Chapter 3

Obviously, no one was going to bow their head and pledge allegiance just because Xue Mu bragged a little. The young matron merely smiled faintly. "There's no need to trouble yourself over developing the sect. You would, however, make an excellent accountant. Chan'er, arrange a carriage for him and give him some medicine for his injuries."

Xue Mu was somewhat speechless. So no one had treated his injuries before—no wonder his whole body still hurt. Come to think of it, they had only let him lie in her carriage so they could question him when he woke up. If they could not get anything useful out of him, they would probably have slaughtered him outright. Who would waste effort healing him?

At least this time, they were willing to treat his wounds and arrange a carriage for him to stay in. Whether they wanted to use him as an accountant or for something else, he was at least settled down for now.

After moving to another, far more ordinary horse carriage, Xue Mu leaned against the wall of the compartment and let out a long breath. The pressure of facing that young matron, who could kill with a glance alone, had been immense. The flat-chested girl before him, barely thirteen or fourteen, made him feel much more relaxed.

Chan'er grinned and tossed him two bottles. "The white one is for healing. Just take one pill, then sleep again, and you'll be fine. The red one temporarily suppresses your poison so it won't leak out. Don't make us keep circulating our power and holding our breath whenever we're near you. Each pill lasts twelve hours. Remember to take one every day."

"Thanks." Without another word, Xue Mu opened both bottles and swallowed one pill from each. If they wanted him dead, it would be absurdly easy, so there was no need to tamper with the medicine. The two pills melted the instant they entered his mouth. In the blink of an eye, a cool sensation spread through his limbs and bones, and the agonizing pain throughout his body seemed to vanish seven or eight parts out of ten. Xue Mu stared at the bottles in surprise, once again feeling that something was off about this world... What kind of injury medicine worked this fast? It was thoroughly unscientific.

Well... transmigration had already happened. Talking about science now only meant he could not turn the corner in his own mind. Xue Mu gave the girl what he believed was a very gentlemanly smile. "I still must thank you and your master for saving my life. My name is Xue Mu. May I ask what this young lady is called?"

The girl smiled as well. "That smug smile of yours is rather irritating. Oh, right, I wanted to gouge out your eyeballs. I wonder if you could still be an accountant after going blind?"

Xue Mu's smile instantly turned bitter. "...Of course not."

Resting her rosy cheek on her hand, the girl examined Xue Mu's face from top to bottom as though observing some miracle. "You're very brave. Not only did you look at me, you looked at Master too... It truly hasn't been easy for you to remain alive and kicking until now."

Xue Mu finally understood why she wanted to dig out his eyes. Helplessly, he said, "I didn't see anything. It was so dark, I fell so suddenly, and I'm not some immortal. How could I have seen any springtime scenery then?"

"You saw something white and gleaming, didn't you? To me, that means someone saw me."

"Can you be reasonable?"

"No." The girl smiled sweetly. "If you tell me your story, perhaps I'll let you off the hook."

Seeing how charmingly she smiled, pretty and adorable despite her vicious words, Xue Mu felt she did not truly harbor any ill intent. He smiled. "I was soaked in poison vats from childhood. Why I didn't die, I don't know either."

"There are a thousand sects and a hundred schools of cultivation in this world. As expected, I cannot know them all." The girl sighed with an air of great maturity. Pointing at Xue Mu's short hair, then at his clothes, she said, "But monks and poison are difficult to connect. What sect does this strange cassock represent?"

Xue Mu lowered his head to look at his clothes, and the corner of his mouth twitched... What bird of a cassock was this? It was a bathrobe, all right? He had transmigrated from home with nothing but a white bathrobe tied around him. It was truly tragic. Other transmigrators at least brought wallets or phones, something they could use to figure things out. Yet he had arrived in a vast sheet of white, with nothing at all.

No, that was not right. He did have something... He had clearly been clutching that Bronze Fragment when he transmigrated. Had they confiscated it?

When he did not answer, the little girl's expression became a teasing half-smile. "You're quite handsome... and there's nothing under that cassock. I'd say you're a lecherous monk. Could it be that you practice Pleasure Zen?"

A little girl could talk about such things without even blushing. You weren't exactly a good bird yourself... Xue Mu mocked inwardly, then answered, "It's because my heart toward Buddha wasn't steadfast enough, so I returned to secular life... Actually, I grew up in the mountains studying Zen. You are the first outsiders I've ever met. I don't even know what dynasty it is now..."

"Then did Buddha strike you with lightning and leave you hanging in midair?"

"Correct, Little Qiang."

"My name isn't Little Qiang. I'm Xiao Chan. Yue Xiaochan." The girl was still grinning. "Don't try to pry information from me. My name isn't some secret, unlike certain people whose mouths don't contain a single truthful sentence. Great Zhou has stood for a thousand years, yet you still ask what dynasty it is. And this cassock is made of incomparably luxurious fabric. If you're pretending to be a mountain dweller, don't make it so fake."

Xue Mu knew full well that his explanation could not convince anyone. Yet they did not seem particularly intent on pursuing the matter. Perhaps in this unscientific world, all sorts of unscientific things happened so often that suddenly appearing in midair was not worth taking too seriously. Besides, they seemed somewhat demonic. They clearly did not believe him, yet they were not angry either, as though it were perfectly normal for him to be full of lies...

It was only because this girl was young and naturally curious about worldly matters that she had chatted with him like an inquisitive child. Calling it interrogation, it would be more accurate to say she was looking for someone to talk to and relieve her boredom. If it had been her master, with that attitude of treating people like straw dogs, why would she care where he came from? If he could be used, she would use him. If not, she would slaughter him outright. Who had the patience to waste words on him?

And this Great Zhou... Was a thousand years not a little exaggerated? If it were eight hundred years, there might still be something he could match up. But in the Zhou from eight hundred years ago, there should not have been monks yet... Xue Mu cautiously tested the waters. "Spring and Autumn?"

Yue Xiaochan blinked. "What is Spring and Autumn? The seasons?"

Xue Mu was dumbfounded. He realized he could not tell whether this world was completely different, or whether this girl was simply too illiterate. After thinking for a long time, he could only say, "It's the sort of civilization where many different schools of thought collide."

Yue Xiaochan stared fixedly at him. After a long while, she said, "If what you call Spring and Autumn means that... then this is Spring and Autumn."

"..." Xue Mu had no reply. You were telling him that Great Zhou had existed for a thousand years and was still in Spring and Autumn?

Yue Xiaochan said casually, "A hundred martial schools, contending for a thousand years—isn't that precisely your so-called Spring and Autumn?"

All right, so the so-called hundred schools were actually martial paths... Xue Mu finally and completely confirmed that this was an entirely different world. This Great Zhou had nothing whatsoever to do with the one he knew. All his historical knowledge from that world had to be cast aside, or it would get him killed.

Yue Xiaochan added, "I think you belong to some Poison Sect. You simply cultivated incorrectly, so not only did you fail to cultivate anything, you also hid a body full of strange poison. There is one benefit, though. Ordinary people can't be bothered to kill you, lest they have to burn you afterward for disease prevention."

"..." Fine. Even illiterates understood disease prevention these days...

Yue Xiaochan examined him up and down for a while. At last, her curiosity was spent, and she grew somewhat bored. "I'm leaving, I'm leaving. This is no fun."

The moment she finished speaking, she vanished with a whoosh, without the slightest warning, just like a ghost or phantom.

Xue Mu stared at the empty carriage compartment, then collapsed onto the bed with a bang. Only now did he finally loosen his taut nerves and have the mind to sort through the situation he was facing.

Though this little sister's attitude had been fairly good—she had smiled all along and seemed lively and talkative—she had ultimately revealed the contempt for the weak buried in her bones. It seemed that, at least in the eyes of these women, force was the standard by which everything was measured. Everything else was merely a minor branch and trivial detail. Dreaming of picking up girls through talent alone was probably out of the question.

If this was the prevailing attitude in this world, it was no wonder so many transmigration predecessors had fought tooth and nail to cultivate. Being looked down upon felt truly awful. But practicing martial arts... He was already twenty-seven this year, and he came from an entirely different culture. Starting now, how could he possibly compete with natives who had grown up in an atmosphere of cultivation since childhood? And he had no golden finger...

Xue Mu held out his palm and looked at it. The reason he had transmigrated was that a Bronze Fragment had cut his hand. That Bronze Fragment must have an important connection to this world. He needed to find a way to get it back from these women. Perhaps it was his golden finger?

At a single glance, Xue Mu abruptly sat upright.

There was no trace of the cut on his palm. In its place was a strange pattern?

Xue Mu hurriedly got up, sat beside the carriage window, and examined it carefully in the sunlight. It truly was a pattern: a cyan, wave-shaped marking, identical to the pattern on the Bronze Fragment he had obtained earlier. It was only the size of a fingernail, looking as though it had been tattooed there.