Strongest Scammer: Scamming The World, One Death At A Time-Chapter 667: Feasting And Talking With The Hunters

The lodge was warm.

Warmer than anything Han Yu had felt in weeks. The moment he stepped inside, the heat from the stone furnace washed over him, and the smell of roasted meat made his mouth water almost painfully.

It was like being struck by a memory of comfort that his body had nearly forgotten existed.

He sat cross legged with the hunters around a large wooden table. Plates of spirit beast meat were being passed around, some already sliced, some still sizzling from the fire. The unfamiliar scent made Han Yu pause.

'Seasoning!'

Actual seasoning.

He picked up a piece of grilled wolf shoulder and saw crushed red flakes and green herbs stuck to the charred edges. The moment he bit into it, the savory burst mixed with spice made him exhale sharply.

"How did I ever eat without this…" he murmured.

He regretted not bringing spices. Salt alone was functional but boring. Everything he had eaten in the past month had been plain wolf, plain fox, plain ram. All meat and no flavor. Now he tasted fire pepper, dried wild onion, and a hint of mountain herb that made the fat taste richer.

He slowly nodded to himself as he ate.

"I will absolutely never travel again without spices."

The leader, who called himself Wen Changli, laughed loudly.

"You look like a man having a religious experience, friend," he said as he poured Han Yu a cup of amber liquid.

Han Yu accepted it, sniffed once, and felt warmth rise through his nose.

Alcohol.

Real alcohol. Not weak mortal wine diluted with water. Not cheap inn liquor filled with impurities.

Spirit Liquor.

He tilted the cup back and let the liquid glide down his throat. A pleasant burn spread through his chest and a blast of cinnamon flooded his senses. It was followed by a sharp pepper note that lingered on his tongue.

Han Yu closed his eyes for a moment.

"This is heaven..."

Even a thousand year old spirit wine would taste lesser than this right now. After the cold, the wind, the beasts, the endless danger, his body and mind were almost trembling with relief.

"This might be the best drink I have ever tasted," Han Yu admitted.

Changli looked proud.

"That is the Cinnamon Spirit Whiskey. Our local specialty. Brewed by some old drunk in Frost Bloom Town outside the mountains. The man claims he uses melted glacier snow to make it. No one believes him, but it does taste incredible."

Han Yu took another sip.

"It is very nice. I suppose I will have more."

Changli laughed again and slapped the table.

"Drink as much as you like. We bring extra bottles on every trip. A dull mind dies faster than a sharp knife, but a relaxed mind survives even longer."

Han Yu snorted and nodded.

He let the warmth of the liquor settle in his stomach. The men laughed, joked, and tore into meat like starving wolves. Han Yu observed them with mild amusement, enjoying the rare break from constant alertness.

After a while, a question popped into his mind.

"Earlier," Han Yu said, looking at the first hunter he met, "you said something about thinking I was an Evil Mountain Spirit. What was that about?"

Immediately, the atmosphere shifted.

The hunters who had been laughing seconds before, grew stiff. Their smiles faded. They exchanged glances, then looked down at their plates.

Han Yu noticed it right away before feeling the eight Emotions Energy from them.

Fear. Hesitation. Anxiety.

He leaned forward slightly.

"What did you mean?"

The man who had spoken earlier, a burly hunter named Wei, scratched his neck uneasily.

"Well," Wei began, "it is just a rumor that's been going around. A bad one."

Changli took a drink and sighed deeply.

"We have seen some things on this trip," he said. "Things that were not caused by beasts."

Han Yu raised his brow.

"Explain."

Wei nodded slowly.

"There is talk of an Evil Mountain Spirit in the Mountains. Folks say it has been killing both humans and beasts. Not for food. Not for territory. Just killing."

"Evil Mountain Spirit..." Han Yu tapped his cup thoughtfully.

He had read about them in the sect archives. They were categorized under dangerous entities, not beasts. A ghost that had accumulated enough resentment or spiritual corruption to become a malevolent apparition.

They could manifest physically, kill with spiritual force, possess corpses, distort terrain, and sometimes even form ritualistic structures.

Often created from the souls of deranged cultivators.

Sometimes willingly.

"And you think you saw signs of one?" Han Yu asked.

Changli's jaw tightened.

"We did not just see signs," he said slowly. "We saw corpses. Of people. And of beasts. Torn apart in ways that no normal creature would do."

Wei swallowed.

"And they were not just lying around. They were arranged."

Han Yu frowned.

"Arranged?"

Wei nodded with a grimace.

"In formations. Patterns. Sometimes like… shrines. Sometimes like effigies made from arms and legs."

One of the younger hunters, barely twenty years old, shuddered visibly.

"It is like something was playing with them," he muttered.

Han Yu leaned back, thoughts racing.

This matched some of the Slaughtered Moon Divine Blood Sect records, though not perfectly. The blood sect's own evil cultivators sometimes did similar things, but the concept of a ghost arranging corpses into ritual shapes was unusual. Still, obsession was a defining trait of such spirits.

"What stage do the rumors place it at?" Han Yu asked.

Changli shook his head.

"No one knows. Some say Qi refining. Others say Core Condensation. But after what we saw, I think it is stronger. Maybe much stronger."

"Where were the corpses found?" Han Yu asked.

"Most were found in the deeper Inner Ring," Wei replied. "Near the cold valleys three days north from here. The ones hunters call Death's Hollow. Though a few have also spotted some in the Middle Ring, though thankfully none in the Outer ring yet."

Han Yu exhaled sharply.

He had passed not too far from that area.