1. The Fengtian Undercover Bureau, 1937: Cui Xuan, a disciple of the Mystic School, assumes the alias “San Yun Xuan” and infiltrates Japanese-occupied Fengtian. Posing as a senior consultant for the South Manchuria Railway, he gets inside the Japanese military’s top biological research institute.
2. Taoist arts and science, both overpowered: He is versed in orthodox Mystic School magic as well as math, physics, chemistry, and biology. He uses scientific knowledge to hoodwink the Japanese and send their technological development down the wrong path, while wielding Taoist arts against sinister blood sacrifices to thwart their occult schemes.
3. Crippling Japan’s national fortunes: He makes grand promises and lays deadly traps, squandering the Japanese military’s enormous budget and top talent, steering its research in the wrong direction and draining its capacity to wage war.
4. Cutting off the oil: He sabotages the Japanese oil exploration effort in the Northeast, ensuring they cannot find a single drop and striking at the very lifeline of their war machine.
5. A thrilling mix of brains and brawn: He secretly destroys a poison-gas train, blows up major transport routes, and joins forces with factions on all sides, advancing an astonishing master plan single-handedly.
The book is very good, very realistic, and contains many details of life in Manchukuo.