At midnight, a crescent moon hung askew in the sky, with a few twinkling stars sporadically appearing and disappearing. At the foot of the mountain, the cold pool mirrored the stars and the moon. Occasionally, the chirping of cicadas broke the tranquil silence surrounding the pool.

A convoy slowly advanced along the small mountain road, the creaking of its wheels breaking the serene moonlight. This convoy was somewhat different from your usual ones, mainly because it seemed that all its guards were females.

The curtain of a carriage window was pulled aside, revealing a young girl's face. It was tender yet exceedingly beautiful. She gazed curiously at the pool for a while, then suddenly asked: "Master, is that the Cauldron Pond?"

Her voice was clear and melodious as if a skylark was singing. It startled the sleeping birds in the night, causing them to fly about chaotically.

Beside the young girl was a young lady with her face veiled by a chiffon scarf. She was leaning near the window, seemingly dozing off. On hearing the girl's question, she slightly opened her eyes, glanced outside the window in a drowsy stupor and muttered, "Yes, this is the Cauldron Pond."

The young girl asked curiously, "Isn't it said to be a sacred pond, always under guard? However, I don’t see a single soul."

"Sacred?" The young lady smiled scornfully. "That's merely a story. There used to be guards, but that was due to a legendary cauldron that sunk in the water, infusing the pond with its spiritual aura. Immersing in the pond water was beneficial for cultivation, so the royal family seized it. But after a thousand years, all the aura dissipated, turning it into just an ordinary pond. It’s been abandoned for nearly a hundred years."

The girl seemed a bit disappointed, "Are you sure all the spiritual aura is gone?"

"Absolutely. It's all gone," the young lady glanced at her, teasingly replying, "You're just attracted to the pond, wanting to take a dip, aren’t you?"

Being seen through her intentions, the young girl giggled and said, "Indeed, master understands best. We've been traveling for one day, one night, and I feel..."

The young lady exasperatedly retorted, "Your cultivation has already transcended the mundane world; how could you feel dirty?"

With a mischievous look in her eye, the young girl cozied up to her master and flirtatiously said, "But I'm yearning for someone, and that's making me feel sticky..."

The young girl was at most thirteen or fourteen, not yet mature, but showing signs of attractiveness beyond her years. The way she said that was not at all appropriate for girls her age, yet the lady didn't seem annoyed. She just burst into laughter and replied, "Oh well, you are indeed a natural clean freak...fine, let's take a brief rest. I will accompany you."

If any outsiders were to see this, they would know these two were definitely not from a typical, decent family.

The caravan came to a halt, and the female guards dispersed, subtly securing all the routes leading to the pond. The master, hand in hand with the young girl, stepped out barefoot. Under the moonlight, their outfits fluttered beautifully, and the duo lightly treaded upon the shimmering moonlight. Their captivating forms added a dream-like beauty to the scene.

A light veil fell on the grass, and their bodies, as white as mutton fat jade, slowly stepped into the pond. Even for them, a day of strenuous travel wasn't fatiguing, but the refreshing feeling of the cool pond water was enough to elicit a comfortable sigh from both master and disciple.

"Master..." the young girl gently caressed her arm and whispered, "With the Nine Tripod reigning over peace for a thousand years, can we really achieve our goal?"

"The tripod is merely an inanimate object. If it truly had such stability, we wouldn't witness the precarious situations that major sects face today." The maiden replied casually, lifting her veil and casually washing it in the water, revealing a face of devastating beauty.

The so-called master was still young, her jade-like countenance appeared no older than twenty-six or twenty-seven, but it contained a mature charm not found in her disciple. Having been through the trials of blood and fire, managing a sect, and having roots in the demonic sects, her dignified, mysterious, and enchanting aura blended perfectly, creating a uniquely alluring ambiance.

The disciple looked at her master enviously, "Master, you're so beautiful. Many men must have gone crazy for you in the past, right?"

"Hehe... Men are despicable beings. They only drive themselves crazy for those beyond their reach. So, Chan'er, remember, emotions are but toys - can be played with but never to be truly embraced. Otherwise, you'll be the one to lose your mind."

No matter how clever the disciple was, her age was still a limitation. She seemed to comprehend but not quite.

"Moreover," the master added, chuckling slightly as she lightly brushed her disciple's chest, "seducing men is a task for our subordinates. We carry the weight of our sect, so there's no need for you to get your hands dirty. Whoever dares to glance at you, you should gouge out their eyes. That's what you ought to do."

Before she could finish, she seemed to sense something. Hastily, she looked up at the sky.

At a height of over ten zhangs, the air bizarrely distorted for a moment, then a storm with thunder emerged. Within the thunderstorm, a faint opening appeared, and from it, a silhouette tumbled out.

As the figure fell, the thunderstorm vanished, all with such strangeness as if it was a hallucination.

The master and her disciple watched in shock as a man screamed while falling from the sky. Just before he headed into the pond, his eyes lit up at the sight of humans on the shore. He let out a desperate plea, "Help!" followed by a splash as he plunged into the pond, gradually sinking in.

The master and the disciple glanced at each other, both directed their gaze at the other's chest floating above the water's surface, then at the spot where the man fell into the water, their eyes filled with a murderous intent.

Where the man had fallen, only ripples remained, accompanied by bubbling sounds.

...

Xue Mu is the operations director of a domestic music agency, known for launching a flop girl group. Although most people probably haven't heard of such a failed group domestically, Xue Mu has some reputation in the circle, considered as an individual at the forefront of the idol manufacturing wave in the country. He has quite a lot of money on hand, occasionally hanging out with nubile women, and deceiving young girls with starry dreams. His everyday life is pretty easygoing.

Xue Mu has a hobby of antiquing in his spare time. Today he got a bronze piece not even as big as his fingernail. After studying it for a whole night without finding anything extraordinary, he accidentally cut his hand on it, and "whoosh", disappeared from his house.

Having read many novels during his free time, he was not a stranger to the concept of transmigration. Ever since he found himself tossed in the middle of a strange wilderness, Xue Mu realized he was facing an unexplainable cross-dimension travel situation.

It dismayed him that he has never anticipated such a thing, especially when he was just about to get his hands on a budding starlet after a few days of persuasion. What a bummer to transmigrate...

Furthermore, he discovered something... there's no such thing as a set coordinates in transmigration. Those with good luck might find themselves in a beauty's chambers right off the bat, while those with bad luck might drown in cesspools. Just like landing in mid-air right now, he was unsure if it was good luck or bad, the only thing he could take comfort in is that there was a pool underneath him, at least he wouldn't die from the fall.

While his mind was busy processing these absurd thoughts, he swiftly reached the water surface, only then finding two women bathing by the pool.

Before he could get a good look at them, all Xue Mu managed to shout was "Help" before hitting the water hard. It turned out that those movies that depict characters jumping off cliffs into water and surviving were all lies. Falling from a height of at least thirty to forty meters, hitting water felt almost the same as being hit with a heavy hammer. The severe impact almost displaced his internal organs, coughing out a mouthful of blood, he passed out instantly.

If no one were to save him, he would actually drown.

A graceful hand flipped over by the poolside, and a water column shot straight up, flushing him out of the water. The flowing water then steadily carried him slowly to the two ladies. This was truly a remarkable skill.

"Strange, such a strong emission of poison..." Both ladies initially had vile intents, intending to gouge his eyes out for fun. However, as Xue Mu slowly approached, they simultaneously furrowed their brows, sealing their pores with inner energy.

This man was emitting a bizarre poison, a poison they couldn't identify despite their familiarity with toxins from their demonic sects.

The young girl, Chan'er, stared at Xue Mu's short hair, murmuring, "Is he a monk? Could he have been afflicted by some newly developed strange poison by a fellow practitioner?"

Her mentor placed a slender hand on Xue Mu's wrist, probing carefully - her eyes even more astonished. "Strange..."

"What's wrong, Master?"

"This person's body is filled with at least a thousand types of toxins, pervading from his skin to his inner organs, and even his marrow. Many of these toxins are of a diffusive nature, unheard of... In other words, if he were to enter a common town, he would be a source of a plague, capable of transforming a hundred miles into a death zone within a few days."

Chan'er stares dumbfounded, "But he's still alive?"

"Even if we're talking about Young Master Zhao who seems to dine on toxins for trial, he would have perished due to such a peculiar poison saturating his marrow. However, this particular person is alive and healthy. He merely sustained an internal injury due to the recent impact."

Recalling the man's peculiar entrance, a sense of unease creeps up within Chan'er. "Could this person be even more formidable than Young Master Zhao? But how could someone that powerful receive internal injuries just from falling into a pool?"

The young woman withdrew her finger from Xue Mu's wrist, her eyes radiating an incomprehensible bewilderment. "That's precisely the most peculiar part... He doesn't possess a shred of cultivation, he's essentially an ordinary person!"