Otherworld Bone Dragon Operation Guide

Chapter 203 The Scholar's Medical Malpractice
Forging battlefields and battle reports was easy, Daphne said nothing. It didn't require many people; her personal guards and confidants could handle it.

"The next part of the story is that we negotiate and reach an agreement where each side compromises. We promise that the purpose of our trip is only to retrieve the lost bones from Hard Rock Canyon and obtain the collection of the Holy Mage Galio. After we achieve our goal, we will return to the Eastern Pass and leave the Northern Lands under your supervision."

“I understand telling this story to the outside world,” Daphne nodded. “The plot is: 'Our forces were powerless against the powerful bone fortress, so we could only track and monitor it. In the end, we watched as the Owl and the Bone King departed and returned to the ocean!'”

“That’s roughly it, but it’s not entirely a story,” Su Ming said. “Our trip to Hard Rock Canyon is real.”

Su Ming adjusted his plans for the trip to the North. After repairing the locomotive, he made a grand trip to Hard Rock Canyon—since it was a story, it naturally had to be a mix of truth and fiction.

“After that, please send someone you absolutely trust to forge our departure tracks all the way to the sea,” Su Ming continued to Daphne. “At the same time, erase all traces of our actual westward journey.”

Daphne considered it and found the plan to be quite feasible. After all, this was the home ground of the Cold Mountain Kingdom, and the original local power had been severely damaged. While it couldn't be said to be completely airtight, misleading the intelligence agents of various factions and buying some time was possible.

“That’s achievable,” Daphne replied. “The North is sparsely populated, and it’s the dead of winter, so it’s easy to block all channels of communication. Of course, once the snow season is over, the truth will still spread.”

"That's enough. After our surprise attack on the Holy Mountain Divine Might Prison, there's no point in continuing to cover it up," Su Ming said.

****
Afterwards, Daphne quietly pondered for a few minutes.

She could tell that this tunnel was a key part of Su Ming's plan to attack the Holy Mountain Divine Might Prison, and it was exactly what he was supposed to dig.

But the Kingdom of Cold Mountain is definitely not at a disadvantage. The price they pay for protecting Su Ming and ensuring the tunnel's successful completion is negligible compared to what they can gain. Even if it involves the risk of offending the Temple of Light and causing blame and disputes afterward, it is absolutely worth it!

However, Princess Daphne had even more in mind.

She reached out and moved Su Ming's tunnel slightly, extending it to emerge from a weak point on the other side of the mountain. "Scholar Su Ming, please name your price!"

After Daphne's modifications, the tunnel will run through the mountains, eliminating the need to detour through coal mines to transport goods. From the perspective of the Cold Mountain Kingdom, this will greatly improve convenience.

However, for Su Ming, adding three kilometers to the length would cause time-related problems.

Or rather, the five-kilometer tunnel on display was never going to be possible in the first place.

Su Ming frowned.

"All 120 scholars and mages related to the undead being housed in the Cold Mountain Kingdom can be transferred," Daphne stated directly.

Newman's design for the Qingqiao Suspended River utilized a significant amount of undead technology. Therefore, she detained the group of mages, originally intending to use them for project construction. This aspect could also be adjusted to facilitate the tunnel deal.

Su Ming indicated that he needed time to consider, and then established a mental synchronization with Zi Jin.

"Are necromancers useful to us?" he asked. "I mean, things other than fighting—why is it so noisy over there?"

Su Ming vaguely sensed that the commotion on Zi Jin's side was not small, and it seemed that someone was wailing.

"I'm dealing with a personal grudge," Violet replied.

"Do you need any help?" Su Ming asked hurriedly.

"No, it's just one-sided abuse," Zi Jin said, then began to answer Su Ming's initial question. "Necromancers are certainly useful. Magic-based professions are all well-educated; with a little training, they can do anything—your skills are practically useless against ordinary people, right?"

Su Ming imagined a group of necromancers setting up a production line and testing the process, and he was very skeptical about the final product's appearance.

"This isn't Earth; the education rate is low," Violet cautioned. "People with advanced education are extremely rare, and those willing to work like beasts of burden are even rarer."

"Understood," Su Ming replied.

He plans to set up various production lines in this other world, which will inevitably lead to a shortage of skilled technical personnel. Therefore, he cannot afford to miss out on this group of highly educated individuals who are desperate for opportunities. As for the necromancer's profession not being a perfect match, isn't that a trivial matter commonplace on Earth?

“I understand your terms of the deal. Please allow me to recalculate the project scope,” Su Ming replied to Daphne. “I can only decide whether to agree after the calculation.”

The whole plan was fraught with uncertainty, and he couldn't agree rashly.

There was a faint noise outside, and everyone looked up alertly, only to find that Zijin had already returned.

"What's wrong?" Su Ming asked.

“We beat someone up.” Violet clapped her hands. “Princess Daphne, we’ve added two more purposes to our public announcement of our visit: to seek revenge on Price and Catherine.”

Catherine looked up abruptly, "Was that General Price you just beat up?"

“He broke three of my ribs last year,” Violet replied. “It was just reciprocity.”

Su Ming sighed, thankfully she usually didn't calculate interest.

Daphne's lips twitched. "That's fine too. Price will be injured, making the scene more realistic. As long as he drags his wounded body back to Bubing City, spies from all over the world will immediately take notice. I can then take the opportunity to reveal that the opponent in this battle is you, and the effect will be excellent."

Su Ming thought the detail was very well designed. He wanted to ask Catherine if she had anything to add, but found that she had already disappeared from the workroom.

Violet, who had just returned, had her fingernails gleaming with a sharp light as she opened the door and chased after him.

"I've improved the Dragon Claw spell so that the wounds can last longer," her voice came from outside the door.

"No...no, don't scratch my face!"

****
Su Ming and Daphne talked for a while longer before saying their goodbyes.

"Regarding the extension line, we await good news." Daphne bowed solemnly and then leaped onto the lion-deer beast.

"Your communications tower is repaired. Let me know your call sign." Catherine covered her cheek, hugged the little dumpling, and jumped up.

The two walked further and further apart on the snowy plain.

Su Ming breathed a sigh of relief; so far, the plan had gone smoothly. He looked at Zi Jin beside him, "Why did you let Catherine go so easily?" He was very puzzled, "She impersonated you and got us into a mess!"

“Using Elisa’s identity would have warranted a beating, but the Temple of Light and I are mortal enemies, and it has little to do with her,” Violet replied. “I spared her because she was still breastfeeding.”

Su Ming was about to nod when he realized something was wrong.

"No, smashing up the temple's facade and setting up a separate faction within the church doesn't count—Violet, tell me honestly, what exactly did you do!" Violet glanced at Su Ming, "Anyway, we're mortal enemies, so what's the difference between 100% and 1000%?"

"No, you have to explain yourself clearly today!" Su Ming persisted.

The two walked back to the carriage.

“Alright. The whole thing actually started with an accident caused by a spell I created,” Violet said. “This is somewhat of a stain on my academic career, and I still want to save face.”

"It's nothing. No matter how big the problem is, it's nothing compared to how despicable the Riddler is!" Su Ming said.

“…Alright.” Violet sighed, finally deciding to tell the story. “I told you before that when I was at the nunnery, I developed a hair growth spell. It was with this spell that I built a good relationship with the teachers.”

Su Ming nodded; he remembered this incident. The scholar, taking advantage of this, repeatedly violated school rules and was thus protected in various ways.

“In the final year, I taught this spell to these teachers,” Violet continued. “This spell was created based on the new divine language. Common priests can also cast it using ordinary divine language, and it works normally, although it is a bit laborious.”

Compared to having a shiny bald head, the hardship is nothing.

"Then the spell spread and quickly reached the upper echelons of the Divine Covenant faction. The divine language they knew was different from that of the common people; it was more complex and complete, and of course, compared to the new divine language I revised, it also had more obvious errors and omissions. As a result, the old men of the Divine Covenant faction experienced some minor side effects when using this spell." She held up her finger, making a barely perceptible slit.

The same piece of code can indeed cause various problems when run on different compiled versions. In fact, the closer the versions are, the more bizarre the bugs become. Su Ming didn't understand the divine language, but he could understand this phenomenon. "Please explain this 'minor side effect' of yours in detail."

"...It can cause impotence," Zijin said helplessly. "The more times hair regrowth occurs, the more significant the side effects will be."

Su Ming felt a chill in his heart, "In the end, it will become completely unusable, and you won't be able to do *that* anymore?"

“Of course!” Violet said, “The key is that these people didn’t know the reason at first, and none of them publicized it, secretly seeking medical treatment. As a result, this bombshell was only revealed after all the bald people in the temple’s upper echelons were rounded up—that’s when I found out too.”

It's normal to have unspeakable difficulties or things you can't talk about!
Su Ming covered his face helplessly, "So we were chased by those cardinals with bloodshot eyes, and surrounded by five naval fleets. They would rather dismantle aircraft carriers and sell islands than let the dragon come and squat... all for this kind of stupid thing!"

“Otherwise?” Violet said. “What reason could be greater than this?”

The most sophisticated political struggles require only the simplest reasons.

"...Okay, I understand." Su Ming sighed, "You're really something!"

“You have to believe me, this really is just a medical malpractice,” Violet argued. “I lack understanding of the archaic divine language used by the Covenant faction, otherwise—” she blinked, “I would definitely have made the side effects even more powerful!”

"..."

****
Although the final battle didn't take place, everyone had quite a bit of work to do last night.

The four people and one beast on the Youth Civilization train had caught up on a good night's sleep. Everyone was full of energy at night, and Violet grabbed the unicorn and ordered her to set up the surrounding warning and defensive barriers.

Violet repaired the communications tower she had captured from the noble army, then looked at the carriage full of skeletons and felt somewhat troubled.

"Su Ming, what should we do with these skeletons?" she asked. "Keeping them is quite a hassle."

"Keep a small portion, and add the rest to the train body," Su Ming said. "We probably won't need it for a while."

Violet then erected a searchlight outside the carriage and listlessly began classifying the skeletons. The bones were dismantled piece by piece, the remaining flesh removed, the inferior ones discarded, and then they were creaked and groaned back into the bone fortress.

This sorting process can increase the strength of new materials without requiring a long aging period. It's a very tedious job, and she couldn't help but miss a certain hardworking necromancer who worked 996 hours a day; she should have cherished those times more.

The smell was strong, but the scholar sat high up, waving her cane to control her servants and zombies, completely unaffected.

Su Ming had to wear several masks, which caused even his view of Zi Jin to lose some of its filter.

Poor Yuniel was so frightened by the beautiful scene of limbs and bones scattered all over the place that she hid in her room and refused to come out.

But she quickly remembered that the walls of the room were also made of bone, and then she ran outside crying.

"That's a normal reaction!" Su Ming questioned Zi Jin, "Why are you so harsh on me?"

"I've never treated you like a normal person," Violet chuckled.

"..."

Yunier's PTSD didn't last long; she soon sobbed as she sorted through the wreckage of the bombed motorcycles with Hanster, categorizing them by material. Su Ming was somewhat impressed by the young clerk's tenacity. As a noble lady, despite her impoverished background, she had done remarkably well.

This is also why she was chosen by Violet and kidnapped.

The locomotive was severely damaged. Su Ming could restore the worn and broken parts, and with the help of alchemy, he could also repair some distortions. However, the damaged area was quite large, and the more complex the part, the more troublesome the repair.

Su Ming did the math; the time and effort required were excessive. It seemed better to build a new boiler and re-teleport?

Su Ming linked with Miao Xin.

Miss Vengeful Spirit was riding an electric scooter, following the trail of tracks. "We're almost at Kong Ruifeng's factory," she told Su Ming.

Kong Ruifeng did not disclose the factory address, nor did he leave any trace in the information he provided. However, when Miao Xin received the goods, she used "Quiet Traces" to "consult" the truck.

Although they hadn't contacted the manufacturer beforehand, Miao Xin, as the client, felt justified in coming to inspect. They needed to verify the product manufacturing progress, especially to avoid a repeat of the last incident where the wrong materials were used.

Last time it could be salvaged, but if the ship's power system malfunctions again, then there will truly be no way to escape with tears in one's eyes.

Most importantly, Su Ming now needs to manufacture a new boiler for the train, at least the main component, to repair the bombed locomotive using a combination of Earth's mechanical processing and otherworldly magical repair techniques.

However, it was necessary to observe the surroundings before going in. Miao Xin looked around and found that the tallest building nearby was a hospital. Without being picky, she ran into the outpatient department, registered, and went upstairs.

"Should we get an X-ray while we're at it?" Su Ming asked. "I'm actually quite curious to see what your scans will look like."

"Su Ming, you've fallen." Miao Xin rebuked, "You even coveted my naked body."

【…】

(End of this chapter)