Under One Person: The Puppet Immortal in the Tang Sect

"Open the door, I need to check on the progress of the child saint."

"Qianmian spoke in the hoarse, deep voice of the Fourth Elder."

"Yes."

The guards dared not ask any further questions, and each took out a bone key and inserted it into the hole in the door.

As the bone key turned, runes lit up one by one, and the bronze gate slowly opened inward.

Inside the door is a huge natural cave with countless stalactites hanging from the ceiling and the ground transformed into dozens of stone pits.

Each stone pit contained a child, ranging in age from three or four to seven or eight, totaling about thirty children.

Their eyes were closed, their faces were deathly pale, bamboo tubes were inserted into their mouths and noses, and their bodies were covered with black worms.

In the center of the cave is a stone platform, on which are placed various utensils and books.

Three disciples of the Medicine Immortal Society were recording data when they saw the "Fourth Elder" enter and quickly bowed.

"How is the child saint?"

Cui Ming, controlling Thousand Faces, asked aloud.

"Reporting to the Fourth Elder, the vital signs of No. 3, No. 7, and No. 11 are stable, and the fusion rate of the Gu seeds has reached 60%."

The remaining test subjects still showed rejection reactions, with subjects five and nine on the verge of collapse.

A disciple picked up the records in his hand and gave a cold report.

Cui Ming walked to the stone platform and flipped through the record book.

The book contains detailed records of each child's genetic information, the process of inoculating them with the Gu poison, and their reactions, as cold and impersonal as livestock files.

He closed the booklet and looked at the three disciples.

"You three, go to the warehouse and get three doses of 'Tranquilizing Powder'. We need it now."

"Tranquilizer?"

One of the disciples was puzzled.

"Fourth Elder, isn't that medicine only available tomorrow...?"

"The situation has changed, hurry!"

"Thousand Faces said sternly."

The three disciples dared not say another word and hurriedly left the cave.

The bronze gate closed again.

Cui Ming walked to the nearest stone pit and looked at the boy in the pit, who was no more than five years old.

The boy's eyelids twitched slightly, as if he still had a sliver of consciousness.

Cui Ming reached out, and the power of Dan Shi probed into the boy's body.

The Gu worms have penetrated deep into the meridians and become entangled with the flesh and blood; forcibly separating them would undoubtedly lead to death.

But if left unattended, these children will eventually become mindless puppets.

He withdrew his hand, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.

Now is not the time to save people.

The elite troops that Ken Ishikawa took away could return at any time, so he must first take control of the headquarters and set a trap.

Cui Ming turned and walked deeper into the cave.

There was also a small door leading to the Grand Elder's secret chamber and the library.

The small door was made of ironwood, coated with dark red paint, and emitted a faint fishy smell.

There were several almost invisible fine threads connecting the cracks in the door; these were a warning net made of spider silk gu, which would alert the numerous gu insects inside if touched.

Cui Ming stopped three steps away from the door. His powerful divine soul had already sensed the numerous Gu worms inside through the wooden door.

But Cui Ming didn't care at all, as the power of Dan Shi and the true Qi of radiation within his body were operating simultaneously.

Two forces emanated from him, like a wisp of mist piercing directly through the wooden door.

The spider silk worms in the crack of the door sensed the two streams of Qi within Cui Ming's body that instilled their instinctive fear, and trembled violently. They then detached themselves, curled up into a ball, and rolled to the ground.

Immediately afterwards, a lot of rustling sounds came from behind the door, as the other Gu insects hiding in the shadows also sensed the two Qi auras.

They were fleeing at breakneck speed, wishing they had two more legs.

Chapter 194 Waiting

After waiting a moment behind the door to confirm that there were no more Gu worms reacting inside, Cui Ming pushed the door open and entered.

Inside the door was a short passageway with bookshelves embedded in the walls on both sides, filled with numerous bamboo slips, books, and animal skin scrolls.

At the end of the passageway is a stone chamber containing a stone table, a stone chair, and several diagrams of human meridians and acupoints hanging on the wall.

According to the Fourth Elder's memories, this was the secret room where the First Elder handled affairs.

Cui Ming scanned the bookshelf, which contained mostly books on Gu cultivation, drug formulas, and records of human experiments, as well as a small number of classics related to the cultivation techniques of extraordinary individuals.

He summoned ten Shadow Spider puppets and ordered them to take down all the materials from the bookshelf one by one and sort them out.

He walked to the stone table himself.

After searching for a while, I found a notebook with fresh ink on the pages.

The notes record the progress data of the "Gu Body Saint Child" project over the past three months, as well as several improvement suggestions put forward by Ken Ishikawa.

One of the pages mentions this.

"Li Muxuan's method of reversing the eight directions is suspected to be of the same origin as the 'earth pivot reversal' recorded in the murals of ancient tombs in western Yunnan."

If the complete cultivation manual were obtained, the process of nurturing the Holy Child might be optimized, increasing the success rate of Gu seed fusion.

Cui Ming noted down the clue of "ancient tombs in western Yunnan" and put the notes into his pouch.

The shadow spiders moved swiftly, and in less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, they had packed all the books into boxes.

After Cui Ming checked and found nothing wrong, he put the box into another sac.

This can be considered one of the ingenious uses of the sac: simply store a large number of items into a large-capacity object, and the object can be contained by a sac without wasting resources.

At this moment, Cui Ming also received a signal from Qianmian that the three disciples outside who were fetching medicine had been subdued.

Cui Ming left the secret chamber and returned to the main area of ​​the cave.

Qianmian stood beside the bronze gate, with three unconscious disciples lying at his feet.

Upon seeing Cui Ming emerge, Qianmian still retained the appearance of the Fourth Elder, standing obediently to the side.

Cui Ming walked to the stone platform with a blank expression.

Besides the record book, there were also several bottles of pills and a set of blood collection tools on the stage.

He packed away any useful items.

Next comes the time to cleanse the main altar.

Cui Mingxian recalled all the Shadow Spiders who were out on reconnaissance and gathered intelligence.

The current personnel distribution within the main altar is as follows: six disciples are on duty in the front hall, twelve are resting in the residential area, four are working in the Gu refining room, two are taking inventory in the warehouse, and eight are scattered around the outskirts.

He summoned all his puppets: Horror, Night Slayer, Hundred Refinements, as well as thirty Shadow Spiders and twenty floating cannons. Fenrir wolves were also released from their pouches, crouching low, ready to charge at any moment.

"Bai Lian commands the overall situation and monitors the movements in each region."

"The team, led by Jing Hun, cleared the front hall and living area, prioritizing psychological warfare to subdue the enemy."

"Night Slaughter Ghost is in charge of the Gu Refining Room and the Warehouse. We need to finish this quickly."

"Shadow Spiders clear out the outer sentry posts, floating cannons occupy the high ground, and block all exits."

Cui Ming gave the order in a calm tone.

The puppets dispersed silently.

Jinghun led ten Shadow Spiders towards the front hall.

Six disciples were chatting idly in the hall when one of them suddenly looked up.

"Did you hear anything?"

Before the words were even finished, the shock and mental impact swept through the entire front hall like a tidal wave.

The six men's eyes glazed over instantly, and their movements froze.

The Shadow Spider stepped forward, bound them with specially made ropes, and injected them with a paralyzing drug.

Inside the residential area, most of the twelve disciples were sleeping.

The Shadow Spiders emerged one by one from the shadows, their figures moving swiftly like ghosts, leaping up to envelop their heads and injecting the power of the Pill Devourer in one swift motion.

The two disciples, who had just woken up, had barely touched their weapons when the Night Slayer emerged from the shadows and grabbed them by the neck, one in each hand.

The two men fell unconscious shortly afterward due to lack of oxygen.

Inside the Gu Refining Room, four disciples were preparing medicinal liquid.

Qianmian disguised himself as an ordinary disciple and entered, falsely conveying orders.

"The Fourth Elder wants you to come over."

"Now? This pot of medicine is at a crucial moment..."

"Stop talking nonsense and get going."

The four of them muttered to themselves as they put down their tools and followed Qianmian out of the Gu-refining room.

As soon as they stepped outside, the Night Slayer and three Shadow Spiders who were waiting there attacked simultaneously. Before the four could react, they were already on the ground.

A brief sound of fighting came from the direction of the warehouse.

The two disciples on duty were highly skilled; one used a poison mist gu, and the other controlled iron wire worms to attack.

However, several beams of light shot in from the skylight through the floating cannons, piercing through the poisonous fog and accurately hitting the two men's dantian.

Their vital energy dissipated, and the two collapsed.