Xue Mu woke up in a daze, his eyelids still feeling too heavy to open.
He could tell he was lying on a soft daybed.
A delicate fragrance drifted around his nose, and the steady, bumpy rumble of wheels on a mountain path echoed in his ears.
It seemed he was inside a carriage.
A girl’s voice rang out, crisp and melodic.
“Master, have some tea.
Don’t stress yourself out too much.” Xue Mu’s professional instincts kicked in immediately.
That voice is ethereal and crystal clear—massive potential right there.
Even if she can’t sing, she’d make an incredible voice actress.
But then another thought struck him: Wait, what dynasty is this anyway?
Why are they speaking Mandarin?
It just sounds like it has a soft, sweet regional accent.
Very pleasing to the ear.
Another female voice spoke up.
“Thanks to that absolute idiot Feng Lieyang, eighty percent of our foundations in the south have been utterly destroyed.
Never mind our grand plans—if we don’t find a solution fast, the entire sect will run out of money and starve sooner or later.
Plus, your Martial Aunt is still trapped in The Six Gates waiting for a breakout, which is going to cost a fortune in bribes.
How am I supposed to relax?” This voice is excellent too, Xue Mu noted internally.
It has this indescribable charm.
Hearing it makes your ears go numb…
Xue Mu finally managed to force his eyes open.
Turning his head slightly, he saw a beautiful woman sitting cross-legged to the side.
Her hair was swept up elegantly, her eyes deep and clear like autumn pools, and she held a ledger in her hands.
Even a fleeting, half-veiled glimpse of her profile made Xue Mu catch his breath.
This woman is gorgeous…
Are these the two I saw bathing right before I crashed?
Damn it, what a waste.
Neither of them had clothes on, but I didn’t get a proper look at all!
Nearby, a young girl dressed in white was furiously shaking her tiny fist.
“The next time I see Feng Lieyang, I’ll personally snip his thing off and sell him off as a boy toy!” “Now is not the time to look for someone to blame…
If you have that much energy, you might as well help me go over the books.” The girl’s fist froze mid-air.
“Uh…
what books?” “Last month, the Hundred Flowers Pavilion in the capital lost one thousand three hundred and twenty taels.
The Rouge Workshop in Lingzhou lost four hundred and fifteen taels.
The Fragrance House in Wuzhou made a profit of seventy-four taels…
What was our total net loss last month?” “…” The girl quietly took a step backward, then another.
Her eyes darted around guiltily, her awkward expression so ridiculous that Xue Mu almost burst out laughing.
“Look at you.
Do you honestly think just practicing martial arts is enough to run a whole sect?
Sooner or later, you will have to carry this burden.
What’s the point of running away?” “Um…
haha…
Oh, right!
Master, I just remembered I haven’t done my morning lessons today.
I’ll go practice right now—” “Stop right there!
Go fetch the counting rods for me first!” Xue Mu finally spoke up.
“No need for the counting rods.
Your total net loss is one thousand six hundred and sixty-one taels.” The girl turned to look at Xue Mu with curiosity.
Her wide eyes blinked a few times before she smirked.
“Bragging the second you wake up?
That’s a bad habit.
Just you wait!” She had clearly been too lazy to get the counting rods a moment ago, but Xue Mu instantly rattling off the answer had completely piqued her curiosity.
She spun around and thudded right out of the carriage.
Xue Mu still felt like his entire body was on fire with pain.
Struggling to sit upright, he offered the beautiful woman a small, respectful bow.
“Thank you for saving my life, Madam—” Before he could even finish his sentence, the woman whipped her head around.
The gentle, melancholic look in her eyes vanished instantly, replaced by a gaze so fierce and ice-cold it seemed to flash with a blinding, spiritual light.
Xue Mu felt an overwhelming pressure crash into him from that single look.
His internal energy and blood violently churned, forcing him to cough up another mouthful of blood.
Panic seized his mind.
What the hell?
Killing people with a look?
Is this world really that ridiculous?!
The sharp light in the woman’s eyes dimmed.
She knit her brows, muttering to herself, “He really doesn’t possess a single shred of cultivation?
How is that possible?” Seeing Xue Mu struggling to catch his breath, she paused for a moment before demanding in a cold, even tone, “Who are you?
Why did you suddenly materialize out of midair?
And what is the story behind the bizarre poison inside your body?” Xue Mu was utterly baffled by her questions.
“What bizarre poison?
I don’t have any poison.” “Your body is saturated with over a thousand different types of toxins, and you carry a volatile strain of pestilence.
You are practically a walking biological weapon.
Speak.
Who are you, and what is your objective?” Xue Mu froze for a long time, completely stunned.
Finally, he mumbled under his breath, “Am I…
a walking periodic table of elements?” His body carried countless modern strains of viral mutations that simply didn’t exist in ancient times.
Combine that with a lifetime of eating street food cooked in gutter oil, toxic powdered milk, and heavy chemical preservatives…
He remembered someone joking back home that if you blended a 21st-century human, you’d get a perfect replica of the chemical periodic table.
If a modern person transmigrated to the past, they really would become a walking plague.
To think it was actually true!
He had absolutely no idea how to explain this to her.
He scratched his head for a long time, completely at a loss for words.
In the end, he actually blurted out a question of his own: “Madam, do you have a way to cure this condition of mine?” The woman was so amused by his sheer audacity that she almost laughed.
“You certainly don’t stand on ceremony, do you?” Xue Mu countered, “Is it possible that Madam wishes to learn the method used to create a biological weapon like me?” The smile vanished from the woman’s face, a lethal chill returning to her eyes.
“You are very clever.” Xue Mu thought to himself that this master and disciple duo were definitely not good people.
He shook his head and said, “I’m afraid Madam will be disappointed.
My condition is entirely unique.
You will never be able to replicate a second one.” The woman said lazily, “Since you refuse to talk, you can simply go to hell.” She raised her hand, preparing to strike him down.
Xue Mu scrambled and shouted at the top of his lungs, “Even if I am the only one, I can still help Madam engineer a plague!” The woman’s beautiful eyes flickered.
She paused, pondering his words, and slowly lowered her palm.
She seemed to be calculating exactly how to make the best use of this walking plague.
Just then, the young girl, Chan’er, came bouncing back into the carriage.
“Master, I brought the counting rods!” Xue Mu was drenched in a cold sweat, fully aware he had just escaped a brush with death.
This woman was an absolute monster who wouldn’t blink at taking a life.
She was actually seriously contemplating a scheme as ruthless as deploying a biological weapon.
She had clearly saved him out of sheer curiosity regarding his toxic makeup and its potential utility, not out of the goodness of her heart.
The moment she deemed him useless, he would be dead before he even knew what hit him.
As an operations manager, there was no way Xue Mu would willingly let his life be controlled by someone else, let alone be used as a mere tool for pestilence.
While the master and disciple were briefly distracted, he frantically searched for a tactical opening to seize the initiative.
His gaze fell upon the bundle of counting rods.
Wait, isn’t this the perfect entry point?
Looking at those bizarrely shaped wooden sticks, he couldn’t help but criticize them internally.
Failing to do such basic addition and subtraction in their heads was foolish enough, but even if they needed a tool, they could at least use an abacus!
What kind of primitive nonsense was a bundle of counting rods?
These women might have terrifying combat power, but their education left a lot to be desired.
Then again, it made sense.
Whether this was a wuxia realm or a full-blown fantasy world, it was clearly a society where might makes right.
As a modern human, why should he bother competing with them in raw strength?
Enduring endless, grueling cultivation just to level up would mean abandoning his own strengths to clash directly with the natives’ greatest advantages.
What would be the point of that?
Judging by how they were stressing over their profits and losses, they still had to worry about basic necessities like food, clothing, shelter, and overall sect development.
They weren’t fasting immortals or ascetics focused solely on eternal life.
If that was the case, a modern mind still had an immense amount of room to maneuver in a society like this.
While he was lost in thought, Chan’er suddenly let out a sharp gasp.
“It really is one thousand six hundred and sixty-one taels!!” A flicker of surprise crossed the beautiful woman’s eyes as well.
She turned to look back at Xue Mu.
This time, her expression carried a hint of respect reserved for someone of genuine talent, completely replacing the gaze that had previously treated him like an insignificant ant.
Xue Mu met her gaze calmly, offering a faint, confident smile.
“If developing your sect matters more to you than engineering a plague, Madam, then the value I can provide might just far exceed your wildest imagination.”