The most shameless alchemist in history

He looked around for his location, even searching above his head, but to no avail.

"Hehehe, want to know where I am? Before I kill you, you should know my name, right? I might as well tell you. My name is Tam, and I'm a nine-star steel-rank magic user. Actually, I don't need to lift a finger to deal with a newbie like you. But... it's because I haven't been active for a long time, especially since I haven't had any fresh and delicious food. So you can only blame your bad luck." The other person's voice echoed all around.

No matter how hard Dure searched, he couldn't find him, which made the latter sweat profusely. He knew he was in trouble.

"A nine-star steel-rank magic user... that means you're only one step away from the fire rank? No wonder you're so powerful. But... don't underestimate people. Even the best-tempered person would get angry if someone mocked you like that!" Du Lei suddenly pulled out his dagger and stabbed it heavily into the ground.

Under normal circumstances, a dagger cannot pierce a hard surface; it usually only sparks and then breaks.

But at that moment, with Du Lei's sudden thrust, blood actually gushed out from the ground!

"Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, it hurts so much... You wretched brat, how could you do this to me?" The stone slab that had clearly been the "ground" suddenly jumped up. Du Lei stepped aside and clearly saw that the "floor" had turned into the shape of a fat man.

The latter clutched his stomach and howled, clearly not expecting the boy to see through his act, which made him especially angry!

"What, you're allowed to kill me, but I'm not allowed to strike first? I've already seen through your tricks. The reason you suddenly disappeared was because you assimilated with the 'floor.' That's probably your special ability." The boy revealed the truth in one sentence.

"Damn it, I didn't realize you were so clever. But even if you figured it out, so what? Your magical energy fluctuations are only 'mid-level,' two levels below mine. Killing you is a piece of cake!" The fat man named Tam roared in anger.

He vanished again in a flash, and Dure's gaze followed the walls on both sides.

"Don't you find it strange that a mere mid-level magic user could injure a steel-level magic user?" Dure closed his eyes this time, but he still followed Tam's position. After seeing through the latter's trick, he was able to pinpoint Tam's location.

"No matter how you did it, you can die now!" Tam was enraged by the stab.

He slithered through the floorboards and suddenly passed through the wall behind Dure.

He opened his blood-red maw and bit down!

"puff!"

A sharp dagger pierced through Tam's mouth and went straight through the back of his head.

Blood splattered and sprayed onto the wall, slowly dripping down as the heavy rain washed over it.

m.

612 Traces of Rain

The bloodstains that were originally left in the alley have been largely washed away by the heavy rain, but a faint smell of blood still lingers in the air.

Guards cordoned off both sides of the alley. After discovering the body, they immediately reported it to their superiors, and soon three people came over.

These three men all wore cloaks over their military uniforms, which was enough to show that they were different from ordinary guards. In fact, as soon as they appeared, the guards on the outside immediately saluted them properly, which showed that these three men had a superior status in the army.

"Shiliu, what do you think about this?" There were three people, two men and one woman. One of the men was tall and strong, and a man of few words. The other man was of a much normal build, tall and thin, and handsome and refined. As for the woman, she was alluring and graceful.

A face that could make most men fall for her, a single glance that could steal a person's soul—this was the woman speaking, and the person she was asking was the handsome and refined young man, who was currently resting his chin on his hand, carefully examining Tam's corpse.

"Tamm's opponent was a boy, about fourteen or fifteen years old... I couldn't see his face clearly, but his eyes were sharp. He had a crossbow, and with that crossbow, he killed eight guards, but his killing move wasn't with the crossbow." The young man recalled carefully.

He wasn't there, but he could "see" what was happening there, which was told to him by "Rain".

"What about his strength? Although Tam is a bit weaker than us, he is still a nine-star steel-rank magic user, just one step away from the fire rank. To kill him, you would need at least the strength of the fire rank." The woman frowned. She was familiar with Tam, and could even say she knew him very well.

Because they often went on missions together, the people of Rock City were terrified at the mere mention of their names as the Four Great Generals.

However, from now on, the four generals have lost Tahm Kench, leaving only three.

"The boy's strength... is probably at the mid-stage of the eighth star level," the young man called Shiryu said, frowning.

"What? Eight-star mid-level? Shiliu, are you kidding me? That's two levels above Tam! Tam is a nine-star steel-level, how could he possibly lose to an eight-star mid-level?" The woman's eyes widened; she didn't believe this guess.

"Feiyan, calm down and let Xiliu finish speaking. Don't you believe Xiliu's words?" The taciturn man spoke up to stop the woman. He didn't say much, but it was clear that he was the one whose words carried the most weight.

“This is what Yu told me. Tam didn’t believe he would die at the hands of a mere mid-level eight-star youth either, but… something unusual has happened. The youth… possesses something that doesn’t belong to him.” Shiliu continued, appearing very calm.

The person seemed to become one with the rain.

"Abnormal? What's abnormal?" the woman named Fei Yan continued to ask.

"The boy's strength suddenly increased from the mid-level of the eighth star to the flame level. He left a mark on Tam, so when Tam sneaked into the wall, he caught him and stabbed him through the mouth and back of the head with a knife." Shiliu recounted the scene.

"From mid-level eight stars to Flame rank? That's a whole three leaps! How did he manage to do that?" Fei Yan exclaimed in surprise.

She found it somewhat unbelievable; she had seen quite a bit of the world and met many experts.

She had seen secret techniques to increase strength in a short time, but she had never heard of one that increased strength by such a great extent!

“I don’t know how he did it, but he definitely killed Tam.” Shiliu shook his head. He could only see what happened through the rain, but he didn’t know why it happened.

“I see. It seems we are facing a very formidable opponent,” the taciturn middle-aged man said after a pause.

"No matter how troublesome he is, once we've got our eyes on him... he'll be doomed!" Fei Yan gritted her teeth.

Although she usually disliked Tam, they were ultimately partners.

Now that her companion has been killed, she is determined to avenge him!

Meanwhile, in the pouring rain, the boy staggered and knocked on the blacksmith's door.

The girl inside opened the door, glanced inside, and quickly dragged him inside.

The blacksmith wasn't in the shop, but the furnace was still hot, which at least drove away some of the cold air and made him feel a little better.

"How are you? You look terrible." Grufi was startled to see Dure's appearance. Footsteps came from upstairs.

“Mr. Dure, you’re finally back! It’s so good to see you again!” Winry was extremely reluctant to part with Dure, knowing he had taken a great risk. Now that she saw him, she rushed over to him.

"I'm perfectly fine, don't worry," Du Lei reassured her.

"By the way, where's Uncle Gru? Why isn't he here?" Dure looked around the blacksmith shop but didn't see the blacksmith.

“I don’t know where he went, or what’s wrong with him lately. He keeps disappearing. I’ve never seen him like this before.” Grufei shook her head. She didn’t know where her father had gone either. In her memory, her father rarely left the fireplace.

"Is that so? We shouldn't stay here too long, lest we cause you any trouble, so we'd better take our leave." Dure thought for a moment; Grufi's sudden appearance and taking Winry away was already a great help.

"What nonsense are you talking about? It's raining heavily, and there are pursuers everywhere outside. If you go out now, aren't you just going to your deaths? You should just leave here peacefully. I'll send you away after dark," Glofi glared at him and said.

“But…” Du Lei still hesitated.

"But what? Don't worry, I know those guards very well. They won't search this place. You can just stay here peacefully. By the way, are you hungry? I'll go get you something to eat." Grufi turned around and went to the kitchen to get busy.

Having an unreliable father taught her to be independent from a young age, and cooking was a piece of cake for her.

"Oh, and don't even think about sneaking away while I'm busy, or I'll get angry!" Grufi seemed to have thought of something and turned back to remind them.

"Well..." That was exactly what Du Lei had in mind.

“Since Miss Glofi is so hospitable, let’s stay here for now. I feel especially close to Miss Glofi,” Winry said with a smile.

m.

613 A Moment of Luck

Dure and Winry waited at the blacksmith Gru's house until the rain stopped before returning to the inn where they had stayed under the cover of night. They had agreed to meet at the inn after completing their mission. However, when they arrived outside the inn, Dure did not rush to go in.

He gestured for Winry to wait for him outside. He observed the inn for a while, then quickly pulled Winry away. Although Winry didn't quite understand what was happening, she still followed him and hurriedly retreated. Half an hour later, they arrived at a small tavern on the west side of Rock City.

This was normally the time when the tavern would be open, but it was closed. Dure went up and knocked on the door, and someone quickly opened it. It was Pam who opened the door. After glancing at Dure and Winry, he pulled them into the tavern, which was not very big.

Pam led the two to the wine cellar, where he moved aside many of the wine barrels they had placed there, revealing a door.

“Everyone’s inside, you can go in.” Pam pointed to the area inside the door, and Dure nodded, leading her inside.

"Du Lei, Miss Wen Li, are you alright?" Behind the door was a small room with only a long table. Six people were sitting around the table, which felt a little crowded. Kotetsu, who had been sitting quietly, immediately stood up when he saw the two of them.

Kotetsu, Leopard Tail, Nightingale, Bee Sting, Dom, and Ape Arm were all in the room, plus Dure and Winry, making a total of nine people.

"It's nothing. I saw the marks you left outside the inn and knew the inn had been exposed, so I didn't go in. What happened?" Du Lei explained why they didn't go into the inn. Before they left, they had agreed to leave a mark outside the inn if they encountered any unexpected situations.

In addition to the inn, there is a second contact point, which is this tavern. The tavern is run by Dom's subordinate. This subordinate followed Dom in his early years, but later faded out of Dom's business after getting married. He is very inconspicuous and unnoticed in Rock City.

“We visited the addresses on the list of those former subordinates of Speaker Varo. On the surface, they all greeted us warmly, but in reality, they were secretly preparing to deal with us. Luckily, we escaped quickly, or we would have been finished.” Leopard Tail recalled the experience with lingering fear.

“We were in a similar situation, but before I went to visit them, I noticed that the security around the area was a bit off. After carefully observing and confirming that they had men lying in ambush, I withdrew. If I had gone to visit them, I'm afraid it would have been a very dangerous situation,” Kotetsu explained his situation.

"Waaaaah." Although Ape Arm couldn't speak, he nodded heavily, clearly indicating that he was in a similar situation to Tiger Che and Leopard Tail.

“So that’s how it is. It seems we underestimated the situation in Rock City.” Dure nodded. All four teams they sent out had encountered trouble, and none of them had made any progress. Although he wasn’t an optimistic person, he had anticipated that they might encounter such a situation.

But when this actually happened, it still caught him off guard. He frowned and thought about what to do next.

"And what about you, Dure? The General Shanlong you visited is Speaker Varo's closest friend. Did you see him? Did you tell him that Speaker Varo had him placed under house arrest?" Leopard Tail asked softly, still holding a sliver of hope.

“I’m sorry, we were in a similar situation. Mr. Shanlong seemed easy to talk to, but he suddenly attacked us at the crucial moment. If Mr. Du Lei hadn’t reacted quickly, we probably wouldn’t have been able to escape here.” Wen Li shook her head gently, still feeling lingering fear as she recalled the scene just now.

"By the way, Mr. Du Lei, how did you figure out that Mr. Shan Long had a problem?" Wen Li thought for a moment and decided to ask this question anyway.

She had observed Shanlong's attitude at the time and found nothing inappropriate. In fact, she was startled when Du Lei drew his sword.

“It’s murderous intent,” Dure answered Wenli’s question truthfully.

"What? Killing intent?" Wen Li was stunned, not expecting such an outcome.

“That’s right. When that old man Shanlong heard me say that Varo was under house arrest, the murderous aura he unleashed wasn’t directed at the people who imprisoned Varo, but at us,” Dure explained.

“So that’s how it is. No wonder you were able to defend yourself so suddenly, Mr. Du Lei. If you hadn’t reacted quickly, we would have been in big trouble.” Wen Li nodded. At that time, they were being chased at the villa in Shanlong and were in a difficult situation. She thought they were doomed several times.

"Wait, Miss Winry, what did you say? Dure parried Shanlong's attack?" Kotetsu frowned upon hearing this.

“Yes, is there a problem?” Wenli nodded gently.

“This is a huge problem. Although Shanlong is old, he is a genuine 'Flame Rank' magic user. How could you stop him?” Leopard Tail had also heard of Shanlong’s reputation and looked at Du Lei with disbelief.

"Huh? Is that old man really that amazing?" Wenli was somewhat surprised.

"It's not just powerful, it's incredibly strong. Even within the 'Flame Rank' level, Shanlong is one of the strongest in terms of natural monstrous strength. Even if I and Boss Hu Che joined forces, we probably couldn't beat him." Leopard Tail felt that this was too illogical.

In his mind, Du Lei was always just a guy with a bit of cleverness. Du Lei's value was mainly reflected in his strategy. He didn't have much hope for Du Lei's fighting ability. After all, he was just a mid-level magic user and hadn't even crossed the threshold of the high level yet!

“But Mr. Dure clearly…” Winry didn’t know much about magic users, but the scene she had witnessed was undeniably real.

"It was just a fluke, and Shanlong didn't use his full strength at that time, so it doesn't prove anything." Du Lei shook his head, not taking the close combat with Shanlong seriously.

"Kid, tell me honestly, what level are you? Are you holding back? You actually managed to fight Shanlong, you're pretty impressive." Leopard Tail came over and punched Du Lei in the chest. His attitude towards Du Lei had long since changed, and he was no longer as prejudiced as before.

"I'm probably at... high-level one star right now?" Du Lei thought for a moment and gave a somewhat uncertain answer.

"What a joke! I'm a nine-star steel-rank, and you're only a one-star high-rank?" Leopard Tail didn't believe him.

"Alright, Du Lei has his reasons for not wanting to talk about it. We've been through so much together, don't we trust him? What we need to discuss now is our next plan." Kotetsu glared at him and got straight to the point.

m.