Injuries Healed

Chapter Forty: Injuries Healed

Morning light streamed through the stone house's window lattice, casting warm patches of light across the straw mat.

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

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

The fatal puncture wound at his neck had formed a dark-brown scab. Along its edges, newly grown flesh was as tough as freshly tanned deerskin. It rose and fell steadily with his breathing, no longer bringing any tearing pain. He tried circulating his demonic power, and a warm, pure spiritual energy instantly surged into his withered meridians, washing over his dim primordial spirit like a spring stream. Ji Meng looked inward at himself, his heart shaken.

The spiritual energy in the Safe Zone was not only incomparably pure; it also contained a profound law of vitality.

Wherever the spiritual energy passed, his severed demonic meridians were like parched land receiving sweet rain, rapidly mending and regenerating before his eyes. Faint golden light shimmered across the cracks on the surface of his demon core, while his dormant demonic power quietly revived under the nourishment of the spiritual energy, like a volcano awakening from hibernation.

He secretly directed a thread of demonic power toward his spine. The three wounds there, deep enough to reveal bone, were now filled with pale-red granulation tissue. A smooth film covered their surface, and their edges had taken on a healthy pink hue. They were healing far faster than any healing sacred medicine in the Primordial Wilderness.

The claw marks on his abdomen had vanished without a trace, leaving only several faint silver lines, like shattered reflections cast by moonlight across a lake.

"Seven days... Only seven days!" A storm raged through Ji Meng's heart. In the Demon Court, wounds like these would require the Solar True Fire to burn away the turbid energy, followed by Moonlight Jade Dew to harmonize Yin Yang. Even then, complete recovery would take several months.

Yet in this Small Courtyard, without any miraculous pills or medicines, merely through the nourishment of spiritual energy and ordinary herbs, such a miracle had been achieved! He looked toward Chen An, who was grinding medicine beside the fire pit, and his gaze grew increasingly profound. This was definitely no coincidence. It was a Saint using supreme means to infuse the vitality of the Great Dao into this world.

Chen An did not notice Ji Meng watching him.

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

As the herb juice seeped out, faint golden light shimmered within it, and spiritual energy misted through the air. Ji Meng's nostrils flared as he keenly caught the strange Dao Resonance within the medicinal fragrance. It was not the overwhelming medicinal power of spiritual plants, but a natural rhythm of vitality returning to simplicity, resonating with the natural principle of "the flourishing and withering of plants."

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

Ji Meng closed his eyes and focused his mind. He sensed the medicinal power merging with the spiritual energy of the Safe Zone and transforming into invisible threads that drew the cells at the wound's edges to divide and recombine faster. New flesh grew beneath the scab at an almost miraculous speed. As the silver patterns flowed, even his deep demonic meridians were quietly repaired.

"To use ordinary herbs to draw forth the vitality of heaven and earth... This is the work of Creation!" Ji Meng sighed inwardly.

He remembered the tedious process by which the Demon Court's alchemists refined pills from Thousand-Year Ganoderma and ten-thousand-year blood ginseng. Compared with Chen An's casual combination of herbs, the difference in skill was immediately clear. The Saint's path truly was both supremely simple and profoundly deep.

At noon, when the sunlight was at its strongest, Ji Meng quietly circulated the Demon Emperor Scripture.

This time, his demonic power flowed without the slightest obstruction, surging like a river as it washed through his widened meridians. Even more shocking was the fact that a wisp of extremely faint Chaos Qi had quietly begun to form deep within his demon core!

That was the barrier he had never been able to touch when attempting to reach the peak of the Demon Commander realm!

The hidden injuries left by his forced breakthrough had completely healed under the dual nourishment of spiritual energy and medicinal power. He had even turned misfortune into fortune, drawing forth a trace of the primal chaos origin. When he tried to guide that wisp of energy, the pressure around his body suddenly drew inward, like an abyss returning to its source. Even the leaping firelight froze for an instant!

"Break and then Establish... Is this the opportunity granted through a Saint's guidance?" Ji Meng suppressed the wild joy in his heart.

He knew very well that this wisp of Chaos Qi would be the key to his future breakthrough into the Quasi-Saint realm! And all of this was because of Chen An's guidance: "Once you try taking action, the road will open up." If the Saint had not practiced the Great Dao through a mortal body, how could he have grasped the profound truth that even despair could give birth to new life?

As dusk deepened, Ji Meng lay on the straw mat and watched Chen An's profile as he repaired pottery. The fire pit's light gilded his outline with warm gold. As his fingers moved deftly, the clay seemed to come alive, sealing the cracks. Complex emotions welled up in Ji Meng's heart: gratitude, awe, and a heavy sense of responsibility.

"How can I repay the grace of being saved and the virtue of being guided?" he wondered.

With the Demon Court's wealth, rare treasures and precious artifacts were readily available. But in the Saint's Small Courtyard, every blade of grass and every tree quietly resonated with the Heavenly Dao. How could mundane objects be allowed to profane it? He remembered Chen An's mutterings about "the strength of unity," and recalled the focus with which Chen An wiped his pottery bowl. Suddenly, his mind opened wide—

What the Saint wanted was never empty ceremony built from piles of worldly possessions.

Guarding the peace of this Small Courtyard and helping him practice the path of "unity"—that was the true way to repay his kindness! Once he took command of the demon army again, he would certainly restrain his subordinates and protect this pure land. If the Saint wished it, he was willing to serve as his vanguard and spread the path of "unity" throughout the Primordial Wilderness.

The night wind brushed against the courtyard wall, while the barrier of the Safe Zone shimmered with a faint silver light.

Ji Meng closed his eyes as the Chaos Qi in his demon core slowly rose and fell. His wounds had healed, and his path ahead was clear. He was no longer a wounded beast wandering the wilderness, but a Demon Commander who had received a Saint's guidance. The path of rebirth had only truly begun.