Monsters also need to cultivate immortality scientifically (6): The essence of human beings is true fragrance

After saying that to the sect leader, Si Qi clasped his hands behind his back and casually took a seat. Propping his elbow on the table and resting his chin in his palm, he pulled out a book from his storage pouch and began reading with apparent relish.  

The crowd’s indignation only grew hotter.  

His opponent in the contest was still diligently tending to his cauldron, focused and unwavering—the very picture of reliability.  

Meanwhile, this reckless wastrel—who’d burned spirit stones like firewood—now had the audacity to abandon a hundred cauldrons mid-refinement and pass the time reading.  

—He even brewed himself tea with spirit spring water, igniting the flame with more spirit stones!!  

The guy was practically tap-dancing on everyone’s last nerve, as if determined to maximize their loathing.  

Si Qi poured Chu Feng a cup of tea, then “accidentally” fumbled it. As the hot liquid tipped toward his robes, Chu Feng flicked a hand—the cup righted itself midair, catching every drop before flying neatly into his grasp.  

A glint of amusement flashed in Si Qi’s eyes. “Thanks.”  

Chu Feng gave a slight nod. Noticing the dimming golden light around Si Qi, he “absentmindedly” let his fingers linger on the back of his disciple’s hand where it rested on the table—and made no move to withdraw.  

Si Qi glanced down at the contact, brow quirking. After a moment of silent appraisal, he met Chu Feng’s ever-impassive gaze and mused to Xiu Xiu:  

[Who knew this world’s Chu Feng would be such a closet romantic? Cold as ice on the surface, yet always finding excuses to touch his dear disciple.]  

Xiu Xiu, ever loyal, instantly backed his master—even against the LordGod:  

[Exactly! An old cow eyeing tender grass!]  

Si Qi nearly choked on a laugh: [Where did you even learn that phrase?]  

He lounged comfortably, reading and chatting, while his opponent’s cauldron emitted faint sounds of labor. After hours of effort, it finally settled into silence. The young disciple wiped his brow, exhaling in relief as a pleased smile tugged at his lips.  

He could tell—this batch had gone exceptionally well.  

Elder Zhou approached. As the disciple bowed respectfully, the elder lifted the cauldron’s lid.  

Onlookers instinctively rose on tiptoe, straining for a glimpse.  

Elder Zhou peeked inside—and smiled.  

With a flick of his finger, he levitated the pills on threads of spiritual energy, displaying them for all to see.

Many in the crowd gasped at a glance: “Th—thirteen pills!”  

“So many successful refinements?!”  

“And the quality is excellent—not a single defective one!”  

“This disciple’s talent is extraordinary… The Alchemy Peak has gained a gem.”  

As praises flowed, sneaky glances darted toward Si Qi. The more they gloated, the bolder their smirks grew:  

“With results like this, even senior alchemy disciples might struggle to match him! Some people can only keep up appearances for so long!”  

“Tsk tsk tsk—three hundred supreme-grade treasures? Even the cultivation world’s number one expert would go bankrupt!”  

“What rotten luck, taking in such a troublemaker!”  

“Kick out the deadweight now, or he’ll drag you down sooner or later!”  

Si Qi remained unbothered, grinning as he memorized every jeering face. “Well done. I’ll remember you all.”  

“Hah.” The speakers only puffed up further, striking heroic poses as if defying a villain.  

After a while, Si Qi leisurely rose. Amidst the schadenfreude-laden stares, he stretched and chirped:  

“Watch closely—none of these will be yours.”  

He lifted the first cauldron’s lid.  

A burst of radiant mist spilled out, saturating the hall with herbal fragrance.  

The room fell deathly silent: “……”  

The sect leader threw back his head and roared with laughter: “HAHAHAHA!!”  

Si Qi, still smiling, moved to the second cauldron. Another lift—another flood of iridescent light.  

Disciples and elders alike: “………………”  

The sect leader laughed harder: “HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”  

Si Qi strolled onward, unveiling cauldron after cauldron. Each release painted the hall in ethereal hues, as if the air itself had turned to gilded mist.  

Was this the scent of herbs?  

No—this was the aroma of wealth.  

The crowd stood frozen, jaws slack, watching the unreal spectacle.  

Supreme-grade Spirit Recovery Pills. Dozens. Hundreds.  

This had to be a dream.  

When his arms tired, Si Qi had Chu Feng fling open the remaining lids with spiritual energy.  

A synchronized explosion of light erupted—a shimmering nebula that briefly drowned the space in celestial radiance before fading.  

…Someone, please wake them up.

So many supreme-grade pills… so many, so many…  

And just moments ago, Si Qi had said—  

Facing the stunned crowd, as if confirming their worst fears, Si Qi grinned with unbridled glee and declared:  

“That’s right—not for you! Not a single one!”  

He burst into laughter, doubling over as if hearing the world’s funniest joke:  

“Was I wasteful? Extravagant? Incompetent? Useless?”  

“Ahhh, listening to all your gossip about me, I was just so heartbroken. So devastated.”  

“Were you trying to isolate me? Drive me away?”  

“Then I suppose I’ll just have to… keep my distance~?”  

The crowd: “…………”  

You call that heartbroken?!  

You were lounging around reading and sipping tea like we were nothing but noisy ants! Who isolated who here?!  

Meanwhile, Elder Zhou let out a wail of despair, collapsing to his knees and clutching his head:  

“YOU TRICKED ME!!!”  

The sheer number of supreme-grade pills—the mountains of treasures he now owed—would bankrupt him for life!  

Si Qi smirked. “Who tricked you? I told you from the start—every pill I refine is supreme-grade. I kept saying I was skilled. You were the ones laughing, calling me a joke.”  

They’d mocked his ability, ridiculed his methods, never once believing him—only jeering and belittling him at every turn.  

With malicious delight, Si Qi sang: “Heart Demon Oath~”  

Elder Zhou’s eyes burned crimson. A guttural scream tore from his throat: “AAAH!! AAAAH—!!”  

Drowning in the weight of his debt, he could only roar in mindless fury.  

No one comforted him. Even his disciples stood frozen, staring at the smiling boy in disbelief, their minds reeling.  

How?  

Why?  

How could so many supreme-grade pills exist?  

Why him?

This made no sense?!  

Some elders urgently pulled aside the sect leader, who had been laughing nonstop from the beginning—clearly overjoyed and unsurprised—and asked anxiously, “You knew all along, didn’t you?! That’s why you kept supporting his ‘recklessness,’ saying ‘the more, the better’—you knew how skilled he was!”  

Hearing this, Elder Zhou’s bloodshot eyes locked onto the sect leader, his teeth grinding audibly, as if he wanted to pounce and tear him apart in fury.  

He finally realized—this had all been a trap set by the sect leader.  

The sect leader grinned. “That’s right, I knew.”  

“Ah, my precious junior is truly extraordinary. Yesterday, I watched him refine pills for the first time—his first batch yielded four standard Spirit Recovery Pills and one supreme-grade. By the second batch, he’d mastered the technique and refined twenty furnaces at once—all supreme-grade! Every single one!”  

The sect leader couldn’t stop smiling, his eyes brimming with admiration. “And then he gifted them all to the sect, repaying the healing pills the sect had given him!”  

“Those healing pills were nothing—barely a month’s supply for a few peaks. But he was so grateful! Other disciples take the pills without a second thought, but Si Qi remembered to repay the sect with supreme-grade pills, telling me to distribute them to the disciples!”  

“Ah, my heart was so moved, I couldn’t speak. How could such a thoughtful child exist? In just a month, he’s brought the sect so much—yet some still resent him for ‘taking too much,’ even begrudging him healing pills. Should we have just left him injured?!”  

“I could never do such a thing!”  

His words struck like repeated slaps, leaving the crowd red-faced and speechless.  

This wasn’t just praise—it was a public humiliation, each word a stinging blow.  

Si Qi had only taken healing pills—not cultivation-boosting treasures. Injured people need medicine—no one chooses to get hurt. Why had they been so eager to condemn him, as if they’d rather he died untreated?  

And his master, Chu Feng, hadn’t taken the pills for free—he’d paid in spirit stones! Why had they been so quick to gossip?  

And now—Si Qi just wanted to learn alchemy. What harm was there in that? Did they gain anything by mocking him? The sect leader’s materials wouldn’t have gone to them anyway. Why had they been so spiteful?  

What had they been thinking?!  

Si Qi strolled over to Elder Zhou, looking down at him with casual indifference. “Can you repay these pills?”  

Elder Zhou’s face twisted between green and purple, as if on the verge of collapsing from sheer despair.  

Si Qi continued, “I have a proposal.”  

Elder Zhou’s eyes twitched faintly, like a dying fish gasping on shore.  

“Teach me everything you know about alchemy—properly, diligently—and I’ll reduce your debt accordingly.”  

Reduce by one pill or a hundred—it’s all ‘accordingly.’  

Depends on how well he behaved.  

Si Qi wasn’t the forgiving type. This elder’s earlier greed and pettiness suggested he’d likely badmouthed Chu Feng—who’d taken far more sect resources than Si Qi ever had.  

Si Qi might not care about insults to himself, but slights against Chu Feng? Unforgivable.  

Elder Zhou let out a ragged, shuddering breath, as if some of the weight crushing his chest had lifted. “…Agreed.”  

Worried Si Qi might resent the sect over this, the sect leader quickly added, “The sect’s pill recipes and materials are naturally available to you, Junior Si. Though, regarding the refined pills…”  

Every disciple and elder in the hall instantly fixed pleading eyes on Si Qi—  

Supreme-grade Spirit Recovery Pills. Even one could mean life or death in a crisis.  

They’d take back every mocking word if they could. They’d risk their lives to gather treasures for exchange.  

Please don’t shut them out.  

Si Qi, however, was pragmatic.  

Why burn bridges when he still needed them?  

And besides—what they saw as priceless treasures now would soon flood the market. They’d be able to buy them eventually.  

No need to antagonize the sect leader over this.

Si Qi’s cunning demeanor resembled that of a little fox as he said to the sect leader, “Don’t worry. If you want these pills, feel free to take them.”  

Hearing this, the sect leader visibly relaxed.  

The elders beside them, however, were flushed with shame, regretting their earlier impulsiveness.  

The sect leader wasn’t about to take Si Qi’s generosity for granted and immediately made several promises—such as providing all of Si Qi’s future alchemy materials from the sect’s resources. No matter how rare the herbs, as long as Si Qi requested them, countless people would willingly risk their lives to find them. The only cost would be a small portion of the pills Si Qi refined from those materials.  

Moreover, the sect would only take a fraction of the pills Si Qi produced. The rest, whether he chose to keep them or sell them, the sect would fully support, even helping him find buyers without him having to lift a finger.  

Si Qi was pleased with the sect leader’s understanding. He tilted his head and cast a faintly mocking glance at the excited elders, making their expressions stiffen in embarrassment. They nearly covered their faces and fled on the spot.  

Si Qi: “Earlier, you mentioned that if I were interested in talisman-making or artifact-forging, what exactly did you plan to do?”  

The group looked awkward and hastily replied, “Of course, we’d welcome you wholeheartedly!”  

“You can do whatever you like! We’d support you unconditionally!”  

Satisfied, Si Qi nodded. “Good. Then once I’ve mastered alchemy, I’ll look into those.”  

“Talismans and artifact-forging… They do sound quite interesting.”  

This time, when he said those words, no one in the room showed even a hint of disdain. Instead, their eyes lit up as they gazed at Si Qi in awe, as if he were some miraculous treasure bathed in divine light.  

Or rather—he was the miracle.  

After savoring their mix of embarrassment and eagerness, Si Qi, his mischievous appetite satisfied, turned leisurely to Chu Feng. “Let’s go back.”  

The crowd instinctively followed to see them off, forming an impressive procession.  

As Si Qi glanced back at them, he suddenly remembered something and took out a sheet of paper from his storage pouch, handing it to the sect leader. “This is the revised and perfected cultivation technique diagram.”  

The sect leader froze in surprise, taking the paper with confusion before lowering his gaze to examine it.  

The next second, his expression shifted to shock. He snapped his head up to stare at Si Qi, disbelief written all over his face.  

The surrounding elders crowded around to look at the contents of the paper. Soon, their faces mirrored the sect leader’s stunned reaction.  

How… how was this possible?  

It had only been a month.  

Si Qi had only joined the sect a month ago.  

Just how monstrously talented did one have to be to accomplish something like this…?  

Could it be that all those injuries he suffered before were because he had been experimenting with improving the technique, using his own body as a test subject…?  

The group, all masters of overactive imaginations, were deeply moved by Si Qi’s selflessness. Their eyes reddened with guilt, realizing how wrong they had been to reject and even maliciously attack him before. What had they been thinking?  

Si Qi, however, acted as if he had merely mentioned some trivial matter. Without another word, he tugged at Chu Feng’s sleeve and stepped onto his flying sword, letting Chu Feng carry him back to their mountain peak—after all, with his abysmal luck, he didn’t dare “drive” himself and could only hitch a ride on his beloved’s sword.  

Left behind, the crowd stared blankly at their retreating figures, struggling to process the surreal reality.  

That afternoon, the sect leader publicly demonstrated the newly revised technique.  

The next day, all the elders experienced the effects of the improved cultivation method and were left speechless by its astonishing efficiency.  

By the third day, every single disciple in the Lingxiao Sect had been instructed by their masters to switch to the new technique, marveling at its immediate and remarkable benefits.  

If the Lingxiao Sect had once treated Chu Feng like an ancestor, offering him the finest resources without hesitation, then now, they treated Si Qi like a priceless treasure, handling him with utmost care, not daring to say a single harsh word.  

After all, Si Qi wasn’t as easy to placate as Chu Feng, who could be satisfied with simple offerings and didn’t mind the occasional jealous remark.  

Not long after Si Qi returned to his mountain peak, the group who had spoken ill of him at the Alchemy Peak arrived in droves—even the elders, their faces red with shame, came to apologize. They obediently repeated “I’m sorry” three times and only relaxed when Si Qi gave a slight nod of acceptance.  

Sometimes, people needed to be put in their place to maintain boundaries. Otherwise, they’d assume they could walk all over you.  

Just as Si Qi had once said, he would make everyone sing his praises—even if he wasn’t always the picture of kindness, no one would dare speak ill of him to his face.  

Even when someone gossiped behind his back, others would quickly distance themselves.  

“If you have a problem with Elder Si Qi, then stay away from me. If he ends up disliking me because of you, I’ll make sure you regret it!”  

The gossiper could only awkwardly back down, not daring to bring it up again.  

After all, if Si Qi found out and decided to withhold his premium elixirs—giving them to everyone except the troublemaker—who would dare risk it?  

Better to just keep quiet.  

And if Si Qi cared about praise, why not flatter him a little? Maybe he’d be in a good mood and hand out a bottle of top-grade spirit pills as a reward.  

Wouldn’t that be wonderful?  

As for Si Qi’s temper and unconventional behavior?  

So what? Which great expert was ever meek and mild, greeting juniors with a smile and tolerating their condescending lectures?  

In the cultivation world, strength commanded respect. A man who could refine the sect’s thousand-year-old technique within a month and effortlessly produce supreme-grade Spirit Recovery Pills on his first attempt deserved to be treated like royalty.  

Besides, Si Qi hadn’t done anything wrong. He just made those who slandered him apologize—fair, reasonable, and completely justified. Not a single flaw in that.