The Radiant Chanter

In the afternoon, the sequencing results for the Zijin came back.

Data shows that she shares over 99.97% genetic similarity with members of the First Construction Regiment, confirming that they are of the same species and origin.

The difference between them and Su Ming is quite large, with a similarity of only about 99.91%. But this is normal. In fact, it confirms that humans from other worlds and humans from Earth share the same origin, only that they separated at a certain point in time.

Zijin stroked the small, unusual patch of scales on her chest, her brow furrowed in confusion. If genetic testing confirmed she was human, why did she have dragon scales on her body?

She continued sequencing the samples from the Plundering Clock. While waiting, the scholar pondered various possibilities but could not come to a conclusion.

Her birth was orchestrated by the White Pheasant Healer. Later, when she was attacked and reborn in the form of Ailisha, Stacy, as White Pheasant's apprentice, was deeply involved.

"So we can only wait until this rescue is complete before asking Stacy, "Zijin murmured.

Zijin suppressed her turbulent thoughts and began to organize the gene sequencing results of the members of the Plundering Clock.

****

At the main gate of the Divine Might Prison, Principal Javier and Warden Sabina led a group of priests in a line to wait.

Before long, an old man dressed in a gray robe appeared. His clothes were unadorned, tied only with a simple hemp rope around his waist, and he exuded a restrained and profound aura.

"Welcome Hector the Radiant Chanter, the Singer!" Javier and Sabina immediately led the priests in bowing in greeting.

Hector walked slowly to them and nodded slightly. "May the Holy Light shine forever!"

"Shadows will prevail!" Javier and Sabina responded in unison.

Behind Hector, a group of figures appeared, all young priests, half men and half women. They were all dressed in the same simple robes, and each of them wore a devout and peaceful expression. As they approached, they politely bowed to the people present.

This is the Choir to which Radiant Chanter belongs.

The prison priests immediately stepped forward and led the Choir members to their quarters. Javier and Sabina, on the other hand, led Hector to the warden's office.

A servant of Hector handed him the letter. Javier took it, decrypted it using the Temple of Light's special code, and quickly read its contents.

The letter, written by the Cardinal himself, stated that intelligence indicated the Plundering Clock was about to break out of prison, and therefore he had secretly dispatched Saint Hector and his Choir to provide reinforcements, determined to accomplish the mission in one fell swoop.

The document also included specific instructions for strengthening defenses and increasing security—but these measures had already been implemented on the Sacred Mountain.

A little over ten days ago, headquarters sent a communication conveying relevant intelligence. Sabina and Javier began preparations at that time.

What the two of them didn't expect was that Radiant Chanter would also be sent.

Hector, hands behind his back, walked to the office wall where a detailed topographical map of the entire Sacred Mountain hung. He stared at the map and asked in a deep voice, "What methods do you think the Plundering Clock would use if it were to actually attempt a prison break?"

Javier and Sabina exchanged a glance, and the latter stepped forward to report, "Sir, we believe the enemy is very likely to attack the coal mine."

The exit of the Dome Mountain Coal Mine is located a few kilometers below the Divine Might Prison, far from the defenses of the "Sacred Antelope Horn" and the "Everwatching Obelisk," and from the coverage area of the Magic Rune Cannon.

"The Dome Mountain coal mine sends 150 prisoners every day to dig coal," Sabina explained in detail. "Although this is only a small fraction of the prisoners held here, it is indeed the easiest place for prison breakers to succeed."

"Defend the weakest point, huh?" Hector nodded in agreement. "Indeed, a direct attack on Divine Might Prison would be extremely unwise. Besides, there's the Sea of Divine Grace ready to provide support at any time—what countermeasures have you taken?"

"Reporting to you, sir, we have expanded the guard tower at the coal mine entrance into a fortified stronghold, and have also deployed an elite squad to garrison it!" Javier immediately reported. "In the event of an attack by a powerful enemy, we can hold out at the fortified stronghold and await reinforcements."

Sabina added, "We adjusted the prisoner rotation, transferring all the 'unstable' prisoners back from the coal mines to the main prison to avoid any accidents."

"We also plan to install a large magic circle around the diamond-shaped fortress at the coal mine—"

"No need," Hector interrupted. "Let's keep things as they are, using the coal mines as bait. Once the Plundering Clock our trap, I will personally lead the Choir to wipe them all out!"

Javier smiled sincerely, his voice filled with reverence, "With the Radiant Chanter in charge, those audacious scoundrels will surely not return alive!"

Hector remained expressionless. He raised his hand and waved for the others in the office to leave, then activated the silencing and privacy barriers.

"I came here not just to deal with the Plundering Clock," he said to the two.

A knowing glint flashed in Sabina's eyes. "Is it for the Northern Lands, the Spring Purification Project?"

The Divine Might Prison dungeon has a total capacity of 2,000 people, and currently holds 1,100 prisoners. Among them, there are more than 900 necromancers and about 200 other religious prisoners.

However, last fall, headquarters issued an expansion plan, aiming to increase the Divine Might Prison's holding capacity to 3,000 people this spring. This means there will be 1,900 vacancies waiting to be filled—the source of such a large number of "prisoners" is not hard to guess.

Hector walked slowly to the window, gazing at the view of the Sacred Mountain outside. "The glory of God must not Desecration. Those Northern Lands refugees who have defiled His holy light must wash away their sins with blood and toil!"

"We are willing to serve you, sir!" Javier and Sabina said in unison.

****

Hector had come from afar and soon went to rest.

"Lord Hector has arrived. I suggest we postpone the matter concerning the young lady for now," Sabina said.

"That's right," Javier nodded. "Anyway, those suppliers won't be there so quickly; they need to reorganize their supplies." He remembered something. "Oh, right, I just received news that the Fate Manipulator Aideluzi has also arrived in the Northern Lands."

Sabina looked surprised. Although the Fate Manipulator was only Master Rank combatant, second only to the Saint Rank, he was proficient in light puppetry and was in charge of the Church's "Nirvana" ritual. Those members of the Divine Covenant Faction who were unfortunate enough to die could be "resurrected" as "Nirvana Ones" through the Holy Light Puppet, retaining some of their abilities, as long as their souls were preserved.

Therefore, the Fate Manipulator usually reside in the Radiant Holy City and rarely venture out.

"Why did he come to the Northern Lands?" Sabina asked, puzzled.

Javier explained that the sudden death of Bulenleifu, the famous Grand Puppeteer of the Northern Lands, was a tragedy brought by Fate Manipulator was also skilled in human alchemy and puppet making.

"I've never heard of the Fate Manipulator and Bulenleifu, what connection do they have?" Sabina was even more confused.

"Bulenleifu was killed by some kind of soul curse." Javier shook his head. "Although the Fate Manipulator himself doesn't use soul-splitting magic to control puppets, the higher-ups are worried that it would threaten the resurrected ' Nirvana Ones,' so they sent him to investigate the details."

"I see." Sabina suddenly realized.

"You have a good personal relationship with the Fate Manipulator, you could contact him and ask him to investigate the merchant Ruogejin," Javier suggested.

The Fate Manipulator will definitely bring his Azure Sky Battle Puppet Corps with him on this trip; their combat strength is considerable.

"Okay!" Sabina agreed.

****

In the blink of an eye, it was the fifth week, and more than ten tons of ethylene oxide were delivered.

Su Ming, piloting the Little Spiky Head, arrived at the Harvest Machinery Factory's warehouse for the first time.

After passing through numerous guards, Su Ming finally saw the cylinders he had longed for. These handsome little darlings were neatly arranged vertically in the workshop, surrounded by workers who were busy making final modifications to them.

"The Hongxing series missile is 7.8 meters long and weighs approximately 5 tons at launch," Fengshou explained. "It has a range of 25 kilometers and is a specially modified ultra-short-range missile."

The Su Ming plan is to launch from the Sheltered Valley, traverse the Dome Mountains, and hit the target 18 kilometers away. For a vehicle of this size, this is indeed an extremely short range.

Fengshou joked, "It's only because you came that we dared to sell to Earth customers—it would absolutely damage our brand image!"

"If I don't pay, it doesn't count as selling," Su Ming said with a smile.

Fengshou handed him a few pages of paper, which Su Ming flipped through with the relevant data. "The ethanol I added was only 96% pure. Is there a problem?"

"If a supplier gives me goods that are inferior to four nines, I'll have them shot on the spot," Fengshou said. "We've already modified the engine and tested it with 95% alcohol; its reliability is not an issue!"

Using alcohol as missile fuel is not unusual. The first missile launched by the People's Republic of China, Dongfeng -1, was fueled by alcohol.

However, at that time, the Dongfeng -1 was equipped with liquid oxygen. The Su Ming did not yet have the conditions for mass production of liquid oxygen, so the Fengshou equipped the Red Apricot Missile with a ramjet engine.

This type of engine does not require an oxidizer and directly uses oxygen from the air for combustion. Its advantage is extremely high load utilization efficiency, but it also has disadvantages.

"Our technical team's hair is almost turned white from all the work," Fengshou sighed. "They're all complaining, 'How can there be a missile that flies so slowly!'"

According to Su Ming's requirements, the missile's maximum flight speed is only Mach 2.5. Especially for the earth-penetrating thermobaric bomb, if the speed is too high, it will cause the penetration depth to drop precipitously.

The minimum starting speed of a normal ramjet engine is Mach 2. That's roughly the speed of a racing car engine used to run on a shared bicycle.

The engineers at Harvest Machinery Factory had never encountered such a bizarre client before!

"We modified the air intake structure, significantly lowering the starting speed of the ramjet," Fengshou explained. "But going even lower is simply unavoidable. You have to find a way to boost the missile to Mach 0.75 before the missile engine can start operating."

Fengshou was originally designed with solid-state rocket boosters, which would require the use of alchemical explosives as propellants.

However, Su Ming had no confidence in the quality of the alchemical explosives from the other world. Moreover, the larger the diameter of the solid propellant, the more stringent the requirements for the quality of the explosives used as fuel inside.

Using substandard explosives from unknown manufacturers and forcibly increasing thrust will inevitably result in the product exploding on the launch pad.

"We plan to solve this problem using magic."

"Are you sure?" Fengshou looked doubtful. "A startup speed of Mach 0.75 requires 195 megajoules of kinetic energy per rocket—do you have enough magic crystals in reserve?"

"It's enough, but there's no need to waste it like this," Su Ming replied. "We already have a clever way."

****

In the sixth week, as the tunnel project neared completion, Katharine arrived with her team.

For the sake of secrecy, this combat team, composed of elites from Northern Stream, was stationed in another depression ten kilometers away from the Sheltered Valley.

Su Ming was repairing equipment deep inside the tunnel at the time and didn't emerge from the construction site until several hours later.

From afar, he saw Katharine, the paladin Ge'enda'er, and the assassin Silver Mask, being led by Jielusi on a tour of the camp.

He excitedly ran up to greet them.

"Hey Katharine," Su Ming stepped forward to interrogate her, "That monster-themed matching outfit you got for your daughter last time, it really got me into trouble!"

The person called turned around—although they had a similar build and similar style of dress, it was Yise!

No way! Su Ming was speechless. The two really were mother and daughter; the resemblance was astounding!

He turned to leave, but heard a loud "bang" as a large sword was deeply embedded in the ground in front of him.

"Long time no see, Mr. Su Ming." Yise cracked his knuckles. "I don't blame you for what happened at the Him Cavern. But I often wonder, what would have happened if I had recognized you in the cellar in Shafeng'er Town?"

Su Ming had no choice but to stop.

"Actually, I did review it." He turned around and said seriously, "Back then, I was only one step away from being discovered by you."

This was no mere politeness; he later understood Yise's true intention in holding that holy water bottle. At the time, Zephlin had been temporarily transferred, and the inexperienced Apprentice priests left behind at the church had caused the water in the bottle to freeze.

This prevented Yise from completing the test.

"So I'm curious, luckily you're still me." Yise removed his cloak and weapons, leaving only a short sword. "I was lightly armed then, and I didn't have the Sword of the Scales."

It seems that a fight is the only way to resolve this peacefully. Su Ming sighed inwardly.

****

It was lunchtime, and the trainees from the First Construction Regiment gathered around with their bowls of rice. Some who had finished eating early even went to the supply and marketing cooperative to exchange their food for sunflower seeds, and then found their spots in twos and threes to watch the game.

Su Ming took the Thorn Long Whip from his waist but casually tossed it aside. "It was a cellar back then; the space was cramped, and I couldn't wield the whip effectively."

Yise frowned. "I don't need you to give in."

"If we're going to use weapons, we'd need to find a similar room to fit the situation," Su Ming said.

Yise agreed, so Su Ming decided to take the opportunity to lead her away from the camp. Once they reached a less crowded area, they could try to communicate. If things could be eased, great; if not, they could simply give her a perfunctory response and let the matter rest.

This angered the onlookers, who began to jeer and jeer.

"Don't be a coward! Just do it!"

"There aren't that many scene recreations available!"

"We get mobbed even when we're taking a shower, so don't be so petty, you leaders!"

Su Ming's forehead veins bulged; it seemed he had been too lenient with this group of people!