"Master! Are you stupid or what!"
The little girl widened her eyes, looking at her master in disbelief.
"Do you really think Qing Jun ate you! You dumb master! In a dream, even if Qing Jun ate you, you’d still be hungry when you wake up, right? Just like when Qing Jun eats chicken drumsticks in a dream! It’s all fake! It’s just the self in the dream that doesn’t know it’s fake."
To be fair, what this little girl said was quite reasonable.
So it turned out this little girl wasn’t the idiot at all; he, the master, was the idiot?
For a moment, the master was left speechless.
Qing Jun’s voice suddenly grew much smaller; she buried her little face against her master’s chest and said softly:
"It’s just... once Qing Jun saw Master, I didn’t want to die anymore. Otherwise, if this old Daoist lost his little dumpling to cuddle, he’d definitely be so lonely."
Hearing these soft, sticky words from the little disciple in his arms,
Chen Ye’s heart softened. He recalled that little bundle from back then, curled up in a corner, filthy all over yet with stubborn eyes; he thought of these past few years, every little bit of the two of them, one big and one small, relying on each other.
"So you still have a bit of conscience, girl..."
Chen Ye sighed, reached out, and gently rubbed Qing Jun’s little head that was topped with a mess of silver hair.
"As long as you know. Master really can’t be without Qing Jun..."
"Eh-hehe... Qing Jun just knew it! Master is exactly that old Daoist! Hmph, if Master ever makes Qing Jun unhappy in the future, Qing Jun will disappear and let Master never see Qing Jun again for the rest of his life!"
The little girl instantly became smug.
Brat!
Chen Ye flicked her forehead and said with a smile, "Alright, alright, I’ll admit you’re awesome, okay? Just remember, from now on you’re not allowed to talk about dying or disappearing and all that, it’s bad luck."
"Hehe..."
Qing Jun nuzzled against her master’s chest, like a satisfied little cat.
Chen Ye took the chance to send out a wisp of Divine Sense, following the meridians along Qing Jun’s wrist to examine her current physical condition.
With this probe, Chen Ye’s brows rose slightly.
"Foundation Establishment First Layer?"
He was a bit surprised.
Chen Ye had originally thought that once Qing Jun woke up, her Cultivation would be far beyond Foundation Establishment First Layer.
She’d slept for a full four months, even shed a whole layer of her own dragon scales, and yet after waking up she’d only just stepped into Foundation Establishment?
Her master had actually been looking forward to his disciple’s Cultivation skyrocketing.
"No, that’s not right..."
Chen Ye quickly rejected his own thought.
He carefully sensed the surging, river-like blood energy within Qing Jun, as well as that Spiritual Power which, though only at the First-Layer, had been condensed to the utmost limit.
"It’s not that her progress is slow. Qing Jun’s foundation is simply too deep, especially her fleshly body. Compared to Human Race Cultivators, most of the Spiritual Power she cultivates has been absorbed by her body..."
"This girl’s current physical toughness is probably about the same as an ordinary Foundation Establishment Middle Period Body Cultivator. Of course, that said, her combat strength is still far from that of a Foundation Establishment Middle Period Body Cultivator. After all, in the Cultivation Realm, relying on the body alone is far from enough."
True enough.
Even in the Cultivation Realm, energy was conserved.
Qing Jun’s scales could be called Second Tier Top Grade Spiritual Materials, but such high quality naturally did not appear out of thin air.
It was because, during Qing Jun’s cultivation, most of her Spiritual Power was absorbed by her fleshly body.
In fact,
to some extent, this was not an advantage of Qing Jun or the True Dragon Race, but rather a disadvantage.
This meant that Qing Jun’s cultivation would be dragged down by her fleshly body.
No matter how strong the body, it was ultimately not as important as Cultivation.
Just like in the current Cultivation Realm, the status of Body Cultivators was far beneath that of Magic Cultivators.
In the endless ages of the past, True Dragons had once been the overlords of heaven and earth.
But now, they had already lost their former dominance, even to the point of being extinct.
Chen Ye silently assessed his disciple’s condition.
The little girl in his arms suddenly sniffled.
That was the keen sense of smell belonging to the Dragon Race.
As if she’d smelled something,
Qing Jun abruptly lowered her head and stared fixedly at Chen Ye’s waist.
Hanging there was Chen Ye’s Storage Bag.
And inside the Storage Bag were some leftover corner pieces of Second Tier Upper Grade Spirit Ores from Chen Ye’s Puppet refining.
For a newly awakened young dragon who urgently needed a large amount of Spiritual Power to replenish her bodily losses, the Spiritual Aura they emitted was simply the supreme delicacy!
A hundred times more tempting than any chicken drumstick!
"Master..."
Qing Jun swallowed a mouthful of saliva, her little hand clutching tightly at Chen Ye’s robe, her eyes going blank with desire.
"You smell... so good..."
"Smell good?"
Chen Ye’s heart skipped a beat. Seeing the unhidden greed in his disciple’s eyes, a sense of foreboding surged up inside him.
Before he could react.
The little disciple in his arms had already opened her small mouth, revealing a row of tiny, jade-white teeth that glinted with a cold light, and lunged to bite down on the Storage Bag at Chen Ye’s waist!
"Awoo!"
If that bite really landed, never mind the Storage Bag, even the flesh on Chen Ye’s waist would be missing a chunk!
"Damn!"
Chen Ye was scared out of his wits. He hurriedly reached out to press down on her forehead, lifted her whole person out of his arms, and dangled her in midair.
"Let go! Let go! You little brat, and you still say you don’t want to eat your master!"
But this girl was starving mad; her four limbs flailed wildly in the air as she bared her fangs and claws:
"Gimme food! I wanna eat the crunchy stones in the Storage Bag! Master, you stingy miser! They smell so good!"
"How is this being stingy?! Those are Second Tier Spiritual Materials! How can you eat that?"
Chen Ye was sweating all over. He never expected this fellow would actually want to eat Spiritual Materials!
Is this the downside of a True Dragon?
Not only does she cultivate slowly, she burns money too!
If she eats them, that’s several thousand Spirit Stones gone!
But this little dragon was already on the verge of rampaging, completely beyond reason:
"Master! What’s more important, Qing Jun or Spirit Stones!"
The little dragon glared at her master, utterly furious.
Looking at the self-righteous little white-eyed wolf in his hand, Chen Ye only felt a tightness in his chest.
She actually asked a question that could get him killed!
"Of course you’re more important..." Chen Ye could only answer like that. "But that stuff is really hard. What if you chip a tooth?"
"I’m not scared! I just wanna eat!"
Qing Jun refused to listen to reason. She flapped her little short legs in midair, looking utterly aggrieved,
"Wuu wuu wuu... Master doesn’t love Qing Jun anymore, he won’t even give me a few lousy rocks to eat... Qing Jun is gonna starve to death... Qing Jun slept for so long and Master still hasn’t fed Qing Jun!"
Master:
"..."
"Damn brat..."
In the end,
there was no need to say more.
Those pricey leftover Spiritual Materials scraps all ended up in his disciple’s belly.
...
"Master is the best! Qing Jun just knew it, Master dotes on Qing Jun the most!"
The little girl’s big eyes curved into crescent moons as she grinned; she’d practically eaten all the treasures in her master’s Storage Bag clean.
Not only the leftover Second Tier Spiritual Materials—even the other Spirit Plants and such were eaten by her down to the last piece.
By Chen Ye’s rough estimate, she’d eaten at least ten thousand Spirit Stones’ worth!
The family fortune he had left after refining his Puppet was almost completely wiped out by her!
"Sigh..."
Chen Ye let out a long, gloomy sigh.
But when he thought of the scales that had fallen off Qing Jun’s little tail, Chen Ye could barely accept it. After all, those scales were Second Tier Top Grade Spiritual Materials that you couldn’t even buy with money, worth far more than ten thousand Spirit Stones.
He glared at the little girl. "That one meal ate up all your master’s savings. If you keep eating like this, the two of us will be left drinking cold wind out in the northwest."
"Wuu... Qing Jun likes Master the most!"
Qing Jun planted a loud smacking kiss on her master’s cheek, then cupped his face in her little hands and tugged and pulled,
"Could Master really bear to let Qing Jun go hungry? Being hungry makes Qing Jun feel really, really bad..."
This little brat...
Chen Ye truly had no way to deal with her. He shot her a glare, annoyed:
"Fine. From now on your master will have to work hard to earn Spirit Stones to fill your belly."
And that was indeed the case.
Back when Qing Jun was still in Qi Cultivation, she didn’t cost Chen Ye much in resources. But now it was different; after she reached Foundation Establishment, the resources she needed far outstripped his other two disciples’!
Rumor had it that in ancient times, the True Dragon Race loved hoarding massive amounts of heaven-and-earth treasures in their Dragon Palace. Now it seemed those dragons were probably just like Qing Jun, needing huge amounts of resources to cultivate.
Tsk... Eating so many treasures, no wonder a True Dragon’s entire body is a treasure.
Chen Ye glanced at the little girl’s slender, fair arms and almost wanted to take a bite to try.
Qing Jun suddenly felt a chill all over. She laughed awkwardly:
"No, no, that won’t happen! Master doesn’t need to support Qing Jun; Qing Jun will earn money to support Master! Once Qing Jun leaves seclusion, I’ll go rob... ahem, I’ll go look for lots and lots of treasures for Master!"
"Rob?" Chen Ye raised an eyebrow. "You were about to say rob, weren’t you?"
"No, no! Master misheard!"
Qing Jun hurriedly shook her head like a rattle drum, then gave a sweet smile,
"Qing Jun is such a good girl, how could I possibly go rob people! Isn’t that right, Master!"
Her master remained skeptical.
The worst creature under the heavens was the little girl in front of him!
Her heart was black to the core!
If it weren’t for her master ruthlessly suppressing this girl, the entire Cultivation Realm would be turned upside down by her in the future!