Otherworld Bone Dragon Operation Guide

Chapter 318 Qiluo's Picture Book

After hearing this, Su Ming was at a loss for words.

“I wish Theodore were dead, not so much to avenge a friend,” Stacy confessed. “Maybe it’s more to ease my conscience. I have nightmares about the Divine Prison every day.” Her voice was low and weary. “But I myself don’t have the strength to kill my enemies.”

After spending a few days together, Su Ming realized that this seemingly aloof woman was actually quite gentle at heart. Contrary to his initial impression, while she possessed excellent magical reserves and extensive knowledge of spells, her combat talent was truly… appalling.

Stacy is the typical type who becomes completely flustered and disoriented once a real fight breaks out. Compared to Violet, who is an anomaly who acts like she's playing around in the heat of battle, she is the traditional, pure scholar rooted in her study and laboratory.

Su Ming nodded solemnly, "I understand."

“This is merely a personal obsession of mine.” Stacy took a step back, her posture returning to its usual dignified state. “Please prioritize the overall situation and there’s no need to rush.” She bowed slightly, the hem of her white coat tracing a clean arc. “I believe that the noose of fate will eventually be placed around the neck it’s meant to be around.”

After that, Stacy left, her footsteps fading into the distance in the corridor.

Su Ming turned around. Outside the porthole was an endless, churning, leaden-gray sea, like a heavy, oppressive block of lead. And deep in his eyes, the same color was reflected.

Theodore, is that it? Well, then you can't blame me!
****
On the flagship of the Bright Fleet, the "Bihai Tanggu", the command room door was tightly closed.

General Theodore, who was mentioned, was sitting around a conference table with a group of staff, flipping through brightly colored picture books. In the past six months, the "Sanghe Pictorial" publishing house has released as many as fifteen such picture books.

Half of them featured orcs. Surprisingly, two of them were about the Naga race.

This is precisely why Theodore strictly ordered the gates to be kept closed—if the Naga Queen were to witness this scene, they would have no way of explaining it!
General Theodore flipped through the picture book, but the exquisite pictures and bizarre poses only made him more and more agitated. In the end, he slammed the picture book heavily on the table.

The staff officers remained silent, trembling with fear, and could only continue reading in quiet contemplation.

The group quickly finished reviewing the information and began to discuss it.

The conclusion was unsurprising: the most unconventional of them all was the work created by an illustrator who signed his work "The Melancholy Cavalryman".

This picture book is less of an erotic publication and more of a collection of landscapes—the male and female protagonists are so heavily censored that they are blurry and unrecognizable, completely losing its erotic meaning. Instead, the scenery of various places in the North is depicted with exceptional beauty.

The publisher even directly titled it "Notes on the Scenery of the North".

Crucially, several of the illustrations feature bone dragons, trains, war scenes, and the silhouette of a giant dragon.

"So, what exactly is this?" Theodore asked.

The group exchanged bewildered glances. "We deduce," one of the advisors stated their consensus, "that this is most likely a traveling artist who happened to witness Ainz and the Owl's movements and used that as a gimmick to create a storybook. Apart from the few illustrations featuring them, most of the content is a town travelogue—Akira and the Owl could never be leisurely strolling through the North!"

This does align with the attention-seeking nature of such artists. Theodore turned to the illustration depicting the battle between the Bone Train and the army, pointing to the deep blue ice dragon spewing meteors and fire in the sky. "How do you explain this?"

The ice dragon is depicted with extreme detail. Laymen might find them all similar, but experts can discern from details such as physique and scale patterns that this is a depiction of the Ice Dragon Saint-level expert, Elder Lan Mo.

However, as is well known, Elder Lanmo of the dragon race has always stayed away from worldly affairs and is unable to cast spells other than ice magic—this is an inherent limitation of ice dragons.

Information about Saint-level powerhouses is widely circulated in other worlds, so the fact that the artist could depict Lan Mo's image does not mean that he had personally seen the Blue Dragon in person. However, judging from common sense, he should never have depicted Lan Mo breathing flames.

“We believe…this is actually reasonable,” an advisor said hesitantly. “It’s the artist’s subtle expression of the unique physical sensation of ‘a world of ice and fire.’”

Given that it was a private art book, and considering the artist's eccentric style, this approach was understandable. Theodore crossed his arms, pondered for a moment, and then tentatively accepted the explanation.

"Then why would Elder Silver Scarlet leave in such a hurry over such a picture book?" Theodore continued to press.

Now, everyone was speechless.

They had carefully perused the entire picture book. Much of the content seemed nonsensical, possibly relating to Ainz Ooal Gown's whereabouts in the North, but its authenticity was unclear, and no useful information could be extracted from it.

"Perhaps the picture book contains secrets known only to the dragons, which is why Elder Silverfair deduced Ainz Ooal Gown's whereabouts from it," an advisor speculated. "That's why she went straight after him?"

Theodore pondered for a moment. This conjecture did indeed align with Silver Scarlet's style; she should possess enough confidence to defeat Violet alone. This move also avoided killing Violet in public, thus allowing them to frame the North for Violet's death.

The problem is that Ainz Ooal Gown and the Crimson Owl are both safe and sound! Just the day before yesterday, they used only two strange alchemical bombs to exchange for the precious mothership "Water Nest" and took away half of the Sea Eagle Beast army!
Theodore didn't dwell on it, raising his hand to signal everyone, "Put the album aside for now, and leave it for the intelligence team to analyze later."

He got up and walked to the hanging nautical chart, where he began to deploy tactics.

"In the first phase of the battle, our fleet will deploy in a semi-circular blocking formation to encircle and compress the target Bone Fortress ships to the north!"

Due north lies the polar core, composed of an ice sheet that has remained frozen for millennia and is as hard as iron. It is early spring in the north, and even outside the Arctic Circle, most shipping lanes are completely blocked by thick ice.

Therefore, as long as the Light Fleet blocks the White Bone Fortress ships from retreating south and flanking east, it can force them into a desperate situation and compel them to fight with their backs to the river!
"In the second phase, according to weather forecasts, a severe blizzard will arrive in a day and a half! At that time, we will activate our magical weapons to complete the final kill!" He slammed his palm heavily on the sea chart.

"This top-secret operation," Theodore announced, surveying the room, "is codenamed 'White Veil'!"

(End of this chapter)