Path of Fragrance, Doctor of Fragrance

"If the method for extracting spirituality can be used on animals with sparse spirituality, why can't it be used on humans who possess an abundance of it?

Humans are animals, too!

A human's spirituality is far stronger; the fragrance extracted from it should be even more potent!"

The Foreign Devil pointed at the tightly wrapped corpse on the operating table:

"This is the great experiment I have conducted!"

He was extremely excited, causing his speech to become rapid, slurred, and even off-key:

"Where was I just now?

...Right, right, right!

The day I became a Night Roaming God, my master came to see me, and I told him of my achievements and my ideas.

I never expected him to fly into a rage, even attempting to use the sect's disciplinary rules to kill me!

I didn't understand. Master, hadn't I already smelled the fragrance in the incense burner and become a Night Roaming God according to your wishes? Why did you still want to kill me?

Master said: You haven't become a Night Roaming God; you have been dominated by spirituality, become a Hundred Night Miasma, and turned into a demon that commits all kinds of evil!

But I am clearly not a demon!

I am a god!

I am a Night Roaming God who has stepped onto the Path of Fragrance!"

"I pulled out my gun and blew my master away with a single bullet."

"In the end, my master's disciplinary rules were no match for my marksmanship."

"As my master lay there, his spirituality began to leak out, and that fragrance intoxicated me to the point of no return!

I realized this would be the first lesson I learned after becoming a Night Roaming God.

I obtained my master's recipe and used it to prepare and pickle him.

A week later, my master rotted."

He acted just like a graduate student deeply engrossed in medical research:

"How could he rot?

I used so many spices, combined with my master's powerful spirituality; at the very least, he shouldn't have rotted.

I added more ingredients and waited another week. Finally, a trace of fragrance appeared on my master's rotting, foul-smelling, pickled body.

It was the fragrance of spirituality!"

His body trembled, and a flush climbed onto his cheeks, as if his hormones had reached a peak and then erupted like a volcano.

"I! I refined an unprecedented fragrance!

It was the fragrance of human spirituality! I succeeded!

This proves that my line of thinking is correct! Even if the recipe wasn't perfect, I still managed to extract the fragrance of spirituality from a human body!"

His speech accelerated further:

"This is truly a blissful thing. You know, just being able to smell such a fragrance is enough to make one happy.

This is a massive achievement... Yes! A massive achievement! That was a Night Roaming God who was even one rank higher than me!"

"My master's corpse soon rotted completely, and no more fragrance appeared.

In the time that followed, the only things that appeared in the pickled corpse were maggots."

"I realized I had to continue my experiments.

You people of the Great Yan Dynasty have an old saying that my master often told me when he was alive—

Strike while the iron is hot!

And so, I went to find my several mistresses. I had always liked the way they smelled; if I could turn them into spices and keep them by my side, wouldn't that be a wonderful thing?"

"I began my great experiment!"

"I tried it on them one by one, improving the recipe, refining the techniques, and controlling the time for pickling with spices...

I succeeded. I extracted more spices, and the duration for which these spices emitted fragrance grew longer and longer, while the stench of rot grew less and less...

I gradually discovered that the fragrance on a woman is far more abundant than that on a man.

I don't know why this is, but it didn't hinder my experiments.

Later, my family's business changed, and the Great Yan Dynasty went to war, so I came to Puxi City..."

He pointed at the corpse on the operating table:

"My recipe has been improved. The corpse pickled now has reached a deep level, with almost no stench of death!

As long as I continue to study, improve the spice ratio, and refine the dosage of spirituality, I believe I will soon obtain a perfect recipe!

Once I have that perfect recipe, and once I use it to create pure spirituality, I will be able to take a step forward on the Ascension Staircase and become a [Doctor of Fragrance]!"

Xu Yi widened his eyes:

"Doctor of Fragrance?"

That was the next rank on the Ascension Staircase within the Path of Fragrance inheritance!

Seeing Xu Yi's reaction, the Foreign Devil was basically certain that Xu Yi would stay and become a fellow traveler like him.

It was not a matter of human nature.

It was a matter of spirituality.

Facing a fellow traveler—facing a like-minded person who would very likely become a "Daoist friend" to support him on the Ascension Staircase in the future—the Foreign Devil could not help but become somewhat serious and earnest:

"Yes, Doctor of Fragrance.

My master was a Doctor of Fragrance.

Once we become a Doctor of Fragrance, our divinity is no longer limited to detecting scents—we are no longer just a Sniffer.

We begin to understand the deep-seated connections between scents, human emotions, and even memories.

Upon becoming a Doctor of Fragrance, our divinity allows us to concoct unique perfumes.

I heard my master mention it briefly; the divinity of a Doctor of Fragrance can concoct perfumes that influence human consciousness, emotions, and memories!"

The Foreign Devil described the Doctor of Fragrance in very general terms, yet it still filled Xu Yi with immense longing.

Having finished the serious talk, the Foreign Devil looked at Xu Yi again, unable to suppress the excitement in his heart:

"My formula is about to be perfected, and the fragrance it produces—the fragrance of spirituality—is what drew you to me.

It is the fragrance of spirituality that brought us together!"

He reached out his hand to Xu Yi:

"Come! My brother! Perfect the formula with me! Once the formula is perfected and we use it to create spices containing spirituality, both you and I can become Doctors of Fragrance!

Let us embark on the Path of Fragrance together!"

Xu Yi nodded and said:

"Alright, but first, let me show you a treasure."

Xu Yi stood his ground, his posture neither rigid like a pine nor fully extended, his waist and stance unified. With a slight twist of his heel, force rose from the ground, climbing segment by segment along his spine until it reached his waist, where it suddenly twisted and surged through his arm into his fist—

"Bang!"

Xu Yi threw a punch. While the afterimage of his fist still lingered under the incandescent light, the Foreign Devil's head had already been knocked sideways off his neck.

As he rolled his eyes and fell backward, his gaze was still filled with excitement and anticipation.

"Thud..."

The Foreign Devil's brains were scrambled by the punch; he convulsed and collapsed to the ground, foaming at the mouth, with barely a few breaths of life left in him.

Xu Yi exhaled a breath of stale air, tucked his Gun Brand Pistol into the belt at his left rear, and then found some hemp rope in the corner, binding the Foreign Devil tightly to the base of the operating table with layer after layer of knots.

Xu Yi had long known that the Night Roaming God in the Path of Fragrance inheritance did not emphasize physical training.

This Foreign Devil was no martial artist himself; he hadn't even reacted when Xu Yi threw the punch.

Xu Yi passed the operating table and arrived at the desk located deeper within the container.

On the wall of the container behind the desk, a large number of papers of various sizes were nailed up. A few of these were newspapers, but most were black-and-white photographs with writing on them.

As Xu Yi looked through them one by one, he discovered that these papers, photos, newspapers, and notes were the evidence of the Foreign Devil's murders of women in Puxi City.

—The Foreign Devil had investigated the situation of each girl in detail, "scouting" days in advance to figure out their daily routines, and only when he was certain of success did he murder them and bring them back to this container hideout.

"Hm? He brought them all back?

Then why was that beeswax female corpse outside?"

Xu Yi's gaze shifted downward.

Scattered on the surface of the desk were a few documents, and resting on top of one of them was a Parker fountain pen with its cap closed.