"Teacher, I'll be going now. I'll come to class tomorrow. If you need anything, feel free to tell me." Jack, the police sergeant, cast a grateful, respectful glance at Huang Wen before jogging off to join the retreating police convoy.
"Alright, since there's nothing unusual for now, everyone can go back and rest," Huang Wen announced to the worried knots of neighbors. His voice was calm, cutting through the residual tension of the explosion. "If you have any questions, or see any suspicious persons in the coming nights, you can call me here directly. I won't be sleeping much."
"Now that you've said that, everyone can rest assured. Alright, everyone, go home!" Uncle Zhong smiled, his old face visibly relaxing. He led the way, and seeing their de facto leader calm, the neighbors of Chinatown dispersed, heading back to their homes. It was the middle of the night, and tomorrow, life, and the struggle to open their shops, would continue.
Only Riesfisk, Logan, and Zhong Qiang remained.
"Teacher, I… I have something I need to tell you," Riesfisk managed, his voice laced with guilt and a nervous tremor. He avoided Huang Wen's eyes, shuffling his feet.
"Hmm?" Huang Wen raised an eyebrow, a knowing look passing between him and Zhong Qiang. The bombing had confirmed what they both suspected: this wasn't random street violence. Chinatown was insulated from most outside gang conflicts simply because the local space was too limited and too tightly controlled by the Chinese community.
The key players were Riesfisk's background in the underworld, the rising power of the Kingpin, and the fact that Frank Castle—a man of military precision and singular focus—had targeted this exact spot.
The sequence of events—the explosion, Riesfisk's timely phone call, the compromised police response—pointed to one thing: the Punisher was here to eliminate someone connected to Wilson Fisk, and Riesfisk was likely the lure or the casualty.
"Okay, let's go inside and talk," Huang Wen conceded, his face grave. He led Riesfisk and Logan back into the Wing Chun martial arts school, with Zhong Qiang following, prepared for bad news.
"Wait a minute, I'll go upstairs first. You guys wait for me here." Huang Wen waved Riesfisk, who had begun to speak, into the sitting area. He couldn't deal with a crime boss's nephew while an invisible, tied-up Punisher was leaning against his wardrobe. Besides, with the night's events finally winding down, he needed to claim his reward. He felt the system's energy calling to him—he needed the power boost now.
He hurried up to his room, his mind already calculating the risk-reward ratio of the night's drama.
He returned to the wardrobe, his hand sweeping through the empty air until it encountered the solid, unmoving mass of the Punisher, still bound and invisible.
"Yes, he's still there," Huang Wen muttered, satisfied. He briefly checked Frank's breathing and heart rate, both calm and steady, before settling into his own chair. With a focused thought, he pulled up the system task page.
"Mission complete: Capture Punisher Frank. Reward: One draw for an extraordinary character. Claim now?"
"Draw!" Huang Wen commanded. He took a deep, centering breath. The Extraordinary Character Lottery—this was a substantial step up from the common Mortal-tier draws. Bai Zhantang had changed his entire approach to combat, giving him the methods to break the limits of Qi. What new foundational skill would he receive now?
A familiar white light flashed before his mind's eye. Sometimes, Huang Wen half-expected the light to turn to a dazzling blue, a mystic purple, or a shimmering gold, indicative of some truly cosmic prize. But no, it was always the same white, signifying a draw limited to the highest tier of human potential.
"Congratulations on acquiring the extraordinary character, Ah Xing (derived from the God of Gamblers film series, selecting Ah Xing as the character with the highest overall qualities)."
"Stephen Chow? The God of Gamblers?" Huang Wen was momentarily stunned, the absurdity of the draw hitting him. "First the God of Thieves, now the God of Gamblers. What in the actual hell kind of 'god' will I draw next? The God of Wasting Time?"
He frowned, then began to seriously consider the utility. "Can this Ah Xing truly be considered extraordinary? His physical attributes are average, but his special abilities… they should be useful, right?"
Ah Xing, in the film lore, had innate psychic abilities—the power of 'Divine Power' or Shen—the final attribute that Huang Wen knew he was lacking. This was a crucial piece of the puzzle, a direct supplement to his already high Essence and Qi attributes.
If only it was the entire Stephen Chow filmography combined Ah Xing, Huang Wen thought with genuine regret. Imagine the powers then! Figures like the Beggar King or even the Monkey King would make me truly invincible.
Shaking off the fantasy, he focused on the reality of the draw: the Ah Xing from the gambling films. The character's attributes appeared instantly:
Character: Ah Xing.
Essence: 11 points.
Qi: 0 points.
God (Shen): 0.2 points. (Divine power. One point of Divine Power equals ten points of physical Strength, which equals one hundred points of Stamina.)
Skills: Special abilities: object substitution, object control, X-ray vision, perception, illusion, hitting from a distance, and the deadly scissor kick.
Evaluation: As a renowned gambling saint, Ah Xing's special ability is not weak, but even at the optimal level, Ah Xing is only just at the extraordinary level. As for time travel, no matter how powerful the special ability is, one cannot complete time travel alone.
"As expected, one point of Divine Power equals ten points of Strength, which equals one hundred points of Energy," Huang Wen mumbled, feeling slightly cheated. 0.2 points of Shen? It barely scraped the Extraordinary level! It meant the original Ah Xing was probably even weaker, struggling against simple opponents.
Well, a free gift is a free gift, he rationalized.
"Wait a moment, I have latent divine power myself!" Huang Wen's eyes suddenly snapped open, a brilliant realization dawning in his Mind Palace. "The system has always shown my God attribute as 'unactivated.' If I merge with Ah Xing's ability, will my own latent Shen be forcefully activated and boosted?"
"Integrate!"
With a powerful mental command, Huang Wen clicked the "agree" option.
A small, almost insignificant wave of power flowed from the system into Huang Wen's mind—the 0.2 points of Ah Xing's Divine Power. It was so faint, it was like a drop of water in an ocean of his own overwhelming Essence and Qi.
But the moment it merged, something profound happened.
That weak, tiny influx of foreign psychic energy acted as a catalyst. A latent, dormant force—his own Shen—surged out from the deepest recesses of his consciousness, a power at least five times stronger than the incoming force.
Huang Wen's eyes blurred, then cleared. His mental clarity was immediately amplified. He felt incredibly light, almost weightless, as if his soul was experiencing a momentary, effortless separation from his physical body—a brief glimpse of the Legendary boundary of the spirit. He quickly wrestled the surging power into submission, calming the tempestuous spiritual sea.
He checked his new stats, his mental processes already accelerating:
Host: Huang Wen
Essence (Jing): 116 points.
Qi (Qi): 99 points.
God (Shen): 1.2 points (Special abilities).
Skills: Wing Chun master, gunfighting, steamed bun grenade, Bai Zhantang ability package, Ah Xing ability package (Object Control, X-Ray Vision, Perception, Illusion, Scissor Kick), Mind Palace and Hyper-Intelligent Processing (Passive).
Evaluation: Your Essence is truly extraordinary, having already transcended the lower limits and is rapidly developing towards a non-human realm; your Qi has reached the absolute pinnacle of the extraordinary, with just one more step needed to embark on the path of legend; your Divine Power has forcefully been activated and is surging, already surpassing your Energy.
You have now embarked on a path of all-round, balanced development in Essence, Qi, and Spirit, and you possess no significant weaknesses.