Chapter 6: Pebbles, Pedigrees, and a Pet Dragon the Size of a Mountain

Stonewind City, the morning after the Scarlet Lotus Sect disciple's ignominious defeat, hummed with a different kind of energy. The gossip about the mysterious rogue cultivator who'd flattened a Core Formation expert like a pancake hadn't faded; it had metastasized. Whispers followed Zhao Tian like persistent flies as he strolled through the bustling merchant quarter, his Mid Core Formation aura deliberately dialed down to a low hum, yet still enough to carve a respectful bubble of space around him in the crowd. Vendors hawked spirit beast jerky and low-grade talismans with extra vigor when he passed, hoping for patronage. Cultivators in sect robes eyed him with wary curiosity or outright fear.

Zhao Tian, however, was bored. The thrill of his Core Formation upgrade and the subsequent sect recruitment parade had worn off. He needed a *project*. Provoking a Half-Immortal was the long game. Right now, he craved… distraction. Something to make the morning interesting.

He found it in a narrow, sun-dappled alley branching off the main thoroughfare. The usual city sounds – bartering, clanging tools, distant spirit-beast roars – were abruptly pierced by a high-pitched shriek of pure terror, followed by cruel, mocking laughter.

"P-please! Let me go! My parents! They… they…!" a child's voice, choked with tears, wailed.

"Shut your sniveling, brat!" a nasally, arrogant voice snapped. "Your useless parents owed my father taxes they couldn't pay. Consider this… repayment in kind. A much more *pleasurable* kind for me."

Zhao Tian rounded the corner. The scene was depressingly cliché, yet it ignited a cold fury in his gut that surprised him. Three burly guards in the livery of the City Lord's personal retinue – Foundation Establishment realm, by their auras – blocked the alley mouth, smirking. Deeper in, bathed in a shaft of dusty sunlight, stood the source of the nasally voice: a young man, perhaps nineteen, dressed in outrageously expensive silks embroidered with the crest of a snarling stone lion – the symbol of Stonewind City. His face was pale, his eyes bloodshot and greedy, his lips curled in a leer of anticipation. He held the wrist of a small figure struggling desperately.

The girl couldn't have been more than ten. Her hair was a cascade of pure, snow-white silk, stark against the grime of the alley. Her face, though tear-streaked and terrified, possessed an ethereal, almost unnatural beauty. Her clothes were simple and patched, now ripped at the shoulder where the young master gripped her. On the ground nearby lay two still, broken forms – a man and a woman in humble garb, their lives clearly extinguished moments before.

"Li Feng!" one of the guards chuckled, nudging his companion. "The Young Master's got expensive tastes today. That hair… unnatural, that is."

"Shows you know nothing, Bo," the young master, presumably Young Master Shi, sneered. "Pure Yin aura. Rare. Makes her… special." His leer deepened as his free hand reached for the tear in the girl's tunic.

Zhao Tian didn't roar. He didn't unleash his Void Sword or summon the Heavenly Emperor Manifestation. He felt a disgust so profound it bypassed anger and settled into icy contempt. He scanned the ground. A smooth, palm-sized river stone lay near his boot. Perfect.

With the casual flick of a wrist honed by Mid Core Formation strength – even suppressed – Zhao Tian sent the stone whistling through the air. It wasn't aimed to kill. It was aimed to *humiliate*.

***THWACK!***

The stone connected perfectly with the most sensitive part of Young Master Shi's anatomy currently straining against his fine silk trousers.

The nasally arrogance vanished, replaced by a sound that was part steam whistle, part strangled goose. Young Master Shi's eyes bulged comically. His grip on the girl vanished as both hands instinctively flew downwards. He doubled over, knees buckling, his face turning an impressive shade of puce. He didn't scream immediately; he just gasped, mouth working like a fish out of water, emitting high-pitched wheezes.

"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The scream, when it finally erupted, shattered windows three alleys over. It was pure, undiluted agony, laced with incredulous outrage. He stumbled back, crashing into a stack of empty crates, which collapsed around him in a clatter of wood.

The three guards whirled, weapons drawn, expressions shifting from amusement to shock and fury. "Who DARES?!" roared the one named Bo, his Foundation Establishment aura flaring. "Attack the City Lord's son?!"

Zhao Tian stepped fully into the alley, his cloak (manifested purely for effect today) swirling slightly. His expression was bored. "Dares? Seems pretty easy, actually. Just needed a rock and a target." He nodded towards the whimpering, fetal-positioned Young Master Shi. "That one. Very target-like."

"KILL HIM!" Young Master Shi shrieked from the floor, voice cracking. "KILL THIS PEBBLE-PELTING PEASANT! RIP HIM APART! BRING ME HIS EYES!"

The guards, loyal and well-paid, charged. Foundation Establishment aura surged – earth shaking beneath their boots, crude elemental energy coalescing around their weapons. They moved with the coordination of trained thugs.

Zhao Tian sighed. It was beneath him. Truly. He didn't draw the Void Sword. He didn't even manifest a flicker of his Heavenly Emperor aura. He simply… moved.

To the guards, it was like facing a whirlwind. One moment Zhao Tian was ten paces away, the next he was *amongst* them. A flick of his finger sent Bo's sword spinning into a wall, embedding it hilt-deep in solid stone. A casual backhand sent the second guard crashing headfirst into a water barrel, knocking him cold. The third received a light tap – a mere brush of knuckles – on the center of his forehead. The guard froze, eyes glazing over, then crumpled like a puppet with its strings cut, snoring before he hit the ground.

"Geez, where do they mass-produce these Young Masters?"

The whole thing took less than two heartbeats.

Silence descended on the alley, broken only by Young Master Shi's ragged, pained sobs and the little girl's terrified whimpers. Zhao Tian looked down at the groaning young master, his expression devoid of mercy. The cold fury was back, colder now.

"You," Zhao Tian stated, his voice flat and final, "are a stain on existence. Killing your parents for taxes?" He gestured towards the small bodies. "Then trying to defile their child? In an alley? Like a common rat?" He shook his head slowly. "No. You don't get to exist anymore."

Fear, genuine and primal, replaced the pain in Young Master Shi's eyes. "N-no! You can't! My father is City Lord Shi! Nascent Soul realm! He'll flay you alive! He'll—"

Zhao Tian didn't let him finish. He didn't use a technique. He didn't need to. A simple, contemptuous flick of his wrist, infused with a minuscule fraction of his Mid Core Formation power, sent a blade of compressed air sharper than any mortal sword slicing through the young master's neck. The head tumbled, the body spasmed once, then lay still. The arrogance, the cruelty, the entitlement – silenced.

Zhao Tian turned his back on the carnage. His focus shifted entirely to the small, trembling figure huddled against the alley wall, staring at him with wide, terrified eyes the color of glacial ice. The fury in him evaporated, replaced by an unfamiliar pang – pity, protectiveness, perhaps a flicker of recognition of profound injustice. He knelt, bringing himself to her level, his movements deliberately slow and non-threatening.

"Hey," he said, his voice softer than it had been in… well, ever. "It's okay. He's gone. They're all gone. You're safe now."

The girl flinched, pressing further back. Tears streamed silently down her cheeks, tracing paths through the grime.

"My… mama… papa…" she whispered, her voice a broken thread.

"I know," Zhao Tian said, the words feeling clumsy. "I saw. I'm sorry." He didn't offer platitudes. He offered honesty. "They can't hurt you anymore. And that… filth…" He jerked his head towards the headless corpse, "won't hurt anyone ever again."

He held out his hand, palm up. Not demanding, just offering. "What's your name?"

The girl stared at his hand, then slowly, hesitantly, lifted her gaze to his. There was fear, yes, but also a dazed confusion, and beneath that, a spark of desperate hope. "...Xue," she whispered. "Bai Xue." White Snow.

"Bai Xue," Zhao Tian repeated. A fitting name. He offered a small, awkward smile. "Pretty name. Strong name. My name is Zhao Tian." He kept his hand extended. "You can't stay here, Xue. This city…" He glanced towards the alley mouth, knowing guards or worse would come soon. "It's not safe for you alone."

Panic flared in her icy eyes. "Where… where can I go?"

Zhao Tian looked at her – the white hair, the unnatural beauty, the raw vulnerability mixed with a flicker of resilience. An idea, impulsive and utterly unlike him, formed. It felt… right. "How about," he said, the words surprising even himself, "you come with me? From now on… you can be my disciple."

Bai Xue blinked. "D-dis…disciple?"

"Yep," Zhao Tian said, standing up, his awkwardness fading, replaced by a sudden surge of conviction. "I teach you how to be strong. Strong enough that no one like *him*," he pointed dismissively at the corpse, "can ever touch you again. Strong enough to freeze the very sun if it pisses you off. Deal?"

The offer hung in the air, absurd and immense. Bai Xue, orphaned, terrified, alone, looked from the terrifyingly powerful man who had just saved her life to the bodies of her parents. Then, slowly, tremblingly, she reached out and placed her tiny, cold hand in his large, warm one.

"O-okay," she breathed.

**[DING!]**

The sound echoed not just in Zhao Tian's mind, but seemed to resonate faintly in the very air of the alley. Bai Xue flinched, looking around wildly.

**[Host has successfully recruited a True Disciple: Bai Xue (Celestial Yin Body)]**

**[Initializing Disciple Bond Protocol...]**

**[Calculating Congratulatory Rewards for Host...]**

Zhao Tian blinked. *Rewards?* For adopting a kid? This system was weirder by the minute. The messages kept coming, scrolling through his mental interface like a celestial ticker-tape parade.

**[Reward 1: Artifact - Book of Sage Wisdom]**

*Description: An ancient tome bound in starlight and dragonhide. Contains theoretical knowledge of all phenomena within the known universe and beyond. Current access tier: Core Formation (Host). Information depth and secrecy level scale with Host's cultivation realm. Caution: Reading higher-tier knowledge prematurely may induce existential crisis or spontaneous combustion of the mind. Handle with care (or overwhelming arrogance).*

A heavy, cool weight materialized against Zhao Tian's hip. Glancing down, he saw an ornate book, its cover shimmering with shifting constellations, nestled in a simple leather loop on his belt. He could *feel* the weight of knowledge within it, vast and humming.

**[Reward 2: Spiritual Beast Companion Contract - Celestial Empyrean Dragon (Juvenile)]**

*Description: Once the mount of the Celestial Empyrean Taoist (Highest Known Being, Status: Ascended/Unknown). Hatched from a primordial cosmic egg. Current Stage: Juvenile (Approximate Power: Void Tribulation Realm). Maturation Potential: Universe-Class. Capabilities (Juvenile): Spatial distortion breath, localized reality warping, devouring small moons for snacks, inducing existential dread in mortals. Note: Requires vast quantities of high-grade spirit stones, celestial metals, and the occasional star core for optimal growth. Prone to napping. Do not wake abruptly.*

Zhao Tian's jaw slackened. A *dragon*? A *Void Tribulation* dragon? That ate *moons*? And it was… his? Because he adopted a kid?

**[Reward 3: Artifact - Demon Refining Pot]**

*Description: A simple-looking clay pot, swirling with nebulae and imprisoned screams. Capable of sealing and refining any demonic entity, from lowly imps to the Cosmic Demon God (Highest Demon God). Refinement process extracts pure demonic essence usable for cultivation, artifact forging, or fertilizing particularly stubborn spirit herbs. Warning: Do not store leftovers inside. The Cosmic Demon God might get peckish.*

A small, unassuming pot, cool to the touch and humming with a faint, terrifying resonance, appeared in his other hand. He quickly stuffed it into his spatial ring. That thing felt… dangerous.

**[Reward 4: Cultivation Technique - Glacier Heart Scripture]**

*Description: Supreme Ice-Element Cultivation Art. Allows the practitioner to harness and manifest the absolute zero of the void, freeze time in localized areas, shatter souls with glacial intent, and create fortresses of eternal ice. Perfect Synergy detected with Disciple Bai Xue's Celestial Yin Body. Would you like to imprint this technique directly to your Disciple? [Y/N]*

Zhao Tian mentally hammered 'Y'. A complex lattice of icy-blue runes shimmered briefly in the air before flowing gently into Bai Xue's forehead. She gasped, her eyes widening as profound, alien knowledge settled into her being. Frost briefly sparkled on her eyelashes.

**[Reward 5: Body Cultivation Technique - Heavenly Emperor Transformation Art]**

*Description: The ultimate art for physical refinement. Forges the body into an indestructible vessel capable of withstanding supernovae, punching through dimensional barriers, and bench-pressing mountain ranges. Progresses through stages: Iron Bone, Jade Marrow, Stellar Sinew, Cosmic Frame, Heavenly Emperor Body. Reaching Heavenly Emperor Body stage grants physical strength comparable to the Heavenly Emperor's manifested form. Side effects may include excessive smugness and the urge to punch planets to test durability.*

Knowledge, dense and heavy as neutron star matter, flooded Zhao Tian's muscles and bones. He felt a sudden, profound shift within himself, a strengthening not just of Qi, but of his very essence, his cells singing with newfound, barely-contained power. He flexed his hand, feeling like he could casually crush the alley walls to dust.

The sheer, overwhelming absurdity of the rewards – a universe encyclopedia, a universe-eating baby dragon, a demon god crockpot, an ultimate ice technique for the kid, and the gym-bro manual to end all gym-bro manuals – crashed over Zhao Tian. It was too much. It was ridiculous. It was… perfect.

He threw his head back and laughed. Not a chuckle, not a smirk, but a full-throated, belly-deep roar of laughter that shook the remaining dust from the alley walls. It was the laugh of a man who had just been handed the keys to the cosmos because he picked up a rock and threw it at a bully. It was the laugh of someone realizing the sheer, ludicrous, broken potential of his existence. It was, frankly, a slightly unhinged laugh.

It scared Bai Xue. She whimpered, trying to pull her hand back, her eyes wide with fresh terror at this powerful, laughing madman.

Zhao Tian's laughter subsided into breathless chuckles, wiping a tear from his eye. "Heh… sorry, kid. Didn't mean to scare you. It's just…" He gestured vaguely upwards, still grinning like a loon. "The perks package is… generous."

**[System Advisory: Host's emotional outburst caused distress to Disciple. Recommend emotional modulation. Or snacks.]**

Before Zhao Tian could process the system's suggestion about snacks, another notification flashed, more urgent:

**[Warning: Celestial Empyrean Dragon (Juvenile) manifesting per Companion Contract Clause 7b (Initial Territorial Declaration). Brace for impact.]**

"Brace for wha—?" Zhao Tian started.

Above Stonewind City, the sky… *ripped*.

It wasn't clouds parting. It was reality itself tearing open like cheap canvas. A vortex of swirling nebulae, dying stars, and impossible colors yawned wide, stretching across half the visible sky. The sun's light dimmed, not obscured, but *dwarfed*.

Then, it emerged.

First, a single claw, larger than the grandest temple in the city, wreathed in crackling void energy and shimmering with scales like polished obsidian shot through with veins of liquid starlight. Then another. Then a sinuous neck, impossibly long, coiling down from the tear in the sky like a river of night. A head followed, majestic and terrifying. Eyes the size of lakes, burning with the cold fire of ancient quasars, scanned the city below. Its snout was long and elegant, yet hinted at the power to bite continents in half. Wings, vast enough to blanket mountains, remained furled against its colossal body, which seemed less a physical form and more a solidification of cosmic terror.

The sheer *presence* of the Celestial Empyrean Dragon slammed down on Stonewind City like a physical weight. Every living being, from the lowliest insect to the highest Foundation Establishment cultivator, felt it. It was a pressure beyond cultivation realm, a primal, soul-deep fear that whispered of insignificance and inevitable consumption. Birds fell silent mid-flight, plummeting. Spirit beasts in menageries howled and cowered. Cultivators stumbled, their Qi faltering, their knees buckling under the sheer, oppressive aura of Void Tribulation power made manifest. Mortals fainted in the streets. The city's ambient noise died, replaced by a silence so profound it was deafening, punctuated only by whimpers of terror.

Deep within the heavily fortified City Lord's Manor, a powerful aura that had been dormant for decades exploded outwards. Stone walls cracked. Warding formations shattered like glass. City Lord Shi, a man who had painstakingly cultivated to the Nascent Soul realm over two centuries, burst from his secluded meditation chamber, his face pale as death, blood trickling from his nose from the sheer psychic backlash of the dragon's manifestation. He stumbled onto a balcony, looking up at the impossible leviathan coiling in the sky above *his* city. His Nascent Soul quailed within him. This… this was power beyond his comprehension. Power that belonged in legends, or nightmares.

"By the Nine Heavens…" he breathed, his voice trembling. "A… a senior? A demon? What calamity is this?!"

Down in the alley, Bai Xue was frozen, staring up at the colossal head that blotted out the sky, tears forgotten, replaced by pure, paralyzing awe. Zhao Tian, however, followed her gaze upwards. He took in the impossible scale, the terrifying beauty, the sheer cosmic *weight* of the creature he now apparently owned. He felt the Heavenly Emperor Transformation Art thrum within him, the Book of Sage Wisdom pulse against his hip, the Demon Refining Pot vibrate in his ring.

He looked at the dragon. He looked at Bai Xue, her small hand still in his. He thought of the Book, the Pot, the Glacier Heart now flowing through her, the Heavenly Emperor Art coursing through him.

The sheer, ridiculous, overwhelming *power* he'd just acquired because he threw a rock at a creep and felt sorry for an orphan…

Zhao Tian started laughing again. It wasn't the unhinged roar from before. This was quieter, deeper, a rumble of pure, unadulterated amusement that vibrated in his chest. He shook his head, still chuckling, looking from the universe-dragon to the tiny girl.

"Well, Xue," he said, his voice thick with laughter and the dawning realization of his own absurd destiny, "looks like your new Master just got a new mount. And it seems…" He grinned up at the Celestial Empyrean Dragon, whose massive quasar-eye seemed to focus minutely on him, acknowledging the bond. "...slightly oversized for city streets. We might need a bigger alley."

Above, the dragon exhaled. It wasn't fire. It was a stream of distorted space and condensed nebula that caused the air to shimmer violently half a mile away, silently obliterating a small, uninhabited hillock on the city's outskirts. City Lord Shi flinched as if struck.

Zhao Tian just kept laughing, the sound echoing strangely in the terrified silence of Stonewind City, beneath the gaze of a dragon that could swallow worlds. The Boundless Ascension System wasn't just broken. It was rewriting the rules of reality, one absurd reward at a time, and Zhao Tian, the once-failed software developer, was along for the wildest ride in the Celestial Profound World. He squeezed Bai Xue's hand gently. "Don't worry, kid. Things are about to get very, very interesting."