Elder Qinghe, the Head Alchemist, didn't just look angry; she looked like a walking furnace. The air around her shimmered with the heat of her Pill-Fire. "Su Chen! My furnace exploded because my assistant was 'refreshing the feed' instead of monitoring the temperature! My hall is a mess, and my disciples are addicted to... to goats!"
Su Chen raised his hands in a placating gesture, his mind racing. He could see her stats through the System—she had a massive "Authority" rating but a very low "Dopamine" score. She was a prime candidate for a pivot.
"Elder, please! You're looking at this the wrong way," Su Chen said, backing toward his desk. "The problem isn't the distraction. The problem is the distribution."
"Distribution?" she hissed.
"Think about it," Su Chen continued, his 'Tech Bro' charisma reaching peak levels. "You spend months refining a single Rank 5 pill. You sell it to one person. One transaction. Minimal impact. But what if you became... an Edu-Tuber?"
"A what?"
"A teacher for the masses! We create a new channel: 'Cooking with Qinghe.' You record your refinement process, share your 'Pro-Tips,' and we sell 'Digital Recipe Scrolls' for one Spirit Stone each. If ten thousand disciples buy one, you've made more than the pill itself—without even losing your ingredients."
Elder Qinghe paused. The fire around her hands flickered and died. "Ten thousand? But there are only two thousand disciples in this sect."
Su Chen grinned. He tapped his temple. "That's why I'm launching Sect-Connect. We're going global. We're inviting the neighboring 'Thundering Silence' sect to join our network. They have five thousand members, and rumor has it their alchemy department is... lacking."
The Elder's eyes widened. The competitive streak inherent in every cultivator was a powerful motivator. "So... I would be their teacher? I would show those Thundering Silence hacks how a real pill is made?"
"Exactly. And you can 'Block' anyone who leaves a rude comment," Su Chen added.
By the end of the hour, Elder Qinghe wasn't just calm; she was obsessed. She had already ordered her disciples to set up "optimal lighting" in the pill hall and was practicing her "Intro Hook."
"Welcome back, seekers of the Dao," she practiced, staring into a floating spirit-stone lens. "Today, we're going to talk about why your base temperatures are pathetic. Don't forget to 'Smash' that spirit-bond button."