Chapter 3: Shen Qingxue

A grin threatened to break through my stoic hermit facade.

Invest in disciples to get stronger? And the multiplier maxes out at 10x when their affection toward me reaches peak devotion? This wasn’t just a system, boy...this was heaven’s direct compensation for my years of suffering!

I didn’t need to risk my neck in lethal ancient tombs. I didn’t need to spend centuries meditating in dark caves until my joints grew moss like those old fossils.

All I had to do was find gorgeous, absurdly talented disciples, shower them with resources, make them fall head-over-heels for their handsome, generous Master, and let the system print overpowered rewards for me.

Wish-fulfillment at its absolute finest.

Excited, I immediately focused my divine sense downward and swept my gaze across the thousands of youths gathered on the white jade plaza.

Lines of semi-translucent text began popping up over their heads, like floating game tags:

[Name: Wang Dabao | Template: Common Blacksmith | Root: Low Earth Root | Potential: Qi Condensation 4th Layer | Affection: 0]

[Name: Li Xiu | Template: Average Sword-Hand | Root: Mid Metal Root Potential: Foundation Establishment (Early) | Affection: 0)

[Name: Chen Ergou | Template: Farmhand Destiny | Root: Barren | Potential: Mortal | Affection: 0]

Grey. White. Pale green. Trash, trash, mediocre, slightly less mediocre. Out of three thousand people, the vast majority were walking background characters.

Even the arrogant young masters who possessed "Superior Spiritual Roots" and were being fiercely bid on by the other Peak Masters only had basic blue-grade tags like [Promising Sect Pillar) or [Minor Sword Prodigy].

None of them were worth my time. If I was going to invest, I wanted true, heaven-defying prodigies, protagonists capable of breaking the laws of the universe.

Suddenly, a loud, disdainful shout echoed from the central testing platform.

"Move along! You are blocking the path! Five Elements Muddled Root, zero elemental resonance! A complete waste! Next!"

THUD.

A small, frail figure was roughly shoved down the marble steps of the testing altar by an impatient outer sect deacon.

The youth tumbled down the stairs, hitting the hard jade stones with a dull thud. The crowd of surrounding mortal candidates parted, whispering, pointing, and sneering as if looking at a diseased rat.

"Look at her... what a beggar."

"Did she really crawl up the Nine Thousand Nine Hundred and Ninety-Nine Stairway of Heaven looking like that?"

"Useless trash. No spiritual roots at all, yet she dared to dirty the sect’s steps."

I leaned forward in my throne, narrowing my eyes. It was a young girl, probably no older than nineteen. Her clothes were reduced to threadbare, blood-soaked rags, barely clinging to her emaciated frame.

Her knees were badly injured from crawling up the jagged mountain steps on pure, desperate willpower. Her face was smeared with dark soot, dried blood, and grime, her long hair matted and wild.

Yet, she didn’t cry. She didn’t beg the deacon for mercy. She didn’t let out a single whimper of pain. Slowly, agonizingly, her trembling fingers dug into the cracks of the jade plaza floor.

She dragged herself upright, forcing her battered legs to hold her weight. When she lifted her head, her gaze cut through the sneering crowd like a butcher’s cleaver.

It was a pair of obsidian eyes filled with bottomless, terrifying malice. A gaze that seemed to have crawled out of a mountain of corpses, sustained by nothing but pure vengeance.

And beneath the dirt, bruises, and blood, the lines of her jaw and the delicate bridge of her nose betrayed an ethereal beauty that would shame the finest courtesans of the imperial capital.

Curious, I activated my system appraisal on her.

BZZZZZT!

A blinding golden light exploded across my vision, so bright it nearly gave my Core Formation soul a migraine.

[Target Identified!]

[Name: Shen Qingxue]

[Template: Indomitable Asura Dao Heart (SSS-Rank Destiny)]

[Constitutional Trait: ’Unshakable Vengeance’ - Willpower and Dao Heart permanently locked at maximum ceiling. Immune to mental illusions, fear, torture, and heart demons. Blood-debt catalyst active.}

[Spiritual Root: Five Elements Clogged Mortal Veins (Severe Meridian Blockage caused by mortal bone-poison; easily purified with marrow-cleansing treasures]

[Current Affection toward Host: 0 (Abyssal Despair / Cold Nihilism)]

[System Assessment: A supreme protagonist-grade jade seedling! Invest in her, Master, and the heavens themselves will weep]

My breath hitched. SSS-Rank Destiny?! An Asura Dao Heart that ignores heart demons and illusions?! To those blind fools on the testing stage, she was an untalented mortal cripple with a useless waste root.

But to my system, she was a walking, breathing cheat code waiting for someone to light the fuse. Her meridians were just poisoned; her true foundation was off the charts.

Down below, the deacon lost his patience. Seeing her glare, he sneered, raising his iron-wood staff to drive her off the plaza. "Vile mortal wretch! You dare glare at an immortal master? Scram down the mountain before I cripple your remaining limbs!"

He swung the heavy staff downward, aiming straight for her shoulder. Shen Qingxue didn’t flinch. She simply bared her teeth, her fingers balling into fists, ready to fight to the bitter end.

Now. I didn’t hesitate. I pushed off my throne, my white robes billowing in the mountain wind as I descended from the grand terrace like an immortal sovereign stepping out of the ninth heaven.

SWOOSH!

Before the wooden staff could touch a single hair on her head, a soft, invisible barrier of azure qi rippled through the air. The heavy iron-wood staff struck the barrier and instantly rebounded with a deafening CLANG, throwing the outer deacon back onto his buttocks.

The entire plaza fell dead silent. Thousands of eyes snapped toward the center of the square. Even the Peak Masters and Su Wan’er on the high terrace leaned forward in shock.

I landed silently on the jade floor, the hem of my immaculate white robe stopping inches from the puddle beneath the girl’s knees. The gentle fragrance of spirit tea drifted from my sleeves, cutting through the stench of blood and sweat.

Shen Qingxue froze. She stared up at me, her dark, predatory eyes brimming with wariness, confusion, and deep-seated suspicion. She was like a wounded wild wolf, ready to snap at any hand that reached out.

I kept my face utterly calm, radiating an aura of profound compassion that would make an ancient Buddhist monk look petty.

Slowly, I extended a hand toward her, my voice carrying across the silent plaza like the toll of an ancient bell.

"Spiritual roots are bestowed by heaven, but the Dao Heart is forged by man. The heavens gave you thorns, yet you climbed to the sky with bleeding feet."

I looked into her wild, bruised eyes and gave her a gentle smile. "Little girl. Would you like to come with me to Lonely Cloud Peak?"