Chapter 36 Maya Leads the Way!
After finishing her final gesture, Maya Lopez turned and walked away.
Jean's voice entered Lin Yao's mind simultaneously.
"She says the tunnel Bullseye took connects underneath to Fisk Tower, three old warehouses, and two remaining strongholds of The Hand."
"She is willing to lead the way."
Lin Yao looked at Maya's back.
"Is she trustworthy?"
Jean did not answer immediately.
Abiding by the rules of Dawn House, she did not enter Maya's complete memories.
Her psychic energy only stayed on the outermost layer.
"She hates Kingpin."
"And she is on guard against us as well."
"For now, she is not ready to sell us out to anyone."
"That's enough."
Lin Yao followed after her.
Above the banquet hall, Kingpin was still maintaining the decency of the charity banquet.
On the second underground floor, Peter and Kate had already dismantled the ninth hostage bomb.
Meanwhile, Yelena dragged the complete buyer list out of the auction server.
No one noticed Lin Yao, Jean, and Maya disappearing into a maintenance tunnel.
The iron door closed.
The commotion was completely cut off.
Maya stopped in front, raised her hand, and pointed in three directions.
The left led to the abandoned subway maintenance level.
The right connected to Fisk's old logistics tunnel.
Straight ahead, Bullseye's aura was still moving rapidly.
Lin Yao could feel it.
That life signature marked by his aura was only 1,700 meters away from here.
Maya made a pursuing gesture.
But Lin Yao shook his head.
"Look at the path first."
Maya frowned.
She pointed forward again.
Bullseye was running.
If they were a few minutes slower, he would likely enter the core area of Fisk completely.
Lin Yao raised his hand and pointed at the wall.
"He will lead us in."
Then he pointed down at his feet.
"These things aren't going anywhere."
Maya stared at him for two seconds, then turned and continued forward.
Behind the first door was an old transport tunnel.
Both sides were piled high with boxes.
Jean's psychic power swept across the perimeter.
"Nineteen people."
"Eleven ordinary guards."
"Eight enhanced individuals."
"No civilians."
Lin Yao continued forward.
As two guards just raised their guns, Conquerors Haki had already washed over them.
The ordinary people collapsed in unison.
The remaining eight enhanced individuals rushed out simultaneously.
One of them swung a long black staff.
The staff slammed into the wall, causing the entire chunk of concrete to cave in directly.
A Vibranium-mixed weapon.
Lin Yao reached out and grabbed the staff.
Black Armament Haki instantly covered his palm.
The enhanced individual was still exerting force.
Lin Yao tightened his five fingers.
"Crack!"
The special alloy staff, which contained only a small amount of Vibranium, fractured directly from the middle.
Maya's movements paused for a split second.
She knew this kind of weapon.
Prototype items that Kingpin spent a lot of money to acquire from DODC residual channels, specifically for enhanced soldiers to use.
Even ordinary anti-armor weapons were very difficult to destroy it.
Lin Yao used only one hand.
Just as the remaining seven were preparing to swarm them, Maya moved.
She didn't speak.
She flipped her left hand.
Her right shoulder sank downward.
Lin Yao glanced at her and understood immediately.
She wanted the left side.
The next second, both of them rushed out simultaneously.
Maya slid along the ground into the arms of the first enhanced individual, elbowed their knee, and snatched the opponent's short blade.
Lin Yao passed through from the right side and threw three consecutive punches.
He didn't kill anyone.
Every punch shattered the protective gear and joints.
The three enhanced individuals lost their combat capability on the spot.
The last person raised a gun from behind.
Maya raised her hand and pointed upward.
Without even turning his head, Lin Yao fired an energy blast over his shoulder, precisely piercing the weapon's power supply module.
The gun exploded in the opponent's hand.
The cooperation between the two was so fast as if they had fought together many times before.
Following behind, Jean saw this very clearly.
Many of Maya's tactical habits relied on movement and vision.
Yet Lin Yao didn't need her complete expression at all.
Shoulders, fingers, and changes in the center of gravity.
With a single movement, he knew which side Maya was preparing to flank next.
Maya looked at Lin Yao.
This time she didn't make any explanatory gestures.
She went straight forward.
Lin Yao followed.
The second underground warehouse was even larger.
The DODC logo hadn't been completely scraped off.
Twenty-six sets of mind-suppression helmets.
Nine gene scanning devices.
Four sets of enhanced armor.
Twelve boxes of Vibranium-mixed warheads.
And two disassembled V-Max signal amplifiers.
Jean's expression turned cold.
"Kingpin has already started duplicating DODC equipment."
Super Brain quickly scanned the box serial numbers.
Lin Yao input all the information into the recording area of the system space.
Equipment batches.
Delivery dates.
Supply companies.
The person responsible for signing for receipt.
All established connections.
Seven batches of goods came from already-sealed DODC warehouses.
And the signatory was a medical foundation under Fisk.
"Photograph it."
Jean immediately synchronized the images to Yelena.
A few seconds later, Yelena replied.
"It overlaps with the banquet auction list."
"At least a third of the weapons went out from here."
Maya walked over to the wall.
She pried open a metal plate.
Inside was an old-fashioned paper shipping schedule.
Electronic systems could be deleted.
To avoid tracking, this kind of underground logistics instead retained paper backups.
After Lin Yao finished reading it.
Remnants of The Hand.
Fisk Advanced Defense.
Three overseas mercenary organizations.
And an unnamed buyer marked only with a dragon pattern.
"How many of The Hand are still alive?"
Maya held up two fingers.
Two main strongholds.
Then she made a throat-slitting gesture.
Kingpin had always been utilizing them.
Weapon transportation.
Population transfer.
Dealing with people it was inconvenient to make public.
Lin Yao looked at the map.
"Continue."
Bullseye's aura had stretched out to 2,400 meters away.
He didn't pursue.
In the third tunnel, Lin Yao began to proactively leave aura markers.
Every intersection.
Every hidden door.
Every warehouse.
Even ventilation shafts and underwater exits were marked.
Super Brain quickly pieced the routes together.
In less than twenty minutes, a complete underground structural map gradually took shape.
The underground network beneath Fisk Tower was far more massive than the surface buildings.
Twelve main tunnels.
Thirty-one branch lines.
Five weapon warehouses.
Seven safe houses.
Two temporary detention areas.
Three evacuation exits leading directly into the Hudson River.
And a deep tunnel leading to the old stronghold of The Hand.
Seeing the map Lin Yao restored on the terminal, Mayashowed genuine surprise for the first time.
She had operated here for many years.
And had only mastered most of it.
Lin Yao walked through it once.
And remembered all of it.
"You're not chasing Bullseye?"
Jean translated her gestures for her.
"Chasing."
Lin Yao looked at the constantly moving aura marker on the map.
"Let him fill in the places that haven't been drawn yet first."
Maya fell silent.
She had an old score to settle with Bullseye.
If it were her, she would have chased all the way just now.
Clearly, Lin Yao had been attacked by Bullseye three times in a row.
And Jean had also nearly died under the playing cards just a moment ago.
But after truly entering the underground, he wasn't led around by the nose by Bullseye even once.
If he could take a warehouse, he took the warehouse first.
If he could get a map, he got the map first.
If he could seize the trading chain, he seized the trading chain first.
Jean suddenly understood.
The priority of interests Lin Yao spoke of never made him hate anyone any less.
Metzger died thoroughly in the end.
Tombstone died as well.
Bullseye wouldn't be able to run away either.
He just wouldn't throw away an entire net for the sake of taking revenge a few minutes early.
An explosion suddenly came from ahead.
Bullseye's aura paused for a split second.
Then it continued moving deeper.
Maya immediately accelerated.
Several people passed through the last transport tunnel and came to an ancient underground hall.
The wall style had completely changed.
Fisk's reinforced concrete had disappeared.
Replaced by black stone bricks carved with Eastern patterns.
The Hand.
A dozen or so corpses were scattered across the hall.
All of them had just died recently.
Someone's chest was caved in.
Someone's arm was twisted.
More people's weapons were broken straight in half.
Lin Yao stopped in his tracks.
In his aura perception, Bullseye had already left from the other side.
Deeper inside the hall, however, an unfamiliar life aura had appeared.
Stable.
Powerful.
Inside the body was also a flow of energy completely different from ordinary energy.
"There is someone."
Lin Yao said.
Maya also saw the golden light ahead.
In front of the stone door, a young man slowly turned around.
Both of his fists were glowing with golden light.
Scattered on the ground were members of The Hand who had just been knocked down.
He glanced at Lin Yao, then looked at Maya and Jean.
"Are you guys also here to look for what's inside?"
Lin Yao's gaze fell on his fists.
That power was very similar to his own Ki.
Yet completely different.
The man stepped forward.
The golden fist glow lit up once again.
"The things inside do not belong to you."
Danny Rand.
Iron Fist.
Chapter 37: Mastery of Qi!
Danny Rand blocked the front of the stone door, the golden light on his fists gradually brightening.
"Don't come over yet."
He stared at Lin Yao, his expression more serious than before.
"Your Qi is too heavy."
Lin Yao stopped his footsteps.
"What do you mean?"
Danny raised his right fist.
Golden energy slowly flowed along the meridians of his arm and finally concentrated at his fist peak.
"Dragon bones are buried here."
"The Qi field is already unstable."
"Once your power is directly poured in, the entire underground structure might be detonated."
Maya turned her head to look at Lin Yao.
Jean Grey's mental communication came simultaneously:
"He is not lying."
"There is indeed a special energy behind the stone door."
Lin Yao expanded his aura perception.
There was no normal life behind the stone door.
Instead, there was a heavy energy reaction.
It was different from his Qi.
It was also different from Phoenix, Vibranium, and gamma energy.
"Have you been inside?"
"No."
Danny said, "This ruin belongs to a dragon bone node left by The Hand."
"I've been chasing them for a long time."
"After Kingpin took over this place, he has been transporting equipment down."
Lin Yao looked at the stone door.
"Then let's go in together."
Danny shook his head.
"I need to make sure you can control your own Qi first."
"Just now you crushed that Vibranium alloy stick with your bare hands."
"The power is very strong."
"The method of channeling Qi is too direct."
Lin Yao raised an eyebrow.
"Do you think I don't know how to use Qi?"
"You know how to use it."
Danny paused for a moment.
"But you are used to crushing it with raw power."
"This place requires more subtlety."
A hint of a smile flashed in Jean Grey's eyes.
Lin Yao didn't get angry, though.
"How to prove it?"
Danny raised his fist.
"Fight."
"Only compare Qi."
"Whoever makes the other take three steps back first, listens to the other."
"Alright."
Lin Yao raised his hand.
He didn't transform into a Super Saiyan.
Nor did he release his aura outwardly.
Armament Haki slowly covered his right hand.
Danny saw that layer of black, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"What is this again?"
"Just learned it."
"Just learned?"
"Yesterday."
Danny was silent for half a second.
Then he threw a punch.
The golden iron fist instantly arrived in front of Lin Yao.
There was no exaggerated explosion sound.
But the power was extremely concentrated.
The moment the fist peak touched the Armament Haki, Lin Yao's arm visibly shook.
The stone bricks under his feet cracked.
His body slid back half a step.
The Super Brain began recording at the same time.
Danny's Qi did not cover his whole body.
It first sank into the abdomen, then traveled up along the spine, passing through the shoulder, elbow, and wrist, and finally compressed onto the fist face the instant before contact.
The loss was extremely low.
The burst was also more concentrated.
Lin Yao's previous mastery of Qi had already reached the grandmaster level.
But he mostly used Qi as a tool for flight, body protection, energy blasts, and long-range attacks.
Danny's method was closer to martial arts.
"Still coming?" Danny asked.
"The second punch."
Lin Yao didn't counterattack.
"Hit it again."
Danny frowned.
"You want to learn?"
"Yes."
"The Iron Fist's power comes from Shou-Lao."
"You can't learn it."
"I'm not learning Shou-Lao."
Lin Yao looked at his shoulder.
"Learning how you make Qi flow."
Danny's second punch had already been blasted out.
This time the speed was faster.
Lin Yao still blocked it with Armament Haki.
He only stepped back a quarter of a step under his feet.
Danny's expression changed.
Lin Yao was adjusting.
Breathing.
Muscles.
Qi flow.
The first time he was hit, Qi formed a complete defense on the surface of his arm.
The second time, Qi had already begun to actively concentrate toward the fist peak.
"The third time."
Danny didn't punch immediately.
"Did you change your Qi channeling method just now?"
"Mn."
"You learned it just by watching two punches?"
"Still a little bit off."
Danny suddenly felt a bit reluctant to throw the third punch.
Footsteps came from behind.
Luke crawled out from another passageway, with Jessicafollowing behind.
Matt also arrived nearby through the communication line left by Yelena.
"What are you guys doing?"
Jessica glanced at the two of them.
Maya explained in sign language.
Jean Grey was responsible for translating.
"Comparing who is better at using Qi."
Luke touched his chest.
"I suggest Danny doesn't let him learn for too long."
Danny ignored him.
The third punch blasted out.
This time, Lin Yao didn't just block.
His right fist lifted at the same time.
Armament Haki covered the fist face.
The Qi in his body contracted along the path he had just deduced.
Abdomen.
Spine.
Shoulder.
Elbow.
Wrist.
The power that originally spread across the entire arm all converged to the fist peak the instant before contact.
The two fists collided together.
"Bang!"
Only a muffled sound echoed in the stone room.
There was no large-scale impact.
All the power was compressed at the single point where the fists made contact.
The clothes behind Danny bulged backward sharply.
His feet slid two meters on the ground.
One step.
Two steps.
Just as the third step was about to land, he forcefully stopped himself.
Lin Yao stood in place.
The Armament Haki on his fist slowly faded away.
Danny lowered his head to look at his hand.
The golden light was still there.
But his finger bones were so numb they were almost losing sensation.
"You just..."
"Walked through your route once."
"You watched three times."
"The first two times were already enough."
Danny raised his head.
This time he fell completely silent.
Luke chuckled nearby.
"I reminded you."
Jessica asked, "Is he always like this?"
Matt answered calmly.
"Based on my recent experience, it's best not to demonstrate what you're best at in front of him too many times."
Danny took a deep breath.
"You really can't copy the power of Shou-Lao."
"But you've already grasped the circulation of Qi flow."
Lin Yao raised his hand again.
This time, he condensed Qi into an extremely thin structure, flowing closely along his five fingers.
Then he brought two fingers together and tapped on the armor left behind by a corpse of The Hand nearby.
No explosion.
The outer layer of the armor remained intact.
But all the internal fastening buckles snapped.
Danny immediately saw the change.
"Acupoint-style impact."
"Sending the power inside through the outer layer."
"Pretty much."
Lin Yao condensed the Qi into a thin thread again.
The Qi flow bypassed a stone pillar and re-gathered into a small Qi blade behind it.
The grandmaster-level mastery of Qi was reintegrating the logic he had just learned.
"[Understanding of Mastery of Qi improved.]"
"[New skill unlocked: Aura Shaping.]"
"[New skill unlocked: Acupoint Impact.]"
"[Can concentrate Qi on a smaller contact surface to improve penetration, sealing, and internal destruction efficiency.]"
Danny looked at the Qi flow bypassing the stone pillar.
"How long have you actually practiced?"
"Formally practicing Qi?"
Lin Yao thought about it.
"Less than a month."
Danny completely stopped talking.
Maya looked at him and made a gesture.
Jessica translated, holding back a laugh:
"She asks if you want to keep comparing."
Danny walked to the front of the stone door.
"You are qualified to go in."
Lin Yao didn't continue to provoke him.
"What's inside?"
"Dragon bones."
Danny pressed his glowing fist against the center of the stone door.
"In K'un-Lun legends, the bones left behind by dragons preserve special life energy."
"The Hand used dragon bones for a long time to prolong their lives."
"Later, they began studying how to put this power into ordinary human bodies."
Jean Grey's expression sank.
"Related to V-Max?"
"In the data I tracked, Kingpin bought three batches of mental equipment."
Danny said, "And collected dragon bones from the remnants of The Hand."
Lin Yao opened the shipping records he had copied earlier.
That buyer mark without a company name, painted only with a dragon pattern, finally matched at this moment.
The Super Brain quickly reorganized the intelligence.
V-Max was able to store personalities and copy mental frequencies.
Dragon bones possessed special life energy.
If the two were combined, what Kingpin wanted to do had already exceeded ordinary mental control equipment.
"He wants to give mental data a more stable carrier."
Jean Grey also thought of this.
"Even allow incomplete personalities to exist for a long time."
Jessica's face changed.
"Then the list of DODC super-powered individuals he took away..."
"Might be test subjects."
Lin Yao raised his head.
"Open the door."
Danny's fists lit up simultaneously.
The golden light rapidly spread along the patterns of the stone door.
"Rumble—"
The stone door, sealed for many years, slowly retreated to both sides.
An ancient aura rushed over their faces.
In the center of the hall was a huge white skeleton.
To be precise, only a part of it remained.
The spine was broken.
The ribcage was cut open.
Right in the center, a huge gap several meters wide was left.
The cutting marks were very fresh.
There were also track marks left by Fisk Corporation heavy transport equipment around.
Danny walked over quickly.
His expression sank completely.
"The core dragon bone is gone."
Lin Yao squatted down and touched the edge of the cut with his finger.
The residual vibration had not completely dissipated.
The Super Brain quickly estimated.
At least several tons.
The transportation time would not exceed seventy-two hours.
There was also a dropped Fisk storage label in the corner.
"[Project: ORPHEUS.]"
"[Transportation Destination: Deleted.]"
Lin Yao stood up.
The world line threat map updated accordingly.
"[High-value Fisk plan discovered.]"
"[Codename: ORPHEUS.]"
"[Dragon bone core has been transferred.]"
"[V-Max mental equipment matching degree: High.]"
Danny stared at the huge gap.
"We are a step too late."
Lin Yao put the storage label into the system space.
"Not late."
"At least now we know what he took."
Jean Grey looked at Lin Yao.
"Bullseye is still moving."
Lin Yao closed his eyes.
That aura marker had already entered deeper into the underground network.
At the same time, a new Fisk transport node slowly lit up on the threat map.
"He will find the dragon bones for us."
Lin Yao opened his eyes.
"Let him keep running."
Chapter 38 Kingpin Steals Vibranium, Wakanda Comes Knocking
The dragon bone core behind the stone door had been dug out.
Lin Yao, however, did not leave immediately.
His aura perception swept across the entire ruin and finally stopped beneath the fractured skeleton.
"There is still something below."
Danny walked over.
"A living person?"
"Equipment."
Lin Yao crushed a stone slab with one stomp.
A newly sealed maintenance slot was revealed underneath.
Jean lifted the metal plate with telekinesis.
A half-person-high black device was hidden inside. Most of its outer shell had been burned away, but a ring of purplish-black metal was still embedded in the center.
Danny frowned.
"Vibranium?"
"Mixed Vibranium."
Lin Yao squatted down.
Inside the device, part numbers from DODC, V-Max, and Fisk Advanced Defense existed simultaneously.
Right in the center was also a fingernail-sized piece of dragon bone fragment.
Three completely different things were forcibly crammed into the same machine.
As soon as Jean approached, a tingling pain came from her temples.
"It is still emitting mental waves."
"Very weak."
"But the range is huge."
Lin Yao pressed Qi into his fingertips.
He did not destroy the device.
A wispy strand of Qi slowly flowed along the Vibraniumring.
The originally faint mental fluctuations were suddenly amplified.
Jean immediately took a step back.
Golden light also lit up on Danny's fists.
"The dragon bone is responding."
Super Brain quickly began to analyze.
Vibranium did not bear defense.
It did not even enter the main load-bearing structure.
It was processed into a special resonance ring.
The mental signal was released from the V-Max module, first passing through the dragon bone fragment, and then entering the Vibranium structure.
First enhancement.
Second amplification.
Finally, it diffused along the external antenna.
Lin Yao looked at Jean.
"Kingpin did not take Vibranium to make armor."
"He is making an amplifier."
Jean's expression sank.
"Amplifying what?"
"Human mentality."
Lin Yao put the device into the system space.
"Return to Dawn House."
Less than an hour later.
A Wakanda aircraft landed directly in the industrial park.
Okoye walked down first.
The spear in her hand was already in combat status.
Shuri followed behind her, and the expression on her face was much more serious than when they first met.
"We detected Vibranium activation signals exceeding the normal smuggling volume."
"At least dozens of kilograms."
Lin Yao placed the device brought back from the underground ruins onto the experimental table.
"Look at this first."
Shuri's bead chains quickly unfolded.
Dozens of purple scanning lines covered the device.
As soon as the results appeared, she looked up.
"This Vibranium has been reprocessed."
"The structure is very crude."
"But the direction is correct."
Lin Yao brought up his own model.
"The Vibranium crystal lattice was modified into annular conduction."
"V-Max provides the mental frequency."
"The dragon bone provides a continuous life energy."
"Vibranium is responsible for stably amplifying both."
Shuri's movements stopped.
"You have already finished analyzing it?"
"On the way."
Banner remotely accessed the laboratory.
He glanced at the model.
"How long did you take on the way?"
"Twenty-seven minutes."
Banner did not ask further.
He was already getting used to this kind of blow.
Shuri, however, flipped through a dozen pages of data continuously.
The more she looked, the faster she went.
Finally, she superimposed her Wakanda material model with Lin Yao's deduced results.
The overlap rate reached ninety-three percent.
The remaining error mainly came from equipment damage.
"Your understanding of Vibranium now..."
Shuri looked at Lin Yao.
"Is already close to a professional researcher at the Wakanda Materials Laboratory."
"The database is useful."
"That is giving you partial permissions."
"Enough."
Shuri didn't know what to say for a moment.
Okoye walked over to the device and picked up a charred outer shell.
"Is this also Vibranium?"
"Three point two percent."
Lin Yao reached out.
Armament Haki covered his right palm.
The blackness quickly spread to his five fingers.
Okoye had already heard Shuri mention this new ability.
Seeing it in person was still the first time.
Lin Yao grasped the outer shell.
Crack!
Five fingerprints were directly pinched into the armor plate mixed with a small amount of Vibranium.
With another exertion of force.
The entire outer shell split apart from the middle.
Okoye looked at the cross-section.
"When did you first obtain this power?"
"The day before yesterday."
Okoye fell silent.
Danny stood on the other side, not idling either.
Lin Yao spread out his other hand.
A wisp of Qi extended from his palm.
Initially, it was only a thin line.
Soon it began to become thinner.
Longer.
Finally, it condensed into a translucent Qi blade.
The Qi blade was stably maintained in front of his palm.
Lin Yao casually swiped across a test steel plate.
The cut was as neat as if it had been cut by high-energy equipment.
Danny stared at that Qi blade.
"Yesterday you could only bypass stone pillars."
"Today you can already fix the shape?"
"The stability is still poor."
"You call this poor?"
"It will disperse after swinging thirty times."
Danny decided to shut his mouth.
Shuri had reconnected the mental device.
"If this is only a test machine, the Vibranium dosage of the official equipment will be even greater."
She projected the New York map into mid-air.
"To cover a block, at least three amplification nodes are needed."
"To cover Manhattan, twelve to fifteen are needed."
Lin Yao shook his head.
"If the underground network participates in conduction, that many are not needed."
Super Brain brought up the previously copied Fiskunderground map.
Twelve main passages.
Five equipment warehouses.
Three river course exits.
And a large amount of underground power and communication lines.
These structures could happen to become natural mental waveguides.
Shuri quickly recalculated.
A moment later, her expression changed completely.
"Six nodes."
"Only six main units."
"Vibranium is responsible for maintaining frequency synchronization."
"The dragon bone maintains the persistence of the mental signal."
"V-Max provides the personality template."
Jean looked at the center of the map.
"What if all six units are activated simultaneously?"
Shuri was silent for two seconds.
"Theoretically, it can cover the core urban area of New York."
The laboratory quieted down.
What Kingpin was preparing to manufacture was no longer a device to control a certain experimental subject.
But an urban mental network.
It could amplify fear.
Implant personality signals.
Create collective hallucinations.
Or even launch targeted attacks against the frequency of specific superpower users.
"Where is the factory?" Lin Yao asked.
"Need to activate the sample."
Shuri opened a golden detection module.
Lin Yao removed the Vibranium resonance ring from the device.
Qi entered it.
The frequency increased bit by bit.
Purple ripples began to spread along the New York map.
Shuri activated the Wakanda satellites at the same time.
One.
Two.
Three abnormal Vibranium responses appeared.
The first two were very weak.
In the third direction, the entire detector instantly turned red.
An industrial area in New Jersey near the New York Port.
The map zoomed in.
It was registered on the surface as an abandoned electronics recycling plant.
The underground power consumption was fourteen times that of normal industrial facilities.
"Found it."
Okoye picked up her spear.
"Wakanda will retrieve all the Vibranium."
Lin Yao said:
"Do not destroy all the equipment yet."
"I want the mainframe, the list, and the control program."
"The Vibranium belongs to you."
Okoye looked at Shuri.
Shuri nodded.
"Deal."
"From now on, Wakanda officially joins this operation."
She took out a silver-purple device from the aircraft.
"For Dawn House."
"A Vibranium mental blocker."
"It can disrupt the resonance frequency within a small range to prevent V-Max signals from directly entering consciousness."
Jean took the device.
"How large an area can it cover?"
"Currently it can only cover the industrial park."
"Once we get Kingpin's mainframe, I can continue to upgrade it."
world-line threat map updated simultaneously.
[Core direction of ORPHEUS Project confirmed.]
[Target: City-level mental network.]
[High-value production nodes locked.]
[Fisk faction check-in progress: thirty-one percent.]
Lin Yao was just preparing to arrange the factory operation.
The sound of cars suddenly came from outside the industrial park.
Sam Wilson walked into the training ground alone.
He did not bring his shield.
But he stopped after entering the door.
In the training area, a dozen adult experimental subjects were undergoing superpower control training.
Someone was practicing flame containment.
Someone was practicing metal shaping.
And several people were following Frank to learn evacuation and cover.
Sam watched for a long time.
Then he turned to Lin Yao.
"The government is worried that you are building a private army."
Chapter 39 Seeking Death, Kingpin
"The government is worried that you are building a private army."
Sam stood at the edge of the training ground, his gaze sweeping across more than a dozen test subjects who were training.
Someone was controlling Fire.
Someone was trying to compress the adsorption range of out-of-control metal to within three meters.
In the corner, a youth who could release Shockwave was practicing against a heavy sandbag.
Before every punch, the instructor nearby would first call out a number.
"Thirty percent."
The youth adjusted his breathing.
Shockwave struck out, and the sandbag shook twice.
"Again."
Sam watched for a few minutes.
"In the report I received, this place is called the combat training area."
"Indeed."
Lin Yao walked to his side.
"That's why I came."
Sam looked at him.
"Some people are worried that in another half a year, New York will have a superpower unit that takes orders from you."
Lin Yao raised his hand and pointed at the training ground.
"Ask them yourself."
Sam was stunned for a moment.
"You're willing to accept an inspection?"
"You came representing the provisional accords, and I'll show you the areas you should see."
"The core laboratory, member privacy, Phoenix data, and defensive trump cards are not open."
Sam nodded.
"Reasonable."
Lin Yao called over a black youth in his twenties.
"Tell Captain America why you are training."
The youth glanced at Sam.
"I discharge electricity after I fall asleep."
"The first time I lost control, I sent my girlfriend to the hospital."
"The DODC said they could help me."
He pulled back his cuff.
There were still old needle marks and numbers on his arm.
"Later, I entered the laboratory."
"Now I train for two hours every day, with the goal of not burning down the house when I sleep."
Sam was silent for a moment.
He walked over to another girl.
"Did anyone ask you to join the combat team?"
"No."
The girl pointed to the course schedule on the wall.
Medical.
Cultural classes.
Vocational training.
Ability control.
Combat training was just one of them, and adults signed up voluntarily.
"I'm planning to study nursing."
"I train my ability because I shatter nearby glass when I'm nervous."
Sam asked seven people in a row.
The answers varied.
Someone was preparing to leave New York.
Someone wanted to join the rescue team.
And two young people wanted to learn equipment repair from Peter.
Lin Yao stood nearby the whole time.
After Sam finished asking the last person, the scrutiny on his face lessened a lot.
"You should have let the government see this earlier."
"Looking is fine."
"Taking over is not."
Sam looked at the training ground.
"You are very guarded against the government."
"The DODC just handed sixty-three people from the experimental tables over to me."
"If it were you, you wouldn't forget it so quickly either."
Sam sighed.
"I admit that."
The two continued walking toward the living area.
Just halfway there, Peter's voice suddenly exploded from the communicator.
"Lin Yao!"
"There's an accident on the elevated light rail in the eastern section of Brooklyn!"
"The train derailed, and the bridge section ahead was blown apart!"
Super Brain immediately connected to the city surveillance forwarded by Ned.
A six-car light rail train was stuck on the edge of the elevated structure.
The third carriage was already suspended in mid-air.
Below the bridge deck were vehicles driving during the evening rush hour.
What was even more troublesome was that the explosions were still continuing.
The first blast point cut off the main load-bearing beam.
The second blast point blocked the evacuation platform.
The third bomb hadn't exploded yet.
"Let's go."
Lin Yao rushed out of the building.
Sam directly deployed his mechanical wings.
The two ascended into the air simultaneously.
A few minutes later, the elevated light rail appeared in their field of vision.
The screams of the crowd could be heard from hundreds of meters away.
The third carriage was sinking little by little.
Peter was hanging below the carriage, web lines pulling the bridge pillars on both sides.
"I can't hold on much longer!"
Lin Yao scanned the scene at a glance.
Super Brain quickly calculated the load-bearing structure.
The main beam was broken by sixty-seven percent.
Secondary cracks had already appeared on the left support column.
The remaining safe time was less than ninety seconds.
"Sam!"
"Go inside the carriage."
"Evacuate the elderly and children first."
"Peter, continue to secure the third section."
"Jean, establish telepathic communication and synchronize the internal situation of the carriage to Sam."
"Luke, go clear the road under the bridge."
"Yelena, investigate the source of the bomb."
Just as Sam was about to say something, Lin Yao had already flown below the broken bridge deck.
He supported the suspended steel beam with both hands.
The Qigong protection spread out instantly.
The weight originally concentrated on a few steel beams was quickly dispersed.
Boom!
The entire section of the bridge sank abruptly.
The air under Lin Yao's feet was pressed into a circle of white waves.
But the elevated structure stopped falling.
The third carriage was less than half a meter away from falling.
Sam looked back.
One person.
Supporting half of the elevated bridge and three carriages.
"Captain America!"
Lin Yao's voice came through the communicator.
"What are you dazing off for?"
Sam immediately rushed into the carriage.
"Everyone listen to my command!"
"Walk to the left!"
"Don't push!"
With Captain America at the scene, the panicked crowd quickly stabilized.
Peter took away passengers with limited mobility from outside the train window.
Luke stood under the bridge and forced all vehicles to a stop.
Jean kept reporting the headcount in the telepathic communication.
"There are twenty-seven people left in carriage number three."
"There is a pregnant woman in carriage number four."
"The tail structure of carriage number five is cracking."
Lin Yao was supporting the steel beam, but his gaze fell inside the bridge body.
Aura perception swept across layer by layer.
The bomb was hidden in the load-bearing column.
There was a weak electronic signal inside.
It was also mixed with a trace of the familiar scent of FiskIndustrial materials.
"Found the third one."
A wisp of Qi extended from his fingertips.
The Qi was shaped into a thin thread.
It bypassed the steel bars.
And drilled into the load-bearing column.
Accurately cutting off the detonator's power supply.
Yelena quickly sent back the results.
"The explosive serial number has been checked."
"A demolition company under Fisk purchased the same batch three months ago."
"The person in charge of transportation has disappeared."
Lin Yao's eyes turned cold.
Kingpin chose the timing too coincidentally.
The government had just sent Sam to inspect Dawn House.
A superpower-level attack immediately occurred in city transportation.
As long as a piece of forged evidence appeared at the scene, public opinion would smoothly pin the blame on him.
"Ned."
"Check the nearby surveillance."
"Someone tampered with it."
Ned's voice came quickly.
"Forty-three seconds of surveillance were overwritten ten minutes ago."
"I am recovering it."
Sam brought out the last passenger.
"Cleared!"
Lin Yao glanced at the bridge deck.
"Peter, release the web lines."
"What?"
"I'll catch it."
Peter immediately retracted his hands.
The three carriages, having lost the pull of the web lines, sank simultaneously.
The Qi on Lin Yao's body expanded abruptly.
The entire broken bridge was wrapped in a nearly transparent layer of Qigong protection.
The next second, he forcefully lifted the carriages and broken steel beams by one meter.
Everyone on the ground raised their heads.
Sam, suspended mid-air, watched this scene, his breathing stopping for half a beat.
What surprised him even more was that Lin Yao didn't snatch his command position from beginning to end.
Evacuating the masses was left to Captain America.
Rescue outside the carriage was left to Spider-Man.
Clearing the ground was left to Luke.
Mental coordination was left to Jean.
He only did the part that was hardest to replace.
Supporting the bridge.
Finding the bomb.
Calculating the structure.
A dozen minutes later, fire trucks and engineering vehicles arrived.
Lin Yao slowly placed the broken bridge onto the temporary support frame.
As soon as he landed, Ned restored the surveillance.
In the footage, an engineering vehicle from a Fiskdemolition company entered the maintenance tunnel forty minutes before the explosion.
The driver was wearing a hat.
The vehicle later changed its license plate.
Yelena supplemented another procurement record.
Explosives.
Delay timer.
Engineering vehicle.
All three lines pointed to Fisk's peripheral companies.
After reading the evidence, Sam's face sank completely.
"He wants to pin this matter on you."
"And he wants you to watch me lose control with your own eyes."
Sam put away the materials.
"I've seen enough today."
"I will report the current training system of Dawn Housetruthfully."
"I will oppose the proposal for mandatory ability registration."
Lin Yao looked at him.
"You've decided to stand on my side?"
"I stand on the side of the evidence."
Sam extended his hand.
"At least today, the evidence is on your side."
Lin Yao shook hands with him.
That night.
Sam publicly accepted an interview.
"I personally inspected Dawn House."
"There is combat training there, as well as medical care, ability control, education, and vocational training."
"I found no evidence of forcing members to join armed operations."
Less than ten minutes after this remark was broadcast,
the New York City government suddenly held an emergency press conference.
[New York enters a superpower state of emergency.]
[All high-risk superpower organizations are subject to temporary financial and material control.]
Dawn House's bank accounts were frozen at the same time.
The industrial park land license was suspended.
Medical suppliers received notices to terminate transportation.
Even the entry approval for cooperative equipment from Wakanda was blocked.
The television screen switched.
Wilson Fisk stood in front of a group of reporters.
His expression was solemn.
"New York needs heroes."
"Even more, it needs order."
"For the safety of all citizens, we must restrict unregulated powered individuals."
Lin Yao sat in the conference room, looking at the screen.
On the world line threat map,
the red nodes around Fisk Tower lit up simultaneously.
Chapter 40: Cutting Off Kingpin's Cash Flow
At 6:13 AM, Dawn House suffered a power outage.
Three minutes later, the tap water pressure dropped to zero.
The internal network was immediately cut off.
The backup power in the medical area started automatically, and several life monitors lit up again.
Ned rushed into the conference room hugging his computer.
"The external network is completely cut off."
"The telecom operator said it's line maintenance."
"The water authority said it's a pipeline safety check."
"The power company said there is illegal modification in the industrial park."
Yelena slammed another list onto the table.
"Twenty-seven suppliers terminated their contracts simultaneously this morning."
Food.
Medicine.
Medical consumables.
Daily necessities.
Even the garbage collection company stopped its service.
The TV on the wall could still receive programs via satellite signals.
More than twenty media outlets were broadcasting the same content.
[Are superhuman organizations breaking away from regulation?]
[Dawn House is secretly training superhumans.]
[Does Lin Yao possess a private armed force?]
Some footage even intercepted yesterday's training ground recordings.
A young man capable of releasing fire was training to control his ability.
The video edited out the teaching content before and after.
The host only left the scene of him piercing through the fireproof target.
Jean came back from the living area.
"Some people are starting to get nervous."
"A few newly arrived kids thought the government was preparing to recapture them."
"I've stabilized them for now."
Lin Yao stood up.
"Initiate the Level 3 emergency plan."
The order was passed down immediately.
The industrial park's underground warehouse opened.
The food, medicine, and drinking water stored in the system space were taken out in batches.
These resources were originally prepared by Lin Yao for a surprise attack on the base.
Calculated based on sixty-three test subjects and staff members, it was enough to support them for two weeks.
All the backup medical equipment left by Banner was connected.
Ten minutes later, a Wakanda flyer landed in the industrial park.
Shuri jumped down from the hatch.
Behind her followed four cylindrical devices.
"Independent energy module."
"Originally prepared for the mental shielding system."
"Now it will supply power to you first."
The four modules were connected to the industrial park's power lines.
The purple energy lines lit up one by one.
The medical area, living area, and communication center were restored.
Okoye glanced at the city's power supply interface in the distance that had stopped working.
"Are they really planning to force you to sign by cutting off power?"
"The power outage is just a reminder."
Lin Yao said, "What they really want is to drag the baseinto long-term consumption."
Food can be stored.
But medicine has a shelf life and special transportation requirements.
Some test subjects still need to use stabilizers regularly.
After the accounts are frozen, any public procurement will become difficult.
Drag it out for a month, and the interior of Dawn Housewill inevitably come under pressure.
Drag it out for three months, and the government can intervene on the grounds of 'being unable to guarantee the safety of members.'
Kingpin didn't plan to send assassins this time.
He wanted Dawn House to fail on its own.
Matt was already sitting at the conference table.
Dozens of documents were piled up beside the table.
"I am applying for an emergency judicial injunction."
"The water and power cutoffs involve sixty-three DODC victims, fourteen of whom are receiving continuous medical treatment."
"As long as it can be proven that these administrative measures are overtly targeted, the court has reason to suspend their execution."
"How long?"
"As fast as today."
"What about the slowest?"
"If they keep changing reasons, they can drag it out."
Lin Yao clicked open another computer.
"Then don't wait for them to stop."
Tombstone's ledger.
DODC's four hundred million dollar black fund records.
Transactions of Fisk's twenty-seven shell companies.
Six private real estates investigated by Jessica.
The two offshore accounts tracked down by Yelena and the nineteen companies they exposed previously.
All were re-fed into the same model by the Super Brain.
Thousands of funds rolled rapidly.
Looking disorganized.
Real estate loans.
Charitable donations.
Consulting fees.
Logistics costs.
Private security.
Overseas investment.
Cash washed back from casinos.
Lin Yao cross-referenced all the amounts, times, approvers, transfer paths, and actual cargo flows.
In the first round of screening, three hundred and seventy-two transactions remained.
The second round, eighty-nine transactions.
The third round left only twelve accounts.
Jessica leaned against the table edge.
"What's so special about these twelve?"
"If other accounts are lost, Kingpin can replace them."
Lin Yao clicked open the first one.
"This one pays the underground security."
The second.
"This one is responsible for paying congressional intermediaries."
The third.
"Responsible for DODC equipment procurement."
The fourth.
"Pays for secret real estate maintenance costs."
The fifth.
"Settles accounts for The Hand remnants."
...
The twelve accounts were connected into a network.
The total amount exceeded three hundred and seventy million U.S. dollars.
Much of the money did not stay long-term.
It flowed every day.
They were more like the blood vessels of Fisk's underground system.
Jessica stared at the screen.
"I investigated him for years just to touch upon two of them."
Lin Yao continued to input instructions.
"You investigate the money from the people."
"I investigate who cannot be cut off from the money."
Matt raised his head.
"Are these materials to be sent to the court?"
"Send the parts that can prove illegal sources."
"What about the rest?"
"Keep them to continue the investigation."
Lin Yao never intended to hand over all his trump cards at once.
Yelena pulled up the company data corresponding to the twelve accounts.
"Seven of them can still be directly associated with DODC criminal funds."
"Five have a slightly weaker evidence chain."
"Freeze the seven first."
"Apply for a risk freeze on the other five through associated accounts."
Matt quickly understood what he meant.
"Use victim asset recovery."
The scale of compensation caused by DODC's illegal experiments was massive.
Any company that received criminal funds, transferred equipment, or participated in money laundering could become a target for recovery.
Matt immediately modified the application.
Banner remotely signed the source certification of the technical equipment.
Shuri supplemented the Vibranium smuggling proof.
Jessica submitted photos of the underground facilities.
Yelena provided the transfer paths of the shell companies.
Lin Yao compressed thousands of pages of data into a complete relationship chart.
Every node could be clicked.
Every sum of money had a source.
Every company had a person in charge.
Matt looked at it for a full minute.
"How long did it take you?"
"Two hours and forty-seven minutes."
Matt touched the white cane in his hand.
"A normal financial investigation team would take at least several months to achieve this level."
...
Noon at 12:00.
The New York Federal Court approved the first batch of emergency asset preservation applications.
Seven secret accounts were frozen first.
Forty minutes later, the other five associated accounts were temporarily locked by the bank's risk control system.
A total of three hundred and seventy million U.S. dollars entered a restricted state.
Fisk Tower.
The chief financial officer rushed into the office.
"All twelve accounts have problems."
Kingpin raised his head.
"What accounts?"
The director's Adam's apple moved slightly.
"Underground security, special logistics, congressional channels, equipment procurement."
"And..."
"Speak."
"The cash settlement account of the Orpheus Medical Technology Company factory."
The fountain pen in Kingpin's hand stopped.
He stared at the twelve frozen accounts, his expression growing increasingly gloomy.
Without even leaving Dawn House, Lin Yao had already locked down three hundred and seventy million U.S. dollars of underground funds.
Kingpin stood up.
The office was terrifyingly silent.
"Restore."
"The bank requires re-conducting anti-money laundering reviews."
"It will take at least a few days at the fastest."
A few days.
Enough for underground security to stop getting paid.
Enough to cut off supplies to several secret logistics nodes.
And it will affect the final batch of equipment procurement for the Orpheus Medical Technology Company factory.
Kingpin walked to the window.
He finally realized a problem.
The most troublesome part about Lin Yao had already exceeded combat power.
He learns.
Knows how to use people.
And he turns every piece of snatched evidence into a new weapon.
Inside Dawn House, the system prompt appeared synchronously.
[High-intensity faction cooperation detected.]
[Five systems of law, intelligence, technology, logistics, and mental management are operating simultaneously.]
[Plot chain record updated.]
[Fisk crime syndicate's financial network damaged.]
[Faction check-in progress: forty-two percent.]
Three in the afternoon.
The judicial injunction was issued.
The water and power departments must restore basic services.
Dawn House still retained Wakanda's independent energy.
Lin Yao did not let Shuri remove it.
"If the city system can be shut down once, it can be shut down a second time."
"From now on, this place will generate its own power."
Shuri nodded.
"That's what I mean too."
The lights above the industrial park lit up again.
The base resumed operation.
...
On the other side.
Washington.
Valentina opened the newly delivered document.
The first page was the list of DODC classified assets currently held by Dawn House.
V-Max.
Gene resonance module.
Gamma control program.
Mental suppression device.
And over 300 GB of internal DODC data that had not been handed over to the federal government.
The second page was the list of sixty-three superhumans.
The third page was satellite photos of Wakanda flyers entering Dawn House three consecutive times.
The final page was a piece of intelligence just delivered to the Department of Homeland Security.
[Dawn House is preparing an armed operation against the Orpheus Medical Technology Company in New Jersey.]
Valentina looked at it for a few seconds.
"Whose company is this?"
The subordinate replied:
"Fisk Corporation cannot be found among the surface shareholders."
"But it is the Orpheus Medical Technology Companyfactory we locked onto."
Valentina smiled.
"Interesting."
She turned to the last page of the special executive order.
[Requires Dawn House to hand over DODC federal classified assets.]
[Suspends unauthorized interstate armed operations.]
[When refusing to cooperate, temporary detention may be imposed on the core person in charge.]
"Sam won't agree."
"That's why he won't be leading the team this time."
Valentina signed her name.
"Conventional law enforcement officers cannot suppress Lin Yao."
She pushed the document away.
"Let the Thunderbolts execute it."