Better to Control Fate and Use It Than to Have It Bestowed from Above

"I hid myself very well. I was afraid of scaring him, so I didn't let him know my identity right away.

I took him as my master, and he accepted with delight—

In this day and age, what could possibly be more prestigious than having a foreigner as an apprentice?!

Over the next three years, I sincerely learned the art of brewing from him and served my several mistresses with the utmost care.

—I had money, enough to buy the most expensive silk and rouge, and I was sweet-tongued and handsome; they all loved me!"

"After three years, I finally gained his trust.

One time, after he had gotten drunk, he tentatively asked me if I wanted to advance further in the craft of brewing.

I poured my heart and soul into my answer: Master! My good master! Of course I do!

I think about it every single moment!

I dream about it!

I want it so badly!"

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

[A more fragrant scent]—that phrase drove me into a frenzy!

That is exactly what I came here for!"

"Master sighed and told me that it was very dangerous and could potentially affect my entire life.

Once I smelled that more fragrant scent, I would develop a fatal craving for such keen olfactory sensitivity, and my entire psyche might even undergo a drastic change.

He asked me, was I ready?

I answered him with certainty: Of course!"

"And so, over the next two years, he helped me temper my spirituality.

After many trials and tribulations, I successfully tempered a wisp of spirituality into divinity!"

As he spoke, he was actually moved to tears by his own story.

"Finally... finally! Not only could I smell the more fragrant scent, but I could also see the shape of the fragrance!"

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

Only beauty?

Could it be that he didn't experience anything terrifying and just became a Night Roaming God directly?

Xu Yi was different from him!

The process Xu Yi went through when refining a wisp of divinity using the [Shadow Wood] incense burner was extremely perilous; he had almost been possessed by ghosts, unable to resist the temptation—he had been just a hair's breadth away from losing his mind completely and becoming a psychopathic killer!

Xu Yi interrupted the foreigner's impassioned speech:

"When you were trying to temper your spirituality into divinity, did you encounter anything significant?"

Seeing the look of longing on his face, the foreigner assumed he was captivated by his story—

Captivated by this legendary experience.

That was it!

Since he possessed a spirituality that would develop a unique obsession with fragrance, how could he not be moved by such an experience?!

The foreigner already viewed Xu Yi as one of his own, for he knew deep down that once a person like them developed an "interest" in fragrance, they would never be able to extricate themselves for the rest of their lives.

For the sake of fragrance, one could sacrifice everything.

As long as one could obtain the fragrance, nothing else mattered.

The foreigner put on a solemn expression and nodded heavily:

"Of course! I encountered something very important!"

As he described this event, Xu Yi could clearly perceive that the foreigner's mindset when tempering his divinity was completely different from his own.

"Under the guidance of my spirituality, I saw my path—

That was the [Path of Fragrance] recorded in the ancient texts."

Path of Fragrance?

Is this the name of the inheritance?!

The foreigner's tone was weary, his face calm and steady, his eyes filled with hope for the future:

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

It was part of my master's collection, about the size of a human head.

Heh, my master said it was wood, but I had already smelled it back then—it was actually a human head. There was that faint, distinct scent of human brain oil; the incense burner must have been crafted from the skull of a man.

My master lit the incense inside the burner and told me that as long as I could smell the fragrance within, I would have tempered my spirituality into divinity and become a Night Roaming God."

This process was exactly the same as the one Xu Yi had gone through to temper his spirituality.

It is merely that the incense burner used was different.

"After lighting the incense burner, I spent a long time... as I mentioned before, that was roughly two years. Whenever I had a moment of leisure, I would go before the burner, worshiping with piety, emptying my heart and mind, and sensing the spirituality."

Finally, after two years, the incense burner gave me a response.

"When the endless haze of smoke unfurled before me, I beheld my destiny."

His voice was steady, his expression solemn, as if he were conducting a long pilgrimage toward a sacred destination.

And the moment he smelled the fragrance within the incense burner, this pilgrimage finally reached its end.

"I foresaw my future.

I spoke with the future me and learned of my mission.

In that moment, I understood my true self. I could finally face myself openly and honestly, and face all those thoughts of mine that ordinary people could never comprehend.

The future me showed me many things, things that left me enthralled.

Among them, the most soul-stirring was the use of the human body."

The foreigner was so immersed in his "beautiful" memories that he could not extricate himself.

"Humans are the primates of all things, the life form with the most abundant spirituality among all creation.

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

Among the Night Roaming Gods, those who step onto the Path of Fragrance are able to perceive spirituality keenly while simultaneously smelling its scent."

"Apart from humans, other life forms possess too little spirituality.

Within the bodies of other creatures, the amount of spiritual fragrance that can be extracted is even less.

Therefore, if one wishes to extract more, more refined, and rarer fragrances, one must focus one's thoughts on humans."

The foreigner looked toward the tightly wrapped corpse on the operating table, his eyes filled with beautiful reminiscence:

"The future me showed me his collection.

It was a corpse exuding fragrance, covered in moss, with various types of flower buds growing from it.

Those buds were so beautiful; every single one overflowed with a fragrance I had never smelled before.

When the sunlight hit them, those flowers bloomed, releasing a scent that permeated the soul.

In that moment, I felt as if I had seen heaven, seen the other shore of life; it was the great harmony of all life and all things..."

Having said this, the foreigner was already sobbing uncontrollably.

Xu Yi said in a low voice:

"So... you accepted it."

Xu Yi's inquiry—the inquiry of a "like-minded" person—caused the foreigner's mood to sublimate.

The foreigner wept while smiling, his smile bright and sunny, untainted by a single shadow:

"Yes, I accepted it, brother. I accepted the flower, just as I accepted myself.

I embraced that fragrant corpse.

Following the guidance of my future self, I ate a piece of the flower.

And then... the corpse embraced me, too."

"I... embraced my destiny."

Standing to the side, Xu Yi exhaled a breath of stale air upon hearing this.

The foreigner's description was, in essence, much the same as what he had seen himself.

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

Whereas the foreigner had accepted his "future self."

At this point, Xu Yi was eighty percent certain that the so-called "future self" was merely a manifestation of his own spirituality!

The foreigner had completely accepted his own spirituality, and thus he had become a thorough pervert, never to return from the path of deviant crime.

Xu Yi had resisted his own spirituality, which was why he was able to maintain his sanity and remain a normal person today.

In the moment he understood these facts, Xu Yi's spirit underwent a certain sublimation.

An epiphany leaped into his mind, like thunder cutting through the dark, long night, illuminating the path ahead:

"Rather than praising Heaven and singing its praises, it is better to master the laws of Heaven and use them!"

The moment this realization dawned, the fragrance that had filled the entire shipping container suddenly faded.

At the same time, the previous stench of the corpse instantly grew stronger.

Xu Yi felt his consciousness become clearer; all the "beautiful feelings" previously induced by the stench and fragrance in the container vanished without a trace.

Using his spirituality, his perception of the world became even sharper.

The foreigner did not notice the change in Xu Yi.

He remained immersed in his own world, excited, crazed, and drowning in it to the point of no return!