Final Assembly of the Locomotive

"Is this how you find suspects!" Zephlin couldn't help but complain. "Does that mean any crowded place is a human trafficking den?!"

"Watch me." Rupert smiled mysteriously, then turned and walked toward another house in town, clearly to gather information.

Zephlin assumed he was going to a tavern, but instead saw Rupert walk to a house with pink curtains. As the door opened, the faint glow of red candlelight could be seen inside, along with the faint, affected laughter of a woman.

At a time like this, this guy actually went to see prostitutes?

But unexpectedly, Rupert soon came out of the house and returned to Zephlin's side.

"It's over so quickly?" Zephlin asked irritably, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Tch, don't underestimate me," Rupert said smugly. "It's confirmed, this house is our target!"

Zephlin looked puzzled. "Why?"

"The madam said she saw seven or eight burly men who looked like mercenaries frequently going in and out, but they never patronized their establishment," Rupert explained. "Either they've all been castrated." He sneered as he spoke, "Or they have 'better supplies' in their rooms!"

Zephlin's eyes instantly sharpened like knives, and he quickly made a hand gesture.

Ten priests dressed in silver-white robes emerged from the shadows like ghosts, silently surrounding the target hut from different directions. In the moonlight, their staffs gleamed with a cold light.

Zephlin drew his scepter and suddenly charged toward the courtyard gate like an arrow. With a loud crash, the wooden door collapsed under his powerful impact. Without stopping, he continued rushing toward the house.

Rupert's longsword was already drawn, its cold gleam following closely behind.

A mercenary on night watch leaped from a broken second-floor window to intercept them, but was stopped in time by a priest. At the same time, an enemy spellcaster appeared, chanting incantations. Zephlin reacted swiftly, raising his staff:

"Law: Silence!"

The mercenary mage's spell abruptly stopped; he opened his mouth in terror, but no sound came out.

Rupert seized the opportunity and rushed forward, cleaving the opponent's staff in two with a single blow. At the same time, a beam of magical light shot from behind, precisely piercing the mage's chest.

Several agile priest warriors burst through the window like silver eagles, and a series of fierce fighting sounds and the sound of furniture breaking immediately rang out on the second floor.

Zephlin began to employ a flanking tactic against the enemies on the first floor, avoiding them whenever possible and leaving the remaining battle to his teammates behind him.

He quickly found the entrance to the cellar, cast a triple holy shield on himself without hesitation, and leaped inside. A dazzling magical light and a deafening explosion immediately erupted from within the cellar.

Rupert rushed down into the cellar and found the enemy in the center already lying on the ground. Zephlin's shield was shattered, and he was being attacked from both sides by two enemies.

Rupert immediately lunged at the warlock on the left, slashing him back repeatedly. He stayed close to the warlock, giving him no chance to cast spells. On the other side, Zephlin also blocked the weapon of the warrior on the right with his staff.

"Law: Disarmament!"

As the incantation rang out, the warrior's weapon was knocked away. Zephlin swung his staff at the warrior's face, but the warrior grabbed the staff.

Another priest arrived just in time to provide support. He first restored Rupert's shield, and then unleashed Holy Shock that struck the warrior locked in combat with Zephlin with pinpoint accuracy, severely wounding him.

****

A few minutes later, the fighting inside the house finally ceased. The entire area was under control, and most of the mercenaries were killed in the brief but intense battle. Of the twelve kidnapped girls, all but one were successfully rescued.

Zephlin acted recklessly this time in order to suppress the cellar as quickly as possible—a lesson learned from the devastating explosion in Lisi City.

The priests split into two groups: one treated the injured girls and found them clothes, while the other carefully examined the mercenary corpses and, if necessary, finished them off.

Once his breathing had stabilized, Zephlin approached the leader of the human traffickers. Without hesitation, he swung his cane several times, leaving the man bruised and battered, before beginning his interrogation.

The ringleader was very cooperative and quickly confessed to agreeing to the transaction with the buyer in Wazhuang Town.

"Pack your things, we'll spend the night here," Zephlin instructed. "We'll head to Wazhuang Town first thing tomorrow morning."

But Rupert objected, "This buyer, capable of organizing such a large-scale kidnapping, is definitely not someone to be trifled with." He suggested, "We should report the situation to the Cold Mountain Branch and request support from the Judgment Squad to handle it."

Zephlin pondered for a moment and had to admit that Rupert was right. They had enough strength to deal with a mercenary group, but facing a buyer of unknown strength was too risky and would also endanger the kidnapped girl.

If the Judgment Squad were to depart from Bubing City overnight, it wouldn't be any slower than if they had traveled from Bulendi Town.

"So what do we do next?"

Rupert had already planned this. "Let's go to the surrounding towns and continue this kind of investigation."

Considering that Rupert's method had indeed worked—not only successfully rescuing eleven girls but also uncovering clues about the buyers— Zephlin nodded and agreed to the former sheriff's proposal.

****

The next morning, Su Ming got up a little later than usual.

His companions had left him breakfast and were now working on the remaining tasks in the shed. The materials needed for the final delivery had been sorted and neatly arranged to reduce Su Ming's workload.

The hinges of the two sections of the teleported Doomsday Locomotive were unfolded. Zijin, holding her staff, used Levitation Spell to slowly raise the second section. Under Newman's command, a group of zombies carefully adjusted the position of the section, aligned the hinge mechanism, and then slammed it into the fixing bolts.

Gospel chanted rhythmically from the side. "Heave-ho—navigating the whirlpool, rowing together!"

After several rounds of adjustments, all the hinge mechanism fixing bolts were in place, and the second and third chassis structural sections of the Doomsday Locomotive were assembled.

"You need to connect these, right?" Newman walked to the center of the section and picked up the data cable from the ground. These cables all used a foolproof interface design and were marked with eye-catching paired symbols, so even people who don't know Earth language can easily connect them.

"That's right, there are eight power cables and fifteen data cables in total," Su Ming confirmed.

"Su Ming, when I used the Levitation Spell just now, I didn't experience the abnormal energy consumption I felt when crossing the mountains," Zijin said. "You seem to know what the problem is, but I don't quite understand."

"... I did tell you it's about the conservation of energy," Su Ming said. "When the Levitation Spell takes effect, if it involves changes in gravitational potential energy, your Magic Power is needed to replenish it."

"Are there really that many?" Zijin asked, puzzled. "The extra cost of maintaining it is more than ten times greater than the cost of casting the Levitation Spell!"

"You haven't done enough physics calculations." Su Ming sighed softly, pulled out a piece of paper, and recalled the scene at that time, "The Youth Civilization weighed about 1600 tons and was climbing a slope with a gradient of 60 per thousand, moving at a speed of 8 kilometers per hour."

Su Ming wrote down the detailed calculation formula on the paper:

The train's potential energy increment per second = 1.6 * 10^6 * 9.9 * 0.06 * 8000 / 3600

"Your Levitation Spell reduced your weight by half, so you're responsible for half the power in this calculation, roughly a megawatt."

This is roughly equivalent to the peak power of four or five heavy trucks running at full speed. The fact that Zijin could maintain such output for several minutes only shows that the power of otherworldly beings is beyond the imagination of humans on Earth.

"So when the Youth Civilization is moving horizontally, using Levitation Spell to reduce weight won't incur any extra cost," Zijin understood. "What happens when it's going downhill?" She extrapolated, "Will it give me back my Magic Power?"

"I doubt there's such a good thing," Su Ming said. "The descent is just the effect of Feather Fall. The heavier the object, the higher the falling speed, and the more Magic Power it consumes."

"So if you're short, you have to make up for it; if you're too much, you have to offset it... It's a waste of time on both sides," Zijin complained. "I'll write a paper and get a few interested people to study this problem."

"Adding a bounty would be much more effective," Su Ming suggested.

"That makes sense." Zijin readily agreed.

****

Inside the factory of Precision Machinery Heavy Industries, the last section, after careful debugging, was finally ready. The tractor roared and slowly towed the huge component to the designated position.

[Su Ming, we're all ready here. How's things on your end?] Miao Xin initiated the contact. [There was a significant disturbance on your end last night.]

"It's just a small breakthrough," Su Ming replied casually. "Let's begin."

The view shifts, and the monitoring equipment in the idle warehouse has undergone another round of adjustments. The sticker grid has become more precise and detailed, covering almost every inch of the floor and walls.

"What, did you find something interesting?" Su Ming asked Ling Wen, who was standing not far away.

"When you initiated the teleportation, spatial distortions and fluctuations occurred," Ling Wen replied. "Experts are trying to capture the entire process in more detail."

"Keep it up!"

Without the blessing of moonlight, Qiluo's "Consecration Aura" effect was reduced by half. However, after assessing the situation, Su Ming decided that there was no need to wait for the next moonrise.

He took a deep breath and activated the magic array again. This time, he clearly felt his power become much more solid.

Conversely, an immense pressure emanating from an omnipresent and majestic presence also manifested. This thing had always been there, but Su Ming could only vaguely sense it now.

As a tiny human being, it takes courage just to gaze at this vastness. Su Ming steadied his mind and increased the output of his power.

"Summoning of All Things - Magic Array!"

A technician from the monitoring equipment exclaimed "Huh?" They clearly noticed a change in the data pattern. The spatial distortion had intensified, but the time frame had drastically shortened; the process of extracting and transferring order was completed in just a few frames.

When the spatial ripples dissipated, only a large pile of metal scraps remained in the abandoned workshop—the last part of the Doomsday Locomotive had been successfully transported to another world!

****

Thanks to the new modular design, the mechanical assembly of the Doomsday Locomotive was completed smoothly in less than half a day. However, the subsequent magical modifications were much more complicated.

After careful planning, Zijin and Newman decided to postpone the deployment of defensive magic arrays until the locomotive was in motion, prioritizing the parts that needed to work in conjunction with the mechanical system. This included key functional modules such as the heat insulation system, lubrication device, and water recycling system.

The Doomsday Locomotive was originally designed with a sophisticated water recycling system, but the recycling rate will be further improved when combined with magic. Zijin has made targeted adjustments to the auxiliary magic array to enable it to work better in tandem with the mechanical system.

The pre-reserved crystal mounting holes greatly improved work efficiency. Newman was very satisfied with this; his only complaint was that Zijin had messed up the rune base formula.

"This violates the principles of standardization!" The halfling skeleton was so angry that it jumped up and down, its whole body making cracking noises. "Modifying things might be fun for a while, but it'll be a headache when you need to coordinate with other magic arrays!"

"As long as it can be assembled and run, why worry about so many details?" Zijin said dismissively. "Anyway, it'll be dismantled after this trip."

"A few magic arrays can be put together like this, but now there are more than thirty magic arrays that need to operate in coordination!" Newman waved his skeletal hand. "A standard configuration must be used to ensure overall stability!"

Su Ming couldn't get a word in edgewise during the argument between the two scholars. Just then, Katharine arrived, and he went to greet her.

Katharine did not come alone; she was accompanied by a man and a woman.

The woman Su Ming recognized was Jielusi, whom he had met once in the town of Shafenger. The man was a middle-aged priest he had never met before, standing upright and exuding a calm aura.

"Jielusi Lopez, a healing priestess, you should already know her," Katharine introduced to Su Ming.

The girl placed her hands together in front of her chest and performed a standard blessing of light to Su Ming.

Today, she wore a pure white healer's robe, the lapel embroidered with intricate gold thread patterns that radiated a sacred light in the sunlight. She held a new staff inlaid with pure crystal, and around her neck wore a special ring with faintly visible mysterious runes flowing across it.

"Hello!" Su Ming greeted him in a friendly manner.

"Hello!" Jielusi responded immediately, but she seemed a little reserved, her fingers unconsciously rubbing her staff.

Su Ming was puzzled; this was completely different from his impression of them when they first met.

"This is Ge'enda'er, my capable deputy," Katharine continued, "I intend to have these two stay here as your liaisons and guides. In case you encounter any Northern Stream people on the road, they can step in to defuse any unnecessary conflicts."

"People from Northern Stream?" Su Ming frowned slightly. "Are they planning something?"

"It's a case about the trafficking of young girls," Katharine explained. "Right now, all branches throughout the northern region have dispatched priest squads to conduct a full investigation and crackdown. The Tribunal has also sent an elite team to track down the girls' buyers. If any of them run into you, it'll truly be a case of the flood washing away the Dragon King's temple."