The Demon Commander's Bow

Chapter 44: The Demon Commander's Kowtow

Morning light pierced the thin mist, coating the small courtyard in a pale gold.

Chen An pushed open the wooden door of the stone house, only to find the straw mat empty. His heart tightened, and he strode quickly to the courtyard gate—the latch was intact, the barrier flowing with its usual silver glow.

As he turned, his gaze swept over the vegetable plot and abruptly stopped.

Little Black (Ji Meng) stood upright in the center of the garden.

It was no longer the curled-up, wounded dog. In the morning light, its posture was straight as a pine, its pitch-black fur flowing with a dark golden luster. The hard scabs on its neck had fallen away, and the new skin showed faint, healthy silver patterns.

What shocked Chen An most was its gaze—its brown-black pupils were deep as an ancient well, reflecting the sky and clouds. There was no trace of its former innocence, only a solemn, abyss-like dignity. That gaze swept over the vegetable seedlings, the clay jar, the stone house, and finally landed on Chen An, carrying an indescribable gravity.

"Little Black?" Chen An tested the name.

Little Black did not wag its tail and run over as usual. It slowly turned to face the main door of the stone house, bent its front legs slightly, straightened its hind legs, and lowered its head—a standard prostration posture!

The moment its forehead touched the ground, an invisible pressure rippled outward like a shockwave!

In the once-quiet courtyard, the vegetable seedlings suddenly swayed as if stirred by an unseen force, as though a gentle breeze had passed through. At the same time, the clay jar placed nearby began to emit a low hum, as if responding to some unknown change.

Even more astonishingly, the originally indestructible Safe Zone barrier now seemed to suffer a massive impact, its surface rippling with violent silver patterns, as if it might shatter at any moment.

This sudden turn of events left Chen An stunned. He involuntarily stepped back half a pace, a strong unease rising in his heart. But when his gaze fell on the spot where Little Black had prostrated, his shock reached its peak.

The soil beneath Little Black had slightly sunken, forming a clear imprint of its forehead, as if a tremendous force was surging up from underground, while Little Black seemed to be bearing the weight of that pressure, lying still on the ground without moving.

A low, drawn-out whimper escaped its throat, like the first notes of a Dragon's Roar, its tail trembling through the air, carving the word "gratitude" into the laws of heaven and earth.

Its head struck the ground again, with even greater force!

This time, a faint golden phantom rose around it—no longer the outline of a black dog, but a dragon-headed, human-bodied Demon God Dharma, its scales gleaming! The phantom vanished in an instant, but it stirred up a howling gale that sent Chen An's clothes flapping.

As the Dharma dissipated, a glimmer of near-religious enlightenment appeared in Little Black's eyes. It looked at Chen An's mortar for pounding medicine, his kiln for firing pottery, his neatly arranged vegetable plots—everything it saw was a trace of the "Sage Preaching the Dao." This kowtow honored the true essence of body refinement in the morning exercises, honored the great Dao maxim of "Cut Grass and Remove Roots" in weeding, and honored the Chaotic Vitality conveyed in that bowl of meat soup!

The final kowtow was silent, without a sound.

Little Black's front paws were tightly clasped together, its jaw pressed against the ground as if merging with the soil. Its body was taut, like a drawn bowstring, full of power and tension.

The courtyard fell into sudden silence, even the wind froze. Chen An felt a vast will surge upward, piercing through the Safe Zone barrier and straight into the nine heavens!

In the unseen realm, the Heavenly Dao Laws seemed to tremble slightly. Ji Meng swore by his true name as a Demon Commander: this pure land of the courtyard was the dwelling of a sage; the demon court, from top to bottom, would never violate it for all eternity! If any disobeyed, their soul would be utterly destroyed!

The three kowtows finished, Little Black rose. It gave Chen An a deep look, its gaze as complex as churning star seas—gratitude, awe, and resolve. Then it turned and walked toward the courtyard gate.

Chen An stood frozen in place. He did not understand the celestial phenomena of those three kowtows, nor did he know what the Dharma phantom represented.

All he saw was that black dog he had raised for a few days suddenly becoming extremely "polite," like a subject taking leave of a monarch in a period drama. "This dog... turned into a spirit?" he muttered to himself, watching Little Black push open the half-closed courtyard gate with its nose, its figure melting into the morning mist.

"Pretty particular, huh." Chen An scratched his head, bent down to examine the three shallow pits where Little Black had kowtowed. "Well, it's gone now. Saves some meat soup."

He turned, picked up the clay pot, and hummed a tuneless song as he watered the vegetable seedlings, completely unaware that the heavenly secrets of the primordial era had already shifted subtly because of those three kowtows.