Strongest Scammer: Scamming The World, One Death At A Time-Chapter 581: Twenty Five Months In The Sect

Six more months passed in a blur of work, study, and exhaustion.

Han Yu threw himself completely into his routine. Every day was planned down to the last quarter hour. Morning and noon were spent refining Blood Flood Pills or whatever other pills happened to be in demand that week.

Afternoon was spent in lecture halls of the puppet peak. Evenings were spent studying manuals or quietly practicing in the rented workshops where sparks, quiet curses, and the occasional explosion from other disciples filled the air.

His identity within the sect grew more established.

His reputation as an alchemist was now solid, and unlike before, no one paid him any odd attention. A disciple who could make steady profits through pill refinement was relatively common in the sect.

The fact that Ju Fan had improved to a stable level in alchemy simply made others believe he had finally embraced a new obsession. Many alchemists went through periods of explosive growth once they stopped messing around and focused.

To them he was no different.

This worked perfectly for Han Yu. It funded his plans and helped maintain the illusion that he had no particular ambition beyond making money and indulging eccentric hobbies.

His puppet work progressed faster than he had originally expected.

Every week he attended the basic lectures of the puppet peak. The instructors were mostly eccentric artisans, many with wild hair, lubricating oil covered robes, or sleepless eyes. Some muttered to themselves while lecturing.

Others threw strange metallic scraps into the air to demonstrate concepts. One instructor even brought a half functional wooden wolf beast into a lecture. The beast kept collapsing every few minutes and the instructor blamed the arriving moonlight for making it moody.

Han Yu found the environment strangely comforting. It reminded him of the alchemy halls back at the Twin Leaf Peak Sect. Eccentricity was a sign of genius, or at least stubborn passion.

On days when no lectures were held he buried himself in the puppet peak’s basic library.

He memorized diagrams, studied old manuals, practiced linking energy channels, and learned about the dozens of different ways puppets moved. Some relied on wheels. Others used contraction arrays.

Many used spiritual tendons, which were expensive organs harvested from beasts. More advanced models used bone marrow tubes carved with micro runes. But Han Yu was still far from that level.

Whenever he needed hands on practice he visited the training workshops.

For ten merit points he could rent a simple cubicle for a day. Then he would sit surrounded by wooden limbs, metal joints, array crystals, old Spirit thread cords soaked in blood essence, and various inscribing tools.

He practiced until his hands cramped and his eyes felt dry.

After six months of constant learning, he had become far better than before. He could carve puppet parts from basic woods and minerals. He could inscribe nine out of ten of the common puppet arrays without any issue now. But even so, he was still far from qualifying for the apprentice exam.

The apprentice exam of the puppet peak was notoriously strict.

The puppet had to be entirely self made, all parts carved by the artisan, all channels inscribed by hand, all arrays perfectly fitted. Even the balance, weight distribution, energy consumption, and autonomous movement had to meet the required standards. One crooked leg or a slightly inefficient channel could mean failure.

Han Yu tried a few times, in private, but he always fell short.

The puppet either moved too slowly, or lost balance, or overheated, or drained too much Qi. In one case the puppet melted because the material he had used did not match the required hardness. The workshop manager came over and stared at the melted lump before patting Han Yu on the shoulder with a sigh.

"You are at least better than most novices," the manager said. "They usually blow up the entire workbench."

Han Yu did not know whether to feel comforted or insulted. Though at least he found the people of the Puppet Peak a bit more ’normal’.

His progress in formations improved as well.

He repeatedly visited the Formation Peak and took both the novice and apprentice exams. He passed both without difficulty. His foundation from the Twin Leaf Peak Sect was not weak and his recent months of puppet study honed his array skills further.

When he tried the intermediate exam though, he failed quickly. It was not the theory that overwhelmed him but the extreme precision required. The margin of error was too small. His knowledge was enough, but his hands lacked the refined sensitivity needed.

He promised himself he would return to it one day.

Cultivation, however, remained the same problem it had always been. He had not reached Late Stage Core Condensation Realm despite his steady progress. After attending a few cultivation lectures in the lecture halls and asking a few questions to the instructors, he understood the reason clearly.

To enter late stage, he needed a powerful surge of energy. This was usually not the case for other cultivation techniques, but for Moon Slaughter Arts, it was needed.

Ideally, this came from massive amounts of Blood Moon Crystals or from cultivating inside one of the conversion chambers that distilled Slaughtered Moon Qi. Both of these were incredibly expensive.

The cultivation chambers needed ten thousand merit points for a single session. Blood Moon Crystals had also risen in value since last year. He simply could not spare so many resources without crippling his long term plans.

Every merit point he spent on cultivation meant one less resource, one less puppet part, one less herb, and one less chance to save his companions.

The only good news was that he could still progress in his soul cultivation. His intake of Eight Emotions energy had slowed since stabilizing the Blood Flood Pill market, but he had already discovered a new source.

Battle.

There were countless sparring arenas in the sect. Some were formal and regulated. Others were open pits. Some were essentially public dueling stations. Han Yu experimented by fighting in different areas and observing the emotional reactions he received.