Otherworld Bone Dragon Operation Guide

Chapter 373 Bad News

"Reverse both vehicles!" The clear command rang out again from the driver's console.

The massive propellers on either side of the stern slowly rotated 180 degrees, their blades churning the cold seawater and generating a powerful reverse thrust. The Pansy, this colossal 10,000-ton ship, began to smoothly and slowly reverse along the narrow waterway it had come from.

In this waterway environment, the ship is as stable as a rock, and you can hardly feel any swaying.

In the command center, Su Ming was reviewing the latest report from the Azure-Eyed Merchant Guild. The report stated that the Naga Queen had led her remaining forces back to the Naga tribe's deep-sea base in a sorry state, and the pain of losing her son had driven her to a blood oath of revenge.

In order to secure substantial financial support, this queen, who had previously shown little interest in oil trading, surprisingly signed a sales contract with the Blue-Eyed Chamber of Commerce for a staggering 5000 tons of oil.

She forcibly drove large numbers of Naga people to specific seabed areas to carry out intensive shallow oil extraction operations.

Even more interestingly, the Naga race also made a request to the Blue-Eyed Merchant Guild: to offer a reward for all information and movements of Ainz Ooal Gown.

Su Ming's lips curled up slightly. He asked Miao Xin to open DS and write a story about the Bone King's battle against the Feathered Clan. The story was roughly as follows: When the Bone King's fleet passed through North Iceland, it clashed with the Feathered Clan. The two sides fought for three hundred rounds, and then their whereabouts became unknown, disappearing into the vast sea.

He handed the "intelligence story" to the communications team, replied to the Blue-Eyed Merchant Guild, and added the note: Sell to the Naga Queen.

If the other party offers a good enough price, Su Ming is not necessarily unable to continue updating.

Woo——!
The piercing alarm suddenly shattered the calm, and radar showed an aerial target approaching at high speed!
Su Ming wasn't too nervous. Soon, a messenger rushed into the command room: "Reporting, Chairman! A blue dragon is confirmed to be approaching our ship!"

"Not Lan Mo?" Su Ming asked.

"The target characteristics do not match; it is not Lord Lanmo," the messenger replied.

Su Ming nodded, but couldn't help but think to himself: Lan Mo didn't even come to see us off. Is he really that addicted to games?
Since it wasn't Lan Mo, then the person who came must undoubtedly be Lan Lie.

He put on his coat and walked with Violet towards the aft deck. They had barely stepped onto the deck when a massive blue figure swooped down from the sky like a meteorite!

Boom!

With a muffled thud and a slight tremor in the floor, Lan Lie's heavy body landed heavily on the aft deck, leaving two clear dents in the sturdy deck—another typical "Afghanistan-style" hard landing!
Su Ming looked at the footprints and thought to himself: Sure enough, a dragon that hasn't undergone professional landing training can only use this kind of landing method!
"Lan Lie?" Zi Jin tilted her head slightly, carefully examining the blue dragon in front of her that exuded an ancient aura, trying hard to search her memory for the corresponding name or face, but she couldn't match it up for a long time.

However, she quickly came to terms with it. After all, she had left Dragon Valley in her teens, so it was perfectly normal not to recognize all her fellow dragons. Besides, there were tens of thousands of dragons in the valley!
"Excuse my intrusion!" Lan Lie lowered his massive head, his gaze falling upon the two, his voice deep and thunderous. "I have heard that your esteemed ship is about to depart for the Eastern Continent. I wonder if... you might grant me a ride?"

“Of course, welcome aboard!” Su Ming readily agreed. Although he really wanted to charge Lan Lie for the cabin and meals—especially considering the dragons’ appetites—he decided to be generous this time, considering Lan Lie was, after all, a fellow dragon of Zi Jin, as a token of his affection.

Violet treated this fellow clansman fairly well. She directed several necromancers to open up and reinforce a large interconnected cabin in the inner section of the ship's hold, cleaned it up, and provided Lan Lie with a spacious, though perhaps not very comfortable, place to live.

****
"Su Ming, have you left North Iceland?"

Catherine sent a letter that was somewhat incoherent.

Su Ming frowned slightly. He wrote a reply: "Just left Hong Kong. What is it?" and then handed it to the student in charge of communications.

About ten minutes later, the student returned with a new reply.

"So fast?" Su Ming was slightly surprised. He took the letter and immediately noticed the difference—it was a encrypted message.

In the world of Teya, deciphering such ciphers usually requires a professional cipher envoy who performs letter substitutions and recombinations according to pre-agreed complex rules.

Su Ming took out his phone from his pocket, unlocked the screen, and launched an application. He pointed the camera at the text on the letter and snapped a picture. The app ran at lightning speed, and the characters on the screen scrolled and rearranged like flowing light.

A few seconds later, a "decryption complete" message popped up, and the clear text content was displayed on the phone screen.

The moment his eyes fell on those lines of text, Su Ming's hand trembled violently, and the phone almost slipped from his grasp and fell to the ground!

He subconsciously clenched his fists, forcing himself to calm down and reread each word carefully:
"It has been confirmed that Ms. Atia was attacked and killed, and she has been buried in Dragon Valley. Witnesses have reported sightings of Leonian, the Nightmare of the Icefield, in the nearby area."

"However, during the subsequent search for Leonie, it was discovered that he had disappeared several days prior. Princess Daphne has been notified, and all efforts are being made to track him down. "This matter is sensitive; please inform Elisa cautiously when the time is right."

"Wishing you both well!"

Su Ming slowly closed his phone, his face shrouded in a gloomy atmosphere, as if the air itself had frozen.

"What's wrong?" Zi Jin, who had been watching Su Ming's movements, immediately noticed his unusual behavior and asked.

Su Ming didn't answer immediately. He closed his eyes tightly, trying to think. After a moment, he opened his eyes and handed the phone to Zi Jin.

Zijin took it, opened it, and looked down at it with a hint of doubt.

A few seconds later—

"Crack! Pop!"

A piercing cracking sound suddenly rang out! The phone screen and its casing shattered under the sudden contraction of Zijin's five fingers!
The girl seemed to have been struck by an invisible giant hammer, and her whole body swayed violently. She suddenly raised her hands and covered her face tightly, the skin peeking through her fingers instantly losing all color, and her shoulders trembled uncontrollably.

****
For the entire afternoon, Violet sat silently before the cold porthole, like a frozen sculpture. Outside the window lay the monotonous and vast icy sea, with occasional ice floes brushing against the hull, emitting a low, mournful sound.

Su Ming didn't try to comfort her with words. He just sat quietly on a chair not far from her, flipping through the Pansy Phase II project materials, occasionally making a few notes.

The only sounds in the cabin were the rustling of pages turning and the slight cracking of the hull as it broke through the thin ice.

As dusk settled, the cabin lights cast a soft glow. Su Ming rose and left, returning moments later with a warm plate, which he gently placed on the table in front of Zi Jin. The food on the plate emitted a comforting aroma.

"I'm sorry, I really... can't eat." Zijin's voice was a little hoarse, her gaze still fixed on the window.

"It's okay," Su Ming said softly. "When you're feeling down, you don't have to force yourself."

Silence flowed between the two, as if one could hear the passage of time. After a long while, Zijin slowly turned her head, her gaze finally returning to the cabin, but she didn't look at Su Ming, only lowered her head.

"I've lived for 170 years..." Her voice carried a distant weariness. "In the human world, I've witnessed too many farewells. One hundred and twenty years ago, my mentor, the great scholar Gilbert, closed his eyes forever. Then his son..." Her gaze became somewhat unfocused, as if tracing back through the long passage of time. "That child, I held him from the moment he was born. I watched him grow from a mischievous little devil who would tug at my scales and giggle, into a spirited young man, then gradually into a composed middle-aged man, and finally, under my watchful gaze, he grew old with white hair..."

In the eyes of a dragon—even a special "half-dragon, half-human" like her—a mortal life is as fleeting as morning dew.

"I'm afraid I've made you laugh." Violet's lips twitched slightly, revealing a hint of bitterness. "I thought I had gotten used to this kind of loss, but I never expected..."

"What's so funny about that?" Su Ming said gently. "That's just normal."

Zijin gently shook her head. "When you first learned of Si Ran's death, you locked yourself in the driver's seat and just sat there blankly... At that time, I actually felt that you weren't 'accustomed' like me. Life will teach you one day." She paused. "Now that I think about it, I was so presumptuous."

Su Ming paused for a moment, then pondered, “This… it’s not really comparable. Si Ran is a very good friend, but she’s not a close relative.” He looked into the distance, his voice lowering, “Besides, some things don’t need to be gotten used to at all. Crying and crying, death will eventually come to you—that’s the logic faced by ‘short-lived’ humans.”

****
The scene fell silent for a moment as the two looked at their reflections in the porthole.

“I miss Atiyah so much,” Violet suddenly said, her voice thick with a nasal tone. Tears finally streamed down the girl's face uncontrollably. “I learned so much on this trip. Not just your technology, cannons, ships, trains…” She took a slight breath. “It was through you that I truly understood how to be cared for, and clumsily learned to care for others. Little dumpling, you made me realize for the first time how exhausting it is to raise a child.”

Tears streamed down her face, but Zijin didn't reach out to wipe them away, letting them drip onto her clothes. "In the past, I really complained about them far too much, but I gave them almost no understanding."

She raised her tear-filled face, only to be surprised to see Su Ming also raise his hand and wipe the corner of his own eye.

“I almost forgot,” Zijin’s voice carried a hint of realization. “You haven’t seen your parents in a long time either.”

"No, no." Su Ming quickly shook his head. "It's alright, it's only been a little over half a year. On Earth, I work in another city, so I can only see them once or twice a year."

(End of this chapter)