A man among dragons, building a mysterious ancient church.

Chapter 8 She panicked; this is the price of freedom.

Xu Lie's life has been quite stable lately, consisting of eating, sleeping, studying alchemy, and familiarizing himself with the nine elemental substances.

Each day, I set aside a little time at the end of the day to exhaust my spiritual energy and perform the ritual of creating a clone.

His self-discipline and intense competition left the hotel owner completely bewildered; this young man went out every day, and the owner didn't even know when he came back.

After Xu Lie finished turning the last page of the book, he wrote some alchemical symbols in the notes next to it.

As expected of the core technology of the Dragon Clan civilization, this alchemy is quite something. The more Xu Lie learns, the more he can feel the wonder of alchemy.

What's even more delightful is that, with the deepening understanding of alchemy, the progress of the scholars in digesting the potions is soaring.

The key to Xu Lie's ability to maintain self-discipline lies in the feeling of receiving direct positive feedback with each learning session.

After figuring out the principles behind these alchemical symbols and their applications in various combinations, Xu Lie entered the Source Castle with great anticipation.

I can't wait to learn new alchemical knowledge.

"Has the alchemy book for today been sent to the preparatory class clone?"

Bao Lie rubbed his sleepy eyes and glanced at the empty gray fog to his left: "Obviously, it hasn't been shipped yet."

"Something happened?" Xu Lie guessed that something unexpected might have happened at the preparatory class.

The reason I've been able to study with self-discipline these days is entirely due to the preparatory class's timely and punctual dedication of books.

If the books haven't been delivered by the appointed time, we can only assume that something went wrong with the clone.

"Ha~" Bao Lie yawned widely and closed his eyes again: "Why don't you make a call and ask, Main Body?"

"It's more useful than asking me, this lazy clone in Yuanbao."

After descending from the gray fog, Xu Lie sent a text message to his preparatory class clone, but it vanished without a trace.

Xu Lie didn't overthink things. There was a fundamental soul connection between his clone and his main body. They couldn't communicate directly under normal circumstances, but Xu Lie could still sense whether his clone was dead or alive.

It's just a temporary communication disruption, nothing serious, as long as we don't die.

With a relaxed attitude, Xu Lie opened his notebook and reviewed the alchemy knowledge from the previous few days. He waited patiently for almost two hours before the preparatory class clone finally called.

"I have good news and bad news. Which would you like to hear first?"

Xu Lie put down the pen in his right hand, pinched his nose to relieve brain fatigue, and sighed, "So this clone of mine is really mischievous."
"Personally, I prefer to eat bitter melon first and then sweet. When I make bitter melon and scrambled eggs, I always eat the bitter melon first and then the scrambled eggs. Let me tell you the bad news first."

Back then, flip phones were incredibly loud: "The entire college had been on high alert."

"All the teachers and students were in chaos. The teachers were trying to calm and protect the students and get them to assemble in the auditorium."

"I was able to make a phone call by sneaking out. The bad news is that, given how chaotic things are, I probably won't be able to borrow books today or even tomorrow."

"The preparatory class teachers and security guards will probably be busy escorting us students back and forth these past two days, so they won't have a chance to make sacrifices."

"As for the reason for the chaos, I just found out that it seems our alchemy teacher was attacked."

"The entire teachers' villa collapsed and was severely damaged. The alchemy teacher was buried under the rubble, but he was rescued in time and is not in any danger."

"?" Xu Lie remembered the alchemy teacher. He had introduced himself in class and said that he was a top student majoring in alchemy chemistry at the Kassel campus.

It seems he received an invitation from the Kassel Armament Department, but he declined because he was attached to his homeland and returned to teach at the preparatory school.

How did they suddenly get attacked? Was this part of the story in the original work?
Or was it he who caused the butterfly effect?
The clone knew the original body well and immediately guessed its thoughts: "Yes, it was us who caused this." "The preparatory class is mostly for students. Even if outsiders have a problem with Kassel, they wouldn't specifically target the alchemy teacher. The principal and director of the preparatory class haven't been in any trouble."

"So I suspect that she was getting impatient and was continuing to test me, because I looked through the timetable and there was no alchemy or history class that day."

Xu Lie understood that the clone referred to Xia Mi, and also understood that the day referred to the visit to the deceitful Fenrir, and he agreed with this reasoning.

Aside from Xia Mi, I can't think of anyone else who would target the alchemist.

The clone had mentioned before that Xia Mi had tested the clone at the infirmary but hadn't found anything. Now, however, she's attacked the alchemy teacher.
It seems this Dragon King is really getting anxious.

I'm really eager to find out who exactly is 'Huang Tao' from the preparatory class.

Xu Lie could understand Xia Mi's feelings. After hiding in human society for so many years, just when she was about to infiltrate Kassel, this incident happened. Anyone would be anxious in her situation.

It's a pity that Xia Mi missed the right answer on her first attempt.

"What about the good news?"

"The teachers just announced in the auditorium that the headquarters will send a specialist to investigate this matter."

"Because the teachers in the preparatory class searched through the surveillance footage and the entire campus but found no clues or traces of any foreign invasion, they had no choice but to seek help from the main campus."

This is indeed good news.

Xu Lie pondered silently how to profit from this unexpected event; he had always wanted to infiltrate Kassel College.

As is well known, most of the talents in the Dragon Raja world are concentrated at Kassel College.

However, Xu Lie needed to find someone to become a god to help resolve the conflict between the nine primal substances and the universe.

It's always easier to cultivate talented people with good natural abilities and a good mindset than to cultivate ordinary people.

To put it bluntly, Xu Lie was envious of Kassel's student pool and wanted to poach their students.

Lacking connections and relevant information, Xu Lie didn't even know which way the gate to Kassel faced.

The original work only describes that Kassel is located in the suburbs of Chicago. Chicago is so big, if you really had to go across the ocean to find it slowly, how long would it take?
Not to mention that Kassel College also possesses Norma, an AI that is ahead of its time. If it stays in the suburbs of Chicago for too long, it will almost certainly be spotted by Norma.

Xu Lie originally planned to parasitize Huang Tiekou after Huang's promotion, and then try to find the exact address of Kassel College through divination.

Now it seems that there's no need for such trouble; the Kassel commissioner has come to our door.

“Very good.” Xu Lie also perked up: “Please take care of me these next few days. Let me know as soon as the commissioner arrives.”

"It's not hard work, it's just a miserable life." A strong sense of resentment came through the phone: "Doppelgangers have no rights."

"Judging from the way the alchemy teacher was attacked, I'm really afraid that one day, I'll fall asleep in the middle of the night and get blown up in the head by her with one hand."

"She's in such a hurry, who knows what crazy thing she'll do next? If she can't figure out Huang Tao in the end, she might come after him again."

Xu Lie couldn't help but chuckle, recalling Bao Lie's lazy, unambitious appearance: "Why don't you switch places with the clone inside the source material?"

"They're quite envious of you being out there, saying that you're stuck inside the source material with nothing to do and are getting bored out of control."

"Then forget it." The preparatory class clone decisively refused. Entering the source essence was no different from going to jail. It was worth taking the risk.

Anything is better than going to jail; perhaps this is the price of freedom.

(End of this chapter)