Stacy's Request

In the afternoon, Younier began to reorganize the personnel. She disbanded the largest structural construction department, reorganized the remaining staff into three shifts, and assigned various duties on board.

Experienced team members were dispersed and assigned to various classes, forming a wide range of "experienced mentors" pairings.

Since Su Ming had previously reassigned a small portion of his staff, Younier reorganized the organization. This also served as an opportunity to expose more members to knowledge and concepts of modern equipment.

At the same time, the installation of the MK-71 Naval Gun on the bow of the ship also officially began.

Thanks to the preservation of the overall structure during the disassembly from the White Triangle, the installation of this heavy artillery was simplified to the greatest extent possible.

Dozens of mages worked together, chanting a Levitation Spell spell. The heavy cannon, bound to the skeletal support structure, slowly rose in the arcane light. A group of undead below struggled to push, pry, lift, and push, the metal cannon mount colliding with the deck with a low, muffled thud.

After multiple angle adjustments, this steel monster finally landed precisely on its base.

During the process, more than a dozen zombies were unfortunately crushed by the tilting cannon barrel. After a moment of silence, the necromancers reassembled the remains of the injured zombies into skeleton soldiers—these newly formed skeletal laborers were immediately thrown into the work of supporting and reinforcing the cannon mounts.

They would even break off ribs directly to use as ingredients.

Su Ming was already used to construction sites that would make even Earth's capitalists bow down in awe. His main job was to modernize this artillery piece: adding a gun-aiming radar and an intelligent fire control system.

After the gun-laying radar was installed, he went to the bridge and found a location with a good view to begin initializing the fire control system and establishing the data link between the radar, the servo system, and the automatic loader.

When Su Ming finished a phase of his work, Stacy appeared behind him and handed him a cup of hot coffee.

"Thank you!" Su Ming was slightly surprised. "Aren't you busy over there? I see you're still sending the wounded over from time to time."

Despite being extraordinary individuals, the trainees were quite reckless in their work and lacked basic common sense. For example, during previous engine room operations, some people would try to press the steam button with their bare hands—in many people's eyes, it was just "steam coming out of boiling water."

"It's alright," Stacy replied. "The medical team is well-staffed. The wolfsbane medicine formula you provided is remarkably effective; over 90% of the trainees' eczema has subsided." She smiled as she spoke, "This morning someone even asked if we could prepare more to use as a moisturizer."

"... This stuff is poisonous if used in excess," Su Ming said with a wry smile.

"In the necromancer's concept, everything is poisonous," Stacy replied.

Su Ming lowered his head and sipped his coffee.

Stacy sat down nearby and picked up another cup of coffee; a moment of silence fell between them.

Su Ming glanced at Stacy beside him, pondered for a moment, and then asked:

"You came to see me because there's something you want to say?"

"Is it that obvious?" Stacy retorted.

"Otherwise?"

Stacy hesitated for a moment, then made up her mind and said, "I've come to ask you something. Is there any way to eliminate Tai'ao'duo, the commander of the Temple of Light?"

"It's hard to say," Su Ming replied immediately. He had already studied Tai'ao'duo's battle history and made several contingency plans. "This man is extremely cautious. Even if we win the battle, it will be difficult to capture or kill him alive."

Both Jimite, whom they had encountered before, and Tai'ao'duo before them, were masters of caution. Otherwise, they probably wouldn't have lived to this age, let alone had the chance to confront Su Ming.

"When I was in the Divine Might Prison, my situation was mostly quite good, after all, I had enough value," Stacy suddenly changed the subject, "But one day, a high-ranking official from the temple visited, specifically requesting to see me."

"Is this Tai'ao'duo?" Su Ming asked.

"Yes." Stacy nodded in confirmation. "I was brought before him, and then Tai'ao'duo dismissed everyone else, leaving only the two of us."

Su Ming's heart skipped a beat, and he subconsciously looked at Stacy.

As the medical scholar recounted these events, his expression remained as calm and precise as if he were reciting an anatomical specimen.

Stacy's appearance wasn't strikingly beautiful, but she possessed a refined and gentle charm. She was slender, with her gray-brown curly hair neatly tied in a bun at the back of her head, and her gaze behind her gold-rimmed glasses was calm and serene. Although she was actually over fifty, her extraordinary qualities blurred the erosion of time, leaving only a few faint lines at the corners of her eyes, as if they had been imbued with knowledge. She resembled a pale yellow ginkgo leaf.

"I'm sorry to hear this," Su Ming's voice deepened, his knuckles unconsciously tapping the edge of the control panel. "I know what to do."

He never intended to show any mercy to these disgusting temple officials.

Stacy seemed slightly surprised. "What do you have to apologize for?"

After asking the question, she immediately understood Su Ming's misunderstanding. "Wait! It's not what you think. Tai'ao'duo, he doesn't have that ability."

Seeing Su Ming's confused expression, she added, "Tai'ao'duo also suffers from hair loss."

Su Ming instantly understood—hair loss meant that Zijin's hair regrowth technique, which was specifically designed to ensnare the Divine Covenant Faction, must have already disarmed him.

"Then what does he want with you?" Su Ming was even more puzzled, and had even gone to dismiss everyone around him. Could it be that Tai'ao'duo wanted to play some...

"To get medical treatment," Stacy said matter-of-factly. "Why else would a man with power who can't bring himself to talk about his hidden illness go to a famous doctor?"

"OK, please continue." Su Ming raised his hands in a gesture of surrender.

"At that time, my heart was ashen, and I was already planning to die." Stacy's gaze fell on a point in the void. "Tai'ao'duo deliberately crashed into me, and I thought, it wouldn't be bad to take a high-ranking member of the temple down with me. So I told him I could cure him, and drew up a seemingly ordinary list of alchemical ingredients... Then, I concocted them into a deadly poison."

After a moment's thought, Su Ming quickly deduced the next steps based on the information at hand. "Given Tai'ao'duo's personality, he used prisoners to test drugs, right?"

Stacy nodded, very lightly, her fingertips digging into her palms. "I immediately admitted it was poison, but Tai'ao'duo forced it down Bojisi's throat right in front of me. I watched him vomit blood and slowly die."

She took a deep breath, the air seeming to carry the smell of rust. "Bojisi... he was the only person I could still talk to in that stagnant, hopeless prison. Afterwards, they hung me up and whipped me for three days and three nights. Unfortunately, the Divine Might Prison couldn't bring themselves to kill me; after all, I still had value."

Stacy stood up, sighed, and said, "Ironically, this pain made me think about how to take revenge on these people, and temporarily forgot my desire to die—until your rescue came like a miracle."