Otherworld Bone Dragon Operation Guide

Chapter 15 Bone Fortress
Su Ming threw himself back into his work, while Bai Gu remained silent, seemingly lost in thought.

After a long while, Bai Gu suddenly spoke up, "Mr. Su Ming, can you grant me a request?"

"Hmm?" Su Ming stopped what he was doing, somewhat puzzled by the emotional fluctuations he sensed.

When Archbishop Stanton burned down the vegetation outside the Tower of Bones, it was the first time Su Ming realized that this undead lady also had emotions. But compared to the bones now, they were nothing.

"If I survive, you must take me to see more of these things, to places I've never seen before," the scholar said earnestly. "This is our request."

Su Ming found it strange; Bai Gu seemed a bit off, and this wasn't the time to discuss such things. But he still replied, "I can agree to your request while I'm in this world. However, my goal is to return to Earth. Will I take you with me then?"

“I can follow,” the skeleton replied.

Su Ming was stunned. Even though he had never been in a relationship, he suddenly realized that what Bai Gu was saying sounded like a confession.
Above the hall, the white bone mark that was originally protected by several layers of barriers suddenly disappeared from its original spot.

The next moment, it appeared in Su Ming's hand.

"Miss White Bone?" Su Ming asked, puzzled.

"The Bone Mark is an extremely powerful aggregate of runic formulas, created by Galio's teacher Russell. They used it to limit, control, and amplify me."

"I've been hiding some things from you. The speed I told you about requires the removal of the restrictions on me. Even transforming into my ship form requires the cooperation of the Bone Mark. I must choose a wielder for it and unleash my full power before I can possibly escape from here."

"I was weary of the endless struggle for survival, and I was just quietly waiting for the end of my life. Mr. Su Ming, what you showed me suddenly made me feel that I wish I could see more."

So, please accept it!

The dark white bone mark in his hand, the barrier, was disappearing layer by layer. Su Ming didn't hesitate, nodded, and gripped it tightly.

A shadowy light flashed, followed by a burst of light, and Su Ming found himself in a vast wilderness.

This was a battlefield that had just been quelled, a scene of scorched red earth and mangled limbs, some human, others unrecognizable creatures. Torn banners were scattered everywhere, and what might have once been war machines were now nothing but black embers.

With the sunlight blocked, Su Ming looked up and saw a huge white bone dragon swooping low overhead. Intense magical power flowed across its jade-like skeleton.

Countless dust and debris were swept up by the air currents, rushing past from behind to the front. A piece of wood pierced through his chest, drifting away in the turbulent wind like a free butterfly.

Su Ming looked down and found that the hem of his clothes was not moving at all, and the debris swirling in the wind passed right through him; he was just a blur.

"Don't be nervous." A familiar female voice sounded. Su Ming looked up and found that there was a girl in white with purple hair beside him, who was also as steady as a rock amidst the flying fragments.

This time, they weren't communicating telepathically, but verbally. This was also the first time Su Ming had heard the voice of the skeleton.

"What we see before us are the memories remaining within the white bone imprint," the white bone explained to Su Ming. "It's replaying images of what happened in the past."

Su Ming opened his mouth to ask a question, but Bai Gu stopped him and gestured for him to look first.

Not far away, the bone dragon circled once and flew back, landing on the ground. A massive amount of runes scattered like dust, drifting freely in all directions. The runes surged with a tide of dark light, and in a fleeting gap, Su Ming also saw streaks of vibrant colors. He glanced at the white bone with some surprise.

The next moment, time froze, and a forbidden spell was activated.

Creaking sounds echoed from every corner of the battlefield as bones began to separate from corpses, whether human or beast, whether newly fallen or relics that had lain dormant in this wasteland for years. Driven by the power of defying the laws of life, countless skeletons broke free of flesh and blood, rising into the air until they blocked out the sun.

Afterwards, these skeletons converged on the location of the bone dragon, and a huge spherical building was gradually erected in mid-air.

“The Bone Fortress,” the skeleton suddenly said.

"You mean the name of this building?" Su Ming asked.

“My name.” The girl glanced at the fortress that was growing taller in front of her. “I really miss the time when I was born.”

Looking at the increasingly majestic buildings ahead, Su Ming thought, "...You were much older back then than you are now."

Beside the two, a humanoid skeleton crawled out of the corpse and flew towards the bone fortress, forming one of the countless walls.

“Of course. This place is called the Plain of Despair, a narrow plain between the Audu Mountains and the Boli Sea,” White Bone told Su Ming. “Because it is a vital transportation route connecting the north and south, wars have frequently taken place here over the years.”

The girl crouched down and reached out her hand. Some sand was scooped up with her movement, then turned into specks of light and scattered in the air.

"The losers are buried, and the victors are quickly defeated by new victors. Over time, even the soil turned brown, and the resentment of the dead continued to accumulate. Twenty-seven years ago, the Holy Sorcerer Russell unleashed a forbidden-level creation magic on the battlefield of the Crimson Wasteland. I made a deal with the dead here, exchanging my wishes for their power, and that is how I was born!"

"What do they want? Resentment, revenge, or something else?"

“There’s almost no revenge, but there’s a bit of resentment, though. But mostly, it’s just confusion and unwillingness to accept it,” the skeleton replied. “The vast majority of the dead here are ordinary people. They were forced onto the battlefield and then died here for no apparent reason. Many of them don’t even know who to hate.”

“The will has been extinguished, and the hatred has been blown away by the wind and sand, leaving only the obsession with existence.” The skeleton continued, “I promised to lead them through, to pass by, and to leave a remarkable mark on this world, and so these obsessions acknowledged me.”

Su Xiang recalled the strange confession she made in the hall earlier; it turned out to be a promise she made to the dead.

“Understood,” Su Ming said to Bai Gu. “I will fulfill these promises together.”

"Ah."

The building gradually took shape, the flying bone fragments thinned out, and the waves of magic began to subside. Sunlight returned to where the two were, and everything was becoming peaceful.

“Alright, next Russell and Galio will weave the Bone Mark to shackle me. It’ll be a mess, so don’t bother watching,” the skeleton said.

Su Ming nodded, and the two left the illusion.

****
(End of this chapter)