Qiluo's Picture Book

After listening, Su Ming was at a loss for words.

"I wish Tai'ao'duo were dead, not so much to avenge a friend," Stacy confessed. "Perhaps it's more to ease my conscience. I have nightmares about the Divine Might Prison every day." Her voice was low and weary. "But I myself lack the strength to kill my enemies."

After spending a few days together, Su Ming realized that this seemingly aloof lady was actually quite gentle at heart. Contrary to his initial impression, although she possessed excellent Magic Power reserves and extensive knowledge of magic, her combat talent was truly... appalling.

Stacy is the typical type who becomes completely flustered and disoriented once a real fight breaks out. Compared to Zijin, who is an anomaly who acts like she's playing around in the face of battle, she is the traditional, pure scholar rooted in her study and laboratory.

Su Ming nodded solemnly, "I understand."

"This is merely a personal obsession of mine." Stacy took a step back, her posture regaining its usual poise. "Please prioritize the overall situation and there's no need to rush things." She gave a slight bow, the hem of her white coat tracing a clean arc. "I believe that the noose of fate will eventually be placed around the neck of its destined occupant."

After that, Stacy left, her footsteps fading into the distance in the corridor.

Su Ming turned around. Outside the porthole was an endless, churning, leaden-gray sea, like a heavy, oppressive block of lead. And deep in his eyes, the same color was reflected.

Tai'ao'duo it? Well, then you can't blame me!

****

On the flagship of the Light Fleet, the "Jade Sea and Tang Valley," the command room door was tightly closed.

General Tai'ao'duo, who was mentioned, was sitting around a conference table with a group of staff, flipping through brightly colored picture books. In the past six months, the "Sang River Illustration" publishing house has released as many as fifteen such picture books.

Half of them featured orcs. Surprisingly, two of them were about the Naga Clan.

This is precisely why Tai'ao'duo strictly ordered the gates to remain closed—if the Naga Queen were to witness this scene, they would have no way of explaining it!

Tai'ao'duo flipped through the picture book, but the exquisite pictures and bizarre poses only made him more and more agitated. Finally, he slammed the picture book heavily on the table.

The staff officers fell silent, trembling with fear, and could only continue flipping through the pages in quiet contemplation.

The group quickly finished reviewing the information and began to discuss it.

The conclusion was unsurprising: the most unconventional of them all was the work created by the illustrator who signed his work "The Melancholy Cavalryman".

This picture book is less of an erotic publication and more of a collection of landscapes—the male and female protagonists are so heavily blurred that nothing can be identified, completely losing its erotic meaning. Instead, the scenery of various places in the North is depicted with exceptional beauty.

The publisher even titled it "Northern Country Landscape Inscription".

Crucially, several of the illustrations feature bone dragons, trains, war scenes, and the image of a giant dragon.

"So, what exactly is this?" Tai'ao'duo asked.

The group looked at each other in bewilderment.

"We deduce," one of the advisors stated their compiled conclusion, "That this was most likely a traveling artist who happened to witness Bone King and the Bay Owl's movements and used that as a gimmick to create a storybook. Apart from the few illustrations featuring them, most of the content is a town travelogue— Bone King and the Bay Owl could never be leisurely strolling through the Northern Lands!"

This does align with the attention-seeking nature of such artists. Tai'ao'duo flipped to the illustration depicting the battle between the White Bone Train and the army, pointing to the deep blue ice dragon spewing Meteor Fire Rain in the sky, "How do you explain this?"

The ice dragon is depicted with extreme detail. Laymen may find them all similar, but experts can identify from details such as physique and scale patterns that this is a depiction of the Ice Dragon Saint Rank expert, Elder Lanmo Mo.

However, as is well known, Elder Lanmo of the Dragon Race has always stayed away from worldly affairs and is unable to cast spells other than ice magic—this is an inherent limitation of ice dragons.

Information about Saint Rank powerhouses is widely circulated in other worlds, so the fact that the artist was able to draw Lanmo's image does not mean that he had personally seen the Blue Dragon in person. However, judging from common sense, he should never have depicted Lanmo breathing flames.

"We believe... this is actually reasonable," an advisor stammered. "It's the artist's subtle expression of the unique sensory stimulation of 'a world of ice and fire'..."

Given that it was a private art book, and considering the artist's eccentric style, this treatment was somewhat understandable. Tai'ao'duo crossed his arms, pondered for a moment, and then tentatively accepted this explanation.

"Then why would Elder Yinfei leave in such a hurry over such a picture book?" Tai'ao'duo continued to press.

Now, everyone was speechless.

They had carefully perused the entire picture book. Much of the content seemed nonsensical, possibly relating to Bone King's whereabouts in the Northern Lands, but its authenticity was hard to discern, and no useful information could be extracted from it.

"Perhaps the picture book contains secrets known only to the Dragon Race, which is why Elder Yinfei deduced the whereabouts of the Bone King from it," an advisor speculated. "That's why she went straight after him?"

Tai'ao'duo pondered for a moment. This conjecture did indeed fit Yinfei's style of doing things; she should have enough confidence to defeat Zijin alone. This move also avoided killing Zijin in public, thus allowing her to frame the Northern Lands for Zijin's death.

The problem is that Bone King and the Bay Owl are both safe and sound! Just the day before yesterday, they used only two strange alchemical bombs to exchange for the precious mothership "Water Nest" and took away half of the Sea Eagle Beast army!

Tai'ao'duo didn't dwell on it further, gesturing to everyone, "Put the album aside for now, and leave it for the intelligence team to analyze later."

He got up and walked to the hanging nautical chart, where he began to deploy tactics.

"In the first phase of the battle, our fleet will deploy in a semi-circular blocking formation to encircle and compress the target White Bone Fortress ships to the north!"

To the due north lies the polar core, composed of an ice sheet that has remained frozen for millennia and is as hard as iron. It is early spring in the north, and even outside the Arctic Circle, most shipping lanes are completely blocked by thick ice.

Therefore, as long as the Light Fleet blocks the White Bone Fortress ships from retreating south and flanking east, it can force them into a desperate situation and compel them to fight a battle with their backs to the river!

"In the second phase, according to weather forecasts, a severe blizzard will arrive in a day and a half! At that time, we will activate our magical weapons to complete the final kill!" He slammed his palm heavily on the sea chart.

"This top-secret operation," Tai'ao'duo announced, surveying the room, "Is codenamed ' White Curtain '!"