Strongest Scammer: Scamming The World, One Death At A Time-Chapter 715: An Opportunity!
Han Yu moved low, kept his aura suppressed, and avoided open areas whenever possible. When forests appeared, he traveled beneath the canopy, flying just above the ground to mask his presence. When the land opened into barren slopes, he hugged the shadows cast by ridges and jagged stone.
Time blurred.
By the eighth day, exhaustion began to creep into his bones despite his careful pacing. He forced himself to rest more frequently, carving shallow shelters into rock faces or sealing himself beneath snowbanks for hours at a time while beasts passed nearby.
Then, on the ninth day, the storm finally began to weaken.
The wind slowed first, its screaming howl reduced to a low moan that echoed faintly through the mountains. Snowfall thinned, flakes drifting lazily instead of slamming into the ground. The sky remained gray, but it no longer felt like it was pressing down on the world.
Han Yu paused atop a narrow ridge and scanned the horizon.
At first, he saw nothing but overlapping peaks and snow covered slopes. Then, far in the distance, a silhouette emerged.
It rose higher than the surrounding mountains, its summit curving sharply forward like a giant claw reaching toward the sky. Even through the haze, its shape was unmistakable.
Han Yu’s breath caught.
"The Hook Peak," he murmured, his voice nearly lost to the wind.
Relief flooded through him, so strong that his legs nearly buckled. He had not realized just how tense he had been until that moment. Seeing the landmark meant direction. It meant certainty. It meant that he was no longer wandering blindly through death.
He did not rush.
That would have been foolish.
From this distance, the peak was still several kilometers away. If he simply turned southwest now and followed the compass, even a small miscalculation could send him hundreds of kilometers off course by the time he reached safer ground.
He needed to get closer.
Han Yu adjusted his route, angling toward the mountain while keeping his spirit sense extended to its maximum range. The terrain gradually rose, the slopes becoming steeper and the stone beneath the snow more solid. The further he went, the clearer the peak became, its hooked ridge cutting a sharp outline against the sky.
Night fell as he approached the base of the mountain.
As if mocking him, the blizzard finally stopped completely. Clouds thinned and parted, revealing the moon hanging low in the sky. Its pale light spilled across the mountains, casting long shadows and turning the snow into a sea of silver.
The cold deepened, the temperature dropping several degrees below zero, but Han Yu barely noticed.
His attention was fixed on Hook Peak.
From this angle, with the moon positioned just right, the curved summit appeared to cradle the glowing disk in its arc. It was an unexpectedly beautiful sight, one that made Han Yu pause for a few seconds longer than he should have.
Then he noticed something else.
A flicker of light.
Han Yu narrowed his eyes.
"Huh?"
Halfway up the mountain, clinging to a sheer cliff face, a tiny point of light appeared. It shimmered briefly, then vanished. A moment later, it reappeared, faint and steady, before fading once more.
Han Yu frowned.
He focused his vision, channeling spirit Qi into his eyes. The world sharpened, details snapping into clarity. The light was real. It was not a reflection, nor was it a trick of the moonlight.
It was stationary.
Beasts did not produce such light. Not intentionally, at least. Qi techniques flared brightly and violently, not in this quiet, rhythmic manner. And no cultivator would light a beacon halfway up Hook Peak in the middle of the Inner Ring.
Han Yu’s heart began to beat faster.
He forced himself to remain calm and think logically. He cataloged the possibilities one by one, discarding them as quickly as they arose.
A formation. Possible, but unlikely. Formations usually emitted stable patterns of light, not this subtle flicker.
A spirit beast. Also unlikely. No beast would willingly reveal its position like this.
A naturally occurring phenomenon. Rare, but he had never read of anything that fit this description.
That left only one option.
Treasure.
Han Yu felt a faint stirring of desire rise in his chest, quickly suppressed by caution. In the Harrow Mountains, treasure and death often went hand in hand. Still, the location, the color, and the intermittent glow triggered a memory.
Cold.
Silk.
Orchid.
Han Yu’s eyes widened slightly.
"The Cold Silk Orchid," he whispered.
Everything fit.
The herb was known to emit a faint white blue glow when mature, especially under moonlight. It often grew in cold, elevated regions where Ice Qi was dense, and Hook Peak was one of the suspected locations mentioned in the rumors.
Han Yu’s pulse quickened.
He did not move.
Not yet.
He stood there beneath the moonlight, staring at the distant flicker, weighing risk against reward. His mind raced through everything he knew. The guardian beast. The danger. The Frost Bane Guardian Pill resting safely in his storage ring.
Opportunity had finally revealed itself.
Whether he would seize it or walk away remained to be decided.
Han Yu did not rush forward the moment the thought of the Cold Silk Orchid formed in his mind.
Excitement was a luxury he could not afford here, especially in a place like the Harrow Mountains where even a moment of recklessness could mean death. Instead, he forced himself to slow down, standing beneath the pale moonlight while his breathing steadied and his thoughts aligned.
Even with the Frost Bane Guardian Pill in his possession, he knew better than to treat it as a guarantee of survival. Pills were tools, not miracles.
The protection it offered depended heavily on the absorption and redirection of Ice Qi, and while that made it terrifyingly effective against ice based techniques, it was far from absolute.
A Nascent Soul realm beast would not rely solely on elemental attacks. Physical strength, innate abilities, claws, fangs, crushing force, and sheer speed were all still very real threats.
