Strongest Scammer: Scamming The World, One Death At A Time-Chapter 163: Testing Parameters

The next morning, Han Yu wasted no time.

He awoke with a purpose, eyes gleaming as he stepped out into the garden behind his modest courtyard. A faint mist clung to the grass, but his Spirit Sense was already expanding outward like an invisible net, brushing against every movement within range.

He wanted to test the Eight Emotions Energy.

More specifically, he wanted to understand how it flowed... and how to make it flow better.

Yesterday’s breakthrough in balance had stabilized his Soul Qi and brought immense clarity. Now it was time to refine control.

With his Spirit Sense, he began watching.

A few disciples argued over breakfast down the path. The younger one, perhaps a new Outer Court recruit, was complaining loudly about his senior stealing his meat bun. Though in reality it had been Han Yu.

Han Yu felt it: a faint tendril of irritation, colored in muddy red—Anger.

It flickered toward him like a candle’s smoke drifting on a breeze... and then—

Fizz.

It dissipated before it could reach him.

"Huh?" Han Yu blinked. "It’s just... gone?"

He frowned and looked again. The distance between him and the arguing disciples wasn’t even that far—maybe thirty steps. But even so, the emotional energy had flickered out mid-flight.

"Too far," he muttered. "It’s fading before it reaches me."

Curious, he inched closer. Twenty steps. Then fifteen.

As he moved, his Spirit Sense tagged the trail again—this time more clearly.

When he was within ten steps, the stream of red energy not only formed fully, but it was sucked into his Soul Sea smoothly. It slotted right into one of the blooming lotus petals like a puzzle piece finding its home.

"Interesting... So distance really does matter."

He tested a few more scenarios over the course of the morning.

From across the Outer Court plaza, he tried watching a pair of love-struck alchemy disciples exchanging awkward, flushed glances. Joy energy—soft and golden—was definitely being generated.

This time, Han Yu’s intervention had been a small gift to the two disciples, making them think it was from each other. A harmless misunderstanding, enough to tie Han Yu and allow him to absorb the Eight Emotions Energy.

But unless he was within a tight radius of them, he couldn’t absorb it at all. From farther away, it simply meandered into the air and dispersed like mist.

Even when someone exploded with fear or disgust, unless he was near, the energy faded away before it reached his Soul Sea.

It wasn’t that the energy didn’t exist—he could sense it. But it was like trying to catch whispers in a thunderstorm from across the mountain.

"Alright. So lesson one: Proximity is everything."

But then came the next revelation.

Han Yu had tried approaching another commotion—a pair of sword disciples shouting after someone broke their formation flags in a training ground dispute (Culprit: Han Yu).

There was fury. There was betrayal. Prime harvesting territory.

As he honed in, Spirit Sense fully extended, he tried something new.

Instead of just watching passively, he focused intentionally on the emotional energy being generated.

He visualized it, like strings in the air. And then, like casting a spiritual sense hook—

SHWIP!

The emotions snapped toward him with shocking clarity. A whole stream of Wrath and Surprise surged into his Soul Sea like water through a pipe.

Han Yu’s jaw dropped.

"That... that worked?!"

His Spirit Sense hadn’t just seen the energy—it had called it.

It was like aiming a funnel. He didn’t even need to be that close this time—he had still been fifteen steps away. But the energy had obeyed because he had willed it toward himself.

"So I can pull it in directly... if I direct it with my Spirit Sense?"

He ran more experiments through the afternoon.

It became clear that passively waiting for energy to drift in wasn’t efficient at all. Most of the time, it never made it to him unless he was extremely close. Even then, some of it faded before touching his Soul Sea.

Unless the energy was strong in high amount, it would simply fade before reaching him.

But if he directed it—if he linked his Spirit Sense to the emotional signature and mentally beckoned it—his absorption rate skyrocketed.

"I must’ve missed out on so much before," he muttered. "All those times I just walked away from chaos too early..."

The realization was humbling.

Without a clear understanding of range and collection methods, he had probably wasted dozens of opportunities to refine his Soul Qi. And unlike Spirit Qi, which could be cultivated from heaven and earth’s ambient energies, Eight Emotions Energy needed human chaos. It didn’t grow on trees.

Now he understood.

Absorbing Eight Emotions Energy wasn’t just about being present. It was about participation—or at least active attention.

The closer he was to the emotional source, the purer and more potent the energy. If he engaged his Spirit Sense and drew it in, he could harvest efficiently. But if he was too far, or inattentive, the energy would simply vanish like smoke in the wind.

"...So I need to stay close to chaos," Han Yu muttered, rubbing his chin. "And I need to directly harvest the energy. Can’t just sit around meditating."

A wide grin slowly spread across his face.

This meant only one thing.

He had to throw himself back into the very thing he’d mastered before.

"Time to stir the pot."

He’d already been causing trouble with a fake beard, prank powders, and ridiculous pill explosions. But now he had reason—strategic purpose. He could turn the Outer Court into a storm of emotions and use it as his personal Soul Qi farm.

And the best part?

Nobody could see or sense what he was doing.

"As long as I stay under the radar... I can be the perfect chaos cultivator." Even though he wasn’t actually cultivating Chaos Qi, that was an entirely different element.

But Han Yu didn’t really care, all of it was metaphorical to him anyways.