Rooftop Hot Pot
System mission: Use your medical skills and the Internal Energy of the Nine Yang Divine Skill to cure Iron Man Tony Stark of the minor ailments afflicting his body, and show Iron Man, one of the Avengers' big three, the wondrous power of Chinese martial arts. Mission reward: 10,000 points.
Xia Yu accepted the mission without hesitation and went to Los Angeles with Tony Stark and Pepper Potts.
"JARVIS, give this young friend access. He'll be living with us for the next month," Tony Stark said as soon as they walked through the door.
"Yes, Mr. Stark. A basic profile has been created. Welcome, Mr. Xia," JARVIS said.
"JARVIS is my artificial intelligence butler. He can monitor the whole house at any time, and he can easily find your records in government databases. You can ask JARVIS about anything around the house, including how hot you want your bathwater. It's everywhere. If you need anything else, ask Pepper. She'll be staying with us this month too. I don't want to live alone with a man, even if he is my doctor," Tony Stark told Xia Yu.
"Then let's start treatment tomorrow. It's my first day living in such a beautiful big house, so I think we should have a lavish dinner together. I'll make everyone an authentic Chinese meal tonight. Pepper, would you mind taking me out to buy a few things?" Xia Yu said.
Pepper agreed with a smile and led Xia Yu out of the house.
"Damn it, I'm starting to regret bringing this kid to my house," Tony Stark said jealously.
Hot pot was naturally the best choice for a meal for three. To Xia Yu's delight, he found an old-fashioned copper pot in Los Angeles's Chinatown, but he couldn't find truly authentic sesame oil, so he had to mix up some sesame paste instead. The living-room windows in Tony Stark's house could be raised and lowered. Outside was a balcony with a railing, and beneath it was the sea. Xia Yu discovered that the balcony led straight to the roof and happily carried a table and chairs up there.
Xia Yu busied himself washing vegetables and slicing meat, while Pepper Potts cheerfully helped him. She really loved this kind of family atmosphere. Tony Stark's house was too quiet and empty. People from no other country in the world had the same knack as the people of Huaxia: a single meal could fill an entire house with the warmth of everyday life.
After a long spell of preparation, everything was finally ready. Tony Stark brought a small box filled with ice and beer, and they were all set.
Xia Yu lifted the lid, and a cloud of steam rose, carrying the aroma of chili peppers.
"Let's see what's so special about this hot pot you spent so long making. Isn't it just boiling ingredients in water and eating them with dipping sauce? It's not even as good as barbecue, is it?" Tony Stark grumbled. Xia Yu and Pepper had been bustling around like a married couple earlier, and he had spent ages fuming over it. He was also too proud to admit it. Everyone who had seen the movies knew that Tony had had feelings for Pepper for a long time, but hadn't realized it himself. Like a big boy, he got jealous extremely easily.
Xia Yu smiled without a word. Ordinary people on Earth generally couldn't resist the power of hot pot. Watching Tony and Pepper each pick up slices of meat and put them in the pot, Xia Yu reminded them, "The meat's sliced thin, so it only takes about ten seconds to cook. It won't taste good if you cook it too long."
"Wow! Wow! I mean, it's not bad. Yeah, better than I expected," Tony Stark said. Xia Yu ignored his stubborn refusal to admit it and turned to Pepper Potts. "What do you think, Miss Potts?"
Potts's mouth was full, and she couldn't spare the time to speak. She just kept nodding, her eyes curving into smiling crescents.
Although Tony Stark claimed it was only not bad, his hands gave him away. He wasn't very skilled with chopsticks, so he had already picked up a pair of barbecue tongs and started eating with gusto.
The three of them drank several dozen beers that evening, mostly Xia Yu and Tony Stark. Tony Stark decided to be mischievous, and when they had nearly finished eating, he began plying Xia Yu with beer. With Xia Yu's current physique, even without the Nine Yang Divine Skill, he was virtually impossible to get drunk. Naturally, Tony Stark was the one who ended up drinking too much. Even drunk, he refused to admit defeat and shouted that he would have a whiskey-drinking contest with Xia Yu the next day.
After a lively evening, they had grown considerably closer, and they were now calling one another Xia, Pepper and Tony. Nothing else happened that night, except that Xia Yu marveled at the advanced technology in Tony's home. Even the bathroom walls could turn into screens at any time. All he had to do was say a word to JARVIS, and he could look up information or watch movies. Damn capitalist! Xia Yu grumbled inwardly. Between his own assets and the mountain of cash in his Space Ring, seized when he stopped a gang deal, he had thought he could stop worrying about money. But after seeing Tony's lifestyle, he felt the urge to earn more money for the first time.
Xia Yu woke at seven the next morning. Tony Stark had given him access to the lab, chiefly because there was nothing there that couldn't be shown to others lately. Tony was mainly building an engine himself to assemble a vintage car, and seeing it in the movies was nowhere near as awe-inspiring as seeing it firsthand.
The lab had originally been a garage and looked to be over a thousand square meters. It held more than a dozen cars and a few motorcycles, though that was nothing to Tony Stark. There were also all kinds of screens and consoles, and even a high-precision lathe. Down below was a small bar, with a counter, a refrigerator, and all sorts of liquor and drinks. There was also a fitness area stocked with exercise equipment. Clearly, Tony spent almost all his time here apart from when he was sleeping.
"Tony, I have to say, a genius scientist like you who spends all day buried in his lab is shamelessly wasting a beach villa with such beautiful scenery," Xia Yu said sourly.
Tony Stark laughed. "Seeing you looking so gloomy first thing in the morning is definitely the happiest thing that'll happen to me today. Now, come on, Xia. Show me your genius medical skills."
The system mission required him to treat Tony Stark with both medical skills and the Nine Yang Divine Skill. Xia Yu thought that since those were the requirements, he might as well go big: he would perform Marrow-Cleansing and Meridian-Washing on Tony, and unblock most of his meridians while he was at it.
"You don't have to do anything. Just sit down with your back to me. I'll first get a comprehensive understanding of your physical condition, then give your whole body some maintenance. It might hurt a little in a moment, so you'll have to bear with it," Xia Yu said.
"As long as it works, what's a little pain? Come on," Tony said confidently.
"JARVIS, if Pepper brings breakfast down in a moment, tell her not to disturb us yet." After giving JARVIS that instruction, Xia Yu sat down cross-legged and pressed both hands against Tony's back.
"What are you doing, practicing yoga? I thought you were going to stick needles in my back. What's that? Why does it feel like a warm stream of water is moving around inside me? What did you do?" As Xia Yu slowly transferred his Internal Energy into him, Tony began shouting.
"Shut up, Tony. I need to control the energy in my body to cleanse and repair yours. If you don't want the energy to go out of control and explode inside you, keep your mouth shut," Xia Yu said irritably.
Tony Stark could only suppress his curiosity and silently feel the Internal Energy circulating through his body.
Xia Yu was nowhere near as gentle with Tony as he had been with Natasha. He had slowly nourished her body and cleared her meridians, but with Tony, Xia Yu used as much force as he could without injuring his body. It was like stretching the two big tendons in your legs when exercising: slowly stretching them day by day was a very different feeling from having someone force them open all at once.
Tony soon let out a bloodcurdling scream. If Xia Yu's Internal Energy hadn't held him firmly in place, unable to move, he probably would have been rolling around on the floor in pain. Xia Yu's Internal Energy pushed violently through Tony's meridians. As long as they didn't shatter, Xia Yu didn't care if they developed a few cracks; the Nine Yang Divine Skill could simply repair them.
Unable to listen to Tony's constant shouting any longer, Xia Yu diverted some of his attention to knock him unconscious. He patiently opened each of the major and minor meridians in Tony's body, then controlled the Nine Yang Divine Skill to circulate through them once more, stabilizing them and cleansing them again. Finally, Xia Yu used his Internal Energy to lift Tony and hold him suspended in the air.
Xia Yu began circling Tony, striking his entire body with one palm after another in an unbroken succession. He was breaking up stubborn toxins and impurities in Tony's bone marrow, blood and flesh. As Xia Yu's hands moved faster and faster, they left visible afterimages in their wake.
After delivering more than two hundred palm strikes in a short time, Xia Yu returned to Tony's back and shouted, "Here we go!" Both hands slammed fiercely into Tony's spine at once.
With that single blow, thin streams of black blood sprayed from every pore on Tony's body at the same time. The furthest even reached fifteen to twenty meters away.