Strongest Scammer: Scamming The World, One Death At A Time-Chapter 317: Dual Affinity

Han Yu glanced at Li Mei.

She motioned toward the stone. "Place your palm on it. Pour a small amount of spirit qi into the stone and then remain still. The stone will react to your affinity."

Han Yu nodded, stepping forward.

He stood before the monolith, took a slow breath, and then pressed his palm against its cool, smooth surface. For a moment, nothing happened. Then he released a thin stream of Spirit Qi into the stone.

The change was immediate.

The interior of the stone began to glow, faint at first... then brighter.

A vibrant green light burst forth from its core, swirling in calm, spiral motions. The light was warm and earthy, dancing like the leaves in a spring breeze.

Li Mei exhaled softly. "Wood elemental affinity," she said, nodding in approval. "Good. It’s not Fire, but this is actually very suitable for alchemy. You’ll have a natural advantage when it comes to understanding herb resonance and pill balancing."

Han Yu smiled faintly, though he had secretly hoped for a bit of Fire too. Still, he was content with this.

But then...

The green light within the stone began to flicker.

It pulsed—once, twice—and then... dimmed.

The glow didn’t fade away gently. It collapsed, as though being swallowed. The green hue twisted inward, like water draining from a basin, and was replaced by a strange... seething darkness.

Han Yu’s eyes widened, and he quickly pulled his hand away.

The once-gentle glow was gone.

Now, inky black tendrils coiled and writhed inside the monolith, almost alive. They moved like smoke underwater, twisting and looping upon themselves. The lanterns flickered. A soft hum, low and unsettling, buzzed in the silence of the hall.

Li Mei’s breath caught.

She didn’t speak for several seconds.

Han Yu turned toward her, uneasy. "What... what was that? That wasn’t Wood, was it?"

She didn’t answer immediately. Her eyes remained fixed on the Spirit Attunement Stone, her lips slightly parted. Finally, in a quiet voice, she said:

"That was... Darkness."

Han Yu stiffened. "...You’re joking."

"I wish I were," Li Mei muttered, stepping forward to inspect the monolith more closely. "The Darkness Element is extremely rare. So rare that most sects never encounter someone with even a trace of it. The records on it are few... and most of them are not available to everyone."

Han Yu looked down at his own hand. His palm still tingled slightly. "But I have a Wood Affinity too. Doesn’t that mean I’m dual-element?"

Li Mei nodded slowly. "Yes. Your primary affinity is Wood. But you have a secondary affinity... or maybe a latent one. One that’s only now starting to emerge."

"...What does Darkness do?"

She hesitated. "It varies. The Darkness Element is... not inherently evil, but it’s incredibly hard to control. It’s associated with things like illusion, corrosion, soul manipulation, and emotion suppression. It enhances things like Illusion Arts, mental techniques, and shadow-based skills. Of course, this is on top of its own basic elemental abilities."

Han Yu’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully.

That... sounded uncomfortably aligned with his current cultivation path.

He had never thought of himself as an elemental cultivator, but this? This explained why he took so well to Soul Arts and why he could feel the Eight Emotions Qi with such sensitivity. Perhaps even the ease with which he manipulated emotions or disappeared into the shadows.

’Wait,’ he thought, ’Could this have something to do with the Soul Qi techniques I’ve been learning?’

He didn’t know how much his soul cultivation had affected this or was this just innate. But he decided to ask more about it.

"So, is this good or bad for alchemy?" Han Yu asked cautiously.

Li Mei looked at him for a long moment... and then, surprisingly, she smiled.

"...It’s rare. Unusual. Wildly unstable. But in the hands of someone with control and a bit of insanity?" She grinned. "It might be your greatest asset."

Han Yu’s eyes glinted.

For once, something in his chaotic life felt... strangely fitting.

Darkness and Wood.

Soul and Herb.

Emotion and Medicine.

He chuckled to himself. "Guess I’m going to be a very unique kind of alchemist."

Li Mei smirked. "That’s putting it lightly."

As the last of the darkness faded from the Attunement Stone and it fell still again, both of them turned to leave the Hall of Guidance.

Neither noticed that, for a brief second after Han Yu left, the black veins inside the stone pulsed one last time... as though watching him go.

As they exited the Hall of Guidance and began walking along the stone path leading back toward the Outer Court, Han Yu’s mind buzzed with thoughts. The revelation of his elemental affinities had opened up new avenues in his understanding of cultivation, but also sparked a flood of new questions.

He glanced sideways at Li Mei, who still seemed mildly amused—perhaps at his ignorance, or perhaps at his reaction to the Darkness Element.

"Hey," Han Yu asked, "can you tell me more about elemental affinities? Like... how many are there exactly? I always thought it was just the usual five. Though I also know about wind and lightning, how do those fit in?"

Li Mei gave him a sidelong look. "That’s the limit of what most outer court disciples know," she said, brushing a strand of black hair behind her ear. "But since you’ve awakened more than one, and one of them is rare enough that it shows up in one out of every few hundred thousand cultivators, I suppose it’s time you learned the truth."

She led them to a quieter trail, away from passing disciples, and then gestured for him to sit on one of the smooth stone benches lining the path beneath a gingko tree.

"There are multiple types of Qi in the universe," she began, her voice taking on the rhythm of a teacher. "Most of what people cultivate is what we call basic attribute-less qi. It’s neutral and flexible, without specific attributes, and can be molded into various techniques depending on one’s path or affinity."