Otherworld Bone Dragon Operation Guide

Chapter 270 The Radiant One

In the afternoon, the sequencing results for the corydalis came out.

Data shows that she shares over 99.97% genetic similarity with members of the construction team, confirming that they are of the same species and origin.

The difference between them and Su Ming is quite large, with a similarity of only about 99.91%. But this is normal. In fact, it confirms that humans from other worlds and humans on Earth share a common origin, only that they separated at a certain point in time.

Zijin stroked the small, unusual patch of scales on her chest, her brow furrowed in confusion. If genetic testing confirmed she was human, why did she have dragon scales on her body?
She continued sequencing the samples from the Clock of Calamity. While waiting, the scholar pondered various possibilities but couldn't reach a conclusion.

Her birth was orchestrated by the healer, Silver Pheasant. Later, when she was attacked and reborn in the form of Elisa, Stacy, as Silver Pheasant's apprentice, was deeply involved.

"So we can only wait until this rescue is complete before asking Stacy," Violet murmured.

Zi Jin suppressed her turbulent thoughts and began to organize the gene sequencing results of the members of the Calamity Bell.

****
At the main gate of the Divine Prison, Principal Havel and Warden Sabina led a group of priests in a line to wait.

Before long, an old man dressed in a gray robe appeared. His clothes were unadorned, bound only by a simple hemp rope, and he exuded a restrained and profound aura.

“Welcome, Lord Hector, the Singer!” Havel and Sabina immediately led the priests and bowed in greeting.

Hector walked slowly to them and nodded slightly: "The Holy Light shines eternally!"

“Shadows will prevail!” Javier and Sabina responded in unison.

Behind Hector, a group of figures appeared, all young priests, half men and half women. They were all dressed in the same simple robes, and each of them wore a devout and peaceful expression. As they approached, they politely bowed to the crowd.

This is the choir to which Hui Yong belongs.

The prison priests immediately stepped forward and led the choir members to their quarters. Javier and Sabina, on the other hand, led Hector to the warden's office.

A servant of Hector handed him the letter. Havel took it, decrypted it using the Temple of Light's special code, and quickly read its contents.

The letter, written by the Cardinal himself, stated that intelligence indicated the Bell of Calamity was about to break out of prison, and therefore he had secretly dispatched Saint Hector and his choir to provide reinforcements, determined to accomplish the mission in one fell swoop.

The document also included specific instructions on strengthening defenses and increasing security—though these measures had already been implemented on the Holy Mountain.

A little over ten days ago, headquarters sent a communication conveying relevant intelligence. Sabina and Havel began preparations at that time.

What the two of them didn't expect was that Lord Huiyong would also be sent.

Hector, hands behind his back, walked to the office wall where a detailed topographical map of the entire Holy Mountain hung. He stared at the map and asked in a deep voice, "What methods do you think the Bell of Calamity would use if it were to break out of the prison?"

Javier and Sabina exchanged a glance, and the latter stepped forward to report, "Sir, we believe that the enemy is very likely to choose to attack the coal mine."

The exit of the Qiongding Mountain Coal Mine is located a few kilometers below the Divine Prison, far from the defenses of the 'Holy Antelope Horn' and the 'Eternal Obelisk', and the coverage area of ​​the Magic Rune Cannon.

“Every day, 150 prisoners are sent to the Qiongding Mountain Coal Mine to dig coal,” Sabina explained in detail. “Although this is only a small fraction of the prisoners held here, it is indeed the place where prison breakers are most likely to succeed.”

"Defend the weakest point, huh?" Hector nodded in agreement. "Indeed, a direct attack on Divine Prison would be extremely unwise. Besides, there's the Divine Grace Sea ready to provide support at any time—what countermeasures have you taken?"

"Reporting to you, sir, we have expanded the guard tower at the entrance of the coal mine into a fortified castle and have also deployed an elite squad to guard it!" Havel immediately reported. "In the event of an attack by a powerful enemy, we can rely on the fortified castle to hold out for reinforcements."

Sabina added, "We adjusted the prisoner rotation, transferring all the 'unstable' prisoners back from the coal mine to the main prison to avoid any accidents."

"We also plan to install a large magic array around the diamond-shaped fortress at the coal mine—"

“No need,” Hector interrupted. “Let’s keep things as they are, using the coal mines as bait. Once the Bell of Calamity walks right into our trap, I will personally lead the choir to wipe them all out!”

Havel smiled sincerely, his voice filled with reverence, "With Lord Radiant Singer in charge, those audacious scoundrels will surely never return!"

Hector remained expressionless. He raised his hand and waved for the others in the office to leave, and activated the silencing and privacy barriers.

“I came here not just to deal with the Bell of Calamity,” he said to the two.

A knowing glint flashed in Sabina's eyes: "Is it for the Northern Lands, the Spring Purification Project?"

The Divine Might Prison dungeon has a total capacity of 2000 people, and currently holds 1100 prisoners. Among them, there are more than 900 necromancers and about 200 other religious prisoners.

However, last fall, headquarters issued an expansion plan, aiming to increase the Shenwei Prison's capacity to 3000 people this spring. This means there will be 1900 vacancies waiting to be filled—the source of such a large number of "prisoners" is not hard to guess.

Hector walked slowly to the window, gazing at the view of the sacred mountain outside. "The glory of God must not be profaned. Those northern refugees who have defiled His holy light must wash away their sins with blood and toil!"

“We are willing to serve you, sir!” Javier and Sabina said in unison.

****
Hector had come from afar and soon went to rest.

“Lord Hector has arrived. I suggest we postpone the matter concerning the young lady for now,” Sabina said.

“That makes sense.” Javier nodded. “Anyway, those suppliers won’t be there so quickly; they need to reorganize their supplies.” He remembered something. “By the way, I just received news that the Virtuoso Edluz has also arrived in the North.”

Sabina looked surprised. Although the Fate Master was only a master-level combatant, second only to the Saint-level, he was proficient in light puppetry and was in charge of the Church's "Nirvana" ritual. Those members of the Covenant who were unfortunate enough to die could be "resurrected" as "Nirvana Ones" through the Holy Light Puppet, retaining some of their abilities, as long as their souls were preserved.

Therefore, the Fates usually reside in the glorious holy city and rarely venture out.

"Why did he come to the North?" Sabina asked, puzzled.

Havel explained that the sudden death of Brunlev, the famous puppeteer of the North, was a tragedy brought by a virtuoso who was also skilled in human alchemy and puppet making.

"I've never heard of the Virtuoso and Brunlev, what connection do they have?" Sabina was even more confused.

“Brenlev was killed by some kind of soul magic,” Havel shook his head. “Although the Fate Master himself doesn’t use soul-splitting magic to control puppets, the higher-ups are worried that this would threaten the resurrected ‘Nirvana Ones,’ so they sent him to investigate the details.”

"I see." Sabina suddenly realized.

“You have a good personal relationship with the Fate Master, you can contact him and ask him to investigate the merchant Rogkin as well,” Havel suggested.

The Fate Master will definitely bring his Azure Sky Battle Puppet Troupe with him on this trip, and their combat power is quite considerable.

“Okay!” Sabina agreed.
In the blink of an eye, it was the fifth week, and more than ten tons of ethylene oxide were delivered.

Su Ming, piloting the little rascal, arrived at the Harvest Machinery Factory's warehouse for the first time.

After passing through numerous guards, Su Ming finally saw the cylinders he had longed for. These handsome little darlings were neatly arranged vertically in the workshop, surrounded by workers who were busy making final modifications to them.

"The Hongxing series missiles are 7.8 meters long and weigh about 5 tons at launch," Fengshou explained. "They have a range of 25 kilometers and are specially modified ultra-short-range missiles."

The Su Ming plan is to launch from the Shelter Valley, traverse the Dome Mountain Range, and hit the target 18 kilometers away. For a vehicle of this size, this is indeed an extremely short range.

Fengshou joked, "It's only because you came that we dared to sell to Earth customers—it would absolutely damage our brand image!"

“If I don’t pay, it doesn’t count as selling,” Su Ming said with a smile.

Feng Shou handed him a few pages of paper, and Su Ming flipped through the relevant data. "The ethanol I added is only 96% pure. Is there a problem?"

“If a supplier gives me goods that are inferior to four nines, I’ll have them shot on the spot,” Fengshou said. “We’ve already modified the engine and tested it with 95% alcohol; its reliability is not an issue!”

Using alcohol as missile fuel is not unusual. The first missile launched by the People's Republic of China, the Dongfeng-1, was fueled by alcohol.

However, at that time, the Dongfeng-1 was equipped with liquid oxygen. The Su Ming did not yet have the conditions for mass production of liquid oxygen, so the Fengshou equipped the Hongxing missile with a ramjet engine.

This type of engine requires no oxidizer and directly utilizes oxygen from the air for combustion. Its advantage is extremely high load utilization efficiency, but it also has disadvantages.

"Our technical team's hair is almost all turned white from working so hard," Feng Shou sighed. "They're all complaining about how a missile can fly so slowly!"

According to Su Ming's requirements, the missile's maximum flight speed is only Mach 2.5. Especially for geothermal bombs, excessive speed would cause a precipitous drop in the depth of penetration into the ground.

The minimum starting speed of a normal ramjet engine is Mach 2. That's roughly the speed of a racing car engine used to run on a shared bicycle.

The engineers at Fengshou Machinery Factory had never encountered such a bizarre client before!

“We modified the air intake structure, which significantly reduced the starting speed of the ramjet,” Feng Shou explained. “But there was no other way but to go even lower. You have to find a way to boost the missile to Mach 0.75 before the missile engine can start working.”

Harvest was originally designed with solid-state rocket boosters, which would require the use of alchemical explosives as propellants.

However, Su Ming had no confidence in the quality of the alchemical explosives from the other world. Moreover, the larger the diameter of the solid propellant, the more stringent the requirements for the quality of the explosives used as fuel inside.

Using substandard explosives from unknown manufacturers and forcibly increasing thrust will inevitably result in the product exploding on the launch pad.

"We plan to solve this problem using magic."

"Are you sure?" Harvest looked doubtful. "A startup speed of Mach 0.75 requires 195 megajoules of kinetic energy per rocket—do you have enough magic crystals in reserve?"

“It’s enough, but there’s no need to waste it like this,” Su Ming replied. “We already have a clever way to do it.”

****
In the sixth week, as the tunnel project neared completion, Catherine arrived with her team.

For the sake of secrecy, this combat team composed of elites from Beiliu was stationed in another depression ten kilometers away from the sheltered valley.

Su Ming was repairing equipment deep inside the tunnel at the time and did not emerge from the construction site until several hours later.

From afar, he saw Catherine, the paladin Gendal, and the assassin Silverface, being led by Gerus on a tour of the camp.

He excitedly ran up to greet them.

"Hey Catherine," Su Ming stepped forward and confronted her, "that monster-themed matching outfit you got for your daughter last time was a disaster!"

The person who was called turned around—although he had a similar build and a similar style of dress, it was Iser!

No way! Su Ming was speechless. The two truly lived up to their mother-daughter bond; the resemblance was astounding!

He turned to leave, but heard a loud "bang" as a large sword was deeply embedded in the ground in front of him.

"Long time no see, Mr. Su Ming." Isher cracked his knuckles. "I don't blame you for what happened at the Him Cave. But I often wonder, what would have happened if I had recognized you in the cellar in Shafur Town?"

Su Ming had no choice but to stop.

“Actually, I’ve reviewed it.” He turned around and said seriously, “Back then, I was only one step away from being discovered by you.”

This was no mere politeness; he later understood Iser's true intention in holding that holy water bottle. Because Zefferin had been temporarily transferred, the inexperienced novice priests left behind at the church had caused the water in the bottle to freeze.

This prevented Iser from completing the test.

“So I was really curious, luckily you’re still me.” Iser removed his cloak and weapons, leaving only a short sword. “I was lightly armed then, and I didn’t have the Sword of Balance.”

It seems that things won't end peacefully without a fight. Su Ming sighed inwardly.

****
It was lunchtime, and the trainees from the First Construction Regiment gathered around with their bowls of rice. Some who had finished eating early even went to the supply and marketing cooperative to exchange their food for sunflower seeds, and then found seats in twos and threes to watch the game.

Su Ming took the thorny whip from his waist but casually tossed it aside. "It was a cellar back then, and the space was cramped, so I couldn't use the whip properly."

Iser frowned. "I don't need you to give way."

“If we’re going to use weapons, we’d need to find a similar room to fit the situation,” Su Ming said.

Iser agreed, so Su Ming decided to take the opportunity to lead her away from the camp. Once they reached a less crowded area, they could try to communicate. If things could be eased, great; if not, a casual response would be enough to settle the matter.

This angered the onlookers, who began to jeer.

"Don't be a coward! Just do it!"

"There aren't that many scene recreations available!"

"We get mobbed while we're taking a shower, so don't be so petty, you leaders!"

Su Ming's forehead veins bulged; it seemed he had been too lenient with this group of people!
(End of this chapter)