The Western Waste Chute was the asshole of the Blue Dragon Sect. It was where the alchemical sludge, broken furniture, and kitchen refuse were dumped into a ravine. The smell was a physical barrier—a wall of rot and sulfur.
It was midnight.
Jin Ryeong sat on a rusted pipe jutting out over the ravine. He was peeling an apple with a silver scalpel. Scalpel, the Iron-Vein Scarab, sat on his shoulder, its red-veined shell glowing faintly in the dark.
Crunch. Steps approaching. Heavy steps.
Jin Ryeong didn't turn around. "You're late, Fatty."
Liu Bao emerged from the shadows.
He was wearing a dark cloak that did nothing to hide his bulk. He looked terrified. He was clutching a bag of gold coins in one hand and a roast duck leg in the other.
"I... I got lost," Liu Bao wheezed, wiping sweat from his triple chin.
"And I brought the money. Fifty taels. Please don't beat me."
Jin Ryeong jumped down from the pipe. He landed silently.
He walked up to Liu Bao and slapped the duck leg out of his hand.
"Hey!" Liu Bao protested weakly.
"You don't need food," Jin Ryeong said, circling him like a shark.
"You are walking on a year's supply of rations."
Jin Ryeong poked Liu Bao's stomach. It rippled.
"Do you know why you are fat, Liu Bao?"
"Because I eat too much? Because I have no self-control?" Liu Bao looked down, ashamed.
"Wrong. You eat the same amount as the Vanguards in the Hall of Strength.
They turn it into muscle. You turn it into suet. Why?"
Liu Bao shook his head.
"My father says I have 'Water-Slogged Meridians'. That my Qi leaks."
"Your father is an idiot merchant," Jin Ryeong scoffed. "And the sect healers are lazy."
Jin Ryeong activated his Diagnosis Eye. A blue grid settled over Liu Bao's massive frame.
[Target: Liu Bao]
[Constitution: The Gluttonous Sponge (Rare Variation).]
[Status: Energy Saturation 95%.]
[Meridian Efficiency: 5% (Blocked by Adipose Insulation).]
"You have a Sponge Constitution," Jin Ryeong explained, tapping Liu Bao's chest.
"Normal people digest food, extract Qi, and excrete the waste.
Your body refuses to let go of anything.
You absorb 90% of the energy you ingest.
But because your meridians are clogged, that energy has nowhere to go. So it becomes fat."
Jin Ryeong grabbed a handful of Liu Bao's flab.
"This isn't fat, Liu Bao. This is Solidified Qi.
You are walking around carrying the energy equivalent of a thousand Spirit Stones.
You aren't weak. You are a bomb that doesn't know how to explode."
Liu Bao blinked, his mouth open. "I... I am?"
"Yes. And tonight..." Jin Ryeong pulled out his leather roll of silver needles.
"...we are going to light the fuse."
Liu Bao saw the needles. They glinted in the moonlight.
"Wait. That looks painful. Can't I just take a pill?"
"A pill?" Jin Ryeong laughed.
"You've taken pills all your life. That's why you look like a balloon. No. We are going to perform Meridian Dredging. It will hurt. It will feel like I am pouring boiling oil into your veins."
Jin Ryeong's eyes went cold.
"But tomorrow, when you punch Chen in the face, you won't remember the pain. Strip."
Liu Bao hesitated. He looked at the dark ravine. He looked at Jin Ryeong's scary pet beetle. Then he remembered the laughter. The beatings. The way they kicked him while he was eating.
He dropped the bag of gold. He took off his robe. He stood there, shivering in the cold wind, a mountain of pale flesh.
"Lie down," Jin Ryeong pointed to a flat rock.
Liu Bao lay down. Jin Ryeong cracked his knuckles.
[Skill Activated: Diagnosis Eye (Surgical Mode)]
Target: Twelve Standard Meridians.
Obstruction: High density lipids.
Procedure: Liquefy and channel.
"Don't scream," Jin Ryeong warned. "It attracts wolves."
Snap.
The first needle flew.
It struck Liu Bao's Dan Zhong point (Center of Chest).
"Gah!" Liu Bao flinched.
Snap. Snap. Snap.
Jin Ryeong moved with blurring speed. Within seconds, twelve needles were sticking out of Liu Bao's torso, forming a geometric pattern around his navel.
"Phase One: Liquefaction."
Jin Ryeong placed his palms over the needles.
[Skill: Thousand Venom Hand (Heat Variation).]
He didn't use poison. He used the irritant property of his toxic Qi to generate intense, localized heat.
He channeled it into the needles.
Liu Bao's eyes bulged.
"HOT! IT BURNS!"
"Hold it!" Jin Ryeong pinned him down with one hand!
Under the skin, the "Solidified Qi" (fat) began to react to the heat.
It sizzled. It melted.
The massive reserves of energy stored in the cells were forced back into a liquid state.
Liu Bao's skin turned bright red. Steam began to rise from his pores. He looked like a dumpling in a steamer basket.
"The energy is released," Jin Ryeong muttered, watching the blue grid on his vision turn angry red.
"Now... Flow."
He twisted the needles. He manipulated the Qi flow, forcing the newly released energy away from the skin and into the muscles and bones.
[System Alert]
[Massive Energy Surge Detected.]
[Subject's Meridian Stress: 80%.]
[Warning: If not vented, Subject will explode.]
"Good," Jin Ryeong grinned.
"Venting is exercise."
He pulled the needles out.
"Get up!" Jin Ryeong shouted, kicking Liu Bao.
Liu Bao scrambled up.
He looked deranged. His eyes were bloodshot.
His body was vibrating. He felt like he had just drunk a hundred cups of coffee.
The energy was screaming inside him.
"I... I feel..." Liu Bao gasped, his voice trembling. "I feel like I'm going to burst!"
"Then hit something!" Jin Ryeong pointed to a granite boulder near the edge of the cliff. "Punch it!"
"I can't! It's stone!"
"PUNCH IT OR DIE!" Jin Ryeong roared.
Terrified of Jin Ryeong more than the rock, Liu Bao turned.
He didn't use a martial art.
He just threw a clumsy, desperate haymaker.
But the energy inside him—the years of pills, duck, and ridicule—surged into his arm.
BOOM.
Fist met granite. There was a sickening crunch. Not of bone. Of stone.
Dust exploded outward.
When the dust settled, Liu Bao stood there, panting.
His fist was buried three inches into the solid rock.
Cracks spiderwebbed out from the impact point.
Liu Bao stared at his hand. His knuckles were bleeding, skin torn, but the bones were intact. The sheer density of his flesh had protected him.
"I..." Liu Bao looked at Jin Ryeong. "I did that?"
"You used 1% of your reserves," Jin Ryeong said, unimpressed.
"And you barely cracked the surface."
Jin Ryeong walked over and inspected the rock.
"Your form is trash. Your speed is pathetic. You rely on weight."
He turned to Liu Bao.
"But the engine... the engine is good."
Liu Bao looked at his fist, then at Jin Ryeong.
Tears streamed down his fat cheeks. Not of pain, but of shock. "I'm strong."
"You're not strong yet," Jin Ryeong corrected.
"You're just heavy. But in two weeks..."
Jin Ryeong picked up the bag of gold Liu Bao had dropped.
"In two weeks, you will enter the Tournament. And you will crush Squad Azure's Vanguard like a grape."
Liu Bao nodded frantically. "
Yes! Yes! Teach me, Master!"
"Don't call me Master," Jin Ryeong said, turning to leave.
"Call me Doctor. Because this is just the treatment."
He pointed to the steep, treacherous path leading down into the ravine filled with garbage. "Now. Run down there, pick up a boulder, and run back up.
Do it until you vomit.
Then do it again."
"What? But it's dark! I'll fall!"
Jin Ryeong patted the Iron-Vein Scarab on his shoulder.
"Scalpel is hungry.
If you stop moving, he starts eating."
Bzzzzzt. The beetle took flight, buzzing aggressively around Liu Bao's head, its mandibles clicking like shears.
"Running! I'm running!" Liu Bao scrambled down the slope, slipping and sliding, screaming in terror.
Jin Ryeong watched him go. He checked his system.
[Quest Update: The Puppet's Strings]
[Progress: Subject Liu Bao 'Activated'.]
[Current Weight: 300 lbs.]
[Projected Weight at Tournament: 240 lbs (Muscle Conversion).]
Jin Ryeong pocketed the 50 taels.
"Money. A tank. And a distraction."
He looked back toward the Sect. The pieces were moving.
Now he just needed to make sure the game didn't end before he won.
The Next Morning - The Medicine Hall
Jin Ryeong was back to being a humble servant.
He was grinding herbs in the main hall when Senior Brother Han walked by.
Han looked terrible. His chest was still bruised from where Jin Ryeong had touched him with the Venom Hand days ago.
He walked with a limp.
He glared at Jin Ryeong, but didn't say a word. He gave him a wide berth.
Fear. It was a useful tool.
"Jin!" Elder Baek's voice boomed from the office.
Jin Ryeong put down the pestle and walked in.
Baek was holding a scroll. He looked excited, but there was a manic edge to his eyes.
"The Sect Leader approved the budget increase," Baek said, showing Jin the seal.
"He wants to see a demonstration of the Chimeras in three days."
Jin Ryeong's heart skipped a beat. Three days? He had implanted the Ghost Cysts, but he hadn't fully tested the "Mass Control" function.
If five monsters went berserk at once, could he stop them all without Baek noticing?
"Three days is tight, Elder," Jin Ryeong said cautiously.
"Subject 04 is still rejecting the scales."
"Then fix it!" Baek snapped.
"And there is more.
The Sect Leader is sending an inspector to watch the demonstration.
Someone from the Core Sect."
"Who?"
"Elder Tang," Baek spat the name.
"The Head of Discipline. He hates me. He hates alchemy.
He calls it 'cheating'.
If the demonstration fails, he will shut us down and execute us for wasting resources."
Baek grabbed Jin Ryeong's shoulder.
"Everything must be perfect, Jin. If Tang sees a single flaw... we both die."
Jin Ryeong nodded slowly.
"It will be perfect, Elder."
He left the office. His mind was racing.
Elder Tang.
The Executioner. A man known for seeing through lies.
If Tang was coming, Jin Ryeong couldn't just play with needles. He needed a failsafe.
He needed to upgrade Scalpel. And he needed to make sure his "Puppet" Liu Bao was ready to create a diversion if things went wrong.
Jin Ryeong walked to the back garden. He pulled out the Adrenaline Surge Pill he had stolen from the infirmary. He looked at it.
"System. Analyze recipe."
[Analysis: Fire-Spirit Root, Wolf Blood, Ephedra...]
[Can be improved with: Rotting Orchid Poison (Stimulant Variation).]
Jin Ryeong smiled.
He wasn't going to give Liu Bao the standard pill.
He was going to cook something special.