"Old man... Grandpa! Are you sure this is really going to work?"
"Relax, kid. This old man's been around for decades—how could I possibly lie to you?"
"But the thing is, those street quacks out there? They've all lived for decades too! Tell me honestly, where the hell did you even learn this shady folk remedy?"
"Ever heard of a medicinal bath? This is ancestral wisdom passed down through the ages!"
"This is a medicinal bath? I've never heard of a bath that needs a firepit underneath it! What is this, a stew recipe from the kitchen?!"
Night had fallen. Due to the string of recent murders in the area, the tournament had been temporarily replaced with performance showcases. After being dragged into spending the entire day watching girls dance with Chin Gentsai, Qin Ming now found himself sitting in a giant iron tub.
Beneath the tub, flames roared fiercely.
Right beside him stood the old Chin Gentsai, who was busy throwing all kinds of ingredients into the tub like he was brewing soup.
Angelica, goji berries, ginseng, polygonum multiflorum… he even tossed in a couple of Sichuan peppercorns for flavor!
Soaking in the steaming water, Qin Ming watched Chin Gentsai busily work with a face full of speechless disbelief.
He was starting to seriously doubt this so-called martial arts master's legitimacy. The more he looked, the more the old man seemed like some con artist from the street.
Because really—who the hell puts peppercorns in a medicinal bath?
After fiddling with his "ingredients" for over thirty minutes, Chin Gentsai finally let out a long sigh of satisfaction.
He took the chair handed to him by Athena Asamiya, plopped down, and started fanning himself.
"Kid, inside your body, there are two extremely powerful forces. One internal, one external. One comes from flesh, the other from blood. They seem complementary—but in truth, they clash!"
Saying this, Chin Gentsai glanced at Qin Ming with a strange look in his eyes.
"To be honest, I'm really curious how you even managed to learn both and still stay alive."
Still soaking in the steadily heating brew, Qin Ming blinked in confusion.
"Dead? Why would I be dead? Those two forces work great together!"
"Great? You think they work great together?"
Chin Gentsai looked like he'd just heard the world's funniest joke. He shook his head with a bitter laugh.
"Kid, that blood-based power in you? It's like gunpowder—it gives you explosive force."
"Exactly, right!"
"And that flesh-based power on your surface? It's like armor—it gives you incredible defense."
"Right again. Old man, I'm starting to believe you might actually know a thing or two. But what's the issue here?"
"The issue? You ever hear of someone stuffing gunpowder inside a metal shell? That's called a hand grenade."
Silence fell.
The two stared at each other. After four or five seconds, Qin Ming finally frowned and muttered:
"...Wait, are you saying I might explode?"
"Yup. Normally, you'd be toast. That's why I asked how you even managed to learn two conflicting forces like that in the first place."
Chin Gentsai stood up and clasped his hands behind his back with a sigh.
"Youngsters these days—doing anything to chase power without thinking of the consequences. You want to train hard body techniques? Fine. You want to train the internal force? Also fine. But you had to go and train both. And not just casually—you trained both to extreme levels! It's a miracle you're even alive."
"Uh… I…"
"Power isn't always better in greater amounts—especially this kind of power. Other people lose control when they're overwhelmed by power, sure. But if you lose control? The other force in your body isn't going to sit back and do nothing. One side will try to burst out, the other will try to hold it back. When those two forces clash… you're the one who dies!"
Chin Gentsai walked over to the tub and stuck a hand into the water. His brow furrowed.
"No good! Not hot enough! Keep it going! The higher the temperature, the better!"
Seeing Kasumi Todoh and Kasamoto Eri quietly toss in more coal at his command, Chin Gentsai nodded in satisfaction. Then he turned back to Qin Ming and continued.
"This special herbal mixture will temporarily soften your body, allowing your flesh and blood to adapt to one another. Once they recognize each other as part of the same body, they'll stop fighting. But that's all it'll do—if you want to truly merge the two into one, you've still got a long way to go."
As the temperature continued to rise, Qin Ming's skin started turning red.
He could clearly feel his steel-like body, which had become abnormally tough ever since gaining the Iron Body, begin to soften.
And that burning impulse in his heart, the one that made him want to charge at anything regardless of danger, even missiles… started to fade.
The blood inside him, once constantly boiling and surging, finally began to calm.
This absurd concoction was… actually working.
Staring at Chin Gentsai, who looked back at him with a rare hint of solemnity, Qin Ming frowned.
"You said you have a way to fuse the two?"
"I do."
"What's the price?"
"...My disciple can't just die like that. I want revenge."
"But I already killed all the enemies."
"Their leader is still alive. Kagura Chizuru came to me and told me everything about Goenitz. Those bastards were sent by him, weren't they? He's the one hunting down fighters to weaken our side."
Chin Gentsai raised his head and locked eyes with Qin Ming.
This drunk, bumbling old man… suddenly looked stone-cold serious.
"I can use a secret treasure to help you fuse the two forces in your body. But... you must agree to one condition."
"Take down Goenitz?"
"No. Take me as your master."
"Take you as my master?"
"One day a teacher, a father for life. That is the tradition of Huaxia. Once that bond is established, I will give everything I have to support you—as if I were helping my own son. And you... if your own blood brother were killed unjustly, what would you do?"
Chin Gentsai's words made Qin Ming's eyes flicker slightly. Several seconds passed before he replied.
"I swear I'll avenge your disciple. Isn't that enough?"
"No! I don't believe in so-called promises. I only believe in inheritance! You're Huaxian too, aren't you? Then I'm willing to place a bet on you—to believe that you still respect your teachers and honor the Way."
"You're not afraid you'll lose that bet?"
"The moment you hesitated after hearing 'one day a teacher, a father for life,' the moment you chose not to acknowledge me as your master—that moment, old man as I am, I'd already have lost nothing."
"...Alright. I accept your deal, Master."
The moment Qin Ming spoke, a radiant grin burst across Chin Gentsai's face.
He raised a hand and slipped off the jade ring from his finger, gently placing it into the steaming bath.
"Then let your master witness it for himself... just how much potential my new disciple truly holds."
Plop—with that sound, the jade ring dropped into the water, and in the very next moment, an intense aroma of wine exploded from within the tub.
The Drunken Fist Sect's supreme treasure! Also, the symbolic artifact passed down from one sect leader to the next—the Wine Immortal Ring—was now activated!
Qin Ming's special "marinade of power fusion" had officially begun!
On the first day of soaking, Qin Ming didn't feel much. After the bath, he could even climb out and perform a simple master-recognition ceremony with Chin Gentsai.
But on the second day, his entire body began to noticeably soften—his [Iron Body] ability had temporarily lost its effectiveness!
Then came the third day.
When the soaking session was over, Qin Ming didn't open his eyes or get out.
He just stayed there, motionless, submerged in the brew.
This development forced Chin Gentsai and the others—who had been preparing for the resumption of the tournament and the top 12 finals—to urgently seek out Kagura Chizuru to discuss one thing:
A last-minute substitute.
Qin Ming's condition was... unique. He clearly couldn't step into the ring for now. But they couldn't afford to skip the tournament either.
Even if he was silent and unresponsive, Kasamoto Eri knew better than anyone how important the King of Fighters tournament was to Qin Ming.
So they approached Kagura Chizuru with a proposal: have Athena Asamiya temporarily compete in his place.
Now, under normal circumstances, last-minute replacements weren't allowed.
After all, if that were the case, what was to stop a strong fighter—once eliminated—from simply jumping over to another team and replacing a weaker member? That would make the whole tournament a joke.
However, in this case, the Psychic Team hadn't been eliminated yet. They were only suffering from a temporary shortage in numbers due to exceptional circumstances.
Thus, this wasn't a replacement application—it was a merger request.
Given the Psychic Team's special situation—and mainly because of Athena Asamiya's massive popularity—the officials, unwilling to see her forced to forfeit, approved the application.
Result: The third member of the Todoh Team would temporarily be Athena Asamiya!
As the fourth day arrived and dawn broke, the tournament resumed. The Top 12 Finals officially began.
All the teams now faced their ultimate tests. After fierce, no-holds-barred showdowns, the final Top 6 were decided.
Athena Asamiya, standing in for Qin Ming, had finally dropped her "I'm just here for the vibes" attitude and started taking things seriously.
Relying on her unique psychic abilities, she managed to grind out a victory against none other than the infamous boss—Geese Howard—dragging her team into the Top 6.
Even though she won by leveraging ring-out rules, it was a bitter victory—she was left battered and bruised by Geese's onslaught.
Back at their courtyard, the three members of the Todoh Team looked at each other's bedraggled appearance and couldn't help but smile bitterly.
The twelve teams that made it this far? Absolute monsters—not a single one was weak.
Geese in particular had shattered Todoh Kasumi's Soul-Severing Throw, tanked Kasamoto Eri's dino transformation, and nearly achieved a solo sweep.
If not for Athena's annoyingly broken teleportation and Geese's lack of speed, they'd have lost for sure.
And now, they were up against the Kyokugenryu Team, led by Ryo Sakazaki himself.
How the hell were they supposed to fight that?
Grabbing her messy hair in frustration, Kasamoto Eri groaned.
"I swear! Is Boss still not done soaking? He's not worried about turning into a prune or something?! When's this so-called 'beauty emerges from the bath' moment gonna happen?!"
BOOM!
Right as she finished her sentence, a deafening blast echoed through the courtyard.
But it wasn't Qin Ming emerging in dramatic fashion.
Instead...
The side door exploded!
A squad of fully armored Western knights—armed to the teeth—stormed into the courtyard with murderous intent.
Without hesitation, they charged forward.
And right behind these thirty knights... marched thirteen adventurers.
One-time-use Special Item: Evil Duke's Knight Certificate!Effect: Summons elite soldiers under the Evil Duke to assist in combat! Maximum: 30 soldiers!
The tournament was nearing its climax. The remaining powerhouses—potential threats to Goenitz—had been identified.
He could wait no longer.
Goenitz made his move.
He activated all his forces to launch a preemptive strike, aiming to assassinate the remaining competitors!
And the Todoh Team, which had made it to the Top 6, was now one of the primary targets.
Qin Ming's sudden disappearance had caught Goenitz off guard. The squad he sent was tasked with both eliminating the Todoh Team and finding Qin Ming.
If they found he was part of their faction, they'd inform him.
But if he wasn't—or worse, had defected—
Then he would be killed.
(End of Chapter)