The Reader and Protagonist definitely have to be in True Love

Chapter 43.1 - Reader : Wine can warm you up

Based on the information they got from Anne about the task, Du Ze and Xiu spent some money on a teleportation spell to the client's location - a small town in the land of extreme cold.

After using the magical transmission matrix, some silly, cute person was almost frozen solid. A minute ago they were in the warm and humid south, then a minute later they were in the frozen north. There was a clothing store right next to the transportation array, perfect for mercenaries and people like Du Ze who had not prepared proper clothing. Du Ze and Xiu entered the store. After a while, two people came out. Xiu was wearing a blue and white coat while Du Ze was all wrapped up like a fur ball but was still shivering.

It's cold! QAQ

Du Ze's unfashionable fur hood wriggled as a small Phoenix popped out, its black eyes looking around curiously at this white world. In front of the town, everywhere one looked was covered with snow.

Xiu looked at the silly, cute, shivering bundle of fur and stretched out his right hand to hold Du Ze's left hand. At first, the touch made Du Ze shiver even more since Xiu's hand was unexpectedly colder than his, but soon their hands were covered with a layer of green light. Du Ze feel a warm current from Xiu's palm that was transmitted into and diffused all over his body.

Xiu pulled on Du Ze's hand and began walking to their destination. Du Ze stared at their joined hands and remembered a sentence that he once read.

- His palms are ice-cold because nobody can hurt him now.

Like a needle stabbing him in the heart, Du Ze feel a sting. If Xiu knew that he is the culprit ...

Xiu stopped. Du Ze ran into him because some silly, cute person had not noticed that they had reached Eddie and Rose's cabin. Xiu, standing in the snow and ice, stared at the cabin with an unnameable emotion in his eyes. When he walked up to the door and knocked on it, his green eyes were cold, as though all of his feelings had precipitated and condensed into bitterly cold ice.

"Knock knock."

The wooden door soon opened and a young man with gray-blue eyes emerged. He saw Xiu and gaped at him for a moment. Du Ze looked at gray-haired youth who had grown up with Xiu and noticed that his face was very haggard. In "Mixed Blood," Eddie wasn't described much. The novel just said that he followed Xiu around like his shadow. Ironically, when Eddie stepped out of Xiu's shadow, instead of defending his best friend, he only spoke out to denounce Xiu.

This is what made Du Ze extremely angry. Princess Kelly, that *****, didn't know Xiu that well while Daniel and Urlika only knew Xiu from the Magic School. But the cute protagonist, Eddie, and Rose were together from the time when they were kids. How can they not know what kind of person Xiu is?! Evil, your sister! Would you die if you said a word to defend the Moe Lord? If the majority of Xiu's allies hadn't agreed, the Temple of Light wouldn't have been so determined to see Xiu as evil. Princess Kelly sent Xiu to the edge of the cliff, but it was Eddie et al who pushed him down and thus doomed him beyond redemption.

So in the original "Mixed Blood" novel, when the blackened Xiu returned, all the scum people fell. Xiu took the ice crystal grass task, and Eddie did not recognize Xiu's elf form. Together they went to the snow-capped mountains, fought the monster that was guarding the ice crystal grass, and were going to pick the grass when an avalanche came. After the avalanche, Xiu found Eddie hanging from the edge of an ice cliff ...

All the readers hid their faces in their hands: The protagonist double-crossed the good scum friend.

So Du Ze's mood is particularly complex. He doesn't want to see Xiu let the scum fall down but if they do not take this task, even if Xiu never shows it, inside his heart he will never forget. Eddie and Rose are like a thorn in Xiu's heart. If it's not pulled out, the wound will fester.

"Are you ...?" The stunned Eddie finally reacted. The black-haired youth and the silver-haired elf were both impassive but somehow he felt worried that they didn't have good intentions.

Xiu silently looked at the familiar yet unfamiliar face. Once, he had thought that he would lose control when he saw Eddie again, but his heart was empty and he felt nothing except the warmth on his right hand that was transmitting heat to Du Ze.

It's enough for him to hold onto the man.

Eddie saw that the silver-haired elf was emotionlessly showing him his mercenary card. The card was showing the task "Looking for ice crystal grass." Eddie's eyes lit up instantly but when he saw the E-class level on the mercenary card, that light was quickly extinguished.

Eddie's forced a smile: "Thank you so much for taking this task, but the difficulty of this task is actually A-"

Eddie's words came to an abrupt halt as he heard the sound of an attack that was too fast for him to see. He is already a mid-level Sword Master. Then is this elf a Grand Sword Master? Also, Eddie doesn't know why but that attack was extremely aggressive and it felt as though his neck was really going to be cut. Eddie ignored this feeling and began to get excited. The other person has shown him a lot of power and now his task is going to be easier. In fact, today Eddie had decided to go find the ice crystal grass alone since Rose's poison can't be held at bay any longer.

"What payment do you want?" Eddie asked.

The elf finally spoke and the sound was as cold as his attitude: "We can discuss it when we return."

"Shall we set out this afternoon?" said Eddie eagerly, but then he realized he sounded to impatient and said: "Sorry, my companion is in dire need of the ice-crystal grass."

Xiu looked through the door of the cabin, nodded gently, then pulled on Du Ze's hand and walked away. Eddie froze, the other two were already leaving to prepare for the trip when Eddie realized that he didn't know their names.

"What's your name?"

Xiu continued to walk away, indifferent. Du Ze turned his head towards Eddie and spoke, unhurriedly and clearly: "His name is Xiu."

The Xiu that you abandoned.

Standing in front of the cabin, Eddie heard the name that he remembered and was completely stupefied.

***

The Arctic land is full of snow-capped mountains, forming a barrier of ice and snow in the northern part of the Chaos Continent. One of the highest peaks is said to be so high that only God can climb to its top.

A reader once asked what a person would find in the northernmost end of the Chaos Continent, past the land of extreme cold. Ye Zhi Qiu said: "That person would fall down."

The world of the novel is a flat place that is divided into two sides. Even the ocean has an end. Only the space eye in the Lost Land allows travel to and from the two sides. If anything goes past the edge of the chaos continent, it will fall. Where the falling person or things will end up, only the author knows.

Du Ze climbed up the snow-capped mountains for two days. After midnight of the next day, they climbed up a snowy peak and looked down. On the bottom of the other side of the mountain was a valley full of sparkling ice crystal grass. The branches and blades of grass extended freely throughout the valley, and one can clearly see the exquisite veins. In the moonlight, the large expanse of ice crystal grass was sparkling like transparent blue glass.

It was such a beautiful scene, but Du Ze was in no condition to appreciate it. All he can feel is cold, all kinds of cold, cold that freezes his body. Even his constant shivering can't shake off the cold. The temperature of the land of extreme cold is lower than that of the town where Eddie lived, and right now is the coldest time of the day.

"We'll rest here before the next monster comes out. It is said to be a hell hound." Eddie paused and he stared at Xiu before hesitantly saying: "Could you lead it away for a while? Just for a moment so I can pick some of the ice crystal grass."

In the original "Mixed Blood" story, Eddie also made this proposal to Xiu, but when they went down, they found that it was not an ordinary hell hound. It was the legendary three-headed Cerberus. Although it gave Xiu some trouble, it eventually became one of the Moe Lord's pets.