This Is "Since Ancient Times"!

"In 2620 BC, an alien creature known as the 'Brood' invaded Earth. It was the hive mother of the insectoid race," Lin Hao began his story in the grand hall of the Wakandan palace.

"I've seen this legend in our ancestral records," Princess Shuri, who had finally woken up, interjected. "But they were wiped out, and the battlefield was in Egypt at the time. What does that have to do with us in Wakanda?"

"Don't rush," Lin Hao said, his mood improving and his attitude softening considerably upon finding someone to corroborate his tale.

T'Chaka shot his daughter a fierce glare. That troublesome child, has she gone mad from reading too much?

"As Princess Shuri said, the aliens who invaded this time were defeated by humans. At that time, Imhotep, the designer of the pyramids, led a great army to annihilate the 'Brood' and established an organization with far-reaching influence – the S.H.I.E.L.D. Brotherhood."

"After defeating the 'Brood,' Imhotep was revered as a deity and enjoyed the worship of the people. The spear and shield he used to defeat the 'Brood' were regarded as the 'Holy Spear' and 'Holy Shield' respectively..."

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

Shuri, engrossed in the story, instinctively asked, "What does this have to do with Wakanda?"

Despite being a genius, Shuri at eleven or twelve was still a child.

"You'll find out now."

While the preceding information had some basis in fact, Lin Hao now began to speak utter nonsense with a straight face.

"From the historical events just mentioned, you should all understand that humanity is not alone in the universe. Aliens have been visiting Earth for thousands of years."

"About five thousand years ago, a group of natural deities emerged on Earth, such as Shiva and Vishnu from India, Amon Ra and Horus from Egypt, Izanagi from Japan, and the Jade Emperor and Antarctic Immortal Elder from China..."

"Of course, there's also your Black Panther Goddess," Lin Hao finally mentioned Wakanda.

All the Wakandan high-ranking officials turned their gazes towards him. Due to the confirmation from their own genius princess, Shuri, they were beginning to believe Lin Hao wasn't entirely fabricating things and were naturally curious about these ancient secrets.

"In order to distribute faith energy, quell conflicts among believers, and also to resist alien threats, these native deities, along with the Asgardian King Odin and the Olympian King Zeus, established the 'Council of Gods.' They agreed that deities from all ethnic groups could participate in the council and jointly decide major affairs on Earth."

Having finished the background information, Lin Hao revealed his true intentions. "The Chinese deity organization, the 'Celestial Court,' dispatched the Antarctic Immortal Elder to be stationed at the 'Council of Gods.' On one occasion, your Black Panther Goddess approached the Antarctic Immortal Elder, stating that Wakanda's smelting technology at the time was too poor and proposed that both sides jointly develop the Vibranium mines."

All the Wakandan high-ranking officials looked at Lin Hao as if he were an idiot.

Heh, does he really think such childish lies will work?

Does he take us for fools?

Even young Shuri didn't believe him. "What proof do you have?"

"I have it!"

Lin Hao beckoned to his subordinate, who then brought over a finely crafted combination lock briefcase. As he opened it, he continued, "The two sides developed it together intermittently for over a thousand years, until the 'Council of Gods' decreed that all deities must no longer interfere with human life. The Black Panther Goddess and all the deities of the Celestial Court then went into seclusion."

"Later, a celestial maiden descended upon Luoyang city, the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty. She informed Zhang Heng, the director of the Royal Academy of Sciences, that the Celestial Court had previously made this agreement with the deities of Wakanda, which could solve the material problem Zhang Heng was facing in creating the seismograph."

As he spoke, Lin Hao actually presented an ancient scroll depicting Zhang Heng meeting the celestial maiden in a pavilion.

Then, he produced another scroll showing a Han Dynasty fleet sailing out to sea.

"Upon learning of the celestial maiden's message, Zhang Heng was overjoyed and immediately dispatched a fleet to sail across the ocean to the Persian Gulf. I believe Wakanda's history should have corresponding records."

"It only records your arrival at the Persian Gulf, and doesn't mention anything about developing Vibranium mines at all!" the honest child Shuri blurted out.

T'Chaka rolled his eyes repeatedly, wishing he could sew his daughter's mouth shut, but he was bound by alloy chains.

The other Wakandan high-ranking officials had previously been uninterested in these ancient historical matters. Although they could all access the royal library, who, besides the studious little genius Shuri, would be bored enough to pore over such old texts?

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Wakanda was surrounded by tribes, and only they had formed the concept of a nation. The arrival of a great power from the East was naturally recorded by the Wakandan royal family at the time.

The Book of the Later Han Dynasty: Biographies of the Western Regions records that in 97 AD, Ban Chao dispatched Gan Ying on a mission to the Great Qin. His description of "gazing at the Great Qin from the edge of the Western Sea" indicates that the "Western Sea" was the Persian Gulf.

From then on, the footprints of the Chinese people reached the African continent, and the "Maritime Silk Road" began to touch the coasts of the Persian Gulf.

Building upon this, Zheng He, on his final voyage, circumnavigated the "Horn of Africa," crossed the Mozambique Channel, and reached Madagascar. However, fate was unkind, and he ultimately failed to round the Cape of Good Hope to find the maritime route to the land of the West.

"The evidence is conclusive," Lin Hao declared righteously, shaking the "ancient paintings" in his hand. "This is 'since ancient times'!"

His lies were a mixture of truth and falsehood, nine parts true and one part false, nine parts shallow and one part deep.

Even the Wakandan high-ranking officials, after listening, couldn't help but wonder.

Did the Black Panther Goddess really have an agreement with the deities of the East?

"I knew you wouldn't believe me," Lin Hao said, waving his hand for his subordinates to take away the "precious" historical documents.

"Actually, there's a simpler way..." Lin Hao turned back and smiled at T'Chaka. "Just wake up the Black Panther Goddess and ask Her."

"No!"

T'Chaka reacted as if his tail had been stepped on, his voice almost cracking.

The leaders of the five tribes cast questioning glances at him.

T'Challa, who knew what his father had done the previous day, lowered his head, unable to face their gazes. Princess Shuri also guiltily averted her eyes.

"Your Majesty, do you believe what I've said is true or false?" Lin Hao asked, his demeanor suggesting he had him cornered.

You wouldn't want the fact that you killed the Black Panther to be discovered by the Black Panther Goddess, would you?

The Black Panther Goddess might not care about an African who could transform into a black panther, but She would certainly care if Her followers deceived Her, especially when that follower was the "walking representative of humanity" She had chosen.

It was akin to the Pope deceiving God. Although popes in the ordinary world often did this, it was because they knew for a fact that God did not exist in the ordinary world.

But in the Marvel world, deities truly existed. Even the cinematic universe revealed the existence of the "Council of Gods" in Thor 4.

The Black Panther Goddess truly exists in the land of Wakanda.

Otherwise, why would T'Chaka intentionally paint the Vibranium armor like a tiger and create a tiger-head helmet?

Wasn't it just to deceive themselves, fool the gods, and give themselves some psychological comfort!

Now that he heard Lin Hao wanted to awaken the Black Panther Goddess, how could T'Chaka not be anxious?

Thinking that the other party had knocked him out as soon as he jumped onto the plane, it was clear they knew what happened in San Francisco.

T'Chaka felt like he had swallowed a large piece of excrement. After a long while, he gritted his teeth and said, "Fine, then we'll develop it jointly, and the Vibranium ore output will be split equally between us in the future."

No matter how valuable Vibranium was, it wasn't as valuable as royal power.

If the Black Panther Goddess were truly awakened, the best outcome for T'Chaka's family would be expulsion, and they would most likely be executed by an enraged populace and the successor.

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

And as long as they kept the throne, their losses... were actually no losses.

Because the amount of Vibranium Wakanda sold annually was so little it didn't even count as a "drop in the bucket." By controlling sales, they had driven the price of Vibranium up to an astronomical ten thousand dollars per gram.

Even if half of the Vibranium ore was given away in the future, it would make no difference to the Wakandan higher-ups, as S.P.E.A.R. would certainly not be foolish enough to flood the market with their Vibranium and crash the price.

Furthermore, due to the stable molecular structure of Vibranium, it was extremely difficult to volatilize, just like gold. Almost none of the Vibranium they had mined over thousands of years had been lost, and it did not affect recycling at all.

Therefore, for the entire Wakandan higher-ups, whether they received ten kilograms or five kilograms of Vibranium each year made no real difference.

If they didn't sell the Vibranium, having more or less of it in hand made no difference, because there was only production, no consumption.

Wakanda wasn't planning to build its entire country into a capital city, so they couldn't use up so much Vibranium. They also had no intention of dominating the world; they just wanted to live their lives in the place they had inhabited for generations.

Seeing the king nod, the other tribal leaders remained silent. Only the tough M'Baku stepped forward and cursed T'Chaka, "Coward, you are not worthy of the name 'Black Panther'!"

"Oh?" Lin Hao's voice turned cold again. "It seems this leader is expecting a war."

M'Baku was speechless. He wasn't an idiot. As the strongest of the Jabari Tribe, he was easily defeated by the enemy's grunts. With the strength of the Jabari Tribe, they definitely couldn't defeat the enemy.

"I can announce your invasion of Wakanda to the world!" M'Baku thought of an idea. "Our tribal warriors are still outside."

"Is that so?" Lin Hao walked towards him, responding with a cold sneer. "If you want to make it known to everyone, we'll take a little less, but then Wakanda will cease to exist."

The Wakandan higher-ups finally realized that S.P.E.A.R. was backed by one of the five major powers. Even if the news was made public, they would still receive at least twenty percent based on their influence, but Wakanda would be completely devoured by the five major powers.

"I know you have some high technology, but how many people do you have, how many arms factories, how much grain reserves do you have? Can your war potential compare to the five major powers?"

"You can't compare not only materially, but also spiritually."

Lin Hao coldly shattered their fantasy of mutual destruction. "Have you experienced a real great war in thousands of years?"

"Can your citizens' tolerance for brutal warfare compare to ours, who have endured hardships?"

"Do you think world wars are like playing house for five tribes?"

"I said, I agree to joint development!" T'Chaka didn't want Lin Hao to continue his psychological attack.

"Splitting it equally won't do, I should at least get..."

Lin Hao turned around, only to be met by a mysterious pressure emanating from within the palace.

A slender black panther phantom descended at the palace entrance, walking towards Lin Hao with elegant steps, emitting a clear, lazy voice.

"Little brat, I don't recall making any agreements with the Antarctic Immortal Elder..."