The most shameless alchemist in history

"Didn't I tell you to keep quiet? What are you still muttering about? Hurry up and go!" Nan Yin urged anxiously from behind. All she could think about was getting out of the lava lake as quickly as possible, and she didn't notice the cracks spreading rapidly above her head, with rocks about to fall.

"I wanted to keep quiet, but it seems it can't hold on any longer. No way, you can't play me like this." Du Lei watched as all the cracks in the rock, which was about four meters in diameter, merged into one, making "crack" and "crack" sounds, and it was about to collapse.

He prayed incessantly, hoping the rock could hold on a little longer. He and Nan Yin continued forward without stopping, but just as they were about to reach the exit, the rock finally gave way and crashed into the lava lake with a deafening roar.

"Run!" Du Lei's face turned deathly pale. Realizing the danger, he couldn't care less about anything else. He immediately shouted, yelling at Nan Yin to escape this dangerous place as quickly as possible.

023 Is this thing really alive?

Du Lei has been having really bad luck lately. To be precise, ever since he took on the job of Nan Yin and entered Beishan, all sorts of unfortunate things have happened one after another. Not to mention the treacherous mountain roads of Beishan, where he almost fell into the abyss several times, he also encountered a ruthless killer on the way.

Now, after much difficulty, they have finally reached the interior of the sealed cave and are very close to the star stone that Nan Yin is looking for. However, while crossing the lava lake, a huge black shadow suddenly appeared below the lake. They originally thought that as long as they passed through quietly, they could at least get through the danger and be safe.

But just as they were about to leave this dangerous place, a boulder fell from the dome, causing a large number of lava bubbles to splash onto the surface of the lava lake. The enormous creature underwater was clearly disturbed by the boulder, and the surface of the water began to ripple violently.

The once smooth road surface began to tremble with a roar that could tear eardrums apart. Boiling lava splashed onto the road, hissing white smoke rising from it from time to time. The air was filled with a strong smell of sulfur, and huge bubbles rose on the surface of the lake, as if something was about to burst out.

"Damn it, we almost made it out at this moment! Hurry up!" Nan Yin knew the situation was bad, and she didn't care about keeping her voice down anymore. She loudly urged Du Lei to leave this dangerous place. The splashing lava was less than half a meter away from her trouser leg, and her escape route was being swallowed up.

“I know without you reminding me that what can survive in lava is not something gentle and cute, and it’s so big too. No good, let’s stop ahead.” Du Lei followed Nan Yin and ran quickly, driven by his years of hunting habits in the deep mountains.

As he ran, he kept an eye on his surroundings. He noticed that the road ahead was broken and realized something was wrong. He grabbed Nan Yin and pulled her back. Due to the momentum of Nan Yin's sprint, the two of them stumbled forward several steps, which annoyed Nan Yin.

"What are you doing? At a time like this, you still have the mind to fool around? The road is completely broken!" Nan Yin scolded Du Lei. Now is not the time for fighting. But as the two of them steadied their steps, the road in front of them shattered into pieces.

It was only because Du Lei pulled her back in time; if he had been even a fraction of a second slower, Nan Yin would have fallen into the boiling lava along with the broken rocks. Realizing that she was only one step away from death, Nan Yin broke out in a cold sweat, and at the same time, the two of them faced a new problem.

"Do you think I'm the kind of person who can't think straight when it matters? Damn it, now the roads are all destroyed, we're completely trapped here, and that big guy under the lake is about to come out. It's really like when it rains, it pours. But there's also something to be thankful for."

Dure looked at the completely broken road ahead, the only bridge connecting the exit cave at the end of the lava lake. Now that the road was blocked, they were completely trapped. The lava lake was churning more and more violently, and the outline of the dark figure could be clearly seen approaching.

"It's already this bad, what's there to be thankful for? Are you out of your mind?" Although the surrounding area was filled with lava and the temperature was scorching, Nan Yin was covered in cold sweat. She looked around but couldn't find a way to escape the lava lake.

"Look behind us, it's not just the passage in front that's broken off; the area behind us has also been completely swallowed up by the movement of that giant underwater thing. At least we still have some land to use, so we won't fall into the lava lake. Isn't that something to be thankful for?"

Du Lei pointed to the road they had been running along behind them, which was now mostly swallowed up by scorching lava. They were now trapped on a desolate piece of land that had been cut off at both ends, and as the tremors began, boulders kept falling from the dome.

"What kind of good thing is this? I think you're being too optimistic. Damn it, this magical energy fluctuation is at least at the Flame Rank or higher, maybe even higher, far exceeding my magical energy range. I can't beat it at all. It's all your fault, what kind of path did you lead us down? You've really gotten us killed."

Nan Yin had only hoped that Du Lei could offer some constructive suggestions for resolving the current situation, but instead, he made this pointless discovery, which was simply a waste of time.

"Ha! You were clearly in front, yet you're blaming me! And if it weren't for me, you would have been swallowed by the lava long ago. Can you be reasonable?" Du Lei immediately defended himself. He wasn't willing to take the blame; he wasn't the one who would hold everyone back.

"It's so noisy over there, come out!" Nan Yin was on high alert. The massive fire magic was suffocating her, and she had no mind to argue with Du Lei. She looked ahead warily, and just then, a pillar of magma suddenly spewed out from not far to her right.

Dozens of magma columns shot up to a height of over ten meters. The stone slabs that were originally broken into countless small pieces and floating on the magma lake were instantly lifted into the air by the magma columns and shattered into pieces, falling into the lake and splashing up a lot of water, while more magma sprayed out.

This scene was already terrifying enough, but what truly terrified Nan Yin was that along with the water column, a colossal beast emerged from the lake, its entire body bathed in lava. It let out a deafening roar, and waves of intense heat filled the air.

The scorching, violent aura flowed through the open pores of her body, mingling with the cold sweat that broke out. It was an instinctive tremor from the deepest part of her soul. Even someone as knowledgeable as Nan Yin took a step back in fear, as the immense pressure was beyond her capacity to withstand.

"What is this thing? Is it really alive?" Du Lei looked up at the lava creature with a long tail that resembled a crocodile. Although he had seen many strange snow monsters in the snow mountains, this was the first time he had seen one of this size.

"This is a lava crocodile, a monster that feeds exclusively on magma. Its magic power was already far superior to mine, and its attribute is the same as mine—fire, or even higher-level lava. My attacks simply cannot harm it. Damn it, I should have prepared earlier."

Nan Yin carefully examined the creature and recognized it as the enormous thing that had emerged from the lava. Although she was holding the hilt of a knife in her right hand, she knew that even if she drew her knife, it would be useless against the lava crocodile. It was like pouring a bucket of water to put out a fire, but pouring it into a river would have no effect.

"Is this what they call a high-level magical beast? It's not even on the same level as the mutated gorilla we encountered before. And there's no place to hide around. This is really a headache." Du Lei was well aware of the seriousness of the problem, even though the lava crocodile wasn't targeting them for the time being.

But at this moment, it was in a state of frenzied rage, having just awakened from its slumber. The surrounding pillars of lava were attacking indiscriminately, and it was only a matter of time before the small piece of land they were standing on sank.

024 This is time-limited.

Du Lei's ability to survive in the snow-capped mountains at such a young age is a testament to his skills. His single-handedly taking down four ferocious mutated gorillas at the mountaintop bathhouse is the best proof of this. However, he is no longer facing low-level magical beasts like mutated gorillas.

The lava crocodile, capable of easily destroying the entire hot spring village, stands brazenly on his opposite side. This suffocating feeling deeply makes one feel what "despair" means. This gap cannot be bridged by conspiracies and tricks. Moreover, the geographical factors are extremely unfavorable to them.

"There's no other way but to fight it. Even if we can't beat it, it's better than dying here doing nothing." Nan Yin steeled her heart. Even though her hands were trembling, she still gripped the hilt of her knife, ready to fight the lava crocodile to the death. This was the only viable option in her despair.

"Wait a minute, are you crazy? Didn't you just say that your elemental attacks are ineffective against it? You still went ahead anyway. You're really a stubborn girl. Besides, the situation might not be as bad as you think. Think quickly, we can definitely find a solution before it attacks."

Du Lei immediately stopped Nan Yin's reckless behavior. He was not the kind of stubborn person who would solve problems with brute force. Although his strength was far inferior to Nan Yin's, he was much calmer than Nan Yin in this situation, even though he was also dominated by unparalleled fear.

"Faced with an absolute power gap, what other solution is there? If you want to wait to die in despair, I won't stop you, but I won't die in such a humiliating way." Nan Yin cast a disdainful glance at Du Lei. A girl like her was fearless, but Du Lei, a man, was afraid.

This made Nan Yin look down on Du Lei without her realizing it. After all, by nature, girls prefer a great hero who can shield them from the wind and rain, rather than a coward hiding behind them, trembling and even advising them not to resist. This is blatant contempt.

"Your gaze is really unpleasant. There's an old saying that if you encounter a road that can't be traveled, you should just take a detour. We don't need to confront this monster head-on. As long as we can get out of here safely, that's enough, right?" Du Lei was a quick-witted man and naturally saw through Nan Yin's sarcasm.

However, he never took such things to heart. Even as the land beneath his feet was constantly being swallowed by lava, leaving them less and less room to maneuver, he tried his best to remain calm and find the right path to survival. This is why he was able to survive in the snow mountain.

"You make it sound so easy for us to leave smoothly. We're almost out of footholds now. How are you going to get around the scorching lava?" Nan Yin thought Du Lei would say something, but she didn't expect such a pointless suggestion. She scoffed at it and didn't take it seriously at all.

"Your magic is fire-based, right? Fire can't damage magma, but magma will also deal significantly less damage to flames, right?" Dure asked two questions in quick succession, his will to survive driving his brain to work at high speed.

“That’s true, so what?” Nan Yin frowned, not quite understanding what Du Lei meant by suddenly saying that.

“Since we can’t attack, let’s focus all our strength on defense. Besides, our path isn’t completely blocked. Look ahead.” Du Lei pointed ahead. Although their path was shattered by the appearance of the lava crocodile, there were still many rocks floating around.

However, lava occasionally splashes up, threatening to engulf the rocks. At the same time, the dome is affected, with cracks constantly appearing. When the cracks connect, huge rocks fall down and float on the surface of the lake.

Only after the lava completely erodes the rocks will they gradually sink into the water. With the indiscriminate attacks of the lava crocodiles, more and more rocks fall, forming a natural moving platform in the lava lake. Dure keenly observed this in the shortest possible time.

"You're trying to use these floating stone slabs to get across, but that's extremely dangerous. If even one slab goes astray, you'll fall completely into the lava. While fire magic can resist some of the damage from the lava, it doesn't mean you'll be safe once you fall in."

Nan Yin thought Du Lei's idea was too far-fetched. She shook her head, disagreed, and reminded him of the limitations of fire.

"Even if it's dangerous, it's still better than you, a headstrong girl who's going head-to-head with a lava crocodile. Hurry up, take action before it kills us. Immediately strengthen yourself with fire magic. You can definitely do that, right?" Dure raised his voice, as they didn't have much time left.

“I understand. If I die here, I will never let you go. Release the Crimson Lotus Armor with magic!” Nan Yin gritted her teeth. She didn’t have time to think and could only do as Du Lei said. She drew her long sword, held it in front of her, and her fingers ran along the blade, splattering blood.

At the same time, she placed a dot of bright red blood on Du Lei's forehead. Simultaneously, a blazing flame appeared and burned along both her and Du Lei's foreheads. This commotion startled Du Lei, but after confirming that it was not scalding hot, he breathed a sigh of relief and touched the flame with his finger.

"Although I've heard of magic before, seeing it with my own eyes and experiencing it firsthand is truly incredible. This way, most of the damage from the lava can be reduced, right? Even the temperature feels much lower than before." Dure marveled at the magic.

A thin layer of flame armor covered his body. Originally, he would have been almost evaporated from the heat under the attack of the scorching air waves, but with the appearance of the flame armor, the temperature dropped a lot. This was the protective effect of fire attribute magic, which Dure was very interested in.

"This is the Crimson Lotus Armor, formed from the demonic energy extracted from the Crimson Lotus Demon Blade. I'll remind you again: it can only withstand a portion of the lava damage. Don't think that you can just take a bath in the lava like that. Moreover, there's a time limit; it will disappear after the time is up," Nan Yin solemnly reminded her.

She was afraid that Du Lei would lose his life because he was too complacent. Besides, as Du Lei said, she couldn't find any other way to escape, but Du Lei was full of confidence. She could only try her luck as a last resort.

"Speaking of which, since you have such a good thing, why didn't you take it out earlier? Oh my, it's suddenly so cool, it feels like soaking in a hot spring." Du Lei didn't listen to Nan Yin's words at all, and was enjoying the warm feeling of being enveloped by the flames.

"Didn't I just say that the reserves of magical energy are limited, and there's a time limit? You should at least listen to what others are saying!" Nan Yin stomped her foot in anger. This guy in front of her seemed unreliable no matter how she looked at him. Her confidence in him was increasingly wavering. Was trusting him really the right choice?

"Oh dear, of course I know about that kind of thing. I was just telling a joke to lighten the mood. Why are you so tense? Alright, since that's the case, let's get down to business. Follow me, and no matter what difficulties or obstacles we encounter, I guarantee you'll get through them safely. Come on!"

With a roar, Du Lei swiftly pulled a large crossbow from his back, pulled the trigger, and fired.

025 There's another way you can try.

When Nan Yin first met Du Lei, she witnessed him taking out a powerful crossbow and shooting the demonized gorilla. It was not surprising that he carried a crossbow with him. In fact, Du Lei had been carrying a large crossbow on his back the whole way to the sealed cave. This crossbow was much larger than the previous arm crossbow.

She hadn't noticed it at first, but after Du Lei took off his leather jacket, she discovered that he had a lot of things hidden on him. The leather jacket contained various daggers and hunting knives, making him practically a mobile arsenal. Du Lei had to make a difficult choice before keeping the large crossbow.

Seeing Du Lei holding the crossbow and preparing to fire at the lava crocodile, Nan Yin was furious. She had thought Du Lei would come up with some way to turn the tide, but this was the result. This completely destroyed any remaining confidence she had in him.

"What are you thinking? Do you think you can hurt the Lava Crocodile with a crossbow? It's not like those gorillas. Besides, even a steel arrow will melt in an instant!" Nan Yin's patience was completely gone, and she cursed at Du Lei.

"No, that's not it." Du Lei chuckled, not taking Nan Yin's accusations too seriously. This attitude was like adding fuel to the fire for Nan Yin.

"What?" Nan Yin scoffed at this. She had completely lost faith in Du Lei and thought that he was just trying to attract attention.

"Who said the target was that big guy? My target is this!" Du Lei suddenly raised the crossbow's sight upwards, aimed at the dome in the upper right, and pulled the trigger. The sharp crossbow bolt instantly shot into the dome and embedded itself firmly in a large rock with a "click".

"Are you crazy? You're still in the mood to play at a time like this? I must have been desperate to believe you. Men are unreliable, I have to figure it out myself." Nan Yin glared at Du Lei angrily. She gripped the hilt of her knife again, ready to fight the giant beast to the death.

“This isn’t a game. You only know if a man is reliable after you’ve tried him. Next up is this position.” Du Lei remained unmoved by Nan Yin’s accusations. He still firmly gripped the crossbow, pushing the bolt into the slot. After a precise aim, he pulled the trigger again.

"Are you ever going to stop? You're just going to die in cowardice. I'm not willing to die like this. Even if I burn out my life force, I won't fall here easily. Um, what did you do?" Nan Yin was ready to charge.

Just as she was about to make her move, she suddenly saw another large rock fall from the dome above, landing not far to her right. As the boulder fell, a large amount of lava was splashed up. Because they were too close, neither she nor Dure could dodge it.

"It's so hot, it's burning me! But this Crimson Lotus Armor is still somewhat effective. When the lava splashes on me, it only feels scalding. No, I can't reach this spot. Stop standing there and hurry up and rush over!" Du Lei instinctively shrank back when the lava splashed over.

But not far behind him was a boiling lava lake. With nowhere to retreat, he could only turn around to protect the large crossbow in his hand from being burned by the lava, and use his side to block the splashing lava. Fortunately, Nan Yin applied the Crimson Lotus Armor to him in time, and the crimson flames burned fiercely.

Protected by the flames, although the lava burned a hole directly into the surface of the flames, the power of the lava was greatly reduced. Dure suffered very little damage, and the hole was quickly repaired. Neither of them was injured by the lava attack.

"The crossbow bolts didn't attack the lava crocodile, but instead attacked the dome. Did they aim for a crevice in the rock, destroy it, and cause the rock to fall? But it just happened to land in this spot. What exactly is going on?" Nan Yin was a smart person and quickly realized Du Lei's intention. He wasn't just taking a chance.

"Now is not the time to talk about that. Hurry up and jump over before that guy gets angry. This distance is definitely not a problem. Next, that position." Du Lei jumped onto the fallen rock first. Although he staggered, he managed to steady himself. He then signaled Nan Yin to follow.

Nan Yin gritted her teeth and jumped over. The distance between the two rocks was about two meters, but the rocks were not flat. She almost fell backward as soon as she stepped on the edge. Fortunately, Du Lei reached out and grabbed her in time, otherwise she would have fallen into the boiling lava.

"Oh no, I almost fell! You idiot, is this method really reliable? Every time I feel like I'm risking my life!" Nan Yin was still shaken. The magma around her was boiling more intensely, and even the rock she was standing on was gradually sinking, as it was being eroded by the magma.

"Hey, at least there's some risk to take, so we won't die right now. Hurry up and come over, this rock won't last much longer," Du Lei urged Nan Yin to catch up with him quickly. In the gap between his words, he shot another arrow, and rocks kept falling down, adding to the already shattered stone slabs.

This created a passage leading to the lake's outlet, but the passage was poorly connected, and the flames burning on their bodies were becoming increasingly thin. Nan Yin clearly told Du Lei that this was a sign that their magical energy was about to be exhausted, and the consumption here was truly astonishing.

"Hey, why aren't you moving? We're only ten meters away from the other side, why did you stop now?" Nan Yin verbally expressed her dissatisfaction with Du Lei, but following Du Lei's method, they were indeed getting closer and closer to the other side, and they were visibly closing the distance to less than twenty meters.

But Du Lei, who had just fired more than a dozen crossbow bolts, suddenly stopped and made no move, which made Nan Yin extremely anxious.

“I don’t want to stop either, but all the crossbow bolts are gone, so there’s no way to create new stepping stones. And what’s with this flame? It’s about to go out.” Dure pointed to the empty crossbow in the slot; he had just fired his last bolt.

“Your crossbow bolts will eventually run out, and your magic power will eventually be depleted, especially after being attacked by lava time and time again. How do you think you managed to avoid being burned alive by the lava? You’ve come this far, yet you’re about to fail at the last minute. It’s truly infuriating,” Nan Yin said through gritted teeth.

If she had fought the lava crocodile from the beginning and died a spectacular death, she wouldn't have felt this resentment. But now, after all her efforts, she was only a stone's throw away from the exit, yet she was trapped. This feeling of having hope only to watch it crumble before her eyes was extremely painful for her.

"Stop complaining, there must be another way. That's right, there's one last way we can try, but it's a bit dangerous." Du Lei quickly thought of a solution to the current situation, and soon he came up with one, but his expression showed some difficulty.

"Danger? You mean the way we came wasn't dangerous enough? Are you kidding me?" Nan Yin scolded Du Lei. Every step she took was a life-threatening one. Several times she thought she was going to die, but she managed to escape and survive.

“Since you say so, then there’s no problem. Now attack that big thing,” Du Lei thought for a moment, pointed at the lava crocodile, and told Nan Yin his so-called “somewhat dangerous method.”

026 Are you familiar with the structure here?

Nan Yin doubted several times whether she had misheard, or whether the guy in front of her had gone mad from despair. The two of them had gone through great hardships to escape here in order to avoid a direct confrontation with the lava crocodile, and they had no chance of winning no matter what.

But now Du Lei is asking her to attack the lava crocodile, which is like going in circles and coming back to the same point. This makes Nan Yin feel like she's been played. She really wants to stab Du Lei to death before he's swallowed by the lava, so that she can settle both the old and new scores.

"Don't look at me like that. The rock under our feet is about to sink. There's no time. Hey, if you don't want to do the work, then let me do it. Hey, buddy, look over here. Are you ignoring me? Is this arrogance really okay?" Du Lei shouted.

He shouted at the lava crocodile, but the latter did not react. He took a dagger from his waist and threw it without thinking. At this distance, the dagger accurately hit the lava crocodile's back. However, the lava crocodile's body was too huge, more than ten meters tall.

The dagger, devoid of any magical properties, melted into molten iron the instant it pierced its lava body, utterly unable to cause it the slightest harm. Nan Yin was stunned by Du Lei's actions, for his behavior was utterly incomprehensible.

"Are you crazy? We're trying to avoid the lava crocodile like the plague, and you're actually provoking it? Are you trying to hasten your own demise?" Nan Yin was practically driven to the brink of collapse by Du Lei's words. He was the one who said not to confront the lava crocodile head-on, the one who avoided it, and yet he was the one who provoked it.