The Demon Commander's Shock

Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Demon Commander's Shock

The embers in the fire pit flickered in the corner of the stone house, like the slowly rising and falling chest of a sleeping giant. The dark-red glow gently swelled and faded with each breathlike rhythm. The scent of ashes from burned pine branches mingled with the damp, earthy chill of the stone walls and drifted silently through the air.

The figure known as "Little Black" stirred on the grass mat in the corner. Its fine-scaled eyelids slowly lifted, revealing a pair of inhuman vertical pupils that glimmered in the gloom. The Demon Commander, Ji Meng, awoke as the long night neared its end.

His brown-black pupils contracted in the darkness, reflecting the crisscrossing shadows of the thatched roof.

The puncture wound through his neck had already formed a dark-brown scab. Beneath the newly grown membrane, his windpipe rose and fell steadily with each breath, and the tearing pain was gone.

He tried circulating the demonic power that remained in him. A warm, pure spiritual energy instantly surged into his meridians, washing over his withered demon core like a spring stream.

Ji Meng's heart convulsed!

This spiritual energy... was actually purer than the sun essence refined by the Solar True Fire of the Demon Court's core restricted grounds, the Sun Star Palace!

Unlike the violent, mixed turbid energy between heaven and earth in the Primordial Wilderness, the spiritual energy here was condensed like liquid stars and gentle as a tamed river. Every wisp contained a surging vitality.

He secretly sank his divine sense into his meridians. Wherever the spiritual energy passed, his severed demonic meridians healed and regrew at a speed visible to the naked eye, as though blessed by sweet rain. Even the cracks in his demon core glimmered with faint golden light!

He compared it with his memories: when he had once recovered from his injuries in the Demon Court, he had needed to use Solar True Fire to burn away the turbid energy, then supplement it with Moonlight Jade Dew to harmonize Yin Yang. The process had been perilous and agonizing. Yet the spiritual energy here needed no refinement at all; it reached straight to the source!

He quietly expanded his divine sense, attempting to trace the source of the spiritual energy.

The instant his divine sense touched the Safe Zone's barrier, a force of laws as vast as a sea of stars gently brushed past and silently dissolved his probe. Ji Meng was horrified and immediately reined in his demonic power—the barrier had absolutely not formed naturally. It was an absolute domain arranged and purified by supreme power! Its subtle profundity far surpassed the Great Zhou Heavenly Stars Formation personally laid down by Eastern Emperor Tai Yi!

At the first glimmer of dawn, Chen An pushed open the door.

He walked barefoot across the cold stone floor, carrying a clay pot toward the well. Ji Meng's gaze followed him like a shadow.

Chen An tied a vine rope to the clay pot, flicked his wrist, and steadily lowered the pot into the well. In Ji Meng's eyes, the ripples spreading across the water seemed to perfectly accord with the supremely gentle path of "Supreme Goodness is Like Water"!

Chen An crouched beside the fire pit and added firewood, stacking the logs into a triangular structure. Ji Meng's pupils narrowed—the arrangement was clearly a simplified prototype of the Three Talents Formation! The flames burned evenly within the formation, with not a trace of heat escaping!

Chen An carried the clay kettle to the Vegetable Plot. Water poured from its spout, precisely watering the roots of every vegetable seedling like silver threads, without wasting a single drop. Ji Meng seemed to see the law of "Heaven Gives Birth to Water" made manifest!

What shook his soul most was Chen An's gaze.

As he tended the seedlings, that focused gaze was like someone staring at the origin of the Great Way. When he stroked Ji Meng's fur, the gentle warmth flowing from his fingertips actually stirred a faint resonance in the dormant demonic blood within him!

Returning to Simplicity! This existence had already fused the laws into every breath and step. His seemingly ordinary movements were all manifestations of The Great Tao is Simplest!

The Profound Meaning in the "Minor Sayings" of Survival

Chen An's plain words from the previous night—"There is strength in unity" and "Once you take action and try, the road opens up"—now thundered through Ji Meng's soul!

For ten thousand years, the Demon Court had been rife with strife, with great demons scheming against one another over resources. If they could truly work with one heart... Ji Meng recalled the terrifying might of the Wu Clan's Twelve Heavenly Gods and Demons Great Formation, and cold sweat trickled down his back.

Cultivators in the Primordial Wilderness all followed ancient methods. Who would dare burn pottery from ordinary soil or use wild grass to heal wounds like Chen An? Yet this very "defiance of orthodoxy" had allowed him to carve out a path to survival in a dead end!

Chen An's words, "A tall tree catches the wind," split open Ji Meng's memories like a thunderbolt. Back then, he had been too conspicuous while pursuing Hong Yun, which was why Kunpeng had ambushed him!

"So that's how it is!" Ji Meng's soul trembled violently. Was this existence really just making casual conversation? Clearly, he was using the language of mortals to expose a Ray of Life amid the slaughtering schemes of the calamity!

When Chen An carried over a bowl of meat soup and softly called, "Little Black," the last shred of the Demon Commander's dignity completely shattered.

He voluntarily raised his head, a docile purr spilling from his throat. He even rubbed the tip of his nose against Chen An's wrist—this was the posture of attachment that young demon beasts showed only toward their closest kin.

The name "Little Black" was a title bestowed by a Sage, an opportunity to sever the past! The Demon Commander Ji Meng had died on the Witch-Demon Battlefield. The one who survived was merely "Little Black" from the Small Courtyard.

When dusk returned, Ji Meng curled up beside the fire pit and watched Chen An repair the pottery kiln. Kiln clay flew and turned in his palms, while cracks closed beneath his fingers. Ji Meng suddenly attained enlightenment:

This Safe Zone was a "dojo" opened by a Sage with supreme power, while he himself was a "Clay Embryo" personally picked up by the Sage from the ruins of the calamity. The path of rebirth through nirvana had only truly begun.