The moment he opened his eyes and saw that pair of beast pupils, Su Duan almost dropped his leaves from fright!

——If he had any right now, that is.

Anyone would find it hard to stay calm after being startled awake in the middle of the night and seeing such huge and eerie beast eyes.

With eyes this big, one can imagine how enormous the body of this unknown creature must be.

Especially for Su Duan who, over the past several thousand years, had been chased by demon beasts more than once, he already had significant psychological trauma towards massive demon beasts. So the fear he felt was much more profound compared to ordinary people.

His face turned pale in an instant, but he was too terrified to make any sound. Su Duan's mind went blank for who knows how long before he managed to regain a bit of awareness.

If he was still in his original form right now, he definitely would have used his little leaves to hug his head and bury himself into the ground, hiding as deep as he could. But now he was in a human body, and inside a not-so-big room to boot, there was simply nowhere to hide.

This creature that suddenly appeared didn't seem to be in a hurry to eat him. After discovering that Su Duan was awake, it made no attacking moves and just stared at him unblinkingly with its awe-inspiring huge eyes.

Su Duan clutched his little blanket tightly and quietly asked the system in his heart: "Sy-System, wh-what is this thing——"

The system replied in a flash: "Please wait a moment, host. There may be some issues with the system's database, some world information is missing. Cross-checking data source backup now."

Su Duan was so scared he wanted to hiccup: "O-Okay, please hurry."

While waiting for the system to update its data, Su Duan nervously engaged in a staring contest with the huge creature in front of him. In the middle, that creature blinked once, its icy blue beast eyes closing then opening again, frightening Su Duan into wrapping his blanket even tighter around himself.

Half a minute later, the system said: "Data update successful, the system has corrected the world information. Host, don't panic, the one in front of you is not a real animal, but a type of virtual spirit body constructed from spiritual power. Furthermore, it bears no ill will towards you and shouldn't attack you."

Spirit body?

Su Duan was completely baffled by this new term that suddenly popped up.

But in any case, since this fellow had no malicious intent towards him, Su Duan heaved a deep sigh of relief.

Afraid of disturbing the big guy in front of him, he had been holding his breath, not daring to breathe at a normal frequency. He felt dizzy in the head and was almost suffocating from lack of oxygen.

Su Duan opened his mouth and lightly panted a couple times.

As a result, those two huge beast eyes suddenly swayed and drew closer by a large margin. Then, something cold and hard vaguely touched his cheek, carrying a breath of slightly warm airflow that blew on Su Duan's chin and neck, making him feel a bit itchy.

This big fellow was sniffing him——

"......" Realizing this, Su Duan immediately shrank back in the opposite direction until his back hit the hard wall behind him and he had nowhere else to retreat to. His heart was still pounding.

If it sniffed him and found him tasty, would it open its mouth and bite him next?

His head wasn't even as big as its eyeballs. Wouldn't he be gone in one bite?!

Su Duan forcefully suppressed the urge to faint and cautiously asked the system: "Didn't you say it was a virtual, um, spirit body? How come I can still feel its breath then."

The system explained: "You see, spiritual power is a derivative that only appears after the spirit evolves to a certain stage. It's the owner's projection in the high-dimensional spiritual world. Normally it lives in high-dimensional space and only reveals its form in this space-time when the owner's spiritual power fluctuation frequency is high.

"Their entire bodies are condensed from the owner's spiritual power, so their strength is also tied to the intensity of the owner's spiritual power. Most of these spirit bodies have not evolved to the degree of letting people touch their physical forms. Only a small number whose owners have especially powerful spiritual power can materialize."

Quickly digesting the system's meaning as much as possible, Su Duan blinked, and a vague guess suddenly surfaced in his mind.

The color of this spirit body's eyes in front of him seemed to be the same as Audrose's?

The system confirmed his guess: "The one in front of you is indeed the spirit body of your current healing target Audrose, a huge black western dragon."

Su Duan blinked: "Mm, thanks, got it."

The system said: "Very sorry, because the bug from last time wasn't fully fixed, that's why a portion of the world information was missing. QAQ"

Su Duan expressed his understanding: "No worries, you're the, mm, first generation system after all. Having bugs is quite normal."

The system said: "Thank you host. Next time when connecting with the main computer, the system will definitely remember to do a full body checkup!"

Su Duan: "Mm mm, you can do it."

Su Duan's body relaxed a bit as he changed to a more spine-friendly posture and continued his staring contest with the big fellow in front of him.

Hearing Audrose's name, he was no longer that afraid. Even when the huge spirit body pressed closer to him again, he didn't have the tension and fear from earlier.

With the fear subsiding, only then did Su Duan notice that while eerie, this pair of beast eyes was also very beautiful. The deep blue pupils seemed to be quenched with ice and snow, with the radiance of dark and light blue interweaving like the floating ice layers above the ocean, refracting different shades as the angle changed, faint light flowing within.

The pupils in the center were pure black without a hint of impurity, narrowed into thin vertical slits that stared fixedly at his position without blinking.

The room was dark, and the spirit body's massive form after materializing blocked the moonlight leaking in from the cracks of the door, so besides those two faintly glowing beast eyes that were like light bulbs, he couldn't see anything else.

Thus, when that icy cold thing touched his cheek again, Su Duan curiously reached out his hand and felt it.

This should be its snout. The area under his hand was very cool and hard. So this was what dragon scales felt like?

Su Duan gently moved his soft palm over it, sketching out this big fellow's shape in his mind.

He could feel some faint sensations like joints, which should be the edges of the scales. Following the scales downward, there were very obvious gaps.

This should be the mouth, Su Duan thought.

Before he could even touch his chin, the spirit beast's head suddenly moved and started nuzzling against his cheek.

Pushed to the side by the nudging, Su Duan felt the cool sensation move down from his head, wandering and rubbing around his chin and neck. It seemed to be getting excited, its nuzzling becoming more and more urgent, the breath from its mouth and nose growing hotter with its movements, making Su Duan's head feel dizzy from the heat.

He used both hands to hug the dragon's snout, but he was too weak to stop it from rubbing and pushing all over his body.

Moreover, he was now curled up in the corner of the wall with little room to avoid it, making it even more difficult to stop.

The system said that spirit beasts are a reflection of their masters, and the scent on this dragon was indeed exactly the same as the one he had smelled on Audrose. Enveloped by the familiar scent, Su Duan also grew hotter and hotter. Finally, when it rubbed against the tip of his ear, a shudder ran through him as a small dizziness exploded in his heart, and he felt like he had bloomed.

Su Duan: "..." It seems he really did bloom.

With the size difference between him and Audrose's spirit beast, if it pollinated him, he would definitely die.

With that thought, Su Duan managed to find a shred of clarity and used all his strength to give the spirit beast's scaly mouth a hard push.

The spirit beast was finally pushed to the side by him and stopped there, looking at Su Duan.

In the darkness, the icy blue beast eyes took on an obvious look of desire.

Su Duan felt a bit inexplicably aggrieved. When he had washed himself clean in the bedroom today, Audrose didn't mention pollinating him. Now that he was asleep, he sent his spirit beast that had no way to pollinate him to make him bloom.

The system asked, "Do you need to purchase a 'spinach with an iron content 1000 times higher'? Although to be honest, even if you use it, you still won't be able to beat the spirit beast of your healing target, but at least there's a chance to escape."

Su Duan: "..."

The spirit beast just stared straight at him for half a minute, then suddenly lowered its head and squeezed its cold snout through the gap in the blanket.

"Mmm..."

......

Five minutes later, the system repeated in a small voice, "Do you still need the 'spinach with an iron content 1000 times higher'?"

Su Duan said in an even smaller voice, the end of his words seeming to tremble, "N-no need for now..."

The system said, "Rest assured, host. The system's privacy protection program is still functioning normally! Everything that just happened is all mosaicked in the system's eyes! The system didn't see anything!"

"...Of course! Didn't hear anything either!"

Su Duan said in a mosquito-like hum, "I know."

He clutched the edge of the blanket, eyes closed, not looking at the spirit beast resting its head on the edge of the bed.

The spirit beast used its big head to rub his ankle through the soft blanket, and Su Duan mercilessly stepped on its nose with his foot.

Angry, it stole his pollen and didn't give him any back.

Su Duan stewed in anger for a while by himself. When he opened his eyes again, the spirit beast had disappeared without a trace, not knowing when it had left, as quietly as when it came. In front of Su Duan's eyes, there was only the open bedroom door left.

The somewhat dim moonlight cast a hazy glow at the doorway.

Su Duan stretched his head and looked around his room. After confirming that the big guy had left, for some reason, he became even angrier than before.

He crawled out of bed, locked the door, then angrily washed the sheets before going back to sleep in a huff.

......

Early the next morning, Audrose woke up in a slightly dazed state.

Holding his head, he slowly pieced together the somewhat fragmented dream from last night.

In the dream, it also seemed to be a late night with faint moonlight. His spirit beast dragged its tail into a place that looked like... a vegetable garden? Then it dug out a strange black plant with two green little leaves from some corner and started wagging its tail, rubbing against that plant. Finally, it opened its mouth and bit the little leaves, leaving a wet patch of saliva on them.

Then that little black plant jumped up and accurately headbutted his spirit beast on the nose. In the end, it angrily burrowed into the soil and could no longer be found.

Audrose suddenly felt a slight soreness in his nose, not knowing if it was his imagination. He rubbed it with his hand, frowning.

What was all that about?

Let's not even talk about why he would go to such a bizarre place like a vegetable garden... Just that strange plant, he was certain that among the existing plant species in the empire, there were none that looked like that.

If he had to say, the shape of that plant was a bit similar to one called a "potato", but it was much blacker than a potato.

Could it be that he subconsciously wanted to eat potatoes? Is that why he suddenly had such a strange dream?

No, he had no interest in potatoes. In fact, he didn't have much interest in vegetables. The empire's standard nutrient solutions could completely satisfy his dietary needs.

Although the taste of vegetables was indeed fresher, rather than wasting time eating those delicately cooked meals, he would rather simply consume some nutrient solutions and devote his energy to important matters.

Although the war on the frontier had come to a temporary halt and he was currently on leave without needing to deal with the military's daily affairs, it was still essential to conduct as much spiritual power training and mecha combat practice as possible.

In any case, Audrose confirmed that he had no particular fixation on potatoes. He couldn't understand at all why his spirit beast, a reflection of himself, would drool over a little black potato.

Moreover, there was a very strange point in the entire dream. How could a plant get angry?

It could even move, quite fiercely, jumping up and headbutting his nose.

......

Dreams are a reflection of the regular activity patterns of the cerebral cortex. As one of the mutated evolutionary humans with spiritual power, the dreams Audrose had always held special meanings. But this time, he really couldn't analyze what the dream was supposed to symbolize.

His spirit beast had indeed become agitated yesterday and wanted to come out, but that should have been because his little slave had someone else's scent on him. After washing the person clean, his spirit beast had calmed down a lot.

Giving up on pondering the deeper meaning of the dream, Audrose finally rubbed the tip of his nose that seemed to have a strange feeling, then reached out and roughly gathered his light golden hair, which looked a bit messy from sleeping all night, sweeping it behind his head before entering the bathroom to wash up. After finishing his meal, Audrose finally thought of another suitable job for his little slave.

- Cleaning his private mech training room.

The work wasn't heavy. The training room was made of extremely hard, high-grade alloy and installed with an automatic monitoring system. The system's accessories originally had a self-cleaning function, and only some particularly tiny corners needed to be specially cleaned by hand.

Of course, the most important thing was that no one except him had access to the mech training room, so safety was absolutely guaranteed.

In addition to changing jobs, the little slave's bedroom also needed to be moved. The place where Su Duan currently lived wasn't connected to the central control alarm and monitoring system of the mansion. If something unexpected happened, he might not be able to find out in time.

Although logically speaking, once the doors of all the rooms in this mansion were locked, no one could open the lock except for the person holding the key and the spiritual power of the mansion's owner. But what if the little slave accidentally lost the key?

Audrose summoned the butler and asked about the room arrangement. In the end, Su Duan's residence was arranged in a small storeroom next to the mech training room. It was not only convenient for work, but also relatively close to his bedroom, within the range of his spiritual power. Once there was any movement, he could know about it at the first opportunity.

The butler listened to the order and quickly brought Su Duan over.

Audrose looked at his complexion and didn't rush to mention the new job and new residence. Instead, he asked in a low voice, "Didn't rest well last night?"

The little slave's spirit didn't look very good. His black hair drooped softly on his forehead, the corners of his eyes slightly drooping. Those beautiful, jet-black eyes weren't as bright as yesterday either. The whole person had an indescribable listlessness.

Su Duan raised his head, met those familiar blue eyes, and said in a muffled voice, "Mm."

Didn't Audrose know whether he rested well or not? How could he pretend to know nothing?

Was he not going to return the pollen he snatched from him?

Su Duan said, "System, how did he become so bad? Lying without even blinking an eye."

But the system said, "Detecting that the healing target is not currently showing emotional fluctuations that would occur when lying or concealing, so he shouldn't be deceiving you, host."

Su Duan blinked blankly. "But yesterday... wasn't it Audrose's spiritual body? That thing is actually his spiritual power, something he controls himself. Can he forget it himself?"

The system said, "This is related to the healing target's illness. After the system replaced the complete world data yesterday, it also became a little clearer about the situation of the healing target. The illness that the healing target suffers from this time is 'emotional deficiency', and his illness is actually related to his emotional perception mode that is different from ordinary people.

Most people first receive or generate emotions themselves, and then transmit them to the higher-dimensional spiritual level to empathize with the spiritual body; but the order of the healing target is reversed. The higher-dimensional spiritual power, that is, the spiritual body, first receives and generates external emotions, and then transmits them to himself.

The error occurs in this transmission process. Because the language of higher-dimensional space cannot be fully parsed by lower-dimensional space, most of the emotions will collapse when flowing from the healing target's spiritual body to the healing target himself, and the emotions that the healing target can perceive become very limited."

Su Duan: "..."

Although he didn't quite understand the meaning of those terms mentioned by the system, he still tried to grasp the main point. "So, there is a communication problem between Audrose and his spiritual body? That's why he doesn't know that his spiritual body came to find me yesterday?"

The system said, "You can also understand it this way."

Su Duan tentatively asked, "So to cure his illness, we still need to solve this problem of poor communication, right?"

The system said, "Yes, in principle, that's how it is."

Su Duan was very worried, "But I don't know much about spiritual power, um, and higher-dimensional space."

In fact, he had no understanding at all. As a poor student who didn't even understand three-dimensional functions in advanced mathematics, he felt that this task might not work out well.

The system said, "It doesn't matter, host. Have you forgotten your own efficacy?"

Su Duan: "...No." As a Chinese medicinal herb that had developed spiritual intelligence, he had heard humans talk about the effects he could have when used in medicine.

The system said, "Poria has a calming effect. Although the task world is constructed from data, the host still retains some of his own characteristics when integrating into the world."

"Haven't you noticed that when you are by the healing target's side, the emotional fluctuations he exhibits are similar to a normal person's? At that time, when the healing target's spiritual body transmits emotions to him, no collapse occurs." The system added.

Su Duan frowned, "But I can't be by his side all the time."

Even between lovers, there needs to be time alone.

The system said, "Host, don't worry too much. According to the system's analysis, as long as the host can let the healing target experience sufficiently rich emotions, the healing value should be able to reach above the passing line. Even if it can't be cured, there's no need to worry about failing the task."

Su Duan still felt that this wasn't very good, but what the system said seemed to make a lot of sense. He didn't know how to refute it for a while.

......

Seeing the little slave lowering his head, puffing his cheeks in anger at someone at one moment, and then frowning and worrying by himself at another, Audrose finally couldn't help but reach out and touch his forehead. "What's wrong after all? Caught a cold? Go get the body scanner and check."

Su Duan raised his head, met his gaze with a hint of concern, and said softly that he hadn't. "Just not used to sleeping here, it'll be fine in a couple of days."

After learning that Audrose wasn't deliberately pretending to be nonchalant, Su Duan wasn't very angry anymore.

Audrose didn't feel any abnormal heat on his forehead, so he withdrew his hand and said, "Then today I'll give you a new place to live and a new job."

Su Duan obediently nodded in acceptance and asked curiously, "Where?"

Audrose said, "Downstairs from me. Your workplace is the mech training room next door. You'll just be responsible for cleaning every day, understand?"

Su Duan nodded. As long as he wasn't asked to water the reproductive organs of other plants, anything was fine.

Audrose sent a brief message to the butler with his personal terminal and instructed Su Duan, "After eating, have the butler take you to move your things to the new room. I'm going to meet a guest."

Su Duan said, "Okay."

While Su Duan was busy setting up his new room, Audrose saw his "guest" for the day.
The visitor was his younger brother, one of the only two princes in the empire, Prince Avid.

His appearance bore a striking resemblance to Audrose, but with softer features, more like their mother, Empress Sefir. His eyes were a pure, jewel-like green, also inherited from their mother, making him look much more lively than Audrose.

Upon seeing his older brother, Avid didn't rush to discuss business matters. Instead, he swept his emerald eyes up and down Audrose's body a couple of times.

Within seconds, a sizable western dragon appeared in the room, extending its huge head and sniffing around Audrose.

Audrose nudged his brother's annoying spirit beast with the tip of his foot, telling it not to cling to him. "If you have something to say, say it quickly and put it away."

Avid's spirit beast shamelessly rubbed its large head against Audrose's calf.

Audrose: "..."

Unlike his emotionally detached self, his younger brother was excessively lively. Other people's spirit beasts would only show a hint of their presence when extremely excited, but Avid's would pop out at the slightest thing. When they lived together in the palace as children, Audrose was constantly bothered by it.

Avid gave him a strange look and asked, "Brother, aren't you on vacation? Why did you let your spirit beast out? My dragon caught its scent."