American comics: Praising the sun, starting from Gotham!

Chapter 349 Bastet, the Leopard Goddess, completes the transaction and returns to the Ximu Realm.

Faced with T'Challa's request, Shum glanced at the sunflower beside him, its head gleaming with anticipation for a good show, and ultimately waved his hand.

"Okay, okay, hurry up, I have something urgent to do too. A meeting, right? Go and come back quickly, I'm actually quite hungry, I'll wander around this palace and see what good food there is. Remember, I only need an hour."

After saying that, he walked towards the banquet area on one side of the hall, where exquisite fruit platters and gold and silver utensils were displayed. Sunflower twirled on his shoulder, curiously looking at the palace full of exotic charm.

T'Challa sighed helplessly as he watched the Lightman's back, which made him feel completely at home, and then turned and walked towards the Elder Council Hall.

Inside the meeting hall, the elders of the five tribes of Wakanda had been waiting for a long time.

When T'Challa revealed the purpose of the two deities' visit and the conditions of their almost miraculous protection, the entire conference hall erupted in chaos.

"Making a deal with an entity that may or may not be a god? Using our sacred vibranium?"

An elderly man with a gray beard from a border tribe stood up excitedly.

"No! Absolutely not! Vibranium is a gift from the goddess Bastet, a vessel for the spirits of our ancestors. How can we trade it with an Outer God of unknown origin!"

The female elder of the riverside tribe retorted.

"A sun god and a nature god. The conditions they offered are enough to propel our Wakanda civilization forward another thousand years! This is an opportunity!"

"An opportunity? It could also be a trap!"

"But we have no other choice! What can we do but accept the help of an enemy—no, a guest—who feeds on vibranium?"

The debate echoed in the conference hall: conservatism versus radicalism, tradition versus the future.

T'Challa listened in silence, knowing that whichever decision he made would risk the country's disintegration.

Finally, after the argument proved fruitless, he stood up and silenced all the voices.

"This matter is left to our God to decide."

Guided by the priestess, T'Challa passed through layers of guards and arrived at a secret cave hidden behind a waterfall, filled with heart-shaped plants. This was the most sacred place in Wakanda, where the spirits of the ancestors slumbered and the divinity of the panther goddess Bastet flowed.

He removed his royal robes, took the bowl of medicine handed to him by the priestess, and drank it all in one gulp.

The liquid slid down his throat, and his consciousness was instantly pulled away, falling into a mysterious realm composed of purple nebulae and countless silhouettes of ancestors, also known as the Ancestral Realm.

He knelt down, clasped his hands together, and devoutly called upon the guardian deity of Wakanda.

"Great hunter, daughter of the sky, Bastet the panther goddess. Your humble offspring, T'Challa, king of Wakanda, beseeches you for guidance."

"Two gods from beyond the heavens have descended upon your kingdom. One is the sun, and the other is nature. They demand our sacred gold and promise to grant us protection. My people are arguing because of this, and my heart is confused. Please send down your divine decree to guide us on our path."

Gradually, the surrounding purple nebula began to converge.

A huge female leopard appeared in front of him.

She is the leopard goddess Bastet.

She raised her head, her divine eyes seemingly piercing through the barriers of the ancestral realm and the palace walls of the royal city, looking at the uninvited guest who was in the royal banquet hall.

I watched it for a very long time.

Confusion appeared on the leopard god's majestic face.

Then she looked at T'Challa, who was kneeling on the ground, and the oracle resounded directly in the depths of his soul.

"I can't see through him."

"His existence does not belong to any branch that we can understand, nor was it born from the soil of this universe."

His radiance was too ancient, too primordial.

"Yes, bring him to see me."

This was the final oracle of the Leopard God.

T'Challa's consciousness returned to reality.

He knew what he had to do.

He quickly put on his royal robes, tidied his appearance, and hurried back to the banquet hall.

At this moment, Xiu En was sitting on the ground, with the remains of various gold and silver utensils he had tasted piled up in front of him, while Sunflower was directing a few vines to carefully dig out the root of some rare plant from a vase.

"Mr. Xiu En."

T'Challa's voice came through.

"Hmm? The meeting's over?"

"Pretty efficient. So, have you decided? Are you going to the warehouse to load the goods now, or wait until after breakfast?"

"The council of elders is unable to make a decision."

T'Challa answered, taking a deep breath, and relayed the oracle of the leopard god word for word.

"Therefore, I pleaded with my god for guidance. Our guardian goddess, the leopard goddess Bastet, wishes to see you."

"Oh, that works too."

Led by T'Challa, Shun arrived at the sacred site behind the waterfall's curtain of water.

In the center of the cave is a carefully tended little garden, filled with a unique heart-shaped grass that sways gently in the water and emits a faint purple light.

Wow.

The sunflower made a similar exclamation to Xiu En's, though it's unclear whether it was influenced by Xiu En.

"Perfect genetic structure, unique energy photosynthetic pathway! They can even directly absorb radiation from vibranium veins to convert it into life energy! It's amazing! Hey, Black Cat King, are you selling this herb? I'll offer a high price!"

"I apologize, Your Majesty."

T'Challa answered with a wry smile.

"The heart-shaped herb is a sacred object of Wakanda and is not for sale."

An elderly priestess, dressed in a white priestess robe with white markings on her face, approached carrying a stone bowl. The bowl contained a liquid that emitted a strange fragrance.

"Honorable guest. This is the key to the realm of the ancestors. Please drink it; the Leopard God awaits you."

Xiu En leaned closer and took a sniff; a mixture of herbs, earth, and some kind of pungent metallic smell assaulted his nostrils. He was choked and recoiled, frowning.

It smells very bitter.

"This flavor is way too strong!"

He waved his hand dismissively.

"Aren't there any other flavors?"

The priestess and T'Challa both looked embarrassed and awkward; they clearly hadn't expected anyone to make such a request for the sacred potion.

"cough."

T'Challa coughed.

"Perhaps we can dilute it with water?"

"Then let's dilute it. Add more water and two spoonfuls of sugar."

Xiu En gave the order without any hesitation.

Under the priestess's gaze, which seemed to regard him as a heretic, a bowl of heart-shaped herb concoction, diluted tenfold and stirred with sugar cubes that Xiu En had taken out of his pocket, was handed to him.

Xiu En pinched his nose and gulped down the purple liquid like he was drinking Chinese medicine.

Almost the instant the liquid entered his throat, a surge of spiritual energy rushed into his sea of ​​consciousness!

T'Challa saw Shun's body sway and closed his eyes, assuming that Shun had entered the Ancestral Realm like himself.

However, Shuen's experience at this moment was completely different.

In his perception, he had not fallen into that soul realm of Wakanda's ancestors, composed of a purple nebula. The spiritual energy acted like a guide, attempting to pull his consciousness onto a specific channel. But the more ancient Golden Crow divinity deep within his bloodline was awakened by this foreign divine power!

The Golden Crow Divine Fire within his body suddenly shone brightly. Instead of following the other party's channel, it used that guiding energy as a coordinate to track and locate the target in the opposite direction!

Then Xiu En arrived at a golden grassland.

Above the sky, a huge, gentle red sunset hung on the horizon, dyeing the entire world a warm orange-red. Countless feline souls of various shapes and sizes were leisurely strolling across the grassland.

This is the divine realm of the leopard goddess Bastet.

In the center of the divine kingdom, beneath the setting sun, a massive black female leopard, its body as large as a mountain, lay dozing on a rock. Suddenly, her golden eyes snapped open, filled with astonishment and disbelief.

She sensed it.

An uninvited guest, instead of going through the door she had set up, smashed through the wall of her divine kingdom and appeared before her.

Xiu En's figure solidified, bathed in golden light, and appeared on the Twilight Grassland. He curiously looked around, then glanced at the enormous, somewhat exaggeratedly large black cat, and a look of sudden realization appeared on his face.

"Oh! So this is what the Leopard God looks like. It's quite big, I wonder what it feels like to touch."

Faced with Xiu En's almost rude evaluation, the leopard goddess Bastet scrutinized this uninvited fellow human before her.

She could clearly sense the primordial divinity emanating from the other person. It felt like the first ray of light born at the moment of the Big Bang, filled with boundless creativity and destructive power.

She could also sense that although this power was strong enough to easily wipe out the country she was protecting, its core was restrained and calm, without the slightest desire to conquer or aggression.

His arrival was more like that of a traveler who happened to be passing by, attracted by the scenery along the way.

"Foreign sun god, you have invaded my kingdom and wounded my children. What is your purpose?"

"Don't put it so harshly!"

Xiu En shrugged; he adapted quickly to this kind of spiritual dialogue between gods.

"I was just conducting a fair market survey. As for your offspring, he scratched me first, and I was just acting in self-defense. Besides, I'm mainly here to make purchases."

He stopped beating around the bush and stated the ultimate purpose of his trip directly.

"I need your vibranium ore, about 100,000 tons, in exchange."

At Xiu En's fingertip, a tiny golden flame, no bigger than a fingernail, yet more dazzling than the sunset over the divine kingdom, began to flicker.

"I can exchange this for a wisp of fire that can forever illuminate the realm of your ancestors."

He could sense that the energy of this divine realm was connected to the Ancestral Realm, but the Ancestral Realm was somewhat too cold and yin, offering limited nourishment to the soul. His own fire, however, was the primordial fire of ultimate yang and strength, the best refuge and sustenance for all souls.

The Leopard God naturally knew the value of this flame.

That means that the souls of all the departed Wakanda people will no longer be silent in the cold void, but will be bathed in warmth.

This price is already quite high.

But Xiu En hadn't finished speaking.

"Also, I see you seem worried about something in the future. As a bonus, I can include a security agreement."

"There's a purple sweet potato spirit who loves collecting gems and practicing family planning. From what I've observed, your world will soon be his target. What if he really does bring his fleet to attack us in the future?"

"I'll take care of throwing him and all his bottles and jars away, how about that?"

"A purple sweet potato spirit? Snapping its fingers?"

As a deity, she possessed a vague ability to glimpse the future. She had indeed glimpsed a terrifying vision at a chaotic juncture in time: Wakanda was reduced to ashes by the flames of war that engulfed half the universe. But the vision was too vague; she only knew that the threat came from beyond the stars, but she didn't know who it was or when it would arrive.

And now, this foreign sun god promises to solve his problems.

The Leopard Goddess fell silent. She was weighing her options.

On one side is vibranium, which serves as the foundation of the nation but has virtually unlimited reserves.

On the other side is: the eternal flame that protects the souls of our ancestors + a security promise to completely avert the future annihilation of our race.

This is more like a one-sided gift.

She finally understood that the other party had not come to conquer or plunder. With his power and level, he simply needed these ores.

"I see."

"Your generosity exceeds my expectations, Sun God. For the present and future of Wakanda, I cannot refuse your deal."

She lowered her head, a gesture of respect from one deity to another, a more powerful being.

"Wakanda accepts your protection. The Holy Gold will be open to you."

An agreement has been reached.

T'Challa, my son.

[To ally with the sun and nature is Wakanda's glory, and its destiny's guide.]

[Open our treasure trove to satisfy our guests' needs. In return, the spirits of our ancestors will bask in the eternal warmth of the sun, and its light will dispel the gloom that shrouds Wakanda's future.]

This is my divine decree.

The sound gradually faded away, and the light in the stone bowl returned to calm.

At almost the same time, Xiu'en's consciousness returned from the Leopard God's divine realm.

"Alright, the deal's settled. Now, can we talk about the delivery process? Will you deliver it to my door, or will I pick it up myself?"

"Your Majesty!"

T'Challa prepared to step forward and arrange a grand and formal handover ceremony.

But Xiu En clearly didn't have the patience to go through those tedious mortal procedures.

"Forget it, delivery is too slow, I'll just do it myself."

Without waiting for T'Challa's reply, he made his decision on his own.

He raised his right hand and made a light slash in the air in front of him!

Space was torn apart.

A golden portal appeared, leading to a vibrant sea of ​​golden sunflowers bathed in eternal sunlight—this was the Ximu Realm.

"What is this?"

T'Challa gasped in astonishment, and the priestess behind him, witnessing this miracle, collapsed to her knees, chanting prayers incessantly.

"Oh, this is my backyard."

Xiu En casually offered an explanation.

The portal stabilized and was moved outside the cave by Xiu En, then enlarged.

But Xiu En's actions did not stop there.

He floated outside the cave, his gaze piercing through the mountains and jungles, looking up at Wakanda's largest vibranium mine!

Without the interference of solar energy as before, the discovery went very smoothly this time.

That is the dragon vein of Wakanda, the heart of their civilization.

"Found it, the potato chip warehouse."

Xiu En aimed at the direction of the mine and spread his five fingers.

The next second, a surge of immense energy erupted from his palm! This energy traveled over a distance of hundreds of kilometers, completely enveloping the entire Batchengo mine!

"What is he doing?!"

"Report! The energy field at the Batchengo mine is experiencing violent fluctuations! An unidentified external energy of EX level is intervening!"

"The mine's structure is being forcibly stripped away! My God, how is this possible!"

Okoye and the elders, who had been left behind in the capital by T'Challa, all rushed to the porthole of the command center and stared in horror into the distance.

They could clearly see that the sacred mountain that had nurtured Wakanda for thousands of years was trembling at this moment!

The ground was shaking, and all the Wakandans felt this tremor and unease from the depths of Mother Earth.

Above the mine, Xiu En's expression was focused and serious as he drew a cube on the mountain.

No more, no less, exactly the number he had agreed upon with the Leopard God.

"rise!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The mountain in the Batchengo mine shook violently, and countless boulders rolled down the cliffs!

Under the stunned gaze of all the Wakandans below, it was separated into a cube.

The cube detached from the earth and slowly rose into the sky, blocking out the sun and casting a huge shadow that resembled divine punishment.

Then, with a casual wave of his hand, Xiu En tossed this enormous treasure into the golden portal, where it vanished without a trace.

"All done, T'Challa, I'm off now. The blessing will arrive in your account shortly!"

Xiu En descended slowly from the sky.

T'Challa was momentarily at a loss for words. He could only offer another solemn hand to his chest, preparing to offer some words of blessing.

But at that moment, from the massive golden portal behind Shuen came Tony Stark's booming voice.

"Hey! Don't close the door yet! Let me see! Let me see what the natives of that world look like! Do they still live in thatched huts and fight with stones and sticks?"

"Tony, watch your words."

Bruce's helpless voice followed closely behind.

Xiu En turned around: "What are you doing now? We've already taken the goods back, what more do you want?"

"We need to conduct an on-site investigation!"

"A world where vibranium is everywhere! My God! Do you know what that means? The tech tree has been completely skewed!"

And it's completely off-track! I need to talk to their chief engineer!

"Bring him here."

T'Challa understood what the other person meant, and he immediately gave orders to the guards beside him.

Soon, Princess Suri was half-helped and half-invited to the sacred site. Still feeling a bit dizzy, her scientific understanding was once again challenged when she saw the enormous golden portal floating in the air.

"Brother? What's going on?"

"A technical exchange meeting, Suri."

T'Challa gave a wry smile.

Before he finished speaking, several clear holographic projections appeared in front of Xiu En.

Those were Bruce, Tony Stark, Reed Richards from the world of Shuon, and—a dozen or so other Batmen, each with a different style but all with serious expressions.

Suli was completely dumbfounded when she saw this scene.

"Wow! Look what we've found! A young, energetic engineer!"

Tony whistled exaggeratedly.

"Hello, young lady! I'm Tony Stark, an ordinary billionaire, genius, playboy, and philanthropist. May I ask, what methods do you use to enable vibranium, an inert metal, to bind actively to biological tissue? Is your nanotechnology based on the molecular or quantum level?"

"We use a technology called Chimoyuju, which combines acoustic resonance and herbal catalysis —"

Suri answered instinctively.

An online technical exchange meeting was thus launched.

Xiu En was forced to stand still, like a dutiful, high-powered humanoid Wi-Fi signal tower, providing stable cross-border communication services for this group of tech geeks.

Suri quickly overcame her initial awkwardness. When she demonstrated Wakanda's unique biotechnology system that allowed it to coexist harmoniously with nature and utilize vibranium veins for wireless power, Tony and Reed on the other side gasped in amazement.

"Unbelievable! You've actually solved the problem of stable long-distance transmission of macroscopic quantum entanglement!"

"Your energy network is like a living neural network covering the entire country!"

"And your AI is still stuck at the stage where it needs voice commands—that's so outdated!"

Suri also launched a counterattack against Tony's artificial intelligence without holding back.

"Look at my design! Users can connect directly to the central system via brainwaves! This is true human-machine integration!"

Tony was taken aback, but then defiantly demonstrated his latest nanomorphic technology. The liquid metal that could freely combine into any shape in the air captivated Suri and T'Challa.

Bruce and others were more interested in Wakanda's stealth technology, drone systems, and the social structure of universal conscription, constantly raising sharp questions about tactical applications and defensive deployments.

The exchange lasted for about half an hour.

"Alright, little girl, I admit you've got some skills."

Tony finally admitted defeat.

"Once you're an adult, you're welcome to intern at Stark Industries. I'll offer you the highest salary."

"Hmph, I'm not going to your cold cities full of steel and glass! You're welcome to visit Wakanda sometime."

Suli's face regained its confident glow.

"I'll show you what true futuristic technology really is!"

"It's a deal. If we can exchange what we need, it will be a blessing for the entire multiverse."

"We will."

Bruce from the main world nodded and made a promise.

"Alright, alright, that concludes the technical exchange session!"

Xiu En interrupted them, seeing that they had finished their conversation.

"Internet fees are expensive, are you still playing or not! I'm shutting down! Everyone get back to work! The armor isn't finished yet!"

He complained as he waved to T'Challa, a final farewell.

"I'm leaving now, Your Majesty. Please give my regards to your big black cat."