Otherworld Bone Dragon Operation Guide

Chapter 190 The First Scattered Sands
Zijin felt a little sleepy, got up and said, "I'm going to sleep." Then she left the workroom.

Catherine's previous injuries hadn't fully healed, and after a harrowing escape, she was completely exhausted. She lay back on the bed, saying, "I'll rest for a bit before analyzing the situation."

"Give me the child." Su Ming walked over and took the little dumpling from her arms.

He communicated with Hansster through his headset to check on the situation. The train was running normally, but the carriages were swaying quite a bit.

Yuniel also came to see him, and that was exactly what she wanted to discuss.

"This section of the road has a lot of loose rocks mixed in with the snow, and many of the steering blades have been damaged," she reported to Su Ming.

Su Ming had encountered this type of problem before when they were navigating the first phase, and he had already instructed the design studio on Earth to take countermeasures. He had Miao Xin check the progress and found that things were going smoothly.

“We’re already preparing to replace it with a flexible structure; we’ll do it during the next maintenance,” Su Ming said to Yunier.

Su Ming then left the work carriage, but the little dumpling was taken away by Yunier. She said that her fracture was no longer a problem and this was nothing to worry about.

****
Although the difference was only a few minutes, when Su Ming arrived at the room in the living area, Zi Jin was already asleep, curled up in her blanket. The girl's sleeping face was very peaceful, neither as cold and fierce as when she was fighting, nor as focused as when she was doing research.

In the past few days, he noticed that Violet spends most of her time sleeping on her stomach, wondering if it was a habit left over from being a dragon.

But thinking about it carefully, she didn't have this characteristic when I first met her.

The malfunctioning skid plate caused increased noise in the carriage, with unpleasant scraping sounds frequently heard. Su Ming reached out and set up a soundproof barrier for Zi Jin. He needed to ensure she got enough rest and recovered her strength as quickly as possible.

However, the spell encountered unexpected interference, and the runes collapsed as soon as they were constructed.

Su Ming was baffled; the difficulty of this spell was already within his capabilities. He searched for the cause and quickly suspected Zi Jin's bed.

Su Ming lifted the thin padding and, sure enough, found a layer of neatly laid-out Chenjin underneath.

"That's really how dragons behave!" he couldn't help but complain.

But the characteristic of Chenjin is to stabilize spells, so this definitely isn't the culprit. Su Ming turned his gaze to Zijin's pillow. He reached out and pressed it, feeling the hard texture under his fingertips—it was indeed a magic crystal core ore inside!

Ever since learning of Zijin's intentions, Su Ming had kept these crystal cores well hidden. He had encased them in bone, using them as the floorboards of a truck. Presumably, it was during the past few days, when he took out half of them to make a reflector, that they were accidentally exposed.

An omniscient vision is truly impossible to defend against!
Su Ming gently pushed Zi Jin to his side of the bed, and this time he finally succeeded in releasing the silencing barrier.

Then he collected all the gold and magic crystals and hid them in a different way.

After all the fuss, Su Ming finally returned to his room and climbed into bed. He reflexively checked on the baby, only to find that he didn't need to take care of the child tonight.

Outside the window, amidst swirling ice shards, the Youth Civilization train sped along, leaving its enemies further and further behind.

****
It was nearly midnight when Eunice was woken up by the baby. She made milk and changed the diaper.

Then the little guy refused to sleep. The noise wasn't loud, but it still woke up Su Ming next door.

He opened his eyes; the Youth Civilization train was still advancing in the night. This was the advantage of mechanical power; even the strongest snowfield cavalry, after a day's march, had to obediently camp for rest at night. Perhaps the personnel could persevere, but the livestock would not.

Steam trains, however, can run non-stop for 26 hours.

Looking to the side, the silencing barrier was functioning normally, and Zijin was still lying down asleep, a trace of glistening liquid dripping from the corner of her mouth.

Su Ming arrived at the workshop and saw that Catherine was already up. She had transformed the long table into a sand table, with various flags stuck on it.

She only rested for a short while before getting up to continue working.

Su Ming glanced at the interlayer of the car window and found some broth and wraps. He took them out and put them in the microwave to heat up. The outside temperature was minus twenty or thirty degrees Celsius, so the temperature inside the interlayer of the window was also below zero; everyone was used to using it as a refrigerator.

Then Su Ming walked to the sand table and asked Catherine, "How's the analysis going?"

“Our current situation is somewhat like a three-way encirclement.” Catherine pointed to the model on the sand table. “This train has a relatively limited route. Behind us are the White Scatter Cavalry. After crossing the Red Fruit Slope of the Zhongling Mountains, on the left is the Bubing City Guard, and on the right—” she planted a yellow flag on the sand table, “the noble army of the Northern Lords’ Alliance. Their garrison in Black Territory isn’t too far away, and they might block the old river channel, stopping us head-on.”

"Will the noble army also participate in the encirclement?" Su Ming frowned.

“I recognize a few of the mages from that mage squad during the day; I can confirm they belong to the Noble Army Mage Corps,” Catherine sighed. “I’m starting to understand your predicament back then. How did you manage to come to the North and end up surrounded by enemies?” She slammed her fist on the table. “Completely absurd!”

"The noble army's combat effectiveness isn't very good, is it?" Su Ming asked. The old river channel isn't very close to Black Territory either, and maneuvering over there in these weather conditions to intercept them requires a certain level of skill from the troops.

“The noble army is quite large, and it includes elite troops,” Catherine said. “It would be best to avoid them. Do we have more options?”

Su Ming shook his head and said, "No, the Youth Civilization train has limited climbing ability and is very picky about terrain."

“Then there’s nothing we can do,” Catherine said. “Dimitri, the leader of the noble army, is a formidable figure. He can’t hide the characteristics of the Youth Civilization from us, so we need to prepare for battle.”

"If a battle is unavoidable, we can break through either side in open field combat," Su Ming also revealed his own combat strength, "but it will take some time to prepare."

"Impressive!" Catherine gave Su Ming a thumbs up. "Let me think about which way to break through; this requires a lot of deduction."

****
“Then let’s discuss another issue first, which is why things turned out this way.” Su Ming tapped the table. “I don’t intend to shift the blame to you, and I know that even if I give up on you now, it won’t solve the problem.” He spoke frankly, “But I need to know the reason for this situation!”

“I’m sorry, I really want to answer your question,” Catherine said with a wry smile, “but I truly don’t know. I’m not stupid, and I haven’t offended any of these forces. There must be something fishy about their assassination attempt on me!”

Are you sure you didn't do something without realizing it?

“It’s precisely because I know myself,” Catherine said seriously, “that I realize I’m not worthy of any of this!”

Catherine is the Star Queen and a steward of the Temple of Light. But compared to the survival of the nation, this status is utterly insignificant. The current situation is already on the brink of disaster for the Cold Mountain Kingdom. If they can successfully kill her, erase all traces, and find a sufficiently powerful scapegoat to frame her, they might still have a chance to avoid a complete breakdown in relations with the Star Empire.

“This is all indeed illogical,” Su Ming said, “but this is the reality.”

“If only we had a communications tower,” Catherine said. “This is the first time I’ve ever encountered a situation where I’m completely in the dark, with absolutely no information.” “That’s why I wanted to ask,” Su Ming said, repeating Violet’s earlier question, “Your Majesty, what exactly did you do?”

When the scholars asked questions, Catherine seemed to avoid the topic, and Su Ming was certain that something was amiss.

“I really haven’t provoked any of these forces,” Catherine said. “I have a good relationship with the members of the Cold Mountain royal family and have cooperated with them many times. I don’t have much interaction with the nobles of the North, but I have absolutely not offended them.”

"Please also mention other aspects," Su Ming insisted.

Catherine hesitated for a moment, then sat down again at the long table. "It's something I can't talk about, and it's unrelated to this incident."

Su Ming extended his palm, signaling the Star Queen to continue.

After hesitating for a moment, Katharine finally decided to concede, "I can tell you, but you need to promise that you will never tell Elisa about these conversations before I leave."

Sure enough, something's up. I knew this guy was no pushover! Su Ming's eyelids twitched, and he nodded in agreement, "Okay."

****
With a ding, the microwave countdown ended. Su Ming took out the heated broth and served a bowl to Catherine.

Catherine picked up her spoon and drank her soup. "It all started at the church. Not long after Elisa left the college, I was assigned to work in the church's evangelistic department. I was hardworking and capable, and I quickly rose to prominence, becoming a middle manager, but that was the end of it."

Catherine was just an ordinary person with no background, and this was the end for her.

“I don’t like this kind of predictable life, nor do I like the stagnant, greasy, and disgusting senior management in the church, so I started thinking about how to break all of this.”

Su Ming heated up the wrap, returned to the long table, and started eating it with the soup.

“Isn’t it ridiculous?” Catherine said. “A mere priest, with nothing better to do, thinks of challenging the behemoth that is the Church.”

"Is your plan to rise to power and lead the reform of the church?" Su Ming asked.

“How could that be?” Catherine said. “At that time, I didn’t know the Imperial War God, nor did I know Shariko, and I had no connections whatsoever. I wasn’t dealing with just a few people, but with a group of powerful clans like the Divine Covenant, whose interests were intertwined and interconnected!”

She unfolded the alchemy book "Qingjian Yunzhi" on the table, revealing a densely packed list of books. "This is a memento left to me by my mother. It contains all the historical documents of this world."

Su Ming didn't have much free time, and only skimmed through the general history section. "So?"

“I found the answer in the history of this world—it is impossible to deal with a class by relying on individual power; it requires another class. The rise and fall of dynasties and the changes of the world are all the same.”

Su Ming's eyes lit up immediately. He had thought it would be a clichéd power struggle story, so he was quite surprised by this development.

"Creating a new social class? I'd like to hear more about it!"

Catherine shook her head. "It wasn't me. It all stemmed from Elisa. Her deciphering of the divine language greatly reduced the difficulty of learning it, allowing ordinary believers to master this power that was originally monopolized by the higher-ups."

Divine language and magic?

Su Xiang recalled what Zi Jin had told him not long ago about her divine language study notes.

“I used my position in the Evangelical Fellowship to privately distribute teaching materials on the new divine language to the common people and to promote the concept of equality. At first, it was just me, but it quickly formed a small group, and then an organization. Eventually, it continued to expand, with more and more members, until the church found out.”

Su Ming looked up at the woman in front of him, who was holding a soup bowl and biting into a crepe that had hardened a bit from being microwaved. A complex and indescribable feeling suddenly welled up in his eyes.

“I have always been very cautious and have not been caught red-handed, but the emerging elites of the common people have become the first to stick their necks out. They have been successively exiled to the North by the higher-ups of the temple, and gradually formed the Northern Flow faction.”

"Wait a minute, let me sort this out!" Su Ming gestured to stop Catherine. Catherine had skipped over a crucial point: the speed at which she had developed this organization from scratch was simply too fast!

More fragmented things came to mind and suddenly connected.

"You dare do this?!" Su Ming exclaimed in shock. "Elisa really would kill you!"

****
Five days ago, on the night before the blizzard, Su Ming and Zi Jin drove a snowmobile across the icy plains, searching for Catherine's whereabouts.

The search process was very boring, so the two kept trying to find topics to talk about.

"What foolish thing did you do when you left the academy?" Su Ming asked the scholar. "You actually let little girl Catherine rescue you."

“It’s all because of the divine language,” Zijin sighed. “That old and broken language, with its chaotic abbreviations and unclear meanings, has been a huge headache for me to study.”

The scholar mastered the vast majority of languages ​​in the other world. Moreover, although both had received the "Language Proficiency" spell, Zi Jin became proficient in Chinese and English in just two days, far faster than Su Ming.

If even someone with her linguistic talent could complain, then this "divine language" must be extremely bizarre.

“Besides rote memorization, there’s absolutely no other way. It’s inefficient and slows down progress,” Zi Jin continued. “Then, in a fit of anger, I went to find the original data on the divine language to see why it was so bizarre.”

"Original data?"

“It’s the inscription,” Zijin explained. “The books that have been passed down from it have been copied repeatedly, and I suspect that too many errors have accumulated in them.”

Alphabetical languages ​​lack the ability to self-correct, making them prone to various variations during copying and producing vastly different versions. It's understandable that Zijin would have this thought.

"However, I visited several sites with inscriptions on sacred stone tablets and did not find any problems in this regard," the scholar continued.

"What did you do next?" Su Ming raised an eyebrow, knowing that the girl would never let the matter rest.

“It’s a common archaeological technique, ‘reverse tracing’,” Zi Jin said casually. “Since we can’t find any problems with the current inscription, let’s restore it to its original state.”

"No, no, no, this isn't something archaeologists usually do!" Su Ming protested. While 'Reverse Object Reversal' can indeed recreate the initial state, the recreated object will be reduced to ashes; no archaeologist would do that!

(End of this chapter)