Otherworld Bone Dragon Operation Guide

Chapter 18 Escape

"There's one last question—which direction do we escape in?"

The skeleton waved her hand, and a faintly glowing sea chart unfolded on the floor. She lightly touched one of the spots, and a small orange dot lit up. "This is our location, Emerald Cliff."

Su Ming surveyed the western continent region; the coastline was generally straight with few major bends. Beyond the nearshore waters lay the vast western ocean.

After searching carefully again, they confirmed that there was no unusual terrain nearby. Therefore, they had no choice but to flee outwards perpendicular to the coastline.

Su Ming waved his hand and summoned several bone fragments, which he shaped into ships, dragons, cavalry, bishops, and the like, and placed them in the corresponding positions on the sea chart.

“It looks like the southeast corner is a bit weak,” Su Ming said. There are no ships blocking that direction, and it’s far from the base of the most mobile Flying Dragons.

“It’s a trap.” White Bone drew a line that circled out from the northeast, the route even passing through the middle of the Pearl Principality’s naval warships. “Take this route.”

Despite not understanding it, Su Ming was a blank slate when it came to war, especially an interdimensional war. So he decided to blindly do as Bai Gu said.

"When the steam engine is running at full speed, it's very noisy. Does it have any impact?" Su Ming asked Bai Gu. He realized that they were only a few nautical miles away from those warships, and the sound could travel quite far on the open sea.

“It has a significant impact,” the skeleton replied.

“I have a way to reduce it a lot.” Su Ming thought for a moment. “I now have the White Bone Mark, so I can complete it myself.”

The damp wind was already carrying a few raindrops. White Bone glanced at the distant warships. "I also have some preparations to make; let's establish mental synchronization."

"Ah."

The two parted ways. Su Ming rode in a gondola towards the hall where the steam engine was located. Bai Gu remained where he was, beginning to draw a magic circle, intentionally or unintentionally revealing traces of runic fluctuations.

Amidst the sporadic wind and rain, the Pearl Kingdom's warships began to weigh anchor and move towards a location far from the Bone Fortress.

"Why did they go far away?" Su Ming asked.

“Under stormy conditions, the range and power of my feng shui hybrid attack spells will increase,” White Bone explained. “So when they see me drawing a magic circle, they will definitely retreat.”

Inside the fortress, the structure had undergone a tremendous change. Su Ming had pre-emptively manipulated these bones, assembling them into a large number of components, some of which had even formed segments resembling a ship.

He reached out and unfolded the bone imprint, beginning to draw a model of the honeycomb plate.

Since there were no ready-made ones, he could only draw them little by little using runes, relying on his own consciousness. This would be very time-consuming if the structure was complex, but fortunately, the honeycomb plate was not complicated, consisting entirely of repeating hexagonal holes and hollow structures.

The skeleton severed its mental synchronization without hesitation, something that even the simplest concept in spatial geometry was something to be avoided at all costs.

Once the model was completed, he loaded it into the bone imprint, activated the morphological transformation runes, and created dozens of porous bone plates.

Then he had the zombies cover the interior walls and floor of the power room with perforated panels—why waste magic when you can do it with manpower?

"I'm all set on my end," he telepathically communicated with the skeleton.

"Same here."

"By the way, why do we still need to synchronize our minds to communicate remotely?" Su Ming asked. "The White Bone Mark should have the ability to transmit messages, right?"

The messages transmitted through mind synchronization are richer, but for two people in a working state, mutual interference in their thoughts is inevitable.

"Yes, there is a voice-based message chain. You can just trigger the Bone Mark directly."

"Understood."
The final piece of the puzzle was complete, and the rain intensified. Su Ming removed the floorboards from the top of the tower, revealing a funnel-shaped section underneath. A jet of water cascaded down from the sky and into the reservoir.

Su Ming tested it and found that the purity was actually up to standard. After all, this was another world completely free of industrial pollution, so it wasn't entirely without its advantages.

Outside the tower, the heavy rain began to pour. Su Ming walked to the cockpit components and sat down at the control panel.

The indicator light shows that the boiler preheating is complete.

In the darkness, the tower-like shell of the white bone fortress quietly opened up towards the sea, revealing its internal bony structure.

"The sea cliff is 83 meters high, and the fall time is 4 seconds." Su Ming began to concentrate.

The skeleton remaining at the top of the tower gave a gentle push, and Su Ming, along with most of the skeleton fortress, flew off the cliff and crashed into the sea in a parabolic arc.

In the air, Su Ming swiftly completed the assembly of each section. The seven main parts of the ship's hull were connected one by one, with the engine room and the control room in place. The superstructure and deck were not yet complete, so Su Ming used a bone plate to roll up and seal the upper part.

Bone Fortress - Ship Mode - 056A Replica - 75% Complete!

The slender, bony boat crashed onto the sea with a loud splash, sending up a huge spray. It was completely submerged, then rose again amidst the surging white waves, bobbing and undulating.

The smallest possible magical fluctuations flashed by, and only Su Ming's own impact was absorbed by the light barrier.

With so many things to do, Su Ming had already written an operation checklist and posted it on the control panel.

First, the ballast tanks need to be filled with water!

The entire hull, except for the engine room, is now flooded, and the Bone Fortress is beginning to sink, becoming a semi-submersible vessel.

List 2: Remove the buffer structure at the bottom of the engine room and replace it with a fixed structure.

List 3: Loosen the internal and external fasteners of the steam engine, gearbox, drive shaft, and propeller.

The second task was completed by Su Ming using the bone mark, and the third by the zombies in the engine room. After falling 83 meters into the sea, these zombies simply rolled over and got back up; they were far more robust than Su Ming himself.

List 4: Start the boiler to 50% heating power.

List 5: Start the steam engine and let it idle until it reaches a stable low speed.

List Six: Engage the gearbox in slow gear and start the propeller.

The fourth step requires zombies to add fuel to the boiler. For the next two steps, Su Ming can remotely control the equipment from the console.

Fortunately, the prepared buffer and shock-absorbing measures worked, and the power unit started up smoothly.

It's not that large-scale cushioning magic can't be used to mitigate the impact of the bone ship falling into the sea. However, after discussing it with Bai Gu, Su Ming felt that it was better to make a sound and withstand the impact than to release a huge magical shockwave.

The former may not be immediately exposed, while the latter is a direct declaration to the world: I'm going to escape!

Everything went as expected. The sea cliffs blocked most of the sound traveling towards the shore, so it didn't sound as loud. But the sentries of the Temple Legion still alerted the crowd.

A barrage of white holy light projectiles flew out from the enemy camp, trailing long streaks of light as they floated to the top of the tower.

The white pagoda had long since closed its open exterior, and in the dappled shadows of the rain, it appeared perfectly normal.

(End of this chapter)