Strongest Scammer: Scamming The World, One Death At A Time-Chapter 714: The Hook Peak

The Peak was described as a towering mountain several thousand meters tall, with a sharply curved ridge at its summit that resembled a giant hook clawing at the sky. Even in heavy snowfall, something that distinctive should be visible from a distance, provided he was not too far away.

According to the map, Hook Peak lay to the west of his general location. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Han Yu straightened and lifted his gaze, scanning the horizon carefully. Snow obscured much of his view, but far off, beyond several overlapping ridgelines, he thought he glimpsed a darker silhouette rising higher than the others.

It was not clear enough to be certain.

But it was something.

That alone made it his best option.

Even if he veered slightly off course, moving west would not drag him deeper toward the Central Region. It might lengthen his journey, but length was preferable to oblivion.

Han Yu reached into his storage ring and retrieved a small but sturdy compass, its casing etched with simple stabilizing formations. He held it steady and waited for the needle to settle.

West.

Seeing the needle point firmly gave him a small measure of reassurance. He had learned his lesson the hard way. In a place like this, relying on the sun was foolish. Snowstorms, overcast skies, and shifting light could deceive even experienced travelers.

He folded the maps carefully and stowed them away, then adjusted his robes to minimize heat loss. His High Mountain Spirit Yak Robe had been repaired multiple times now, but it still held, and the formation within it continued to function reliably.

Han Yu began moving west.

He did not fly.

Flying in the Inner Ring was an invitation to disaster. It made him visible from far too great a distance and left him exposed with little room to maneuver. Instead, he traveled on foot, moving along ridgelines when possible and dipping into valleys only when necessary.

His spirit sense remained fully extended, sweeping the surroundings in overlapping arcs. He paid close attention to subtle changes in Qi density, temperature shifts, and unnatural silences. Any one of these could signal the presence of a powerful beast.

Hours passed.

Han Yu moved slowly but steadily, conserving his Qi and keeping his breathing controlled. Several times, he felt powerful auras far off in the distance, but none approached him directly. Whether this was due to luck or the lingering disruption caused by Danqing Xun’s rituals, he could not say.

At one point, he froze as a massive shadow passed across a nearby slope, its Qi briefly brushing the edge of his spirit sense. Han Yu immediately sealed his aura and pressed himself against the rock face, barely daring to breathe until the presence moved on.

Only after it vanished did he resume moving.

The snowfall grew heavier as time went on, and the cold seeped deeper into his bones. Still, he pressed forward, driven by the knowledge that stopping for too long in the Inner Ring was just as dangerous as reckless movement.

Somewhere ahead, Hook Peak waited.

And until he found it, Han Yu could not afford to relax for even a moment.

Han Yu spent nearly a full week moving carefully through the Inner Ring, angling west in search of Hook Peak while treating every step as if it might be his last. The terrain did not make things easy for him.

Slopes rose and fell unpredictably, cliffs appeared without warning beneath layers of snow, and the wind howled constantly, stripping warmth from his body no matter how tightly he wrapped his robes around himself.

During these seven days, danger never truly left his side.

Core Condensation realm beasts were the most common threat. They prowled the valleys, lurked beneath snowdrifts, and occasionally stalked him from afar when his aura slipped for even a moment.

Twice, he was forced to fight.

The first time was against a stone scaled mountain lizard whose body was nearly eight meters long, its hide thick enough to deflect most conventional attacks. Han Yu had ended it swiftly with a combination of Bolt God Fist and Soul Needle, shattering its skull before it could even roar loud enough to draw attention.

The second was a Four winged frost hawk that attacked from above, mistaking Han Yu for injured prey. That battle was short but violent, ending when Han Yu skewered it mid leap with his halberd and burned the corpse to erase the scent of blood.

The rest, he avoided.

Nascent Soul realm beasts were a different matter entirely. He sensed at least four of them during his journey, their auras heavy and oppressive even from hundreds of meters away.

One was a massive horned bear that radiated cold Qi so densely that the snow around it had crystallized into sharp frost blades. Another was a serpentine creature buried beneath the ice of a frozen river, its coils so large that Han Yu mistook them for natural ridges until its aura shifted.

The last two Han Yu didn’t see with his eyes but did sense him. And he was not going to wait to see them. Each time, Han Yu froze in place, sealed his Qi, and retreated the moment he judged it safe to do so.

His spirit sense extending a full thousand meters, was the only reason he was still alive.

Before, he might have stumbled blindly into such creatures and only sensed them when it was already too late. Now, he could detect their presence long before entering their hunting range.

He learned to read subtle fluctuations in Qi, to distinguish between lingering traces and active movement, and to predict where a beast might move next based on the shape of the land.

The blizzard helped him as well.

Snow fell thick and relentless, reducing visibility and scattering scents. Beasts that relied heavily on smell found their senses dulled, and many were forced to rely on instinct rather than precision.

Most beasts did not actively refine their spirit sense like humans did. Even Nascent Soul realm beasts, despite their intelligence, relied more on raw power, natural abilities, and intuition.

This imbalance worked in Han Yu’s favor.