Strongest Scammer: Scamming The World, One Death At A Time-Chapter 689: Souls Being Drawn! (bonus - )

Within Han Yu's Soul Space, the Eight Emotions Lotus stirred violently. Its petals fluttered in agitation, as if urging Han Yu to swallow the crystal whole.

It took all of Han Yu's willpower to suppress that urge and focus on the refinement.

Plop

The tiny red crystal, barely the size of a grain of rice, fell into the cauldron.

Immediately, a strange reaction occurred, invisible to everyone except Han Yu.

The fluctuating invisible threads rising from the Living Blood suddenly shifted direction and were drawn toward the Soul Binding Blood Crystal.

"What is this?" Han Yu had no idea.

He could only watch as the threads merged with the crystal. But it did not stop there. The crystal seemed to tug on those threads, and with each pull, the air in the alchemy hall grew heavier.

Several alchemists began to sweat coldly. They felt as though they were no longer standing in an alchemy hall, but in the middle of a vast graveyard.

What they did not realize was that even their souls were trembling.

Han Yu watched carefully. The crystal did not dissolve at all. It remained intact within the mixture, standing out clearly instead of blending in.

To someone unfamiliar with the recipe, it would look like something had gone terribly wrong. But according to the ancient scrolls, this was exactly what should happen.

Instead of dissolving, the crystal actually began to grow…

Han Yu watched as the crystal began to grow in size.

The change was slow and almost imperceptible at first. If one were not observing it closely, it would have been easy to assume that nothing was happening at all. But Han Yu could clearly see the gradual expansion, subtle but constant.

From what he had read in the scrolls, the crystal had to grow to at least three times its original size before the final step of refinement could begin.

This stage was considered the most frustrating part of the entire process.

During this phase, the alchemist could barely interfere. There was almost nothing they could do to guide or correct it. Success or failure depended almost entirely on whether the crystal accepted what it was drawing in. This made many alchemists hate this part of the process, because no matter how skilled they were, they could only watch and wait.

But Han Yu felt something entirely different.

Unlike the other alchemists, he could actually see what was happening.

The crystal was not simply growing because of the other ingredients. It was not absorbing them in a normal sense. Instead, it was tugging at the invisible threads that Han Yu had identified as Soul Anchors. By pulling on them, it seemed to be dragging something from beyond this world itself.

An hour later, Han Yu saw faint white wisps entering from the ceiling of the hall. They drifted down slowly, invisible to everyone else. But to Han Yu, they were unmistakable.

They were souls.

His heart tightened.

"Are these… the souls of those used to make the Living Blood?" Han Yu wondered, a chill crawling up his spine.

A pill that could pull souls back from what might be the afterlife, even if those deaths had happened long ago, was something terrifying beyond words.

Still, Han Yu did not lose focus. On the contrary, he watched even more carefully. This was giving him precious insight into the mysteries of soul cultivation, something he had very few chances to observe so directly.

To the others, however, the alchemy hall had become deeply unpleasant.

Almost everyone was shivering, even though the hall was filled with intense heat from the cauldron and the arrays.

"Why am I shivering?" one alchemist muttered.

"It is not even cold," another said, wrapping his arms around himself.

"Is this a side effect of the pill process?"

"Did we inhale something toxic?"

They had no idea that what made them tremble was not cold, nor poison, but the presence of countless dead souls drifting around them.

"These souls… they are not pure," Han Yu observed silently.

Although they appeared white, there was something wrong with them. Beneath that pale glow, he sensed dark currents moving.

It felt like lingering emotion.

Obsession.

Regret.

Perhaps anger and hatred.

As more hours passed and more souls gathered, the crystal began to release a will of its own.

SCREECH!

A shrill, inhuman cry echoed through the hall.

"ARGHHHH!"

"What in the name of the heavens was that sound?"

The alchemists clutched their heads as sharp pain exploded in their minds. Several of them cried out as blood began to drip from their ears.

"You are bleeding!" one shouted.

"You too, your eyes, your nose, your ears!"

Panic spread through the group.

"Everyone control yourselves!" Fatui Zhuwen shouted, even though blood was also running down his face. "Take the pills. Calm your minds. We prepared for this!"

The alchemists forced themselves to remember their training. They quickly swallowed the prepared pills, steadying their breathing. The screaming sound faded, but the shivering did not stop.

Han Yu saw that the number of souls had grown enormous. They filled the entire hall, drifting through the bodies of the alchemists and formation masters, making them tremble violently whenever one passed through them.

"Wait… what are they taking from them?" Han Yu muttered.

"Is something wrong, honored disciple?" Fatui Zhuwen asked nervously.

"No," Han Yu replied calmly, knowing that saying more would only cause panic.

Even if the process harmed them, it had to continue. He had been paid for this work. What happened to them was not his concern.

He watched as the souls absorbed something from the people in the hall. The more they took, the darker they became.

At first, only black spots appeared within their white forms. Then, slowly, the entire souls turned gray.

What Han Yu did not know was that this effect was not limited to the alchemy hall.

Above the hall, a massive cluster of souls had gathered. When there was nothing more to take from the people inside, the souls began to wander, slipping into the bodies of everyone in the town, even into animals.