Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Yang Ming arrives at Falcone Manor to negotiate an arms deal. Security searches him, but his dangerous equipment remains hidden in his Storage Ring.
• He meets Carmine Falcone in the study, where Falcone has just been discussing a family wedding with his wife, Louisa.
• Falcone offers compensation for the earlier incident involving Cobblepot: $500,000 and the medical equipment Yang requested. He then proposes buying all of Yang’s armor-piercing incendiary ammunition at 30% above the city’s highest average black-market price.
• Falcone insists on exclusive rights, barring Yang from selling the weapons to other Gotham buyers. Yang accepts, judging that the profits and access to crucial medical supplies outweigh the risks.
• Before the deal can proceed, an attacker smashes through the study window and throws a smoke grenade. As Falcone coughs in the obscured room, Yang detects someone approaching and moves to put himself between Falcone and the intruder.

Character developments

• Yang Ming remains composed and guarded, concealing his equipment and carefully weighing the business and strategic consequences of exclusivity. When danger erupts, he instinctively protects Falcone to safeguard his customer and the deal.
• Carmine Falcone presents himself as a calm, confident negotiator who uses money and power to manage threats. His willingness to meet Yang unguarded reflects his faith in his authority and in negotiation over violence.
• Louisa Falcone is shown as a family-centered matriarch, focused on wedding preparations and observing the traditional separation between women’s and men’s business.

Significant themes

• Power and control: Falcone’s wealth, security, and carefully managed surroundings reinforce his authority, while Yang resists the subtle psychological pressure of the study’s furniture.
• Pragmatism and allegiance: The arms deal is both a commercial opportunity and a commitment to Falcone’s side in Gotham’s criminal balance.
• Violence beneath respectability: The manor’s refined setting and family rituals contrast with the bloodshed and criminal power that sustain the Falcone empire.
• Negotiation disrupted by force: Just as both men reach an agreement, an attack threatens to turn business back into violence.

Character interactions

• The butler, Swig, conducts Yang through the manor after the security check.
• Louisa and Falcone share a warm, domestic exchange before she leaves the men to negotiate.
• Falcone acknowledges Cobblepot’s mishandling of the earlier incident, offers compensation, and bargains with Yang over weapons and exclusivity.
• Yang accepts Falcone’s terms, then immediately acts to shield him when the smoke grenade attack begins.

Key plot points and events

• Yang Ming prevents Falcone from being struck by Bruce Wayne’s opening attack, then fights Bruce in Falcone’s smoke-filled study.
• Bruce has come to abduct Falcone and learn whether Gotham’s crime boss was involved in supplying the information that led to Bruce’s parents’ murder. He does not expect Yang Ming to be there.
• Their close-quarters fight is evenly matched: Bruce’s improved armor absorbs much of Yang Ming’s attacks, while Yang Ming’s unusual striking technique still injures him through the suit.
• Realizing he cannot reach Falcone while Yang Ming is in the way, Bruce uses a flashbang to escape through the broken window.
• Outside the study, Yang Ming discovers that Bruce had silently incapacitated Falcone’s armed guards and veteran butler. He confirms they are alive and explains that pressure to the carotid artery caused them to pass out.
• Falcone thanks Yang Ming, reaffirms their deal, and promises to deliver funds, goods, and medical equipment. He orders his butler to take Yang Ming home.

Character developments

• Yang Ming shows quick reflexes, tactical awareness, and medical expertise. He protects Falcone without losing sight of their business arrangement.
• Bruce/Batman appears more capable and better equipped than during his earlier visit to Yang Ming’s clinic. He is determined to investigate his parents’ murder, but recognizes when a mission is no longer viable and retreats.
• Falcone is shaken by how easily Batman breached his security. Though furious with his staff, he acknowledges his debt to Yang Ming and honors their agreement.
• The butler and guards are revealed to have been swiftly and nonlethally subdued, underscoring Batman’s stealth and restraint.

Significant themes

• Preparation versus uncertainty: Bruce’s upgraded suit helps him, but Yang Ming’s unexpected presence disrupts his plan.
• Power and vulnerability: Falcone’s wealth and security cannot protect him from Batman’s infiltration.
• Pragmatism and obligation: Yang Ming treats the rescue as part of a business relationship, while Falcone views the favor as a serious debt.
• Restraint: Batman escapes rather than forcing a fight he cannot win, and his incapacitated opponents are left alive.

Character interactions

• Yang Ming and Bruce exchange attacks and tactical observations, each assessing the other’s abilities.
• Falcone calls on Yang Ming to keep the intruder alive, then later thanks him and confirms their deal.
• Yang Ming clinically examines a guard, contrasting his medical calm with Falcone’s anger and alarm.
• Falcone reprimands the recovering butler, then directs him to escort Yang Ming home.

Plot points and events

• Yang Ming returns to his clinic after a dangerous encounter at Falcone’s manor, carrying Falcone’s deposit check and nursing an injured hand.
• Selina warns him that Bruce Wayne is waiting inside. Bruce has been chatting with Maggie and brought her handmade chocolates, presenting himself as a genial playboy.
• Yang Ming enters to find Bruce in ordinary clothes rather than his Batman persona. The two exchange pointed remarks and pretend not to recognize one another.
• During a handshake, they covertly test each other’s strength. Yang Ming prepares an anesthetic needle, while Bruce presses on the injured web of Yang Ming’s hand; both maintain friendly smiles despite the hostility beneath them.
• Maggie’s cough interrupts the contest. Bruce then claims he has a chest injury from a racing accident and asks about Yang Ming’s powerful “green medicine,” indirectly probing for the treatment Yang used.
• Bruce offers Wayne-family resources in exchange for the medicine. Yang Ming warns that it is extremely expensive and privately wishes Bruce would leave.

Character developments

• Yang Ming remains guarded and sarcastic, concealing his identity and anger while recognizing Bruce’s combat training. He is willing to retaliate, but Maggie’s needs make him stop before their confrontation escalates.
• Bruce Wayne shows his polished public charm while quietly investigating Yang Ming and his medicine. His probing questions and controlled strength reveal the dangerous, calculating figure beneath the playboy façade.
• Selina Kyle is alert to the tension between the men, even though she cannot explain their history. Her concern for Yang Ming prompts her warning.
• Maggie is still frail but brighter, comforted by Bruce’s visit and chocolates. Her cough inadvertently breaks the men’s standoff.

Significant themes

• Public identity versus hidden self: Bruce’s charming persona conceals Batman, while Yang Ming’s clinic role masks his involvement in violence.
• Deception and mutual suspicion: Both men pretend to meet as strangers while testing and probing each other.
• Power beneath politeness: A seemingly cordial handshake becomes a silent contest of strength.
• Compassion amid conflict: Maggie’s presence interrupts the hostility and briefly redirects both men toward her wellbeing.

Character interactions

• Yang Ming and Selina exchange a wary, hurried warning before he enters the clinic.
• Bruce treats Maggie warmly, contrasting with the tense atmosphere he creates around Yang Ming.
• Yang Ming and Bruce trade courteous introductions and insults disguised as banter, then compete through their handshake.
• After Maggie coughs, Bruce uses a supposed injury to question Yang Ming about the medicine, while Yang Ming answers with a warning about its price.

Plot points

• Bruce Wayne visits Yang Ming’s clinic, claiming chest pain and difficulty breathing after a racing crash. Yang suspects the injury is actually from their earlier clash.
• Yang pointedly disinfects his hand after shaking Bruce’s, then charges him $100,000 for registration and an examination. Bruce pays without hesitation.
• Yang examines a bruised area beneath Bruce’s right ribs and deliberately presses it hard, causing Bruce significant pain. He confirms the injury is superficial, with no damage to the internal organs.
• Bruce blames the bruising on a seat belt, but Yang notes that its grid-like imprint resembles the weapon he used against Bruce. Bruce dismisses the observation as a design from Wayne Enterprises’ Applied Sciences Division.
• Instead of prescribing the medicine Bruce hints at, Yang gives him Yunnan Baiyao aerosol and instructs him to use the red can before the white one, three times daily, and avoid strenuous activity for a week.
• Bruce questions the medicine’s lack of FDA approval and the steep bill. Yang defends the price as payment for his personal attention. Bruce leaves with the medicine and his usual polished composure restored.

Character developments and interactions

• Yang Ming is blunt, sardonic, and openly hostile beneath his professional manner. He uses the examination to take a petty measure of revenge, while also showing confidence in his medical judgment.
• Bruce Wayne maintains a smooth, wealthy playboy persona and handles insults without losing control. He is suspicious of Yang, but submits to the examination and pays, masking his irritation at being overcharged.
• Their exchange is a contest of barbs: Bruce probes Yang’s treatment and medicine, while Yang challenges Bruce’s cover story and mocks his wealth and supposed “racing crash.”
• Selene, watching from the wall, enjoys Bruce’s discomfort and shares Yang’s skepticism toward Gotham’s wealthy elite.

Significant themes

• Wealth versus personal dignity: Bruce can easily afford the fee, but resents being treated—and charged—like a fool.
• Masks and deception: Bruce’s racing explanation conceals the real cause of his injury, while Yang sees through it; both men hide their deeper motives behind practiced personas.
• Power and retaliation: The clinic’s medical setting becomes a venue for Yang to regain the upper hand through painful “palpation” and pointed humiliation.

Key plot points and events

• After treating Bruce Wayne’s bruised ribs with two bottles of “Yunnan Baiyao,” Yang Ming pockets Bruce’s $100,000 check and accepts an invitation to Wayne Manor for a house call.
• Bruce claims his elderly butler, Alfred, has joint pain and chest tightness. Yang Ming recognizes the excuse as a pretext to bring him onto Bruce’s home turf, but agrees to visit Thursday afternoon.
• Bruce warns Yang to be careful on Gotham’s streets, hinting that he knows Yang wears a black trench coat. Yang answers with a joking threat about bullets.
• Selene fears Bruce will use his influence to shut down Yang’s unlicensed clinic. Yang believes Bruce needs the clinic open—apparently because Bruce fears for his own life.
• In the Batcave, Alfred examines the medicine Bruce received. Tests show it contains complex, unfamiliar compounds that can reduce bleeding and speed the healing of bruises, confirming Yang’s unusual medical expertise.
• Bruce explains that Yang is the man from Falcone’s study: a formidable fighter who saved Bruce, yet appears to protect Falcone. Bruce plans to use the house call to investigate Yang and assess his capabilities.

Character developments and interactions

• Yang Ming remains cool and irreverent under Bruce’s scrutiny. He reads Bruce’s motives, bargains confidently, and hides what he knows behind jokes and misdirection.
• Bruce Wayne shifts from polished social confidence to focused suspicion. He recognizes Yang as a dangerous and valuable unknown, and prepares to test him at Wayne Manor.
• Alfred counters Bruce’s schemes with dry humor, then becomes professionally serious when the medicine proves genuine and sophisticated. He agrees to play along with Bruce’s invented illness.
• Selene is alarmed by Yang’s boldness and worried about the clinic’s vulnerability, while Yang dismisses her concerns and sends her to clean up.

Significant themes

• Deception and performance: Bruce invents Alfred’s symptoms; Yang sees through the ruse; Alfred is enlisted to act.
• Power and leverage: Bruce has wealth and influence, while Yang uses his expertise—and Bruce’s need for answers—to negotiate on his own terms.
• Ambiguity and distrust: Yang’s connection to Falcone conflicts with his having saved Bruce, leaving Bruce unsure where his loyalties lie.
• Hidden capability: Yang’s modest clinic and crude-looking medicine conceal skills and technology that impress even Alfred.

Key plot points and events

• In Gotham, Yang Ming checks Maggie’s hyperbaric chamber and confirms her vital signs are stable, though her damaged neurons still need time to heal.
• Before leaving, he gives Selene instructions for maintaining the automated life-support system and two doses of epinephrine that can temporarily let her outrun bullets, at the cost of three days of paralysis. He tells her to have Falcone’s medical equipment left in the alley and to stop anyone from taking it.
• Yang Ming travels through a portal to his clinic in Hell’s Kitchen, New York. Jessica Jones returns from time off carrying caramel cookies made by her younger sister, Trish, as a thank-you.
• Jessica explains that Trish was surprised by her earnings and worried about her temper. Jessica hopes to save enough money to help Trish open a bakery. Yang Ming praises the cookies and asks Jessica to make coffee and turn on the news.
• A breaking report says Stark Industries CEO Tony Stark has been caught in a terrorist attack in Afghanistan and is missing. Yang Ming recognizes this as the beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the birth of Iron Man.

Character developments and interactions

• Yang Ming remains calm and practical, balancing Maggie’s care with his own plans. He is protective of Selene but gives her blunt, potentially dangerous instructions. The news prompts him to reassess the timeline.
• Selene is left responsible for Maggie and the incoming equipment, showing that Yang Ming trusts her to guard the facility, though his precautions emphasize the danger around them.
• Jessica is tough and volatile, but her affection for Trish is clear. She takes pride in Trish’s talent and wants to help her build a better future.
• Trish, though absent, is characterized through Jessica’s account as caring, perceptive, and protective of her sister.
• Jessica and Yang Ming share an informal, teasing rapport: she complains about being startled and mocks his brutality, while he responds with dry, clinical comments.

Significant themes

• Care amid danger: Maggie’s recovery and Selene’s safeguards contrast with the criminal threats surrounding the clinic.
• Family and hope: Jessica’s support for Trish offers a glimpse of a future beyond violence and precarious work.
• A changing world: Tony Stark’s disappearance signals a major turning point and places Yang Ming’s story at the start of the Marvel era.

Plot points and events

• Yang Ming and Jessica watch news about Tony Stark’s disappearance. Yang Ming deduces that the Pentagon concealed the attack for over ten days, hoping to rescue Tony quickly and claim the credit. The prolonged failure, pressure from investors, and Stark Industries’ falling share price forced the military to make the disappearance public.
• General Pentagon statements offer little reassurance. Pepper Potts publicly demands transparency and threatens to bring in private contractors, sharply challenging the military as Stark Industries’ stock plummets.
• Yang Ming receives an emergency system quest: reach Afghanistan within fourteen days and rescue Tony alive, without revealing the system or the transmigrators. The reward is the complete Eight Gates technique.
• He recognizes the technique’s severe physical risks but believes his medical expertise, life-support equipment, and cellular repair treatment could let him recover from using its early gates. Rescuing Tony could also win him Stark Industries’ friendship and resources.
• Yang Ming decides to leave New York for what he calls a “vacation”—in reality, a trip to Afghanistan. He judges that Kingpin is occupied by investigations and expects Jessica to handle minor threats in his absence.

Character developments and interactions

• Yang Ming demonstrates sharp media and political analysis, then quickly weighs the quest’s risks against its potential rewards. He conceals his real plan from Jessica, presenting the trip casually.
• Jessica follows Yang Ming’s reasoning about the Pentagon’s failure and admires Pepper’s forceful defense of Tony. She is incredulous when Yang Ming announces he is leaving just after confronting Hell’s Kitchen’s gangs.
• Pepper appears publicly as an exhausted but resolute advocate for Tony and Stark Industries.
• Yang Ming and Jessica exchange teasing, practical banter: she questions his timing, while he reminds her of her strength and the clinic’s reduced immediate risk.

Significant themes

• Institutional self-interest and accountability: The military’s secrecy and desire for credit worsen its credibility, while Pepper demands answers.
• Power and its cost: The Eight Gates offer extraordinary strength at the risk of catastrophic bodily damage; Yang Ming’s medical knowledge may help manage—but not erase—that cost.
• Ambition and opportunity: Yang Ming views Tony’s rescue as both a moral emergency and a chance to gain powerful allies.
• Secrecy and responsibility: Yang Ming must pursue the quest without exposing the system, even to Jessica.

Chapter summary: “Flying to Dubai”

Key plot points and events

• At his Hell’s Kitchen clinic, Yang Ming announces that he is taking a vacation to Hawaii—then reveals he is actually preparing for a dangerous mission to the Ten Rings’ base in Afghanistan.
• Jessica tries to turn the supposed vacation into a family outing with her foster sister, Trish. Yang Ming agrees only if they pay their own way, quoting a total of $50,000. Jessica angrily abandons the idea.
• Yang Ming gathers forged travel documents, cash, weapons, and medical equipment from his storage ring. He warns Jessica that he will be gone for about a week and tells her to flee with Trish rather than risk their lives if the clinic is attacked.
• He drives to JFK Airport, where increased security reflects the fallout from Tony Stark’s kidnapping. Using a flawless Canadian passport identifying him as a Doctors Without Borders physician, he boards an Emirates flight to Dubai, planning to connect onward to Kabul.
• Once aboard, Yang Ming declines champagne, conserves his energy, and forces himself to sleep during the long flight.

Character developments and interactions

• Yang Ming remains blunt, calculating, and intensely prepared, but his warning to Jessica reveals genuine concern beneath his cold manner. He prioritizes survival over defending the clinic.
• Jessica is sarcastic and defensive, yet her request to bring Trish suggests she cares about giving her foster sister a chance to escape the bleakness of Hell’s Kitchen. Yang Ming’s concern briefly affects her, though she masks it with bravado.
• Their exchange reinforces their familiar dynamic: Jessica challenges Yang Ming’s greed and severity, while he responds with dry, unsentimental practicality.
• Trish does not appear directly, but her longing to see the sea motivates Jessica’s request.

Significant themes

• Preparation and survival: Yang Ming equips himself for a lawless, heavily armed conflict and makes rest part of his preparation.
• Care beneath cynicism: His warning to Jessica shows that his concern for others is real, even if expressed without warmth.
• Money and unequal circumstances: The unaffordable “vacation” underscores Jessica’s limited means and Yang Ming’s transactional outlook.
• Deception and danger: Yang Ming uses a false identity and an indirect route into a war zone, while ordinary airport security tightens in response to escalating threats.

Key plot points and events

• Traveling through Dubai en route to Kabul, Yang Ming spends his layover reading a surgical journal in the VIP lounge.
• Four heavily armed private military contractors arrive, discussing a $200 million Stark Industries bounty for capturing or killing Tony Stark, who has been taken by the Ten Rings in Afghanistan.
• One contractor, Cole, tries to intimidate Yang Ming and make him leave. Yang responds with a clinical insult, then disables Cole’s arm with a precise strike to his nerves.
• When the other mercenaries reach for their concealed knives, Yang warns that he can permanently damage Cole’s hand. Their leader recognizes the danger, apologizes, and takes his men away.
• Yang boards his flight to Kabul, where he expects the real conflict to begin. He hopes Tony survives, since Yang’s own plans depend on him.

Character developments and interactions

• Yang Ming appears calm and scholarly, but reveals formidable combat skill and detailed anatomical knowledge. He controls the confrontation without escalating it into a bloody fight.
• Cole shifts from swaggering aggression to pain and fear after Yang disables him.
• The bearded mercenary, initially the group’s voice of caution, quickly assesses Yang’s ability and chooses to withdraw rather than risk a fight.
• The exchange establishes a sharp contrast between the mercenaries’ brute force and Yang’s precise, controlled expertise.

Significant themes

• Hidden danger beneath appearances: Yang’s quiet, refined demeanor conceals lethal capability; the airport’s polished calm sits beside the violence gathering in Afghanistan.
• Knowledge as power: Yang uses medical expertise as both a weapon and a means of restraint.
• Mercenary ambition and uncertainty: The bounty draws armed contractors toward Afghanistan, but their true motives remain unclear.
• Fate and self-interest: Yang’s concern for Tony is partly personal—Tony’s survival is tied to Yang’s own plans.

Key plot points

• Yang Ming arrives in war-torn Kabul and heads straight into the black market to obtain an off-road vehicle. When a mechanic tries to extort him at gunpoint, Yang disarms and threatens him with a scalpel, then takes a Toyota pickup.
• Driving toward the Hindu Kush, Yang uses a mysterious ring to produce a MAC-10, grenades, and ammunition. He plans to locate a Ten Rings patrol and follow it to their hidden cave, where Tony Stark is being held.
• In the cave, Tony and Dr. Yinsen secretly build the Mark I armor while pretending to work on the Jericho missile demanded by their captors. Yinsen exploits a brief camera blind spot to help conceal their progress.
• Tony learns that Ten Rings weapons made by Stark Industries destroyed Yinsen’s village and killed his family. He vows to shut down Stark’s weapons division once they escape, despite the likely consequences for his company.

Character developments

• Yang Ming is resourceful, controlled, and ruthless when threatened. His medical knowledge and combat skill let him dominate the mechanic without killing him, and he prepares methodically for the rescue.
• Tony Stark begins confronting the human cost of his weapons business. His usual arrogance gives way to guilt and firm resolve to take responsibility for the damage his products caused.
• Yinsen remains cautious and practical, helping Tony conceal the armor and warning him that closing the weapons division could provoke the board and investors.

Significant themes

• Responsibility and redemption: Tony recognizes that profit and invention do not absolve him of responsibility for how his weapons are used.
• Survival through ingenuity: Yang’s quick thinking and Tony and Yinsen’s covert engineering offer different ways to endure dangerous circumstances.
• Violence and its consequences: The chapter connects weapons commerce to civilian suffering, while showing how intimidation and force shape life in a lawless setting.

Character interactions

• Yang’s confrontation with the mechanic is an abrupt contest of power: the mechanic relies on a gun and intimidation, but Yang’s precise threat makes him surrender the truck.
• Yinsen acts as Tony’s lookout and confidant. Their conversation about Yinsen’s lost family forces Tony to face the consequences of Stark weapons, while Yinsen’s warning underscores the personal and business risks of Tony’s vow.

Yang Ming tortured a Ten Rings patrolman into revealing Tony Stark’s location, then discovered mercenaries were racing toward the same canyon to kill him. As a mercenary squad began wiping out the Ten Rings’ outer defenses, Yang Ming hurried toward the cave under optical camouflage.

• Yang Ming forced a Ten Rings patrolman to point out a hidden canyon, then killed him and buried the body.
• Yang Ming found fresh vehicle tracks and learned that rival bounty hunters were converging on the Ten Rings stronghold.
• A Russian-led mercenary squad chose Obadiah Stane’s assassination contract and advanced toward the canyon with orders to leave no survivors.
• Yang Ming abandoned his pickup, used his optical camouflage blanket to approach the canyon, and watched the mercenaries overwhelm Ten Rings fighters.
• Yang Ming avoided the firefight and headed deeper into the canyon with a suppressed MAC-10, racing to reach Tony before the mercenaries.

Yang Ming wiped out the Black Snake mercenaries and the Ten Rings fighters guarding Tony Stark, then reached the cave just as Tony emerged in his Mark I armor. Yang Ming asked Tony to leave before reinforcements arrived, while Tony’s flamethrower sputtered out in an awkward first encounter.

• Yang Ming used optical camouflage and a scalpel to kill the Black Snake sniper, assault team, and Russian team leader, then eliminated the remaining mercenaries and Ten Rings fighters.
• Tony Stark finished assembling his crude Mark I armor while Dr. Yinsen prepared to confront the attackers and buy Tony time.
• Yinsen opened the cave door and found the corridor full of dead Ten Rings members and mercenaries, with Yang Ming waiting at the far end.
• Yang Ming asked Yinsen where Tony Stark was, and Tony burst through the iron door in his armor, shouting that he had come to save Yinsen.
• Tony’s wrist flamethrower sputtered out as he saw the bodies, and Yang Ming told him to leave before the Ten Rings reinforcements arrived.

Yang Ming rescued Tony Stark and Yinsen from the Ten Rings base, then warned Tony that someone had paid to have him killed and pointed to Obadiah Stane. After Tony headed for a U.S. Army patrol, Yang Ming received the complete Eight Gates technique and set off toward Kabul to study it.

• Yang Ming led Tony Stark and Yinsen out of the Ten Rings base and drove them across the desert toward Kabul.
• Yang Ming told Tony his palladium Arc Reactor would poison him and negotiated for Stark Industries medical equipment and specialized drugs in exchange for treatment.
• Yang Ming stopped near a U.S. Army patrol, released Tony and Yinsen, and warned Tony about a three-hundred-million-dollar assassination bounty.
• Yang Ming revealed that Obadiah Stane was likely behind the weapons sales and the plot against Tony, then cautioned him to stay alert.
• After Tony and Yinsen drove toward the patrol, Yang Ming received the complete Eight Gates technique from the system and headed toward Kabul.

In Afghanistan, Yang Ming tested the Eight Gates’ first gate, the Gate of Opening, and discovered its enormous power and severe physical cost. After recovering with medical supplies, he prepared to return to Gotham, unaware that Batman was waiting angrily after Yang Ming stood him up.

• Yang Ming chose a secluded hollow in the Afghan desert and prepared medical safeguards before activating the Gate of Opening.
• Yang Ming endured extreme pain as the gate pushed his muscles beyond their normal limits and heightened his senses and strength.
• Yang Ming split a man-sized rock with one punch, then collapsed when the Gate of Opening closed and his strength failed.
• Yang Ming drank Targeted Cell Activator and treated his injuries with Yunnan Baiyao, recovering enough to prepare to leave.
• Yang Ming decided to return to Gotham, while Batman fumed after being stood up.

Yang Ming returned to his clinic as Tony Stark announced he was shutting down Stark Industries’ weapons division, setting off a crisis for the company and the US defense industry. After crossing into Gotham, Yang Ming found that Falcone’s men had delivered the medical equipment and learned that Bruce Wayne was still waiting for him.

• Yang Ming returned to the Hell's Kitchen clinic, where Jessica questioned his trip and he watched Tony Stark announce the immediate closure of Stark Industries’ weapons division.
• News commentators described the economic and military consequences of Tony’s decision as Stark Industries’ stock plunged and trading halted.
• Yang Ming told Jessica to dispose of a Ford with cloned plates, then used the spatial passage to travel to Gotham.
• Selene told Yang Ming that Falcone’s men had delivered two truckloads of medical equipment and that Falcone wanted another transaction.
• Selene warned Yang Ming that a black-caped figure was breaking gangsters’ bones and said Bruce Wayne had been calling daily about their missed appointment.

Yang Ming returned to his Gotham clinic after traveling to Afghanistan and agreed to make a house call at Wayne Manor. Bruce Wayne, suspicious of Yang Ming’s disappearance and abilities, sent a car to bring him in, leaving Yang Ming to prepare for a tense meeting.

• Yang Ming asked Selene to leave the newly delivered medical equipment packed until he could renovate the basement, then called Alfred to apologize for missing Bruce Wayne’s appointment.
• Alfred told Bruce that Yang Ming had returned, and Bruce ordered a car to collect him and warned him not to disappear again.
• Yang Ming packed standard medical instruments alongside scalpels, anesthetic, and emergency medication, then told Selene to watch the clinic.
• A Rolls-Royce arrived at the clinic, and Yang Ming rode to Wayne Manor while anticipating Bruce’s questions about Falcone’s study and his medical skills.

Bruce Wayne summoned Yang Ming to Wayne Manor to question his sudden disappearance, his use of Falcone’s stolen medical supplies, and the unusual fighting ability he had shown. Yang Ming rejected Bruce’s demands for information and offered only to sell him a blood test, leaving the two men facing off in tense disagreement.

• Alfred Pennyworth escorted Yang Ming into Wayne Manor, where Bruce waited alone in his study.
• Bruce challenged Yang Ming’s explanation that he had been sourcing medical equipment, citing the absence of travel records and Yang’s sudden appearance at 22 Lake Street.
• Bruce showed Yang photographs of Wayne Medical Group supplies in the clinic basement and accused him of accepting stolen goods from Falcone.
• Yang said he treated patients without regard to their backgrounds and insisted the supplies’ origins were not his responsibility.
• Bruce questioned how Yang had blocked his attack, but Yang attributed his abilities to anatomy, natural talent, and rigorous training, then offered to charge Bruce for a blood test.

Yang Ming challenged Bruce’s belief that simply defeating Falcone would save Gotham, arguing that Falcone’s criminal rule maintained a fragile order amid poverty and violence. Bruce was left confronting how little he understood about life in the slums and the limits of vigilantism.

• Bruce described Gotham as corrupt and Falcone as its greatest source of evil.
• Yang Ming argued that Falcone acted as a brutal, unstable immune system whose death would unleash a gang war and worse violence.
• Bruce realized that his plan to punish criminals had not accounted for what would happen after Falcone fell.
• Yang Ming told Bruce that Gotham’s poor relied on survival work and protection, while neglected children were drawn into a cycle of crime.
• Yang Ming urged Bruce to live in the slums before trying to change Gotham.

Yang Ming challenged Bruce Wayne to experience life in Gotham’s slums without money or support, arguing that he could not understand crime by punishing criminals alone. Bruce fell silent and reconsidered his assumptions, while Alfred hoped the challenge would help shape him into the symbol Gotham needed.

• Alfred brought tea into the study as Bruce confronted Yang Ming about treating Falcone and prioritizing survival over moral purity.
• Yang Ming argued that poverty and desperation drove crime, and that Bruce’s approach of stopping individual criminals did not address its causes.
• Yang Ming wagered that Bruce should spend a week in the slums with no money, privileges, or communication device to learn how the poor survived.
• Bruce admitted he had never understood the daily struggle of the homeless, then ended the conversation and asked Alfred to take Yang Ming home.
• Alfred thanked Yang Ming for making Bruce question his beliefs, and Yang Ming warned him to keep watch if Bruce went to the slums.

Yang Ming cured Maggie’s asthma and offered her an apprenticeship at his clinic, giving Selene a safer future for her sister. He then sent Selene to secretly track Bruce Wayne as the homeless young man struggles to survive Gotham’s streets.

• Yang Ming told Selene to search Gotham’s slums and homeless encampments for a man matching Bruce Wayne’s description.
• Yang Ming examined Maggie and confirmed that her asthma and lung infection were cured.
• Yang Ming offered Maggie room, board, a salary, and medical training as his clinic apprentice, and she accepted.
• Selene agreed to find and secretly observe the homeless man without letting him notice her.
• Selene left to search the streets while Yang Ming began teaching Maggie practical clinic work.