Strongest Scammer: Scamming The World, One Death At A Time-Chapter 651: Checking The Mask

Han Yu closed the door of the rented inn room and immediately reached into his pouch.

He pulled out a yellow talisman etched with looping patterns and slapped it against the door. The paper glowed faintly, activating the sound isolating effect, sealing every whisper within the room. No one outside would hear him, not even a Core Condensation cultivator trying to eavesdrop.

Only after the light faded did Han Yu exhale in relief.

He set his bag aside, sat cross legged at the edge of the bed, and pulled out the plain wooden mask he had bought earlier.

It lay in his hand like an ordinary object.

Unpainted. Smooth. Polished by age. The holes for the eyes were shaped neatly, the wood grain running along the surface like quiet ripples. There was nothing mystical about its appearance, nothing menacing or sacred. It looked like something a street performer might wear.

And yet Han Yu knew it was not normal.

The first clue was how it had silently consumed his Qi earlier, swallowing it like a bottomless pit.

He held it up before the candlelight. The flickering flames cast shadows through the eye holes. Nothing strange appeared. No glow. No aura. Not even a faint ripple of Qi.

He frowned. The more ordinary it looked, the more suspicious it felt.

Han Yu placed his palm on the surface of the mask and allowed a gentle stream of Spirit Qi to enter it. The Qi vanished instantly, melting into the wood like a drop of water sinking into dry soil. No reaction. No resonance.

He tapped it with his finger and muttered, "You are quite stubborn."

He tried again, this time channeling Fire Spirit Qi. The warmth left his palm and slipped into the mask. Gone the moment it entered. The mask neither heated nor glowed nor resisted.

Next he tried Wood Spirit Qi. Then Blood Qi. Then Moon Blood Qi.

Nothing.

Not a single flicker. It simply absorbed everything without trace.

It felt like feeding something that had no stomach and no life, yet swallowed endlessly.

Han Yu leaned back slightly. "This thing feels more like a void than a tool."

He decided to use his spirit sense fully. A powerful wave of his perception washed through the mask. He scanned the grain of the wood, the internal structure, the shape, the nature of the material. He searched for traces of formations, engravings, seals, or hidden storage spaces.

He found nothing.

It was a simple piece of carved wood. At least on the outside.

But his instincts did not lie. The thing was wrong.

Finally, Han Yu narrowed his eyes and whispered, "Fine. You do not like spirit Qi. Let us try something else."

He gathered a wisp of Soul Qi at his fingertip. It gleamed faintly like a pale blue thread. He pressed it onto the mask.

This time, something changed.

The surface of the mask twitched. Not physically, but in a subtle, almost imperceptible way. Han Yu felt the shift more than he saw it, as if the wood grain had tilted or twisted under his touch.

Han Yu's eyes sharpened.

"So Soul Qi works."

He injected another wisp. Another change. Slight. Subtle. Almost like the wood was breathing.

He grew more eager and increased the amount. The mask absorbed it readily, almost hungrily. The faint shifting across the surface grew more noticeable. It was not alive, yet seemed to respond like a sleeping thing being awakened by gentle taps.

Han Yu continued feeding Soul Qi until he had infused nearly a hundred wisps.

Then the mask moved.

The wood rippled like a disturbed pond. The surface shifted as if invisible worms crawled beneath the grain. Lines began to slide, rearranging themselves into faint contours.

Han Yu felt no fear. Only curiosity sharpened by Soul Qi cultivation. He understood instinctively that the mask wanted to be worn.

He lifted it to his face.

The moment it touched his skin, the wood softened like warm clay, shaping itself to fit him. It suctioned onto his skin without straps, adhering perfectly.

Han Yu blinked once.

A strange connection formed between the mask and his mind. Not a voice, not a consciousness, but an intuitive link. He understood, without being taught, exactly how to use it.

He imagined a face.

A random face he had seen downstairs in the tavern. A weathered looking man with dull brown eyes and a crooked nose who had been arguing about beast prices.

The mask responded.

The wood twisted and stretched. Lines reshaped themselves. Flesh and skin tone altered. The sensation was eerie yet painless. Like warm water shifting over his skin.

Han Yu stood from the chair and walked to the small bronze mirror hanging on the wall.

The reflection staring back at him was not Han Yu. Not Ju Fan. But the drunk middle aged man from the tavern.

Rough skin. Crooked nose. Patchy beard. Dull eyes.

Han Yu touched his cheek and felt the roughness of the skin. It did not feel like a mask at all. It felt real.

He narrowed his eyes.

"Interesting."

He willed the transformation to fade. The face twitched but did not change back. He concentrated harder. The mask slowly loosened and reverted to its plain form, sliding off his face and landing in his hand as a smooth piece of wood once more.

Han Yu sat back down and studied it.

"This is a disguise tool… but not one created through formations. And not by normal means."

He had seen many disguising methods before. Pills that temporarily altered the skin. Spirit tools with illusion arrays. Blood arts that changed bone structure. But this was different.

This mask acted like a parasite or symbiote. It absorbed Soul Qi and used it as fuel to alter physical appearance. It did not use illusions. This was a physical transformation.

The mask grew inert again after ten minutes. The Soul Qi he fed into it had been consumed entirely. It had reverted to normal wood and showed no signs of life.