Do you mind?

No… how could I possibly mind? At most, my thoughts were just read, and I was worried about what Jian Xingyi might think.

Shuixi’s tone was firm. “I don’t mind.”

Jian Xingyi said discontentedly, “Then why did you put some distance between us?”

“I was afraid you’d mind.”

“……”

Jian Xingyi: “Well, I don’t mind either.”

Shuixi raised an eyebrow. “Why don’t you mind?”

Jian Xingyi scratched his head. “It’s not real, so why should I mind? When I saw you putting distance between us, I thought you hated me…”

Jian Xingyi didn’t associate the powerful man standing before him with shyness, unease, or worry; in his mind, if Shuixi kept his distance, it must mean he didn’t like him.

Shuixi remained silent.

Then, Shuixi said, “Xinghe, no matter what happens, I’ll never dislike you.”

Jian Xingyi’s mood brightened instantly. “Really?”

“Mm-hmm.” Shuixi’s tone was earnest. “Then you have to promise me, too—no matter what happens, don’t ever dislike me.”

“How could I ever dislike you?” Jian Xingyi chuckled softly. “I promise, no matter what happens, I won’t dislike you.”

“Okay, I’ll remember that.”

Jian Xingyi tilted his head and spread his arms toward Shuixi, saying, “Then give me a hug.”

“……”

Jian Xingyi pouted. “See? You still hate me. Just like the other day.”

Shuixi had no choice but to open his arms as well. He controlled his breathing and carefully embraced Jian Xingyi.

Their skin touched through the fabric, their breaths mingling across the distance.

Come to think of it, this was the first time the two had hugged outside of the wilderness or under necessity.

Jian Xingyi rested his head on Shuixi’s shoulder, and the two quietly felt each other’s reassuring heartbeats.

For the first time, Shuixi realized that besides combat prowess and weapons, he could also find peace of mind in something, someone, or some situation.

“So…” Shuixi asked softly, “What are your thoughts on what you told those people?”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“Your thoughts.”

“……” Jian Xingyi couldn’t answer right away.

Finally, he just chuckled lightly: “I’m still thinking about it.”

“Mm.”

“What about you?”

“Me too.”

A moment passed.

“So!” Jian Xingyi said, folding his arms. “Come up and sleep with me! What, friends aren’t allowed to sleep together? The floor’s so cold—are you really planning to force me to mistreat you?”

Shuixi smiled. “Alright.”

A peaceful night.

The next day, the group packed up and prepared to continue their ascent.

If they were to continue climbing, they wouldn’t be able to return to the guild for rest and resupply, so Wu Yun had prepared plenty of supplies for everyone—mainly campfires and tents.

Before leaving, Jian Xingyi passed by a wall and ran into Cang Shui again.

But Cang Shui looked terrible. He was sitting in front of the wall with a notebook in hand, his expression heavy with worry.

Seeing Jian Xingyi approach, Cang Shui put on a brave face and said, “Ah, I heard you were leaving. Good luck to you.”

Jian Xingyi asked, “Have you hit a roadblock? Well, I wish you good luck too.”

“It’s not exactly a roadblock… I’ve spent nearly a week calculating this force point issue, but I haven’t made any progress.”

Cang Shui sighed heavily. “Does that mean we’re stuck at 350,000?”

Jian Xingyi crouched down in front of the wall and curiously touched the bricks Cang Shui had arranged.

Seeing this, Cang Shui explained: “Unfortunately, this is a game, not reality. There’s no cement to bind the bricks together, nor any rebar to reinforce them… And using ropes doesn’t seem practical either, so their balance is insufficient—if I remove any more bricks, the structure will collapse.”

Rebar?

Jian Xingyi recalled the rebar synthesis function on his Synthesis Table and quickly opened it to check.

Disappointingly, these steel bars and the glass were custom-made for the greenhouse and couldn’t be removed for use.

What about ropes, then…

Cang Shui had said ropes weren’t practical because they were too fragile, and he didn’t have any anyway, but Jian Xingyi seemed to…

Jian Xingyi handed a bag of seeds to Cang Shui.

“Hm?”

Jian Xingyi said, “These are vine seeds. I saw in the system description that they’re very sturdy. Why don’t you plant them and give it a try?”

After saying that, even Jian Xingyi thought it was a wild idea. But since he hadn’t found any use for these vines yet, he figured he might as well give it a shot—plant them wherever they were needed. Who knows, maybe they could offer Cang Shui a little help?

“Vines…?” Cang Shui blinked. It sounded far-fetched to him, too, but the person in front of him was Jian Xingyi—the guy who had conquered the entire server with potted sprouts during the last zombie tide and climbed to the top of the survival rankings using his own resources. So…

Cang Shui accepted the seeds Jian Xingyi handed him with a strange sense of trust. “Thank you. I’ll give it a try.”

—At that moment, neither of them realized this would be a historic handover.

Soon after, everyone had finished packing and gathered at the main gate.

“If you run into any danger, we’ve added each other as friends—feel free to contact us anytime.” Wu Yun patted Jian Xingyi on the shoulder and smiled. “Good luck to you both. Remember to ring the bell before you set off.”

“Alright, thanks.”

The group left the guild.

Whoosh…

The higher they climbed, the more biting the wind and snow became. Though they’d drunk ginger soup before setting out, they could still feel the chill. Clutching each other’s arms, they endured in silence, moving forward step by step, though their pace grew slower and slower.

It was unimaginable what state an ordinary person would be frozen into here without a coat and ginger soup.

It wasn’t just the cold; the snow on the ground was thick and heavy, requiring great effort to lift their feet after each step.

Moreover, the wind lashed at their faces with a howling roar. After being blown on for a while, they felt numb and had to expend even more energy fighting against the headwind.

As Jian Xingyi walked on, he eventually relied solely on muscle memory to repeat the motions of lifting his feet and activating skills.

After upgrading the pig pen, he had only single-digit essence points left; after farming along the way, he managed to scrape together 88.

Fortunately, although most of their route consisted of forests and avalanche-prone areas—making it unsuitable for driving—they could still use a motorcycle once they reached more open terrain.

When Shuixi pulled out his motorcycle, Lone Wolf’s eyes widened in astonishment.

However…

Lone Wolf asked Haihai curiously, “Why does this look familiar?”

There aren’t many players in the entire server who can afford a motorcycle of this caliber.

Haihai was also puzzled. “I’m not sure. It looks familiar to me, too, but I can’t remember where I’ve seen it. You can tell just by looking that Shuixi isn’t an ordinary player. Maybe I saw his motorcycle in the PvP arena before, but I just don’t remember him?”

“That makes it even stranger…”

But now wasn’t the time to dwell on that.

The group arrived at the snow forest, hopped off their bikes, pulled out their axes, and got ready to start chopping. The guild had already stockpiled 120,000 logs, and the number was still rising.

Having tasted success yesterday, someone asked, “There are plenty of slopes and hills around here—will there be more avalanches?”

Lone Wolf chimed in excitedly, “I really want to learn that too!”

Haihai sighed helplessly, “Don’t push your luck. Triggering an avalanche is extremely dangerous. Even though the boss is skilled, we shouldn’t treat risk like it’s nothing.”

You can’t walk by the water without getting your shoes wet!

Shuixi looked around and mused, “It really can’t be triggered; the snow layers here are very stable.”

Avalanches occur because the surface layer of snow has a sparse molecular structure, insufficient density, and is too fragile to hold—it’s prone to sliding and collapsing due to external stimuli.

But unless some massive catastrophe strikes, the snow layers around here won’t budge from ordinary explosives or motorcycle riding.

“Oh, oh…”

Guess we’ll just have to get down to chopping trees!

Jian Xingyi left the chainsaw with Lone Wolf and Haihai. While the team worked in the snowy forest, Shuixi and Jian Xingyi prepared to take down the forest’s main threat—the Dodo beast—before heading down to tackle the dungeon where they could earn colored flags.

The process of killing the Dodo beast wasn’t difficult or particularly noteworthy. Basically, Jian Xingyi felt perfectly at ease waving a flag to cheer them on, serving as a “lazy support” providing emotional support, while Shuixi focused on dealing full damage.

The Dodo beasts of the Snow Mountains were pretty much the same as the Fire God’s Belly, except for the color difference. The protruding veins on their bodies were blue, and their fur looked thicker to protect against the cold.

After Jian Xingyi activated his skill, he harvested some lambs and calves from the Dodo beast.

“Bang—!”

With Shuixi’s headshot, the massive body of this S-rank Dodo beast—a creature once hailed by many players as a terrifying, ultra-dangerous beast—collapsed onto the snow, successfully defeated.

This massive Dodo beast also significantly boosted Jian Xingyi’s meat inventory.

Just as the two were about to leave, a loud “squeak” echoed through the air. Shuixi reacted quickly, pushing Jian Xingyi to the ground and drawing his dagger to block the attack with a swift slash.

—Five smaller Dodo beasts suddenly appeared, surrounding and attacking the pair.

However, even though they were small—relative to S-rank beasts—they were actually enormous compared to humans.

The Dodo Beasts circled overhead, watching the pair with predatory eyes, casting a shadow that blocked out the sun,

Jian Xingyi covered his head and said, “Um… maybe we killed their dad or mom, and they’re here to get revenge.”

Shuixi raised an eyebrow. “So what do we do?”

Jian Xingyi spoke cautiously, “Exterminate their entire clan?”

Although he spoke with bravado, Jian Xingyi couldn’t help but feel nervous; he cowered behind Shuixi, peeking up at the creatures.

This is… way too many!!

Back when they were being chased by three S-rank Dodo beasts at Fire God’s Belly, it was already tough to take them down head-on. Now, even though these Dodo beasts are only A-rank, there are a full five of them—and they’re creatures from the high-difficulty Thousand Bells Snow Mountain map. Their strength might not be any weaker than those S-ranks at Fire God’s Belly. This is really… terrifying!!

“If all else fails, should we run into the dungeon?”

Shuixi chuckled softly and pulled Jian Xingyi onto the motorcycle.

He had an idea… not entirely crazy, but one that would work and kill two birds with one stone.

Roar—

The motorcycle raced across the snow, leaving two tracks in its wake.

The Dodo beasts chased after them, but Shuixi suddenly began circling around a tree.

One lap, two laps, three laps… countless laps!

Jian Xingyi was getting dizzy from the motion. Shuixi’s riding skills were indeed excellent; he executed one extreme cornering maneuver after another. Before Jian Xingyi could even react, they were circling again. She could only cling tightly to Shuixi, feeling as if she were on a giant spinning ride at an amusement park.

After Shuixi had spun Jian Xingyi and the Dodo beasts around countless times, Jian Xingyi was dizzy, and so were the Dodo beasts. While flying, five of the Dodo beasts even collided with their companions, turning the sky into a chaotic scene of a car crash.

Shuixi curled his lips into a smile and sped toward a nearby slope at top speed.

Jian Xingyi: “……!”

Just as the snow wall loomed closer and the two were about to crash into it, Shuixi slammed on the brakes and swerved away.

But the Dodo beasts weren’t nearly as agile; one by one, they plowed into the snow and tumbled down, dazed and disoriented.

The slope, shaken by the impact of the Dodo beasts, began to tremble. With a thunderous roar, a new avalanche… came crashing down!

Jian Xingyi stared in disbelief.

Now he understood!

Shuixi had said the surrounding snow layers were unshakable, so he’d sent five massive A-rank Dodo beasts to smash through them…!

Wow…

What kind of crazy move is this?! So avalanches and Dodo beasts are just this big shot’s toys?!

ROAR———

As the avalanche struck, Jian Xingyi hurriedly activated the Dodo beasts’ skills before Shuixi led him away from the scene.

The crowd nearby, who had witnessed the entire scene: “……”

“AH!”

“That’s insane…”

“Let’s go! Time to cash in…”

Jian Xingyi and Shuixi’s backpacks were already bursting with ordinary beast meat. Since backpack slots have a capacity limit, the two couldn’t be bothered to go back to the snowfield to dig out the Dodo beasts; they simply handed the meat over to them.

Everyone excitedly shared their incredible adventures from the past two days in the guild chat, making the rest of the members green with envy.

【You guys have no idea how awesome Shuixi is!! Avalanches and a whole five Dodo beasts are like toys to him!】

【And he’s so cool!! He only smiles at Xinghe—with us and everything else, he’s just this total badass!】

【Exactly, I noticed that too. He’s so protective of his own. Did you guys see how his eyes were always on Xinghe? Always watching over him, afraid he might get into trouble!】

【It’s like this… I used to think Big Brother Xinghe was a gentle person, and that he might seem a bit subdued next to Big Brother Shuixi, but after spending two days with him, I realized… isn’t Big Brother Xinghe actually a master dog trainer?】

【XS, why are you talking like that? Can’t he just be a dragon trainer?】

This just made everyone even more curious.

【Plus, it’s so nice being with Big Brother Xinghe. Sure, the Thousand Bells Snow Mountains are freezing, but the ginger soup is so warm! And Big Brother Xinghe keeps treating us to delicious food—the stir-fried potatoes with pork smell so good, sniff sniff…】

【Exactly! It’s not just the great treatment—the efficiency is off the charts, too. We’ve gathered more wood in the last two days than I did in the previous ten. Sure, the system’s mechanics changed, but these past two days have been incredibly fruitful!】

【It’s not just wood—I’ve also collected tons of hazelnuts! There are plenty of bullets and medical supplies in the snowy mountains,s too!】

【Ahhh, never mind! We’re off to harvest some beast meat now! Five uninfected giant Dodo beasts—here we come!】

The rest of the group felt like crying; it just made their teeth ache.

Of course, there was simply too much beast meat, so no one planned to keep it all for themselves. After taking what they needed, they handed the rest over to the guild.

These five A-rank Dodo beasts would be enough to sustain the Long Live for A Hundred Years Guild for quite some time; at least, Jian Xingyi wouldn’t have to worry about food in the short term. However, in reality, Jian Xingyi never worried about the Long Live for A Hundred Years Clan’s food supply anyway. He either stockpiled his food or sold it off; it was enough for him to just occasionally distribute some seeds to the guild members.

As for Jian Xingyi, the subject of the discussion, he wasn’t even looking at the chat channel; he was busy heading to the dungeon entrance with Shuixi and checking his inventory.

The S-rank Dodo beasts had provided him with plenty of meat—lambs and calves. He had just cast a skill on the five A-rank Dodo beasts; he wondered what he would get.

Lambs, calves, baby cows, piglets…

Chicks…

Jian Xingyi: “……!!”

Oh my god!!!

Holy Spirit of the Snow Mountains, thank you for granting him a chick!!!!

Aaaaaah!!

Shuixi saw Jian Xingyi grinning like an idiot behind him and asked, half-laughing, half-crying, “What’s got you so happy?”

Jian Xingyi: “I have a chicken!!!”

Shuixi: “……?”

Huh?