Under One Person: The Puppet Immortal in the Tang Sect

The power of the pill penetrated through the wound, and the meridians felt as if they were being burned by a raging fire.

He staggered backward, tripped over a spike, and fell into a pit.

The remaining puppets rushed into the pit one after another.

With a deafening roar, the Grand Elder of the Medicine Immortal Society perished amidst the self-destruction of numerous human puppets.

Ken Ishikawa caught a glimpse of this scene and his heart sank.

With the death of the Grand Elder of the Medicine Immortal Society, this place can no longer be defended.

"Withdraw from the headquarters!"

He gave the order in a hoarse voice.

The remaining fewer than twenty people desperately tried to break through towards the entrance.

They encountered several more waves of resistance along the way, until they finally broke through the entrance to the main altar.

Only eight people remained: four Japanese monsters, two Quanxing demons, one member of the Medicine Immortal Society, and Ken Ishikawa himself.

They were all injured and looked utterly disheveled.

Inside the main altar, the members of the Medicine Immortal Society who were controlled by Cui Ming did not chase after them.

They simply blocked the entrance silently, continuing to block the unfortunate souls who couldn't escape in time.

Ken Ishikawa and the others who managed to escape fled.

He couldn't help but look back at the entrance to Misty Ridge, at the cave complex in the darkness, his teeth grinding together.

The headquarters of the Medicine Immortal Society, painstakingly built up over many years and expended enormous human and material resources, was wiped out overnight.

The elite forces were almost entirely wiped out, all the experimental subjects for the Holy Child were lost, and the accumulated historical records and materials over the years were probably also gone...

“Cui Ming…”

Ken Ishikawa squeezed out the name through gritted teeth.

"If I don't avenge this, I, Ken Ishikawa, swear I will not be a man!"

But he knew that he was powerless to fight back at this point.

Evacuation must be the priority; we must rejoin the main imperial forces as soon as possible to regroup.

The eight people helped each other and soon disappeared into the fog-shrouded mountain path.

Deep within the main altar, in a karst cave, Cui Ming emerged from the shadows, accompanied by Bai Lian and Jing Hun.

The battle inside the Medicine Immortal Society's headquarters was not yet over; a few Japanese soldiers and Quanxing demons who had not managed to escape with Ishikawa Ken and the others were still putting up a stubborn resistance.

But how could they possibly be a match for these fearless puppets?

With floating cannons in the air taking turns calling out names, the situation within the headquarters was completely under Cui Ming's control.

As for Ishikawa Ken escaping, that was done intentionally by Cui Ming.

Letting him return alive will make it easier for Cui Ming to find more Japanese strongholds.

Thousand Faces has already quietly infiltrated their ranks; all that's left is to wait.

Cui Ming walked to the bronze gate, looking calmly at the mess and corpses scattered on the ground.

In this battle, the elite of the Medicine Immortal Society were wiped out, four of the Japanese and otherworldly individuals were lost, and the Quanxing demons were almost entirely killed or wounded.

Cui Ming only lost some temporarily modified members of the Medicine Immortal Society.

More importantly, Ishikawa Ken's special ability data, known as the Mind Mirror, has been recorded and analyzed by Bai Lian.

The next time we face each other, we'll have a better strategy and it will be easier to take him down.

Cui Ming turned around and looked at the children in the stone pits.

Now, it's time to deal with these children.

Chapter 196 News of Hira Ninja

Cui Ming stayed in the cave all night.

He used the power of Dan Shi to examine the condition of each of the thirty-seven children, condensing his true qi into fine threads and wrapping them around the Gu worms that had penetrated deep into the meridians, forming a temporary barrier to imprison them.

Under the suppression of the power of the pill, the Gu worms fell into a deep sleep and stopped their continued invasion.

This at least made things a little easier for the children; at least the pained expressions on their faces eased considerably, and they finally fell asleep peacefully.

However, this method only treats the symptoms, not the root cause.

In just a few days, the Gu worm implanted in the body had partially fused with the child's flesh and blood.

Forcibly removing them would endanger their lives; the only option is to use true qi to suppress them over a long period and then find other ways to gradually eliminate them.

Fortunately, energy is not a problem for Cui Ming; one energy core is enough for the needs of these thirty-odd children.

However, Cui Ming still needs to find a way to create a mechanism to suppress the Gu worms.

So, as dawn broke, Cui Ming had almost completely dismantled the entire headquarters of the Medicine Immortal Society, collecting a considerable amount of usable materials from it.

Jade used to isolate Gu worms, various animal hides, large quantities of fine wood, and large quantities of medicinal herbs and poisons, etc.

Based on these materials, Cui Ming combined them with the puppet materials and manufacturing techniques he carried to create thirty-seven isolation devices tailored to their needs.

Although it was called an isolation device, it was actually just a set of animal skin vests worn close to the skin.

These animal skin vests have many pockets, each containing a wooden board engraved with runes that have different effects, depending on the individual's physical condition.

With the help of these makeshift animal skin vests, the children were able to temporarily suppress the damage caused by the Gu worms.

After dealing with the children's issues, Cui Ming summoned twenty-two members of the Medicine Immortal Society who had been brainwashed and controlled by him and had miraculously survived.

These people suffered damage to their souls and memory loss, but retained basic mobility.

Cui Ming immediately ordered everyone to set out, using a makeshift carriage to carry the children along the mountain road to the nearest market town—Qingyan Town.

Qingyan Town is 50 li away from Miwu Ridge, accessible by a post road. Some of the Eastern Kingdom's troops are stationed in the town, making it relatively stable.

After completing this mission, these modified puppets will become a group of vegetative state patients due to the loss of Cui Ming's power supply.

This can be considered revenge for those who died tragically at their hands.

Cui Ming secretly had Bai Lian follow them all the way until the group entered Qingyan Town. Only then did he find the Tang Clan contact point nearby and have them notify Wei Shufen to bring people to meet them.

After the team set off, Cui Ming stayed at the headquarters to handle the cleanup.

He packed all valuable items, precious books, rare materials, gold and silver, and other valuables into his bag.

He then ordered the remaining puppets to completely destroy the main altar structure, and manipulated the earth vein power supply piles to trigger a small-scale earthquake, which collapsed the main passage of the cave complex.

From then on, the headquarters of the Medicine Immortal Society was completely reduced to ruins.

After doing all this, Cui Ming mounted Fenrir the Wolf and took a shortcut to Qingyan Town.

He arrived the following afternoon.

Wei Shufen and three Miao sorcerers were waiting outside the town. They immediately began treating the child after receiving him.

The platoon leader of the garrison in the town was a man in his thirties surnamed Zhao. He had received secret orders from his superiors to cooperate with the strange man's actions and provided an abandoned ancestral hall in the west of the town as a temporary medical treatment point.

Inside the ancestral hall, the children were placed on straw mats.

After the examination, Wei Shufen's expression turned grave.

"The Gu seed has penetrated deep into their bones; forcibly removing it will kill them."

"Although there are many kinds of Gu worms, fortunately they are all simple and basic Gu worms, and I have my own way of guiding them."

After discussing with three other Gu masters, she decided to use the method of "raising Gu substitutes".

Take thirty-seven carrion-eating gu and implant them into the child's body.

Carrion-eating Gu are harmless, low-level Gu worms that actively devour other Gu worms.

However, their lifespan is extremely short; they die after seven days and are excreted from the body through metabolism.

Repeating this process several times can gradually eliminate the parasites in the body with minimal harm to the host.

But this will take time, at least three months.

Cui Ming explained the purpose of the animal skin vest to Wei Shufen.

After examining it for a while, Wei Shufen nodded.

"This can indeed suppress the activity of Gu worms, and the effect is even better when combined with the carrion-eating Gu."

"However, the worms in these children's bodies are intertwined with their flesh and blood, and removing them may leave hidden dangers."

"Their meridians will have a special affinity for Gu worms, making it twice as effective to cultivate Gu techniques in the future, but they will also be more susceptible to backlash from Gu worms."

"So, they're left with no choice but to become Gu Masters?"

Cui Ming asked.

"Yes."

Wei Shufen sighed.

"And they're all promising talents. It's a pity..."

It's a pity they should have had ordinary, normal lives.

Cui Ming paused for a moment, then asked.

"Can we find their families?"

Wei Shufen shook her head.

“I asked a few of the older children, and they either couldn’t remember their hometown or only remembered vague place names.”

“When the Medicine Fairy Society kidnaps people, it often operates across provinces. These children may come from all over the country or even further away. Now that there is war, finding relatives is like finding a needle in a haystack.”

Cui Ming didn't ask any more questions.

He left some gold and silver as expenses for the children's future lives, and asked Platoon Leader Zhao to contact local charities and sects of supernatural beings to see if they could take care of the children.

Three days later, the children's condition was basically stable.

Wei Shufen decided to take them back to western Hunan, where they would be raised and taught the art of Gu poison by various Miao villages.