Mu Wanwan had no idea how she got through that night. Because she was worried Mr. Dragon would vomit blood again, she did not sleep at all. Fortunately, she had now become a second-rank cultivator, so even after staying awake all night, she was still energetic the next day.
It was just that the spiritual energy in her body was being used up rather quickly.
The sky outside gradually brightened. Mr. Dragon’s complexion also seemed a little better than before, and he had gone four or five hours in a row without vomiting blood again. Mu Wanwan scraped together the last bit of spiritual energy in her body, cultivated the final Blue Star Grass seedling into a fruit, and fed it to Mr. Dragon.
As of now, all their Hundred Treasures Fruits and Blue Star Grass seedlings had been used up. The only things left were less than half a stalk of ginseng, the two packets of seeds on her, plus a few silver and copper coins.
One could even say they had reached the end of the road.
Mu Wanwan panicked inside. She was worried that Mr. Dragon would vomit blood again before she had finished cultivating the next batch of spiritual fruits. If that happened, she would truly have nothing to rely on except that ginseng root, which was already almost gone.
Mu Wanwan forced herself to calm down. She grabbed a handful of Mr. Dragon’s furry ears to soothe her emotions, then sat cross-legged beside the bed, closed her eyes, and tried to absorb some spiritual energy from heaven and earth.
On this continent shaped like a cat’s paw, there were many races, and each race cultivated in very different ways.
For example, the witch clan possessed witch power from birth. They could manipulate puppet insects, refine blood servants and zombies, and were skilled in sinister methods. The demon clan was a gathering of great demons, aside from the dragon clan, who had cultivated into human form. As for the Special Lifeform Alliance, it consisted entirely of special lifeforms on the continent who possessed unique innate abilities.
These three races occupied three of the small “cat paw pads,” and together with Mr. Dragon’s territory, they shared the same ranking system. Only human cultivators were an exception.
As the most numerous race on the continent, the human race had very strong reproductive and creative abilities. Unfortunately, most of them were weak. Humans with spiritual roots were also very rare; there might not even be one among ten thousand. So although humans had the largest population, they still had not managed to occupy the largest territory.
Most human cultivators living in the dragon clan’s territory would choose to leave after reaching second-rank strength, heading to the human cultivation world to seek cultivation methods more suitable for themselves.
In the human cultivation world, there was another system for dividing strength. Mu Wanwan’s previous first-rank strength was called the Qi Refining stage in the cultivation world. Second rank was Foundation Establishment, third rank was Golden Core, fourth rank was Spirit Transformation, fifth rank was Nascent Soul, sixth rank was Void Breaking, seventh rank was Great Ascension, and after that, one would directly ascend.
Although the original body’s father was a fourth-rank expert, the cultivation method used by the Mu family was still extremely crude. Mu Wanwan and Bai Shuiyao had learned a low-grade mental cultivation technique. Mu Wanwan had a wood-type spiritual root, while Bai Shuiyao had a water-type one.
In some places, the spiritual energy between heaven and earth was very abundant; in others, it was very thin.
For example, the place where Mu Wanwan and Mr. Dragon currently lived had originally been the place with the richest spiritual energy in the entire dragon manor. But after Mr. Dragon lost, Ao Qin directly altered the formation in the manor. The spiritual energy in their small courtyard therefore became increasingly thin. As a result, cultivating was not even as fast as recovering through sleep.
But after waking up this time, Mu Wanwan felt that her sensitivity to the spiritual energy between heaven and earth was much better than before. She tried cultivating for more than half an hour, and the spiritual energy in her body recovered by about one-tenth, enough to cultivate one Blue Star Grass seedling to maturity.
Mu Wanwan opened her eyes, took a Blue Star Grass seed, cultivated one fruit in a single breath, and only then let out a slight sigh of relief.
If she slept, she could previously recover all her spiritual energy. But back then, she had only been first rank, and all her spiritual energy combined was less than one-third of what she had now. A single sleep usually lasted seven hours.
If she did not sleep during those seven hours and cultivated continuously instead, she could recover about seven-tenths of her spiritual energy. Calculated this way, cultivating was more worthwhile than sleeping.
Mu Wanwan carefully put away the Blue Star Grass fruit, which was clearly much plumper than what she had cultivated when she was first rank. She glanced at Mr. Dragon again, then quickly washed the dirty clothes and quilt.
After washing the quilt, Mu Wanwan reheated the steamed egg and spirit rice porridge that had originally been prepared for Mr. Dragon the previous night and ate them herself. After recovering some strength, she continued cultivating spiritual plants while also watching Mr. Dragon’s condition.
By the time Mr. Dragon had completely stopped vomiting blood and could finally eat a little spirit rice porridge, Mu Wanwan had already gone four days straight without sleeping.
“Mr. Dragon, I’m so tired.” Mu Wanwan carried the last bit of spirit rice porridge into the room and could not help complaining to the other living dragon in the room.
These past few days, the temperature had dropped by a few degrees. The weather had gone from sunny to overcast, and it looked like it was going to rain again.
The already deserted courtyard seemed even colder and quieter.
She felt as if she were living a life cut off from the world, trapped in a cycle of cultivating spiritual plants, cultivating herself, and feeding the dragon. She was almost unable to bear it.
Mu Wanwan sat beside him, fed him the last bit of spirit rice porridge, then asked, “Mr. Dragon, can I touch your ears?”
“If you don’t say anything, I’ll take it as you agreeing.” Mu Wanwan said these words that bullied a vegetable dragon with her eyes wide open, then eagerly pressed both hands onto Mr. Dragon’s two white ears.
Ah~ The texture was soft, and the fur was fine and smooth. Although the area was not large, it was truly healing!
She felt that the exhaustion of the past few days seemed to have been swept away by those fluffy ears.
After touching them for a while and satisfying her craving, Mu Wanwan reluctantly let go. Resigned, she sighed and continued digging soil and cultivating spiritual plants.
Last time, she had brought back many first-rank Hundred Treasures Fruit and Blue Star Grass seeds from Uncle Zong. During this period, she had gradually cultivated some of them. After subtracting the ones she had fed Mr. Dragon, she could now harvest twenty-eight Hundred Treasures Fruits and forty Blue Star Grass fruits. There were also seventeen Hundred Treasures Fruit and Blue Star Grass seedlings combined.
Hundred Treasures Fruit was the kind of fruit Ao Qin had previously sent over. First-rank ones were slightly smaller than second-rank ones, but larger than Blue Star Grass fruits. Cultivating one Hundred Treasures Fruit required a little more spiritual energy than cultivating Blue Star Grass, and the Hundred Treasures Fruits she cultivated were also a deeper colour.
Before, when Mu Wanwan ate the peel of the Hundred Treasures Fruit, she thought the taste was alright. It was grainy, and every time she squeezed the juice out to feed Mr. Dragon, it smelled quite fragrant. She just had not expected that the juicy flesh inside would taste so hard to describe. It was a little like an orange-flavoured rotten apple, the kind that had rotted into liquid. *(:з」∠)*
So after eating it once, Mu Wanwan never ate it again. She even felt a little sympathetic toward Mr. Dragon.
Since arriving here, among the three plants she had cultivated, Burning Grass did not count as a spiritual plant for now. As for Hundred Treasures Fruit and Blue Star Grass fruit, one only had tasty skin, while the other tasted very bitter.
They were not as delicious as the fruits grown by ordinary people.
After finishing her chores and cultivating some more seedlings, Mu Wanwan saw that it was about time. Worried that it would rain at night, she first brought the clothes inside, then went to the side hall’s study to check the date—
Today was the fifth day after she woke up. She had fallen unconscious on the third day after returning. Counting the days before and after, about eight days had passed.
The main issue was that she did not know how long she had been unconscious. If she had been unconscious for a long time in the middle, then it was actually already time for her to go out again.
Moreover, the next monthly allowance was also approaching.
She had gone out not long after Fuliu gave her the monthly allowance. Now she had already gone out twice. After going out this time, in another ten days or so, their monthly allowance should arrive.
Mu Wanwan calculated the household assets in her heart. After thinking about it, she decided to pack all the plants she had cultivated into the Spatial pouch first and try going out tomorrow morning.
The main reason was that the spirit rice at home had run out, so she had to replenish it.
After all, raising a dragon was expensive. If she did not give Mr. Dragon spirit rice, she always felt guilty. Moreover, spirit rice had very few impurities. After eating it, most of it would turn into energy and be absorbed by the body, which was better for cultivators.
Although she had not slept these past few days, she now had some fruits in hand that could be sold for money.
The price of Hundred Treasures Fruit was a little higher than Blue Star Grass. Three Hundred Treasures Fruits could be exchanged for one low-grade spirit stone. Calculated this way, if everything went smoothly tomorrow, she could exchange for twenty low-grade spirit stones. It was still a bit too little.
Mu Wanwan frowned, wondering whether Uncle Zong would accept seedlings that had not yet matured.
Actually, she knew that her current speed was already not slow. The main issue was that the fruits she had cultivated these days still had to be fed to Mr. Dragon, and she had also wasted several days earlier. Fortunately, she had advanced and become a second-rank cultivator. Otherwise, she probably would not even have twenty low-grade spirit stones.
Mu Wanwan sighed. She packed up everything she intended to sell. After thinking about it, she also packed the seedlings. Then she lit the lamp and began making embroidered pouches.
These past few days, whenever she truly could not cultivate anymore, she would take the scraps of cloth and needle and thread she had bought from the market and make pouches.
Her needlework was passable. Back when she was in the orphanage, she had also needed to mend things. In university, she had joined a handicraft club too and knew a little simple embroidery. But it really was only a little, so the pouches she made only had simple patterns on them.
These past few days, she had made three. One was embroidered with a little bird, another with a flower, and then there was the one in her hand. On it…
She had embroidered a pair of dragon horns.
To be precise, a pair of broken horns.
And beside the broken horns, there was also a pair of furry ears.
Although she could not embroider the furry effect.
Mu Wanwan did not know why she had embroidered this kind of pouch that clearly could not be sold. But while facing Mr. Dragon, she had naturally begun embroidering broken horns. As she embroidered, it was almost finished.
It should be finished tonight.
Mu Wanwan held the needle and thread, moved a stool, and sat by the bed. Beside her was warm lamplight. Before her eyes was the nearly finished handkerchief and Mr. Dragon, who lay quietly with his eyes closed. Her heart and mind were peaceful.
She lowered her head and focused on her needlework. She did not notice that Mr. Dragon, who had been lying quietly all this time, had unnatural tremors in his crow-black eyelashes. His ears also twitched.
The side effects of losing half a drop of heart’s blood were greater than he had imagined. These past few days, he had remained in a painful unconscious state and had only just regained some awareness.
His meridians still hurt. His core had not healed either. It was even slightly dimmer than before. But the curse seemed to have lightened a little. Mr. Dragon silently examined his own condition, then felt his dry and comfortable tail. A trace of sweetness rose in his heart, as though confirming that things were indeed as he expected—
Originally, according to his estimate and the demons’ curse, after he fell unconscious this time, if there had been no spiritual energy supplement, his tail would definitely have rotted.
But now it had not rotted. That was already enough to explain things.
Enduring the waves of pain that kept rising, Mr. Dragon quietly extended a strand of divine consciousness—
He wanted to see her.
**Author’s note:**
Mr. Dragon, accusingly: “I finally woke up with great difficulty, yet I didn’t even get to see Madam’s face! QAQ!”
Leave a Reply