The two fell silent for a long time. They were equally lost about the future, and in a roundabout way, this brought them closer.
Hou Niao turned to leave, then suddenly remembered something else. "Daoist Chongling of the Anhe Daoist Sect passed away over two hundred years ago. Is he still in the Netherworld?"
After their conversation, asking about the whereabouts of Living Souls in the Netherworld was no longer an issue. Xie Wuyou answered promptly,
"He was reincarnated decades ago, but I can't tell you where he was reborn, because..."
Hou Niao interrupted him with a smile. "That is only right. Brother Xie, even if you were willing to tell me, I might not dare listen... Then has Xiang Zhiwen of the Shan Kingdom's Quanzhen Sect also been reincarnated?"
He did not ask about his parents, not because he did not want to, but because they were bound to have been reincarnated several times already and would have long since forgotten him.
When mortals entered the Netherworld, they would be reborn within a hundred years. By that reckoning, someone like Old Hou would have been reincarnated at least twice and drunk Meng Po Soup at least twice. Even his appearance would have changed completely into someone else's, so there was simply no need.
But cultivators' Mental Power far surpassed that of mortals. They needed more tempering in the Netherworld to wear away that thread of cultivation awareness etched deep into their souls, so they took longer to reincarnate. This was why, after coming to the Netherworld, he could only ask about these companions on the path of cultivation.
Xie Wuyou checked. "Xiang Zhiwen? Hmm, he's actually still in the Netherworld. His Mental Power is certainly tenacious. Even now, he hasn't shed that spirit of being a Sword Cultivator, so