Riding the wind, I leisurely ascend to the ninth heaven; treading on clouds, I sing a lofty song at ease.

  This was the state of mind Chen Jing had always wanted, but he never thought that one day when he soared to the ninth heaven on the wind, the sky above his head would suddenly become overcast with dark clouds. As he continued to ascend, he felt a sense of foreboding that there was mortal danger lurking above the nine heavens, directly threatening his soul. The higher he went, the clearer the feeling became. Looking up, the dark clouds seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, like black springs gushing out from the ground.

  Dark clouds are born, covering the sky and blocking out the sun, a strong gust of wind suddenly darkens, and lightning flashes within the black clouds.

  "Sizzling... ssss... "

  Chen Jing was secretly shocked, what's going on? How did it suddenly rise into the sky like a spiritual being crossing the tribulation? Looking at that momentum, it seemed to be directly pointing at the soul command symbol. There was a feeling of thunder striking the flesh and shattering the soul. He hurriedly fell back to the ground, and when he raised his head again, the sky had become gentle and cloudy, everything seemed like an illusion.

  Return to the earth and calm down, then think of Wu Mingshan God who said that the gods in the world can't cross borders privately, they need to get a token from the Heavenly Court to go elsewhere. Now everyone can move around, only because the Heavenly Court has mysteriously disappeared. The restrictions have been reduced, but it is still not possible to fly away in the sky, the ban set by the Heavenly Court for the gods in the world is still there, just much lighter. Chen Jing couldn't help but secretly feel that the power of the Heavenly Court was so great back then, even the gods didn't dare to leave their domains without permission, let alone roam freely in the nine heavens.

  So Chen Jing could only fly low and escape, so every time he passed through a place, he had to carefully sense whether there were any gods in that place. However, he found that in places where people were scarce, there were generally no gods, or the gods were very weak, perhaps due to the great changes in heaven and earth thousands of years ago, the heavenly court disappeared, causing countless small gods on the ground to fall into a state of disarray.

  There are gods that can be clearly felt, but they are not the original gods, but rather mountain spirits that have occupied the position of the gods. Generally, such gods and scenes will try to avoid them as much as possible, and even dare not pass through densely populated areas, where there are generally many gods and more powerful city gods guarding the city.

  As he walked along, he suddenly met someone in the mountains.

  This person is Zhao Yuxian, the Zhao Yuxian of Xueyuan Mountain's Xianfu Sect.

  His bookish robe was somewhat dirty and looked very disheveled, but his mental state was extremely good.

  When Chen Jing saw him, he was confronting an old bear with a green tree branch in his hand as a wooden stick, and there was still no sign of any magic power on his body. The green wooden stick faced the old black bear, slowly retreating, ready to choose a direction to escape at any time. The old black bear already had a faint aura of evil spirits on its body, although it was not strong, it was slowly opening up its spiritual wisdom.

  Zhao Yubao was absolutely unable to escape, Chen Jing descended from the sky and slapped the old bear's head with a palm, killing it.

  When Zhao Yubai saw Chen Jing's face clearly, he let out a loud cry and turned to run. Chen Jing watched him run away with some discomfort in his heart. The scene of their first meeting at Xianfu Sect was still vivid in his mind. Just as Chen Jing was about to cut off this past affair, Zhao Yubai ran back. He saw that Chen Jing was still standing there and was very afraid, but he didn't turn around and run again. Instead, he swallowed hard, turned around Chen Jing's center, and slowly circled around him, as if afraid of startling Chen Jing, apparently wanting to sneak past Chen Jing and escape. Chen Jing stood still, only looking at Zhao Yubai, looking at this young scholar who came out of Xianfu Sect but had no magical powers.

  He finally got around Chen Jing, turned his head and ran. Chen Jing thought that there might be something behind him chasing him, and the mountains and wild beasts were full of ferocious beasts, preparing to intercept him, but what he waited for was not a monster, but Zhao Yuzhen. He ran back again, seeing Chen Jing still in time, this time seeing Chen Jing obviously not as afraid as before, but still extremely vigilant.

  Chen Jing was about to let him go, but then he suddenly spoke up: "Mr. Demon God, thank you for saving my life. As the saint once said, 'Save a person and save them thoroughly.' I wonder if Mr. Demon God can save me again?"

  His words had just fallen, and in his eyes, the face as dry as a skull, with green moss growing on it, the demon god had disappeared. Only after a while, the dark wind rose beside him, and the demon god returned.

  "I am here, they dare not come near." Chen Jing's voice was heard by Zhao Yubai without any emotion, cold and hard.

  Zhao Yubai didn't doubt Chen Jing's words at all, and nodded repeatedly. Then he heard Chen Jing say: "Where are you going? I'll take you there!"

  "Much, much thanks, no, not needed..." Zhao Yubai hastily refused. In his eyes, the demon god in front of him seemed a bit strange, and could even be said to look somewhat familiar. Apart from the body, the attire, hair style, everything looked exactly like a weirdo he had seen before.

  Chen Jing fell silent for a moment, frightening Zhao Yubai into stillness. He let out a sigh and turned to leave.

  "Is it you?"

  Chen Jing's foot, which was about to step out, suddenly stopped.

  "Are you the one who gave me the invisibility charm?" Zhao Yubai asked tentatively.

  Chen Jing turned around, and Zhao Yuxi said with a surprised tone: "I recognize your eyes, your eyes have a hard and cold rejection of thousands of miles, but within this hardness and coldness, there is also a soft compassion." Chen Jing still didn't speak, but he was certain: "How did you become like this?"

  "You didn't run into my second uncle that day, did you?"

  "It can't be... it can't be that my second uncle was the one who hurt him like this, right?" Zhao Yubao quickly asked: "Oh dear, I'm really sorry, I said my second uncle is a good person, how could he, how could he do something like this..."

  "No." Chen Jing finally spoke up in a brief tone.

  "Really? Isn't it?"

  Chen Jing never thought he would meet Zhao Yubai again, especially after killing his uncle. Although it was under the control of resentment and he had no choice, everything seemed like a dream, but thinking back, he knew he must have killed them, for in the midst of that crazy killing intent, he was still alive, which meant they were definitely dead.

  A bonfire was lit in the dark woods, with a faint light that could hardly illuminate a small area, and certainly couldn't clearly show Chen Jing's face, which was hidden by his black hair as he lowered his head.

  Zhao Yubai, however, was quite excited. When he heard that Chen Jing said it wasn't his second uncle who had hurt him, he immediately became lively and no longer feared Chen Jing. He told the whole story from when he escaped from his own forbidden land through a secret passage in the mountains, to how he used a stolen divine movement symbol to make his way here, only to get lost in these mountains. He also said that he encountered a fox, who claimed to be a fox spirit and wanted to marry him. This scared him so much that he immediately turned around and ran, but no matter how far he ran, the fox would always block his path. When he arrived here, he coincidentally met Old Black Bear, and was rescued by Chen Jing.

  "You are my first friend." Zhao Yubai's spirit was soaring, Chen Jing raised his head in surprise, although he didn't say anything, but Zhao Yubai seemed to sense Chen Jing's doubt. He immediately continued: "That's right, you're my first friend outside of Xianfu Sect, not a fellow disciple or brother, but a friend I made myself, isn't that so?"

  Chen Jing looked at his seemingly innocent eyes, and no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't nod in agreement, let alone say "yes". Looking into his eyes, Chen Jing felt a pang of heartache, lowered his head, and hid his face in the shadow of his hair.

  "I knew you'd say yes, haha……" Zhao Yuban exclaimed loudly, seeing Chen Jing lower his head, thinking he was nodding. Although they hadn't been in contact for long, it seemed like they were old friends for many years, completely unreserved and no longer afraid of Chen Jing's appearance.

  "By the way, how did you end up here and where are you headed?"

  "Being hunted down."

  "Who is chasing you and why?"

  "I killed someone."

  "Who was killed?"

  Chen Jing didn't lift his head, Zhao Yubai couldn't see his expression clearly and said: "You don't seem like someone who would casually take a life, if you want to kill him, he must have done something that can't be forgiven!"

  "Sometimes, people are helpless and are controlled by the chaotic thoughts in their minds. Even if they wake up to regret it later, no matter how much they regret it, they can't change the fact that they've done something wrong. This is undeniable." Chen's throat was stiff, and his words were somewhat stiff as well, so he tried to speak slowly and clearly.

  Zhao Yubo thought for a moment and said: "You're saying you killed someone because you had no choice!"

  Chen Jing didn't respond, so Zhao Yubai assumed he was in agreement and continued: "Let me defend you. I'll go tell them that nobody is perfect, who can be without fault? Since it's an unintentional mistake, it can be forgiven. However, can you explain to me how...how did you end up in this situation?"

  "There is a kind of curse in this world that can turn people into mindless zombies."

  The flames burning dry wood crackled, making Chen Jing's voice seem hollow and illusory in the stillness of the mountains.

  "What kind of spell is this? Is it a talisman or an incantation?" Zhao Yuxian knew quite a bit about it, even though she didn't know how to cast spells and hadn't cultivated any.

  "Soul curse, the curse of the dead soul."

  "Soul curse? This is a witch's curse, how can there still be people in this world who..."

  Zhao Yubai had not finished speaking, when Chen Jing suddenly lifted his head to gaze into the pitch-black night sky, his eyes gleaming like thorns. Zhao Yubai also looked up at the night sky, but saw only a multitude of stars and nothing else. When he turned back, Chen Jing was already standing up, with an additional talisman in his hand that had been condensed from spiritual energy.

  "Amulet!" Zhao Yubai only took a glance and recognized it, Chen Jing handed over the gray amulet and said: "If you want to find me, come to Jiuhua State's Qu River water domain, Xiu Spring Bay." After finishing speaking, he didn't wait for Zhao Yubai, who had just received the amulet, to say anything before he flew into the air and disappeared into the darkness.

  "I'll definitely go, and I'll even treat you to a Drunken Immortal's Dream!" Zhao Yubai shouted towards the pitch-black night sky.

  He sat down again, carefully looking at the amulet in his hand. Although he didn't know magic and couldn't cultivate the Tao, his eyesight was extremely good, and he knew a lot of things. Chen Jing didn't recognize the characters on the symbol, but he did. The character was an ancient divine script, if explained, it would be a single 'protect' character. In his heart, Chen Jing's magical power was one of the highest he had ever seen in his life.

  Suddenly, he felt that someone was watching him in the darkness, and hastily looked around, finally seeing a person on the top of a tree not far away from him, with an unclear figure under the light of the fire on the ground.