Chapter 41 - Author: Only a pure person can touch a unicorn.
Chapter 41.1 – Author: Only a pure person can touch a unicorn.
Du Ze, male, 20 years old this year, yesterday he encountered the biggest problem in his life: the protagonist of his favorite novel (♂) confessed to him.
…. Every word was absurd! Ridiculous!1
Du Ze was lost.2 He tossed and turned the whole night, unable to sleep. His head was full of thoughts like “Moe Lord, how can this be? Wake up!”3 Even after his 0-point restore function restored his eyes and ears back to their original state, he could not stop his thoughts. He wants to think that all of this happened because Xiu became too accustomed to him and deluded himself, but this will change when the cute Lord meets his true love.
A silly, cute person thought: if the plot god again forces events to mirror the novel’s story, then there will be a weapons contest. In the middle of this month, the emperor will hold a weapons contest and invite many important and powerful judges and guests. Saint Vivian will be there – the author’s chosen female lead. Although this Xiu and the protagonist are not the same, the Moe Lord and Vivian did have a fateful encounter before. When Xiu meets Vivian again, he will find that the cute sister is his true love.
… Why does he feel a bit sad? 〒▽〒
Du Ze cut off the faint displeasure he felt in his heart and began to think of a very serious problem: the guests at the weapons contest include not just Saint Vivian but also Eric. In the novel, Xiu entered the weapons contest knowing Eric’s identity, so he was merciless. That is not the point though, what is most important is that the son of the Lord may, perhaps, be equipped with a wicked little yellow (hardcore) book.
Doujinshi: You love to pick me up.
Some cute fool is going to cry. His intuition is telling him that he has to get his doujinshi back before Xiu and Eric make contact, or something terrible will happen to him. Keeping it with him is not good; throwing it away is also not good; when it disappears it’s also not good and he has to go find that demon book! Du Ze wanted to time travel to the past and chop off the evil hand that was the “source of all evil” in the world.
You cheap hand! You cheap hand!4
As Du Ze stared blankly at his right hand,5 a dark hand appeared in his field of vision. Du Ze looked up and saw that Ariel was standing opposite him, her head tilted to the side. Her white braid was slipping down over one shoulder.
[Can I chat with you?]
Du Ze looked at the words that Ariel wrote with the branches and nodded. Ariel happily sat on the branch like Du Ze, subconsciously avoiding the light. When Du Ze saw this, his emotions were complex and he didn’t even dare to look at Ariel’s side.
“I’m sorry.”
The branch that Ariel was sitting on trembled and she seemed to be astonished at Du Ze’s sudden apology.
[Why are you apologizing?]
Du Ze can’t explain. He is the only one who knows what the world’s original trajectory should be. Due to the strong contrast between what what he knew should happen and what really happened, he felt really guilty.
Ariel saw Du Ze’s silent reaction and she wiped away the previous words before writing again: [That elf is the person you talked about before?]
Du Ze felt more and more unable to look directly at Ariel, remembering how much be boasted about how powerful Xiu is. Then Xiu came and was cruel to the elves.
“He is really a good man.”
Du Ze desperately wanted to explain to Ariel but whatever he said would seem to be an excuse for that man.
As Du Ze watched, Ariel wrote: [Well, I think he’s great, too.]
Du Ze looked at Ariel in astonishment and asked, almost involuntarily: “Don’t you hate him?”
[Why would I hate him?]
Du Ze opened mouth but could not spit out the words “the Elf Queen.” Ariel’s golden eyes seemed to see everything and she wrote down what Du Ze could not say out loud: [Because of my mother?]
Du Ze nodded stiffly.
[Mother was not strong enough so she failed. I felt sad.] Ariel sighed but the sigh was her regret over her superfluous sadness: [Only the strong can survive. Weaklings perish, that is the way of the world.]
Du Ze remembered that Yi Ye Zhi Qiu wrote in “Mixed Blood”: when an elf becomes a fallen dark elf, they fear light and their character becomes cruel and lustful. To the dark elves, what is not seen is not evil, and those who are weak are doomed to die.
[So I don’t dislike him because he didn’t do anything wrong.]
Ariel smiled sweetly, but Du Ze felt a chill in his spine. Ariel is too accepting. She doesn’t hate that Xiu destroyed the Elven Forest, doesn’t hate Xiu’s pollution of the elves, and doesn’t hate Xiu’s actions that led to her mother’s death. The original Ariel could forgive all of this because of her love for Xiu, but this Ariel…
The dark elf princess’s eyes were filled with longing and she wrote on the branch, unaware of the changes in her personality.
[He is very strong and everyone likes him.]
In his imagination, the brown-haired, golden-eyed elf princess in “Mixed Blood” smiled warmly and softly said to Xiu: [I love you so I will support whatever you do.]
The contrast seems particularly brutal.
“Du Ze.”
The sound of Xiu’s voice broke through his delirium. Du Ze looked out into the distance where a silver-haired elf was riding a unicorn, his deep green eyes turned towards Du Ze. “Come.”
Whenever some silly, cute person hears this sentence, his reflex is triggered and he will immediately run towards the speaker. He was already halfway there before he came to his senses and looked back. He didn’t see Ariel leave. All that was left was a lonely tree branch shrouded in shade.
Du Ze stood in place for a while, at a loss. He didn’t know how to face Xiu.
Chapter 41.2 – Author: Only a pure person can touch a unicorn.
The clatter of hooves came nearer and Du Ze watched as Xiu, riding a unicorn, came to him. The sun covered Xiu with a layer of light and the silver-haired elf sitting on the white unicorn gazed silently at him, a vision so holy that he would not dare to blaspheme.
Du Ze gazed uneasily at the unicorn. It looked like a large white horse with a spiral horn on top of its head. Its mane was pure white. As Du Ze looked at it, the unicorn became increasingly irritable and restless, pawing its hooves and swinging its tail. It looked like it wanted to retreat, but it was firmly under Xiu’s command and could only obediently stay where it was. When Du Ze reached out to touch its spiral horn, the unicorn reacted with extreme fear. Blue flames burst forth and covered its hooves, mane, and tail as it suddenly turned into a nightmare.
This creature that has two forms, unicorn and nightmare, is one of Xiu’s pets. Of all the pets in Xiu’s stable, the unicorn/nightmare’s fighting abilities are not on par with the Phoenix and Cerberus, but it is the fastest mount. In addition, it has a special characteristic – only a pure person can touch a unicorn … pure person …
Although he knew that spiritual beasts always react negatively to him, but when he thought of the legends regarding the unicorn’s nature, Du Ze was silent – ah, ****, why did you react that way? Are you saying that this young man is not pure?!
Xiu patted the nightmare’s neck, and made it kneel down. He reached out a hand to Du Ze: “Come on up.”
Du Ze could have sworn that he saw despair and shock in the eyes of the nightmare, as though it was going to be carried off by a scoundrel. It looked at Du Ze then looked at Xiu and bowed its head gloomily, as if saying “he is annoying, you are indifferent.”
The annoying Du Ze angrily mounted the horse and sat on the saddle with the indifferent, heartless Xiu.
The nightmare stood up ponderously and began to run toward the Tree of Life. Its burning hooves flew over the lake, making ripples form, but they did not sink down into the water. Since this mount could disregard the law of gravity, it stepped on the leaves of the Tree of Life and jumped up higher and higher until it reached the top. Du Ze felt as though his teeth were going to break, not just from the jolting ride, but also from the nightmare’s trembling.
When Du Ze climbed down from the nightmare, it was hard to tell which one of the two poor creatures was more relieved. The nightmare ran away the instant Du Ze dismounted. Du Ze looked at the mount that had just left, feeling lonely. He missed the trembling little chick, that baby Fire Phoenix. The longing was so intense that he even imagined that he could hear the little chick’s tender cry.
“Chirp.”
… Wait, it’s not an illusion?
Some stupid, cute person looked at the direction of the chirping and his face was painfully struck by a small, fluffy animal. The little chick was in the middle of his face and cheerily crying out: “Chirp! Chirp~”
Du Ze stretched out his thumb and forefinger and picked up the aggressive fluff ball from his face. The little chick that was grabbed by Du Ze spread its wings and continued to act cute: “Chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp~”
This familiar, silly, acting cute attitude – it’s unmistakably that cute Phoenix. Du Ze looked at the little fluff ball this way and that, speechless. Hadn’t this grown up? Why did it become a chick? How did it return to its appearance from before he returned from the Wheel of Time?!
“During the battle in the Elven Forest, the elf War God defeated it.” Xiu took the trouble to explain matters to Du Ze: “It took some time to regenerate.”
A Phoenix cannot die because when they are killed, they can bathe in fire and be born again. This is one of the reasons why they are called god beasts. He carelessly allowed the fluffy beast to escape from his grip, and the small Phoenix flapped its wings and rushed to its favorite place. This time, its flying skills had improved so it no longer flew crookedly. It went straight to the top of Du Ze’s head.
Silly, cute thing! Stop combining with this young man,1 the cuteness attribute will double. ****! Get off this young man’s head!
The two silly, cute creatures were tangled up with each other, the black hair and yellow feathers entwined. Meanwhile, Xiu walked to the center of the altar and touched the golden branch. Gently holding the branch in his hand, Xiu seemed to be communicating with the Tree of Life. When Xiu removed his hand, the golden branch did not droop but stood upright.
Du Ze stopped fighting with the small Phoenix and looked at the golden branch while the small Phoenix held onto a lock of his hair. The tip of the golden branch slowly grew a flower bud, the golden petals tightly wrapped together. Then the petals opened and a matchless golden flower bloomed. Dozens of petals surrounded its stamen. The flower was soul-stirringly beautiful. But the beauty was gone soon as the golden petals withered, leaving only a black-brown orb.
Xiu picked up the round object and Du Ze can’t help but ask: “What is that?”
“The seed of the Tree of Life.” Xiu put the seed away and explained: “The elves can’t stay here, so I will let them live in the Gnome Ruins.”
Du Ze was surprised. The “Mixed Blood” novel did not have this story arc. Xiu did harvest a race that became his younger brothers (his allies), but it was too difficult for the dark elves to go to the Chaos Continent. Therefore Xiu left the elves in the care of Ariel and his subordinates before going to join the mercenary guild, thus triggering the Gnome Ruins plot.
Now that Xiu destroyed the Elven Forest and broke the barrier of the elves, it won’t be long before the other races become curious and start exploring the elves’ territory. The Gnome Ruins are underground, which is indeed suitable for the darkness-loving dark elves. Down there, they can avoid the sunlight that they now hate. Under the leadership of the Moe Lord, the elves will soon be able to build a new city beneath the earth. Du Ze found this new farming subplot interesting. In addition, now he and Xiu can separate, and he will be able to find an opportunity to deal with the important matter at hand, the doujinshi.
Cute Lord, you can go and farm with your people while this young man will take care of the doujinshi.
Therefore, on the day of the elves’ departure, some silly, cute person bade Xiu farewell.
“Are you going to the human Empire?”
Du Ze nodded: “I have something to do.”
Then Du Ze could only watch as Xiu called Old John over and asked him to lead the elves to the Gnome Ruins. He was obviously handing over control of this task to Old John.
“You don’t have to accompany me.” Du Ze hurriedly interrupted Xiu – are you kidding me? Moe Lord, if you go with this young man, how can he take back the doujinshi? He said: “You have a lot of things to manage …”
“Don’t worry,” said Old John. “You and the little master can go out to play. Leave these trifles to me.”
Du Ze looked sadly at Old John. In his heart, a river of tears was flowing.
Noticing Du Ze’s hesitation, the silver-haired elf sitting on the unicorn suddenly said: “You want me to like the world, right?”
Du Ze nodded. Xiu leaned down from the unicorn, grabbed Du Ze, and mounted him on the unicorn, which got scared and suddenly turned into a nightmare. This happened too fast for Du Ze to react in time. Xiu whispered in his ear: “Then show me how beautiful this world is.”
He said this one sentence and Du Ze was left without a rejoinder.
******
******
You want me to see the world?
Then look at me. If you don’t look at me, I don’t know what to do.
– [black box]
*******
The author has something to say:
[The Reader, rich in theory and abstract knowledge, meets the Unicorn]
Unicorn: (on guard, facing an enemy)
[The Protagonist, rich in practical experience, meets the Unicorn]