Strongest Scammer: Scamming The World, One Death At A Time

The more Han Yu thought about it the more excited he got.

"If I can raise the purity," Han Yu thought, "or refine two or three pills at once in a single batch, I can double or triple my profits."

He looked down at his hand, still faintly tingling from channeling spirit sense for hours.

"This… this could be my foundation."

Not just as a Soul Cultivator or a schemer in the shadows, but as an Alchemist.

A proper path, a trade, a means of gaining resources while building influence in the sect.

He grinned.

"Time to buy more herbs."

With the fresh thrill of success still coursing through him, Han Yu stepped out of the exchange pavilion and made a beeline straight for the Herb Procurement Pavilion.

His white robe, now adorned with the bronze insignia of the Alchemy Peak, fluttered lightly in the afternoon breeze. The Alchemy Peak was alive with motion—disciples hauling crates of herbs, carrying pill boxes, or engaged in quiet conversation about complex herbal reactions and thermal failure points.

But Han Yu had a single goal in mind today—the Flesh Mending Spirit Pill.

Unlike the basic Spirit Qi Restoring Pill, this was a mid-grade concoction, with stronger medicinal effects and a far more complex formulation. It wasn't something beginner alchemists attempted casually.

But Han Yu was no ordinary beginner.

He had refined it twice before under Li Mei's guidance. The first time was a tense success, and the second a failure—but the failure had been due entirely to his talisman-based flame being too slow to respond during the critical merging phase.

Now that he had access to the proper Flame Arrays, he was confident he could do better.

He stepped up to the counter of the procurement area, where a senior disciple with sharp features was overseeing requests.

"I'd like to buy ingredients for the Flesh Mending Spirit Pill. Five full batches," Han Yu said, offering his token.

The senior disciple raised an eyebrow. "That's not a pill most outer court disciples refine. You sure you want five batches?"

Han Yu nodded calmly. "Yes. I've practiced it before. I'd like to try again using the flame array refining room."

The disciple said nothing further and tapped a formation disc, scanning Han Yu's token. A moment later, the cost was deducted.

-5,000 merit points.

Han Yu winced internally at the cost. 1,000 points per batch. That was twenty times the cost of a Spirit Qi Restoring Pill's herbs. Still, he did the math. Even if he failed two whole batches, with the current market rate of 500 to 800 merit points per Flesh Mending Pill depending on purity, he could still come out on top.

He knew most of the rates by heart as Li Mei had shown him the list of pills and their costs a while back and Han Yu being business minded had memorized it quickly.

A few minutes later, a junior disciple returned with a tray holding five sealed wooden boxes. Han Yu received them reverently and returned to the basic flame room he'd rented earlier. Since he still had 18 hours left of the free-day use, he planned to make the most of it.

The moment he stepped back into the pill room, he took a deep breath.

"Alright," he murmured, placing the five jade boxes down on the side table. "Time to see if that last time really was just the flame's fault…"

He sat down in his refining position and activated the Flame Array beneath the cauldron. A soft red light emerged, steady and even.

He opened the first box and gently removed the herbs—each carefully preserved in its own compartment. The five ingredients required were:

Silver Thorn Root – known for its flesh-knitting properties

Red Spirit Ginseng – accelerates cell regeneration

Blood Orchid Leaf – balances excess vitality energy

Mending Vine Powder – grounds the energy and binds healing

Moonlight Sap Beads – to cool and regulate the healing process

Each herb had to be refined in a specific sequence, and each required different flame intensities and durations.

Han Yu focused.

He placed the Silver Thorn Root into the cauldron first and began the low-heat phase. The root crackled and slowly melted into a luminous paste.

Next, the Red Spirit Ginseng—but this one had to be roasted slightly before melting. He adjusted the flame upward. The array obeyed him with crisp precision. He watched the herbal body with narrowed eyes and flicked his spirit sense across the cauldron like a painter's brush.

Once he saw the ginseng begin to turn slightly translucent, he dropped in the Blood Orchid Leaf—which reacted violently to residual heat. He immediately throttled the flame down and let it simmer.

So far, everything was on track.

Now came the tricky part: Mending Vine Powder.

This powder was highly volatile and could cause the pill to destabilize if the flame was even slightly off. Han Yu carefully slid it in while slowly rotating the cauldron with a minor pulse of his spirit qi to ensure even distribution.

Then, finally, the Moonlight Sap Beads—a cooling agent that had to be added at the very end to prevent over-healing traits from creating a pill with imbalance, or worse, aggressive healing that would damage the body.

As the mixture swirled, Han Yu began the condensation phase, cycling the flame through three slow pulses and lowering it toward a point just above extinguishment.

The reaction was smooth.

With a gentle ding, a pill rolled into the cooling tray.

"One…" he whispered, wiping his brow.

Encouraged, he prepared for the next batch.

The second refinement went even more smoothly. Han Yu now knew how long to roast the ginseng without burning it and how to rotate the cauldron more subtly. He managed to condense two pills from this batch, something he hadn't managed before.

"Two in one batch… now that's real profit," he murmured with a grin.

The third batch followed, again producing a clean pill. The flame array's stability made the process feel almost comfortable now, allowing Han Yu to focus more on the exact balance of herbs and qi flow.