Under One Person: The Puppet Immortal in the Tang Sect

Tang Jiaren waved his hand, smiled, and turned to walk out.

As they approached the door, he seemed to remember something and turned back to add a sentence.

"By the way, I still need to pick up my poison skills again. Otherwise, if I start using poison, I might poison myself to death first. That would be a real laughing stock."

After saying that, he vanished silently into the shadows outside the door, as if he had never been there.

Cui Ming stood there, letting out a long sigh of relief; his back was already soaked with sweat without him even realizing it.

Talking to this gentleman always felt like being inspected by a superior; the pressure was immense.

He looked down at his workbench, at the improved crossbow and the Shadow Spider, his gaze gradually hardening.

With the support of the master, he could obtain more resources and conduct more in-depth research.

Only by creating enough powerful long-range weapons and life-saving mechanisms can we better survive in this dangerous world.

Chapter 2: Reversal of Negative Effects?

With Tang Jiaren's permission, Cui Ming's process of retrieving materials from the warehouse went much more smoothly.

Although the warehouse manager still had a stern face, he didn't ask any more questions when he saw that the note Cui Ming handed over had the master's seal, and disbursed the money according to the list.

Cui Ming thus obtained a batch of high-quality steel, timber, and several kinds of raw materials for highly toxic drugs that he had previously been unable to obtain.

Back in his workshop, Cui Ming immediately threw himself into improving the Shadow Spider.

The approval of the powerful official brought motivation, but also invisible pressure.

Cui Ming now needs to produce more practical results.

Based on Cui Ming's understanding of the Shadow Spider's positioning, he first set his sights on speed.

While the previous demonstrations were agile and swift, they were still not fast enough for the superhumans.

Especially against true experts, the Shadow Spider is very likely to be discovered and destroyed before it even gets close.

Cui Ming disassembled the Shadow Spider's shell and redesigned the internal transmission mechanism, replacing some parts with lighter and tougher materials and optimizing the spring and gears.

After several days of tireless debugging, the brand-new prototype of the Hidden Spider was completed.

The mechanism was activated, and the Shadow Spider suddenly darted out, its speed indeed increasing significantly, leaving a blurry black shadow in the room.

But Cui Ming's brows furrowed instead.

The high-speed movement turned the Shadow Spider's originally imperceptible movements into a crisp clicking sound. Ordinary people might not be able to detect it, but to the supernatural, it was no less than banging a gong and drum.

This is tantamount to telling the enemy, "You all better watch out! Uncle is coming right now!"

So he tried adding cork pads to the joints, or replacing the smooth grease, and even adjusting the structure and angle at which the limbs landed.

However, the results were minimal, and the increased speed seemed to inevitably bring about noise problems.

After trying several solutions, one always ended up with an undesirable outcome, either affecting movement speed or flexibility.

This problem requires better materials and a more ingenious design; it can't be rushed.

There was no other way but to temporarily stop the pursuit of speed and shift the focus to how to enhance its lethality.

That little bit of poison is far from enough to deal with truly troublesome targets.

He thought of the newly received batch of raw materials.

Some of them are extremely toxic; if successfully prepared, they could easily cause death upon contact with blood.

But how can we make the shudder spider effectively use its venom?

A thought popped into Cui Ming's mind: self-destruction.

A high concentration of toxic powder is wrapped around an explosive bomb and sealed inside the abdomen of the Shadow Spider. The bomb is then triggered by a mechanism, causing it to explode when it is near the target, creating a highly concentrated and deadly toxic fog.

This ensures lethality while also expanding the attack range.

This idea excited Cui Ming.

He immediately set about modifying and creating a miniature detonation mechanism that could be remotely triggered by a wire.

The next step is simply to prepare a sufficiently potent mixed poison powder.

He selected several highly toxic substances from the warehouse and mixed and ground them according to the proportions he had deduced.

The process was carried out with extreme care, and special gloves and masks were worn.

The powder is fine and has an ominous grayish-purple hue.

He took a small pinch and placed it on a wooden board some distance away outdoors.

With a soft hiss, the area of ​​the wooden board that came into contact with the poison powder quickly turned black and carbonized, an astonishing effect.

Cui Ming returned to the workbench, carefully filled a small amount of poison powder into the specially made sac in the abdomen of the Shadow Spider, and then connected the detonation mechanism.

To test its power, he decided to first conduct a remote detonation test in an open area.

He went to a secluded corner in the backyard, placed the lurking spider loaded with venom powder sacs on a piece of old, thick wooden board, and then stepped back a dozen paces, put on his mask, and raised his control gloves.

He took a deep breath and flicked his finger to manipulate a thread, triggering an explosion.

Contrary to the slight sound I had expected, it was a dull bang!

Bang!

The impact far exceeded his expectations.

The thick wooden plank was blasted open, sending splinters flying everywhere.

More importantly, a cloud of grayish-purple poisonous fog suddenly spread out, covering more than twice the area he had imagined, and at an astonishing speed.

Cui Ming was originally staying at a safe distance, but he never expected the explosion to be so powerful and the toxic fog to cover such a wide area.

Just then, a mountain breeze blew by, carrying a wisp of poisonous fog from the edge toward his location.

He instinctively stepped back, but it was too late.

Only a few tiny grayish-purple particles of powder clung to the back of his raised right hand, and a little was inhaled into his nasal cavity.

A burning pain immediately shot through the back of his hand, and the powder he inhaled made his throat and nasal cavity feel as if they had been scalded by hot iron, making it instantly difficult to breathe.

A strong feeling of numbness spread rapidly, and my heart felt as if it were being tightly gripped by an invisible hand.

Oh no! The calculations were wrong! The toxicity and explosiveness of the mixture far exceeded expectations!

Cui Ming's mind went blank, filled only with immense fear and despair.

His hands were limp and powerless due to the effects of the poison...

Is he going to die again? And by the poison he made himself? This is utterly absurd!

He staggered backward, trying to call for help, but only a hoarse, guttural sound came out of his throat.

Vision began to blur, strength rapidly dissipated from the body, and the person fell backward.

Just as consciousness was about to be completely swallowed by darkness, a completely different sensation suddenly emerged from the part that had come into contact with the toxin.

It was a warm current that quickly seeped into the back of my hand and throat, and wherever it passed, the raging destructive power melted away like ice and snow.

The intense pain and numbness receded like a tide, replaced by an indescribable feeling of comfort.

The internal organs, which were rapidly deteriorating due to the invasion of toxins, were nourished as if they had been parched for a long time. They not only recovered to normal instantly, but even became stronger and more powerful.

The heartbeat became stronger, and even the faint Qi within the body seemed to be fueled, surging on its own and growing rapidly.

Cui Ming took a deep breath, and the air finally flowed smoothly into his lungs, without any discomfort.

He raised his right hand in disbelief; the skin on the back of his hand was completely intact, and he even felt that the skin seemed to have become tougher.

He stood there, stunned, carefully sensing the changes inside his body.

That feeling of being refreshed and full of energy is real.

Those previously fatal poisoning incidents seemed like nothing more than an illusion.

But the shattered wooden planks and the slowly dissipating poisonous fog in the testing ground told him that it was all real.

At the same time, an explanation suddenly appeared in Cui Ming's mind.

His cheat code—the Negative Effect Reversal System—has been officially activated.

Any negative effect that acts upon it will be reversed and transformed into an equal positive gain.

The destructive power of the poison turned into nourishment for his body and cultivation.

Cui Ming looked down at his hands, then suddenly looked up at the bottles and jars of poison raw materials on the workbench, his eyes changing completely.

The fear and lingering apprehension he had felt earlier vanished without a trace, replaced by an overwhelming surge of ecstasy and excitement.

He's made it big!

An unprecedentedly broad road lay before him.

Chapter 3 Making a Decision

Cui Ming sat at his workbench, tossing a modified steel part up and down in his hand.

His gaze was somewhat unfocused; his attention was not on his surroundings, but rather on something he was pondering in his mind.

Some time has passed since he obtained the Negative Effect Reversal System. As his initial elation subsided, he became melancholy instead.

His original plan was simple, but also selfish:

With the protection of the Tang Clan, they improved their hidden weapons, created puppets, and lived a peaceful life.

Ideally, one could become a respected weapon refiner, spending all day surrounded by their own collection of figurines.

He didn't want to care about the bloodshed and turmoil outside, nor did he realize that he could control the tides of the times.

Individual strength is far too insignificant in the face of such a massive vortex of the times.

But the situation is different now.

His cheat ability allows him to transform all kinds of harmful effects into nourishing nutrients for himself; such an ability is simply too overpowered.

This is no longer a simple trump card for survival; it's a shortcut to heaven through evil means.

An idea popped into my head uncontrollably, and became clearer and clearer.