The most shameless alchemist in history

"Did you tell him?" Terry asked seriously.

"Tell him what? Explain yourself." Connie asked, somewhat confused.

"Did you tell him our true identities?" Terry repeated.

“This…” Connie didn’t finish her sentence, but her reaction spoke volumes.

"I knew you didn't tell me, didn't I? I knew it." Terry sighed; he knew her too well.

“I didn’t tell him, anyway… I probably won’t see him again.” Connie shook her head, a hint of dejection in her voice.

“We will meet,” Terry said with certainty.

"What did you say?" Connie stared at him blankly.

“I have a feeling we’ll see him again, but not here, but in… the Land of Water!” Terry looked into the distance, watching even though he could no longer see their backs clearly.

He gradually removed the bandages wrapped around his head, and his eyes were not looking into the distance.

It's the future!

491 City of Mountain Mist

The events that occurred in Harrenhal were not perfect for Dure and his group; at least the process was quite tortuous, and they almost perished there. However, the ending was still acceptable, since the Order of Light had completely collapsed.

The believers also learned the truth that the Order had been hiding, which was certainly hard to accept, but the falsehood would eventually have to return to the truth. This was an inescapable process, just as Winry had to face her mission and go to Rock Castle to negotiate between the two countries.

"We're now within the territory of Storm City. If we continue at this pace for another hour, we'll reach the city center. After a short rest, we'll take the train directly from Storm City to Rock City, which will take us smoothly to our destination."

Du Lei held a map in his hand, having already planned the route. This would have been unimaginable a week ago, when he had just joined the guard team from Maple Leaf Academy and had no say in the team at all.

Leopard Tail would constantly mock him, looking down on him for getting in through connections and underhanded means. However, over the course of the past week, from Nightmare Mountain to Spring Breeze Town and then to Harrenhal, Dure played a crucial role in a series of events.

If it weren't for him, Winry and the others would never have been able to appear in Storm City unscathed. It was because of the series of things he did that not only did Leopard Tail look at him with new respect, but his influence in the guard team gradually began to surpass that of Kotetsu.

More importantly, Kotetsu was not angry at all; instead, he let it go and took Durei's opinion very seriously.

"Have we arrived at Storm City? Storm City is an important town in the northern part of the Mountain Country, and its status is similar to that of Maple City in the Snow Country. However, geographically, one is in the south of the Snow Country and the other is in the north of the Mountain Country. We are getting closer and closer to Rock City."

Kotetsu didn't look at the map, but he frequently traveled between the Land of Mountains and the Land of Snow, so he was quite familiar with the Castle of Storms.

"The closer we get, the more cautious we must be. And so far, everything we've experienced has been orchestrated by a hidden force, yet it hasn't revealed its true nature. We should remain prudent." Du Lei was a very cautious person.

What he said wasn't wrong. He had noticed a series of unusual things since Nightmare Mountain, whether it was the space inside Nightmare Mountain, the ore mined from the ground in Spring Breeze Town, or why Harrenburg had experienced a terrible massacre many years ago.

These places all exude an air of mystery, and their secrets remain unclear to this day.

“Understood. This time when we go to Rock City for negotiations, there are people who are unwilling to see the peace talks come to fruition, both within the Snow Country and at the highest levels of the Mountain Country. They will definitely try to obstruct us in every way possible. But so far we haven’t encountered any of these people…” Kotetsu nodded.

He knew the biggest obstacle came from the noble classes of both countries, but the assassins had yet to show up, which worried him.

“Perhaps they have already encountered them, but they did not personally show themselves, such as killing Zefa…” Du Lei wanted to refer to the woman and fat man he met in Harrenburg, as well as Ji Ying who fought with Hu Che, and the black-robed man that Hu Yuan mentioned who never revealed his true appearance.

However, he quickly remembered Zephyr's unusual relationship with Kotetsu and stopped talking.

"You mean the person who killed Zefa might have been secretly instructed by someone, right? I've considered that possibility too." Kotetsu seemed quite relaxed about it. Two days had passed, and he wasn't as agitated or shocked as he had been when he first learned of Zefa's death.

"In any case, we still need to be more vigilant. Miss Winry, how are you feeling?" Dure wanted to say something more, because he felt that the past two days had been too peaceful. Normally, the closer one gets to Rock City, the more dangerous it should be.

But since leaving Harrenhal, they hadn't encountered anything. This unusual experience made him even more suspicious. However, seeing Wenli, Bailing, and the others chatting and laughing not far away, he couldn't bear to dampen their spirits, so he didn't continue the conversation.

"I'm all better now." Wenli nodded with a smile. She had encountered a fire in the small building that day and was in great danger, but fortunately she managed to hold on. Now her complexion had returned to normal. Du Lei was quite impressed that she could travel such a long distance.

"The City of Storms is just ahead. Do you know why it's called the City of Storms?" Du Lei pointed ahead. The outline of the city could already be seen, and more and more buildings were appearing nearby. Occasionally, carriages could be seen driving past them.

This was completely different from the desolation they had seen when they passed through Spring Breeze Town and Harrenhal. It was a different kind of charm, similar in prosperity to Maple City but with a completely different style. Seeing them chatting and laughing, Dure brought up a topic.

“The Castle of Storms? Of course, it’s because… because…” Leopard Tail interrupted. He wanted to seize this opportunity to show off, but after thinking hard for a while, he still couldn’t come up with a solution.

"Mmmmmmmmmmmmm." The ape-armed man next to him was gesturing excitedly, as if he wanted to say something.

"Do you know the answer? But you can't explain it, and I don't understand what you mean." Leopard Tail could tell from Ape Arm's expression that he knew something, but he couldn't understand Ape Arm's gestures, so he couldn't get the answer from him.

"The City of Storms is because... oh right, what does 'storm' mean?" Leopard Tail hesitated for a long time, only to find that he didn't even know what storms were, which was a bit embarrassing.

"The mist refers to the fog in the mountains," Wenli explained with a smile.

"Mountain fog? Oh, I know! The reason why the Storm City is called the Storm City is because there is a lot of fog here!" After getting the explanation of "storm" from Wenli, Leopard Tail slapped his forehead and immediately came up with an answer.

"What? Miss Winry, you're basically giving him the answer directly. That's fouling!" Dure said, somewhat displeased.

"What foul? This is a hint, do you understand? How could such a simple answer stump me? What a joke." Leopard Tail patted his chest, beaming with pride.

"Huh? You're that good? Then let me ask you another question. Do you know when Storm City was established and what its features are? You're not allowed to give him any hints." Du Lei reminded everyone and then threw a new question at Leopard Tail.

“This…this…” Leopard Tail looked at Winry, who smiled and blinked, but didn’t say anything. She looked at others and did the same.

"Can't answer that, huh? Want me to give you a hint?" Du Lei asked him with a smile.

"No, absolutely not, let me think about it some more." Leopard Tail was unwilling to give in so easily. He looked around, trying to find the unique features of Storm City on the street. He couldn't afford to lose to that kid by too much!

Train 492 was suspended.

Before arriving in Storm City, Du Lei and his group had already made plans. They would not stay there for too long. Initially, they planned to rest in Storm City for one night before taking the train to Rock City. However, they later considered that there might be unexpected complications and new troubles in Storm City.

After discussion, Du Lei and Kotetsu unanimously decided not to stay in Storm Castle and to board the train to Rock Castle as soon as possible. Once they arrived in Rock Castle, under the watchful eye of the Mountain King, they would be much safer, because if something happened to them in Rock Castle, the Mountain King would face immense public pressure.

However, when they actually arrived at Storm City, they found that they couldn't avoid staying there even if they wanted to. It seemed that they were unlucky and encountered another sudden situation. Compared to the series of troubles that came their way before, this time the troubles didn't come looking for them.

"What did you say? The train is out of service? What happened? Is there some kind of malfunction?" Du Lei was surprised when he heard this news from Leopard Tail, because the most convenient way to get from Storm City to Rock City was by train, which only took a day.

If they were to abandon the train and walk, it would take them at least a week to complete the journey, and the route would be extremely dangerous, which they absolutely could not afford to take. In other words, taking the train was the only option they had, but this choice led to an unexpected turn of events.

"I don't know what's going on either. I asked the people at the train station, and that's what they all said. Anyway, the trains are suspended now, so we can't take the train." Leopard Tail shrugged. He hadn't found out the details either, but in his opinion, as long as there was a conclusion, that was enough.

“No, we can’t get to Rock City without taking the train. If you didn’t find out, I’ll go find out myself.” Dure was determined to go himself. He was a persistent person and would never give up until he understood the cause and effect of a problem.

"No need to ask anymore, I already know everything." At this moment, Kotetsu returned to his room at the inn, sat down and took a sip of water.

"So what exactly happened?" Du Lei asked about Hu Che's condition, whose injuries had now recovered considerably.

"It's because the train has been chartered by a big businessman named Ababa, and it's not open to the public now," Kotetsu said with a sigh of helplessness.

"What? He chartered the entire train? What is he trying to do? And shouldn't trains be public facilities? They should serve the general public, how can they be chartered by a private individual?" Du Lei was dumbfounded by this result; it was simply too outrageous.

"I said the same thing, but that's the truth. It's said that Ababa wanted to turn the train into his daughter's wedding train, so he chartered the whole train." Hu Che has traveled all over the country and has seen all kinds of strange things, but this is the first time he has ever seen anything like this.

"A wedding train... Is he really going to stop all trains from running just for this reason? When is his daughter getting married? Will the trains be running again as soon as the wedding is over?" Although Du Lei was very resentful, he knew that he couldn't change other people's actions with just a few complaints.

"Well..." Kotetsu looked hesitant and did not answer directly.

"Uncle Kotetsu, is something troubling you? Just tell me." Du Lei noticed that Kotetsu's expression was strange, as if he had something difficult to say.

"Well, that guy, Ah Baba, hasn't found a son-in-law yet, so he doesn't know when the trains will be able to resume running." After hesitating for a while, Hu Che finally told Du Lei about it, which almost made the latter, who was drinking water, spit it out.

"What did you say? He hasn't found a son-in-law yet? Did his son-in-law disappear and run away?" Du Lei found it increasingly absurd.

"He didn't run away, that's not what I meant. It's just that... his daughter hasn't even been in a relationship yet," Kotetsu said helplessly.

"He hasn't even dated yet, so what kind of son-in-law has he found?" Du Lei was practically going crazy with this idiot.

“I think I understand now. Could it be that that Ababa is planning to publicly find a husband for his daughter?” Leopard Tail, who had been listening for a while, gave this answer, which made Dure turn his head to look at him.

"Looking for a husband for his daughter? Hey, when did you become so smart?" Du Lei thought about it carefully and felt that it was indeed possible. However, he re-examined Leopard Tail from head to toe and did not think that this was something Leopard Tail could come up with.

“Don’t look at me like that. When I was gathering information outside, I heard someone shouting something about ‘seeking a spouse,’ but I didn’t pay much attention at the time. But now it seems that it must be that rich man, Ababa, seeking a spouse,” Leopard Tail explained.

“That’s right. Ababa is currently looking for a husband for his daughter. Once the match is successful and the wedding is completed, the train will resume operation.” Kotetsu confirmed this, after all, the information he had gathered was much more detailed than that of Leopard Tail.

"Hey, isn't this guy named Ababa a bit too willful? Just for this reason, he's going to delay so many people's affairs? How weird is his daughter? How unmarriageable is she that he would resort to this method?" Du Lei was speechless.

"Well... what can we do now that we've run into this? What should we do now? Should we wait, or..." Kotetsu was also helpless. He asked Dure for his opinion, since it was too unrealistic for them to walk to Rock Castle.

The longer the journey, the greater the danger. Reaching Rock City quickly would be much safer.

"What else can we do but wait? Anyway... let's wait and see. But we can't just sit here doing nothing. Let's go out and see if we can find out any other information, such as the progress of Mr. Ababa's son-in-law selection. If he finishes it soon, we can leave too."

Du Lei was also troubled, after all, this was the first time he had encountered such a situation and he had absolutely no experience in handling it.

"By the way, let's split up; that way we'll be more efficient," Du Lei added.

“Okay, then we’ll come back and meet up in two hours.” Hu Che nodded. Under the current circumstances, he really couldn’t think of a better solution. The four of them quickly left the hotel and disappeared into the bustling street.

"This journey has been incredibly unlucky, with all sorts of things happening. I hope I won't get into any more trouble this time. Well then... let's start from here, get things sorted out here as soon as possible, get to Rock City as soon as possible, and then go back as soon as possible." Du Lei sighed softly.

He increasingly felt that escorting Wenli on this journey was not the right thing to do; he had been terribly betrayed by Nono.

493 This is an apology.

Lan City is a major commercial town in the northern part of the Mountain Kingdom, with convenient transportation in all directions. At first, Du Lei thought that renting out the train station was a bit impressive, but not a big deal. After all, there are plenty of train stations, even his hometown, Snow Eagle Town, has one.

But after he left the hotel and wandered around, he realized he was completely wrong. The train station in Lan City was different from other places. The train station was huge and served thousands of people traveling to different cities every day. There were as many as eight train lines.

This is an astonishing number, but what surprised Dure even more was not this. Normally, the train station shutdown would cause great inconvenience to people, and many people should be very indignant about it. For example, he had a great prejudice against it because he couldn't take the train to Rock City.

However, after making some inquiries, he was surprised to find that the vast majority of passengers were not only not angry about the train station's suspension of service, but were actually overjoyed. As for why they reacted this way... it was not hard for Du Lei to guess; it was quite obvious.

"Hey, do you guys know? Ababa is a very famous and wealthy merchant throughout the entire continent. Nobody knows exactly how much wealth he has. It is said that his house is a castle made of gold. If you were to become his son-in-law, what a lucky thing that would be!"

"It's more than just luck; it's like being lifted from the mud to the sky overnight. I thank the gods for giving me this opportunity. If I can catch Ababa's eye and become his son-in-law, I won't have to struggle for a living anymore, and I can instantly become a member of the upper class!"

People were talking about it on the streets. The men who were usually travel-worn were all dressed smartly today, wearing formal attire and bow ties. Du Lei was speechless, but even so, he still went up to ask.

“Um… Sir, you’re over sixty years old. Are you registering your son or grandson?” Du Lei noticed an old man looking in the mirror and approached him, thinking that the old man was experienced and might be able to find out some useful information.

“I’m a bachelor, where would I get a son or grandson? You can’t just talk like that,” the old man said, glaring at Du Lei.

"Huh? No? Then what are you doing here..." Du Lei wondered what the old man was doing here. Was he here to watch the show?

"Didn't you see? Of course, it's to register as Master Ababa's son-in-law!" the old man said matter-of-factly.

"What? At your age, you actually signed up to be a son-in-law?" Du Lei's eyes widened, his face full of disbelief.

"What, is that not allowed? Don't let my age fool you, I'm still young at heart, just as good as you young guys. Maybe someone will like me just the way I am. Hey, don't block my way, move aside, don't affect my queue." The old man pushed Du Lei aside.

"W-wh-are these people here for blind dates? It feels like all sorts of weirdos have gathered here!" Du Lei was speechless. He had really broadened his horizons. The road, which was originally quite wide, was packed with people on blind dates, making it extremely difficult to even pass by.

"Hey buddy, do you want to sign up? If you do, come over here and get a registration form." A staff member responsible for maintaining order asked Du Lei from a short distance away. If there were no one on site to maintain order, with such a large, dark crowd, it would be strange if a fight didn't break out.

"No, thank you." Du Lei quickly waved his hand to decline, and he slunk away, not wanting to have anything to do with this place.

Just as he turned around the corner, someone rushed towards him from directly in front of him. Neither of them noticed the other and they collided head-on.