"Sect Leader! What happened to you? Sect Leader, please don't leave us..."
Renowned private chef Chen Muxue now had a splitting headache, her ears buzzing like they were filled with a hundred flies. She barely opened her eyes, and the first thing she saw was a group of four crying kids with snot running down their noses.
"The Sect Leader is awake!"
Who are these kids? Where are their parents?
Chen Muxue instinctively touched the back of her head and felt a warm liquid. Looking at her hand, it was indeed blood.
She had only accidentally burned her pinky finger and instinctively moved, but a careless new intern chef had somehow spilled oil by her feet. She only remembered slipping and hitting her head on a large iron pot nearby. The last image in her memory was the intern chef looking terrified with a mop in hand.
"Why isn't the Sect Leader speaking?"
"My mom said that hitting your head can make you stupid."
"What if the Sect Leader becomes stupid?"
"The Sect Leader used to take care of us; now it's our turn to take care of the Sect Leader!"
Chen Muxue inexplicably felt a bit of comfort.
Feeling that she was almost over it, she got up. This was when she noticed she was clad in a light blue ancient outfit, and the kids were wearing ill-fitting Taoist robes.
Looking around, Chen Muxue's gaze fixed on the large cauldron in the middle of the main hall. The cauldron had an ancient and complex pattern that seemed to declare its uniqueness, especially the large iron pot sticking out halfway at the mouth, along with a conspicuous bloodstain.
Chen Muxue realized something.
No way, could there really be someone as unlucky as her who also died hitting an iron pot?
An ancient cauldron could also mean a pot, but could anyone tell her what the deal is with that large iron pot in the cauldron?
As if somewhat aware, the big iron pot in the cauldron vibrated twice with a strange sense of pity to it.
"Sect Leader, is the Qiankun Cauldron broken?"
"Sect Leader, can that big iron pot be used for cooking now?"
One of the kids somehow appeared next to the cauldron, asking while reaching out to touch the iron pot. However, before he could touch it, the kid was bounced away by the cauldron.
"Da Gui!"
The child called Da Gui was knocked back and landed on his butt. He looked sadly at the child running to help him, saying, "Xiao Hu, I guess I can't enjoy life. Tell the Sect Leader... boiled vegetables taste really bad..."
Xiao Hu's face turned dark upon hearing it and he let go, causing Da Gui to fall again.
"If he's still making jokes, he's fine."
Now that the Sect Leader was awake, the children quickly resumed their laughter and play, running out the door.
Chen Muxue, on the other hand, was speechless. Da Gui and Xiao Hu... it seemed like she had transmigrated into a novel.
Staring at the cauldron in front of her, Chen Muxue felt more certain about her speculation. As she pondered, the big iron pot in the cauldron urgently vibrated again, as if expressing its desire to not remain inside any longer.
"What good is shaking going to do? I can't even take such a large pot with me..."
Just as she finished speaking, the large iron pot seemed to understand and suddenly flew into the air, quickly transforming into a perfectly fitting iron pot with handles — exactly the kind Chen Muxue was used to using.
With a clang, the pot landed in front of Chen Muxue, who inexplicably felt a sense of grievance from the pot as if it was complaining why she didn't catch it.
"Believe me, when a pot falls from the sky, any sane person would avoid it."
Chen Muxue picked up the pot and weighed it in her hands; it felt very usable, just like the ones she used before.
To test some theories, Chen Muxue stepped outside to the front door. Looking at the slightly dilapidated door with a crooked sign missing a corner, reading "Qian Ding Sect," she finally accepted her fate.
It turned out she had indeed transmigrated into a xianxia novel written for a male audience, and she had become a rather pathetic villain. The problem was, this novel with a villain sharing her exact name was something she read many years ago, and she couldn't remember the details, only the basic plot.
It was only because she shared the same name as the villain that she had a stronger impression of the villain's plot.
Moreover, Chen Muxue hadn't finished reading it at the time, because this beautiful, strong yet tragic villain, after being defeated by the protagonist, inexplicably fell hopelessly in love with him, with hints of being added to his harem, which disgusted Chen Muxue so much that she dropped the novel.
Petrified at the front door for a while, Chen Muxue suddenly sensed someone quietly approaching her from behind. As the person was about to tap her shoulder, she instinctively swung something in her hand backwards!
"Bang!"
Chen Muxue watched the young man who was knocked flying not far away and fell into deep thought.
"You...!"
The young man tumbled several times in the air before finally landing on the ground, his handsome face a mix of youth and a few drops of blood, filled with disbelief.
Wasn't it said that even the Sect Leader of the Qian Ding Sect was only at the Foundation Establishment Fifth Rank? The woman in front of him... holding a pot... wasn't she from the Qian Ding Sect?
Xiao Feng's eyes flickered with several emotions as he carefully examined the woman before him, yet could only determine that she was indeed at the Foundation Establishment Fifth Rank.
But how was this possible? He himself was at the Foundation Establishment Ninth Rank and was about to face Core Formation. How could he be sent flying by someone at the Fifth Rank with... a pot?
Thinking this, Xiao Feng felt unwilling, his anger surging up, causing him to cough out another mouthful of blood.
"Uh, sorry, it slipped, it slipped," Chen Muxue said with a smiling face, but internally, alarms were blaring. The young man's appearance could only be described as handsome, yet in novels, the more good-looking someone was, the more significant their identity! How did she end up offending someone important right off the bat?
The young man wiped the blood from his lips and stood up with some difficulty: "I am Xiao Feng, cough, here to visit the Sect Leader of the Qian Ding Sect."
The throbbing pain in his chest reminded him of what had just occurred, and a flash of hatred passed through Xiao Feng's eyes.
In an old-fashioned male-centered novel, how could a male protagonist's dignity allow him to forgive being knocked down by a woman of lower rank? And, she had used a seemingly ordinary pot.
Chen Muxue couldn't help but take a sharp breath when she heard the name "Xiao Feng." Great, she had managed to offend the protagonist right away.
She remembered, in the original story, this time the protagonist came to the door to "borrow" the Qian Ding Sect's Gate Guardian Treasure, the Qiankun Cauldron. But how could such a treasure be given away to an outsider?
The original didn't lend it, and the protagonist resorted to taking it by force, ultimately being defeated by the original across levels, holding a grudge thereafter.
A year later, the protagonist was not only accepted as an Inner Chamber Disciple by the Great Elder who hadn't taken a disciple at the Liuyun Sect for five hundred years but also led a pack of schemers to burn, kill, and loot at the Qian Ding Sect. Not only did they steal the Gate Guardian Treasure, the Qiankun Cauldron, but also crippled Chen Muxue's core, broke her limbs, and left her to fend for herself.
Publicly, the protagonist Xiao Feng claimed that Chen Muxue was kidnapping and mistreating children, not feeding the kidnapped kids enough, all in the name of protecting the people.
But the children in the Qian Ding Sect were all brutally murdered by them.
This was the beginning of Chen Muxue's path to becoming the major villain...