The days of being a spiritual mentor in Meiman.

Chapter 4184 is about the Supreme Sorcerer (24)

Chapter 4184 is about the Supreme Mage (Twenty-Four).

"Yes, the Eternal Temple is located in a void, a place you can't fly there by flying. Dimensional jumps won't work either. There are no coordinates, and you can't reach it using any ordinary methods, so don't waste your energy. I'll relay any news to you, so don't worry too much."

“That’s right, abstract entities have feelings. They are personified laws of nature, and each has a different personality. If I had to say, Eternity and Death are more lively, while the others are somewhat introverted…”

"Dimensional demons are rare to you too? Surely not? But they are indeed more mysterious than ordinary demons, after all, they possess their own dimensions and rarely show themselves. Oh, you've met Mephisto? That cunning old goat..."

"I'm usually so busy. After surgery, I have to go to the magic academy to teach students, and then go back to Kamar-Taj to take care of some business. But recently, a high-speed rail line opened in Kamar-Taj, so I can even go to Sichuan for lunch..."

"You mean mutants? Their magic is different from the kind I use. It's a talent they have; you have to have that kind of gene to use it. I don't need that, but I still need some magical talent. It's a very mysterious thing. You either have it or you don't."

“Electronic life? Of course not. How can purely logical beings learn magic? They don’t even have the ability to make connections, so they definitely can’t. Robots won’t work either, unless they are robots with souls and feelings, then they are no different from ordinary people.”

Strange picked up the water glass beside him and took a sip. His throat was parched from talking, yet the ministers below still stared at him with gleaming eyes, as if he were a delicious meal or a stunningly beautiful woman. The green light emanating from their eyes was like that of starving ghosts reincarnated.

Strange thought the evening meeting was particularly strange. Environmental work was already quite inexplicable, and his subordinates should have had many questions for him, but to his surprise, as soon as he asked about the progress, they all pounded their chests and swore to the heavens that they would complete the task.

When he asked them if they had any problems they needed his help with, they all shook their heads vigorously. If he pressed them for more information, it would seem like he didn't quite trust them, and although he genuinely didn't believe them, he didn't say much in the name of encouragement.

Then all the content for the evening meeting was finished. Schiller's draft for him had no more content after that. Then these ministers started to ramble on about this and that, asking about the Eternal Temple and the progress of the human starships.

To Strange's utter despair, their work group chat was also inundated with cat emojis! Where the hell did these people download them?!

He could understand that these people probably needed to learn about popular culture to get closer to him. But the problem was, he wasn't exactly a trendsetter himself; he didn't understand most of the internet slang and memes. Now, communicating with these aliens made him feel like an outsider!

Furthermore, many English slang terms are abbreviations, meaning a few capital letters can represent a whole sentence. And because several countries speak English, each country's slang terms are slightly different. So, as the conversation progressed, Strange had to look up the meanings of those capital letter abbreviations or certain English slang terms. It was indeed a bit too much of a challenge for an American.

The evening meeting was supposed to be only half an hour long, and the Interstellar Council doesn't encourage working overtime, but for some reason, these people just wouldn't leave. He'd refilled his water glass several times, and his throat was practically parched from talking, but not a single person showed any intention of leaving.

Strange was genuinely tired, so he waved his hand and said, "Alright, if there's nothing else, don't stay here. Time to go home!"

Everyone was reluctant to leave. And although they had left the parliamentary office, their spirits remained in the group chat, sending emojis and chatting enthusiastically until midnight. Strange got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, opened the group chat, and saw that the emojis had changed again, from cats to panda heads.

The next morning, as soon as Schiller walked into the office, he saw Strange holding a cell phone and pulling at his hair.

“Come and take a look,” Strange called to him, adjusting his monocle and squinting like an old man as he pointed at the phone screen. “What does this say? What does this Chinese sentence mean?”

"Oh, it just means you're very capable," Schiller replied absentmindedly.

"Then why does he have that expression?" Strange frowned. "Isn't it clearly sarcasm?"

Don't you have translation software?

“The translation software is just like you said,” Strange sighed. “I’m afraid I’ll never understand pop culture.”

He tossed his phone onto the table and leaned back. Before his back even touched the chair back, Jarvis beeped twice and said, "It's time for the morning meeting. Everyone's here, just waiting for you."

Strange sprang to his feet and walked toward the door, glancing at Schiller as he said, "Those ministers have been acting strangely lately. It must be your doing, right?"

“I’m just encouraging them to do their jobs well,” Schiller said with a smile. “Of course, I don’t think you need my encouragement, right?”

Strange rolled his eyes and left.

Schiller, alone in the Speaker's office, awaited the arrival of the somewhat haggard Supreme Intelligence. Logically, as an electronic life form controlling robots, he shouldn't appear haggard, but perhaps the cooling modules of these robots weren't designed for this situation; he still had a faint burnt smell emanating from him. It was uncertain how many more days his newly replaced body could last.

“Good morning, Mr. Secretary General.” Schiller stepped forward, shook his hand, and then said, “How have you been lately?”

The Supreme Intelligence strained to control the radiator's speed, gritting its teeth as it said, "Not bad."

"It seems you've been quite busy lately and haven't been to the Speaker's office much. I think that's good. Everyone should do their job and contribute to the interstellar society together."

The Supreme Intelligence couldn't hold back any longer. Its heat dissipation module started humming again, and it couldn't help but wonder how Schiller's carbon-based life form could utter such cold words.

The two trillion dollars that Schiller conjured out of thin air almost killed him. He was busy suppressing public opinion and clarifying the facts, but in reality, it had no effect whatsoever.

The Supreme Intelligence already understood what kind of scheme Schiller had devised, or rather, it thought it did.

The key point of this matter is to keep the whereabouts of this huge sum of money unknown. Although Nick Fury encouraged Star-Lord, and Star-Lord discussed it with Yondu, and the Raiders team eventually agreed to take responsibility, Yondu's ambiguous response made the matter even more unresolved.

To reiterate, what the authorities deny is always true. Yondu's claim that he embezzled the huge sum of money has only fueled further skepticism. Firstly, the raiders couldn't provide evidence of spending that much money; their equipment was always tattered, and their living conditions were poor. Secondly, Yondu was a model leader, abstaining from all vices, and no one had ever seen him squander money, making this claim highly dubious.

Yondu then gave some ambiguous remarks, referring to what Nick had given Star-Lord. He kept questioning others' motives, then tried to drag them into the mess, practically saying, "It's not what I wanted to admit." Everyone here is smart; who wouldn't understand the subtext?

His words convinced many that such a sum of money truly existed. This added to the mystery, and the subsequent secret investigation launched by higher authorities further confirmed the existence of this enormous sum.

Unfortunately, this money was indeed fabricated; no matter how hard you investigate, you can't trace its origin or destination. However, because their thinking has been guided, they won't consider that this amount was fabricated. After all, first the propaganda minister confessed, then insiders revealed it, then the authorities denied it, and the space pirates had to take the blame—this whole process is the standard procedure for a genuine exposé; how could it be fake?

Since the money truly existed and its whereabouts couldn't be traced, the only explanation was that the three great empires were behind it, as only they had the capability to erase all traces. Therefore, everyone began to speculate about what the three great empires did with the money.

They definitely didn't do anything good. Don't underestimate these civilizations; some of them are also dissatisfied with the control of the three great empires, but if the three great empires really stopped controlling them and secretly did something behind their backs, they would be a little unhappy.

Despite the fact that the three great empires have always controlled interstellar society, they have indeed provided assistance to some civilizations in order to maintain stability. Although it was a short-sighted and ultimately detrimental form of aid, they did offer something nonetheless.

Many such civilizations would think: "Are you three great empires planning to leave us behind and go it alone? You want to research some incredibly advanced technology, but you're not telling us. Who are you trying to protect yourself from?"

Anyway, over time, the story spread. Not only advanced civilizations, but also lower-level civilizations knew that the three great empires had spent a huge sum of money to acquire a behemoth, and because the accounts didn't match up, they could only blame the space pirates.

Some civilizations wanted to test their skills against the three great empires, while others were simply worried that these behemoths might threaten them. But what they had in common was that they all began to distance themselves from the three great empires' camp without any psychological burden whatsoever.

This is actually a form of psychological manipulation. Schiller used a series of interconnected plans to create a situation where "the three great empires were the first to make a mistake." All civilizations would feel that the three great empires were dishonest first, that they were the first to use dangerous materials, that they were threatened, and therefore wanted to retaliate, which they considered legitimate self-defense.

This provides other civilizations with psychological comfort, making them feel that they have a legitimate cause and are on the side of justice, while at the same time placing the three great empires on the opposite side, on the side of evil, creating a black-and-white opposition scenario.

Since they've already positioned themselves against the three great empires, is there any need to elaborate on who they should side with? Aren't humans the only ones capable of challenging the three great empires right now? And the current Speaker happens to be human; if they don't curry favor now, when will they?

These people can just brainwash themselves: currying favor with the three great empires is the same as currying favor with humans, and humans are carbon-based life forms like most of them, much stronger than those robots, so wouldn't it be easier to curry favor with them?

So when Strange walked in at the morning meeting, everyone stood up at once, which startled him.

"God, what are you doing?!" Strange cursed. "What's wrong with you so early in the morning?"

The finance minister immediately approached him obsequiously and said, "My sincerest greetings, sir. Did you sleep well last night?"

Strange looked at him like he was a lunatic. What the hell was that Oxford accent?! America's been independent for years!

"Oh, please don't listen to this old man's nonsense. We have no intention of offending you. However, to show our respect for you, we studied the language of your hometown overnight and made a series of adaptations to the accent and grammar. What do you think?"

"So your adaptation process involves completely adopting a British accent?"

"To be honest, we believe that this accent and way of speaking are very suitable for political work within the Interstellar Council. The function words, subjunctive mood, vague expressions, complex sentence structures, and diverse vocabulary are simply a miracle created by God. We have to admit, this is a language born for politics! Let's toast to English!"

"Cheers!" everyone cheered.

Strange was dumbfounded. But they had all already adjusted, and it seemed there was no room for him to change anything. So he could only walk to the table and say, "Sit down, let's start the meeting."

"Yes, Your Holiness."