The most shameless alchemist in history

The heavy rain outside the tent splashed out in bursts, hitting the puddles and reflecting the gray shadow of the sky.

The guards patrolled in the heavy rain, which soaked them to the bone. They were silent and did not complain. The vast military camp was deathly quiet.

Dure was indeed called to a meeting. This wasn't his first time attending a meeting. Initially, Winry was present, but gradually she stopped participating. He was just an ordinary young man attending a meeting with a group of generals.

Today, as usual, he headed towards the tent where he usually held meetings, but a guard shook his head and led him to another place.

He had seen this soldier before; he was the bodyguard of a general named House and was trustworthy. Dure followed him to an abandoned cave.

The place looked somewhat desolate. Du Lei had previously observed the surrounding terrain and knew that it was a mine that had been abandoned and ceased operations long ago. He had also heard from nearby villagers that they had often heard ghostly wails and howls coming from inside the cave long ago, and many people claimed to have seen ghosts near the cave, speaking with great certainty.

"Understood." Du Lei nodded, took a torch from the guard, and entered the cave.

The cave entrance was initially narrow, but gradually widened. Due to the rain, the cave was heavily flooded, making it muddy and difficult to walk through.

Du Lei walked for several minutes but found no trace of anyone; he could only hear the dripping of water.

"Since you're waiting for me here, why hide? Come out!" Du Lei suddenly stopped and shouted at the surroundings.

He sensed someone's presence shortly after entering the cave, but the other person was deliberately concealing themselves, so he didn't expose them immediately.

Because he wasn't quite sure where the other party came from, he only had a rough guess by now, which led to his shout just now.

"Whizzing!"

Almost at the same moment Dure finished speaking, several arrows flew towards him!

The cave was dimly lit; the only source of light was the torch in his hand.

Du Lei realized something was wrong and immediately threw away the torch. The torch quickly fell into the puddle and went out with a hiss.

This made the cave even darker, with only faint shadows visible.

Durei had excellent eyesight, and he quickly determined that there were four people attacking him, each of them quite skilled, at least "Steel Rank" magic users!

"To deal with me, they actually went to such lengths? I'm truly flattered!" Du Lei knew these four people were after him.

At times like these, if you hold back and don't show your true abilities, you might find yourself in an extremely dangerous situation!

Fortunately, he had already sensed the assassin's presence and located him in advance. Even with his vision greatly obstructed, he calmly dodged the crossbow bolts.

But the crossbow bolts were merely the first wave of feints; the real killing blows were yet to come. Four dark figures intertwined, each thrust of their blades creating ripples—a unique characteristic of Steel-rank magic users.

Dure knew that with his mere strength as a high-level magic user, he was not only unable to fight against them, but they could also take his life in an instant. The reason he was able to barely hold on was because of his experience and the continuous supply of power from the shadow.

There are two shadows in total. One is the guy he calls Little Black, who is the Void creature he traded with in the Ash Tower. Little Black's strength is about eight-star steel rank, which is the result that Du Lei obtained after many tests.

It was precisely because of Xiao Hei's existence that he was able to handle the siege of four Steel-rank experts with ease.

"They're a formidable opponent, but... that's where it ends!" Du Lei had been on the defensive and suppressing his full strength until now.

This led to a clear misjudgment of his strength by his opponents. By the time they realized what was happening, Du Lei's strength had surged dramatically. This difference in power released astonishing force. In the darkness, blurry shadows rapidly spread from the ground, locking onto the figures of the four assassins.

This happened so suddenly that everyone was caught off guard. By the time they came to their senses, the assassin was already unable to move!

"Clap clap clap."

Just as Du Lei was about to take action and eliminate all the assassins in this dark and damp cave, a sound suddenly came from inside.

There was a burst of applause.

622 Superficial Matters

Du Lei looked in the direction of the sound, and at the same time, his shadow stretched out beneath his feet.

But soon, bright flames ignited, and with their help, Du Lei was able to see the scene in front of him clearly, and he was stunned for a moment.

Because an old man had been standing in the corner watching from some unknown time.

This gave him a fright, because he hadn't noticed at all that there was an old man in the corner.

This was an extremely dangerous sign for him. He immediately tried to attack the old man, and his shadow did indeed extend toward the old man's location. But he stopped quickly because he recognized who the old man was.

“General Tidus…? What are you doing here?” Dure noticed that next to Tidus, a blacksmith named Gru was carefully guarding him. The blacksmith seemed to sense the killing intent emanating from him, frowned, and stood in front of Tidus.

“It’s alright, Gru, well done. Young people these days are really amazing. To be able to take down four Steel-rank magic users at such a young age is truly impressive. Gru, you’re even more formidable than you were when you were young.” Titus waved his hand to indicate that it was nothing to worry about.

He walked up to the blacksmith, clearly trusting Dure to some extent, at least in that he was certain Dure wouldn't harm him.

"What exactly is this?" Dure frowned, not quite understanding the situation, and looked at Titus and the blacksmith with confusion.

"Release them. They were merely following my orders." Titus waved his hand, signaling Dure to release the four assassins from their restraints.

"Understood." Du Lei nodded, and under his control, the shadow that had been firmly binding the assassin was finally released.

This relieved the assassins who had been bound in mid-air by the shadows, and they landed on the ground.

They all removed their face coverings and knelt before General Titus, each one panting heavily, clearly in dire straits.

When Du Lei saw them, he remembered seeing them in the military camp before. They were the kind of people who were very inconspicuous. However, he did not expect that it was precisely this kind of inconspicuous type who would be a steel-rank magic user and a killing weapon trained in the border army.

“Young man, you must be very confused, right?” General Titus said with a smile, gesturing for Dure to follow him.

Although Dure didn't quite know where they were going, judging from the current situation, General Titus must be plotting something.

They continued deeper into the cave, with several guards holding torches beside them. The deeper they went, the drier it became.

“Yes.” Dure nodded. He had been suspicious ever since he entered the cave, wondering why he had been lured here.

When he saw the assassin appear, he initially thought someone was targeting him, and he was very worried about the safety of Winry and the others.

If someone were to actually attack him, Winry and the others would certainly not be able to escape unscathed.

However, seeing General Tie's calm and composed demeanor finally put Du Lei at ease.

"Before answering your question, do you have any other questions about the current situation of the coalition forces?" General Titus said slowly and deliberately.

They had been walking into the cave for more than ten minutes, but there was still no end in sight. Along the way, they could see many traces of human excavation.

However, considering that this place was originally an abandoned mine, Dure didn't take it too seriously.

After all, on their way to Rock City, they had actually experienced the scale of the mines underground in Spring Breeze Town.

"Is the question... about the inaction these past few days?" Dure thought for a moment; this was the only thing that puzzled him.

In fact, Leopard Tail had been asking him every day for the past few days if there had been any progress on the matter, and what results had been achieved in the meetings.

However, his answer to Leopard Tail was always the same: there was no conclusion.

Judging from the meetings he has attended in the past few days, almost without exception, they were filled with arguments.

“That’s right, that’s it. What’s wrong? Judging from your expression, do you have some thoughts on this matter?” General Titus asked with a smile.

“I think with General Tidus’s prestige, you shouldn’t have been forgotten so quickly. The recent events are quite illogical.” Dure thought for a moment and gave an uncertain answer. He didn’t know much about Tidus, but he could glean some information from the genius Rock City.

"Common sense? So what do you think constitutes common sense?" General Titus continued to ask with a smile, showing great patience.

After all, for someone of his age and experience, patience is one of the most basic skills.

“Under normal circumstances, we should have stormed the capital as soon as possible and rescued Speaker Varo in the shortest time. But doing so would inevitably result in a large number of casualties.” Dure tried to explain the events of the past few days using his own way of thinking.

“That’s right. Even though we have the advantage in military strength, we could have taken the capital in one fell swoop when we assembled outside the capital. But if that old guy Shanlong holds out, especially in street fighting, the casualties will be very heavy.” General Tida nodded in affirmation.

"So such a large number of elite troops gathered under the walls of Rock City are definitely not just for clearing land or planting vegetables. They must have some ulterior motive. By the way, those who were digging trenches outside during the day were not elite troops, right?" Du Lei raised this point.

He has been patrolling the military camp for the past few days, and has been making careful observations.

“Indeed, young man, you are very observant. Anything else?” General Titus gestured for him to continue.

"Hiding the elite troops and only sending the old, weak, and disabled to dig trenches is clearly just for show, a facade to lull the people inside the city into a false sense of security. If I'm not mistaken, even the military conferences are the same thing," Du Lei speculated.

"So, young man, what do you think we're trying to achieve by doing all this?" General Titus was becoming increasingly interested in the young man.

"If the digging is ostensibly to lull others into a false sense of security... an abandoned cave... a digging operation conducted during the day... that's right! Digging can also conceal sounds!" Dure fell into deep thought, carefully considering the ins and outs of the matter.

After he had sorted through everything, he suddenly remembered something and exclaimed in surprise.

“I understand now. The reason for the large-scale digging of fortifications is twofold: one is to lull the enemy in the city into a false sense of security, and the other is to provide cover for the underground digging. General Tidus, you...you are digging tunnels?” This thought suddenly popped into Du Lei’s mind.

He looked at the old man in astonishment.

623 General Kanda

Dure was taken aback when he came to this conclusion, and he stared blankly at the old man in front of him.

At this moment, the guards who had been leading the way with torches stopped, and what appeared before Du Lei was a door, an iron door with the marks of time and rust.

"Young man, you are so young, yet you possess not only great strength but also such meticulous reasoning ability? Truly, heroes emerge from among the young. I admire you more and more." The old man praised, his thin and withered hand resting on the iron gate's handle, looking like a withered branch from a decaying old tree.

“Gru, your judgment is indeed excellent. Interesting, truly interesting.” The old man turned to look at the blacksmith and said “interesting” three times in a row.

"General Tidus is too kind, but why are we here now..." Dure was full of doubts, feeling that something terrible was about to happen.

"Young man, you're asking why we've come here? Perhaps it's just that this old man is feeling a bit young again and wants to take a stroll?" the old man said in a half-joking tone.

At the same time, he suddenly pulled open the iron gate. His withered hand seemed to contain endless power in an instant. In the firelight, Du Lei immediately looked behind the door.

He had assumed that there would be another passage behind the door, just like the one he had experienced in the underground mine in Spring Breeze Town.

But he was wrong. Even the instant the door opened, after seeing what was behind it, he was somewhat incredulous!

Behind the door is a meeting room. It is defined as a meeting room because there is a long table there.

Around the table sat a dozen or so officers in crisp military uniforms.

Dure was no stranger to them, as he had met them before. They were all generals and high-ranking officials who attended the military conference. Dure clearly remembered that during the conference, these people were divided into two distinct factions, constantly arguing and attacking each other, and could not reach a conclusion.

It was precisely because of the disagreements among these generals that the army remained stationed on the outer edge of the research and development site, without advancing an inch. It was also because of the army's hesitation that the situation became very unclear. Leopard Tail often complained in private that these generals were all sissies, nagging and wasting precious time!

Although Dure remained silent throughout the military conference, offering no suggestions or comments, he still harbored considerable doubts about the generals' debates.

Seeing those generals, usually so fraught with conflict, sitting quietly together, each with their backs straight and solemn expressions, their faces stern and unsmiling, so different from their usual selves, filled Du Lei with doubt and confusion.

"General Titus!"

After the old man entered the conference room, the generals who were sitting suddenly all stood up. They called out General Titus's name in unison, and their tone and expressions showed their heartfelt respect for the old man.

This is even more perplexing, considering that during the military conference held just two days ago, everyone had their own opinion, and apart from General House, no one seemed to take this old man seriously.

"Everyone, please sit down." The old man walked straight to the empty main seat, and only after he sat down did he wave his hand to signal the generals to sit down.