To Praise Heaven Is Not as Good as to Take Its Fate in Hand and Use It

"I'd hidden my identity very well. I was afraid I'd scare him, so I didn't tell him who I was right away.

I became his apprentice, and he gladly accepted me—

These days, what could be more impressive than having a foreign apprentice?!

For the next three years, I sincerely learned the art of brewing from him and took excellent care of my several mistresses.

—I had money, so I could afford the finest silk and rouge. I was sweet-talking and handsome, and they all liked me!"

"After three years, I finally earned his trust.

One time, after he'd had too much to drink, he tentatively asked whether I wanted to take my brewing skills to the next level.

I poured my heart out to him. 'Master! My dear master! Of course I do!

I want it every moment of every day!

I dream about it!

I want it so badly!'"

"He told me that if I wanted to go further, I first had to smell something more fragrant.

The phrase 'something more fragrant' drove me wild!

That was exactly why I'd come!"

"My master sighed and told me it was dangerous, and might affect the rest of my life.

Once I smelled something more fragrant, I'd develop a fatal obsession with my heightened sense of smell. It could even change my whole mindset.

He asked if I was ready.

I answered without hesitation, 'Of course!'"

"So, over the next two years, he helped me cultivate my spirituality.

After many trials and setbacks, I successfully trained a trace of spirituality into divinity!"

As he spoke, he actually started crying, moved by his own story.

"Finally... finally! I could not only smell something more fragrant, but also see what the fragrance looked like!"

"That was... all the beauty in this world!"

Only beauty?

Had nothing terrifying happened to him? Had he become a Night Roaming God just like that?

Xu Yi was different from him!

When Xu Yi had used the Shadow Wood incense burner to refine a trace of divinity, the process had been extremely dangerous. He'd almost been led astray by evil spirits and succumbed to temptation—he'd come this close to losing control of himself completely and turning into a deranged serial killer!

Xu Yi cut off the Foreign Devil's impassioned speech.

"When you tried to train your spirituality into divinity, did anything significant happen?"

Seeing the yearning look on Xu Yi's face, the Foreign Devil assumed his story had captivated him—

That he'd been drawn in by this legendary experience.

Exactly!

Once you had spirituality that gave you a peculiar fondness for fragrances, how could you not be fascinated by an experience like that?!

The Foreign Devil already considered Xu Yi half one of his own. He knew all too well that people like them, once they developed an "interest" in fragrance, could never pull themselves away.

They could give up anything for fragrance.

As long as they could obtain it, nothing else mattered.

The Foreign Devil put on a solemn expression and nodded gravely.

"Of course! Something very significant happened to me!"

As he described the experience, Xu Yi could clearly tell that the Foreign Devil's state of mind when he cultivated his divinity had been completely different from his own.

"Guided by my spirituality, I saw my path—

The Path of Fragrance, recorded in ancient texts."

The Path of Fragrance?

Was that the name of the legacy?!

The Foreign Devil's voice was weathered, his expression calm and composed, his eyes filled with hope for the future.

"It was an incense burner... I don't know what it was made of. It looked like wood, but also like brick or stone.

It was one of my master's prized possessions, about as big as a human head.

Heh, my master said it was made of wood, but I could already smell it back then. It was actually a human head—there was a faint trace of the unique oily scent of human brains. The incense burner must have been made from a man's skull.

My master lit the incense inside it. He told me that if I could smell the fragrance from the burner, that meant I'd trained my spirituality into divinity and become a Night Roaming God."

This process was almost exactly the same as Xu Yi's own experience cultivating his spirituality.

The only difference was the incense burner.

"After the incense burner was lit, it took me a long time... As I said, it was about two years. Whenever I had free time, I'd go before the burner to worship with a pure heart, quiet my mind, and sense my spirituality.

Finally, after two years, the incense burner responded to me.

As an endless haze spread out before me, I saw my fate."

His voice was steady, his face solemn, as if he were undertaking a long pilgrimage to a sacred destination.

And the moment he smelled the fragrance from the incense burner, that pilgrimage finally reached its end.

"I foresaw my future.

I spoke with my future self and learned of my mission.

In that moment, I understood who I truly was. At last, I could face myself openly—face every thought of mine that ordinary people couldn't understand.

My future self showed me many things, and I became obsessed with them.

What shook me most was how to use the human body."

The Foreign Devil was lost in his "beautiful" memories, unable to pull himself away.

"Humans are the most spiritually gifted of all living things, with more spirituality than any other form of life.

And people like us—Night Roaming Gods—are the most sensitive to spirituality among humans.

Among the Night Roaming Gods, those who follow the Path of Fragrance can not only sense spirituality keenly, but also smell its fragrance."

"Other than humans, other life forms possess very little spirituality.

Even less of that spirituality can be extracted from their bodies as fragrance.

So, if you want to extract more fragrant, purer, rarer, and more unusual scents, you have to look to the human body."

The Foreign Devil looked at the tightly wrapped corpse on the operating table, his eyes full of fond remembrance.

"My future self showed me his collection.

It was a fragrant corpse, covered in moss, with all kinds of flower buds growing from it.

Those buds were so beautiful. Every one of them gave off a fragrance I'd never smelled before.

When the sunlight touched them, the flowers bloomed, releasing a fragrance that seeped into my soul.

In that moment, I seemed to see heaven, the other shore of life, the great harmony of all things..."

By the time he finished speaking, the Foreign Devil was sobbing uncontrollably.

Xu Yi asked quietly:

"So... you accepted it?"

The question from Xu Yi—someone who shared his outlook—elevated the Foreign Devil's spirits.

The Foreign Devil laughed through his tears, his smile bright as sunshine, utterly free of gloom.

"Yes, I accepted it, brother. I accepted the flowers as I accepted myself.

I embraced that fragrant corpse.

Following my future self's guidance, I ate one of the flowers.

Then... the corpse embraced me, too."

"I... embraced my fate."

Hearing this, Xu Yi let out a breath.

In essence, the Foreign Devil's account was much like what Xu Yi had seen back then.

The difference was that Xu Yi had rejected his "future self."

The Foreign Devil had accepted his "future self."

By now, Xu Yi was about eighty percent certain that the so-called "future self" was the embodiment of his own spirituality!

The Foreign Devil had accepted his spirituality completely, so he'd become a full-fledged lunatic, never turning back from his path of deranged crimes.

Xu Yi had resisted his spirituality, which was why he could still remain rational and live like a normal person.

As he learned these truths, something within Xu Yi's mind was elevated.

A sudden insight leaped into his mind, like lightning cutting through the dark of night and illuminating the road ahead:

"To praise Heaven is not as good as to take its fate in hand and use it!"

The moment this insight appeared, the fragrance filling the cargo container abruptly faded.

At the same time, the stench of corpses from earlier grew stronger in an instant.

Xu Yi felt his mind grow clearer. All the "beautiful feelings" the mixture of corpse stench and fragrance had stirred up inside the container vanished without a trace.

As he used his spirituality to perceive the world, everything grew clearer.

The Foreign Devil knew nothing of Xu Yi's change.

He remained immersed in his own world, so excited and crazed, so utterly absorbed that he couldn't pull himself away!