Otherworld Bone Dragon Operation Guide

Chapter 235 Bear Infestation

Suddenly, Qiluo's long horns emitted a soft light, enveloping the entire carriage.

"Mind mapping!"

The unicorn's magic projected the images Yennefer sensed into the consciousness of everyone present.

"What happened to the doctrinal debate we were promised?" Su Ming asked, puzzled.

"Gossip is supreme!" the unicorn replied confidently, stuffing another handful of popcorn into its mouth.

The image was initially blurry and indistinct, as if seen through a thin veil. As Yunier's perception deepened, the image became clearer.

Inside a dark cave, many young girls lay scattered on the floor. Their pale faces were frozen in terror, and their disheveled clothes were stained with dark red blood.

It was all corpses!
"Ah!" Yunier screamed, dropping the gold coins in her hand. The girl's already weak mental energy instantly became disordered, and her face turned as pale as paper.

Gerus immediately cast a divine spell, enveloping Yunier in warm light and soothing her frightened heart.

"This is blatant provocation!" Su Ming slammed his fist on the table.

Violet shook her head. She released her perception again, carefully scanning the area within a radius of several miles, but still found nothing.

Judging from the signs, they do not appear to be being targeted by any enemies.

Su Ming was completely baffled. If the mastermind could pinpoint their location, why would they choose to send small animals to deliver a message and provoke them? This roundabout approach was truly incomprehensible.

Why don't we just click "Initiate a surprise attack" and everyone just start fighting?

He unfolded the military map on the "Blue Slip" and sensed the location of the "Dark Beacon." The little squirrel had already run nearly a kilometer west, leaving a clear trail on the map.

Following the directional marker, Su Ming discovered that it was the route to the Upper Ridge Mountains.

“As for caves,” Hanster pointed to a spot on the map a dozen kilometers away, “there’s a place called Him Cave, which is a very large natural cave.”

Su Ming looked at the location of the Him Cave, which happened to be in the direction the little squirrel had gone.

"So the enemy is in the Him Cave?"

“It’s very likely that there are no other large caves around here,” Newman said. Engineering masters are qualified to speak on the geological conditions of the North.

Su Ming was annoyed and confused, but that didn't stop him from devising a plan.

First, the Youth Civilization Team immediately moved to an area with a wider field of vision. This would allow them to fully utilize the reconnaissance and surveillance capabilities of the train's modern equipment.

This movement also reduced the straight-line distance between the train and the Him Cave to about 8 kilometers, separated only by a few hills. Su Ming released a drone to reconnoiter the cave.

Su Ming dispatched a total of three drones this time. Through signal relay, one of the drones could even fly into the shallow area inside the cave.

Considering the enemy lurking in the shadows, Su Ming controlled the drone to fly low, skimming the terrain at a relative altitude of less than one meter, cautiously approaching as if playing hide-and-seek.

The Jisu team's fully upgraded drone flight control system has significantly increased the number of auxiliary functions designed for possible battlefield environments in other worlds.

It wasn't until we were three kilometers away from the cave, climbing up a hillside, that the drone finally captured an image of the cave in its transmitted footage. It was an opening embedded in the mountain wall, about ten meters square.

Just then, a tall, white figure emerged from the cave.

Su Ming quickly lowered the drone's altitude and landed it on the snow.

"What's that!" He zoomed in on the image, and the distance measurement showed it was about 2.5 kilometers. Then, based on the image size, he calculated that the white figure was over three meters tall!

“It’s the Bearmen,” Hanster said. “Strange, what are the Bearmen doing here?”

"Sowing discord? Using one tiger to devour another?" Su Ming instinctively asked suspiciously.

All along, when Su Ming was engaged in various high-level battles, this was the first thing that came to his mind: the person behind the scenes was using this provocative letter to lure them into a conflict with the Bear Clan!

But this Him Cave is only five kilometers away as the crow flies from Pagani Canyon, where Su Ming planned to cross the Lower Ridge Mountains.

He really needs to figure out what's going on with these bear-men!

****
The first step of the Ice Plains, the city of Ries.

Leoni finally arrived in the small town.

His mood had calmed down considerably, and Princess Daphne's intentions were now clear.

Since Ainz Ooal Gown and Chestnut Owl have come to the North, the princess must win over such a powerful figure who is rare in the North—at least he is still considered to be part of the Cold Mountain Kingdom's faction.

Daphne chose to let Alva go, giving him this small task both as an investigation and as a way of showing goodwill.

"But if it's Chestnut Owl, can we entrust that matter to her?" Leonie pondered to himself.

The carriage slowly came to a stop, having arrived at the ruins of the Astako family's residence. Leonie stepped down from the carriage. Although half a year had passed, his injuries were still not fully healed. The short journey had also made him appear quite pale.

He walked slowly toward the explosion site—the once magnificent mansion was now nothing but ruins, lightly covered by a thin layer of snow.

As his boots stepped over the dilapidated gate, the whole world suddenly turned into a black and white silhouette. With each step he took, the collapsed walls began to repair themselves, and the shattered stone slabs of the path were pieced back together. Continuing on, the trees in the courtyard that had been blasted apart and burned to ashes were also "replanted" in their original places.

He stopped in front of the burned-out house, the black and white silhouette spreading like ripples until the complete building reappeared before his eyes. A menacing mercenary was leaning against the wall, a dagger pressed against Daphne's neck. A few drops of crimson blood slowly slid down Daphne's snow-white neck.

Nature-based high-level spell – 'Traces of All Things', the ultimate reconnaissance method for forest rangers!

Although more than ten days have passed and the images are slightly blurry, this does not prevent Leoni from obtaining key information.

Upon entering the house, Leonie saw the legendary alchemist gunslinger. Wielding a strangely shaped weapon, the man destroyed Brunlev's puppet with just two shots.

"So this is Ainz Ooal Gown." His eyes flickered slightly as Su Ming's disguise quickly disappeared, revealing his true face. "So young!" Leonie couldn't help but exclaim.

The puppet crashed heavily at his feet, raising a cloud of non-existent dust. He already knew the fate of the great puppeteer, Brunlev.

“Those who manipulate schemes will ultimately perish because of their own schemes.” Leoni shook his head; this man had indeed died a worthy death.

He ventured deeper into the cellar. Suddenly, a fire broke out on the ground, flames dripping from the oil stains, threatening to ignite the flammable materials inside.

But soon, the air was forcibly sucked out, and a light curtain precisely extinguished all the fire sources, cleverly avoiding the people in the cellar.

"Exquisite control!" Leonie exclaimed sincerely. Even he himself couldn't match that level of skill.

The smallest priest descended into the cellar, his phantom passing through Leonie's body as he went to find the imprisoned girl.

Leonie followed closely behind and saw four girls imprisoned in the cellar, with a severed rope on the ground.

He continued walking inside, where the priest was also searching. He didn't untie the ropes, choosing instead to maintain control of the situation first.

At the end of the cellar, Leonie saw a cocoon of light.

To be precise, it should be the fifth girl—at least judging from her silhouette and clothing. But her head was a tangled ball of gray thread, tightly binding her head.

"What is this?" Leoni asked in surprise.

As time passes or the scene is deliberately destroyed, it's normal for the faces of people in the retrospective images to become unclear.

But the appearance of such a cocoon is too strange!

In the illusory world, the priest also found the girl, and he suddenly issued a terrified warning.

Leonie then looked at the details and discovered that the girl with the calloused head was in the middle of a pile of alchemical explosives. She was holding a detonator, which she had already inserted into the explosives.

Just as the priest's paralysis spell was about to hit, the girl crushed the detonator without hesitation.

"Is this inside man so loyal that he'd rather be shattered to pieces than let everything go wrong?"

Leonie muttered to himself, a hint of confusion flashing in his eyes.

****
At the foot of the Upper Ridge Mountains, near the Him Cave.

Su Ming ordered drones No. 1 and No. 2 to stop and wait, while he piloted drone No. 3, keeping it close to the ground at a height of about one meter, carefully bypassing any obstructions to his view.

Although the flight control system allows him to fly lower, too much of a good thing is bad—that would kick up snowflakes from the ground, making him even more noticeable.

Soon, the drone approached to a distance of about one and a half kilometers, and the angle changed to a better side view.

This time, we could finally see the entire area near the cave entrance: it was a roughly leveled area where a dozen enormous mammoths stood quietly. In the center of the area was a circular structure about ten meters in diameter, and the mammoths were busily moving various things around.

“The Ring of Winter!” Newman suddenly exclaimed, recognizing the device. “How could the Bearmen have something like this?”

"The Ring of Winter?" Violet's expression changed upon hearing this. "Su Ming, that's a powerful magical weapon!"

"How huge exactly?" Su Ming asked.

“I haven’t seen it with my own eyes,” Violet replied, her expression grave. “But it’s said that this thing consumes 100,000 gold coins worth of materials just once it’s used!”

Su Ming's heart tightened—a weapon that requires such a huge price to acquire must be incredibly powerful!
Due to the considerable distance, the image transmission resolution was limited. Su Ming chose to take a screenshot and send the high-resolution photo back for analysis.

This time, it was finally clear that there were quite a few humans mixed in with the bears. Some were working together, while others were clearly overseeing the work.

Judging from their positions, the highest-ranking figures are a human standing next to the "Winter Ring" and the largest bear-man.

Unfortunately, this angle only captured the view from behind, so Su Ming had to operate another drone to circle around to the other side to take pictures.

"Luckily, we discovered this group of bear-men in advance." Newman said with lingering fear, "Which 'kind person' delivered the letter?"

(End of this chapter)