Just as Xu Luoshui was worrying about where to get spirit stones, they showed up at her door the very next day.
And so, her plan to give a certain senior brother a little taste of sweetness was put on hold.
"Senior Sister Xiuyun, if you hadn't come, I was going to look for you," Xu Luoshui said as she greeted Nie Xiuyun, taking her arm and guiding her into the cave.
"You were looking for me? What for?" The women asked in return.
"It's just... well..." Xu Luoshui hesitated. "I don't know how to say it."
Seeing her look so unsure, Nie Xiuyun understood right away.
"Haha, let me guess. Is it about those rumors spreading in the inner sect?"
"Oh, you've already heard?"
"I've been in the sect for many years. I still have a few junior sisters I'm close with."
"Why didn't you come talk to me? I can explain everything..."
"Explain what? You don't need to pay attention to those rumors. Chunyou is in seclusion. He hasn't even met you. I know it's just someone with bad intentions trying to smear either you or Chunyou. I didn't take it seriously. Why would I need to come find you?"
"Aiya, I've been worried about it for days."
"This sect is full of twists and turns. You'll get used to it after a few more years."
After asking Nie Xiuyun to sit down, Xu Luoshui poured her a cup of spiritual tea.
"Junior Sister, I actually came today to buy some perfume from you."
"Senior Sister Xiuyun, you don't need to say another word. Just tell me how many you want and I'll give it to you. I'm more than happy you like the perfume I made."
"It's not just for myself. A few junior sisters asked me to come buy it for them. I'll introduce you all sometime."
"Sure, I'm free these days. But please don't talk about buying it. I'll just give a few bottles to you and the others."
"Junior Sister, I have to say this. Do you know what's most important on the path of cultivation?"
"Techniques? Talent?"
"Yes, but that's only part of it. In the world of cultivation, the most important things are wealth, techniques, companions, and land.
"'Wealth' means cultivation resources—more directly, spirit stones or rare materials.
"'Techniques' are not just your core cultivation methods, but also the arts you use to protect yourself.
"'Companions' might be a dual cultivation partner, or a close friend who walks the path of Dao with you.
"And finally, 'land' refers to your cultivation environment when your realm is still low: spiritual veins and energy-rich places. When you grow stronger, it becomes the territory you can control.
"So you can't just rely on your talent or your current position in the sect. Don't throw away the importance of 'wealth'. Your perfume, for example, could bring you a good amount of spirit stones. That will help your future cultivation."
Xu Luoshui nodded. "Thank you for the reminder, Senior Sister. I really was thinking too simply."
"It's not too late to realize that now."
"Then please, take this bottle of perfume." Xu Luoshui pulled a bottle out from her storage pouch and pushed it toward Nie Xiuyun.
Before she could say anything, the former added quickly, "This is my gift to you for your advice. You must take it."
Nie Xiuyun smiled. Her junior sister was sweet, but also sharp and thoughtful.
"Alright. Then I'll accept it."
Once she put the perfume away, Xu Luoshui pulled out over a dozen more bottles and placed them on the table.
"Senior Sister, take your pick. This is all I have on hand."
She explained the different scents and their meanings one by one.
All thanks to those drama-loving ex-girlfriends from Cheng Qian's past life. If not for all the times he had to calm them down with perfume and lipstick, he might not have been able to come up with such convincing explanations in this world.
Nie Xiuyun had never seen anything like it. She was stunned by the meanings behind each scent. And the idea of mixing them? Even more surprising.
In the end, she bought all fifteen bottles at fifty spirit stones each.
Xu Luoshui reminded her several times, this was the lowest price—the cost price.
Nie Xiuyun, who had just explained the concept of "wealth, technique, companion, and land", understood immediately. When she shared the perfumes with her sisters, she would mark them up a bit.
After all, knowledge had value. She had already decided to give the girls a full explanation about each scent's use.
******
After sending off a very happy Nie Xiuyun, Xu Luoshui returned to the courtyard outside her cave.
"Looks like I can use the perfume business to boost my cultivation for a while," she muttered.
Then, she started calculating her costs.
The biggest one was the Clearity Incense. Each stick was worth about twenty spirit stones. One stick could make ten bottles of perfume.
The flowers, she picked from the mountains.
The alcohol came from others—large amounts of common liquor, not even worth a single spirit stone.
The honey from spiritual bees, along with a few other additives, only added up to about three to five stones in total.
The spiritual water? She scooped it from the bathhouse behind her cave.
So, the actual cost of a single bottle of perfume was less than two spirit stones. But she sold it for fifty.
That was the power of storytelling.
Just like diamonds. Can you tell the difference between a natural one and a synthetic one?
But one is "forever," the other "eternal." Add a love story that fits with romance and marriage, and the price shoots up.
Especially with women. They fall for it the most. Many don't even care about the actual value—they're willing to spend generously just for the story.
The perfumes profits were indeed big. But not big enough. Not only that, it was too slow. Once the market saturated, the returns would start to drop. Unless she expanded beyond the sect—but that didn't seem worth the effort.
As long as it stayed small-scale, no one would bother trying to compete. But once there was enough profit, alchemists and others could easily start making perfume themselves.
So, she decided to focus her efforts within Lingyun Sect's territory.
Perfume was just a tool. Same with the clothes she planned to sell later. They were all just parts of a bigger story.
The product didn't really matter. The story was the real value.
Just then, the formation outside trembled, pulling Xu Luoshui from her thoughts.
She opened the barrier and saw it was Yu Dazhi.
Xu Luoshui let out a silent breath of relief. She had honestly been a little worried that this guy might never come looking for her again.
And if he didn't, how was she supposed to keep up the act?
Thank goodness. He still came.
She relaxed inside, but her face immediately turned cold.
"Junior Brother Yu, why are you here again?"
"Senior Sister Luoshui, I have something important to discuss."
"Then just say it here."
"Alright. Senior Sister, can you take a look at this? Is this something you made?" he asked, pulling a bottle of perfume from his storage pouch.
"Yes. Is there a problem?"
"It's like this, Senior Sister. Recently, a lot of cultivators have been asking for this in my family's marketplaces within the sect. I went through quite a bit to find out the source was you. I want to discuss a possible collaboration."
"I just made those for fun."
"My Yu family has businesses in all eight sect marketplaces. We'd like to buy in bulk, or even purchase the formula outright from you."
Xu Luoshui stood there thinking for a moment. "Come in. You should thank Senior Sister Xiuyun. If she hadn't just explained 'wealth, technique, companions, and land' to me, I wouldn't have bothered letting you in over something like this."
"Yes, yes. I'll definitely thank her properly when I get the chance," Yu Dazhi said, but inside he was thinking:
'Xu Luoshui, I've found your weakness.'
As expected of a child of a farmer's farmily. No matter her current status, that thirst for spirit stones wouldn't change.
******
The two of them sat down and discussed the terms in detail. The Yu family would provide all raw materials for free, including large amounts of fresh spiritual flowers.
Xu Luoshui would extract essential oils from different flowers and offer a complete mixing formula.
She would charge 900 spirit stones per bottle of essential oil. Each bottle could be used to make around thirty bottles of perfume.
She also planned to develop a high-end version using spiritual flowers. That would be the real money-maker.
For the lower-end perfumes, she'd provide both the formula and production methods, and receive thirty percent of the sales revenue.
Meaning if each bottle sold for eighty spirit stones, she'd get fifty-four.
The Yu family would keep the remaining twenty-six.
Even with that split, after Yu Dazhi calculated the costs, the profits were still massive.
"This perfume business... the profits are incredible," he said.
"Mm-hmm. We're making a lot. A lot," Xu Luoshui replied.
Yu Dazhi didn't actually care how much she made. What mattered to him was that her attitude had clearly shifted.
Shared interests brought people closer.
"I still have to thank you, Senior Sister Luoshui."
"It's too early for that. We'll see if it sells first."
Funny enough, the first one to get pulled into her scheme... was the Yu family.
Originally, in Xu Luoshui's plan, it was supposed to be Senior Brother Xiao's family. But this worked too. The earlier they got involved, the deeper they'd sink.
It just so happened that she still had a grudge or two against the Yu family, all neatly recorded in her little notebook.