The most shameless alchemist in history

"Well... young man, you have to understand. In your situation back then, everyone thought you were going to die. If I hadn't left and had stayed there, I would have died in that godforsaken place with you. I had no choice but to find a new place to rest, otherwise I would have been reduced to ashes."

The shadowy figure explained in a low voice.

“That’s not right. I made a contract with you, young man. If you die, I will definitely die too. I’ve been asleep for so long and I’m still alive. That means you must still be alive. How come I didn’t think of that?” He suddenly slapped his forehead and said.

"So, after you escaped the Abyss of Winter, you came to the Land of Flame? You came here?" Du Lei asked coldly.

He had recognized the dark figure lurking in the mine of Jiao Re Town long ago.

Isn't that the Void creature that made a contract with him in the underground of the Ash Tower of Maple Leaf Academy?

“At that time, your situation was very dangerous, and your life was very closely connected to mine. In order to protect myself, I could only escape to a place with strong illusory power and fall into a deep sleep. I slept for a long time and only woke up now.”

The shadowy figure explained.

"This... Dure, what exactly is going on?" Matthew, standing next to him, was completely bewildered and looked at Dure with surprise.

He originally thought they were doomed this time, and that the entire town of Jiao Re would suffer annihilation.

But unexpectedly, things took a dramatic turn!

"Let's talk about the details when we get back. Let's leave first." Du Lei thought for a moment and decided to leave.

"Wait a minute, Du Lei." At this moment, the dark figure called out to him.

"Is there anything else?"

"Here's the thing, I found something here that you might find useful, Du Lei," the shadowy figure said after a moment's thought, pointing to the depths of the mine.

"Things?" Du Lei frowned.

"Yes, but I have no way to get close to that thing, so you'll have to go and get it yourself, Du Lei."

"An existence that even you can't approach? What is it? A powerful magical beast?" Dure was even more confused.

"No, no, no, it's that the thing itself is very repulsive and restrictive to me, but if it's you, Du Lei, it should be fine."

“Alright, I’ll go take a look.” Dure nodded and followed the shadowy figure into the deepest part of the mine.

Matthew, Mine, and others also tried to follow.

"Stop!" the dark figure called out to them.

"Wh-what?" The boy looked at him urgently.

"What? You all stay right here and don't go over there," the dark figure said menacingly.

"Why can he go, but we can't?" Ji was somewhat indignant.

"What, kid, wanna fight again? Anyway, Du Lei isn't here now, I can eat you all up and he won't even know."

"You..." Ji was very angry, but after weighing the situation, he realized that he was indeed no match for it.

"Alright, let's leave here for now." Mine put away her flintlock pistol and turned to leave.

"Hey, Mine, are we just going to leave like this? What about everyone else? Are we all just going to leave like this?"

Seeing his companions leaving one by one, Ji panicked for a moment. Looking around at himself, he could only hurriedly leave as well.

Soon the mine was empty, leaving only the dark figure guarding the entrance for Dure, and Matthew, Marlene, and Pope.

“Matthew, what do we do now? Should we go back, or…” Pope asked Matthew for his opinion.

“Of course we’ll wait here for Dure to come out,” Matthew said confidently.

“But being with this guy always feels…” Pope looked at the shadowy figure and couldn’t help but swallow.

“If he wanted to kill us, he would have done it long ago. Why wait until now?” Marlene rolled her eyes at him and said.

“It does seem to be true…” Popper thought for a moment and then fell silent.

"But shouldn't this be the limit of the mine? The mine should have only been mined up to this point, so how come there are deeper parts?"

Marlene quickly raised her question.

“Yes, once we get down here, it should be rock formations. Is there some kind of passage or something?” Pope was completely baffled.

"Hey, what are you guys whispering about over there? Are you eyeing Du Lei's stuff? I'm warning you, it belongs to Du Lei. If you dare to have any funny ideas, I'll eat you all up!" The dark figure suddenly approached and threatened.

"No, no, no, we are all friends of Durei and we wouldn't covet his things. We're just curious about what's inside."

Pope had witnessed the power of the shadow before, so how could he dare to challenge it?

"This is a distorted space," the shadowy figure stated frankly.

"What? Distorted space? What does that mean?" Popp was stunned.

"I have heard people say that there are many places in this world where space is unstable and there are distorted spaces. These spaces cannot be entered through normal means. For example, there may be a wall, but once you go in, you will find that it is another world."

Matthew thought for a moment and then said.

"Although it's not quite accurate, that's roughly the idea. That distorted space is a neutral zone between the human world and the Void Abyss."

The shadowy figure nodded and said.

"Ghost Abyss? What is Ghost Abyss?" Popper was even more confused.

“The Void Abyss is another world similar to our human realm. It is said that the sky there is always black, the land is always barren and desolate, with no flowers or leaves, only poisonous swamps and terrifying magical beasts,” Marlene explained.

"That sounds like a really scary place. Does such a place really exist?" Popp couldn't help but shrink back.

"Isn't that obvious? I came from the Void Abyss!" the shadowy figure said with considerable pride.

"What? They came to our world from another world?"

“In some places, the space is fragile, so it’s theoretically possible to do it, but I’ve heard that there are often terrifying things in such distorted spaces, and you can be swallowed up if you’re not careful,” Marlene continued.

“You do have some knowledge, that’s right. In the distorted space, there’s a monster called the ‘Beast of Time,’ which can devour everything. Even when I encounter it, I can only stay far away,” the shadowy figure said confidently.

"What? If something this dangerous exists, wouldn't it be dangerous for Dure to go in?" Popp couldn't help but worry.

"What are you panicking about? My contract with Dure isn't over yet. As long as he's here, I'm here. If he dies, I die. My life is in his hands. I'm not panicking, so why are you?" The shadowy figure scoffed at Pop's reaction.

“Let’s just wait here patiently. Dure will definitely be alright,” Matthew said softly, much more patient.

"Since Matthew has said so, then let's wait." Popper thought for a moment, and realized that this was the only option for now.

While they were worried about Dure's situation, the latter had already entered the distorted space that Old Black had referred to.

He entered a pitch-black passage, which at first glance looked no different from the mine he had come from.

Even for Dure, there was a sense of familiarity.

He continued walking down the passage and soon saw the light.

A dazzling light.

The surroundings were bizarre and colorful, like a vast starry sky.

Countless points of light floated in the air, making him appear like a traveler wandering through the starry sky.

Directly ahead, in the place where light is emanating, there is a stone.

Ordinary stones do not emit light; stones that do usually emit light are gemstones.

But Dure knew this stone was not just a gemstone, because he had seen similar stones before!

"This is... a starstone?"

Dure quickly recalled that many years ago, when he was a boy, he had met three people in the hot spring village.

Two men and one woman, one old, one young, and a girl about his age.

The old man is called Old Man Teng, the young man is called Duanmu, and the young woman is called Nanyin. They come from the distant Eastern continent.

Dure led them into the underground of the northern mountain of the hot spring village, where they eventually found the same place.

They also obtained a similar stone, which was the Star Stone.

At that time, he didn't quite understand what star stones meant, but he knew they were very valuable, otherwise so many people wouldn't have fought over them.

However, he still chose to give the Star Stone to Nan Yin so that she could take it back to her hometown.

Because she needs the Star Stone to save her homeland.

But many years later, he actually encountered Star Stone again.

This was naturally not the one he gave to Nan Yin; Nan Yin had long since returned to the Eastern Continent.

"That's interesting. So, the ritual space beneath Beishan was also a distorted space?"

Du Lei suddenly realized that when he was young, there were many things he didn't understand, but now he was gradually making sense of things.

Are you summoning me?

()

910 Dark Starstone

Back when he was still in Hot Spring Village, Du Lei knew that Star Stones were extremely precious, though he didn't have a clear idea of ​​just how precious they were at the time.

He only learned later that starstones are crystals formed after stars fall from the sky. Generally speaking, a single starstone contains the power of a fallen planet, which is a magnificent and vast existence.

The various star stones scattered across the continent are extremely rare; currently, only a handful are known to exist.

Dure must be one of the lucky ones, because there are only a few star stones in total, and he has seen two of them.

He even once owned one, but he gave that one to Nan Yin.

If others knew about this, they would definitely think that Du Lei must have lost his mind to give away something so valuable. But even after knowing how rare the star stone was, if Du Lei had to make the choice again, he would still give it away.

"I wonder how Nan Yin and the others are doing. Did they manage to save her hometown?" Du Lei thought of that earnest and persistent girl.

I never imagined that 10 years would have passed in the blink of an eye.

"If I remember correctly, Nan Yin's star stone was a fire-attribute star stone before, so what about this star stone?" Du Lei carefully examined the black stone. He knew that all star stones had different attributes.

Moreover, a magical power was constantly flowing from the star stone, and through careful exploration, Du Lei quickly obtained the answer he wanted.

"A dark-attribute star stone?" Du Lei frowned.

“However, it is fate that we met. I don’t know how long you have been sleeping here all by yourself. I can feel your unease. You must be very lonely here all by yourself. So I will take you away.” Du Lei stepped forward, intending to take the star stone away.

"Ok?"

Just then, Dure noticed something moving rapidly toward him.