Injury Healed

Chapter 40: Wounds Healed

Morning light spilled over the stone hut's window lattice, casting warm patches of brightness on the straw mat.

Little Black—Demon Commander Ji Meng—slowly opened his eyes.

His brown-black pupils were clear as washed water, reflecting the crisscrossing shadows of the thatched roof above.

The fatal piercing wound on his neck had formed a dark brown scab, and at its edges, new membranes of flesh grew tough as freshly tanned deerskin, rising and falling steadily with each breath, no longer torn by pain. He attempted to circulate his demonic energy, and a surge of warm, pure spiritual essence instantly flooded his dried-up meridians, scouring his dim Primordial Spirit like a spring stream.

Ji Meng examined his own body and felt a violent shock in his heart.

The spiritual essence in the Safe Zone was not only supremely pure but also contained a mysterious law of vitality.

Wherever the spiritual essence passed, his fractured demonic veins, as if blessed by rain, mended and regenerated at a visible rate; the cracks on his demon core glowed faintly with golden light, and his dormant demonic power, like a volcano in winter hibernation, quietly revived under the essence's nourishment.

He secretly channeled a thread of demonic energy toward his back—there, three gashes deep enough to show bone were now filled with pinkish granulation, covered by a smooth membrane, their edges flushed with healthy pink. The healing speed far surpassed any miraculous medicine in the Primordial Wilderness.

The claw marks on his abdomen had vanished entirely, leaving only a few faint silver lines, like fragments of moonlight cast on a lake's surface.

"Seven days... only seven days!" A storm of shock raged in Ji Meng's heart. Such injuries, if treated in the Demon Court, would require Solar True Fire to burn away the foul qi, supplemented by Moonlight Jade Dew to harmonize yin and yang, taking months to heal.

Yet in this small courtyard, without any miraculous elixirs, relying solely on spiritual essence infusion and mortal herbs, such a miracle had been achieved! He looked toward Chen An, who was grinding medicine by the fire pit, and his gaze grew deeper—this was no coincidence, but a sage using supreme means to infuse the Dao of life into this very space.

Chen An did not notice Ji Meng's stare.

He was placing dried Fairy Crane Grass and Dandelion Root into a stone mortar, adding well water and grinding them finely.

As the herbal juice seeped out, it emitted a faint golden glow, the spiritual essence hazy and dense. Ji Meng's nostrils flared, and he keenly caught a strange Dao resonance within the medicinal fragrance—it was not the overwhelming power of spirit plants, but a rhythm of vitality that was Returning to Simplicity, subtly aligning with the natural principle of "grass withers, trees flourish."

When Chen An applied the herbal paste to the wound on Ji Meng's neck, a cool, gentle force seeped into the flesh.

Ji Meng closed his eyes and focused his mind, sensing the medicinal power merging with the Safe Zone's spiritual essence, turning into invisible threads that guided the cells at the wound's edge to accelerate division and reorganization. Beneath the scab, new flesh grew at a nearly miraculous speed, and as silver patterns flowed, even the deep demonic veins were quietly repaired.

"Using mortal herbs to stir the vitality of heaven and earth... this is the work of creation!" Ji Meng sighed inwardly.

He recalled the Demon Court's alchemists using Thousand-Year Ganoderma and ten-thousand-year blood ginseng to refine pills, their methods cumbersome compared to Chen An's casual herbal combinations. The difference was clear. The sage's path was indeed the simplest and deepest.

At the height of noon, Ji Meng silently activated the Demon Emperor Scripture.

This time, his demonic energy flowed without any obstruction, surging like a great river, scouring and widening his meridians. What shocked him even more was—deep within his demon core, an extremely faint wisp of Chaos Qi quietly emerged!

That was the barrier he had never been able to breach when he tried to reach the peak of Demon Commander!

The hidden injuries from his forced breakthrough in the past had now fully healed under the dual nourishment of spiritual essence and medicinal power, and he had even turned misfortune into fortune, drawing forth a thread of Chaos origin. He attempted to move this wisp of energy, and his entire aura suddenly contracted inward, like an abyss returning to nothingness, even causing the leaping flames to freeze for an instant!

"Break and then Establish... Is this the opportunity bestowed by the sage's guidance?" Ji Meng suppressed the wild joy in his heart.

He knew well that this single thread of Chaos Qi would be the key to breaking through to Quasi-Saint in the future! And all of this came from Chen An's advice, "Take action and the path will widen"—if not for the sage walking the great Dao in mortal form, how could he have realized the truth that "a dead end is also a new beginning"?

As dusk deepened, Ji Meng lay on the straw mat, watching Chen An's silhouette as he repaired pottery. The firelight gilded his outline in warm gold, and as his fingers moved, the clay seemed alive, sealing the cracks. A complex emotion surged in Ji Meng's heart: gratitude, reverence, and a heavy sense of responsibility.

"A life-saving grace, a teaching of the Dao... how can I repay this?" he pondered.

With the wealth of the Demon Court, rare treasures were easy to obtain, but the sage's small courtyard—every blade of grass and every tree was in harmony with the heavenly Dao—how could mortal objects defile it? He recalled Chen An's muttering about "unity is strength," remembered his focus while wiping a clay bowl, and suddenly understood—

What the sage wanted was never the empty formalities of piled-up treasures.

Guarding the peace of this courtyard and helping him practice the way of "unity" was the true repayment! When he one day regained command of the demon army, he would surely restrain his troops and protect this pure land. If the sage wished, he would serve as a vanguard and spread this way of "unity" across the Primordial Wilderness.

Night wind brushed over the courtyard wall, and the Safe Zone's barrier shimmered with faint silver light.

Ji Meng closed his eyes. The Chaos Qi in his demon core slowly rose and fell. His wounds had healed, and the path ahead was clear. He was no longer a wounded beast wandering the wilds, but a Demon Commander blessed by a sage's guidance. The road of rebirth from nirvana had truly only just begun.