More than ten zhang above the ground, the air twisted strangely, followed by a thunderous roar and howling winds. Amidst the thunder, a faint opening appeared, and a human figure suddenly fell out of it.

At the very instant the figure tumbled out, the wild wind and thunder vanished simultaneously, as if everything had been a bizarre hallucination.

Master and Apprentice stared blankly as the figure screamed and plummeted from midair. Just before hitting the pond, the person seemed to spot someone by the water, eyes lighting up as he shouted, “Help!” Then, with a splash, he crashed into the pond and sank with a bubbling gurgle.

Master and Apprentice looked at each other, each staring for a long while at the other’s snow-white chest exposed above the water, then turned simultaneously toward the spot where the person had fallen in, eyes flashing with a fierce glint.

Only a few ripples and bubbling air remained where he had fallen.

……

John Smith was the operations manager at a domestic music agency, responsible for launching and producing a flop girl group. Although most people had probably never even heard of such a failed group in China, John Smith was somewhat well-known in the industry, considered a figure at the forefront of the idol-making wave. He had plenty of money on hand, often played around with escorts, fooled a few starry-eyed girls dreaming of stardom, and generally lived quite a comfortable life.

As a hobby, John Smith liked to hunt for antiques. Today, he picked up a tiny bronze shard, not even as big as a fingernail. After studying it all night without figuring anything out, he accidentally cut his hand—and with a “whoosh,” he vanished from his home.

He’d read plenty of novels in his spare time and was no stranger to the concept of transmigration. The moment he found himself flung into the air above some unfamiliar wilderness, John Smith knew he’d encountered an inexplicable case of transmigration.

He’d never even wished for something like this—just recently, he’d finally gotten close to hooking up with a young starlet, and now this? What the hell…

He also realized something else… There’s no such thing as coordinate targeting in transmigration. If you’re lucky, you might land right in a beauty’s bed; if not, you could end up drowning in a cesspit. Like now, appearing in midair—he couldn’t tell if that was good luck or bad, but at least there was a pond below, so he wouldn’t die from the fall.

His mind was spinning with these pointless thoughts, and in the blink of an eye, he was at the water’s surface. Only then did he notice two women by the pond—were they bathing?

Before he could even see what they looked like, John Smith only had time to shout “Help!” before crashing heavily into the water. Turns out, all those martial arts movies where jumping off a cliff into water means you’ll survive are pure lies. Falling from at least thirty or forty meters up, hitting the water was like being struck by a sledgehammer. The violent impact nearly shifted his internal organs, he coughed up blood, and immediately passed out.

If no one saved him, he really would have died in the water.

One of the beauties by the pond clapped her slender hand, and a jet of water shot up, lifting him out of the pond. Then, the water gently carried him over to the two women, as if by magic.

“How strange, such a strong poisonous aura…” The two women had originally looked at him with murderous intent, planning to gouge out an eyeball for fun, but as John Smith drifted closer, they both frowned and began circulating their energy to seal their pores.

This man was emitting a bizarre poisonous aura. Even with their extensive knowledge of poisons from the demonic sect, they couldn’t identify what kind of poison it was.

The young girl, Lily, stared at John Smith’s short hair and muttered, “A monk? Could he have been struck by some newly developed strange poison from a fellow practitioner?”

The young woman placed her slender hand on John Smith’s wrist, carefully examining him, her eyes growing even more astonished. “How odd…”

“What is it, Master Carter?”

“This man’s body is riddled with at least a thousand types of toxins, from his skin to his organs and even his marrow. Many of them are airborne, ones I’ve never even heard of… In other words, if he entered an ordinary town, he’d be a source of plague, turning a hundred miles into a dead zone within days.”

Lily was dumbfounded. “But he’s still alive?”

“Even William Clark, who treats poison-testing as a daily meal, would have died long ago if his body were so saturated with such strange toxins. But this man is not only alive, he’s actually quite healthy—he’s just suffered internal injuries from the impact.”

Lily recalled his bizarre entrance and felt uneasy. “Could this man be even more formidable than William Clark? But if he’s so powerful, how could he get his organs injured just by falling into a pond?”

The young woman withdrew her fingers from John Smith’s wrist, her eyes full of bewildered disbelief. “That’s the strangest part… He doesn’t have a trace of cultivation—he’s just an ordinary person!”

Chapter Two: Truly Uneducated

John Smith woke up groggily, his eyes still hard to open. He could feel himself lying on a soft couch, a delicate fragrance lingering at his nose, and the sound of carriage wheels rolling along a mountain road reached his ears, accompanied by constant jolting.

Looks like he was in the carriage compartment…

The girl’s voice was clear and pleasant: “Master Carter, have some tea, don’t tire yourself out.”

John Smith’s professional instincts immediately kicked in—this voice was ethereal and crisp, full of potential. Even if she couldn’t sing, she’d make a top-notch voice actress. By the way, what era was this? They were actually speaking Mandarin, though with a soft, lilting accent he couldn’t quite place—very pleasant to the ear.