Nick’s Sorcerer Supreme

"Wake up, it’s daylight!" Zhan Liu rolled his eyes at Nick Fury. "What kind of beautiful dream are you having?"

"You want the Sorcerer Supreme to step in over something this trivial?"

"That’d be like one of your sheep dying, then going to the president to pay his respects. Ridiculous!"

Nick shouted excitedly, "This isn’t a small matter! More than a hundred thousand people died this time!"

"Come on, stop putting on an act in front of me! You make it sound like you actually care that much about human lives." Zhan Liu leisurely ate his steak and drank his wine.

"The ones who drowned in the flood were probably just poor people, right? Important figures all live in luxury apartments."

Nick stared at him for a while. Seeing that he remained perfectly calm, eating and drinking as usual, he knew he could not bluff him. So he stopped acting and changed his approach.

He reached out and took the bottle of wine, pouring himself a glass as well.

"Romanee-Conti. You really have taste." He looked at the label on the bottle.

"Why not make yourself comfortable when you’re spending some rich bastard’s money?" Zhan Liu raised his glass toward him.

Nick clinked his glass lightly against Zhan Liu’s, took a sip, and said with a smile, "Not all important figures like living in luxury apartments. Many prefer villas, and some even have their own estates in the countryside."

"Which unlucky bastard died?"

"An important figure from Washington. His death was an accident, and none of the people involved were prepared for it at all. You could say that if they could bring him back to life, those people would be willing to pay any price." Nick spoke with pointed meaning.

"Is that so?" Zhan Liu said indifferently. "Then if Mephisto were here, wouldn’t he make a fortune?"

"Mephisto? Is that the Sorcerer Supreme’s name?" Nick asked tentatively.

Zhan Liu shot him a glance. He hated these old schemers who went around in circles whenever they did anything. All he had to do was ask, "What’s the Sorcerer Supreme’s name?" But he refused to ask directly and insisted on taking several detours.

"No, that’s a great demon. The kind of devil you people call a demon from hell, and he’s also a demon king." Zhan Liu had no intention of playing along. If you won’t ask, then I’m not answering.

"A demon king? Does this world really have a hell?" Nick looked like a curious child.

"Aren’t you the director of S.H.I.E.L.D.? Isn’t this your area of expertise? Why are you asking such basic questions? Don’t tell me you’ve never encountered things like that."

Nick raised his glass and started drinking again.

Sure enough, talking business over drinks was convenient. Whenever things got awkward, all you had to do was drink.

After setting down his glass, Nick put on another face. He could speak one way to men and another to ghosts, just as expected of the King of Spies.

"Mr. Zhan, you seem like a straightforward person, so I’ll get right to the point. Would it be convenient for you to speak to the Sorcerer Supreme and ask her to help revive a few people?"

"Not convenient." Zhan Liu rejected him without even thinking.

"I know reviving people must come at a high price. Please help me ask the Sorcerer Supreme what she needs. We can provide anything."

Nick still refused to give up and continued persuading him.

"Of course, regardless of the Sorcerer Supreme’s final decision, S.H.I.E.L.D. will remember this favor and express its gratitude to you as well. There will certainly be a generous gift for you."

"She doesn’t need anything." Zhan Liu rejected him without even looking up.

"Uh… Mr. Zhan only needs to pass along a message. Even if she refuses, I won’t hold it against you. After all, I’m only an intermediary paid to deliver a message."

"No need to pass along anything. She doesn’t need anything, and she won’t agree to this."

"May I ask, perhaps impertinently, why you aren’t willing to pass along a message, Mr. Zhan? After all, it only takes a phone call, and it wouldn’t cost you anything."

Zhan Liu put down his chopsticks, picked up a napkin, and wiped his mouth. Then he asked in return:

"Nick, if an onion in your backyard died, would you call your botanist friend and ask if he was willing to fly all the way from China to bring that onion back to life?"

"Important figures? What kind of onions are they?"

"If I did that, that bald guy would laugh me to death. He’d probably laugh at me for the rest of my life… Oh, I don’t mean you when I say ‘bald guy.’ I’m talking about another bald guy. The Sorcerer Supreme is bald too, so the two of you will have plenty to talk about."

Zhan Liu was obviously insulting the monk by calling him bald, but Nick could only endure it and pretend he did not understand.

Besides, Nick truly had not understood which "bald guy" Zhan Liu meant. He did not know that the Sorcerer Supreme was a monk. Chinese pronunciation did not distinguish between "he" and "she," and Nick also did not know that the Sorcerer Supreme was actually a woman.

Nick shook his head regretfully, stood up, and took his leave.

After leaving the hotel and boarding the helicopter on the roof, Nick sat there with a dark expression, his mood extremely poor.

The information he had drawn out of Zhan Liu left him feeling deeply troubled.

The deaths of a few so-called "important figures" were nowhere near worth bringing him here. From the very beginning, his real targets had been Zhan Liu and the Sorcerer Supreme.

Of course he knew that the Sorcerer Supreme would never perform some kind of resurrection spell for so-called "important figures." Otherwise, there would be no reason for the emperors of ancient times to have all died.

His original plan had been to use a few small requests to bring the two sides closer. Relationships evolved through repeated mutual assistance, growing from small favors into greater ones.

Passing along a message was no difficult task. He could gain a favor and a generous reward in return, so why not do it?

But the result had been terrible. He had been rejected without even a moment’s thought, without the slightest hesitation.

That meant this was practically Zhan Liu’s instinctive response. It had nothing to do with the size of the benefit. The rejection came from the heart.

From Zhan Liu’s words, it was easy for him to piece together an image of the Sorcerer Supreme.

High above others, she considered herself a higher life-form, viewed humans as lambs and human lives as mere weeds, lived deep in the mountains and forests far from the mortal world, did not partake in worldly affairs, and devoted herself entirely to pursuing the mysteries of magic.

She was probably an old antique as well—stiff, stubborn, hidebound, hostile toward modern technology, never watched television, never used a phone, and probably did not even know what the internet was.

Taking it a step further, she was probably bald, with a large beard, dressed in elaborate ancient court robes that were difficult to put on and take off. She likely walked with measured, square steps, had to sit according to strict rank during meals, forbade anyone from speaking loudly, and was required to pay her respects every morning and evening.

The thought of dealing with such an old fossil gave him a headache.

But for the safety of Earth, he had to try to make contact with even the most difficult figures.

As long as someone was human, they were bound to have weaknesses. All he had to do was gather intelligence and cater to their preferences.

As the King of Spies, Nick trusted no one.

He did not completely believe Carol either. But an alien warship hidden in outer space had faithfully recorded the entire battle between Zhan Liu and the other person, as well as the subsequent explosion of Earth and the entire process by which it was reconstructed through Time Reversal.

Yet Ancient One had used some kind of magic. In the video, everyone else’s features could be seen clearly, but the area where Ancient One stood was an indescribable mass of garbled distortion.

It was only because of this "evidence" that Nick truly believed magic could reverse time.

As long as he could recruit the Sorcerer Supreme into S.H.I.E.L.D., the organization’s power would rise by a huge margin. In particular, they would have far more room for error.

If they failed, they could reverse time and try again.

After returning to S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick ordered the field agents to begin collecting every book and object related to magic.