Demon Lord (15): He hasn’t been in good shape lately, not because of any physical problems, but because he’s approaching adulthood.

Just as Gu Juntian had taken out the essential oil and was about to give Zhou Qinghao a good massage on his dragon scales, he noticed that Zhou Qinghao was crying.

Zhou Qinghao didn’t make a sound; he just opened his big eyes and silently let the tears flow.

At this moment, Gu Juntian’s heart was wrenched, and he felt an overwhelming sense of heartache.

Previously, when Zhou Qinghao had pulled out his scales, even though it bled, he didn’t shed a tear. But now, he was actually crying!

Was he in extreme discomfort?

Gu Juntian hugged the little black dragon in front of him and asked, “Why are you crying? Are you feeling unwell?”

Zhou Qinghao nodded his large head and wrapped his tail around Gu Juntian.

“It’s okay, it will get better after some time,” Gu Juntian said as he stroked Zhou Qinghao’s head, which had two small bumps.

Zhou Qinghao nodded haphazardly.

Seeing this, Gu Juntian began to massage him while telling him a story.

This time, he told a story about an alchemist.

During the storytelling, he also shared some knowledge about elixirs with Zhou Qinghao, explaining the common types of elixirs in the world and how to distinguish between good and bad ones.

In the cultivation world, when cultivators first begin their training, their elders would tell them these things and guide them to understand the realm of cultivation.

Zhou Qinghao didn’t have such a guide, so Gu Juntian took on the role of his mentor.

Gu Juntian’s voice was very pleasant, and he also massaged Zhou Qinghao’s scales very comfortably.

At first, Zhou Qinghao had thought about driving Gu Juntian away, but at this moment, he no longer wanted to do that.

He wanted Gu Juntian to stay by his side and accompany him.

No one could take Gu Juntian away from him.

As for Gu Juntian not loving him… so what?

Gu Juntian couldn’t resist him!

Zhou Qinghao’s heart suddenly felt clear, and he suppressed the sadness in his heart, looking at Gu Juntian who was massaging him.

This person was his!

Gu Juntian didn’t know Zhou Qinghao’s thoughts. Seeing Zhou Qinghao looking at him again, he took out a spiritual fruit from the storage ring that the original owner had left inside and fed it to Zhou Qinghao.

This type of spiritual fruit was from the cultivation world, and Ao Jin liked to eat it, so the original owner had stored many in his storage ring.

Zhou Qinghao stared at the spiritual fruit for a while before eating it.

Gu Juntian harbored ill intentions towards him and might attempt to harm him; therefore, he shouldn’t eat anything from Gu Juntian’s hands.

But he wanted to eat it.

As a Tribulation Transcendence Stage expert with dragon lineage, ordinary poisons couldn’t harm him, so eating a little wouldn’t matter.

If he didn’t eat it, Gu Juntian might realize something was amiss and perhaps stop pretending.

He wished for Gu Juntian to keep up the act, to pretend to love him deeply.

Even if it was all a lie.

“I need to continue refining pills. Can you play here by yourself for a while?” Gu Juntian took out a few beautiful spirit stones for Zhou Qinghao.

Zhou Qinghao didn’t want to let Gu Juntian leave, but he was also afraid that Gu Juntian would notice something was wrong.

In the end, he accepted the spirit stones and allowed Gu Juntian to return to refining pills.

Gu Juntian stood once again in front of the pill furnace, speeding up the process of pill refinement.

After refining pills once, he realized that he truly had a talent for alchemy.

His spiritual sense was extremely powerful, allowing him to control the heat very well and manage more herbs.

Initially, Gu Juntian thought it would take him at least twenty days to refine all the pills.

But now… it would probably only take him about ten days to refine all the necessary pills.

Gu Juntian placed many herbs into the pill furnace and took a moment to check on Zhou Qinghao outside.

Then he noticed that Zhou Qinghao had started sleeping again.

This was normal, as young dragons before adulthood tend to sleep more.

Gu Juntian increased the speed of his pill refining, while Zhou Qinghao, in his sleep, once again saw Ao Jin from the Dragon Island.

In the past, when dreaming, Zhou Qinghao would immerse himself completely, not paying attention to anything else.

At that time, he was captivated by this dream.

He saw himself as Ao Jin, taking the affection others showed to Ao Jin as his own, stealing warmth that was never meant for him.

But this time, he watched coldly from the sidelines.

Perhaps because he had completely awakened, everything in the dream was incredibly clear to him. He saw on Ao Jin’s table the spiritual fruit that Gu Juntian had fed him earlier.

This spiritual fruit wasn’t poisonous, but it was something Ao Jin liked to eat.

At this moment, Zhou Qinghao felt an impulse to kill Ao Jin and destroy the Dragon Island.

But this was just a dream, and in the dream, he could do nothing.

No, this shouldn’t be just a dream, but rather a kind of connection between twins.

He and Ao Jin were born together, hence he could sense the things happening to Ao Jin.

If he could “see” what was happening to Ao Jin, could Ao Jin also “see” what was happening to him?

Realizing this, Zhou Qinghao suddenly felt a bit nauseous.

At the same time, in the depths of his consciousness, he saw a faint line connecting him and Ao Jin.

Zhou Qinghao used his spiritual sense to grab that line and decisively severed it.

He completely abandoned everything that had once captivated him.

On Dragon Island, Ao Jin, who was resting, suddenly looked up, faintly sensing that something was amiss.

But everything around him was normal, with no strange occurrences.

It must have been his imagination.

Ao Jin picked up a spiritual fruit to eat and began to think about other matters.

His father and the elders on the island still hadn’t found any trace of that black dragon, and he wondered when they would be able to retrieve the black dragon’s inner core for him.

The black dragon was truly powerful, having already become the Demon Lord of the Abyss. Although Dragon Island had five dragons at the Transcendence Stage, there was a vast difference between each stage at this level. These five dragons might not necessarily be a match for the Demon Lord.

If Dragon Island truly had the strength to confront the Demon Lord head-on, they would have already dominated the cultivation world!

Therefore, the only chance they had to extract his inner core was when the black dragon reached adulthood.

There was only one month left until the black dragon’s adulthood; they couldn’t miss this timing!

Ao Jin wanted to inform his parents about the black dragon, but he couldn’t explain the source of his information.

He couldn’t very well say that he had learned it from a dream.

He decided to wait a bit longer; if others still couldn’t find the black dragon, he would then reveal the black dragon’s whereabouts.

Thinking of this, Ao Jin felt a surge of resentment.

That black dragon was a cripple, how could it be stronger than him?

Zhou Qinghao was unaware of Ao Jin’s thoughts.

This time when he woke up, he felt his body was somewhat heavy and tired.

He hadn’t felt like this before, and he wasn’t sure why it was happening now.

Additionally, he had a feeling that he had grown up.

In the past, he was quite naive, always fantasizing about possessing things that were utterly beyond his reach.

Now, he no longer indulged in such fantasies.

He didn’t expect Gu Juntian to love him; he just wanted Gu Juntian to stay by his side.

Transforming into his human form, Zhou Qinghao once again looked at Gu Juntian.

He watched for a long time, until Gu Juntian finished refining another batch of pills.

“Qinghao, are you hungry? Let me grill some meat for you,” Gu Juntian said.

Zhou Qinghao agreed, “Alright.”

Zhou Qinghao’s attitude was somewhat off, but his gaze was focused and passionate, the affection within almost impossible to hide.

Gu Juntian felt as if he was being flirted with by Zhou Qinghao.

If the person before him weren’t still underage, he would definitely rush over to kiss him.

The grilled meat was delicious, and Zhou Qinghao wanted to eat more, and then even more.

He hadn’t eaten anything for many years, and he didn’t know why he was so greedy for food, so eager for it.

Lately, he really hadn’t been feeling quite right.

But his strength hadn’t diminished.

Zhou Qinghao pondered for a moment but then decided not to dwell on the matter.

He turned his head and continued to focus intently on Gu Juntian. As he watched, he unconsciously fell asleep.

This time, after falling asleep, he did not see anything related to Ao Jin’s life but instead saw some fragmented scenes related to the dragon race.

Among them were the ancient battles between dragons and phoenixes from long, long ago, and powerful golden dragons soaring through the nine heavens.

“Qinghao.” Gu Juntian’s voice called out, startling Zhou Qinghao awake.

Gu Juntian harbored hostility towards him and might even attempt to kill him, yet he had fallen so soundly asleep in front of Gu Juntian…

Zhou Qinghao found it somewhat unbelievable.

“Are you hungry? Shall I make you something to eat?” Gu Juntian asked.

Zhou Qinghao hesitated, then nodded.

Gu Juntian smiled and began to grill some meat.

Having decided to keep Gu Juntian confined indefinitely, Zhou Qinghao no longer slowed his pace of eating but instead quickly devoured the food, consuming much more than usual in one go.

Seeing his good appetite, Gu Juntian simply grilled more meat and then took out all the spiritual fruits he had stored in his storage ring, placing them before Zhou Qinghao: “Qinghao, eat when you’re hungry. I’m going to refine some pills.”

Gu Juntian went back to his tasks, and Zhou Qinghao looked at the spiritual fruits in front of him with a less than pleased expression.

All these spiritual fruits were ones that Ao Jin liked to eat.

Gu Juntian’s storage ring was filled with spiritual fruits that Ao Jin enjoyed.

He transformed into his original form and in one go swallowed all the spiritual fruits, then also swallowed the grilled meat that Gu Juntian had left behind.

After eating, he curled up and once again felt drowsy.

He really wasn’t feeling quite right.

The thought flashed through Zhou Qinghao’s mind, and then he unconsciously fell asleep again.

Gu Juntian, however, understood Zhou Qinghao’s condition quite well.

Zhou Qinghao’s current state of eating and sleeping a lot was all about storing up energy for his upcoming adulthood.

In the blink of an eye, ten days had passed.

Gu Juntian had already refined enough spirit-replenishing pills for his use.

There was no need to refine more pills; a cultivator’s capacity was limited, and in a short period, he could only consume so many spirit medicines.

Besides the spirit medicines, Gu Juntian had also refined some pills that could stimulate a person’s potential. After taking those pills, his potential would be pushed to the limit.

After storing all the pills in his storage ring and noticing that Zhou Qinghao was still asleep, Gu Juntian began refining other types of pills.

For example, pills that could replenish energy for demonic cultivators.

Dragons, by nature, were also considered demonic cultivators.

It’s just that ordinary demonic cultivators were not as inherently powerful as dragons, so their cultivation was much more difficult.

In any case, what demonic cultivators liked, dragons would certainly enjoy as well.

Gu Juntian focused on refining snacks intended to coax Zhou Qinghao, while in his dreams, Zhou Qinghao saw more and more images related to dragons.

These images connected together, allowing him to understand the history of the dragon race and begin to grasp the situation of the dragons.

At first, he didn’t understand what was happening, but as time went on, Zhou Qinghao realized that these were the inherited memories of the dragon race.

Many powerful races leave inherited memories for their offspring.

Some races have offspring that receive inherited memories as soon as they are born, while others have offspring that only receive these memories upon reaching adulthood.

Dragons have long lifespans and enjoy sleeping, typically reaching adulthood at one thousand years old. Depending on their strength, young dragons could receive different inherited memories upon adulthood.

He had not officially reached adulthood yet, but due to his immense strength, part of the inherited memories had already opened up to him.

Zhou Qinghao originally didn’t know much about the dragon race.

Gu Juntian had told him about dragons, but not much.

Only now did he understand what dragon adulthood entailed, and he realized that his recent poor condition wasn’t due to a physical problem but because he was about to reach adulthood.

And the reason he had always been unable to engage in activities typical of a partner was because he hadn’t yet reached adulthood.

Once he reached adulthood, he could engage in intimate relations with Gu Juntian.

If he had known this earlier, Zhou Qinghao would have been very happy, but now…

He was very clear about what happens when dragons reach adulthood, and this knowledge sank his heart to the depths.

When dragons reach adulthood, they become particularly weak and need to shed their skin.

If he hadn’t shed his skin, even if Gu Juntian used all his strength against him, he couldn’t cut through his skin or extract his inner core.

But if Gu Juntian were to attack him during his adulthood, when he was extremely weak, he would likely be at Gu Juntian’s mercy.

Zhou Qinghao opened his eyes and saw the dense array of formations outside, a chill seeping from the marrow of his bones.

Under normal circumstances, he could withstand those formations, but during his skin-shedding phase, he definitely could not.