The Eastern Cloud Sect was buzzing again. Not because of cultivation breakthroughs, demonic beasts, or incoming wars… but because someone had found a peach pit.
Not just any peach pit. A perfectly round one, without a single blemish.
Rumor said it had been left on a rock by Li Tian.
By mid-morning, three junior disciples were already meditating around it, believing it to be a divine treasure.
Li Tian, meanwhile, was in the cafeteria. Again.
He poked at a bowl of rice porridge. "System, why is it cold?"
[Host failed to retrieve breakfast within optimal heat retention window.]
"…In other words, I was late?"
[Affirmative.]
As he ate, Mei Lin plopped down across from him, cheeks red from the morning's training. "You're trending again."
Li Tian looked up. "Trending?"
"In the sect gossip scrolls. They're calling it 'The Peach Pit Prophecy.'"
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
She leaned in, grinning. "Apparently, you left a peach pit on a rock yesterday, and now half the outer disciples think it's an enlightenment seed. One of them swore it emitted a 'Dao Resonance' when the wind blew."
Li Tian blinked. "It rolled off my table during lunch. I didn't want to get up."
"Congratulations, you've invented an entire cultivation method: The Way of Lazily Abandoned Fruit."
By the time they left the cafeteria, the "prophecy" had escalated. Someone had built a tiny shrine around the pit. Incense smoke drifted up in thin curls.
Li Tian muttered, "Why do they keep doing this?"
Mei Lin smirked. "Because you don't deny it. You just… look mysterious by accident."
[Aura of Intimidation triggers subconscious reverence in lesser cultivators.]
"Stop calling people 'lesser cultivators,' system. That's rude."
[Factually accurate.]
Later, in the training field, Senior Brother Zhao was demonstrating sword forms.
"Observe! Each strike must have purpose!" Zhao's blade flashed, slicing through a hanging gourd.
The disciples clapped politely.
Then Li Tian walked by, yawning.
The gourd on the next rack… fell off its hook.
Silence.
A murmur rippled through the crowd.
"He… severed it without drawing his sword."
"No, he destroyed it with intent alone."
"This is the rumored Sure Dao."
Li Tian stared at the fallen gourd. "…I think it was already loose."
No one listened.
That evening, Mei Lin dragged him to the lakeside path. "You're getting too famous. If this keeps up, you're going to be 'volunteered' for more sect tournaments."
"I can hide."
"They'll find you."
"Then I'll fake an illness."
"You faked an illness last month. Remember the tea party incident?"
Li Tian groaned. "That was a real stomachache."
Halfway down the path, they encountered a young disciple kneeling by the water, holding a scroll.
"Brother Li Tian!" the boy exclaimed. "Please… bless my cultivation manual!"
"I'm not—"
The boy bowed lower. "Just a glance will do! They say your eyes burn away impurities."
Li Tian glanced at the manual. "It's upside down."
The boy gasped. "You've seen through my flawed foundation!" He scurried off, convinced his life had just been saved.
By nightfall, the sect gossip scrolls had updated again:
Breaking News: Li Tian corrects disciple's fate with a single gaze.
Mei Lin tossed the scroll aside and crossed her arms. "At this point, you're either going to be the most feared man in the province… or the leader of a peach-worshipping sect."
Li Tian rubbed his temples. "Can't I just be a normal cultivator?"
"Too late for that."
[Host's current path: Slacker Sage. Trajectory: irreversible.]
Li Tian sighed. "Figures."
That night, somewhere in a rival sect's strategy room…
Three elders studied the peach pit shrine via spy painting.
Elder One: "This… object clearly holds the key to Li Tian's power."
Elder Two: "We must acquire it at once."
Elder Three: "Deploy the elite squad."
And so, the Great Peach Pit Heist was set in motion.
Li Tian, meanwhile, was fast asleep.