Otherworld Bone Dragon Operation Guide

Chapter 285 Follow-up Plan
The day after the Battle of Dome Mountain ended.

A recovery team was scattered across the battlefield, searching for the wreckage of the Red Apricot missile and recovering as much material as possible from it.

In the central plaza of the Divine Grace Sea, Newman was leading a team of alchemists systematically dismantling the "Eternal Obelisk." They lifted the defensive stone slabs embedded in the ground, dismantling the complex magic array materials and driving crystals beneath.

Su Ming surveyed the entire work site and discovered that the scale of this magical defense array far exceeded expectations. Yesterday's battle had only caused tremors at the shield distortion points, temporarily disrupting the system's operation, so the hardware was basically intact.

“I know your plan. By removing this, the main defense system of the future base will be secured,” Newman said, then his tone turned disdainful. “But this thing is poorly designed! It’s inefficient, the node layout is extremely unreasonable, and it’s simply a waste of materials.”

“Anyway, it was going to be modified anyway, to be compatible with the technology-based defense system.” Su Ming wasn’t surprised. “How long will it take you to complete the disassembly?”

Newman counted on his fingers, counting the bones, "Three days, the most optimistic estimate."

"No, this will take too long!" Su Ming shook his head and rejected the idea.

They couldn't linger here any longer; the White Triangle was still submerged in the sea beneath the ice. Judging by the time, the Temple of Light's fleet should be arriving soon.

“But actually, it would be best to have more than a week.” Newman pointed to the entire academy complex, his soul flame flickering excitedly. “There are so many good things here!”

Not far away, Violet was leading another group, scavenging for valuable items. The academy was vast, with countless alchemy facilities, but many of the devices could not be roughly dismantled and had to be handled carefully.

"Let's hurry up and think things through." Su Ming sighed and fell into thought.

He needs to weigh the risks and benefits before making a decision.

****
In contrast, things were much quieter at the Divine Prison. The 'Holy Antelope Horn' was completely destroyed due to overload during yesterday's battle. However, the members of Star Sand are still carrying out meticulous dismantling work, hoping to salvage some usable materials.

As Su Ming passed by, he saw Iser busy at work, and the two nodded to each other.

Catherine entered the dungeon carrying a roster; the forbidden secret place sign at the entrance had been shattered in the battle.

The place has now been largely cleared out. The necromancers have all been taken away by Su Ming's team, and the remaining hundred or so prisoners are mostly "problematic figures within the Temple of Light."

She quickly found her target—an old man with a wrinkled face sitting blankly in the corner of his cell. When Katharine stopped in front of his cell door, the old man's cloudy eyes suddenly lit up, and he immediately scrambled to the door, a fawning smile appearing on his face.

“Dainx?” Catherine said, her voice unreadable.

"Yes, sir." The old man lowered his head humbly, his voice trembling slightly with excitement. "What are your orders?"

"Former leader of the Dark Side Operations Group of the Temple of Light." Catherine closed the roster, scrutinizing the down-on-his-luck old man. "How did you end up like this?"

“Just a loser in a political struggle,” Daienx said with a wry smile. “If Your Excellency doesn’t mind, I’m willing to serve you! This old man is very familiar with the inner workings of the temple!”

During yesterday's battle, when the captain of the guard instigated the prisoners' resistance, he was one of those who attacked Iser with weapons. However, he was quick-witted; the moment he saw reinforcements arrive, he dropped his weapon and hid back in his cell.

"Don't rush." ​​Catherine made a gesture to stop her, and she opened the cell door. "Come with me."

Overjoyed, Daienx immediately followed Catherine. The two arrived at the guards' rest area on the outskirts of the dungeon. Catherine glanced at the dirty chairs and did not sit down.

“I’ve come to ask you something.” She turned and asked, “Forty-seven years ago, were you ordered to clean up the home of a merchant family named Dix? All five members of the family were murdered, and the scene was staged as a fire.”

Daienx was clearly stunned. He had thought that Catherine had approached him to use him against the Covenant—this was his chance to survive!

He tried hard to recall the events Catherine had mentioned, but ultimately shook his head regretfully.

"I'm sorry, sir, the events of forty-seven years ago were truly..." He rubbed his hands awkwardly, "Besides, we have countless targets to eliminate every year, let alone a small business owner's family being wiped out like this..."

Catherine sighed softly and pulled a yellowed sheet of paper from the file folder. "You must remember this mission report that you wrote yourself, right?"

Daienkes took the paper; it was indeed in his handwriting from decades ago, recording the completion of this small task. It specifically mentioned that the target family had a newborn daughter—a baby girl named Karila.

“Ah… I vaguely remember.” Dainx’s cloudy eyes suddenly lit up. “This mission is very special. It was personally ordered by the Pope to take a blonde baby girl who was less than a month old!” He added, “I—the members of the action team—did not know the purpose, so we had to choose from wealthy families, selecting healthy and beautiful girls, and, as instructed by the Pope, we had to kill all the baby’s family members—of course, this part cannot be written in the official report.”

The official report that survived at the time stated that the Dix family held cult activities and did not hesitate to sacrifice their newborn daughter to summon demons, which is why they were wiped out by the Court of Justice of the Temple of Light.

The rescuers arrived too late; the baby girl had already died.

"Is it Pope Augustus?" A cold killing intent flashed in Catherine's eyes. "Thanks."

“It would be an honor, Your Excellency Catherine, then I—”

“Of course, you can be free now.” Catherine’s lips curled into a cold smile.

Just as Daienx's face lit up with joy, he saw Catherine simply raise her hand, and his legs were instantly frozen solid, leaving his kneeling lower body immobilized on the icy ground. The biting cold shot up his spine to his head, causing him to let out a piercing scream.

"Wait, sir!" Daienx exclaimed in terror.

What made him even more desperate was that after doing this, Catherine turned and left, abandoning him in the dungeon. This partial freezing wouldn't be immediately fatal, but without immediate intervention, he would slowly die in agony—

"My lord! Please don't leave! Why are you torturing me like this—!" Dainx's wailing echoed in the dungeon.

Catherine left without looking back, leaving his screams far behind.

****
Catherine stepped out of the broken stone door of the dungeon, the blinding sunlight making her squint slightly. In the instant her eyes adjusted to the light, she unexpectedly saw Su Ming leaning against the wall.

He held up his tablet and greeted Catherine, "Good morning!"

Catherine's long golden hair shimmered brilliantly in the sunlight. She frowned slightly and said with displeasure, "Eavesdropping is very impolite."

“The dungeon is a public place,” Su Ming replied. “So it’s reasonable for me to install surveillance cameras.” The air between them froze for a moment.

"Don't tell anyone about this!" Catherine conceded, making a request. But then she thought of Su Ming and Violet's relationship, "I'll let Elisa know, you'll definitely tell, but please don't let anyone else know."

“No problem,” Su Ming promised.

He pulled out the same stack of prisoner files, the papers fluttering gently in the breeze, preparing to enter the dungeon. "I'm here to find someone too."

"Do you have someone you're interested in?"

“The records show that an alchemist who once participated in the maintenance of the Gospel statues is being held here.” Su Ming flipped through the papers. “But I didn’t see him on the security camera. He would be helpful to our research on the Gospel.”

Catherine glanced at the prisoner's name. "No need to go. He was killed in yesterday's battle."

A hint of regret flashed in Su Ming's eyes as he silently closed the register.

Even if the other "internal prisoners" of the Temple of Light have special characteristics, their loyalty is questionable, making them both troublesome and dangerous to use.

In his eyes, these people were not worth his time.

Only matters concerning the gospel are worth his going through the trouble.

"Should I call you Kalila?" Su Ming suddenly asked.

Catherine's expression remained unchanged. "There's no need," she said calmly. "The name Catherine was given to me by the person who saved me back then, and it also contains love and hope."

Su Ming discovered a problem: Dai Enx had successfully completed his mission back then. In other words, he had handed the young Catherine over to the Pope.

Furthermore, the Dark Side Operations Group, as a special operations department, did not receive any follow-up tasks regarding this matter.

"Who is so capable that they could save you from the Pope and keep the fact that you're alive a secret?" Su Ming asked, puzzled. "That's not something an ordinary person could do."

Catherine shook her head gently. "I have absolutely no idea. All I know is that a woman who looked like a scholar entrusted me to my current adoptive parents." Her tone carried a hint of helplessness. "Apart from that, there are no other clues."

"...Then how did you discover your true identity?" Su Ming pressed.

Catherine reached up and tugged at her dazzling blonde hair, the strands shimmering with a warm glow between her fingers. "My hair color is so different from my adoptive parents', and I don't resemble them at all in terms of features or build." She sighed softly, her voice lowering slightly. "They treated me like their own child, but is it so hard to realize they're not their biological child from these subtle differences?"

“Being too shrewd isn’t always a good thing,” Su Ming remarked.

“And isn’t that true?” Catherine sighed in agreement. “Once you know, you can’t pretend you don’t. When I was handed over to my adoptive parents, I was wearing very fine cotton clothes. So I searched for middle-class or higher families in the vicinity where the incident occurred around that time. After a long investigation, I found this.”

Catherine pulled out her magic book, and the pages opened to reveal a yellowed portrait. The painting depicted a merchant family: a young couple with their elders standing beside them, each holding a swaddled infant.

Su Ming only glanced at it before understanding why Catherine was so certain that the people in the painting were her biological parents—their similar eyebrows and expressions were almost identical, especially their identical blue eyes.

"Why would the high and mighty Pope abduct a baby girl and go so far as to exterminate her entire family?" Su Ming asked, voicing his doubts.

"Didn't you hear the whole thing?" Catherine rolled her eyes at him, annoyed. "I was just investigating why!"

"So that means we can only ask the Pope about these things?"

“So it would be best if there were a chance to keep this old bastard alive!” Catherine said through gritted teeth, her eyes filled with tangible hatred. “But if there really isn’t a chance…” Her voice suddenly turned icy cold, “…it wouldn’t matter if we just killed him!”

****
The sun was still shining brightly as the two walked along the stone pavement toward the main building of the Divine Might Prison.

After a moment of silence, Su Ming asked, "So, that's why you did all this, making enemies of the Temple of Light?"

“I admit that was my initial reason,” Catherine replied. “The new divine language that Elisa discovered gave me the opportunity. My idea was to cultivate a new group, create chaos and strife within the church, and then seek an opportunity for revenge.”

"Impressive, a patient plan that has lasted for over twenty years," Su Ming exclaimed.

“I had no choice.” Catherine’s voice suddenly turned low. “How many sleepless nights have I felt despair in the darkness—the Temple of Light is such a huge organization, it’s suffocating.”

As they spoke, the two entered the main building. Passing through the dimly lit corridor, they pushed open the door to the warden's office, only to be met with a scene of utter chaos. Documents were scattered like snowflakes on the floor, and expensive desks and chairs were overturned and askew, clearly having been ransacked.

“But my thoughts are different now.” Catherine’s tone suddenly softened. She bent down to pick up a dirty document and gently smoothed out the creases. “The members of Star Sand were guided and nurtured by me. They should not become victims of revenge, and I cannot abandon them as pawns.”

Su Ming straightened the heavy leather sofa, his fingertips tracing the delicate leather texture on the armrests. As he placed the overturned coffee table back in its place, sunlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows, casting dappled shadows on the oil paintings on the wall.

"The decor of this office is truly luxurious," Su Ming remarked, looking around at the paintings and exquisite ornaments covering the walls.

“It’s just for show; the fact that it wasn’t taken means it’s not actually worth much,” Catherine replied casually. She walked to her desk and took out a can of tea from a drawer. As she opened the lid, a rich aroma of tea wafted out.

"Look, this is the real good stuff!"

Catherine used magic to boil water and poured it into a bone china teapot. The amber-red tea shimmered with a warm light, and the wafting aroma quickly filled the office.

Even Su Ming, who knew nothing about tea, became somewhat interested.

The office door opened, and Violet appeared in the doorway. Catherine found teacups, washed them, and poured three cups of tea.

"What did you call me here for?" Zijin picked up one of the cups and sat down on the sofa. She took a sip. "Not bad, it's been a long time since I've had such good black tea."

“We need to decide on the next steps,” Su Ming replied.

(End of this chapter)