Demon Lord (5): Isn’t it normal that the little dragon can’t bear to part with his treasures?

He wanted to pat the Demon Lord’s head.

But that wouldn’t be appropriate—it would make their relationship seem too intimate.

Gu Juntian suppressed the thought and turned his attention to admiring the Demon Palace before him.

The Demon Palace was, of course, enormous, but it was also somewhat dilapidated.

Not only were the formation in tatters, but some of the buildings were also in poor condition, hardly befitting a Demon Palace!

They had to be repaired—not just the formation, but the buildings as well!

It wouldn’t do to have Zhou Qinghao handle all the repairs alone.

The innermost formation and the most critical formation should be handled by Zhou Qinghao personally, but the less important formation and the outer structures of the Demon Palace could be left to others to repair.

His little dragon was about to reach adulthood, and this period would be very uncomfortable for him—he shouldn’t be overworked.

His little dragon also needed to eat a lot of nutritious food… It would be too much to ask Zhou Qinghao to hunt for it himself, so that task could also be delegated to others.

A young dragon on the verge of adulthood should rest more. All he needed to do was wait and eat.

After only a short while of contemplation, Gu Juntian made up his mind to help recruit and organize a force for the Demon Palace, ensuring that the Demon Lord would have a group of loyal subordinates.

To recruit followers and have others work for you, you definitely need money.

The items in his storage ring certainly wouldn’t be enough, and he wasn’t sure if Zhou Qinghao had any money either.

Gu Juntian turned to look at Zhou Qinghao.

Seeing Gu Juntian’s gaze, Zhou Qinghao added, “Gu Juntian, my house isn’t just this big! The underground part is huge too, and there are lots of treasures down there.”

As he spoke, Zhou Qinghao deliberately lowered his voice, but the pride on his face was unmistakable, much like a child showing off their toys to a friend.

Gu Juntian’s heart stirred, and he asked, “Can I take a look?”

Zhou Qinghao didn’t hesitate at all: “Of course!”

To Zhou Qinghao, the underground part of the Demon Palace was his true “den.”

Although he had kept Gu Juntian confined in his private chambers for a while, he didn’t actually live there himself, so their interactions had been minimal.

Back then, he hadn’t been willing to take Gu Juntian to his underground palace.

What if Gu Juntian stole the treasures he had hidden there and ran away?

But after last night, Gu Juntian’s behavior had been excellent, so now he was willing to show him his treasures.

With this thought, Zhou Qinghao lowered his voice again and added, “I have so many treasures!”

When mentioning his treasures, Zhou Qinghao’s eyes lit up, making him look particularly endearing.

Gu Juntian said, “You’re amazing.”

Zhou Qinghao, pleased by the praise, was overjoyed. He strode ahead and added, “If you like anything, you can pick some out. I’ll give them to you!”

Gu Juntian replied, “Alright, thank you very much.”

Zhou Qinghao led Gu Juntian back to the private chambers and then took a passageway underground.

Gu Juntian sensed that the formation here was relatively intact and hadn’t been damaged, but due to insufficient energy, its protective power had weakened.

The entire Demon Palace was, in fact, a massive magical artifact. Zhou Qinghao had already claimed ownership of it, so he wouldn’t be attacked when entering the underground palace.

And since Gu Juntian was brought down by Zhou Qinghao, he also wasn’t attacked.

The underground part of the Demon Palace was indeed vast, with many rooms lined up one after another.

Zhou Qinghao walked with the imposing aura of a dragon and tiger, demonic energy swirling around him, making others dare not approach.

But when he stopped in front of a door and turned to look at Gu Juntian, the excitement and pride on his face were unmistakable.

Zhou Qinghao suddenly pushed open the door and said to Gu Juntian, “Look, these are all my treasures!”

Gu Juntian looked up and saw the room filled with magical artifacts and various rare natural treasures.

Rare ores, spirit stones, demon stones, the skull of some demonic creature, wood that takes a thousand years to grow and possesses special properties… The items in this room were all extremely precious and valuable.

Although Gu Juntian’s true form, the phoenix, possessed many treasures, the current body he inhabited had very few valuables, worth less than one percent of the items in this room.

“I have more!” Zhou Qinghao said, then opened the door to another room.

That room was also filled with treasures.

Zhou Qinghao had a simple personality and clearly wasn’t skilled at managing things, and the Demon Palace was in shambles… At first, Gu Juntian had thought Zhou Qinghao was poor.

But now, seeing all these treasures, he realized he had been mistaken.

Zhou Qinghao, who had inherited the wealth left by the previous Demon Lord Chi Lian, was undoubtedly the richest person in the Demon Abyss.

No wonder so many people wanted to kill him and take his place.

Who wouldn’t want to sit on a mountain of wealth?

“Those people from yesterday were so poor,” Zhou Qinghao said as he took out a few storage rings from his body and casually tossed them into the pile of treasures. Then he turned to Gu Juntian and said, “Gu Juntian, is there anything you want? Feel free to pick!”

Once something was in his possession, Zhou Qinghao was reluctant to give it away.

But Gu Juntian wasn’t an outsider—he was his partner.

Giving something to Gu Juntian was almost like keeping it for himself, so he was willing to part with it!

Gu Juntian said, “Qinghao, the outer parts of the Demon Palace are a bit old, and the formation is running low on energy. Let’s replenish the energy for the formation first and then repair the Demon Palace.”

Zhou Qinghao agreed without hesitation: “Alright.”

Gu Juntian continued, “Then I’ll take some demon stones to repair the formation.”

With that, Gu Juntian began picking up the top-grade demon stones that Zhou Qinghao had piled up in the room.

In the cultivation world, there were spirit stones, while in the Demon Abyss, there were demon stones.

Demon stones were black, glossy, and not only beautiful but also brimming with energy.

Zhou Qinghao loved them dearly.

He remembered when he was very young, he had accidentally found a small piece of low-grade demon stone and treasured it immensely, sleeping with it every day.

But later, someone stole his demon stone and even beat him up.

After that, he was heartbroken for a long, long time.

Later, he dreamed of sleeping on a pile of spirit stones, which made him feel a little better.

He thought that maybe, in the future, he could also sleep on a pile of demon stones.

He had achieved it—now, he often slept on a pile of demon stones.

These top-grade demon stones were his bed!

And Gu Juntian was dismantling his bed!

Zhou Qinghao’s heart ached, but his little partner only wanted a few demon stones…

He watched with wide eyes, his heart aching as Gu Juntian continuously stuffed demon stones into his storage ring.

Finally, Gu Juntian stopped collecting the demon stones.

Zhou Qinghao breathed a sigh of relief, only to see Gu Juntian walk outside and start filling the grooves in the wall with these demon stones.

Zhou Qinghao had never studied formation and didn’t understand them well, but he knew that once the demon stones were placed into these grooves, their demonic energy would be absorbed by the formation.

Then, these top-grade demon stones would turn into ordinary rocks.

“These formations aren’t useful. There’s no need to put demon stones in them,” Zhou Qinghao quickly protested.

His little partner was too wasteful!

“They are useful. These formations can protect your Demon Palace,” Gu Juntian replied.

The destruction of the Demon Palace’s formation had a lot to do with Zhou Qinghao himself.

He hadn’t completely neglected the formation, but he had only been putting low-grade or broken demon stones into them.

These demon stones were far from enough to sustain the operation of the entire grand array.

“I can protect my Demon Palace myself. I don’t need the formation,” Zhou Qinghao said.

Gu Juntian asked, “What if you’re not here?”

Zhou Qinghao replied, “I’ll definitely be here. I won’t leave.”

Gu Juntian sighed helplessly.

Zhou Qinghao had been the Demon Lord for two hundred years, and in those two centuries, he had never left the Demon Palace.

Could it be that he stayed like this just to protect the treasures in his palace?

“The formation in your Demon Palace is too weak. Even a Nascent Soul cultivator like me can easily come in and leave without trouble…” Gu Juntian tried to persuade Zhou Qinghao.

“That won’t do!” Zhou Qinghao suddenly exclaimed, then started filling the grooves with top-grade demon stones himself.

Gu Juntian could easily come and go from his palace?

That was unacceptable, absolutely unacceptable!

He wanted to keep Gu Juntian confined in his Demon Palace, not allowing him to leave.

Gu Juntian didn’t know what had suddenly changed Zhou Qinghao’s mind, but it was a good thing.

He helped Zhou Qinghao fill all the grooves in the formation with the required demon stones, then began selecting the magical artifacts that Zhou Qinghao didn’t need: “With these artifacts, there will definitely be people willing to help us repair the Demon Palace.”

Seeing this, Zhou Qinghao gasped.

These were magical artifacts, artifacts!

In the past, he didn’t have any artifacts, so he always suffered in fights.

Once, a demonic cultivator who originally couldn’t beat him used an artifact to break all the bones in his body!

There were even people who captured him, wanting to refine him into an artifact.

Zhou Qinghao’s love for magical artifacts was no less than his love for demon stones.

“You’re going to give these artifacts to others?” Zhou Qinghao asked.

Gu Juntian replied, “Yes, we’ll give the artifacts to others, and in return, they’ll help us repair the Demon Palace.”

“Don’t give them to others. I’ll do the repairs!” Zhou Qinghao said.

The loss of those demon stones had already pained him deeply. If he had to give away many artifacts as well…

No, absolutely not!

Gu Juntian said, “There’s too much to repair. You can’t do it all by yourself.”

“I can! And if I can’t finish today, I’ll do it tomorrow. If I can’t finish this year, I’ll do it next year,” Zhou Qinghao insisted.

Spending every day repairing the palace with Gu Juntian sounded great. Even if it took hundreds of years, he wouldn’t get bored.

By now, Gu Juntian had realized that Zhou Qinghao was reluctant to part with those demon stones and artifacts.

He felt a bit helpless.

Zhou Qinghao had an enormous amount of artifacts and demon stones. How could he still be so stingy?

But on second thought, he was still just a young dragon.

Wasn’t it normal for a young dragon to be reluctant to part with his treasures?

As Gu Juntian was thinking this, he saw Zhou Qinghao suddenly transform into a black snake and coil himself around the pile of artifacts: “These artifacts aren’t for others. At most, I’ll give you a few!”

Gu Juntian didn’t know whether to feel exasperated or pleased.

Zhou Qinghao was unwilling to give his treasures to others, but he was willing to give them to him!

“These artifacts are low-grade. You wouldn’t even use them,” Gu Juntian said.

Zhou Qinghao said, “Even if I can’t use them, I still like them.”

In his dreams, he had many artifacts that he couldn’t even use.

Besides, when he was young, he didn’t have any artifacts at all. Back then, he had wanted many, many artifacts—more than he could ever use.

Zhou Qinghao looked pitiful as he guarded his artifacts. After some thought, Gu Juntian could only say, “Then how about this? We won’t give them artifacts, but we’ll give them cultivation techniques. There should be many cultivation techniques in this Demon Palace. Let’s find them and use them.”

Zhou Qinghao actually also liked those cultivation techniques.

But compared to demon stones and artifacts, giving away cultivation techniques was a bit more acceptable to him.

Zhou Qinghao said, “Alright.”

Gu Juntian couldn’t help but reach out and pat the big snake’s head: “So well-behaved.”

Zhou Qinghao suddenly felt less heartbroken about losing his demon stones and cultivation techniques. He even added, “If you obediently sleep with me, I can give you more artifacts.”

Gu Juntian: “……” If he didn’t know that the dragon before him was still a young dragon and incapable of doing anything, he would definitely have misunderstood and thought Zhou Qinghao wanted to do something to him.

In the end, Gu Juntian said, “I’ll sleep with you like I did last night.”

There were only two months left until Zhou Qinghao’s adulthood, and he had already entered the discomfort phase before coming of age.

During this period, juvenile dragons would feel restless and irritable, and might even exhibit violent behavior, requiring someone to soothe them.

Although Zhou Qinghao hadn’t shown any signs of this, Gu Juntian still planned to indulge him and provide comfort.

Under Zhou Qinghao’s guidance, Gu Juntian found many demonic cultivation techniques among his treasures.

At the same time, under Zhou Qinghao’s pained gaze, he also stuffed some demon stones and artifacts into his storage ring.

Cultivation techniques were valuable and useful, but he couldn’t just hand out a technique every time he needed someone to help with hunting.

Living in the Demon Abyss required demon stones as a form of currency.

After packing the items, Gu Juntian turned to Zhou Qinghao: “Let’s go out for a walk and buy something to eat.”

Zhou Qinghao said, “Eat? I don’t need to eat.” Back when he had to eat, some people had mocked him, saying he would eat anything and calling him a lowly demon.

Now that he no longer needed to eat, no one mocked him anymore.

Gu Juntian said, “Even if you don’t need to eat, you can still have some energy-rich meat. It’s good for your body.”

With Zhou Qinghao’s strength, of course, he wouldn’t die from not eating.

But before reaching adulthood, it was best for dragons to eat more to replenish their energy. This way, their transition to adulthood would be more comfortable.

He wanted to fatten up his little snake!

“Alright,” Zhou Qinghao agreed.

Actually, eating wasn’t so bad. He wanted to fatten up his little partner.

His little partner didn’t have enough meat on him and wasn’t soft enough. If he could gain a bit of weight, coiling around him would definitely be more comfortable.