The most shameless alchemist in history

"Still no response?" Du Lei tried again and again, but the magic crystal remained completely still, without the slightest glimmer of light.

"Perhaps this magic crystal was damaged because it had been carrying too much magic energy. I'll replace it for you right away, please wait a moment." The senior student immediately went to replace the magic crystal for Du Lei. She was a gentle person and always went out of her way to help others.

“If you’re not okay with it, then go home now. Don’t waste our time here. Our time is very precious.” A male student behind Du Lei was very dissatisfied. He was nearly 1.85 meters tall, strong and muscular, with no hair on his head, and looked very mature.

"Alright, it's changed. Please try it again with this new magic crystal. There shouldn't be any problems this time." The senior quickly returned to calm everyone down and handed the brand-new magic crystal to Durei.

158 Enemies meet on a narrow road

Dure has never been an optimistic person, so after his first failed attempt, he realized that even after trying a different magic crystal, there was still no reaction. Lance and the others in the audience saw this and gathered around.

"Could it be that even this magic crystal is broken? Why don't we try replacing it? Don't be discouraged, Dure. Even I passed smoothly, so you'll have no problem either." Lance had already sensed something was off about Kelly and Roland's tone before Dure's test.

However, he still chose to believe in Du Lei. He gestured to the senior student next to him to give Du Lei another magic crystal so that Du Lei could try again.

"Are you guys ever going to stop? We've tried several times already. If there's no magical reaction, just get lost. This dawdling around is really annoying." The student who was already complaining became even more impatient. He was followed by several fierce-looking students, who were very aggressive.

"I'm sorry, teacher, it'll be done soon, it'll be done soon." Lance quickly put on a smile and continued to speak kindly to the other person.

"What teacher? What are you talking about? I'm a student taking the test just like you, and I'm still in line waiting to take it," the other person said, confused by Lance's address.

“Ha, you’re a student in your thirties, and you’re still studying at Maple Leaf Academy?” Lance was startled by his words.

"I'm only eighteen, what do you mean I'm in my thirties? You're just looking for trouble, aren't you?" The bald man roared in anger, glaring fiercely at Lance.

"What do you mean, eighteen years old and looks this old?" Lance rubbed his eyes and scrutinized the other person from head to toe.

"I think you're tired of living. Don't think I won't teach you a lesson!" The bald man angrily stepped forward and grabbed Lance by the collar.

But Lance was not someone to be trifled with. He grabbed the other's hand, and the two were locked in a stalemate.

“No need for further testing.” Dure shook his head slightly, signaling Lance to stop the conflict with the other party.

"What? Du Lei, you can't give up! Try again, just once, you'll definitely succeed!" Lance was getting anxious. He originally thought he was the one with the worst chance, while Du Lei was undoubtedly going to enter Maple Leaf Academy. But now, after the test, the result was completely the opposite.

"Du Lei, try again. Don't give up so easily," a gentle and kind senior student next to him advised.

“There’s absolutely no sign of any magical energy fluctuations. No matter how many times we try, it’s the same.” Dure was well aware of his situation and had come to terms with the reality. Just as he turned to leave, he suddenly noticed someone walking towards him not far ahead.

"I heard today is the entrance exam day, and several extraordinary geniuses have emerged. I want to see how good these so-called geniuses really are. Hey kid, what are you looking at me for?" The speaker was an arrogant young girl.

She looked to be about fourteen or fifteen years old, wearing a pink dress. Her fair skin looked especially delicate in the sunlight, and her golden pigtails accentuated her exquisite face. She was an absolute beauty, but also a difficult person to get along with.

She walked to the vicinity of the platform and saw Du Lei staring at her. She was a little angry and immediately scolded him.

"You haven't forgotten who I am, have you?" Du Lei's face suddenly stiffened as he was about to leave.

"Who are you? How would I know who you are? Dressed in rags, you look like a poor wretch. I've always dealt with nobles, how could I possibly know someone as lowly as you?" The girl was arrogant, leaving no room for argument.

"The day before yesterday in Maple City, you allowed the carriage to hit someone. Have you forgotten about that?" Du Lei said with a gloomy face, recounting the previous incident.

"The day before yesterday, the carriage from Maple City... Oh, when I saw the whip marks on your face, I remembered you. Aren't you that poor boy? What, after being whipped twice by this young lady, you still haven't learned your lesson and actually came to Maple Leaf Academy?" The girl finally remembered what Du Lei had mentioned.

"I didn't expect you to still have no remorse and let me run into you again." Du Lei touched the whip marks on his face that hadn't completely faded, glaring at the girl. After being whipped twice that day, he said that if he met her again, he would definitely teach her a lesson.

"Miss Euphemia, what's going on? What are you doing here?" Charlotte, who was talking to another teacher, heard the commotion and came over. When she saw Euphemia confronting Dure, she called out the girl's name.

"Teacher Charlotte, how come your Maple Leaf Academy accepts just anyone? You even recruited this third-rate guy. Your judgment as the examiner doesn't seem very good." Although Yuffie addressed Charlotte as "teacher," her words and actions were extremely arrogant.

"Well, Miss Yuffie, he hasn't passed the test yet, and he's not a student at Maple Leaf Academy. Please don't misunderstand my work. Hey, Ruth, what's going on? Didn't that guy finish the test? Let him go now."

Charlotte quickly tried to calm Euphemia down. Clearly, Euphemia was someone of great importance, and he had to treat her with caution. At the same time, he scolded the gentle senior who was instructing him next to Dure. He didn't want to offend Euphemia because of some unknown poor boy.

"Professor Charlotte, this..." The gentle senior named Ruth was in a dilemma; she couldn't be as decisive as Elune.

"Why are you glaring at me? You're not happy about it? By the way, isn't he taking a test? What were his scores? Tell me." Yuffie looked at Dure with great interest. As a student of Owl, a teacher at the academy, she didn't need to take the test; she was just here to watch the show.

"Du Lei's grades haven't been tested yet." Ruth knew this made Du Lei feel awkward, but faced with the questioning from the college teachers, she had no choice but to report the truth. She gave Du Lei an apologetic look.

"Does 'not detected' mean there's no magical energy fluctuation at all? What? You look so fierce, I thought you were some kind of powerful person, but you're just a lowly piece of trash. You deserve to be hit by a carriage and die, so get out of here!" Yuffie's attitude was aggressive.

In front of hundreds of people, she rebuked Du Lei mercilessly, determined to trample his dignity into the ground.

159. Fleeing in panic

Du Lei has always been a very rational person. He had done things like stealing and pickpocketing to survive when he was young, and he was often criticized and scolded behind his back. He was used to such things and didn't take them to heart. But not taking them to heart doesn't mean that he readily accepts those accusations.

He was also a vengeful person. When he was starving, he carried an old, reclusive woman in the village who had given him a bite to eat. When she collapsed in the snow and no one paid any attention to her, he carried her up the mountain and dug a hole with his hands to bury her.

Those who had humiliated him when he was a child all returned the favor when he grew up. If it weren't for the appearance of that person named Euphemia, he probably would have turned around and left. He was well aware of his own situation and could not find any magical energy fluctuations.

But now Yuffie was pointing her finger at him and yelling, saying that he deserved to kill someone. If he were the target, he might not have cared about it. But the one who was almost hit was Sherry, an innocent and lovely girl. This made Dure furious.

"Hey, what are you saying? How can a girl say such vicious things? Don't you know that's going too far?" Lance quickly stepped forward. Faced with such a beautiful girl, he couldn't help but feel a little pity, but her attitude was really too nasty.

Furthermore, her aggressive stance in opposition to his companions greatly increased Lance's aversion to her.

"You wicked fool, who are you calling wicked?" Euphemia was furious when she saw Lance's presence and questioned him loudly.

"Lance, are you crazy? Can't you see that even Charlotte treats her with utmost respect? You still dare to stand up for her? Are you jeopardizing your own future?" Kelly lowered her voice, trying to stop Lance. She was a sensible person and knew that Euphemia dared to act so recklessly because she had something to rely on.

"I don't care about future prospects anymore. All I know is that Dure is my friend, and I can't stand to see him being humiliated here. Hey, apologize to Dure right now, or this isn't over!" Lance was furious and completely ignored Kelly's words.

"Apologize? You want me to apologize to a piece of trash who can't even react with magic energy? Are you kidding me? Who is this guy? What? So he's not one of those rising stars. He's just a mere orange-yellow talent. I thought he was something special because he was so loud."

Yuffie asked the gentle senior student next to her about her grades, and after receiving the answer, she immediately looked down on Lance and didn't take her seriously.

"This isn't about qualifications; it's about basic principles. Don't you even understand that?" Lance was furious. Although he was impulsive and reckless, he was always a reasonable person. But this young lady in front of him acted as if she were the only one who mattered.

"What? Someone whose qualifications are barely passable is trying to reason with me? How interesting. Teacher Charlotte, it seems that the admission standards for Maple Leaf Academy are a bit too low. How come just anyone can get in?" Yuffie scoffed at Lance's words and didn't take them seriously at all.

At the same time, she turned to look at Charlotte, whose face had darkened. Clearly, she believed that Lance and Dure were not qualified to talk to her. She only needed Charlotte, the admissions examiner, to step in and suppress these two ignorant fools.

"Miss Euphemia, I'm truly sorry to have put you in this situation. I'll handle this matter. Hey, you two, do you know who Miss Euphemia is? How dare you offend her? You're really overestimating yourselves. And what do you think Maple Leaf Academy is? This is a temple of learning."

Charlotte first apologized to Euphemia, then quickly stepped forward and, with a long face, launched into a tirade against Dure and Lance. He knew very well that Euphemia was someone he could not afford to offend, so he began to speak in a high-sounding, official tone.

"There should be a limit to your misbehavior. You're causing trouble here. Get both of them out of here!" Charlotte forcibly labeled Dure and Lance as "causing trouble" and waved for the students in white uniforms with gold trim to drive them away.

"How can you be so unreasonable? She's the one who started this trouble, how did it become us causing trouble?" Lance was very indignant.

"Wait a minute, kid, haven't I seen you before? I remember now, you're the guy who said he was waiting for his companion this morning, right? And you, you're the one who was late. Originally, neither of you were qualified to participate in the test, but I made an exception for you."

Charlotte took a closer look and recognized Lance and Dure as somewhat familiar. After thinking about it carefully, she recalled what had happened that morning.

"I originally thought you would be grateful and work hard on the next test, but I didn't expect that not only are you poorly qualified, but you also dare to cause trouble here. Do you really think you can do whatever you want here?" Charlotte shouted angrily.

“But Ms. Charlotte, Lance has already passed the test, and according to the rules, Dure has one more chance to take the test.” Ruth, who was standing nearby, was a little embarrassed and stopped the students who were about to kick Lance and Dure out.

"Is there one more chance? We've failed so many times already. Do we really want to keep testing? How thick-skinned do you have to be to do something like this? You're a grown man, for goodness' sake. To repeatedly demonstrate your incompetence in front of so many people, aren't you ashamed?"

Euphemia was very satisfied with Charlotte's handling of the situation; she didn't even need to intervene, Charlotte had Dure and Lanska firmly under her control.

"Dure, let's ignore them and leave. We're better off not staying in a place like this. I saw through their true colors before anyway. There's no point in staying here. There's more than just Maple Leaf Academy in the world." Lance turned around angrily and was about to leave, not wanting to stay any longer.

“That’s right, just like that. Tuck your tails between your legs and slink away. You’re the kind of people who are called weaklings and ants.” Yuffie gave Lance and Dure a disdainful look before turning to leave. In her opinion, she and the two of them were from completely different worlds.

Occasionally, the two worlds might briefly intersect, like two lines suddenly folding across a piece of paper. But their existence offers no value other than adding a little amusement to life; though living in the same world, they see far different scenery.

160 He brought shame upon himself.

Dure and Lance got into a fight with Euphemia, and they obviously became the focus of attention. Many people were talking about Euphemia's identity, and some people felt sorry for Dure and Lance because the young lady's arrogance was too much. Dozens of eyes were on them.

This included both freshmen who participated in the test and upperclassmen from the academy. Sterling, Keita, Roland, and Bailing, the four most outstanding students in this year's freshman test, belonged to the former. Roland, who was originally standing next to Durei, shook his head and walked to Keita's side.

“That shouldn’t be the case. Dure shouldn’t be an ordinary person. That feeling shouldn’t be wrong, but why is there no magical energy fluctuation on him? That’s too strange.” Roland was puzzled by this question. He had approached Dure not because he was a friendly person.

Even though that's how he appears on the surface, he's always been a proud person, having been called a "genius" since childhood. He noticed Dure's presence in the crowd at a glance, and seeing Kelly next to him, he took the initiative to go up and strike up a conversation.

"The fact that there is no magical energy fluctuation is suspicious in itself. You and I should know that even ordinary people have magical energy fluctuations to some extent. This is something that is naturally absorbed into the body during the growth process. It's just that without training, it is difficult to retain it."

Keita had many doubts about this. Similar to Roland's reasons for approaching Dure, his sister Kelly's approach to Dure was not entirely a coincidence. Not only them, but also Sterling, who looked down on everyone, took the initiative to talk to Dure on the first day of the entrance exam.

All of these actions stemmed from their keen intuition, which is usually accurate. However, upon closer inspection, they discovered that things were not quite as they seemed. For example, Roland had initially compared Durrell to Sterling.

However, the test of magical energy reaction revealed that Dure had no magical energy reaction at all, and it is unknown how he provoked Euphemia and was humiliated in public. At this time, Roland chose to avoid him instead of standing enthusiastically by Dure's side as before, which speaks volumes.

“That’s true, but the reality is that it’s probably very difficult for Dure to stay now. His problem isn’t our problem. Sterling, and Bailing, what do you think?” Roland shook his head. He was an extremely intelligent person and must have known that there was a problem involved.

But as he said, Dure's problem was Dure's own business, and he didn't care. After all, once Dure left, their life paths would probably never intersect again. He shook his head and sighed, and soon turned to ask the other two people next to him, Sterling and Bailing.

These four were the most talented students in this year's freshman entrance exam. Without a doubt, they have already entered the threshold of Maple Leaf Academy and will be given special attention by the academy. In the near future, they will gradually become influential figures.

"I don't care about his affairs, nor am I curious about them, and the same goes for you." Bai Ling, dressed in white, shook her head indifferently. She spoke very little, exchanging only a few words with Roland, and even when standing, she maintained a considerable distance from him.

“We’ll all be classmates from now on, why are you being so cold? It’s really hurtful. Even if I say this, you won’t give me a nice look. And Sterling, given your style, you’ll definitely just selectively ignore him, right?” Roland wasn’t angry at Bailing’s cold reaction.

After all, this was something he had expected. He then turned to look at Sterling, prepared to be met with a cold shoulder.

"Do you think he's willing to leave like this?" Sterling asked Roland, his words still cold and sarcastic, but enough to surprise Roland.

In Roland's mind, Sterling was an arrogant type who looked down on everyone and rarely paid attention to others. Even when he took the initiative to talk to Dure, Roland could interpret it as Sterling seeing Dure as an important competitor.

However, judging from the current situation, Dure has undoubtedly lost the value of befriending him, which makes Roland unable to understand what Sterling is up to.

“What’s there to be willing about? If it were me, I wouldn’t be willing either, but just having a feeling of unwillingness isn’t enough to change the situation.” Roland shook his head. He had seen Durei’s tests just now, but he couldn’t find any way to turn the situation around.

"Perhaps he really does have a magic weapon to change the current situation," Keita hesitated for a moment, looking at the high platform in front of her with doubt.

On the high platform, even Lance was under great pressure, let alone Dure. Charlotte was clearly on Euphemia's side. That willful young lady was not giving this guy she had met once any face and was deliberately trying to embarrass him.

In fact, to Euphemia, someone like Dure was nothing special; you could find a lot of people like him on the street. But the way he looked at her made her especially uncomfortable. So even though the gentle senior, Rose, spoke up for Dure and his friends, Euphemia ignored her and was determined to kick Dure out of the academy.

"I'll try again." After being bombarded with a storm of noise, Durei, who had remained silent the whole time, returned to the crystal.

"You brat, do you even understand what I'm saying? I already told you not to cause any more trouble here. Do you really think Maple Leaf Academy is your backyard?" Charlotte was furious, feeling that his authority had been greatly challenged.

"It's clearly that woman who's causing trouble, isn't it? What's wrong with Maple Leaf Academy? Why are there so many annoying women here? Elune was one before, and now this Euphemia has appeared. It's really a concentration camp of oddballs." Lance spoke up for Du Lei.

He wasn't afraid of offending Charlotte, since he was determined to leave anyway.

“Alright, since he doesn’t mind humiliating himself, let him try again. Speaking of which, I missed seeing his test results just now. I bet his heart was blown and his expression of utter despair was quite amusing.” Yuffie waved her hand, signaling for Dure to continue.

She couldn't wait to see Dure's distraught state; she firmly believed that no matter how stubborn a guy was, he would eventually succumb to power.

161. Cooperate again

Dure's actions at this moment were irrational, a fact he himself was well aware of. During his previous attempts, he realized that he had no magical energy fluctuations at all, and no matter how many times he tried, it would be in vain. For him, the wisest choice was to leave.

In fact, before Euphemia appeared, that was indeed his plan. Just as Lance had said before, there was more than one academy in the world than Maple Leaf Academy. If they didn't accept him here, he could just go somewhere else. However, with Euphemia's appearance, Dure changed his mind.