Tianjin, starting with unorthodox methods to achieve immortality

Before he could finish speaking, the cross-eyed gang member stared at the direction behind Lei Laohu, his legs trembling.

"Boss... Boss! Here we go again!"

Before the cross-eyed man could finish speaking, and before Lei Laohu could even turn around, a sharp gust of wind had already silently swept past his neck.

Lei Laohu felt a chill in his throat, and his vision suddenly tilted and turned upside down.

The last thing I saw was my body still frozen in place, half-turned, with blood gushing from my neck.

He tried to scream, but could only let out a weak, hissing sound as darkness instantly engulfed him.

"Boss!" Scarface was shocked and furious, and drew his sword to charge forward.

But the thing that killed Lei Laohu was faster than he could comprehend.

A blurry, yellowish-brown paper-like afterimage, in an almost gliding, eerie way, had already pounced in front of him.

The glint of the blade flashed in the dim candlelight.

Scarface had only raised his thick-backed ghost-headed sword halfway when he and the sword were cleaved diagonally from the left shoulder to the right rib!

Internal organs and blood gushed onto the ground, and a strong stench of blood instantly filled the air.

Only then did the remaining gang members realize what had attacked them.

It was a humanoid object about the height of an average person, not like a body of flesh and blood, but more like it was pieced together from some kind of thick cardboard.

In its palms, it held two paper blades as thin as cicada wings, which glowed faintly red in the candlelight.

With its arms outstretched, it moved like a dancer, or a ghostly figure reaping lives in a silhouette drama, passing by the two gang members.

The two men froze instantly, then fine lines of blood appeared on their necks, and their heads rolled off.

"A...a monster!" One of the gang members, his heart pounding with fear, finally regained his voice from extreme shock. No longer caring about brotherhood, he turned and ran frantically towards the door.

With a light leap, the paper figure drifted after them like a kite.

In the blink of an eye, the only people standing in the room, besides the terrifying paper puppet of swords and weapons, were Mr. Xu, who was slumped on the ground.

By this time, his crotch was soaking wet, his teeth were chattering, and he couldn't even beg for mercy.

The paper puppet slowly turned its head, its two cinnabar-colored eyes coldly locking onto him.

Chen Mo's true form did not appear, but his voice echoed faintly from some shadowy crevice: "Where is the Black Tiger Gang's secret vault?"

He had just checked Lei Laohu's bedroom and found only a little over a hundred silver dollars inside.

How could such a large gang like the Black Tiger Gang only have this much cash? So he was certain that the other party must have another secret room elsewhere.

Mr. Xu in the courtyard was weeping and kowtowing repeatedly: "Spare me! Immortal Master, spare me! The secret treasury... the secret treasury is not in the main hall, it's... it's in the cellar of the Fugui Pawnshop in the south of the city."

"There's a secret door, the key... the key is in the black tiger jade pendant on Lei Laohu's body, unscrew the tiger's head and you'll find it... the mechanism's information map is... in my arms..."

The paper puppet stepped forward, and with a light flick of its paper blade, a thin, tanned sheepskin in Mr. Xu's arms was lifted and fell into the shadows.

Then, without pausing, the paper blade grazed Mr. Xu's throat.

After confirming that there were no more survivors, Paper Puppet searched Lei Laohu's corpse and took the Black Tiger Jade Pendant, throwing it into the corner where Chen Mo was hiding. He then swept away all the silver dollars and several antique jade artifacts in the room and stuffed them into the bag on his back.

In less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the paper puppet, carrying its bundle, swiftly leaped out of the courtyard and disappeared into the deep night outside.

Chen Mo's consciousness attached itself to the paper puppet, silently traversing between the eaves and rooftops, speeding towards the Fugui Pawnshop in the south of the city.

The night breeze was cool, carrying the memory of the bloodshed from earlier, but his heart remained calm and undisturbed.

He had no qualms about the Black Tiger Gang's long history of evil deeds and ill-gotten gains.

Just as he was passing over a secluded alley, something unexpected happened!

From the shadows of the alley below, a powerful aura, as thick as a mountain, suddenly erupted and locked onto the paper puppet in mid-air!

"Hmph, there's definitely something fishy going on. You think you can fool everyone with such underhanded tricks?" A deep, resonant snort rang out.

Immediately afterwards, a powerful and unparalleled fist force slammed in from afar!

The fist's force was as solid as a giant hammer. Before it even reached the body, the surging wind had already made the paper puppet's body sluggish, and its fleeting and agile posture was momentarily halted.

Yueshan!

Instead of lying in wait at the main hall, he anticipated the operatives' escape route after their success and intercepted them there!

While weapons and paper puppets are advantageous, they are not their forte in a direct confrontation with a martial arts master like Yue Shan, who has reached the Innate Realm and possesses abundant qi and blood.

Chen Mo felt a chill run down his spine and, with a split second, forced the paper puppet to twist its body.

The paper blade slashed out several sharp gusts of wind, attempting to cut and weaken the force of the fist from a distance, while simultaneously using the force to plummet rapidly to the side of the roof.

"Bang!"

The force of the fist collided with the sharp energy of the paper blade, producing a muffled thud.

The paper puppet seemed to have been struck hard, and it drifted backward, the creases on its body appearing to have faded somewhat.

The brocade bundle containing the valuables was torn apart by the force of the attack, and some gold and silver jewelry scattered into the alley.

Yue Shan's tall figure stepped out of the shadows, his gaze sharp as lightning, locking onto the eerie paper puppet.

"Controlling puppets to kill and rob? Stay here!"

He took a step forward, and the blue bricks on the ground cracked slightly!

The second punch was already poised to strike, even more powerful, heavier, and faster! It was accompanied by the faint sound of a tiger's roar, sealing off all the paper puppet's escape routes.

Chen Mo's mind raced, and he manipulated the paper puppet to hurl the remaining bundle in its hand toward Yue Shan's face.

At the same time, the paper puppet suddenly contracted, instantly turning into a piece of hard paper the size of a palm.

Like a dart, it flew at several times faster than before, from an extremely tricky angle, close to the edge of the fist's wind, and with a "whoosh" shot towards the other end of the alley!

This sudden change and acceleration was clearly beyond Yue Shan's expectations.

He swung his fist to knock away the debris, but before he could give chase, the piece of paper had already blended into the deeper darkness in the distance, its presence quickly disappearing.

Yue Shan withdrew his fist and stood up, looking at the scattered jewelry and the strangely vanished pieces of paper, his brows furrowed.

He crouched down, picked up a broken piece of paper puppet, rubbed it between his fingertips, and his eyes gleamed.

"Paper puppet... Such agility and skill are definitely not ordinary unorthodox methods." He looked in the direction where the paper fragment disappeared, then looked back at the location of the Black Tiger Gang's headquarters. After a moment of contemplation, he did not immediately give chase. Instead, he carefully put away the fragment in his hand, turned around and strode away. His figure quickly disappeared at the other end of the alley.

In the distance, on the beam of an abandoned attic, a small piece of cardboard lay quietly, its cinnabar-stained eyes now completely dim.

Further into the darkness, Chen Mo himself exhaled softly, his face slightly pale.

"The people from the Bureau of Suppressing Strange Things... are actually that strong. Their senses are so sharp; the paper puppet was almost captured."

He muttered to himself, his eyes growing increasingly unfathomable, "We must retrieve the contents of the secret vault immediately, or something might go wrong."