Strongest Scammer: Scamming The World, One Death At A Time-Chapter 796: Enduring Cold
At first, Han Yu allowed small threads of warmth to remain in his meridians, preventing the cold from overwhelming him entirely. But every few hours he lowered the heat further.
Bit by bit.
Hour by hour.
The Ice Qi pressed against his body relentlessly.
By the next day, the warmth had nearly vanished.
Han Yu finally extinguished the last traces of fire Qi circulating through his body.
From that moment onward, he endured the chamber’s cold with nothing but his physical constitution.
The difference was immediate.
Pain shot through his limbs like thousands of needles piercing his flesh. His breath grew shallow as each inhalation dragged freezing air into his lungs.
The cold was not merely external, it seeped inward. It made his bones feel heavy while his muscles stiffened. The frost on his skin thickened until his crimson black robes turned white with frozen moisture.
And yet he did not move.
Enduring it did not mean he had grown comfortable. It was not even close.
Every breath was agony and every second was suffering.
The only thing that had changed was his ability to tolerate the pain. His body had not yet adapted to the cold. But it had learned to survive it.
Han Yu’s skin gradually became covered with a thin layer of frost. His eyebrows turned white. Even his eyelashes accumulated tiny crystals of ice.
If not for the steady blinking of his eyes, his eyelids might have frozen shut completely.
Blinking during meditation was usually unnecessary for cultivators and was even distracting. But here, Han Yu found himself doing it instinctively just to keep his vision functional.
Time slowly blurred.
Hours passed.
Then days.
He remained seated in the same position, breathing slowly while the chamber’s cold gnawed at his body like an unrelenting predator.
The pain never disappeared.
But Han Yu endured.
Ten days passed like this...
During those ten days, Han Yu consumed nothing.
No food.
No water.
The cold environment slowed his bodily functions enough that his energy consumption remained minimal. His cultivation base supported his survival, though the strain was immense.
At one point, Han Yu even began hoping for something else.
A trance.
He had read countless stories about cultivators entering states of enlightenment through hardship. Tales of individuals meditating beneath waterfalls, enduring scorching deserts, or freezing mountains until their minds transcended ordinary awareness.
Perhaps he might achieve something similar.
Even a minor trance would greatly accelerate his progress.
But nothing came...
There was no enlightenment.
No mysterious insight.
No sudden clarity.
Han Yu remained painfully conscious through every second of the ordeal. The cold never allowed his awareness to fade.
His only comfort came from an unexpected source.
The Eight Emotions Lotus within his soul space continued absorbing energy.
A steady stream of emotional energy flowed into him day after day.
The rumors spreading through the sect were clearly gaining momentum. Han Yu could feel it.
Most of the energy he received was grey.
Surprise.
That made sense. A Peak Head personally retrieving an outer disciple was bound to spark enormous curiosity throughout the sect.
There were also smaller strands of red energy.
Anger.
Han Yu could guess who those belonged to.
Zhao Liumen and others like him.
Disciples who saw Ju Fan’s sudden rise as a threat or an insult.
But there was also yellow energy.
Joy.
Those wisps were fewer, but noticeably stronger.
Han Yu suspected many of them came from the Second Kidney Peak Head himself. The old man had waited countless years for someone to inherit the Freezing Abyss Glacial Art. Seeing that hope realized must have been deeply satisfying.
But there was something else.
A few faint wisps of joy energy came from far away.
Much weaker than the others.
Yet distinct.
Han Yu considered the possibility.
’There’s probably only one person,’ he thought.
Hou Luli.
She had wanted confirmation that the Inheritance Stelae still granted rewards.
He had promised her he would try. And now the rumors of Ju Fan being taken away by a Peak Head had likely reached her ears. She must have realized the truth.
That small promise had been fulfilled.
Han Yu allowed himself a faint smile. Then he returned his focus to the cold.
Another two days passed...
The twelfth day arrived.
By now, Han Yu’s body looked almost like an ice statue. Frost covered his skin and robes completely, and his breathing had become slow and measured.
Yet something changed.
At first, it was subtle.
A faint sensation within his meridians.
Han Yu’s concentration sharpened instantly.
With his spiritual perception, he noticed something new.
Tiny wisps of Qi drifting through his meridian network. He examined them carefully.
They were not neutral spirit Qi.
They were not blood Qi.
They were not fire Qi.
Nor were they wood Qi.
It wasn’t even Darkness Qi.
They were pale.
Cold.
Sharp.
"Ice Qi." Han Yu’s eyes opened slightly.
The energy had not been forcibly drawn into his body through cultivation, it had appeared naturally. Simply by remaining within this environment long enough, his body had begun to absorb the Ice Qi surrounding him.
It was faint.
Barely noticeable.
But it was real.
A slow grin spread across Han Yu’s face.
This was the first true sign of adaptation.
His body had begun recognizing the cold as something it could accept.
Not reject but accept. It was a small step, but it was the most important step.
Han Yu closed his eyes again.
"Just a little longer," he murmured quietly.
Soon he would finally begin cultivating the Freezing Abyss Glacial Art itself.
And once that happened...
His path within the Slaughtered Moon Divine Blood Sect would truly begin to change.
Just like that, three more days passed in silent cold.
By the time the fifteenth day arrived, it had been half a month since Han Yu first stepped into the cultivation chamber beneath the Second Kidney Peak Head’s residence. Though time felt extra long to him. He felt like months, not mere weeks, had passed.
