The most shameless alchemist in history

Du Lei's nose twitched. Although his nose wasn't as sensitive as his ears, he could still smell the stench in the air. If others smelled this odor, they would definitely run away. But for someone like him who had grown up in the snowy mountains and had dealt with corpses countless times, it was a different story.

This was nothing serious at all. He carefully approached with the candle in hand. Although there was a flickering light in the cave, it was difficult to see clearly through the gaps. He leaned closer to check the situation ahead, and what appeared before him was a huge spider web.

“I’ve seen plenty of spider webs, usually they’re only this big, used to catch moths and insects. But is a web this big meant to make people the prey?” Du Lei stopped in front of the spider web, where the previously narrow space suddenly opened up.

This gave him the feeling of having finally crawled through a dog hole and entered someone else's yard. However, what awaited him after entering the yard was not a warm welcome, but a hunting net full of danger. The spider web that he remembered as being as thin as a hair had disappeared.

Instead, there was a crisscrossing web, each strand as thick as a person's thumb. Du Lei had no doubt that this spider web could easily trap a dozen or twenty people, let alone small insects. This made him uneasy; how big of a spider would it have to be to weave such a massive web?

"Luckily, this spider web looks old, not newly woven, and I don't sense any danger nearby. Otherwise, if a giant spider suddenly appeared and ate me, my death would be rather ignominious. Let me take a good look at the prey on this web."

Dure was not one to act rashly. He observed the spider web from a distance to make sure there were no spiders nearby before cautiously approaching to take a look. The purpose of a spider web was to hunt, and he had no intention of being the hunted, especially not a meal that was delivered to his doorstep.

"Hmm, this is a black jungle fairy. Could it be the one Hannah mentioned from the Misty Forest? Right, what did Kelly say? Jungle fairies come in green, yellow, red, and black, corresponding to low, mid, and high ranks."

With the help of the light, Durei could see the prey stuck to the huge spider web. There were more than a dozen skeletons, all of various sizes, and they were all animals. But there was one that was still somewhat recognizable. It was completely black, only the size of a child, and severely hunched over.

Before entering the Misty Forest, Dure would never have recognized what this was, but having just fought the jungle goblins, he was very familiar with their physical characteristics, having personally experienced them during the battle, even though this black jungle goblin was severely decayed.

A foul stench wafted through the air, but Dure could still tell that this was the one Hannah had mentioned was already dead.

"If I remember correctly, Hannah said it was a Steel-rank magical beast. I've also heard Nan Yin and Duanmu mention it before. Steel-rank is a very powerful level, possessing overwhelming strength. In the sealed cave, that ruthless killer named Kashu seems to be only Steel-rank as well."

Dure carefully recalled Hannah and Kelly's words. He had only recently left the hot spring village and was still unfamiliar with many things. He could only gather information from others and then filter and summarize the useful information so that it could be put to use when needed.

"By the way, even the fire lizard that chased me around earlier was only a high-level magical beast. Does that mean this is stronger than the fire lizard? Such a small creature could overwhelm a huge fire lizard. That's truly unbelievable. And what's most unbelievable is that it actually died here."

Dure carefully examined the corpse of the Black Jungle Fairy and found a large hole in the back of its head, which was obviously pierced by a hard object.

"Such a wound must have been inflicted by a spider sting. A spider capable of killing a Steel-rank magical beast must also be Steel-rank. It's quite suspicious that there are two high-level magical beasts in the Misty Forest, so close to Maple Leaf Academy. I'll search further."

Du Lei was full of doubts. Although Maple Leaf Academy had done many things wrong in this test, he didn't think that Maple Leaf Academy would let powerful magical beasts run rampant under his nose. This was completely endangering the students' lives. The only explanation he could find was that Maple Leaf Academy was unaware of it.

"Found it. It's here. This skeleton is a bit unbelievable, but it's definitely a spider. If Kelly were here, she would definitely recognize its species. I guess my reading and knowledge are far from enough. Its rate of decay is even faster than that of a black jungle goblin."

Dure searched carefully inside the cave. The spider webs were tattered, but there were no spiders. He didn't think the spiders had let their prey go, but had left them in some corner. Of course, this leaving was probably not a good method. Soon he made a discovery.

In the right corner of the cave, there were spider skeletons, with black stingers and green crystal cores emitting light.

137 Spider Nest

After passing through the spider web, Dure continued forward, expecting the road to widen, but the path ahead was even narrower than before. In some places, he even had to crawl on the ground to barely get through. The light ahead still flickered, which was the reason Dure continued to move forward.

He climbed for more than ten minutes and finally came to a stone cave where he could stand up straight. The area was covered with moss, and spiders were crawling around on the top of the cave. Of course, these spiders were all of normal size and not as terrifying as the spider skeletons he had seen before. They were at most the size of a palm.

The cave was not large, no more than five meters in length and width. Apart from the passage that Du Lei had crawled in through, the walls were bare, and the base of the walls was covered with spider eggs, which looked somewhat creepy. The air was filled with a sour, putrid stench that made people nauseous.

"Is this the giant spider's nest? But it's so big, how did it crawl out of here? And it looks like it's been dead for a long time, yet the spider eggs here are still alive. That's strange. Or did it hatch and grow from the baby spiders here?"

Dure looked around with suspicion, but quickly shook his head and focused his attention on the center of the cave.

"Whether it came out from here or not isn't the point. The point is, is this the thing that's emitting the light? It's a spider egg, but would a spider egg emit such a strong light? It doesn't seem like it." Du Lei looked at the thing in the middle of the pile of spider eggs.

It was a bright red egg, about the size of a fist, with a bright red light emanating from its surface, spreading outwards in waves. Although Dure had never seen a spider egg before, he could tell that this egg was very different from the others nearby.

“It seems that the source of the light I found outside is this egg. The light means it’s still incubating, which means it’s alive.” Dure rested his chin on his hand and observed carefully, drawing a general conclusion. He paced back and forth.

"Forget it, whatever it is, since I'm already here, I can't leave empty-handed. So come with me. Whether it's a spider or something else, once it hatches, we'll know what's inside. Of course, the premise is that it can hatch successfully."

After thinking for a moment, Du Lei finally made a decision. He cautiously approached the crimson egg and tentatively touched it. The crimson surface of the eggshell shone brightly like a burning flame. According to his judgment, it should be very hot to the touch. He had to think of a way to pick it up.

But after touching it, he found that the eggshell was not as hot as he had imagined. The surface was warm and smooth to the touch. Moreover, the originally blazing flames suddenly subsided as Du Lei touched it, and the flames wrapped around Du Lei's palm, which felt as comfortable as a hot spring.

"This feeling is really strange. Just now it felt like something was about to burst out, but now it has calmed down. Although I still don't understand, this is much more reliable than before. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to hide you properly."

Dure marveled at this. After all, if the crimson egg continued to emit such intense light as before, it would definitely attract attention. He wouldn't stay in the cave forever; coming here was a spur-of-the-moment decision, and he still had to go to Maple Leaf Academy to take the test.

If the light hadn't been concealed and someone had noticed, it would have been difficult for him to keep the egg on his person. Now that the egg had calmed down and looked much like an ordinary goose egg, Du Lei was relieved. He carefully put the egg in his pocket, which was lined with his clothes.

This was specially sewn by him to store things; there were more than a dozen pockets of various sizes. This egg was his third find in the cave. The first was a venomous fang left by an unknown poisonous spider, the second was also a poisonous spider's crystal core, and the third was an unknown egg.

"Now that we've found the thing that was emitting that strange light, we can consider our mission accomplished and leave. Although I don't know why you're here, and I'm taking you away without asking your permission, our fate is sealed. Please take care of me in the future."

Dure held the egg in his palm, kissed it, smiled, and turned to leave, but at that moment the egg suddenly became very hot.

"Hey, what's going on? What, you don't want me to take it away? Hey, have you ever seen anyone spit out what they've eaten? Whether you like it or not, I'm taking it with me anyway. You need to be aware of that. Or are you trying to remind me?" Du Lei exclaimed, feeling the heat of the moment.

The once warm egg turned as red-hot as a piece of iron, almost causing him to drop it on the ground. Sensing the egg's spirituality, Du Lei frowned. After careful consideration, he decided to continue searching the small cave thoroughly.

"If you didn't want to come with me, you wouldn't have cooled down before, so you must still be willing to come with me. But now you've suddenly become so hot, there must be something you want to remind me of, right? Is there something you forgot? Then tell me where it is."

Du Lei held the egg in his palm and walked around the cave, hoping to get some clues. To others, this behavior would probably seem like that of a lunatic, but Du Lei had grown up in the snowy mountains and had seen many amazing things, especially after meeting that man.

Therefore, he approached it with reverence and never hesitated to do anything superfluous; the crimson egg in his hand was like a surveying instrument.

"Something's not right here, nothing's right there. I mean, this place is so small, what could possibly be here? There are disgusting puddles of spider remains everywhere, or moss, nothing at all. Wait, the temperature seems to be calming down, this is it."

Dure searched for a long time without success, which gradually made him lose patience and start to wonder if he had made a mistake. But just as he found it in the corner on the right, the egg, which had been keeping hot, suddenly became warm again, and he began to examine the corner.

"This spot stinks! That must be spider droppings. Hey, are you kidding me? You don't expect me to take all this spider droppings back with me, do you?" Du Lei sniffed the air, then quickly pinched his nose and saw a pile of rotting spider excrement that emitted a foul stench.

He would go crazy if he took these spider droppings back with him.

138 Strange Eggs

Dure had gone to great lengths to reach this spider's nest hidden beneath the Misty Forest, not to take the spider droppings back. He immediately went to the cave entrance, intending to leave, but as soon as he reached the door, the crimson egg released a scalding heat.

Such high temperatures were like red-hot iron in a blacksmith's furnace, causing Dure to cry out in pain. At this moment, he realized something was amiss. He took a step towards the exit, and the egg became scalding hot. When he pulled his foot back, the egg's temperature returned to normal, becoming very warm.

"Aren't you taking this joke a bit too far? Do you really expect me to take the spider dung back with me, or have you developed a special fetish for this kind of thing from staying here for so long? I give up. Oh well, I'll have to go back and check again." Du Lei groaned, turning back to face the situation.

He pinched his nose and frowned in the corner. Small spiders were crawling around on the ground. He took out a deerskin bag from his body, and he tentatively approached the corner and squatted down. The stench of decay made him back away, and he could hardly breathe.

"Alright, alright, I'll take you back then. Just please don't get this hot again, or I'll start to worry about getting a fever. I don't know what kind of egg you are, but you have some really strong tastes." Du Lei sighed and could only pinch his nose and start shoveling.

The egg, which had been radiating intense heat, returned to normal temperature, seemingly acknowledging Dure's actions. This left Dure bewildered. He worked for quite some time before finally digging up the spider droppings piled in the corner, the stench of which made him howl in agony.

"Is that enough? This much is enough to keep as a souvenir. This is really suffocating me. Okay, it's about time to go." Du Lei packed up the spider guano he had dug up, pinched his nose, and prepared to leave. He had already wasted quite a bit of time here.

In his understanding, this level of satisfaction should be enough to satisfy the egg of unknown origin. But who would have thought that as soon as he reached the entrance of the cave, the warm egg turned scalding hot again, which made Du Lei feel desperate. He almost smashed the egg on the ground.

"Hey, I'm warning you, there's a limit to playing with people. I listened to you and brought that stinky thing along. What, you're still not satisfied? Believe me or not, I'll leave you here and never let you see the light of day again!" Du Lei was furious and started yelling at the egg.

"Believe it or not, I'll smash you to pieces. I really will, I'm not kidding, and I'm not trying to scare you. Hey, give me some face, you know I won't dare do anything to you, right? You're right, I went through so much trouble to get here, it would be a real shame to smash it."

Du Lei made a gesture of smashing the egg on the ground. He was genuinely a little angry. You see, he had roamed the hot spring village since he was a child and had never been cheated or taken advantage of. But now he was being tricked by a small egg, which made him furious. But it was just as he threw the egg that a sudden idea flashed into his mind.

"Wait, you just asked me to go there. Could it be that I made a mistake and didn't ask me to take away those spider droppings? If so, then scald it a little. If not, then keep the temperature unchanged. That way, we can better understand each other, right? Let's make it clear first, don't scald it too much."

Du Lei thought about it and realized that there was no reason for an egg to trick him like this. He calmed down and began to communicate with the egg in a consultative tone. Soon, he felt a burning sensation in his palm, which was much better than the feeling of holding a red-hot iron.

"In the end, it turns out I made a mistake myself. It's not my fault. You didn't explain it clearly. Okay, okay, I'll go back and keep looking, see if I can find anything." Despite his frustration, Du Lei started to cheer up again.

Although he was quite annoyed about spending so much time dealing with spider dung, making a mistake meant there was still a possibility of something unexpected happening.

"Let me tell you, don't disappoint me, or I'll be very angry. What could be hidden in spider droppings? Wait, I found it! It's a pair of gloves! Hey, you said you weren't kidding me? This looks like a very worn-out, ordinary pair of gloves, okay?"

Dure searched the spider droppings carefully again, and after a lot of effort, he finally found a black glove. The glove seemed to be made of leather, and it looked quite old with several obvious scratches. It didn't look like anything valuable at all.

“What’s so special about a pair of gloves? You’re definitely not talking about this, right? I’ll keep looking and see if I find anything else.” Dure’s hope hadn’t been completely extinguished. He continued searching in the pile of dung, but at that moment, the egg felt a burning sensation again.

"Why are you here again? You're not thinking that this is the pair of tattered gloves you wanted me to find, are you? I'm warning you, don't cross my line. Even someone as good-tempered as me can get angry, really angry." Du Lei held the gloves in his hand and weighed them.

He suppressed his anger; if word got out that he had been outmaneuvered by an egg of unknown origin, he would be ruined.

"Wait a minute, spiders can't use gloves, right? Gloves are for humans, which means someone has been here, but there are no other traces besides the gloves. That's really strange. I'll look again."

Dure was filled with doubts. He calmed down and thought about it, and found many discordant things. He searched carefully to figure out if he had made a mistake, but he found that there was nothing else in the pile of spider dung except for the gloves.

"Suspicious, very suspicious. Oh no, I've wasted too much time here. I have to leave. Hey, this is the glove you asked me to find, right? It's tattered and looks useless. But I did as you said. In the future, please don't trick me again."

Dure put the gloves away and then said to Egg, "I've already been very careful to control my temper."

"Alright, it's about time to leave. This place smells so pungent. Oh right, I have to throw this away before I go. What a waste of my deerskin pouch. Let's go, you'll be with me from now on." Dure looked at the deerskin pouch filled with spider droppings.

Although it was a bit of a pity, he decided to leave the bag there and soon left along the way he came.

139 Forest Prophet

For the students who participated in the third round of entrance exams, the night in the Misty Forest was absolutely unforgettable, because almost all of them were attacked by magical beasts that night. Fortunately, the attackers were all low-level magical beasts, although they were once caught in a fierce battle.

But they managed to persevere until dawn, when they finally arrived at Maple Leaf Academy on the other side of the Misty Forest. The academy had prepared breakfast for them, and the exhausted students plopped down on the ground and ate heartily.

"Last night was really dangerous, I almost lost my life, but it was all thanks to my heroic performance that I managed to defeat those monsters."

"What? I wonder who was scared out of their wits last night. But then again, monsters aren't as powerful as I thought."

"What high-level magical beasts do you think could be lurking near Maple Leaf Academy? They're not murderers, they're just testing us."

The students, who had survived the ordeal, huddled together, recalling the events of the previous night. They were all still shaken. Charlotte, their examiner, had not yet arrived, which gave them time to catch their breath. Their shared experience of fighting together had also forged a bond of camaraderie among them.

The students who successfully passed the third round of testing formed more than a dozen circles, with several people in each circle. These were their comrades who had fought side by side the night before. More people were still arriving. The deadline had not yet passed, and as long as they arrived before Charlotte appeared, they would be considered to have passed the test.

At the entrance to the forest, Lance and Kelly slowly walked out. From this position, they could see the group of students resting in the distance, as well as the official students who were responsible for receiving them. Hannah followed behind them, but the three of them stopped.

"More than two hundred people entered the Misty Forest last night, but less than half of them passed successfully. Speaking of which, we should have been among the last to arrive. Those who didn't pass the test should have already been sent home by the academy by now."

Kelly glanced back at the Misty Forest. The students who were resting thought that no high-level magical beasts appeared in the Misty Forest because they hadn't encountered them. Kelly and Lance, however, clearly encountered the high-level magical beast, the Fire Lizard, and they almost perished under its flames.

"It's almost dawn, what's wrong with Dure? Why hasn't he shown up yet? Could it be..." Lance was still concerned about his companion. Last night, when they encountered the fire lizard, Dure offered to lure it away and they agreed to meet again the next day.

But now that a night has passed, his gaze swept across the resting crowd from afar, but he couldn't find any trace of Du Lei, which made him very worried.

"Don't think about those things. That guy is so clever, he'll definitely be fine. Hannah, are you going to part ways with us here?" Kelly gritted her teeth and shook her head, her attitude very firm. She quickly changed the subject of Dure and turned to look at Hannah with a questioning look.

“Yes, you’re going to take the test, so let’s part ways here. As for that guy named Dure, I can try to find him for you. Maybe he’s lost in the forest. I know the forest very well, so I’m sure I can find him.” Hannah nodded.

"Thank you for your help." Kelly gave her a grateful look.

"It's alright, it's alright, we're friends, goodbye then." Hannah smiled, waved, and turned to leave.

"Wait a minute," Lance suddenly called out to her.

"Oh, is there anything else?" Hannah turned around and asked, puzzled.

"I was so sorry for misunderstanding you last night," Lance said sincerely to Hannah, because he had thought she was a suspicious person from the moment he met her, and had even hit her on the head with a stick, which he still had in his hand.

"What? I thought you were going to say something else, but it's just this. It's okay, it's okay, we'll meet again sometime. This time it's really goodbye." Hannah was stunned for a moment, then she grinned and ran into the Misty Forest, disappearing from sight in no time.

"Have they gone far already? I never would have guessed. Hannah is actually a resident of the Misty Forest. It's incredible that a girl can venture into a forest teeming with magical beasts." Lance watched Hannah leave, his eyes filled with admiration.

"For ordinary people, the Misty Forest is dangerous, but for others, it is a place where their souls find refuge. I never imagined that Hannah would be a member of the Forest Prophet clan, who had been practicing asceticism in the forest. With the changing times, the Prophet clan has long since declined."