The most shameless alchemist in history

“Understood, let’s set off now… Leopard Tail, what’s wrong? Are you alright?” Bee Sting nodded and immediately prepared to leave, but before leaving, she saw that Leopard Tail still looked lost and dejected. He had been like this since earlier and hadn’t participated in the conversation.

"I... am fine." Leopard Tail shook his head, indicating that he was alright.

"Why don't you stay here and go find Miss Winry, while the rest of us go find Ghostly Ghost?" Kotetsu was also worried about Leopard Tail's appearance and suggested that he split up with them. In fact, he could have ordered Leopard Tail to do so, but he didn't.

“No need. As long as we deal with her, Miss Winry will be safe, right? To protect Miss Winry… I will never back down. Let’s go.” Leopard Tail rejected Kotetsu’s suggestion. He looked to the west and staggered ahead.

"Is he really okay?" Bee Sting asked worriedly as he watched Leopard Tail's retreating figure.

“We’ve fought side by side countless times, so let’s trust him and move out.” Kotetsu wanted to say something, but he shook his head. He didn’t interfere with Leopard Tail anymore. The group quickly followed Leopard Tail and headed towards the west side of Nightmare Mountain, which was the direction with the strongest suppression.

Meanwhile, in a cave on the west side of Nightmare Mountain, a girl who looked to be about thirteen or fourteen years old was struggling to walk, clutching her chest. She kept looking back, as if afraid that someone was chasing her. Her expression was somewhat flustered, and black smoke kept escaping from her chest.

"Damn it, that brat actually injured me! Unforgivable, absolutely unforgivable! I must catch him and torture him in the most cruel way!" She gritted her teeth with hatred as she recalled the experience, even though she had clearly gained the upper hand and suppressed everyone.

Even though the young man with iron claws almost caused her trouble, his heart was too fragile and he was easily defeated. She easily took him down and thought that no one could stand against her anymore and could only be slaughtered by her.

But in this situation, an unknown kid suddenly appeared. He took advantage of her inattention and shot her with a crossbow that looked just as inconspicuous as himself. She never dreamed that a low-level crossbow could hurt her.

"No, my magical energy is severely depleted. If this continues, I won't even be able to maintain the most basic human form. I must rush back immediately. As long as I get back to its side, I can use its power to heal my wounds... Just you wait, I'll be back for you soon."

“When that time comes, you will pay the price for what you just did, and you will regret giving up the chance to die a quick death... especially that kid..." Her eyes blazed with fury, and the cave was eerily quiet in the darkness.

A green light appeared intermittently ahead; there lay what she desired, and also the place she was about to reach.

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398 Shadow Wolf Cave

Du Lei's judgment was accurate. Following the barrier that was suppressing Kotetsu and the others, they quickly found a cave. Although Kotetsu and the others knew very well that their power would be suppressed even more after entering the cave, they were probably not much stronger than ordinary people.

However, they also knew that if they didn't take advantage of the Ghostly Spirit's injury to eliminate her, they would have no way to escape this nightmare mountain shrouded in black mist. Once she recovered, they would surely die without a burial place. Compared to the tragic consequences, now was a better choice.

"This is the right place. That oppressive force is constantly surging out of this cave. With every step we take in, we can feel an invisible wall blocking us from the outside. Captain, if we rush in like this, that woman might notice." Bee Sting's face turned pale.

She had already expended a lot of energy in the previous battle with the ghostly figures, and now, moving forward against the oppressive force, she felt as if she were walking underwater. She couldn't unleash any of her magical power, and inside the cave, there was a constant howling of the wind, like the wailing of ghosts and wolves.

“Even if she notices, we will only move forward, not backward. This cave should only have one exit. If we keep going forward, we will definitely find her.” Du Lei’s attitude was very firm. Tonight, he was a completely different person from the one who had remained silent and timid all the way here.

"We've been walking for more than ten minutes, and the pressure ahead is getting stronger. I think we'll find our destination soon. Hey, there's light ahead?" Kotetsu walked at the front of the group. The cave was more than a person's height and wide enough for two people to walk side by side.

It looked like it was formed naturally. There were stalactites inside the cave, and water dripped from the inverted stalactites. There were many small puddles on the ground. The cave was deep and dark. They could only move forward with difficulty by flashlight, but soon a faint green light appeared.

"Is that imposter Miss Winry up ahead? We're finally going to find her. This time, I will never let her get away with this!" Leopard Tail gritted his teeth and sped up as he rushed toward the light, clearly furious.

"Leopard Tail, don't be impulsive, calm down! Look, something's lunging at us!" Bee Sting was getting anxious when she saw Leopard Tail's state. After her warnings to no avail, she immediately followed. Just as they reached the location emitting light, a dark shadow pounced on them.

These shadows came on fiercely, each half a person's height, and their attack was powerful and heavy. The bee stinger that was directly hit was knocked back more than ten meters.

“It’s a Shadow Wolf! A magical beast that lives in the shadows!” Dure was much calmer than Bee Sting. After dodging the attack of the Shadow Wolves, he squinted and carefully identified the origin of these magical beasts. Although he had never seen a Shadow Wolf in person before, he had read about it in books.

"Shadow Wolf... a two-star high-level magical beast, the Shadow Wolf? Normally, dealing with these guys would be a piece of cake, but now... this is really not good. Everyone be careful!" Hu Che threw a heavy punch, sending the Shadow Wolf that pounced on him flying backward and crashing into the wall.

The shadow wolf howled as it crashed into the wall, but this was not enough to stop its companions from charging forward. Six or seven shadow wolves pounced one after another. Kotetsu, who had just repelled one shadow wolf, swung his fist and smashed it into another one. He managed to knock the shadow wolf back.

However, his own fists were also covered in blood, and the light wrapped around them was very weak, indicating that the magical energy enhancement had been greatly reduced.

"Please step back immediately!" Du Lei shouted from behind as Hu Che, Feng Ci, and Yuan Bi were struggling to cope.

Although Kotetsu and the others in front were not clear about what was going on, they instinctively stepped back when they heard the shouts. Almost at the same time that Kotetsu turned his body and hugged the wall to avoid it, a sharp whooshing sound came from behind him, and a sharp arrow flew past his cheek.

The Shadow Wolf seemed unaware of what was happening. Even if it had, it was a fraction of a second too slow. Just as it realized the danger and tried to dodge, a sharp arrow pierced its body, accompanied by thick blood and a bloodcurdling scream, while the whooshing sound of the arrow still hadn't stopped.

The crossbow bolt that pierced through the shadow wolf showed no signs of stopping. It continued to move forward. The second shadow wolf, seeing its companion's tragic death, howled and tried to dodge, but it was no match for the crossbow bolt. Its originally well-defended body was like paper in front of the arrowhead.

The crossbow bolt fired by Dure managed to pierce through two shadow wolves in a very short time before pinning it to the wall!

That wasn't all. In the brief interval between the first crossbow bolt being fired, Du Lei had already reloaded. The second crossbow bolt followed like a shadow, and in just a few seconds, the Shadow Wolf pack, which had been overwhelming Hu Che and the others, was instantly pierced by the crossbow bolt, leaving behind several corpses as they fled in panic.

"Are you saved? What exactly is this...?" Realizing she had survived, Bee Sting squatted on the ground, panting heavily. She had been struggling to cope and had almost been hit. Now, seeing the shadow wolf's corpse on the ground, she realized it was a creature that was entirely black, resembling a shadow, and only appeared at night.

She doubted several times whether what she was seeing was real, because even if her power hadn't been weakened, killing these shadow wolves wouldn't have been so easy. On the contrary, it was Dure, a mere high-level magic user, who had done it. This made her re-evaluate Dure.

Especially that large crossbow in his hand!

"It's good that everyone is alright. The presence of Shadow Wolves guarding this place means we're very close to the Ghostly Spirits. We don't know what lies ahead, so please be careful." Du Lei put away his crossbow, walked to the wall and the Shadow Wolf's corpse, pulled out the bolts, and wiped the blood off the arrowheads.

There were only twelve crossbow bolts in total, and once one was fired, there was one less left, so he had to use them sparingly.

"Are you really only at the high-level?" After regaining her senses, Bee Sting stood up and asked Du Lei.

"It's the real deal," Du Lei said confidently.

"Don't ask any more questions, let's go... Hmm? Where is Leopard Tail?" Tiger Che reminded Bee Sting not to ask too many questions, after all, Dure had taken care of the situation several times, especially now that their magic power was suppressed, Dure needed to rely on them even more.

But just as they were about to continue, they found that there were only a few people nearby, including Du Lei, Bee Sting, Tiger Che, and Ape Arm, but no sign of Leopard Tail. This made Tiger Che frown.

"Huh, that's strange. He was just here, but now... where is he?" Bee Sting looked around, truly puzzled.

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399 Manual excavation

For Winry, today was a night of terror. A noble lady like her should be living peacefully in the snow-covered palace of Frost City, the capital of the Snow Kingdom. But because of her noble birth, she also had to bear responsibilities.

But when the country faced a severe situation, she took the initiative to step forward and chose a path she had never experienced or even thought of before. She had prepared herself mentally before coming, knowing that she might encounter many setbacks and difficulties along the way.

But she thought that as long as she had the determination and courage, she could get through it, right? That was what she originally thought. In fact, when she set off from Frost City to Maple City, the journey was quite smooth. She was escorted by the army along the way and there were no major problems.

However, Maple City served as a dividing line. First, she encountered an accident within the city, with her carriage nearly falling into a turbulent river. Then, she entered Nightmare Mountain. As a noble young lady, she was in the wilderness, and it would have been understandable if she had to make do with whatever she could find.

She accepted any encounters with snakes, insects, rats, or ants, not wanting to hold the team back. But then something even worse happened: when she finished relieving herself and was about to meet up with the bees waiting for her, she was suddenly enveloped in a cloud of black smoke. She panicked and struggled desperately.

No matter how hard she struggled, she couldn't break free. No matter how much she screamed, she couldn't make a sound. She could only watch helplessly as she got further and further away from the bee sting that was facing away from her. In a daze, she even saw a person who looked exactly like her walking towards the bee sting...

Just after she had been dragged dozens of meters away, someone fortunately discovered her in time, cut off the black smoke, and rescued her. However, she was not safe because there was a lot of black smoke nearby, and a large amount of smoke turned into the shape of evil spirits and rushed towards them, trying to grab them.

Therefore, they had no choice but to run for their lives. She didn't know how far she had run, and when she could no longer walk, she stopped to rest and found herself in a cave. There was a large, lush green area around her, and she had no idea what was inside the depths of the cave.

"Thanks to Miss Bailing for appearing in time, otherwise I really don't know what would have happened to me." Recalling what had just happened, Wenli was still shaken. There was no other light around except for the eerie green light, and she could occasionally hear the sound of water droplets falling on the ground.

“Protecting Miss Wenli’s safety is my mission, but this place…” Bailing shook her head, not taking credit for saving Wenli. She cautiously looked around. This place made her feel very uneasy. She was not confident that she could get Wenli out safely.

“What’s wrong with this place? Those terrible fumes aren’t following us anymore, we can finally catch our breath. I wonder how Mr. Kotetsu and Mr. Dure are doing. They must be worried sick about me… Wait, I think I just saw someone who looks just like me.”

Wenli felt a sense of relief, as if she had survived a close call. When she was being chased by the black smoke, she thought she was going to die several times. But this feeling of relief didn't last long, because she remembered the people she saw when she was taken away by the black smoke.

“She doesn’t look exactly like you, Miss Wenli. Instead, she impersonated you to bewitch Hu Che and the others. I don’t know if they can see through that she’s a fake.” Bai Ling shook her head; she knew the situation very well.

"What? Disguised as me? How could this be? Wouldn't Mr. Kotetsu and the others be in great danger?" Wen Li hadn't thought of that yet, but upon hearing Bai Ling's words, she immediately began to worry about the safety of Kotetsu and the others.

"Miss Wenli, rest assured, Mr. Kotetsu is powerful and experienced, and he shouldn't be fooled." Bailing didn't say much to Kotetsu, but she still had a little bit of confidence in him. She was mainly saying this to Wenli to put her mind at ease.

“That’s true. Mr. Kotetsu is very capable and he certainly won’t be fooled. So what do we do now? Should we go back to find Mr. Kotetsu and the others?” Wenli knew Kotetsu very well. There was a reason why that person sent Kotetsu as the captain of the guard when she left the royal capital, Frost City.

“There’s black smoke everywhere outside the cave right now. We can’t act rashly. There’s only one thing we can do now.” Bailing shook her head.

"What is it?" Wenli was very concerned about this matter. The cave was really too creepy, and she didn't want to stay here for long.

"Wait," Bai Ling replied succinctly, knowing that the two of them alone had no way to protect themselves in the cave.

All she could do was wait for Hu Che and the others to come to them. If they acted on their own in the cave, the consequences would be unimaginable!

Meanwhile, on the other side of the cave, Dure and his group were hurrying deeper into the cave. Their goal was very clear: to find the ghostly figure disguised as Winry who had nearly wiped them out and to completely defeat her.

"What's going on with this cave? Why haven't we reached the end yet? It's so deep. Could we have fallen for another trick and started hallucinating?" Bee Sting said suspiciously as they moved forward, having already suffered from hallucinations once before.

“Miss Bee Sting, don’t worry, we’re not hallucinating. The cave is real. The caves outside are just a decoy. What we’re walking on now is the real cave.” Dure was well aware of their current situation and could distinguish between hallucination and reality.

"What do you mean by 'the real thing'?" Bee Sting slowed down and paused, not quite understanding the meaning behind Du Lei's words.

"He means that the outside of the cave is naturally formed, and even if someone accidentally wanders in, they will only treat it as an ordinary cave. In addition, the presence of shadow wolves is enough to scare away ordinary people. But after we defeat the shadow wolves and continue forward, the passages behind us are all man-made."

Although Kotetsu didn't say much, he remembered everything he saw, and his mind was very clear.

"Man-made... I see, so that's how it is. The cave is all man-made, but who exactly carved this cave here?" Bee Sting had been so focused on moving forward that she hadn't paid much attention to her surroundings.

Anyway, it's all just a big, dark area!

Now, after listening to Du Lei and Hu Che's words and observing carefully, he noticed that the surrounding passageway was very smooth and that there were many murals on the walls.

“We’re almost at the deepest part of the cave. Once we’re there, we’ll know who built it and why. Look, there’s light ahead! We’ve arrived!” Du Lei pointed to the green light ahead as a reminder.

"Let's go!" Kotetsu said in a deep voice, and charged in first!

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Did you get 400?

When Du Lei and his group rushed to the cave entrance from the source of the green light, the narrow passage suddenly opened up, revealing a huge palace with a large number of fireflies floating inside, like stars in the sky.

They were numerous, numbering in the tens of thousands, and the light emanating from their tails was enough to illuminate everything inside the palace as if it were daytime. In the very center of the palace was an altar, which was over ten meters high and triangular in shape. Huge stone pillars supported the altar from top to bottom, stretching as far as the eye could see.

"This is actually... a palace? This palace has almost hollowed out the mountain. Who could have built such a magnificent palace here? It's unbelievable." Bee Sting was dumbfounded when she saw this scene. She was a knowledgeable person.

However, among all the palaces she had ever seen, even the palaces of Frost City, the capital of the Snow Kingdom, were not as majestic and imposing as this underground palace. Of course, the palaces of Frost City followed a delicate path of being covered in silver and white, and the two were not in the same style at all, but the scale of the underground palace was evident.

"Now is not the time to think about those things. Look over there." Kotetsu pointed to the top of the altar, where a figure was running upwards.

"That's... Leopard Tail? What's wrong with him? Why is he acting so recklessly without waiting for us? This is too dangerous! Hey, Leopard Tail, come back quickly, come back quickly!" Bee Sting recognized the figure running up the steps of the altar as Leopard Tail.

"It's dangerous to act rashly in such an unknown place," Bee Sting shouted, trying to get Leopard Tail to turn back.

“No, he won’t listen to you at all, Miss Bee Sting. Now that we’ve reached the deepest part of the cave, the ghostly figure impersonating Miss Winry must be here… Look, she’s on the altar!” Dure wasn’t too worried about Leopard Tail.

Because Leopard Tail is now completely disregarding discipline, unlike Bee Sting, who has fought alongside Leopard Tail for a long time and has no camaraderie, he is only worried about resolving the problem quickly and leaving Nightmare Mountain. From the moment he entered the underground palace, he began searching everywhere for the whereabouts of Ghostly Shadows.

After scanning the area, he noticed that the ghostly figure was on the altar, not too far from the leopard's tail!

"Have we finally found the culprit? Let's go and take care of her right away, then find Miss Winry and leave Nightmare Mountain. Move out!" Kotetsu's eyes were fixed on the ghostly figure on the altar. With a loud shout, everyone rushed towards the altar.

Meanwhile, on the altar, Leopard Tail angrily climbed the last step, staring intently at the ghostly figure not far away.

"You bastard, how dare you impersonate Miss Winry to fool me! This time I will never let you get away with this, I will definitely kill you!" Leopard Tail was only thinking about killing the ghostly figure in front of him. He had never been fooled like this before, and his anger was at its peak.

"You guys caught up so quickly? Tch, I really underestimated you. But I was shot by that damned kid and haven't recovered yet..." Ghostly Ghost was also startled by the swift speed of the group when she saw Leopard Tail.

She had originally planned to return to the cave and have some time to recover before turning around and dealing with those people. But now, before she could even catch her breath, they were already following her like a shadow, putting her under immense pressure and putting her on the verge of despair.

"Your crimes of offending Miss Winry... and your crimes of angering me... I'll give you your final judgment right here, die!" Leopard Tail swung his iron claws again, his momentum fierce as he was about to slit Ghostly Ghost's neck, his actions unusually decisive.

At this moment, Du Lei and the others, who had already climbed to the middle of the steps, happened to see this scene.