"She certainly acts decisively," Daniel thought to himself as he watched Madame Gao retreat without hesitation the moment she realized things weren't in her favor, leaving no attempt to test his strength.
"Kill them!" she ordered while fleeing, not to actually kill Daniel and the others, but to buy herself some time.
However, Gao's decisiveness wasn't enough to bridge the absolute gap in power. Before the ninjas could follow her command and start firing, Daniel moved first. With Yakushiji Ryouko and her two maids nearby, he refrained from using anything too flashy. In a blur, he appeared beside one of the ninjas, dispatching him with a dinner knife before using his weapon to quickly take down the rest.
After dealing with the ninjas, Daniel pursued Madame Gao, who had already started her car and was frantically attempting to drive away from Ryouko's villa.
Bang!
The speeding car suddenly lurched forward, the front end sinking into the ground as if trapped, no matter how fast the wheels spun.
"Why the rush, Madame Gao?" Daniel asked, his hand pressing down on the hood with a smile as he looked at Gao's pale face in the driver's seat.
"My deepest apologies; this was all a misunderstanding. I had no intention of offending you," Gao stammered, stepping out of the car with a slight bow, knowing there was no way she could escape him.
"But you already did," Daniel replied, tossing the car aside with a wave of his hand as he slowly advanced toward her.
Gao instinctively retreated, her right hand gripping her cane tightly.
"If you're willing to let me go, I'll pay any price," she offered, her voice trembling. For Gao, her life was paramount, and there was nothing she wasn't willing to sacrifice to save it.
"Sorry, you don't have anything that interests me. But out of respect for K'un-Lun, I'll give you one chance to fight back," Daniel said. Gao's only assets were money and possibly some secrets of the Hand, none of which interested him. Even her martial arts techniques from K'un-Lun held no appeal, as they couldn't compare with what he'd learned at Kamar-Taj.
"I have the Elixir of Eternal Youth," Gao said, pulling out what she thought was her most valuable bargaining chip.
"The Elixir of Eternal Youth? And what exactly is that?"
"A medicine that can restore youth," she explained.
Daniel took out his phone and quickly searched for any references. "Are you joking? Something like that doesn't exist," he chuckled as he looked at the information he found.
"If you know about K'un-Lun, how can you doubt the existence of the Elixir?" she argued.
"K'un-Lun may exist, but this elixir? I doubt it. If it were real, you wouldn't still look like this."
"It's close to being perfected," Gao replied hastily. "In fact, my involvement in this matter was for the sake of obtaining it."
"So you're telling me you're trying to recreate a mythical potion through science? This gets funnier by the minute," Daniel scoffed. He already possessed his own methods of rejuvenation, something he could even create for others, though his formulas required mystical energy that science alone couldn't replicate. He found it amusing that Gao would rely on science for something so ancient and mystical.
Seeing that Daniel had no intention of sparing her, Gao's expression darkened. A powerful surge of energy radiated from her, and from her cane, she drew a long, sleek black sword.
Despite her usual caution, Gao was formidable in combat. Even Captain America might struggle against her in close combat if he didn't have his shield.
In a flash, Gao launched herself at Daniel, her sword transforming into a blur of deadly arcs aimed at his vital points.
Clang, clang, clang.
Daniel parried each strike effortlessly with his dinner knife. Gao's eyes widened in disbelief as she felt her sword snap, leaving only the hilt in her hand. Before she could retreat, she felt a sharp pain in her right shoulder, followed by total numbness as Daniel's knife, now crackling with electricity, embedded itself in her shoulder.
Staring at Daniel in terror, Gao couldn't speak due to the paralysis caused by the electric current.
"Let's see what K'un-Lun really holds," Daniel muttered, placing his hand on her head and activating his telepathic abilities.
"So this is K'un-Lun," he said after rifling through her memories, sounding unimpressed. "I thought it would be something spectacular. Turns out, it's not worth much after all."
Digging deeper, he finally understood why Gao avoided combat at all costs. She valued her life above everything and had lived for centuries purely through a relentless will to survive. Unlike other martial masters who pushed themselves to their limits, Gao had prolonged her life by being overly cautious, avoiding combat whenever possible.
The reason she acted this time was her desperation to escape the limitations of her old age. She was willing to do anything for the Elixir of Eternal Youth, even if it was just a legend.
"So, your real name is Ruriko Shido," Daniel mused.
Marvel's world contained a few sorcerers outside of Kamar-Taj, though they were rare. Ruriko Shido, a descendant of the Japanese sorcerer Saiho, had inherited only fragments of his teachings, but even that had made her a formidable figure within Japan. Her family had a longstanding feud with the Yakushiji clan, stemming from romantic betrayal and clashing ideals.
In her obsession, Ruriko had harassed Yakushiji's descendants for years, though she seldom gained the upper hand. The ADDC9 project was one of her rare victories, but Daniel's research had provided the Yakushiji family with the leverage to counter her once again. No wonder she had sent Gao after him—he had shattered her decades-long ambitions.
"Is the Elixir of Eternal Youth real or not?" Daniel pondered, before summoning a clone to take care of Gao's affairs. She was a powerful figure in the Hand and possessed vast wealth. Rather than let her assets fall to unknown hands, he decided to seize them for himself, along with her impressive collection of antiques from over four centuries.
"Ruriko Shido's fusion of necromantic arts with cloning is impressive. Even Saiho's techniques probably pale in comparison to what she's achieved now," he reflected. Her necromancy allowed her to create life from dead matter, similar to modern cloning, though archaic in nature.
His mind returning to the task at hand, Daniel made his way to Hell's Kitchen. His target was none other than Wilson Fisk, a man who had consistently shown talent for manipulating people. But as powerful as Fisk was, Gao had been manipulating him in turn.
Fisk's beloved Vanessa had been poisoned by Gao, who then pinned the blame on a rival gang. This had sparked an all-out war, and Gao had profited handsomely from it.
"Find him, now, or don't bother returning!" Fisk roared at his men inside his mansion, seething over the death of his lieutenant, James Wesley. He believed Daniel was involved and had dispatched all available resources to track him down.
Fisk had even punched one of his own men to death in his rage.
Daniel decided to handle Fisk personally. He had no intention of letting this game continue any longer.
"You looking for me?" he asked, aiming a pistol at Fisk as the man emerged from his restroom, having just cleaned the blood from his hands.
Fisk's face froze in shock as he recognized Daniel. He had just been ordering his men to search for this very man.
"So it's you," Fisk muttered, his expression shifting to one of fury.
"Yes, it's me, here to send you off," Daniel said calmly.
Fisk roared, charging at Daniel with surprising speed. Despite his bulk, Fisk's body was pure muscle, honed from countless underground fights where he crushed even the toughest of fighters with his bare hands.
As Fisk's massive fist shot toward him, Daniel simply raised a finger and flicked it against Fisk's fist. A sickening crack resounded as Fisk was thrown back, crashing into the wall with such force it left a human-shaped dent.
Watching Fisk clutch his shattered arm in pain, yet remaining silent, Daniel was mildly impressed. His earlier strike had obliterated multiple bones in Fisk's arm, yet the man didn't utter a sound.
"Fisk, you're quite skilled at manipulating others," Daniel said, "but let me tell you something—you're also someone else's pawn. Do you know how Vanessa really died? She was poisoned by Gao."
"What did you say?" Fisk's eyes blazed with murderous rage, his reaction far more intense than when Wesley had been killed.
"I've told you the truth. Gao is already dead, so you can rest assured you'll soon reunite with Vanessa. But first, I have a few tasks for you."
The task? Publishing Fisk's secret ledger of illicit transactions. In a world where even the most notorious criminals seemed to keep meticulous records of their dirty dealings, Fisk was no exception. It was time to expose everything he'd been hiding.
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