The White Bone Mark's Upgrade

Although it's fire-fighting equipment, when filled with alchemical explosives in another world, its destructive power is no different. The loading of professional-grade explosives is currently limited by the available materials—even if Su Ming were to squeeze tons of Magic Power energy to construct cyclic trimethylolamine, it would be impossible.

Therefore, as long as it has an outer shell and basic guidance capability, the fire-fighting rocket, a "simple" product, is just right for Su Ming at this stage.

"So you only need the rocket body and the launch platform?" Miao Xin confirmed.

[Yes, the propellant and explosives are ready.]

[You must have a lot of "fires" to put out in that other world.]

[There's no way around it, life here is very rich.] Su Ming quickly completed the search, ["I've already selected the suppliers, please visit them as soon as possible."]

With factories shut down and most staff on holiday during the Spring Festival, it's a good time to "stock up." Although there's still time before we reach the Sacred Mountain, it's never too early or too much when it comes to weapons reserves.

"I'll go tonight," Miao Xin replied.

Firefighting equipment is only the first step, a preliminary weapon deployment for the Youth Civilization. Ordinary rockets are insufficient for conquering the Holy Mountain Divine Might Prison.

Su Ming unfolded the data and began filtering for the next target.

****

After the matter was resolved, Su Ming released the Little Spiky Head from his control, but did not sever the connection. He looked at the bustling crowd in the market and missed that atmosphere very much.

Miao Xin found a corner to sit down. [Master, are you homesick?]

[I give up, don't call me that anymore.] Su Ming replied, [I want to eat skewers, play games, do all sorts of random things, without worrying about my life being in danger. Although it's exciting here, I really miss this peaceful life.]

"Was your life before you transmigrated not tough?" Miao Xin asked.

"It's alright, just like a normal office worker," Su Ming replied. "The salary is decent too; I can afford most things."

Miao Xin looked up at the sky. Today was a rare sunny day in winter, the sun shining brightly and the sky clear and blue. [But not me. When I was young, I chose competitive gymnastics, and I was very talented and performed exceptionally well. After ten years of hard work, just as I was beginning to show promise, I tore my ligaments. Then I couldn't keep up in school, my grades were so bad I couldn't even get into a vocational college. Then my father was seriously injured in a car accident, my mother died unexpectedly, our savings were wiped out, and we were left with debts.]

Miao Xin hadn't told Su Ming the details of these things yet, but it seemed that his ordinary life was something that some people could only dream of.

Miao Xin broke free from her fusion with the Little Spiky Head and floated in the air as a ghost. As she reminisced, a cold wind swept through the market, growing stronger and stronger, and passersby quickly wrapped their coats tighter.

[I have to take care of my family, but jobs like cashier don't cover my income, so I can only do odd jobs. I'm busy every day, with no weekends or holidays, and I have no time to improve myself or break out of this cycle.] She joked, [I'm practically born to be a vengeful spirit; that's probably why the killer targeted me, right?]

Su Ming really wanted to say, "Actually, your level is far from enough," but wisely he didn't. He took control of the Little Spiky Head, tightening the scarf around his neck that was being blown up by the wind to avoid giving anything away. "I'll find this murderer and give him a good talking to."

"I'm really looking forward to it," Miao Xin said.

The cold wind around her subsided, and the warm sunshine returned to the market.

Aside from her hair growing slightly longer, the ghost girl's appearance remained largely unchanged, clearly indicating that her control had improved recently. [Su Ming, do you know what I was thinking when you commanded me to charge at those fully armed soldiers in United States?]

"[Selling this?] "Su Ming chuckled.

[No, I'm thinking, this is amazing!] The ghost girl's soul fire suddenly intensified, startling Su Ming. [To be brought back to life after death and experience a challenging adventure.] Miao Xin opened her arms, looked up at the sky, [What could be better than this!]

She turned to Su Ming, "[Su Ming, we're the same kind of people. When you choose to use Earth's technology to fight against powerful enemies from another world, racking your brains to devise various tactics and wreaking havoc on your opponents one after another, I can sense that you're enjoying it!]"

Su Ming fell silent. Before him stretched a bustling market, vibrant with the sounds of fireworks, everything lively and peaceful. People came and went, seemingly at ease. After a long while, he finally spoke, "[I've learned a lot, Miao Xin. If we met in real life, we would definitely be friends.]"

Miao Xin shook her head. "If everything were normal, and we met, I would definitely hand you takeout, say 'Please give me a five-star review,' and then we would just pass each other by."

Su Ming was about to change the subject when he heard Zijin calling him.

"What's wrong?" He disconnected from Earth.

"Something's happened to Katharine!" Zijin pressed her earpiece. "The signal is very weak, I don't know the specifics, but Qiluo and Katharine are on the run." Su Ming realized that if something happened under these circumstances, it could only be that the White Graupel Cavalry was the problem!

His earlier jinx came true; it really was the Cold Mountain Kingdom that assassinated Katharine.

"Provide support first!" Su Ming decided decisively. "Warp your wide-area spell, you go after them immediately; Hansite, start the motorcycles as fast as you can."

Ready to depart; Younier, deploy the two largest drones!

He quickly gave instructions and ran to the control panel. Although the specifics were still unclear, he needed to prepare for the worst.

Zijin quickly donned her equipment, gathered the magic array materials, summoned the Divine Favor Scepter, and soared into the sky, heading straight for the direction Katharine had left.

Hansite ran to the driver's cab, contacting Gospel via communication equipment as he turned on the boiler to start the steam.

Younier lowered the side panel of the machine warehouse, unfolded and powered on the two octagonal drones, and placed them on the launch pad.

Su Ming quickly activated the system, sending the two drones flying at a high speed of 250 kilometers per hour. He activated the relay communication equipment and finally established a clear connection with Qiluo.

"What's going on?" he asked hurriedly.

"It's White Graupel Cavalry!" Qiluo briefly explained the situation, "A large group of mages are chasing us! And there are cavalry units on the ground!"

"What I feared most has come to pass," Su Ming cursed inwardly.

A drone had already ascended to an altitude of 500 meters, and Su Ming immediately turned on the camera to capture the movements of the unicorn and the scholar.

Using the Youth Civilization as the starting point, Zijin has already flown five kilometers. Judging from the signal strength of the communicator, Qiluo's location is still twenty kilometers away, and no useful information can be seen from the camera.

Considering the enemy is rapidly approaching, "Zijin, deploy a magic circle on the spot!"

"Here?" The scholar was quite surprised. Because there were many obstacles on the ground, her vision would be obstructed after landing. "The hexagram spell is a straight-line attack. Even without mental lock-on, it can only hit targets you can see," she reminded Su Ming.

"Right here, we'll use the drone to target it later," Su Ming replied.

Zijin didn't quite understand, but she still followed Su Ming's instructions and landed on a nearby hillside, then set up the amplification array as quickly as possible.

Su Ming typed on the keyboard, beginning the process of loading drivers onto a drone. This was a newly installed device, and originally, it required further practice.

But now we have no choice but to force it.

A few minutes later, as the drone flew by, Su Ming finally saw the unicorn in the footage. She was carrying Katharine and was dodging and fleeing from the attack of three Grand Magus Mage.

She was surrounded by halos of several colors, some beneficial, some defensive. Katharine, who was on her back, had already tucked the child into her clothes and was now retaliating with a spellbook in hand.

The situation is not optimistic. Unicorns have an advantage over humans in flight, but this is no longer the case with Katharine in tow. The pursuing Grand Magus is followed by a second echelon of about a dozen people.

Further away, several cavalry units could be vaguely seen on the ground, also rapidly advancing in this direction.

Su Ming hovered the drone and began calibrating the equipment.

On the unicorn's side, Katharine was in bad shape, with blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. She took the little Tuanzi out of her arms and tied it to the unicorn's back.

"So you're planning to entrust your child to someone else, you poor, deceived person?" Qiluo said, her breath coming in short gasps.

"We can't escape together." Katharine looked behind her, judging when to jump down and cover their retreat. Unicorns' speed and endurance are not as good as humans'; if this dragged on, all three of them would be doomed.

"I think you can wait," Qiluo stopped her. "I have a feeling those two are going to pull something again."

****

After Zijin completed the amplification array, she could no longer see the target; the distance of more than ten kilometers was too far.

If the attack is launched at this distance, the magic will continue to dissipate during flight, and the residual power of "Hexagram Divine Decree" will not be enough to kill those Grand Magus Mage.

However, given the unicorn's situation, it couldn't sustain itself for long.

"Su Ming, the Hexagram Technique requires a balanced output from all elements," Zijin said. "My current level of dark element is too low; I can't make up for it with the White Bone Mark! Moreover, if I overdraw the White Bone Mark, the Youth Civilization will also cease to function."

Losing the ability to act when about to be exposed to a large number of enemies is extremely dangerous.

"I know." Su Ming quickly configured the drone. "You're already Saint Rank; the dark elemental power provided by the White Bone System is holding you back."

"So?"

Su Ming finished setting up the drone and switched it to automatic mode. He unfolded the White Bone Mark, and specks of fluorescent light surrounded it.

"So we need to optimize and upgrade," Su Ming said. "There's no time to explain in detail. Zijin, I want to exert deep control over you, is that alright?"

Looking Zijin, all that met her eyes was sunlight and white snow, a dazzling and vibrant scene that seemed to stretch all the way to the ends of the earth.

She cleared her mind and said, "Do what you want to do!"

Su Ming took a deep breath and extinguished all nodes of the White Bone Mark, instantly sealing off all of Zijin's activities.

At the top of the hillside, the girl collapsed on the snow, her heartbeat and breathing suddenly stopping.

This was the complete authority of the White Bone Mark. When she learned that Su Ming had analyzed the entire mark, she understood that he had already taken control of it. This was something that the previous two controllers, Saint Magus Russell and Galio, had failed to achieve.

Su Ming then ventured deeper into the Rune Sea, halting the swarms of rune fish. The ocean became deathly still, the world of Zijin darkened, and the Divine Favor Scepter, having lost its anchor, dissipated beside her.

Su Ming raised his hand, and used the White Bone Mark to overwrite it!

A completely new runic structure unfolded in the sea of consciousness. The originally cumbersome multi-layered network was completely torn apart, and the endless runes were removed from the spell cycle, making the remaining structure simple and beautiful.

The simplified runes were not discarded; instead, they swarmed together, flew to farther places, and built new functional blocks. The boundaries of the rune sea continued to expand outward, rapidly spreading and growing in the darkness, its scale expanding exponentially.

Su Ming's mental energy was rapidly depleted, but fortunately, the thickness of his spiritual consciousness had been increasing during this time. When the new structure had fully unfolded and the spread had stopped, Su Ming snapped his fingers in the darkness.

A pulsation appeared, and starlight lit up from one place, igniting nearby companions, then one after another, spreading like serpentine peas of light. The speed increased continuously until it was like a stream of light, quickly circling around and converging at the other end of the small world. Stars shone, the original ocean vanished, and everything was like a vast starry sky!

The spirit of Zijin reappeared in this newly formed sea of consciousness, and she was immediately stunned by this magnificent sight.

"Su Ming, I truly find you terrifying." Her voice held a hint of intoxication. "You actually managed to modify the White Bone Mark to this extent, it's truly beautiful!"

In the core area where the two were located, simple runes flew like comets. Energy was drawn from the surrounding Stars and converged here along the path of light, faintly carrying a sense of grandeur.

"I didn't do it." Su Ming's voice was somewhat tired. Although he had used a trick and external force, this was still a genuine creation on the scale of a forbidden spell. "I can't describe to you what a supercomputer is, but all the scholars in this world combined can't even match a fraction of its computing power."

While using neural networks to analyze the White Bone Mark, Su Ming also proposed the task of optimization and upgrading. With the help of modern artificial intelligence, the original rune sequence was modified into a more efficient structure, and large amounts of the residual code accumulated over hundreds of years of evolution were released from the loop.

The forbidden-level rune sea, created over two hundred years in another world, is as immature as an infant in the face of supercomputing platforms and artificial intelligence models.

The newly calculated, optimized, and reorganized White Bone Mark have achieved a significant breakthrough in efficiency and performance.

****

"The brute force of numbers is truly magnificent!" Zijin's spirit form solidified completely, and she turned to Su Ming, "Then I'm off!"

The two high-fived in their spiritual realm, and the girl's spirit vanished. The next moment, the Zijin's true form on the hilltop opened its eyes.

Boundless ripples spread across the vast snowfield, causing Zijin to momentarily lose control of her mental energy. The complete reorganization of the White Bone Mark allowed her power to flow without hindrance. The previously weakest element, dark, now directly dominated her Magic Power cycle.

She floated in the air, summoned her divine weapon again, and then flicked her finger lightly.

The Natural Rhythm Domain unfolded, and the magical elements within a radius of several kilometers instantly collapsed, surging towards the scepter like a tidal wave. Six colors of light intertwined on the scepter, and in the next moment, they became incomparably bright!

Feeling an unprecedentedly powerful force in her hand, Zijin took a deep breath, her light brown and azure eyes filled with starlight.

"Six-pointed star, sacred decree!"

A massive surge of energy erupted, hurtling towards its target ten kilometers away.

The enormous surge of Magic Power startled everyone, including the mage group that was chasing Katharine, who stopped in their tracks out of fear.

They watched in disbelief as a dazzling light rose from the ground in the distance, shooting straight into the sky.