That night, Chen Jing and Xul Ling talked until dawn, with Chen Jing speaking most of the time. What started as casual conversation somehow led to Chen Jing talking about his experiences after leaving the underworld. He spoke of how he had killed an entire family of a person he had only met once but considered a friend, revealing that at the time, he had actually wanted that person to kill him instead. He also shared the pain and distress he felt when being pursued and called a "demon" by others, while simultaneously resisting the temptation of the vengeful spirits' curse, trying his best to stay awake and not kill more people.

  In the end, Chen Jing didn't even know what he had said, but after speaking, his originally depressed and disturbed mood felt much lighter.

  Yu Ling disappeared in the morning fog. After Chen Jingmu saw her off, he also turned around and stepped out, plunging into the divine image and disappearing from sight.

  Chen Jing's one-night conversation with the spirit couldn't change anything for him, nor could it bring any epiphanies. However, he felt much lighter afterwards. The long-standing repression was greatly alleviated. This allowed his originally frustrated and anxious heart to slowly calm down, starting to reflect on everything about himself.

  No matter how wicked or strict a person is in the outside world, when it's late at night and people are quiet, they will inevitably think of things from their past that they never thought about before. Among these past events, there may be many memories that have been buried for years, some etched in their mind like a knife cut, others as fleeting as a wisp of smoke.

  In the still of the night, listening to the rain, the wind, and the waves hitting the shore, when there are no thoughts in mind, many things that one doesn't want to think about will emerge. Chen Jing didn't know that this was actually a way to cultivate one's nature, reflecting on oneself, thinking deeply about past mistakes, which has great benefits for self-cultivation.

  Yu Ling walks in the morning mist, and it's extremely difficult for those who don't know her to discern that her body is a soul. Ghosts like her who can roam freely between heaven and earth are extremely rare; most are attached to certain spirit tablets or statues, absorbing yin energy or incense offerings.

  She left the embroidered spring temple and walked directly to the river front hall. In the morning mist, she quietly and silently moved forward without a hint of human presence, as if floating quietly. However, when she reached the river front hall, she suddenly stopped and looked up at the top of the hall.

  On the top of the temple, a man sat with his hair tied up in a knot, wearing Taoist robes, carrying a peach wood sword on his back and a black gourd hanging from his waist. He looked like he was over thirty years old. Without saying a word, he opened the black gourd, mouth facing down and bottom facing up, and chanted: "Collect."

  The ghostly figure turned around and was about to leave, but it seemed to be drawn into the black gourd without any control, like morning mist. The Taoist priest patted the roof of the house and rose into the air, stepping on the morning mist as he walked, disappearing in an instant. However, just as he left, a cloud of black fog slowly appeared on the rooftop where he had been standing, gradually condensing into a person - it was the ghostly figure. She merely furrowed her brow, gazing in the direction the Taoist priest had disappeared, before sinking into the temple.

  She knew that this was the ghost-catcher who roamed the world, known as the one-sword-and-one-gourd ghost-catcher of the world. This ghost-catcher did not refer to a single person, but rather a group of people. They may not have known each other, but they were all doing the same thing.

  The spirit has been wandering between heaven and earth for many years, so it's natural to have encountered him several times. Even in front of this temple by the river, I've met him more than once.

  Chen Jing returned to Xiuchun Bay from Kunlun, no longer concerned with worldly affairs. However, the world seemed to have been set ablaze by the Dragon King's chaos.

  After leaving Kunlun Mountain, she didn't return to Luofu, but instead wandered the world, challenging all. Under her distant light, no one could be her match, whether it was a mountain god or a river god, they all seemed particularly powerless under that distant light of hers.

  The divine can borrow the power of mountains and rivers, but in front of her, it's completely unable to withstand the clean and icy distant light sword. Every time she fights, she stands still in the clouds, waves her hand and releases a white light, no matter what is in front of her, nothing can stop that white light, the power of mountains and rivers under that sword light is like tofu being easily pierced. The sword in Lí Chén's hand made many people who didn't know about Luó Fú aware that there was a Luó Fú, a woman named Lí Chén.

  Chen Jing had no idea what she was doing. He was now a silent statue during the day and at night, he sat on the threshold of the temple, gazing up at the starry sky.

  About everything outside, he no longer cared, always thinking about whether Ye Qingxue could survive inside, and also thinking that if his magical powers were a bit stronger, he shouldn't have escaped so miserably. However, he then thought of the powerful Jiaolong Wang, who had gathered all the spiritual energy of the Jinhe River in one body, yet still couldn't escape in the Kunlun Mountains. Although he had an inexplicable feeling that if he had such high magical powers, it was absolutely impossible for him to be captured by the Golden Tower so easily, it didn't make sense that Jiaolong Wang would do this, and Ye Qingxue possessed the Thunder Escape Technique, how could she be captured if she wanted to leave?

  Now thinking back, it's not just Chen Jing who can't understand, many people also can't understand.

  Every living being, once enlightened, will have doubts about the affairs of heaven and earth. Perhaps when one day he can answer all things in heaven, he has already become an omniscient sage. Chen Jing had his own thoughts, and naturally, Daxia also had his questions. These days, he was thinking about a problem that he couldn't get an answer to after thinking for a long time, and asked Qingtao Beishan, but still didn't get a clear answer. In recent days, he found that Chen Jing seemed to be in a much better mood, no longer looking anxious and restless. He finally couldn't help but ask Chen Jing, who was sitting there: "River God, what is this soul thing?"

  Chen Jing didn't answer him immediately, still sitting there, gazing at the starry sky and the river domain. The big red shrimp didn't dare to ask again, but kept turning around beside Chen Jing. When he thought Chen Jing hadn't heard him and wanted to find another chance to ask, Chen Jing suddenly spoke up: "The soul is something that every living being has, it is born and grows together with the physical body of a living being, inseparable."

  "Isn't that spirit supposed to be bodiless?" The big red shrimp's mention of the spirit referred to a vengeful ghost, and he replied quickly, clearly having had this sentence on the tip of his tongue for some time.

  "After a long time, Chen Jing said: 'When a person's physical body and spiritual energy disperse, their vitality is extinguished, and their soul will also rot and disperse into nothingness. But some people's bodies die, yet their souls do not disperse but instead come back to life, this shows that their intentions and aspirations in life were too strong.'"

  "Will, what is will? Why won't the spirit scatter if the will is strong?" The big red shrimp asked quickly.

  Chen Jing remained still, but the big red shrimp knew that his river god father was thinking about his own problem. Sure enough, after a while, Chen Jing said: "Intent is a product of later generations, it's a person's thoughts, constantly changing, constantly growing. Some people die with strong and tenacious intent, some people die with weak intent. I've heard that in ancient times, there were people whose intent was so strong that even if their body was cut into several pieces, they could still not die, this is probably the effect of intent."

  The big red shrimp did not follow up with a question this time, but instead fell into thought. After a while, he said: "I heard that the person who was cut into several pieces was able to survive because they had cultivated an extremely powerful divine ability."

  This doubt is not unique to the Big Red Shrimp, but rather it's a question that every living being who embarks on the path of cultivation will have. It's a kind of obstacle on the path of cultivation. Some people seek answers on their own until they die without understanding, some think deeply and answer themselves, while others ask those wiser than themselves. Like seeking out a master or asking about the Tao, then taking the other person's words as truth. The Big Red Shrimp asked Chen Jing, but Chen Jing didn't ask anyone else. He was simply answering based on his own many years of cultivation experience and insight.

  Chen Jing thought for a moment and replied, "There are countless living beings in the world. Why can some fly through the sky and traverse the earth, driving fog and clouds to roam freely? We all live under the same sky, so why is there a difference?"

  The big red shrimp thought for a moment before blurting out: "Wanting to cultivate is not that easy, opportunities and enlightenment are indispensable, every living being is different, so the things they cultivate are also different."

  "That's it, under the same sky, some people will embark on a cultivation path due to good fortune, and others will attain profound spiritual powers because of their innate talent. However, in these thousands of years, how many people have you heard of who can still live after being beheaded? We can't, and people from that era haven't heard of anyone either, why is that?"

  The green moss shell unknowingly arrived in front of the River God Temple, standing quietly under the sparse starlight. The big red shrimp was stunned, not knowing how to respond. Chen Jing didn't look at him, as if talking to himself: "Because people are different, it's not because of the divine power. It should be said that there is a kind of heart and a kind of person who can cultivate a certain kind of divine power. I think that only by choosing a divine power that suits one's own nature can one exert the greatest power."

  The big red shrimp still didn't make a sound, he was thinking about what Chen Jing had said. Chen Jing continued: "That is to say, the perfect combination of a person's physical body and soul forms an independent small world. When we come into this world, consciousness slowly arises, grows, and controls the body. However, when the body ages and dies, consciousness does not die, it still wants to live on. Without a physical body, it attaches itself to the soul, wanting to continue existing. Only some strong consciousness can prevent the soul from dispersing."

  "Opportunities have been accompanying every person since the creation of heaven and earth. Most people regard opportunities as dirt, squandering them at will. Some people try their best to grasp every opportunity, but those who ultimately achieve great things are not always those who strive to seize opportunities. If opportunities could be known and grasped by humans, they would no longer be called opportunities. Calamity and fortune are unpredictable, and only come from one's own doing. Therefore, all practitioners in the world know that the foundation of practice lies in cultivating the mind, and there is also the saying that true cultivation of virtue and accumulation of good fortune is profound."