Chapter 39.1 – Reader: The elves were face-slapped by the author’s malice and turned black.
Old John’s normally genial expression changed into one of surprise when he saw what happened. He stared at the silver-haired elf in the middle of the pool and said in an uncertain tone: “Little master…?”
Xiu titled his head then gently nodded at Old John.
Old John relaxed and said: “It seems there is a lot about the little master that I still don’t know. If the little master is free, he can talk to this old person.”
Though Old John recognized Xiu even his elf form, the six-star mechanical puppets all stopped whatever they were doing. Their eyes changed colors. First, the red attack mode changed into the blue active mode. Then, when they could not find anyone who could give them orders, they went into standby mode.The surviving elves watched all of this and stayed where they were, not knowing what to do. Ariel carefully supported the Elf Queen with one arm. The queen’s gaze swept over the blood-soaked forest, the motionless mechanical puppets, and finally landed on the emptied little pool. These sights seemed to stimulate her mind beyond endurance until she became demented.
“The spirit of the wood! Please lend me your power and tear this blasphemous man apart!”
The ground beneath the altar began to quiver. Several large, spiky green vines came out from under the arch and shot out to stab at the center of the pool where Xiu was. When Old John tried to attack the queen, an arrow interrupted his movement. Since his arm was still broken, Simon was using his remaining arm to raise his bow and strung an arrow with his mouth. Then vines rose from the ground and attacked Old John.
Xiu picked up Du Ze and deftly avoided the vine attack.The slender figure of the elf seemed as though it was weightless as he leapt between the dancing vines. Xiu moved effortlessly even though he was carrying a person. Standing on one of the vine’s thorns, Xiu began to chant a magic spell.
The vine that was trampled on by Xiu began to twist madly. It hit the tree canopy and countless leaves swirled down. The rest of the vines whipped towards Xiu from all sides as he stood rooted on the thorn and spoke the last of the spell: “Thousand Leaf Blades.”
As though someone had pressed a pause button, the falling leaves were momentarily frozen; they were suspended in midair. Suddenly, their edges started to shine like metal and they burst into a chaotic dance as they cut the vines to pieces.
Xiu was still holding on to Du Ze. The silly, cute person who was already nauseous from the previous bloody scene, could not endure the excessive jolting that was worse than a rollercoaster ride. He tried to push aside Xiu and take a few steps away to kneel down and vomit but Xiu immediately grabbed him in an embrace when he tried to move away.Fortunately Du Ze has not eaten anything lately. He just collapsed into Xiu’s embrace and dry heaved a few times. The reader bitter cried out in his heart: Please forgive the one and only Earthman in this world, he has a delicate body.
Xiu held Du Ze gently and coldly looked at the Elf Queen. Several leaves fell from the air and changed angles to strike at her. The queen tried to dodge but some leaves cut her feet. Simon was some distance from her and when the elf tried to come to her rescue, Old John stopped him. More leaves fell. This time they changed direction and aimed themselves at the Elf Queen’s neck.
However, Ariel suddenly appeared in front of the Elf Queen. Her body began to tremble at the cold look in Xiu’s eyes. Nonetheless, she persisted in looking at Xiu, shaking her head vigorously and desperately trying to communicate a message to him.
Please let my mother go. If I can, please let me atone for my mother’s offenses. So, please …
“Don’t kill her.”
Xiu’s brow wrinkled as he looked down at the arm that Du Ze had grabbed. He heard the human say it again: “Don’t kill her.”
This was the first time Xiu heard Du Ze make a clear request. This man has only ever suggested and never asked for something so directly. Xiu should be happy now, shouldn’t he? But Xiu’s restless fingers plainly revealed how much he wanted the leaves to run through the elf’s neck.
“Her name is Ariel. She is very gentle and kind.” Some silly, cute person firmly believes that since he stole Xiu’s role, Xiu never had a chance to realize Ariel’s good qualities, so he began to try to raise Ariel’s favorability rating with Xiu. “She is a good girl and very cute.”
Let this young man build a bridge of love. = =+
But why are Xiu’s arms on his waist tightening? This young man can hardly breathe! This is too much force and might cut a person in half … help, help!
“Do you like her?”
Du Ze instantly understood why Xiu was so agitated that he was almost about to break Du Ze in half. Xiu misunderstood him and thought that Du Ze and the cute sister have- ! Don’t worry, the sister is all yours. Don’t burn that bridge before you get there!
To keep his poor little body whole, Du Ze resolutely and decisively shook his head.
“…”
Du Ze felt Xiu’s taut muscles gradually relax. Because of his position, he couldn’t see Xiu’s expression. But the leaves slowed down and landed on the ground, so Xiu must have listened to his words. Du Ze had not even had time to breathe before he heard the Elf Queen shouting to the survivors: “Why aren’t you attacking? He can’t control the mechanical puppets anymore!”
The elven War God hesitated at first before he realized that when the Elf Queen attacked Xiu, the mechanical puppets were indifferent. He began to cautiously approach Xiu.
WTF! Elves, why are you so eager to court death? Please stop it!
In the face of the elves’ suicidal attitude, Du Ze cannot stop to spew out nonsense1 because with this type of event, Xiu is sure to use the gnome’s military might again. Du Ze saw that the Elf Queen had pushed away Ariel. Gritting his teeth, Du Ze pulled Xiu to the center of the pool beside the golden branch.
“Yggdrasil.” Du Ze put Xiu’s hand on the golden branch and quickly said: “Call its name.”
Without the slightest hesitation, instinctively believing Du Ze’s every word, Xiu called out: “Yggdrasil.”
Chapter 39.2 – Reader: The elves were face-slapped by the author’s malice and turned black.
Suddenly, the golden branch sprang to life and softly wrapped itself around Xiu’s arm. The elves stopped in astonishment and even the Elf Queen’s eyes opened wide. Since the Tree of Life was polluted, it hasn’t moved for thousands of years but now, unexpectedly, it reacted?
Du Ze breathed a sigh of relief. Yggdrasil Tree of Life is the full name of the elven Tree of Life. In “Mixed Blood,” Xiu was forced to absorb the pollution of the Tree of Life and it took him a year before he heard its voice. When Xiu called out the name of the Tree of Life, he finally broke free of the elves’ shackles and became the elves’ master. It’s very fortunate that Du Ze was not banned from speaking spoilers this time. That’s probably because in the original plot Xiu already knew the name of the Tree of Life at this time.
The branches of the Tree of Life were affectionately twining about Xiu’s arms and radiating a halo of light as though it was communing with Xiu. No one could tell from Xiu’s expressionless face what he was hearing. After some time, the branches slid down from Xiu’s arms, but the place where they had rested left traces. Xiu’s arms were marked with golden leaves and branches. The Elf Queen stared at the marks and trembled.
Why would this unknown elf, who had almost destroyed the elves, be recognized by the Tree of Life?
The other elves looked at Xiu, hesitated for a moment, then knelt down before him and assumed a submissive pose.
Whoever the Tree of Life recognizes is the King of the Elves.
This was exactly what Du Ze wanted. This was how the protagonist harvested the elf race in “Mixed Blood,” but the blackened Xiu, because he wanted revenge for the time when he was imprisoned by the elves, released the pollution from the Tree of Life and made the entire elf race fall. In that chapter, a reader wrote a comment: “What do you think the pollution is?” The other readers replied:
“The author’s cosmic malice.”
“+1”
“The elves were face-slapped by the author’s malice and turned black; we readers were maliciously sprayed with auntie blood by the author.”
“+ ID Number”
Now that Xiu was not imprisoned by the elves for a year, the story should have a happier ending. The Elf Queen is still alive, therefore Xiu and Ariel’s relationship won’t have a huge misunderstanding tearing them apart. When Du Ze thought this, his eyes naturally turned to Ariel so he didn’t see what Xiu was doing.
Xiu stretched out his hand and gently grasped the branches of the Tree of Life.
He definitely didn’t like the elf race.
Noticing that Du Ze’s eyes were on her, Ariel, who was kneeling on the ground, wanted to secretly gesture to Du Ze, but all of a sudden her eyes became big. She looked at her fingertips that had turned black, black like dirt that could not be rubbed off. The color spread to the palm, to the arm, to the shoulder – she cannot see her own face but she can see that her brown hair has turned white. The two colors contrasted sharply with each other.
Du Ze watched as Ariel became a fallen dark elf right in front of him. It wasn’t just her. All of the elves’ skin turned black and their hair turned white. Even without seeing the other elves, he knew that the entire race had turned into a dark elves. The Elf Queen had the strongest reaction to the change.
When the Elf Queen saw her dark skin, she screamed and her voice was full of loathing:
“Am I fallen? Am I fallen? I am fallen!” The Elf Queen forcefully rubbed her skin but even when the skin was rubbed raw and bloody, it could not change the fact that she became a dark elf.
“This color is so vile and dirty …” The Elf Queen gasped violently and her hands pressing her throat: “How can this be?!”
Ariel screamed silently. She stretched out her hand to stop the queen but ended up clinging to her mother’s limp, dead body. Tears fell from the elf princess’s golden eyes down into her dark skin and dropped into the Elf Queen’s white hair.
Du Ze, looking at this scene which was identical to that in the novel, felt chills. He straightened his back and glanced at the person responsible for all this—the silver-haired elf standing beside the golden branch who was staring at something above them. Aware of the young man’s black eyes resting on him, Xiu looked over at Du Ze. His voice was as pleasant to the ear as the sound of jade pieces chiming against each other: “This color is beautiful, isn’t it?”
Like a puppet whose strings had been pulled, Du Ze looked up at the Tree of Life. In the moonlight, the tree’s leaves had become green and tender. They made a cheerful rusting sound and seemed to have gotten rid of the burden of pollution. Du Ze’s mouth was dry. It seems that there is a certain existence in this world that keeps the plot of the novel on track. Outside of the novel you can call it plot, inside of the novel you can call it fate. Even if you know what is going to happen and try to stop it, in the end it will creep up on you and demonstrate that it is all-powerful. You are helpless and cannot change it.
After the protagonist released the pollution onto the elves, he blackened even more, and he destroyed the whole world, this is the plot.
After Xiu released the pollution onto the elves, Xiu blackened even more, and Xiu destroyed the whole world, this is fate.
… F**k fate!
“Xiu.” Du Ze saw that Xiu’s bright eyes were full of volatile emotions. He summoned up the courage to say: “Can we talk?”
Even if Xiu starts moving towards the destructive ending in the original plot, this is the one thing that he won’t compromise on.
******
******
Xiu stretched out his hand and the Elf Queen could not believe her eyes when she saw him grasp the golden branches of the Tree of Life.
The Elf Queen watched with horror as her white skin was splashed with ink and the blond hair that she had been proud of faded into a pale white – she degenerated into a dark elf. Not only the Elf Queen, but all of the elves have fallen and become dark elves. The whole race was cursed.
“Am I fallen? Am I fallen? I am fallen!” The Elf Queen gasped violently, her hands pressing her throat: “This color is so vile and dirty. How can this be?!”
Xiu stood in the middle of the altar coldly gazing at all of this. When the Elf Queen committed suicide, his eyes flashed with satisfaction as he got his revenge.
Tip, tap, …
The sound of panicked footsteps came nearer and nearer. Ariel arrived and was shocked when she saw what had happened. Xiu glanced at her. This girl is the only person he will spare from his revenge.
Ariel trembled as she walked to the Elf Queen and gently picked up her mother’s limp, dead body. Ariel sobbed. She didn’t know why it was like this and she didn’t know what she was going to do next. Ariel looked up at Xiu with misty eyes. The silver-haired elf stood beside the golden branches. He seemed to be looking at something.
Sensing the elf princess’s brokenhearted eyes on him, Xiu did not turn back but said softly: “This color is beautiful, isn’t it?”
– excerpt from “Mixed Blood”
