As usual, the dragon rested its head on the corner of the bed and snuggled against his legs in a sticky manner. Su Duan gasped and stepped on its nose a couple of times.

After a while, the dragon suddenly moved and brought its head closer to Su Duan's face.

Su Duan immediately reached out his hand in disgust, decisively buying a "spinach with an iron content 1000 times higher" and slapping on the dragon's nose, resolutely refusing to let it wash his face again with a mouth that had licked the pollen.

The dragon seemed to not have expected the delicious little guy's strength to suddenly become so great. Although this bit of force was still not enough to hurt it, it was still stunned for a moment. After a long time, it only rolled up Su Duan's hand and started licking, but it didn't get close to Su Duan's face again.

Su Duan: "..." As long as it doesn't lick his face, he can reluctantly sacrifice his hand.

Su Duan asked the system in his heart, "System, will Audrose always be like this, unable to remember these things?"

The system explained, "Emotions like love and affection are infinitely more complex in composition than simple emotions like joy, anger, and jealousy, and the difficulty of transmitting them from high dimensions to low dimensions also increases infinitely, so even when the host is by the side of the healing target, the dimensional space link will tend to be stable, and these emotions are also difficult to be transmitted down."

Su Duan lay on his side on the bed, looking at the dragon's pupils that had become round from licking his palm, and asked, "Do you have any useful props in your mall?"

Being able to only perceive emotions but not understand one's own feelings must also be very lonely.

He had been human for a very short time, only a dozen years or so at most, but the traces left in his memory during this short dozen years were more vivid and fresh than the thousands of years he had experienced before.

Because when he was human, he experienced many emotions, whether good or bad, happy or sad, they were all very precious treasures.

Thinking of Audrose's healing value staying at 30, Su Duan was a little worried.

The system said, "Sorry, there are currently no items in the system mall that can directly treat the healing target's condition. The system's experience points are insufficient now, and only the lowest level of items in the mall have been unlocked. There are still relatively few items. Perhaps when more levels are unlocked, there will be higher-level items."

Su Duan: "..."

With experience points, it still feels as poor as ever.

Su Duan suddenly remembered that he had not seen what the legendary system mall looked like, so he asked, "What's in the system mall now?"

The system pulled out a light screen with a swish: "Please take a look, host!"

It could be seen that the items were neatly arranged in rows on the light screen, looking very rich, but—

The vast majority of the item icons were a dull gray with a question mark on them, obviously not purchasable, and only the two items in the bottom row were colorful, without question marks.

Su Duan took a careful look and saw that the two items were surprisingly the pain reliever and "spinach with an iron content 1000 times higher" that he had purchased before.

The system said there were relatively few... Did it mean there were only two?

"..." Su Duan was silent for two seconds, and asked in a small voice without giving up, "So only these two are unlocked now?"

The system answered in an even smaller mechanical voice, "Y-Yes, host..."

Then a person and a system fell into a brief silence together, with an air of poverty floating in the air.

Half a minute later, the system spoke again: "Host, don't be anxious. In the task from the previous world, you earned a total of 3000 experience points. After deducting the cost of five bottles of painkillers and two spinach leaves, you have 2750 points remaining. You only need 4000 points to unlock the level 2 items, so you are very close. There are five items in the level 2 item slot!"

Looking at the five grayed out item icons in the level 2 slot, Su Duan felt a slight sense of consolation.

No matter what, having some hope was always good.

Just as he was about to have the system close the light screen, Su Duan suddenly noticed a special golden icon in the upper right corner of the store. But like the other unlocked items, it was covered with question marks and he couldn't tell what it was.

Su Duan asked, "System, is that golden icon also an item?"

"Oh oh!" The system said, "I forgot to introduce this to the host. This is a special limited-time item that refreshes after each world's rating ends. It's only open for two hours, and the items inside are usually very precious. Many of them may not even be available in the highest level item slot in the store!"

"Is it free?" Su Duan asked very soberly.

System: "...No, host QAQ"

So it still cost money.

It must be very expensive. Looking at that glittering golden icon, Su Duan silently clenched his mere 2000+ experience points.

Suddenly remembering an important question, he asked the system, "How many experience points do I need to successfully take form?"

If it required hundreds of thousands of points, at the rate of only a few thousand points per A-rated world, would he ever see the day he could take form?

The system said, "The system is not sure, because the system is just a medium-like existence. The rating at the end of each world's task and the final completion assessment are determined by the Heavenly Dao. But the host doesn't need to worry! The system can roughly detect that the task worlds are not endless!"

Su Duan said, "I understand, thank you."

Because he was busy talking to the system, Su Duan didn't pay much attention to the spiritual body beside the bed. The spiritual body probably sensed his distraction and suddenly opened its mouth to firmly hold his palm, shaking it left and right as if complaining.

Su Duan came back to his senses and sternly stopped it, "Don't shake."

The spiritual body obediently spit out his already wet and slippery hand, then with lightning speed, licked his cheek with its warm tongue tip.

Su Duan: "............"

He had let his guard down and still got licked.

Taking advantage of the spinach's effect that cost him a full fifty experience points, Su Duan angrily hit its head. But the spiritual body had already tasted the sweetness and didn't care about his massage-like pats at all. It licked Su Duan's cheeks and neck with exceptional excitement.

That night, after the dragon left, Su Duan washed several baths in the bathroom with red eye corners and a aggrieved expression.

......

The next day, Audrose woke up to the sound of his personal terminal's notification. After waking up, he rarely stared blankly in bed for a short while.

Inserting his fingers into his light golden hair and rubbing a few times, Audrose propped himself up and crawled out of bed. Glancing at the time, a trace of confusion flashed in his icy blue eyes.

It was 5:45 in the morning and he had overslept.

For ordinary people, oversleeping was very common. But for him, it was absolutely abnormal.

His normal biological clock was to wake up at 5:30 a.m. sharp. This living habit had accompanied him for more than ten years. His life was so regular that it was frightening. Except when he was particularly tired at the front lines, this wake-up time had almost never been broken.

Now, on a very quiet morning, he inexplicably woke up late. If it weren't for the personal terminal's automatic detection wake-up service, he didn't know how long he would have slept.

What was wrong with him... For two days in a row, his waking state was a bit off. Yesterday there was only a slight dizziness, but today he simply didn't get up.

Biological clock imbalance was a precursor to many serious diseases. Perhaps he needed to go to the hospital for a full-body check-up as soon as possible, Audrose thought meticulously.

Audrose wanted to lift the quilt and get out of bed to wash up, but with just a slight movement, he noticed that a certain part of him was a bit abnormally swollen.

His expression gradually became strange. After thinking for half a minute with his eyes lowered, Audrose seemed to make up his mind. He closed his icy blue eyes that contained a dark color, his slightly curled eyelashes trembling, casting a shadow on his cheeks, making his eye sockets appear especially deep.

"Duan Duan..."

Although it was the first time he called the little slave's name this way, as soon as the words left his mouth, there was an indescribable familiarity between his lips and teeth.

As if in another forgotten time and space, he had called out many times longingly, lingering, teasingly, sorrowfully...

......

[Ding, the healing value of the healing target Audrose has increased by 10. The current total healing value of the healing target is 40. Host, please keep up the good work!]

The sleeping and dazed Su Duan was awakened by the notification sound and yawned as he turned over in bed. Because he was attacked by the big flower pollen thief again last night, he didn't get enough sleep and was very sleepy today.

He even wanted to skip work.

Su Duan asked the system with half-open eyes, "Healing value... um... why did it increase?"

The system was silent for a full ten seconds before saying softly, "Because the healing target experienced a new emotion."

Su Duan rubbed his eyes and asked, "Um... what emotion was it?"

This time, the system was silent for even longer than the last time. "The situation is a bit special."

Hearing the words "special situation", Su Duan's sleepiness dissipated by more than half. Worried that Audrose had encountered some danger, he urged the system anxiously, "Can you show the projection? What exactly happened?"

The system said, "I can, but host, do you really want to see it?"

Su Duan said, "Yes, hurry up."

System: QAQ

A few seconds later, a high-definition, uncensored light screen appeared in front of Su Duan, with Audrose's spacious bedroom as the background.

"--!" The moment he saw clearly the image on the screen, Su Duan's eyes widened like a little hamster.

The system said, "Ho-ho-host, don't worry-- The system didn't see anything, because of the privacy protection program, the system can only see a screen full of mosaics!"

Su Duan swallowed nervously, thinking that his guess was indeed correct - his lover's flower had truly grown larger this time...

That, that pollination, it must be very painful, right?

Just as Su Duan was staring at the screen, lost in thought about this major life event, the system hesitantly spoke up: "Ho- Host..."

Su Duan snapped out of it a little: "What's up?"

The system cautiously asked: "Does the host want to... keep observing?"

Why did the host's reaction seem different from what it expected? Not only did he not scream for it to turn it off, but he was watching so intently?

Su Duan: "Then let's- let's observe a bit more for now."

How did that human saying go? Something like "know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated". He needed to seriously consider whether he should stock up on some painkillers.

But--at ten experience points per bottle, although it didn't seem expensive individually, if he used a lot of them, would he still be able to save up experience points?

The system weakly replied: "O- Okay then, the system will go play a mini-game. The host can just call for the system after finishing the observation."

Su Duan nodded, saying: "Alright, you go play."

By the time Su Duan finally finished observing, over half an hour had passed.

On the screen, Audrose let out a heavy breath and went to take a shower. Su Duan also no longer felt sleepy. After having the system turn off the light screen, he also went to the bathroom to wash up.

While washing up, he sadly thought, now that even the flowering period had lengthened, would he still be able to protect his experience points?

After finishing up and coming out, Su Duan discovered a new message in the room's built-in communicator.

Because slaves were not considered imperial citizens, they were not provided with personal terminals.

Opening the message alert marked in red, the sender was none other than the person he had just seen on the light screen:

[Master] Audrose: Come eat in the dining room. Tell the chef on duty to make whatever you want to eat. No need to get food from the slave dining hall. I'm going out today. After eating, go back and play in the bedroom. Don't wander around.

Su Duan pouted and obediently went to the dining room he had checked out yesterday.

When he arrived at the dining room, Audrose had just finished eating and was about to leave. Seeing him, Audrose was a bit surprised. "You're up so early?"

It was only a little past 6am now. He hadn't set a wake up time for the little slave. Based on Su Duan's constitution, he originally thought sleeping until 8 or 9 would be quite normal.

Su Duan nodded, not in a great mood. Not only did he get up early, he didn't sleep well either.

Whose fault was that?

Audrose noticed his dejection. His eyes suddenly moved as a certain guess flashed through his mind. He reached out and ruffled the little slave's extremely soft black hair, awkwardly comforting: "Don't worry, I'll be back this afternoon."

The little slave must be traumatized from nearly being taken to be branded last time, not daring to leave his protection.

Although he didn't say it outright, those darkened black eyes, as if even the tips of his hair were expressing grievance, all seemed to be acting spoiled towards him.

Audrose rarely felt conflicted.

Less than twenty minutes remained until the 7 o'clock meeting time he had agreed upon with the emperor and Avid. He had to leave immediately in order to arrive at the palace on time.

So he didn't have much time to comfort his little slave.

After frowning in thought for a few seconds, Audrose came up with a solution that satisfied both sides.

A wave of high-level spiritual power fluctuated, and a massive dragon appeared behind Su Duan. As soon as it appeared, it wrapped its thick tail around Su Duan and lowered its head, excitedly sniffing all over the top of his head.

Audrose patted the little slave's thin back. "I'll leave my spiritual body here to accompany you. No one will dare to bully you."

Su Duan looked up at the huge dragon head, then at Audrose, dazedly saying: "No need..."

Now whenever he saw a dragon, he wanted to eat spinach, but he couldn't bear to spend experience points to buy it. He just wanted to be a blade of grass in peace.

Audrose thought the little slave didn't want to trouble him and found him even more well-behaved.

He covered the little slave's slightly cold cheek with his palm, leaving no room for refusal: "It's fine. My spiritual power is strong enough. Simply separating my spiritual body for an afternoon won't cause any consequences."