Picture Book

"You're welcome." Su Ming waved his hand, pointing to Jielusi and Ruixiuli standing quietly to the side, "You should be thanking them both. For me, capturing him alive was just a small, incidental part of the overall tactical plan."

Stacy immediately turned to Jielusi and Ruixiuli, expressing her sincere gratitude as well. Her gaze then fell on Jielusi's shoulder. "Your shoulder—" she reached out and gently pressed a spot on Jielusi's shoulder, "Isn't too serious, but it needs some careful attention. Remember to report to the infirmary later, and I'll take a look at you myself."

"Okay!" Jielusi replied.

"Then, may I take him away?" Stacy turned to Su Ming, pointed to the trembling Tai'ao'duo, and asked politely.

"Of course! Please go ahead." Su Ming nodded.

Upon hearing this, Stacy's face softened with a tender, almost heart-stopping smile. She slowly knelt down, extending her slender, pale fingers as if caressing a precious work of art, gently stroking his sweat-drenched, stubble-covered face. "Don't worry," her voice was as soft as a lover's whisper, "I'll heal your wounds properly. We'll have... lots of very fulfilling time together!"

Su Ming, listening from the side, couldn't help but twitch his eyebrow and remind her, "Um... Stacy, although he deserved his fate, please be careful not to... do anything too inhumane."

"How could that be?" Stacy stood up, her face radiating an almost sacred glow of dedication. "I happen to have accumulated quite a few new drug formulas for treating intractable diseases, and I urgently need reliable 'volunteers' to conduct toxicology tests." She smiled, her tone utterly sincere. "To ensure he contributes more to medical progress, I will certainly treat him very well. Please rest assured!"

Upon hearing this, Su Ming stopped trying to stop him. However, as his gaze swept over Tai'ao'duo's bald, sweat-drenched forehead, a sudden inspiration flashed through his mind.

"Wait a moment, Stacy," Su Ming called out to her as she was about to take Tai'ao'duo away. "I have a drug I'd like to give you; I need to test its effects on him."

"OK!"

****

Su Ming immediately established a connection: [Miao Xin, get me some sildenafil right now! Quickly!]

Miao Xin was completely confused about the name of the medicine, but she happened to see Jin Rongjia nearby, so she went up to him and asked him for it.

Upon hearing this, Jin Rongjia's expression became incredibly interesting. The engineers and technicians passing by wore strange expressions, trying to suppress their laughter, and all their eyes were fixed on Jin Rongjia.

Miao Xin looked puzzled and tilted her head, asking, "Is this request... very difficult for you?"

Jin Rongjia sighed resignedly, took out a box labeled "Viagra" from his shirt pocket, and handed it to Miao Xin. "Although I know you have X-ray vision, Comrade Miao Xin, could you please show a little respect for a middle-aged man's... um... privacy?"

Miao Xin took the medicine box, even more confused. "What privacy? What exactly is this medicine for?"

"Angina! It works very well!" Jin Rongjia replied decisively.

"Oh! I see!" Miao Xin suddenly realized, and immediately looked at Jin Rongjia with concern, "You should also take care of yourself!"

Jin Rongjia's lips twitched slightly. "... Please also tell Su Ming to take care of his health!"

Su Ming was busy with his work and didn't notice the incident with Miao Xin. He quickly teleported Sildenafil to another world, gave it to Stacy, and explained the drug's world-famous "side effects."

"You want to test whether these medicines can solve the 'minor problems' that my 'hair growth magic' caused to the higher-ups of the Divine Covenant Faction back then?" Zijin asked.

"That's right!" Su Ming nodded.

"But what good will this do?" Zijin asked, puzzled. "Even if this medicine works, what's the point of trying to curry favor with those guys from the Divine Covenant Faction?"

"It's useful," Su Ming replied. "I want to use this to force the higher-ups of the Divine Covenant Faction to lift the arrest warrants for all necromancers themselves!"

In Su Ming's vision, the stigma attached to the necromancer community needs to be removed as soon as possible.

Otherwise, if the Divine Covenant Faction are physically eliminated and then it is these "victors" who declare their exoneration, the effect will not be as perfect. It could easily be misinterpreted by some as a history book written by the victors.

Therefore, the best way to deal with this historical "filth" is to make the Divine Covenant Faction that created it swallow it back themselves!

After listening to Su Ming's explanation, Ruixiuli's disfigured face showed a look of deep agreement. He nodded slightly, and said with a hint of respect, "Thank you for your trouble, Chairman!"

****

After Stacy left with Tai'ao'duo, Ruixiuli and Jielusi did not follow.

The two exchanged a silent glance, then their gazes swept across the command room, where Younier and the trainees were still busy processing documents.

Su Ming immediately understood and waved his hand, "Everyone has worked hard, let's go out and rest for a bit."

Everyone quickly left as instructed, leaving only Su Ming, Zijin, Ruixiuli, and Jielusi in the spacious command room.

"The interrogation records I just gave you are not complete," Ruixiuli said, pulling out an object carefully wrapped in oilcloth from his pocket. Unwrapping it revealed a thick, beautifully bound picture book.

Between the cover and the inner pages of the album, there were several folded sheets of interrogation record paper.

Su Ming took the album and immediately noticed its considerable weight. The album was bound with a hard leather cover and had dark gold metal corner protectors, giving it a very refined feel.

Before Su Ming even opened the book, his gaze was drawn to the exquisitely colored illustration on the cover—in the center of the picture was a girl wearing a long, dark blue dress that seemed too thin for the icy and snowy environment, languidly reclining on a huge and ferocious skeleton of a bone dragon. The girl held an open magic book in her hands and sat on a huge rock exposed from the white snow.

The girl's charm seemed strangely familiar to Su Ming, and coupled with her unique light brown hair, he almost subconsciously looked up at Zijin beside him.

"What's wrong?" Zijin was a little confused by Su Ming, and her attention was drawn to the sketchbook. She first looked at the snow-capped mountain background in surprise, "Wow, the scenery of this snow-capped mountain is so beautifully drawn!" But then, her gaze fixed on the skeletal dragon, her pupils slightly contracting, "Wait! This skeletal dragon... the skeletal shape, the outline of this head... how come it looks so much like me?!"

Su Ming pulled out the interrogation record from inside the picture book and quickly scanned the text. "Elder Yinfei, it was because of this picture book that you suddenly left the Light Fleet?"

Zijin became even more curious. She took the picture book from Su Ming and opened the pages.

The first painting depicts a uniquely shaped train traveling through a vast snow-covered plain. Although the style is impressionistic, incorporating lines of swirling snow, the distinctive, bony outline of the train is unmistakably that of the "Youth Civilization"!

When her gaze shifted to the foreground of the painting, she saw a young couple huddled together in the snow. Although their faces were deliberately blurred by the painter, the features of their black hair and black eyes clearly identified them as Su Ming!

Wrong!

Zijin looked at the girl's blue hair and blue eyes in the painting, and then it dawned on her. The girl leaning against the man's chest was none other than herself!

An indescribable surge of embarrassment and heat rushed up, and Zijin's cheeks instantly turned bright red!

She slammed the damned picture book shut as if she'd been burned, clutching it tightly to her chest, determined not to let Su Ming see it!

Zijin glared at Ruixiuli with murderous intent, only to find a barely perceptible smile playing on his lips. He slowly reached into his robes and pulled out yet another identical picture book!

Under the terrifying gaze of Zijin, which seemed to spew forth tangible flames and was filled with the message "If you dare give it to him, I'll kill you," Ruixiuli calmly and steadily handed the brand-new picture book to Su Ming.

There are some exciting things that I absolutely have to see, even if it kills me!