Strongest Scammer: Scamming The World, One Death At A Time-Chapter 713: Unlucky Han Yu

What Han Yu saw was a Rocky Hoofed Ram.

And not just any ram.

"Fuck... Not this beast again..." Han Yu cursed.

The very same Nascent Soul realm Rocky Hoofed Ram he had encountered before. He could tell from the scars it still had from the previous conflict with the Frost Wing Wyvern which was now dead.

His luck had taken a cruel turn.

Worse still, the ram was not alone. It was locked in a brutal battle with the Frost Line Spirit Tiger he had narrowly avoided earlier. The two crazed beasts tore into one another, their attacks shaking the surrounding terrain as ice, stone, and blood scattered across the slopes.

Han Yu did not wait to see the outcome.

He turned and ran.

He poured Qi into his legs, weaving through ravines, leaping across broken ground, and forcing himself into routes he would normally avoid. The fight followed him like a natural disaster, the shockwaves of their clashes echoing closer and closer as the beasts rampaged across the mountains.

The escape lasted six exhausting hours.

By the time Han Yu finally slowed, his breathing controlled but heavy, he realized he had no idea where he was anymore. The terrain was unfamiliar, the peaks sharper, the air colder. Much colder.

Han Yu lifted his head slowly, scanning the surroundings as dread settled into his gut.

The temperature here was unmistakable.

"Aw shit..."

He had crossed into the Inner Ring.

And now, truly lost within its depths, Han Yu understood that the Harrow Mountains were far from finished with him.

Han Yu stood still for several long breaths, forcing himself to calm down as the echoes of distant impacts continued to roll through the mountains behind him.

Even without turning back, he could feel the violent fluctuations of Qi from the Frost Line Spirit Tiger and the Rocky Hoofed Ram. Their clash had not ended, and worse, it showed no sign of moving away anytime soon.

'With them there, there's no way I can head back.' He thought.

Going back the way he came was no longer an option.

The realization settled heavily in his chest as Han Yu slowly exhaled and surveyed his surroundings. The Inner Ring felt fundamentally different from the regions he had passed through before.

The air itself carried a suffocating pressure, not oppressive enough to crush him outright, but heavy enough that every breath reminded him that this place was not meant for those below the Nascent Soul realm.

Snow fell thickly, not as gentle flakes but as dense sheets that blurred distance and swallowed landmarks.

Jagged stone formations jutted out from beneath the white like the bones of some long dead giant. Visibility was limited, and sound traveled strangely, sometimes muffled, sometimes echoing far louder than it should.

Han Yu frowned.

The worst problem was not the cold, nor the beasts, nor even the danger of sudden death. It was that he was effectively blind.

He had no usable map for this area.

The map given by the sect had only outlined the official route that skirted the Inner Ring.

Everything beyond that was marked with vague warnings and blank spaces. The additional maps he had acquired in Harrow Edge Town were little better. They showed the rough outline of the mountain range and a few named landmarks, but the Inner Ring itself was largely left undescribed.

No one charted this place properly.

Those who entered it either died or fled in desperation, with no thought spared for recording where they had been. Even the rare survivors often had no idea how they had escaped. They spoke only of terror, of running blindly, of luck that could not be replicated.

Han Yu had heard rumors that powerful experts from major clans and the Blood Sect had entered the Central Region, but those people existed on an entirely different level. They did not rely on maps. They relied on overwhelming power. Their experiences were useless to someone like him.

If he made a single wrong decision here and strayed too far inward, he would not get a second chance.

The Central Region was death.

Even Nascent Soul realm beasts were considered common there. Dao Shell realm creatures were rumored to roam freely, and there were whispers of even greater horrors that no one dared to name. Han Yu had no illusions about surviving in such a place.

'It would have been good if Madam Cold Fang escorted me...' Han Yu thought but knew that was just an empty thought.

Getting that woman to do him a favor might cost him more than he'd desire.

But he still needed to get out.

Han Yu forced himself to think methodically, pushing aside the creeping anxiety that threatened to cloud his judgment. Panic would kill him faster than any beast.

"Need to do some logical analysis." Han Yu muttered to himself.

The Harrow Edge Town lay to the southwest of the mountain range. This much he was certain of.

However, knowing the direction of his destination was not the same as knowing his current position. If he angled incorrectly and traveled too far south, he might loop deeper into the Inner Ring. If he went too far west, he could end up skirting dangerously close to large mountain wall that extended in some parts of the Inner ring. And if he followed it he might end up back at the Central Region without realizing it.

He crouched slightly and pulled out the maps he carried, spreading them carefully over a flat rock and weighing them down with small stones. Snow immediately began to accumulate on the parchment, forcing him to brush it away repeatedly as he studied the crude markings.

Most of the landmarks were useless.

Snow concealed too much. Mountains blurred into one another, ridges lost their distinctive shapes, and valleys vanished beneath white blankets. Rivers were frozen solid, their courses hidden unless one stood directly atop them.

Still, Han Yu did not give up.

He compared elevations, slope angles, and the rough orientation of nearby peaks. Slowly, one name on the map began to stand out in his mind.

Hook Peak.