles of old papers?

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Wakanda was surrounded by tribes. Only Wakanda had formed anything resembling a nation, so an event as major as a visit from the Eastern Great Power had naturally been recorded by the Wakandan royal family of that era.

The Book of the Later Han: Record of the Western Regions recorded that in 97 CE, Ban Chao sent Gan Ying as an envoy to Da Qin, and that he "reached the Western Sea and gazed toward Da Qin." The "Western Sea" was the Persian Gulf.

From then on, the footsteps of the Chinese reached the African continent, and the Maritime Silk Road subsequently began to extend to the shores of the Persian Gulf.

Building upon this, Zheng He rounded the Horn of Africa during his final voyage, crossed the Mozambique Channel, and reached Madagascar. Yet fate was cruel, and he ultimately failed to pass the Cape of Good hope and find a sea route to the nations of the far West.

"The evidence is conclusive." Lin Hao shook the "ancient painting" in his hand and declared righteously, "This is what 'since ancient times' means!"

Among lies, there were truths and falsehoods—nine parts true, one part false; nine parts shallow, one part deep.

Even the Wakandan officials could not help feeling puzzled after hearing it.

Could the Black Panther Goddess really have had an agreement with the gods of the East?

"I knew you wouldn't believe me." Lin Hao waved a hand, ordering his subordinates to carry away the "precious" historical documents.

"Actually, there's an even simpler way..." Lin Hao turned and smiled at T'Chaka. "Just awaken the Black Panther Goddess and ask her."

"No!"

T'Chaka reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, his voice nearly cracking.

The leaders of the five tribes all cast searching looks at him.

T'Challa, who knew what his father had done yesterday, lowered his head and dared not meet their eyes. Princess Shuri also guiltily looked away.

"Your Majesty, do you think what I said is true or false?" Lin Hao looked as though he had T'Chaka completely in his grasp.

You wouldn't want the Black Panther Goddess to discover that you killed the Black Panther, would you?

The Black Panther Goddess might not care about one African man who could transform into a black panther, but she would certainly care whether she had been deceived by her believers—especially when that believer was her chosen earthly representative.

It was like the Pope deceiving God. Popes in the ordinary world did this often, but only because they knew full well that God did not exist in that ordinary world.

But gods genuinely existed in the Marvel world. Even the cinematic universe had revealed the existence of the Council of Gods in Thor 4.

The Black Panther Goddess truly existed on Wakandan soil.

Otherwise, why had T'Chaka deliberately painted his vibranium battle suit like a tiger and even made himself a tiger-head helmet?

Wasn't it just to deceive himself and the gods, to leave himself a little psychological comfort?

Now that Lin Hao wanted to awaken the Black Panther Goddess, how could T'Chaka not panic?

Thinking of how the other party had knocked him unconscious the moment he jumped into the plane, T'Chaka realized Lin Hao clearly knew what had happened in San Francisco.

T'Chaka looked as though he had swallowed a mouthful of shit. After a long while, he finally gritted out, "Fine. We'll develop it together. From now on, both sides will split the vibranium mine output equally."

No matter how valuable vibranium was, it was not as valuable as royal power.

If the Black Panther Goddess were truly awakened, the best possible outcome for T'Chaka's family would be exile. More likely, they would be executed by enraged citizens and the next ruler.

The enemy might be expelled by the Black Panther Goddess, but his family would lose everything.

Yet as long as they retained the throne, their losses... were not losses at all.

After all, Wakanda sold so little vibranium each year that it did not even amount to a fraction of its production. By controlling supply, they had driven vibranium's price to the astronomical figure of ten thousand dollars per gram.

Even if half the vibranium mines were divided away in the future, it would make no difference to Wakanda's upper echelon. S.P.E.A.R. certainly would not be foolish enough to dump its own vibranium onto the market and crash prices.

Furthermore, because vibranium's molecular structure was stable, it was extremely difficult for it to dissipate, much like gold. The vibranium Wakanda had mined over thousands of years had suffered almost no loss and could be fully recycled.

So for Wakanda's entire upper echelon, whether they received ten kilograms or five kilograms of vibranium each year truly made no difference.

If they did not sell vibranium, then having a little more or a little less stockpiled made no difference either. They only produced it; they did not consume it.

Wakanda had no intention of building the entire country into a capital city, so it could never use that much vibranium. Nor did they intend to conquer the world. They simply wanted to remain hidden in the land where their people had lived for generations and live their own lives.

Seeing the king nod, the other tribal leaders said nothing. Only M'Baku, that tough warrior, stepped forward and cursed T'Chaka furiously. "Coward! You are unworthy to inherit the name of the Black Panther!"

"Oh?" Lin Hao's voice turned cold again. "It seems this chief is looking forward to a war."

M'Baku was left speechless. He was no fool. As the strongest warrior of the Jabari Tribe, he had been effortlessly defeated by an enemy foot soldier. With the Jabari Tribe's strength, they certainly could not defeat the enemy.

"I can announce to the world that you invaded Wakanda!" M'Baku came up with an idea. "Our tribe's warriors are still outside."

"Is that so?" Lin Hao walked toward him and replied with a cold sneer, "If you want to make this known to everyone, we may take a little less—but then Wakanda will have no reason to exist."

Only then did the Wakandan officials realize that S.P.E.A.R. stood behind one of the five great powers. Even if the news became public, the other side could still claim at least twenty percent based on its standing in the world. But Wakanda would certainly be devoured cleanly by the five great powers.

"I know you have some advanced technology, but how large is your population? How many arms factories do you have? How much food have you stockpiled? Can your war potential compare to that of the five great powers?"

"You cannot compare to them materially, and you cannot compare to them spiritually either."

Lin Hao coldly shattered their fantasy of mutual destruction. "Over thousands of years, have you ever experienced a real war?"

"Can your people's tolerance for brutal war compare to ours, after all the hardships we have endured?"

"Do you think a world war is children from five tribes playing house?"

"I said I agree to joint development!" T'Chaka did not want Lin Hao to continue striking at their hearts.

"An equal split won't do. I need at least..."

Lin Hao turned around, only for a mysterious pressure to suddenly surge through the royal palace.

A phantom of a sleek black panther descended at the palace entrance. With elegant steps, she slowly walked toward Lin Hao, her voice hollow and languid.

"Boy, why don't I remember ever having made any agreement with the Antarctic Immortal Elder..."