Miss Scholar's Medical Mishap

Forging battlefields and battle reports was easy, Dafulin said, without saying a word. It didn't require many people; her personal guards and confidants could handle it.

"The next part of the story involves our negotiations, where we reach a compromise. We promise that our purpose in this trip is simply to retrieve the lost bones from Hard Rock Canyon and obtain the artifacts of the Holy Sorcerer Galio. After achieving our goal, we will return eastward and leave the Northern Lands under your supervision."

"I understand now that you've told this story to the outside world." Dafulin nodded. "The plot is: 'Our forces were powerless against the powerful White Bone Fortress, so we could only track and monitor it. In the end, we watched as the Bay Owl and the Bone King departed and returned to the ocean!'"

"That's roughly it, but it's not entirely a story," Su Ming said. "Our trip to Hard Rock Canyon is real."

Su Ming adjusted his plans for the trip to the Northern Lands. After repairing the locomotive, he made a grand trip to Hard Rock Canyon —since it was a story, it naturally had to blend truth and fiction.

"After that, please send someone you absolutely trust to forge our departure tracks all the way to the sea," Su Ming continued to Dafulin, "And at the same time erase all traces of our actual westward journey."

Dafulin considered it and found that the plan was indeed feasible. After all, this was the home ground of the Cold Mountain Kingdom, and the original local power had been severely damaged. It couldn't be said to be completely airtight, but misleading the intelligence personnel of various forces and buying some time was possible.

"That's achievable," Dafulin replied. "The Northern Lands is sparsely populated, and it's the dead of winter, making it easy to block all news channels. Of course, once the snow season ends, the truth will still spread."

"That's enough. After our surprise attack on the Holy Mountain Divine Might Prison, there's no point in continuing to cover it up," Su Ming said.

****

Afterwards, Dafulin quietly pondered for a few minutes.

She could tell that this tunnel was a key part of Su Ming's plan to attack the Holy Mountain Divine Might Prison, and it was exactly what he was supposed to dig.

But the Cold Mountain Kingdom is by no means at a disadvantage. The price of protecting Su Ming and ensuring the smooth completion of the tunnel is negligible compared to what they can gain. Even if it involves the risk of offending the Temple of Light and causing blame and disputes afterward, it is absolutely worth it!

However, Princess Dafulin had even more in mind.

She reached out and shifted Su Ming's tunnel slightly, extending it to emerge from a weak point on the other side of the mountain. "Scholar Su Ming, please name your price!"

After Dafulin's modifications, the tunnel will run through the mountains, eliminating the need to detour through coal mines to transport goods. From the perspective of the Cold Mountain Kingdom, this will greatly improve convenience.

However, for Su Ming, adding three kilometers to the length would cause time-related problems.

Or rather, the five-kilometer tunnel shown was never going to be possible in the first place.

Su Ming frowned.

"All 120 scholars and mages related to the undead being housed in the Cold Mountain Kingdom can be transferred," Dafulin stated directly.

Newman's design for the Green Bridge Hanging River utilized a significant amount of undead technology. Therefore, she detained the group of mages, originally intending to use them for project construction. However, this aspect could be adjusted to facilitate the tunnel deal.

Su Ming indicated that he needed time to consider, and then established Mind Synchronization with Zijin.

"[Are necromancers useful to us?]" he asked. "[I mean, things other than fighting—why is it so noisy over there?]"

Su Ming vaguely sensed that the commotion from Zijin's side was quite significant; it seemed someone was wailing.

"[Dealing with personal grudges,'" Zijin replied.

"Do you need any help?" Su Ming asked hurriedly.

[No, it's just one-sided abuse.] Zijin said, then began to answer Su Ming's initial question, [Of course necromancers are useful. Magic-based professionals are all well-educated; with a little training, they can do anything—your skills are useless against ordinary people, right?]

Su Ming imagined a group of necromancers setting up a production line and testing the process, and he had serious doubts about the final product's appearance.

[This isn't Earth; the education rate is low.] Zijin reminded us, [People with advanced education are extremely rare, and those willing to work like beasts of burden are even rarer.]

"Understood," Su Ming replied.

He plans to establish various production lines in this other world, which will inevitably lead to a shortage of skilled technical personnel. Therefore, he cannot afford to overlook this group of highly educated individuals who are desperate for opportunities. As for the necromancer's profession not being a perfect match, isn't that a trivial matter commonplace on Earth?

"I understand your terms of the deal. Please allow me to recalculate the project scope," Su Ming replied to Dafulin. "I can only decide whether to agree after the calculation."

The whole plan was fraught with uncertainty, and he couldn't agree rashly.

There was a faint noise outside, and everyone looked up alertly, only to find that Zijin had already returned.

"What's wrong?" Su Ming asked.

"We beat someone up." Zijin clapped her hands. "Princess Dafulin, we've publicly announced two more reasons for coming here: to avenge Price and Katharine."

Katharine looked up abruptly, "Was that Price you just punched?"

"He broke three of my ribs last year," Zijin replied. "It was just reciprocity."

Su Ming sighed, thankfully she usually didn't calculate interest.

Dafulin's lips twitched. "Very well, Price will be injured, making the scene more realistic. As long as he drags his wounded body back to Bubing City, spies from all over the world will immediately be on his radar. I can then conveniently reveal that our opponents are you, and the effect will be excellent."

Su Ming thought the detail was quite good. He wanted to ask Katharine if she had anything to add, but found that she had already disappeared from the workspace.

Zijin, who had just returned, had her fingernails gleaming sharply as she opened the door and chased after him.

"I've improved the Dragon Claw spell so that the wounds last longer," her voice came from outside the door.

"No... no, don't scratch my face!"

****

Su Ming and Dafulin talked for a while longer before saying their goodbyes.

"Regarding the extension line, await good news." Dafulin bowed solemnly, then leaped onto the lion-like beast.

"Your communications tower is repaired. Let me know your call sign." Katharine covered her cheek, picked up the little Tuanzi, and jumped up.

The two walked further and further apart across the snow-covered plain.

Su Ming breathed a sigh of relief; so far, the plan had gone smoothly. He looked at Zijin beside him, "Why did you let Katharine go so easily?" He was very puzzled, "She impersonated you and got us into a mess!"

"Using Ailisha's identity, she deserved to be beaten, but the Temple of Light and I are mortal enemies, and she has little to do with it," Zijin replied. "I showed mercy because she was still breastfeeding."

Su Ming was about to nod when he realized something was wrong.

"No, smashing up the temple's facade and setting up a separate faction within the church isn't enough— Zijin, tell me honestly, what exactly did you do!"

Zijin glanced at Su Ming, "Anyway, we're mortal enemies, so what's the difference between 100% and 1000%?"

"No, you have to explain yourself today!" Su Ming persisted.

The two walked back to the carriage.

"Alright. The whole thing actually started with an accident caused by a spell I created," Zijin said. "This is somewhat of a stain on my academic career, and I still want to save face."

"It's nothing, nothing is more serious than how despicable the riddle-maker is!" Su Ming said.

"Alright then." Zijin sighed, finally deciding to continue. "I told you before, when I was at the nunnery, I developed a hair-growth spell. It was with this spell that I built a good reputation among the teachers."

Su Ming nodded; he remembered this incident. The scholar, relying on this, repeatedly violated school rules and was protected in various ways.

"In the final year, I passed on this spell to these teachers," Zijin continued. "This spell is based on the New Divine Language. Commoner priests can also cast it using ordinary Divine Language, and it works normally, although it's a bit strenuous."

Compared to having a shiny bald head, the hardship is nothing.

"Then the spell spread and quickly reached the upper echelons of the Divine Covenant Faction. The Divine Language they knew was different from that of the common people; it was more complex and complete, and of course, compared to the New Divine Language I revised, it also had more obvious errors and omissions. As a result, the old men of the Divine Covenant Faction experienced some minor side effects when using this spell." She held up her finger, making a barely perceptible slit.

The same piece of code can indeed cause various problems when run on different compiled versions. In fact, the closer the versions are, the more bizarre the bugs become. Su Ming didn't understand the Divine Language, but he could grasp the phenomenon. "Please explain this 'minor side effect' in detail."

"... It can lead to impotence," Zijin said helplessly. "The more times hair regrowth occurs, the more significant the side effects will be."

Su Ming felt a chill in his heart, "In the end, it will become completely unusable, and you won't be able to do that anymore?"

"Of course!" Zijin said, "The key is that these people didn't know the reason at first, and none of them publicized it, secretly seeking medical help. As a result, this bombshell was only revealed after all the bald people in the temple's upper echelons were rounded up—I only found out about it then."

It's normal to have unspeakable difficulties or things you can't talk about!

Su Ming covered his face helplessly, "So we were chased by those cardinals with bloodshot eyes, surrounded by five naval fleets. They'd rather dismantle aircraft carriers and sell islands than let the dragon be defeated... all for this kind of stupid thing!"

"Otherwise?" Zijin said, "What reason could be greater than this?"

The most sophisticated political struggles require only the simplest reasons.

"... Okay, I understand." Su Ming sighed, "You're really something!"

"You have to believe me, this really is just a medical malpractice case," Zijin argued. "I lack understanding of the archaic Divine Language used by the Divine Covenant Faction, otherwise—" she blinked, "I would definitely have made the side effects even more powerful!"

"..."

****

Although the final battle didn't take place, everyone had quite a bit of work to do last night.

The four people and one beast on the Youth Civilization had caught up on a good night's sleep. Everyone was full of energy at night. Zijin took the unicorn's job and ordered her to set up the surrounding warning and defense barriers.

Zijin repaired the communications tower she had captured from the noble army, then looked at the carriage full of skeletons, feeling somewhat troubled.

"Su Ming, what should we do with these skeletons?" she asked, "Keeping them is quite a hassle."

"Keep a small portion, and add the rest to the train carriages," Su Ming said. "We shouldn't need them for a while."

Zijin then erected a searchlight outside the carriage and listlessly began classifying the skeletons. The bones were dismantled piece by piece, the remaining flesh removed, and the defective ones discarded, before being creaked and groaned back into the White Bone Fortress.

This sorting process can increase the strength of new materials without requiring a long aging period. It's a very tedious job, and she couldn't help but miss a certain hardworking necromancer who worked 996 hours a day; she should have cherished those times more.

The smell was strong, but the scholar sat high up, waving her cane to control her servants and zombies, completely unaffected.

Su Ming had to wear several masks, which caused even his view of Zijin to lose some of its filter.

Poor Younier was so terrified by the beautiful scene of limbs and bones scattered all over the floor that she hid in her room and refused to come out.

But she quickly remembered that the walls of the room were also made of bone, and then she ran outside crying.

"That's a normal human reaction!" Su Ming questioned Zijin, "Why are you so harsh on me?"

"I've never treated you like a normal person," Zijin said.

"..."

Younier's PTSD didn't last long; she soon sobbed as she sorted through the wreckage of the bombed motorcycles with Hansite, categorizing them by material. Su Ming was somewhat impressed by the young clerk's tenacity. As a noble lady, despite her impoverished background, she had done remarkably well.

This is also why she was chosen by Zijin and abducted.

The locomotive was severely damaged. Su Ming could restore the worn and broken parts, and with the help of alchemy, he could also repair some distortions. However, the damaged area was quite large, and the more complex the part, the more troublesome the repair.

Su Ming did the math and realized it consumed too much time and effort. It seemed better to build a new boiler and re-teleport?

Su Ming connected with Miao Xin.

Miss Vengeful Spirit was riding an electric scooter, following the trail of tracks. "We're almost at Kong Ruifeng's factory," she told Su Ming.

Kong Ruifeng did not disclose the factory address, nor did he leave any trace in the information he provided. However, when Miao Xin received the goods, she "consulted" the truck using the name "Tranquility Trace Backtracking".

Although they hadn't contacted the manufacturer beforehand, Miao Xin, as the client, felt justified in coming to inspect. They needed to verify the product manufacturing progress, especially to avoid using the wrong materials as happened last time.

Last time it could be salvaged, but if the ship's propulsion system malfunctions again, then there will truly be no way to escape with tears in our eyes.

Most importantly, Su Ming now needs to manufacture a new boiler for the train, at least the main part of it, to repair the damaged locomotive using a combination of Earth mechanical processing and otherworldly magical repair techniques.

However, it was necessary to observe the surroundings before going in. Miao Xin looked around and found that the tallest building nearby was a hospital. Without being picky, she ran into the outpatient department, registered, and went upstairs.

"How about we get an X-ray while we're at it?" Su Ming asked. "I'm actually quite curious to see what your scans will look like."

"[Su Ming, you've fallen.]" Miao Xin scolded, "[You even coveted my naked body.]"

[...]