Chapter 659: Old Friends Meeting Again

His shivering hands reached into his pockets to find the coat, but even with three layers of heavy cotton clothing wrapped around him, that bone-chilling cold was still unbearable.

Only then did Xia De understand that this cold was a characteristic of this special location known as the "Dead Silence Valley." Otherwise, with his current physical fitness, it would be impossible for him not to be able to endure this chill.

【If it weren't for the fact that you drank the "Ice Crystal Butterfly" blood brew at the divine banquet, which increased your cold resistance, the situation now would probably be even worse.】

"She" also reminded him in his ear.

Now was not a good time to stand in the snow and discuss problems. Although the snow layer in the valley in front of him was almost completely flat, showing no traces of human activity, in the cave ruins on the arc-shaped cliff where the valley sides converged directly ahead, one could vaguely see the light of a campfire. At the same time, that seemed to be the entrance to the entire library ruins.

Generally speaking, although the 【Father of the Infinite Tree】 liked to drop Xia De at a location some distance from the true event site, each time the distance to the true event site would not be too far. Since he saw the firelight, Xia De understood that his destination was there.

"It's so cold..."

He sighed in his heart while struggling to pull his legs forward in the snow. He had only taken two steps when he felt himself tripped by something hard under the snow.

He hesitated for a second before thrusting his hand into the snow to pull that heavy, icy object out of the snow surface. What he saw was a completely stiff, frozen corpse. It was a male corpse, wearing a robe, with dark skin, and eyes staring fixedly upward.

"Oh!"

Xia De hurriedly threw the corpse away, no longer curious about what was under the snow layer.

The main entrance to the library ruins had long since disappeared. The library, with its architecture carved into the cliff, was left with only black cave openings, standing quietly in the snow like an abandoned beehive.

The deep interior of the building was dead silent, while a crackling campfire was lit on the flat stone ground inside the main entrance. Surrounding it were crooked and abandoned grey stone bookshelves, as well as relics left behind by generations of adventurers. Even the huge rectangular entrance frame looked somewhat crooked; only through the faded murals on the walls and the traces of ether lamps remaining on the ceiling could one tell that this place had once been glorious.

Beside that warm campfire were three witches who didn't look very old.

The witch with yellow hair wore a brown robe, hugging her legs with both hands, looking at the fire in front of her in a daze. Her ears were somewhat pointed, and because of the leg-hugging posture, the robe, whose edges seemed to have been scorched, was pulled upward, revealing a pair of black lace-up ladies' long cloth boots. She sat in a position facing the sky-filling heavy snow outside the door.

Behind her, a girl with a thick red tail and crimson hair, wearing an out-of-season white shirt and a thin plaid skirt, knelt to the right of the yellow-haired witch; only the fur shawl on her shoulders could be considered cold-weather clothing. Her body leaned forward toward the campfire, as if she were tending to the fire, but also as if she were observing something through the flames.

The third witch, with long golden hair draped behind her, but who looked like she hadn't washed it in a long time, sat to the left of the yellow-haired witch. Her appearance was the most... slovenly; she also wore a brown robe and a pair of round-framed glasses on her face. She sat on a pile of old books, and beside her was another pile of old books as tall as her body when sitting down, shielding her from the wind and snow blowing in from the door.

Because the wind and snow were constantly sweeping in from outside the huge old library door, one could see unmelted snow marks and wet traces on that pile of old books.

None of the three witches spoke; only the howling wind outside echoed constantly. They didn't look to be in very good condition; their somewhat numb expressions showed that they had probably been staying here for a long time.

Suddenly, the red-haired girl tending the campfire moved her ears, then abruptly turned her head to look outside the door:

"Teacher, there's the sound of footsteps!"

The yellow-haired witch with pointed ears facing the door, as well as the blonde witch sitting in the pile of books, also looked up toward the door. In the world that was nearly pure white, behind the curtain of goose-feather-like snow, a black human figure was walking forward with difficulty, step by step.

"Oh?"

The witch wearing round-rimmed glasses, squinting with the help of those special glasses, was the first to see the figure walking in the snow:

"Why does it look like a man?"

The figure was getting closer and closer; although it looked somewhat comical when he was occasionally tripped by things under the snow, he was undoubtedly walking toward this place.

"Teacher, I didn't sense the approach of a man."

The red-haired girl with a tail said to the yellow-haired witch, who stared blankly at the wind and snow outside the door, then stood up while supporting herself on the ground, the hem of her robe covering those black lace-up cloth boots.

At this moment, the three of them also saw the approaching man, who was raising his arm to cover his face to block the cold snowflakes from continuously hitting his head.

"He is..."

The yellow-haired witch walked around the campfire toward the crooked and deformed doorway.

"Blaney, is this an acquaintance of yours?"

The witch with round-rimmed glasses asked curiously:

"In a godforsaken place like this, you can actually meet an acquaintance? Fiona, when did your teacher get to know a man?"

The red-haired girl shook her head gently, and then the two of them also stood up, following behind the yellow-haired witch with pointed ears to the doorway.

The huge door frame, where the door panel could no longer be found, seemed like a dividing line. None of the three stepped out, but instead watched the man wearing bloated clothing approach step by step.

A look of surprise gradually appeared on the yellow-haired witch's face, and then that expression turned into a gentle smile. And Xia De, who was approaching, also noticed the three ladies standing at the doorway.

Even though the pendant that could detect witches could not be brought to this era, he could still conclude that all three were witches.

"Am I seeing things? Why does that young red-haired girl have a big tail behind her?"

His eyes looked at them from under his arm, his eyes scanning the faces of the three one by one, and then his footsteps paused for a moment. Crossing the sky-filling snow, he met the gaze of the yellow-haired lady of twenty-three or twenty-four standing at the very front.

Both of them were stunned there, and then Xia De quickened his pace to walk forward. Under the surprised gazes of the blonde witch with round-rimmed glasses and the red-haired witch with a tail, he finally arrived outside the door.

The yellow-haired witch reached out her hand, grasped Xia De's somewhat cold right hand that he had extended, and pulled him into the door from outside the defensive and alert ritual they had set up.

It was as if breaking through a layer of water film; although the two spaces were connected, the inside of the door frame was exceptionally dry and warm. Even the crackling sound of the campfire burning made Xia De feel comfortable inside.

He stomped his feet hard to shake off the cold snow stuck to the bottom of his boots, and at the same time patted his hair and shoulders to prevent the melting snowflakes from wetting his clothes.

Only then did he have time to look up and greet:

"Hello, ladies."

Regardless of whether the other party could understand, he greeted the strange red-haired girl with a tail and the blonde lady with round-rimmed glasses. Only then did he look with some nostalgia at the witch with long yellow hair and pointed ears.

Pointed ears were a symbol of elven blood, and the patterns on the robe sewn with fine threads like vines and branches were the unique decorations of elves; these were all things elven knowledge had told Xia De.

And the only witch with elven blood he had known in the past was one:

"Long time no see, Miss Blaney Olanode."

"Long time no see..."

The Moon Witch said the same, she seemed to understand Dralian, and her golden eyes held indescribable emotions.

This lady with one-eighth elven blood looked exactly the same as she had 22 years ago. Her rosy lips parted slightly, and she said the name in a hoarse voice:

"... Xia De Su Lun Hamilton."