Demon Lord (8): Could it be that this little dragon is secretly taking advantage of him?

Gu Juntian anxiously examined Zhou Qinghao’s tail.

The physical and scale strength of a young dragon was far inferior to that of an adult dragon. Zhou Qinghao was currently in his maturation period, and the scales about to shed were even more fragile than usual.

As for the jade bed? The jade bed in the Demon Lord’s chamber was made of top-tier material, extremely hard.

Now that a corner of the bed had been chipped off, was Zhou Qinghao in pain? Had his tail been injured?

Gu Juntian held Zhou Qinghao’s tail and inspected it closely. He then noticed that several scales near the tail had become deformed.

From a distance, it wasn’t noticeable, but up close, it was quite obvious.

Reaching out to touch the scales, Gu Juntian asked, “Was this from just now? Does it hurt?”

Zhou Qinghao had been very angry earlier, but once Gu Juntian held his tail, his anger subsided.

Following Gu Juntian’s gaze, he saw the deformed scales on his tail.

Without hesitation, he said, “It doesn’t hurt!”

This injury wasn’t from just now; it was from a battle he had fought in the past.

As for the recent thumping, he didn’t feel any pain at all. In fact, it felt quite satisfying.

Lately, his body had been itching, and he had wanted to transform into his true form to roll around and smash things.

“How could it not hurt when the scales are deformed?” Gu Juntian gently touched the scales again.

Ao Jin would feel pain from even the slightest bump or scratch. Once, during a battle, Ao Jin was accidentally hit, leaving a scratch on his scales, and he cried for a long time, claiming he had never suffered such a severe injury.

And that was just a scratch! As for Zhou Qinghao, how hard had he hit just now to actually damage his scales?

Seeing Gu Juntian tenderly caressing his scales, Zhou Qinghao grew increasingly self-conscious about the two damaged scales.

In truth, his body was covered with damaged and scratched scales, but because his scales were dark and lacked luster, it was hard to notice unless you looked closely.

Twisting his body to instinctively hide the other damaged scales, Zhou Qinghao suddenly stretched out his head, pushed Gu Juntian away, and then bit down on the damaged scales on his tail, pulling them off.

If they didn’t look good, he’d just remove them. In time, new ones would grow back!

Zhou Qinghao bit down on his scales, feeling pleased for a moment, but then he noticed that his tail looked even worse without the scales. At the same time, he met Gu Juntian’s furious and disbelieving gaze.

“You actually pulled out your own scales!” Scales, these were scales!

From what he knew, dragons would writhe in agony if their scales were torn off!

His phoenix true form had often fought against dragons, and every time he ripped off a dragon’s scales, the dragon would howl in pain.

How could Zhou Qinghao act as if nothing had happened while pulling out two of his own scales?

“These two scales were ugly,” Zhou Qinghao said, spitting the scales onto the jade bed.

“They weren’t ugly at all!” Gu Juntian picked up the two scales and then looked at the bleeding wound on Zhou Qinghao’s tail.

The wound looked so painful that it made his own heart ache!

Gu Juntian didn’t say anything more. He took out the best healing medicine from his storage ring and applied it to Zhou Qinghao’s tail: “You must never hurt yourself like this again, understand? Scales are important, and you need to protect them.”

After saying this, Gu Juntian sighed and added, “I don’t want to see you injured.”

Zhou Qinghao stared at Gu Juntian in a daze.

Was Gu Juntian feeling sorry for him?

In all his years of living, no one had ever shown him such concern. But today, Gu Juntian was worried about him.

Zhou Qinghao suddenly recalled the dreams he had been having.

In those dreams, whenever he got the slightest scratch or bump, a crowd of people would rush to care for him.

He had seen Gu Juntian in his dreams. Once, when he was injured in a dream and his scales were scratched, Gu Juntian had been extremely worried, bustling around to take care of him.

At the time, he had thought the version of himself in the dream was overly delicate, but he had also enjoyed Gu Juntian’s care.

When he first saw Gu Juntian, Gu Juntian had wanted to kill him, but recalling the scenes from his dreams, Zhou Qinghao couldn’t bring himself to be angry.

He wanted Gu Juntian to take care of him.

And now, Gu Juntian was doing just that.

In the past, Zhou Qinghao had often pulled out his own scales.

At first, it had been excruciatingly painful, but over time, he had grown accustomed to the pain.

Pulling out his own scales had become nothing to him.

Today, when he pulled out his scales, he hadn’t even felt much pain.

But now, someone was worried about him.

Zhou Qinghao suddenly remembered the first time he had pulled out his scales. Back then, he had been curled up alone in a small muddy hole, writhing in pain, but no one had paid him any attention.

If only someone had been there to apply medicine to him like Gu Juntian was doing now.

Zhou Qinghao suddenly said, “Actually, it did hurt.”

Gu Juntian looked at Zhou Qinghao.

Zhou Qinghao buried his snake head in Gu Juntian’s arms and said, “My tail hurts.”

“So next time, you can’t do something so foolish again, understand?” Gu Juntian gently stroked Zhou Qinghao’s head.

Zhou Qinghao let out a soft “hmm,” enjoying the comforting touch from Gu Juntian.

In the past, he had never shown weakness to anyone, but now, he suddenly felt that being vulnerable wasn’t so bad.

When he said he was in pain, Gu Juntian would take care of him and even stopped bringing up the matter of not being his partner.

Zhou Qinghao pushed his luck further: “If you take off your clothes, I’ll coil around you, and it won’t hurt as much.”

He had already taken off his clothes yesterday, and now that the little dragon was injured… Gu Juntian obediently removed his clothes.

Zhou Qinghao coiled around the shirtless Gu Juntian, feeling utterly content.

The spot where his scales were missing had already been treated with medicine, and the wound felt cool. Although there was still a bit of pain, it wasn’t uncomfortable at all.

Zhou Qinghao wagged his tail happily.

But after just a couple of wags, Gu Juntian grabbed his tail and held it in his arms: “Stop moving around. Be careful not to irritate the wound.”

“You’re so fussy,” Zhou Qinghao said, but he snuggled even closer to Gu Juntian.

His little partner was so wonderful, the best in the world!

The version of him in his dreams was truly foolish. How could he not like his little partner and instead favor someone else? The person he liked in his dreams couldn’t even compare to one-tenth of his little partner.

Gu Juntian activated his cultivation technique to generate heat and took out a Water Condensation Pearl he had found earlier in the Demon Palace’s underground chamber. He channeled spiritual energy into it, causing it to continuously release mist.

Dragons loved warm and humid environments.

The dry and cold Demon Abyss was truly unsuitable for Zhou Qinghao. In the future, he would have to convince Zhou Qinghao to move to an island in the cultivation world.

The two of them were entwined, intimate and inseparable, and the humid environment made Zhou Qinghao feel extremely comfortable.

He half-closed his eyes and looked at Gu Juntian, only to see that Gu Juntian was examining the scales he had pulled off earlier.

Zhou Qinghao was eager to make Gu Juntian happy, to please him.

His snake head nuzzled against Gu Juntian’s chest, taking advantage of Gu Juntian’s lack of guard to press close and even rub against him. Then he said, “Do you like my scales? I have so many of them, and I’ll give them all to you! But you can’t give my scales to anyone else.”

Hearing Zhou Qinghao’s words, Gu Juntian gasped: “You have a lot of scales?”

Zhou Qinghao replied, “Yes, but some are damaged and not very pretty.” After saying this, he used his spiritual sense to take out all the scales stored in his spatial ring.

Countless black scales, large and small, appeared in the room, covering the floor of the chamber around the jade bed.

Zhou Qinghao spoke with a hint of pride: “I have a total of ten thousand and nine scales!”

Having lived for a thousand years and fought countless battles, he often lost scales.

Over time, he had accumulated this many.

Gu Juntian felt as if his heart was being crushed.

Young dragons didn’t shed their scales; their scales grew with them as they matured.

Ao Jin, despite having lived so long, had only lost scales once—during the battle with the demonic cultivators when his dragon core shattered. Other than that, he had never lost a single scale.

But Zhou Qinghao? Ten thousand scales. He had lost over ten thousand scales!

No wonder he could pluck out his own scales without batting an eye.

For a moment, Gu Juntian wasn’t sure whether to feel angry or heartbroken. After a long pause, he hugged Zhou Qinghao’s head and said, “I’ll make sure to protect you from now on.”

Zhou Qinghao snorted inwardly.

His little partner was just a Nascent Soul stage cultivator. How could he possibly protect him? It was up to Zhou Qinghao to work harder to protect his little partner.

Thinking this, Zhou Qinghao nuzzled against Gu Juntian’s chest again.

Suddenly, Gu Juntian realized that two specific areas on his chest were being deliberately rubbed.

Was this little dragon secretly taking advantage of him?

Also, what was all that talk about being “partners” earlier? That matter still hadn’t been cleared up!

Gu Juntian wanted to lecture the little dragon, but seeing the scattered scales around them, he fell silent.

Forget it. What was the point of arguing with a young dragon who clearly had no understanding of what having a partner even meant? This little dragon probably didn’t understand anything.

Zhou Qinghao, of course, had no idea that Gu Juntian thought he understood nothing.

In reality, he knew a lot. In the demon realm, all sorts of chaotic things happened.

He knew exactly what partners did together.

Those people didn’t just get close with their partners—they got close with others too… He had to keep a close eye on his little partner to make sure no one led him astray.

Thinking this, Zhou Qinghao sighed inwardly.

If only he were capable, he would have already “devoured” Gu Juntian.

Zhou Qinghao nuzzled and rubbed against Gu Juntian for a long time before slowly drifting off to sleep.

Even though he had pulled out his own scales, he still slept soundly and comfortably.

And he still had dreams.

In his dream, he was lying on a sickbed, surrounded by a group of people caring for him and tending to his needs.

In the past, when Zhou Qinghao dreamed, he could see the faces of the people in his dreams and sense their emotions, but he couldn’t quite make out what they were saying.

It was as if that world was separated from him by a layer.

He had never thought it was strange—dreams were supposed to be unclear, after all.

But this time, Zhou Qinghao felt that his dream was a bit clearer, and he could hear what the people in the dream were saying to him: “Jin’er, don’t worry. We’ll definitely repair your dragon core and ensure you mature successfully.”

The version of him in the dream hadn’t even reached adulthood yet?

The version of him in the dream was a dragon?

Dragons were so powerful. It was a pity that he was just a little black snake, a little black snake who didn’t even know who his parents were.