Supply Shopping

"In short," Katharine rubbed her face, composing herself, "The only way you can change the status quo is to hold a knife to the necks of these Divine Covenant Faction and force them to bow down."

The Divine Covenant Faction consider themselves servants of God, fulfilling their so-called sacred covenant generation after generation, with their descendants dedicating themselves to God. To put it bluntly, they are the hereditary high-ranking members of the Church of the God of Light.

"Why not just be direct and leave them with no way to back down?" Zijin said coldly.

"You see, we have common interests," Katharine said. "Ailisha, I know what you want."

She clasped her hands together, and a luminous phantom appeared above her. "By boundless devotion to the light, Katharine Aosha, I pledge my willingness to participate in the rescue of the innocent from the Holy Mountain Divine Might Prison!"

Just as Zijin remains a believer in light, the church is the church, and the divine is the divine. As long as one follows God's guidance and justice,

Backstabbing church organizations is completely harmless and something one can be ashamed of.

"Not bad," Zijin said calmly.

Next, everyone began to discuss the details.

"I need to return to Bubing City first," said Katharine. Bubing City is the largest city on the Tingbulike Icefield, and the Cold Mountain Branch of the Temple of Light is located there. "I will provide you with all the intelligence you need and prepare the necessary supplies and personnel, and we will meet at the agreed location."

"Aren't you being sidelined now?" Zijin asked. "The Northern Lands has become a place of exile in recent years. Commoners who are ostracized by the higher-ups, especially those with outstanding talent and ability, are sent here—I have a pretty good relationship with these people," Katharine said.

"How good is it?" Su Ming asked.

"Before I was transferred to the Tribunal, I worked in the Gospel Fellowship," Katharine further explained. "I was in charge of the temple's general education, and I had deep connections with the common people, having teacher-student relationships with many in Northern Stream. So even without my position here in Cold Mountain, I could still get involved in many things and mobilize a lot of resources!"

"What's the situation with this assassination attempt?" Su Ming asked.

"I don't know either, it's just inexplicable," Katharine said helplessly. "But Bubing City has enough power, and Princess Dafulin, whom you rescued, will go there too. We'll find out what happened!"

"Don't be careless again. Your death is nothing to regret, but don't drag Little Tuanzi down with you," Zijin mocked.

"You're the ones who need to be careful," Katharine scoffed, retorting sarcastically. "I've only been assassinated once, but do you dare to calculate how many groups are chasing you?"

****

Everything returned to normal after that. As Miao Xin said, a one-month-old baby is actually very sleepy, and the little Tuanzi is relatively easy to take care of. After getting through the initial chaos, it wasn't so tiring with everyone sharing the workload.

Younier, having recovered considerably, joined in. Having cared for her younger siblings before, she was even more skilled than Katharine, who rarely did things herself, which eased the pressure on everyone.

Katharine recovered quickly; Su Ming's medication helped her a great deal, otherwise, she wouldn't have regained her mobility so quickly after losing so much blood.

Miao Xin initiated an online consultation, and the doctor suggested that in addition to replenishing body fluids, some blood-tonifying agents could be used. The sanatorium's warehouse had no shortage of such medicines, and Su Ming completed the teleportation and bandaged up Katharine.

"That naval battle was very unfair," Katharine suddenly said. "Someone like you suddenly appeared by Ailisha's side, and I knew nothing about it."

"Didn't you know immediately that the White Bone Mark had changed its controller?" Su Ming asked curiously.

"But nobody said this controller is also a healer, a mechanic, and a master of tactics and strategy," Katharine said. "Sorry, I actually only like to dominate weaker opponents and hate facing tough opponents the most."

"No matter how much you flatter me, I won't forget the fact that you tricked me into a trap during the Battle of Agate Sea," Su Ming said. "And you're definitely plotting how to get revenge on me."

"I'm not as vengeful as Ailisha," Katharine retorted.

"Who are you calling vengeful?" Zijin's voice came through. "Are you asking for trouble?"

****

The little Tuanzi was very curious about the intravenous syringe and kept reaching for it, so Katharine had to ask Younier to take him away.

She carried the IV drip herself to the long table in the workroom, intending to find a book to pass the time.

A familiar object caught Katharine's attention. She reached out and pushed aside the books that Su Ming had deliberately piled up, revealing "Blue Bamboo Slips and Rue".

It was found at the very bottom.

"So you really did take it," Katharine said, flipping open her spellbook. "And you even unlocked my lock!"

"What do you mean by 'take'?" Zijin corrected. "What we captured on the battlefield is ours!"

"My current weapon was destroyed during the escape battle." Katharine tossed the spellbook aside. "Perfect, I can use this one instead."

"That's quite a dream."

"Ten thousand gold coins." Katharine didn't mince words and quoted a price directly.

"Your Majesty, I find this book very useful, and I especially like the information inside," Su Ming said. "Especially the maps; your collection of military topographical data is far superior to the tattered civilian materials."

Katharine took a round, cyan alchemical tool from her person. "Plus this. It's a substitute I made."

It can record one-tenth of the contents of the original.

Su Ming considered it for a moment; this capacity was enough to store the parts he needed most. He exchanged opinions with Zijin, "Deal!"

Afterwards, Su Ming called Younier over and carefully inspected the operational status of the Youth Civilization, addressing the parts that needed maintenance and adjustment one by one.

After completing these tasks, he finally had time to keep an eye on the situation on Earth.

The scene shifts, Miao Xin is standing in front of Si Ran's grave. It is evening, and the branches of the withered cypress droop low under the leaden sky, with snow covering the tombstones of varying heights.

Su Ming originally thought that since he possessed the abilities of the necromancy side, he could use it to exchange a few pleasantries with his old friend, which is why he arranged for Miao Xin to search for Si Ran's soul. However, unexpectedly, Miao Xin searched the scene of Si Ran's death and tracked her all the way to the hospital, morgue, and crematorium, but still found nothing.

Having completed her journey, Miao Xin returned to the cemetery.

My former friend is now just a dark blue stone tablet in front of me. The inscription on the tablet is half covered by frost, and the serious face of my senior in the photo is now as cold as the surrounding environment.

This was Su Ming's first time trying something like this, and he wasn't sure if Si Ran's soul had dissipated too quickly or drifted to another place. As a necromancer, he had used his "professional" abilities far too little.

Since he couldn't force it, Su Ming didn't dwell on it too much. He asked Miao Xin to collect a few wildflowers and place them in front of Si Ran's grave as a tribute.

"It's winter, bro," Miao Xin said helplessly. "I can buy you some cigarettes, though."

It's Chinese New Year now, and there are still a few days until the start of spring.

"Forget about that," Su Ming said.

Tong Ran once said that she was injured by fireworks when she was a child and hates them the most.

Footsteps approached; someone was getting closer. Miao Xin put on her glasses and turned to leave. A cold wind swept through the gaps in the cemetery, sending snowflakes swirling between the granite tombstone bases.

Su Ming said goodbye to Miao Xin and disconnected.

After walking a short distance, Miao Xin glanced back and saw that the person who had come was a young man with a full beard, who was now standing in front of Si Ran's tombstone, placing offerings.

Tomb sweeping at dusk? This person is just as strange as I am. Miao Xin wondered, she had initially thought he was a cemetery worker.

Upon closer inspection of the man, Miao Xin suddenly stopped in her tracks. For the first time, she detected Resentment Mark very clearly on this young man!

On this side of the other world, the blizzard gradually stopped.

The clouds turned from dark to pale, the wind stopped, the snowfield became silent, and everything seemed to have been refreshed.

The Youth Civilization successfully arrived at the Nuoxia Lake area, and Su Ming initiated the third parking and preparation phase.

As usual, they chose terrain with shelter on one side and built a snow wall on the other. Katharine raised her hand, and a hazy curtain of light completely covered the train. The train disappeared completely, and from the outside, it looked like an ordinary snow slope.

Illusion, "Water Curtain Sky Splendor"!

"Excellent!" Zijin praised, "Such a large scale, yet there are almost no Magic Power fluctuations."

The difficulty of illusion lies not in creating a realistic disguise, but in the dissipation of Magic Power that exposes the disguise.

"After all these years of training," Katharine said proudly, "If it were released using a magic circle, there wouldn't even be this much fluctuation."

The two began to discuss the details and techniques of the spell.

Su Ming knew nothing about water-based magic; he could only marvel at how Katharine, who had chosen this specialization, was definitely a master strategist. Thankfully, they were no longer enemies; some people, the more you looked at them, the less you wanted to fight them again.

Qiluo cheered and ran towards the lake to break the ice and catch fish with Hansite. Gospel, meanwhile, led the undead creature to work on the motorcycle. Ever since the cardinal-level access card was inserted, this guy had become much more proactive in his work.

Su Ming adjusted the drone configuration, launching a six-axis drone to an altitude of 500 meters to scan a large area of terrain and verify map data.

The sunlight finally pierced through the thin clouds, carving out alternating lines of light and shadow on the undulating snow slopes. The ice crust on the tire tracks reflected a cold luster, interfering with the camera's operation. Su Ming had to make the drone climb higher.

The scan was finally complete, Su Ming could clearly see a prosperous small town more than 30 kilometers ahead, with a population of over 4,000 judging from its size. He checked the map and found that the town's name was Tukuman.

"There are caravans coming and going; it looks like a market is being held," said Zijin.

"Are there any major festivals here on the ice plains?" Su Ming asked.

"The Winter Solstice Festival is in a week," the girl replied, "The most important festival in the entire Western Continent."

The current time is December 18th in the Stars Calendar. Calculating the time, the winter solstice in this other world is about the same as the time in my hometown. The two are very similar in terms of calendar.

After compiling the coal consumption figures for this period, Younier organized them in chronological order and handed them to Su Ming.

Su Ming entered the data into his portable computer and quickly calculated the energy efficiency for different time periods, discovering that coal consumption was somewhat high. He contacted the studio to analyze the reasons and concluded that the actual roads on the snowfield were not as smooth as imagined, and the train's speed did not reach the theoretical value most of the time.

The studio proposed a series of improvement plans, such as optimizing the navigation software and selecting better routes. One of these was to add heat-reflective coating to the furnace. This material can reflect infrared rays and other radiation generated by coal combustion, reducing heat loss and improving energy efficiency.

Su Ming originally planned to have Miao Xin find a supplier to "get" it, but Zijin discovered that there was a better product in the otherworldly alchemy: Nie Silver Coating. It has a higher reflectivity and excellent toughness and durability.

Nobles used it to make the interior of fireplaces, and the extravagant would even coat the entire house with it.

"Can you buy Nie Silver Plating in Turkmen City?" Su Ming asked Zijin. Such a valuable resource should be used to boil water—that's the right thing to do!

"I'm not sure, but I can try looking for it."

Su Ming calculated that the round trip would only take a little over an hour. He also wanted to buy some daily necessities along the way. Although he had made some preparations before coming to the Northern Continent, he only realized that he lacked many things after arriving here.

Katharine made a request, hoping that Su Ming could help her purchase some items for the little Tuanzi. Although Su Ming had teleported some from Earth, there were still some odds and ends missing.

But when Su Ming received the list from Katharine and saw that it even included baby formula, he was puzzled. "Isn't the baby Tuanzi we have in the car enough to last until he's six months old?"

"The milk powder you bought from the Dwarf Continent is not suitable for human babies," Katharine said.

"..."

Su Ming considered who would accompany him. Qiluo was definitely too busy to stay still, but he wasn't comfortable letting her go alone. Younier's bone injury hadn't fully healed, so she wasn't suited for a bumpy ride. Zijin needed to stay here to guard against any trouble from Katharine. Considering that he could drive a snowmobile to make a quick trip, it would probably be him going with Unicorn or Hansite.

Unexpectedly, both Qiluo and Hansite refused.

"We need to make fish cakes," Qiluo declared righteously. "The Winter Solstice Festival is approaching, and we must prepare seasonal food!"

"Alright. "Su Ming pushed out the snowmobile, intending to go alone.

Zijin walked over, "Take me with you."

"Very well, they don't go where they should, and they go where they shouldn't," Su Ming thought to himself. He said to Zijin, "If you want to buy anything, just give me the list."

"If I can't buy finished alchemical products, I'll buy raw materials to synthesize them," Zijin replied. "And I need to pick out some sanitary products; I'd like to make those myself."

"What about Katharine?"

"Don't worry, she wouldn't stoop to using such tactics on me," the scholar said confidently. "Objectively speaking, following us to the second-tier Bubing City is her only option now."

If Katharine were alone, she might not have any worries, but she also had her little Tuanzi with her.

"That's true," Su Ming said.

"The day after we rescued Katharine, seeing that the little Tuanzi was safe and sound, she actually hid under the covers and secretly cried," Zijin remarked. "Someone who never cried no matter how much I bullied her back then."

"You know that's bullying," Su Ming thought to himself. In the past few days, the two of them would occasionally talk about the past at the nunnery. Although Katharine was two years older on the surface, she was still a real child back then. How could she possibly outwit a scholar? Nine times out of ten, she was the one who suffered the loss. The only other time was when Zijin was in a good mood and didn't bother to argue.