Chapter Summaries

After taking over Xu Wenwu’s body, Wenwu assessed the Ten Rings and the dangers of a Marvel world full of threats, then considered how he could grow stronger. Xialing arrived asking about her brother, leaving Wenwu to face his estranged daughter.

• Wenwu told his masked subordinate to leave Shang-Chi in San Francisco and not inform Xialing.
• Wenwu recalled transmigrating into Xu Wenwu and learned from his memories that the Ten Rings organization had weakened after Xu Wenwu abandoned it for Ying Li.
• Wenwu considered the dangers of the Marvel world, including Mutants, demons, and the possibility of future apocalypses.
• Wenwu questioned whether the Power of the Dragon could unlock the Ten Rings’ full power and worried that his strength was insufficient.
• Xialing entered the hall and asked Wenwu whether he had heard anything about her brother.

Wenwu drove Xialing away after taking back Ying Li’s jade pendant, then tested the Ten Rings’ power and decided to seek K'un-Lun Chi cultivation. He met Madame Gao in Hell’s Kitchen and began to ask her for help.

• Wenwu let Xialing leave the Ten Rings but took the jade pendant, and she stormed out in tears.
• Wenwu declined Razor Fist’s offer to follow Xialing, then tested the rings by blasting apart trees and the ground.
• Wenwu decided that K'un-Lun Chi cultivation might strengthen him and his subordinates, so he sent people to contact Madame Gao.
• Two days later, Wenwu met Madame Gao in Hell’s Kitchen and told her he wanted to ask her for something.

Wenwu coerced Madame Gao into teaching him K'un-Lun's cultivation method and then began cultivating chi in Manhattan. After forming his first wisp, he found that cultivation had drained his body, while his agents began investigating Luke Cage as a possible source of enhanced strength and durability.

• Wenwu revealed that he knew about the dragon bones beneath Manhattan and used the threat of exposing them to make Madame Gao teach him K'un-Lun's cultivation method.
• Madame Gao taught Wenwu the techniques and gave him two books of her teaching notes, and Wenwu promised not to reveal anything about the dragon bones.
• Wenwu stayed in Manhattan and sent people to Harlem to investigate Luke Cage and Dr. Burstein's experiments.
• Wenwu began cultivating chi, quickly sensed it through his martial arts experience, and condensed his first wisp after several cycles.
• Wenwu cultivated through the night, then discovered that building chi had left his body severely weakened.

Wenwu stormed Seagate Prison and forcibly recruited Dr. Noah Burstein for the Ten Rings. After escaping with Burstein, Wenwu offered him better research facilities and agreed to let him study the Ten Rings.

• Wenwu learned that Luke Cage had been imprisoned at Seagate Prison and ordered Ching-Lin to prepare a trip there.
• Wenwu descended from a helicopter, fought through the prison guards, and forced one to reveal Dr. Noah Burstein's location.
• Wenwu broke into Burstein's laboratory, seized him, and fought off the guards who tried to stop them.
• Wenwu used the Ten Rings to reach the helicopter with Burstein, and they escaped Seagate Prison as the warden shouted after them.
• Wenwu introduced himself as the leader of the Ten Rings and invited Burstein to join, promising better conditions for his nanocell experiments.
• Burstein agreed to work for Wenwu and asked to study the Ten Rings, which Wenwu allowed him to do after he settled in.

Wenwu ordered Razor Fist to build a fortified research base in the Middle East while cultivating Chi and deepening his connection to the Ten Rings. Dr. Burstein’s attempts to strengthen prisoners through an experimental treatment continued to end in death, leaving Wenwu determined to keep refining the process.

• Wenwu gave Razor Fist full authority and five months to build a hidden, fully equipped base in the Middle East, and the Ten Rings began moving funds, personnel, and supplies there.
• After a month of cultivation, Wenwu used Chi to strengthen his body and found that his physical strength had noticeably improved.
• Wenwu resonated with the Ten Rings using Chi, adding a trace of gold and red to their blue energy and increasing their power slightly.
• Dr. Burstein told Wenwu that increased drug doses and electrical stimulation strengthened cells at first, but the test subjects’ cells collapsed and killed them.
• Wenwu ordered another experiment with a stronger prisoner, but the subject died after two minutes of overloaded electrical stimulation.
• Wenwu encouraged Dr. Burstein to continue improving the treatment, while considering Luke Cage as a possible test subject if the experiments failed.

Wenwu inspected the completed Ten Rings base in the Middle East and ordered Dr. Burstein’s laboratory moved there. Meanwhile, Tony Stark was ambushed in Afghanistan, gravely wounded, and kidnapped by masked armed men.

• Wenwu traveled to the newly completed Ten Rings base, where Razor Fist reported that its defenses and facilities were ready for operation.
• Wenwu ordered Dr. Burstein’s laboratory and research team transferred to the base’s mountain facility and placed the site under the doctor’s authority.
• Tony Stark demonstrated the Jericho Missile in Afghanistan and secured a military weapons contract.
• Masked attackers ambushed Tony’s convoy, killed the American escorts, and wounded Tony with an explosion from a Stark Industries missile.
• The attackers found Tony alive, dragged him away, and disappeared into the mountains.

Tony Stark was captured by Raza’s forces and agreed to build Jericho Missiles while secretly planning a way to escape. After learning of Raza’s unauthorized kidnapping and ambitions, Wenwu ordered a short sale of Stark Industries and traveled to Afghanistan, where his forces surrounded Raza’s outpost.

• Tony woke in a cave with shrapnel near his heart and learned that Yinsen had saved him with an electromagnetic device.
• Raza demanded that Tony build Jericho Missiles, and Tony agreed only after insisting on equipment and materials.
• Ching-Lin reported Raza’s unauthorized operation and suspected plans to defect to Wenwu.
• Wenwu ordered Ching-Lin to short Stark Industries and prepare the gang’s liquid funds, then flew to Afghanistan.
• Wenwu’s five hundred soldiers surrounded Raza’s outpost, and he stepped out of an armored vehicle.

Wenwu crushed Raza’s rebellion with the Ten Rings and took control of the outpost, then secretly set up surveillance to study Tony Stark’s inventions. Tony began building a miniature Arc Reactor to keep himself alive, while Wenwu planned to copy his technology.

• Raza recognized Wenwu as the Ten Rings’ leader, but Wenwu killed him with a single strike after accusing him of betrayal.
• Wenwu unleashed the Ten Rings’ power against the rebels, then spared them and ordered his men to take control of the outpost.
• Wenwu’s men knocked out Tony Stark and Yinsen and installed hidden cameras to monitor them.
• Tony told Yinsen he would build a miniature Arc Reactor and listed the materials he needed from the discarded missiles.
• Tony and Yinsen began dismantling components and assembling the Arc Reactor as Wenwu watched the surveillance footage.

Wenwu failed to replicate Tony Stark’s miniature Arc Reactor and recruited Ivan Vanko to solve the problem. Ivan arrived at Salia Base with his ill father and began studying Tony’s reactor under Wenwu’s watch.

• Tony Stark completed a miniature Arc Reactor in the cave, while Wenwu watched the surveillance footage.
• Wenwu’s scientists produced a faulty replica, so he ordered Ching-Lin to find Anton and Ivan Vanko in Moscow.
• Wenwu had Razor Fist recruit more military-industry scientists and arranged for a large Arc Reactor to power the base.
• Ten Rings operatives pressured Ivan and Anton to join them, and Ivan agreed after discussing the offer with his father.
• Ivan and Anton arrived at Salia Base, where Wenwu promised wealth and treatment for Anton in exchange for Ivan’s work.
• Wenwu showed Ivan Tony’s reactor video and assigned the five scientists to assist him, warning them to produce a complete replica.

Wenwu helped Dr. Burstein’s human enhancement experiment succeed by infusing a test subject with chi, then ordered further research into chi and told Ivan to build an Iron Man suit. The chapter left Wenwu pleased with the profits from shorting Stark Industries while his search for Ulysses Klaue continued.

• Wenwu ordered Ching-Lin to locate Ulysses Klaue without alerting him so Wenwu could meet him personally.
• Wenwu infused a test subject with chi during Dr. Burstein’s experiment, enabling the man to survive the enhancement process.
• The enhanced man attacked Wenwu, who struck him twice with the Ten Rings and ordered Dr. Burstein to keep him alive for research.
• Wenwu told Dr. Burstein to study his chi and visited Ivan after recovering for three days.
• Ivan showed Wenwu a stable Arc Reactor, and Wenwu ordered him to build and improve an Iron Man suit.
• Ching-Lin reported that Wenwu had made three billion by shorting Stark Industries.

Wenwu used evidence of Obadiah Stane’s secret deal with Raza to force him to provide money and Jericho Missiles. Obadiah paid the demanded billion dollars and delivered eight missile sets, while remaining uncertain whether Tony Stark was really dead.

• Wenwu ordered Ching-Lin to use evidence against Obadiah to secure weapons, especially Jericho Missiles, and to seek mushroom bombs from Tsarist Russia.
• Hamid confronted Obadiah with evidence of his collusion with Raza and demanded one billion dollars and ten sets of Jericho Missiles at thirty percent of cost.
• Obadiah agreed to pay the money but negotiated the missile shipment down to eight sets, then asked whether Tony Stark was dead.
• Hamid insisted Tony was dead and left, while Obadiah raged over the deal and vowed to take revenge on the Ten Rings after gaining control of Stark Industries.
• Three days later, Hamid delivered the billion dollars and eight Jericho Missile sets to Wenwu without incident.

Wenwu tested whether Dr. Burstein could synthesize his Chi before confronting Ulysses Klaue at a South African shipyard. He defeated Klaue’s armed men, but the arrival of the Mutant Becky ended with Becky badly injured and unable to rise.

• Wenwu supplied Dr. Burstein with Chi and a cultivation method to study, and Dr. Burstein agreed to try synthesizing the energy.
• Wenwu led two hundred Ten Rings elites to an abandoned shipyard where Ulysses Klaue was preparing an arms deal.
• Wenwu used his ten rings to deflect the mercenaries’ bullets and incapacitate the armed men in the warehouse.
• Becky swooped down and struck Wenwu with a powerful sonic blast, briefly driving him backward.
• Wenwu identified Becky as a Mutant and used a ring to break through Becky’s next sonic attack, leaving him wounded and unable to stand.

Wenwu defeated Klaue and Becky, recruited them into the Ten Rings, and seized Klaue’s remaining vibranium. After returning to the Syrian base, he tested Becky’s sonic powers and began studying Chi and building armor, reaching the level of a Mark I suit within a month.

• Wenwu defeated Klaue’s weapon and forced Klaue and the wounded Becky to submit to the Ten Rings.
• Becky told Wenwu how the American military had pursued him after his Mutant abilities awakened, and Wenwu promised him a place in the Ten Rings.
• Klaue led Wenwu to his hidden vault and revealed that he had 220 kilograms of vibranium stolen from Wakanda with N’Jobu’s help.
• Wenwu took all the vibranium, ordered Klaue to buy arms and seek mushroom bombs, and told him to steal an ancient vibranium hammer from the British Museum.
• Wenwu escorted the vibranium to the Syrian base, tested Becky’s powerful sonic attacks, and kept the metal hidden from Ivan and Dr. Burstein.
• Wenwu studied Chi and worked on Iron Man armor, building a suit comparable to the Mark I after a month but remaining unable to make heavy armor like Iron Monger.

Ivan finished his powered armor and immediately attacked Wenwu, hoping to kill him and escape, but Wenwu easily defeated him. Wenwu ordered Ivan imprisoned and forced to keep designing weapons, then threatened his father before using Chi to heal Ivan’s injuries.

• Ivan completed his Whiplash-like armor and tested it by attacking Wenwu with an electric whip.
• Wenwu blocked the attack with the Ten Rings, and Ivan tried to flee the workshop in his armor.
• Wenwu struck Ivan down outside, destroyed his Arc Reactor, and ordered his men to remove the armor and keep Ivan alive.
• Ivan refused to work unless Wenwu killed Tony Stark, so Wenwu threatened to keep Ivan’s dying father alive in pain until Ivan submitted.
• Wenwu ordered Ivan confined to a secure room with no experimental equipment, and Ivan demanded that his father be treated well.
• Wenwu used Chi to heal Ivan’s injuries after promising not to mistreat him or his father if Ivan cooperated.

After discovering that Wenwu could keep his father alive through severe pain, Ivan was taken away while Wenwu directed work on armor production. Klaue stole a vibranium hammer for Wenwu, who later learned that Dr. Burstein’s human enhancement process had an eighty percent success rate and decided to undergo it himself.

• Wenwu ordered Razor Fist to oversee the production lines and sent five scientists to begin manufacturing first-generation armor.
• Klaue and Ten Rings mercenaries broke into the British Museum and stole the vibranium hammer from its display case.
• Klaue delivered the polished hammer to Wenwu’s base in Syria, and Wenwu praised him.
• Wenwu asked Becky about his life and ability training, then visited Dr. Burstein to discuss human enhancement research.
• Dr. Burstein explained that the enhancement could succeed in eighty percent of cases without preventing later serum treatments, and Wenwu ordered him to prepare enough synthesized living substance for his own procedure.

Wenwu planned to reverse his aging with Dr. Burstein’s synthetic bioenergy while expanding his technology projects. After learning about the Spider-Man and Hulk storylines, he prepared to obtain their valuable biological samples and imprison the future Leader for research.

• Wenwu asked Dr. Burstein to develop a way to reverse cellular aging, and Dr. Burstein named the synthetic energy Ruishengsu.
• Wenwu’s armor production line began mass-producing components while Ivan studied plasma thruster blueprints in a sealed chamber.
• Wenwu learned that Norman Osborn had founded Oscorp Industries and planned to obtain the mutated spider, Peter Parker’s genetic samples, Osborn’s enhancement formula, and Otto’s mechanical tentacle technology.
• After reading a report about Hulk’s appearance at Culver University, Wenwu decided to go to New York to acquire Hulk’s blood and capture Dr. Samuel Sterns.
• Wenwu ordered Razor Fist to build a concealed prison area for the Leader so he could control the super genius and use his research.

Wenwu arranged for Peter Parker to be bitten by a genetically modified spider during a Midtown High School field trip to Columbia University. Peter began feeling ill after leaving the laboratory, and the chapter ended with him waiting at a bus stop.

• Wenwu arrived in New York and heard Hamid report that the Ten Rings had obtained Peter Parker's blood and gathered information on Otto Octavius and Curt Connors.
• Wenwu ordered Hamid to establish Star Ring to fund Otto and Connors, infiltrate Oscorp for Norman Osborn's human enhancement serum research, and monitor Peter.
• Wenwu entered Columbia University's genetics laboratory during Peter's school field trip and caught the mutant spider after it bit Peter.
• Wenwu teased Peter about his crush on Mary Jane and urged him to be brave before leaving the laboratory.
• Peter began feeling feverish, left Columbia University, and waited for a bus that had not arrived.

Wenwu arranged for Peter’s mutated blood to be studied, then returned him safely to the Parker home, where Peter woke to discover his eyesight and strength had changed. After learning the Fantastic Four’s identities and the timing of the coming cosmic storm, Wenwu began planning to gain powers from it, then learned Bruce Banner had arrived in New York to seek a cure for the Hulk.

• Wenwu took Peter to Dr. Burstein’s underground laboratory, where Peter’s blood showed rapid cross-species genetic mutation.
• Wenwu brought the unconscious Peter home to Uncle Ben and Aunt May, and Peter woke the next morning with perfect vision and greatly increased strength.
• Peter found Wenwu’s note and Star Ring business card, offering him a part-time research assistant job in return for keeping his mutation secret.
• Hamid reported that Victor von Doom was funding Reed’s space-station experiment, and Wenwu identified the coming cosmic storm as a chance to gain superpowers.
• Dr. Burstein returned to Salia Base with Peter’s blood samples and research data.
• Bruce Banner reached Dr. Sterns’s secret laboratory at Grayburn University, where Sterns said he had prepared an antidote to suppress the Hulk.

Banner’s antidote suppressed the Hulk, but Emil Blonsky injected himself with Hulk serum and transformed into Abomination, who rampaged through New York. Banner chose to transform again and confront him, leaving the two monsters charging toward each other.

• Dr. Sterns injected Banner with the antidote, and Betty calmed him as it suppressed his Hulk transformation.
• Military forces led by Emil Blonsky raided the laboratory, captured Banner, and forced Dr. Sterns to inject Blonsky with concentrated Hulk blood.
• Blonsky transformed into Abomination, destroyed the laboratory, and rampaged through Broadway while searching for Hulk.
• Wenwu and six Ten Rings assassins took the remaining Hulk blood and carried the mutating Dr. Sterns away.
• After military weapons failed to stop Abomination, Banner leaped from a helicopter, transformed into Hulk, and charged at him.

Hulk defeated Abomination and spared him after Betty pleaded with him, while Wenwu recruited the newly mutated Dr. Sterns for the Ten Rings. The chapter left Sterns examining the research and technology documents Wenwu had gathered for him.

• Magneto and Professor X watched Hulk and Abomination's battle, and Professor X decided the X-Men should not intervene.
• Hulk strangled Abomination with a chain until Betty called for him to stop, then kicked the weakened monster aside.
• Dr. Sterns awoke with an enormous green head and vastly enhanced intelligence in a secured room beneath Salia Base.
• Wenwu introduced himself as leader of the Ten Rings and offered Sterns a role in his plan to build an interstellar empire.
• Wenwu promised to release Sterns after three years if he worked sincerely and had Razor Fist present research files and technology blueprints.
• Sterns began rapidly reading the documents, including material on human enhancement, Spider-Man's mutation, the Arc Reactor, and Iron Man Armor.