More than ten zhang above the ground, the air twisted strangely, then thunder roared and wild winds swept by. 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.

The master and disciple 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, and shouted, “Help!” Then, with a “thud,” he crashed into the pond and sank with a bubbling sound.

The master and disciple looked at each other, each staring for a long time at the other’s snow-white chest exposed above the water, then simultaneously turned toward the spot where the person had fallen in, eyes flashing with menace.

All that remained at the spot were a few ripples, bubbling up.

……

James Carter was the operations manager at a domestic music agency, having launched and managed a flop girl group. Although most people had probably never heard of such a failed group in the country, James Carter was somewhat well-known in the industry, considered a figure at the forefront of the idol-making wave in China. He had plenty of money on hand, usually played around with escorts, fooled a few starry-eyed girls dreaming of stardom, and generally lived quite comfortably.

In his spare time, James Carter liked to hunt for antiques. Today, he picked up a bronze shard not even the size of a fingernail. After studying it all night without figuring anything out, he accidentally cut his hand—and with a “whoosh,” he disappeared from his home.

He’d read plenty of novels in his free time and was no stranger to the concept of transmigration. Ever since being flung into the air above some unfamiliar wilderness, James Carter knew he’d encountered an inexplicable transmigration.

He’d never wished for this, heaven knows. He’d just about managed to hook up with a young starlet these past few days, and now this—what the hell…

And he’d discovered something else… There’s no such thing as coordinate targeting in transmigration. If you’re lucky, you might land right in a beauty’s fragrant 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, seemingly bathing?

Before he could even see what they looked like, James Carter only had time to shout “Help!” before crashing heavily into the water. Turns out, those martial arts movies where jumping off a cliff into water means you won’t die are all 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 passed out on the spot.

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, a display of incredible skill.

“How strange, such a strong poisonous aura…” The two women, who had been glaring murderously and planning to gouge out an eye for fun, both frowned as James Carter drifted closer, circulating their energy to seal their pores.

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

The young girl, Emily, stared at James Carter’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 James Carter’s wrist, carefully examining him, her eyes growing even more astonished. “How odd…”

“What is it, Master?”

“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 are of the dispersing kind, 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 li into a dead zone within days.”

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

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

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

The young woman withdrew her hand from James Carter’s wrist, her eyes full of incredulous confusion. “That’s the strangest part… He doesn’t have a trace of cultivation—he’s just an ordinary person!”

Chapter Two: Truly Uneducated

James Carter 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, the sound of wheels rolling over a mountain road in his ears, accompanied by constant jolts.

Looks like he was in a carriage…

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

James Carter’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.