Under One Person: The Puppet Immortal in the Tang Sect

Cui Ming, on the other hand, was able to gradually absorb and reorganize this scattered force, turning it into another group of relatively reliable and important pieces in his vast chess game.

The fighting in southern Hunan gradually stabilized, turning into a low-intensity stalemate and sporadic clashes. It was as if the Japanese had finally given up their offensive.

Only a very small number of spies would come to probe every now and then.

But Cui Ming knew in his heart that this was just the calm before the storm.

Currently, under Cui Ming's control, there are two intelligence networks.

The Japanese internal infiltration network centered on Harbin and the Eastern Kingdom's intelligence network of supernatural beings, with "True Nature" and allied sects as nodes, are both quietly expanding and operating on their respective tracks.

Moreover, through the intelligence network he had built up during this period, Cui Ming gradually pieced together the cause of the attack on the Earth Vein Village.

It all started when Li Muxuan was deliberately let go by Cui Ming and began his escape...

Chapter 181 Tracing the Origins

The story begins in the autumn of 1938, in the mountains surrounding Dimai Village.

After forcibly activating the secret technique and paying a certain price to shake off Zhao Pingshan's pursuit, Li Muxuan felt a little relieved, but his internal energy was disordered, and he urgently needed to find a place to regulate his breathing.

He didn't have time to choose, so he found a secluded crevice in the rock and settled down to meditate and heal his injuries.

About half an hour later, his injuries stabilized slightly. He extended his divine sense to carefully explore his surroundings and confirmed that the experts from the Divine Machine Alliance had not pursued him. He felt somewhat relieved.

"Damn it, what bad luck!"

Li Muxuan cursed under his breath as he wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

He originally just wanted to make Young Master Wan of Yanwu Hall suffer a loss in silence, and also wanted to see just how powerful the Divine Machine Alliance really was.

What was supposed to be an easy deal turned out to almost cost him his life.

Those guys from the Divine Machine Alliance were much more troublesome than he had anticipated, especially the one wearing strange armor; his final move was particularly unpredictable and impossible to guard against.

He struggled to his feet, determined his direction, and prepared to leave this dangerous place first.

However, just as he stepped less than a hundred steps out of the crevice and into a relatively open clearing in the forest, a strange thing happened.

A dozen or so figures silently emerged from the surrounding trees, quickly closing in and blocking all escape routes.

These people were dressed in a mixed style, some as ordinary mountain folk and others as wandering swordsmen, but their eyes were all cold and sharp, and their aura was condensed and not released, clearly indicating that they were well-trained.

Alarm bells rang in Li Muxuan's mind, and he instantly went from the relaxation of surviving the ordeal to an icy abyss.

These dozen or so people possessed a refined aura and stood in cunning positions, clearly not a random gathering of mountain folk or ordinary wanderers.

He caught a glimpse of the dozen or so people surrounding him out of the corner of his eye; their equipment and the aura they exuded were quite different from those of the extraordinary individuals native to the Eastern Kingdom.

My heart sank; I realized I had been part of someone else's scheme from beginning to end.

"If I had known, I should have just fought the Divine Machine Alliance to the bitter end..."

Li Muxuan cursed under his breath, suppressing his surging blood and qi, and his eyes quickly became sharp as an eagle's.

He realized that the group he had led before was definitely not as simple as it seemed, and that he had probably just escaped one danger only to fall into another.

"Li Muxuan, stop resisting."

Within the encirclement, a short-bearded man with a sharp, wiry face, who appeared to be the leader, spoke coldly with a strange accent.

"Come with us, and you'll suffer less."

"Go with you? Go and become a dog for the Japanese devils?"

Li Muxuan scoffed, secretly accelerating the circulation of his cultivation technique.

He appeared unsteady on his feet, staggering slightly, but in reality, his feet had quietly taken root in the ground, sensing the subtle "veins" of the surrounding space.

This was the prelude to the Ghost Hand King's signature move, "Reversing the Eight Directions," which he had inherited.

The short-bearded man's eyes sharpened, and without further ado, he waved his hand and shouted.

"Take them down! Try to capture them alive!"

Upon receiving the order, five men in tight-fitting clothes rushed forward first, two of them wielding specially made short knives with a ghostly blue luster, clearly poisoned;

The three men were empty-handed, yet their fingers and claws emitted a subtle aura that blocked Li Muxuan's escape route.

Their movements were swift and their coordination was excellent, clearly indicating that they were highly skilled individuals who had undergone rigorous training in combined attacks.

Li Muxuan appeared to retreat in panic, but his footwork secretly followed the strange and abrupt method.

Just as the first poisoned dagger was about to touch his shoulder, he suddenly stopped, and with his right index and middle fingers together, he made several virtual dots around his body at a speed imperceptible to the naked eye.

"Reversing all directions—chaos!"

A strange spatial fluctuation suddenly spread out from him.

The man with the knife felt his blade inexplicably veer off course. The blade, which was originally aimed at Li Muxuan's shoulder, uncontrollably turned towards his companion's ribs!

His companion was horrified and tried to dodge, but found that his own direction of movement was also distorted, as if he had stepped into a quagmire, and his movements were slowed down by a fraction.

"Pfft!"

The poisoned knife pierced his flesh, and the man who was stabbed groaned as black smoke instantly rose from the wound.

"What kind of cultivation technique?!"

The others were filled with shock and anger, and their attack intensified.

However, Li Muxuan moved like a ghost in the small space, his ten fingers pointing and drawing, each subtle movement causing the surrounding space's "field" to deflect and distort.

The fist grazed his cheek, but the force of the blow was directed at his accomplice behind him.

The kicking leg suddenly changed direction as it approached, striking another person's knee from the side.

The five attackers were thrown into chaos in an instant. Their attacks not only failed to harm Li Muxuan, but they also frequently injured their own men, causing their formation to fall apart.

Upon seeing this, the short-bearded man's face darkened, and he gave a wink to the two men behind him.

The two men, who had remained motionless, simultaneously raised their hands.

They were two Type 14 Nambu pistols!

They were not ordinary people, but Japanese spies skilled in using firearms.

A flash of light erupted from the muzzle, and the specially designed bullet tore through the air, striking Li Muxuan's vitals.

Shooting at such close range virtually eliminates all angles for dodging.

Li Muxuan's pupils contracted slightly as he forcefully forced the grain into his body, which was severely injured.

He exhaled and made a sound, drawing a perfect circle with both palms in front of him, instantly intensifying the distortion of the surrounding space.

"Reverse the eight directions—in reverse!"

The bullet that was fired at him seemed to hit a layer of high-speed rotating viscous force field, and its trajectory was strangely deflected.

A bullet grazed Li Muxuan's ear, struck a tree trunk behind him, and blew a hole the size of a bowl.

The other bullet bounced back at an even more absurd angle, splattering into the thigh of one of the shooters.

The man screamed and fell to the ground.

"asshole!"

The short-bearded man finally couldn't hold back any longer and took action himself.

He drew his katana from his waist, the blade glowing with blazing white flames, clearly indicating that he had cultivated some kind of weapon-enhancing technique, making him far faster and stronger than the previous few.

The blade flashed like a bolt of lightning, accompanied by a piercing whistle that tore through the air, and slashed straight at Li Muxuan's head with astonishing power.

Li Muxuan's face was already somewhat pale. The continuous use of the "Reversal of Eight Directions" technique to deal with the siege and bullets had put a great burden on his already unhealed internal organs.

Faced with this powerful and heavy blow, he no longer simply deflected, but instead stomped his foot hard.

"Turning in all directions—a trap!"

The short-bearded man suddenly felt a strange pulling and twisting force coming from the ground beneath his feet, as if he were stepping into quicksand, and his lower body became slightly sluggish.

At the same time, Li Muxuan narrowly dodged the blade, his right hand forming a claw, and he pulled and twisted the man's wrist holding the knife in mid-air.

"Crack!"

There was a heartbreaking sound of bone cracking.

Li Muxuan then manipulated the spatial "force field" around the man's wrist, forcibly applying a rotating and twisting force.

The short-bearded man screamed as his katana flew out of his hand.

Li Muxuan pressed his advantage relentlessly, gathering a burst of true qi, and leaped forward like a hungry tiger pouncing on its prey, charging towards the remaining few terrified enemies.

He no longer manipulates space on a large scale, but instead focuses his subtle manipulations of the eight directions on his fingertips, elbows, and knees.

Wherever it went, enemy attacks were cleverly deflected, joints were dislocated by an invisible force, and weapons, once released from their hands, would instead smash into their own people.

A bizarre yet efficient killing took place in a clearing in the woods.

Li Muxuan was like a dancer with extraordinary skills, dodging attacks while constantly turning the enemy's strength into his own, leading them to kill each other.

Alternatively, one could use techniques that reverse the eight directions to create fatal flaws, then deliver a crucial blow.

Blood splattered, and screams filled the air.

In less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, seven or eight people were lying on the ground, some dead and some seriously injured.

A short-bearded man clutched his twisted and deformed wrist, his face deathly pale. Looking at Li Muxuan, who resembled a god of death, fear finally appeared in his eyes.

He had only one gunman left, who held the gun shakily but dared not pull the trigger.

Li Muxuan coughed up a mouthful of blood and swayed slightly.

He glanced coldly at the two of them, not wanting to kill them outright, and said in a hoarse voice.

"I'll spare your two dogs' lives... Go back and tell your master... I, Li Muxuan, am not so easily manipulated..."

Having said that, he didn't linger. Suppressing his injuries, he staggered into the depths of the dense forest and quickly disappeared from sight.

Chapter 182 Internal Strife

The stench of blood in the forest had not yet completely dissipated when Li Muxuan's staggering figure had already disappeared into the vast mountains.

He dared not linger, enduring the burning pain in his internal organs and the waves of exhaustion emanating from his meridians.