The spiritual energy contained in a few low-grade spirit stones would once have been nothing more than a drop in the ocean to Mr. Dragon. But to the current Mr. Dragon, it was something extremely precious.
Threads of spiritual energy slowly entered his body from the spirit stones, like strands of spring rain falling upon dry land. Mr. Dragon gathered his divine consciousness. Unlike in the dream before, he carefully absorbed the spiritual energy, using his powerful seventh-rank consciousness to manipulate those few faint wisps of spiritual energy. He absorbed only enough spiritual power to connect two pieces of his shattered core, then stopped.
They were very poor now.
They had to save.
And so Mu Wanwan watched with her own eyes as the spirit stones placed beside Mr. Dragon’s ear shattered very quickly at first, then shattered more and more slowly, until finally, three pieces were left.
The spirit stones had shattered. Did that mean Mr. Dragon had actually absorbed quite a bit of spiritual energy? Did that mean this method worked?
Feeling a little happier inside, Mu Wanwan looked at the three remaining low-grade spirit stones and secretly guessed whether Mr. Dragon’s current body was already so weak that he could only absorb a few low-grade spirit stones. She rubbed her slightly sore eyes. After thinking for a moment, she still did not put away those three spirit stones.
If Mr. Dragon’s tail had really rotted again because of insufficient spiritual power, then no matter what, she could not take the spirit stones away now.
Mu Wanwan calmed down a little and checked Mr. Dragon’s tail. It was no longer continuing to bleed. Perhaps it really was because of the spirit stones.
“Mr. Dragon, I’m sorry.”
Mu Wanwan’s voice was a little choked. She originally wanted to reach out and touch his broken horn, but in the end, her hand stopped in mid-air.
This time, it was all her fault. If she had not cut off Mr. Dragon’s spirit stones, perhaps his tail would not have rotted again.
She apologised softly, but to Mr. Dragon’s ears, it felt especially unpleasant.
He knew.
She had only wanted to bring more money with her and go to the market to see whether there were any other ways out. She had also been thinking for them, thinking for this family.
Family…
Mr. Dragon’s ears grew hot again and again. In his heart, he silently repeated that magical word several times.
If this cold Tyrant’s Residence, if this place that had once only been a temporary resting residence for him, had her in it, perhaps it could be called a home.
A home he had never once possessed.
Mu Wanwan did not expect that simply apologising out of guilt would let Mr. Dragon’s imagination leap all the way to “home.” She did not waste time. She only flicked away the ashes of the low-grade spirit stones that had shattered into powder by Mr. Dragon’s pillow, changed the position of the remaining three, then picked up the quilt covered in scales and filthy blood.
It was still early, and today’s weather was also fairly good. She needed to quickly deal with Mr. Dragon’s tail, then wash the quilt and mattress. That way, they could dry sooner.
While planning what she needed to do next, Mu Wanwan filled a large basin with water. Because she needed to wash the quilt, she brought out the biggest basin in the room. She placed the quilt in the water to soak, added a lot of soap plant, then ran all the way to the kitchen, boiled a lot of hot water, and sterilised the knives she had used before. Only then did she take the ointment and return to the room.
Mu Wanwan set the basin down, took two handkerchiefs, and wrapped her hands. Looking at Mr. Dragon with his eyes closed, she said softly, “Mr. Dragon, I’ll help you treat this. It might hurt a little.”
Although she swore to the heavens that this sentence completely and entirely meant only that she was going to help Mr. Dragon treat his wound and had no other meaning, to Mr. Dragon’s ears, it sounded like a signal that she was about to do something to him.
He felt somewhat nervous, and his fingertips trembled a little. After he closed his eyes and waited for what felt like several long seconds, Mu Wanwan finally moved.
Her body warmth passed through the thin handkerchiefs and reached his tail clearly. He could distinctly feel her carefully avoiding his wound. Her soft palms used half their strength to hold his long tail and place it onto the somewhat cold jade bed.
Aside from certain places and his reverse scale, the tail in half-dragon form was not especially sensitive. Mr. Dragon felt all right. It did not hurt.
Did she want to clean the mattress he had dirtied?
Thinking this, Mr. Dragon felt himself calm slightly.
But very quickly, he could no longer stay calm.
Because—
Mu Wanwan actually threw aside the handkerchiefs wrapped around her hands, rolled up her sleeves, and held his waist!
From the instant her warm skin touched his chest and abdomen, Mr. Dragon felt something rush from that patch of skin, conquering territory all the way up, directly charging into his head and exploding into crackling electric currents in his mind.
It stunned him completely.
How could she hold his waist?
Aside from fighting, no one had ever dared touch his waist.
If not for the black-red curse lines on his face, Mu Wanwan would probably have been able to tell at a glance that Mr. Dragon’s face had turned completely red. But even with those lines, after Mu Wanwan had completely moved Mr. Dragon away from the dirty bedding, she still clearly saw that his ears and neck had turned pink.
Mu Wanwan: “?”
Was he very hot?
She did not think too much about it. She reached out and placed her hand on Mr. Dragon’s forehead. Immediately, she felt a temperature completely different from the rest of his body. It was a little hot.
That made sense. Because he lacked spiritual energy and his tail had rotted again, he had probably developed a fever. Injured people usually did get fevers. Thinking this, Mu Wanwan’s eyes reddened again.
“It’s all my fault. I made you get a fever.”
She spoke softly, her voice full of frustration. Slowly letting out a breath, she threw the mattress onto the floor.
Mr. Dragon had not yet recovered from the fact that she had actually held his waist when he felt her palm slide along his scales, which had become somewhat slippery from rotten fluid and filth, all the way down to his rotting wound.
The shy irritation in his heart slowly turned into a helpless throbbing that left the dragon at a loss.
Her actions reminded him again and again—
She had never despised him.
She truly had never despised him.
The knife cut across the rotting scales, flesh, and skin. No matter how gentle and careful Mu Wanwan’s movements were, the pain did not lessen in the slightest. But to Mr. Dragon, this pain was not even as bad as when he had fought a demonic dog over a stale cake in his childhood and been bitten.
He had also never had his wounds treated this carefully before. The powerful self-healing ability of the dragon race had made him hate his birth, yet also unable to stop feeling proud of his talent. Being treated like a treasure in this way was the newest and strangest experience of his dragon life.
He even wished that this kind of pain could last a little longer.
Mu Wanwan carefully cleaned Mr. Dragon’s tail, then took a clean handkerchief and wiped away all the filth on the scales near the wound. She applied medicine for him, looking at his half-rotten tail, which was almost bad enough to reveal bone, and felt another pang of heartache.
She knew nothing at all about why Mr. Dragon had fought with those leaders.
Mu Wanwan shook her head and stopped thinking about it. Leaving aside the fact that she was only a first-rank cultivator with no ability to interfere in disputes between great figures standing at the peak of the continent, just looking at her current identity, she was merely a bride sent in to bring good luck. In the Mu family, she was an abandoned pawn. In the eyes of certain people with ulterior motives, such as Ao Qin, she was probably only a tool. Perhaps only with the temporarily weak and ill Mr. Dragon did she still have a little value. She probably had no right to meddle in Mr. Dragon’s past affairs.
Thinking this way was actually a little sad. Mu Wanwan secretly felt that she really had too much inner drama. She stopped letting her thoughts wander, tidied the messy room, covered half of her own quilt over Mr. Dragon, then carried the dirty mattress out of the room.
The room quieted down. Mr. Dragon also slowly emerged from those indescribable feelings. His divine consciousness could clearly sense the spirit stones by his pillow, and his heart, which had been gloomy for years, finally became a little brighter.
Listening to the splashing sounds of Mu Wanwan washing clothes in the courtyard, his consciousness gradually sank.
Before Mu Wanwan had appeared in his life, it would probably have taken him three full years to completely “wake up.” But now, he felt that at most, he might be able to break the curse within a year.
…
By the time Mu Wanwan finally managed, with great effort, to wash clean the stained parts of the quilt and mattress, the sky was almost dark. She felt as though her old waist and old legs could barely hold on anymore.
Strictly speaking, this body was much stronger than her previous one, and it had more strength too. After all, the original owner had at least been a first-rank cultivator. No matter what, she was stronger than Mu Wanwan had been as an ordinary mortal before.
But even cultivators could not withstand being worked like this!
These past few days had truly exhausted her. Originally, Mu Wanwan had wanted to eat meat tonight, but after seeing Mr. Dragon’s tail in the afternoon, it had really affected her appetite. Not to mention that even now, she still felt the smell in the room had not fully dispersed.
And so, tonight’s luxurious feast gloriously turned into plain white rice congee…
Because she was worried the meat would spoil, Mu Wanwan simply rubbed some salt on it. But perhaps because of the after-effects of Mr. Dragon’s tail, when she looked at this fine piece of spirit pork now, she subconsciously began comparing the differences between this meat and dragon meat.
Compared with healthy dragon meat, the colour seemed a little darker, and the texture did not look as firm. But compared with unhealthy dragon meat, its colour seemed fresher and more tender. It probably tasted… decent?
By the time Mu Wanwan finished marinating the meat and cooking the congee, she felt as if she were floating when she walked. She really must have gone mad to keep comparing spirit pork and dragon meat. *(:з」∠)*
After eating a light dinner and feeding Mr. Dragon a small bowl of spiritual rice congee and half a Hundred Treasures Fruit, Mu Wanwan boiled some more water. She went to the side hall and took a bath. After thinking for a moment, she still carried half a small bucket of hot water back to the room.
She thought about how, when she had cleaned Mr. Dragon’s tail in the afternoon, his other scales had also been withered yellow. She did not know whether they were dirty or something else, so she might as well get some water and wipe them.
Mu Wanwan lifted the quilt, and Mr. Dragon’s twisted posture, with his tail bent, appeared before her eyes. Mu Wanwan laughed somewhat unkindly. She had not paid attention in the afternoon and had probably not arranged his tail properly.
“Mr. Dragon, I’ll wipe you down.”
As usual, Mu Wanwan spoke softly. She soaked the handkerchief in hot water, avoided his wound, and wiped his scales bit by bit.
But even after wiping all the way to his beautiful, firm waist, aside from the scales near his waist and abdomen being somewhat thicker and slightly softer than the other places, Mu Wanwan did not find anything extraordinary.
At this moment, Mu Wanwan suddenly felt extremely safe. So, in this state, Mr. Dragon was actually very safe. There was no need to worry about any morning—beep—in his vegetative dragon state, because Mr. Dragon actually did not have one.
Mu Wanwan glanced at Mr. Dragon’s strange yet handsome face, his long, curved, crow-black eyelashes, his clearly defined Adam’s apple, and then glanced at his lean waist. With a slightly red face, she sighed.
Such a handsome dragon, yet in half-dragon form, he actually did not have—beep.
What a pity.
Mu Wanwan forcefully dragged her gaze away from Mr. Dragon’s attractive abdominal muscles and secretly spat on herself for being tempted by beauty. She sped up and finished washing him, then carried the water out.
At this moment, Mr. Dragon was still fighting the curse amid the pain in his meridians. He had no idea at all that a certain ability of his half-dragon form had already been doubted by his wife. If he had been awake, he would definitely have felt extremely wronged.
After all, unless it was time to use it, dragons would not casually expose such things! And strictly speaking, Mu Wanwan had actually already touched it. Yet she still said he did not have one. This was truly very unfair!
Mu Wanwan poured out the water, tidied the room again, counted the things she had bought today, and rubbed her aching neck, preparing to sleep. But when she prepared to climb onto the bed just as she had over the past two days, she finally discovered the problem.
Mr. Dragon had dirtied both the quilt and mattress today. She had washed them, but they were not dry yet.
Right now, they only had one quilt and one mattress.
This was really deadly.
Did she have to sleep together with Mr. Dragon?
Mu Wanwan was a little dazed. Looking at Mr. Dragon, whose half-bare shoulder was buried in the bright red wedding quilt, she suddenly felt it was hard to breathe.
Before she transmigrated, she had still been a clean and innocent young woman. Now, not only had she gained a disabled dragon husband, previously she had been forced to sleep on the same bed as him, but at least they had two separate quilts. Now, did they have to sleep in the same quilt?
And Mr. Dragon was also a clean and innocent dragon! Although he was currently vegetative, that did not change the fact that he was a dragon of the opposite sex. Although right now, he could not and would not express any opinion.
Mu Wanwan felt that her head hurt so much. She looked at the pitch-black sky outside and deeply regretted why she could not open a heavenly eye and buy an extra quilt while she was outside today.
It was already a little late, and the power of late autumn was gradually revealing itself. Even inside the room, it felt a little cold.
Mu Wanwan stood on the slippery floor and sighed deeply.
Resigned to fate, she walked to the wardrobe and rummaged through it, but she actually could not find any thick clothing.
Her gaze touched the stool and table where the original owner had slept leaning over before the bed had been cleaned. Mu Wanwan’s eye twitched.
Could it be that as long as the quilt did not dry, she would have to keep sleeping hunched over like that?
Wasn’t that too miserable?
…
…
While Mu Wanwan was struggling over whether or not to sleep under the same quilt as Mr. Dragon, in the elven market, inside the shop where she had bought seeds during the day:
The lion beastman, Uncle Zong, closed the shop’s front door and turned back into the store.
For cultivators above the third rank like them, owning a long-term rented shop in the market also meant they had the right to continue living inside the shop after the market closed at six every evening. But ordinary elven clans people without cultivation, like Lan’er and Feng, were not qualified to remain inside the elven market.
Lifting the cloth curtain that separated the counter from the inner room, Uncle Zong walked inside.
Mu Wanwan had guessed correctly. They did indeed live here, and behind the cloth curtain, there was indeed a small bed. At this moment, a pretty, delicate-looking woman was sitting half-upright on it.
Her face was clean, and she did not seem to be a beastman. There was also a trace of exhaustion between her brows and eyes. She did not look very young anymore.
“Cough…”
The woman coughed softly, and Uncle Zong immediately became nervous. Such a large man stood by her bed with his muscles tense, completely at a loss. He wanted to reach out and support her, yet looked so cautious.
“Brother Lei.”
The woman’s face was pale as she smiled at him.
“Done with work?”
She wanted to do her best to seem a little happier, but deep exhaustion still lingered in her eyes.
Uncle Zong could no longer hold back. He walked to her side and held her hand with his large hand.
“Yun’er, I’ll carry you to the bed to sleep.”
“Mm.”
The woman called Yun’er obediently leaned into his arms. The two left the small room set up inside the shop, opened the hidden door at the back, and entered the courtyard.
“Brother Lei, how are Lan’er and the others doing with their rent?” Yun’er asked. “I was a little too sleepy this afternoon and fell asleep.”
“Haha.”
Uncle Zong held his lover, whose weight had grown increasingly light, suppressing the sourness in his eyes, and laughed heartily.
“That little girl who came this afternoon—I thought she was another liar, but she actually turned out to be a good one.”
“You don’t need to worry about Lan’er and the others’ rent. That little girl actually secretly stuffed a low-grade spirit stone into Lan’er’s hood. She wasn’t even afraid that such a small elf like Lan’er might lose the stone. Clearly, when she was at my place this afternoon, she acted so stingy.”
“That’s good…”
As Yun’er spoke, it seemed to use up all her strength.
“Y-yes.”
Uncle Zong tightened his arm around her.
“Don’t worry about them. They’re fine. That boy Feng is very clever. After discovering it, he even came to my place and exchanged the spirit stone for silver and copper coins. He said they couldn’t let those elves discover they had a spirit stone. It nearly made me laugh to death, haha.”
Although Uncle Zong was laughing, the beast markings on his forehead grew brighter and brighter. He rambled on and on, saying many things, until he confirmed that the person in his arms had fallen asleep once more. Only then did he slowly stop.
He gently placed her on the bed, looking at Yun’er’s gradually paling face, his heart aching.
They had known each other since they were very young. Yun’er had once been one of the most talented beastman warriors in the tribe. In order to bear children for him, she had lost more than half her talent. But even so, after all these years, they still had no children.
He actually felt it did not matter. If they had no children, then they had no children. Having each other was enough. But Yun’er had wanted a child very much. In the end, she was deceived by a detestable member of the witch race and drank a prescription secretly containing a curse. Her remaining talent was drained dry, leaving only a frail body behind. Now, she could not even transform into her beast form and could only rely on spiritual medicine to keep going.
But even though he had given everything, the time she spent awake was growing shorter and shorter.
“Yun’er.”
Zong Lei softly called her name and slowly calmed his emotions.
**Author’s note:**
Many years later:
Mu Wanwan finally, through blood and tears, witnessed the correct way to open a certain thing in half-dragon form…
Mr. Dragon, proudly: “How could I not have it? How could I be incapable!”
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