"Five years, five years, if it were an ordinary person in the mortal world, how many more five years would they have?" Chen Jing sighed lightly. Now his spirit was sealed within this statue, and physically speaking, he was like a stone statue that had opened its spiritual aperture, only able to cultivate passively and unable to actively absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. However, in terms of his realm, he was no longer among the ranks of shape-shifting demons. He didn't know how his senior sister Ye Qingxue had managed it, but he knew that for a very long time, he wouldn't be able to move. This period of time, he couldn't determine - perhaps it would be several years, perhaps several hundred years, or maybe even forever.

  Many ghostly objects without physical bodies attached themselves to the statue and enjoyed the incense, using it to cultivate their transformation into immortals. However, he couldn't do so because his consciousness had already become dim at that time. If Ye Qingxue hadn't saved him back then, his soul might have dispersed on the spot. He also recalled what Da Hongxia said about this statue being personally crafted by Ye Qingxue five years ago, and wondered if there was some mysterious mechanism within the statue.

  He is now like a vegetable, can see everything in front of his eyes, can hear the sound in his ears, but he can't do anything. He can still feel the power of the law and the imperial edict, so he is still the river god, but he can't call it at all. It's like being a vegetable with a pile of one's own belongings next to him, but unable to use them.

  Time passed bit by bit, and the people of Heqian Village gradually got up. Those who went to the market hurried to the market, and those who fished went fishing. The river became more and more lively, with one after another singing folk songs. The fisherman's daughters were good at singing, and their voices sounded sweet and ethereal in the morning mist. When the singing started, someone would use a bamboo pole to tap the edge of the wooden boat as accompaniment. A peaceful and harmonious image of fishing village life, so many years have passed, and the scene of the river waves rolling back and forth when the river was flooded has gradually been sealed in people's memories.

  Perhaps after dinner, everyone had a few cups of wine and would talk about the year they witnessed the river god beheading the monster. The children would run to the temple after listening, light a stick of incense on the altar, and pay their respects to the river god statue. After paying their respects, they would examine the river god statue and find that its eyes were like those of a real person, with deep and mysterious black pupils, while the stone sword at its waist seemed majestic and powerful. Because they knew that the river god had a sword that could behead monsters and exorcise evil spirits.

  The morning glow appears, the red sunlight spills over the mountain top and shines on the Jing River. The ripples sparkle, the fishermen greet each other, and the village is already filled with the sounds of chickens and dogs barking.

  Suddenly, someone appeared in front of the River God Temple.

  He looked quite disheveled, with mud all over the hem of his Taoist robe and his hair dripping wet. The yellow goat whiskers under his chin had lost their luster, as if he had been traveling all night. He glanced around at the temple entrance, then stepped inside and pulled out an object from his bosom. It was a package wrapped in talisman paper. After pulling it out, he said to the deity: "I've returned this Clear Mind Demon Vanquishing Sword! Please protect me, considering I once helped you!" He bowed and quickly left without stopping for a moment.

  Chen Jing was baffled, unable to discern the origin of this ageless Taoist priest, nor did he know what the object wrapped in talismans on the incense table was. Looking at it made him feel extremely uncomfortable. However, he couldn't move himself and his magical powers were also unusable. This feeling was just like being hungry and seeing food placed beside him that he couldn't eat.

  In front of the River God Temple, footsteps were heard again, very light, it was a child.

  A little girl, about twelve or thirteen years old, with a small braid that was slightly crooked, as if she had tied it herself without a mirror. There were still many loose hairs scattered around her ears that hadn't been tucked away. Her eyebrows and eyes weren't particularly striking, looking rather ordinary, and somewhat dark, except when she looked at the River God statue, her eyes blinked, giving off a lively impression.

  She stepped over the threshold of the temple, went straight to the incense table, pulled out three sticks of incense, picked up the lighter on the incense table and lit it, knelt down on the mat in front of the god's image, and prayed: "Please, River God, bless Wang Nainai with a speedy recovery, please, River God, bless Zhao Ye with a quick cure for his headache, please, River God, bless Wu Shu with a good price for his fish..." She asked for blessings for over ten people, all of whom were not major issues, but each sentence was particularly sincere.

  After she finished praying, she bowed three times and then inserted the incense into the incense burner. At this moment, she saw the thing wrapped in talisman paper on the table, and out of curiosity, she wanted to pick it up and take a look. Just as she was about to pick it up, she looked up at the statue of the god again and said, "River God, can I take a look?" After asking this question, it seemed like she had gotten the River God's consent, so she picked it up, opened it, and inside was a purple hairpin. Except for its rare purple color, it only looked like a small sword in shape, but it wasn't sharp at all, extremely smooth and round, without any other special features.

  The girl held the purple wooden hairpin, looking left and right, then raised her head to look at the statue of the god. Suddenly, as if she had discovered something, she moved a few steps aside and looked at the statue again. Then, turning the purple wooden hairpin in her hand, she muttered: "Who pulled out the River God's hairpin?"

  After finishing, she climbed up the altar, holding onto the statue and wanting to climb onto Chen Jing's body. However, she was weak and small in stature, panting with exhaustion, but still unable to climb onto the back of the statue. In the end, she ran outside, gathered a few stone blocks, stacked them together, stood on top, and inserted the wooden hairpin into the stone crown of the statue.

  Chen Jing only then knew that on top of the statue's head, there was a special hole for inserting hairpins like this one. He didn't know if it was left by Ye Qingxue beforehand. When the little girl opened the talisman paper, he recognized that it was Ye Qingxue's purple wood hairpin, which was also the Clear Mind Demon-Slaying Sword passed down by Qian Luo Ancestor. However, he had no idea how it ended up in the hands of that Taoist and why the Taoist would return it so desperately. He couldn't figure it out and could only wait for Ye Qingxue to come and explain.

  At the moment when the purple hairpin was inserted into the crown, Chen Jing suddenly felt a coolness spreading in his soul, and some disturbing thoughts in his heart disappeared immediately. At the same time, he faintly felt that there was a clear spirit entering his body from the top of his head.

  The little girl carried the stone back outside the River God Temple, then came back to look at the temple, smiling with satisfaction. After finishing her smile, she turned around and ran towards the gate, but just as she reached the gate, she suddenly stopped because someone was blocking the way. She looked up at the white-clothed woman in front of her, and in her heart, she had never seen such a beautiful person, not even the daughter of Wang, the richest man in town, could compare to this white-clothed woman's beauty.

  "She must be a fairy descended from heaven." The little girl thought to herself, but didn't dare speak out loud, only blinked her eyes repeatedly as she stared, not being afraid at all.

  It was Ye Qingxue who came. She looked at the cypress hairpin on the statue and smiled at the girl: "Was it you who helped the river god put it up?"

  "Uh-huh!" The girl nodded vigorously and then ran outside as if she was afraid someone would hit her or scold her.

  After the girl left, there were only Ye Qingxue and Chen Jing in the River God Temple. Ye Qingxue was still the same as the first time Chen Jing saw her in his memory, without any change at all, while Chen Jing had changed again and again, whether it was inside or outside, and now he had become a stone statue.

  "That hairpin was originally called the Clear Mind Demon-Slaying Sword, a unique treasure passed down by our sect's founder, Qianluo Xingjun. But I didn't like that name, so I changed it to the Clear Mind Purple Wood Hairpin. Last time, when I wanted to find you, I found a fortune teller in Balin City to calculate your whereabouts, but I didn't have any fortune-telling gold on me, so I used this hairpin as the gold instead. After bringing you back, I wanted to exchange it with him, but unexpectedly, that fortune teller had already disappeared. So I spread the word that the Purple Wood Hairpin was a relic left by our sect's founder and wanted to exchange it for something else. Unexpectedly, it actually came back today. This is also good, although I owe someone a favor, your sword has been sealed in the stone statue, you can't be without a protective object, this hairpin is an object of Qianluo Mountain, and as my disciple, you can naturally use it."

  Ye Qingxue was saying while tidying up the things on the incense case and clearing some scattered ash from the table, everything was very natural. She didn't hear Chen Jing's response, raised her head and said: "Shidi, you're already awake, why aren't you speaking?"

  She looked at the statue, and the statue looked back at her. After a long while, the statue suddenly spoke up with a sentence: "Master sister, am I still me?"

  "This was the first sentence Chen Jing said to Ye Qingxue after waking up, and Ye Qingxue smiled lightly after hearing this, then immediately composed her expression, shook her head while staring at the statue, and said: 'You really are not you anymore, my junior brother would never ask such a question.'"

  "But I always feel that I am not myself, but should be a butterfly, or a person named Chen Jing living in Qinhuangcheng." said Chen Jing.

  "Butterfly?" Ye Qingxue furrowed her brow.

  "Butterflies can live a simple life, freely flying in the midst of flowers. Even if they are born in the morning and die at night, or born in spring and perish in autumn, it is still a happy existence." Chen Jing sighed as he spoke.

  Ye Qingxue looked at the statue and smiled lightly: "What about that Chen Jing in Qin Guang City? Why should it be him?"

  "I don't know, I just feel that it should be him," said Chen Jing. In fact, Chen Jing also wanted to say that he was originally a stone statue of Kai Ling, and everything was just an illusion created after his cultivation had entered the demonic barrier.

  Ye Qingxue fell silent for a moment before suddenly asking: "Then what do you think I should be?"

  "Of course Shijie is Shijie, there's only one in the world," said Chen Jing.

  Ye Qingxue smiled, her smile extremely faint, like a leaf gently swaying in the breeze. She looked at Chen Jing and said softly: "Don't blame Shifu for sealing you within this statue, it was unavoidable. If not for being sealed within this statue, your soul would have dispersed long ago. Although so, you still enjoyed five years of incense offerings and were nourished by Xiu Chunwan's spiritual energy for five years before awakening. There is just one thing that exceeded my expectations - your original physical body has already merged with the statue, so to say, your physical body is this statue. In the future, if you want to be completely free, there is only one path to take: transform and leave. Don't blame Shifu."

  Chen Jing hastily said: "In those years, I was being pursued and killed in the icy snow, lying frozen in the snow waiting for death. It was my master sister who carried me up to Qianluo Mountain. In Hei Miao State, it was also my master sister who fought her way out of that encirclement, single-handedly defeating all the heroes of Hei Miao State and saving me. How could I blame my master sister?"

  Ye Qingxue looked at the statue of the god, smiling silently with a deep understanding.