Start slaying demons from the proficiency panel.

The surroundings were no longer the Mahavira Hall that he was about to smash down, but a wasteland full of ruins and overgrown with withered grass.

Several old trees, long since withered and stripped of their leaves, stood in the wasteland, their branches growing wildly like flags, with a few crows perched on them.

"Xia Yunsi?" Ning Xiu looked around, but did not see Xia Yunsi.

It seems that either the other party is not in the same place as me, or I, like the Li family caravan, Ren Qianxing, and Zhengwu, have also entered the mural.

"Just as Xia Yunsi said, this Jinzhao Temple is indeed a fierce god. Its innate supernatural power is to capture people into the murals. It is well hidden. Even the Spirit Eye Observation Technique cannot detect a trace of it." Ning Xiu carried the Thunder Hammer on his shoulder and then chose a direction nearby to walk over.

Since we're already in this situation, let's make the best of it and see what other tricks Jinzhao Temple has up its sleeve. We can also search around and, if we can find any trace of Ren Qianxing and his companion, that would be great.

However, just as Ning Xiu was about to leave, the crows perched on the branches suddenly cried out loudly.

quack quack!

The piercing cry instantly echoed throughout the wasteland. The sound was like a demonic chant, penetrating the ears and brainwashing, making people dizzy and uncomfortable.

A nauseating sensation, as if something was crawling up from his stomach and down his throat, arose within Ning Xiu.

Having experienced the effects of evil energy entering the body before, Ning Xiu instantly understood that the concentration of evil energy here was so high that even his fifth-grade martial arts would be affected, and it had probably accumulated to a terrifying level.

Supernatural Power: Blood and Qi Furnace!

Ning Xiu immediately activated one of his divine abilities, and his entire body instantly turned crimson red, from head to toe, his skin as red as fire, with steam rising from it.

With the blessing of the Divine Blood Qi Furnace, Ning Xiu's powerful blood qi surged wildly, instantly eliminating the discomfort in his body.

At the same time, this blood energy also affected the area where Ning Xiu was located. It was visible to the naked eye that a large amount of black energy around Ning Xiu was burned and turned into smoke and dissipated.

For martial artists, blood and qi are the best means of dispelling evil spirits. They can even exert great suppression on some yin spirits when facing evil spirits, leaving the opponent with no ability to resist.

quack quack!

Several crows spread their wings and flew high. One after another, they spat out a white bead that fell to the ground. Before Ning Xiu could see what it was,

These beads have already disappeared into the soil.

In the blink of an eye, a loud noise suddenly erupted from beneath the ground, and several mounds rose high from the earth, transforming into several giant hands that burst forth from the soil.

On the palm of each giant hand was a bright green eye, which was now staring intently at Ning Xiu.

"It's good that you've shown yourself, saving me the trouble of searching for you everywhere." Ning Xiu activated the Burning Sun Taiyao Scripture, spewing flames from his mouth and billowing smoke from his nose. He took a sudden step and charged forward, swinging his hammer.

Martial arts practitioners do not reason; they fight.

[050] Now it has been more than forty years.

As Ning Xiu set off, those giant hands reached out to grab him.

Each giant hand has a rock-like texture on its surface, and it looks very hard. If you were hit by it, the consequences wouldn't be good.

Especially the eyes growing from the palms of those giant hands, Ning Xiu always sensed a strange aura from them, and these eyes definitely hid something fishy.

Without saying a word, as Ning Xiu got closer and closer to one of the giant hands, he immediately swung his arms and smashed it out.

The internal force adhered to the surface of the Thunder Hammer, and the moment Ning Xiu swung it, it directly transformed into a surge of heat.

Before the Thunder Hammer could even strike the giant palm, Ning Xiu's scorching internal energy had already hit the surface of the giant palm, engulfing it in burning flames.

Although these flames are not real fire, but rather unusual manifestations of the Burning Sun Supreme Scripture technique, they possess a more terrifying lethality than real fire against evil spirits.

The giant hand struggled in the flames, but no matter how it moved, it could not extinguish the flames on its body.

With no other option, they retreated underground, attempting to extinguish the flames in this way.

But Ning Xiu obviously wouldn't give it that chance. Before the giant hand had even retreated back to the ground, Ning Xiu had already smashed the eyeball on its surface with a hammer.

boom!

In an instant, juices splattered and blood and pus gushed out.

The giant hand had no mouth and could not express its pain by howling. It could only convulse and tremble and struggle on the ground. The eyeball being smashed open was obviously a serious injury to it.

In less than a breath, the giant hand became completely still, lying stiffly on the ground and began to shrink, eventually turning into a dried-up piece of flesh.

[Defeat evil spirits to gain +500 general proficiency]

The moment the giant hand died, Ning Xiu received a notification from the panel. Judging from the proficiency level, the giant hand demon's strength was around rank eight or nine, not very strong.

But it's more than enough to deal with ordinary people who have wandered into this place by mistake.

The death of one giant hand did not cause panic among the remaining giant hands; instead, it fueled the ferocity of these evil spirits.

Two giant hands rushed towards Ning Xiu from his left and right sides, seemingly preparing to launch a pincer attack. Just as the two giant hands were about to strike Ning Xiu...

hum!

A deep, resonant bell suddenly rang out, and a dazzling golden bell instantly appeared around Ning Xiu, enveloping his entire body.

Supernatural Power: Golden Bell Protection!

boom!

Two giant hands slammed down on the surface of the golden bell, but the bell did not budge, and Ning Xiu, who was inside the bell, was completely unaffected.

Instead, the two giant hands were directly blasted out of their eyeballs by the recoil, and he died on the spot.

[Defeat evil spirits to gain +500 general proficiency]

[Defeat evil spirits to gain +500 general proficiency]

Ning Xiu looked at this scene and laughed, "I didn't expect that the Golden Bell Shield could not only block the enemy's attack, but also reflect the force back. This saves me a lot of trouble."

Now that Ning Xiu has reached the fifth rank of martial arts, these low-level evil spirits can no longer pose any threat to him. He easily eliminated three evil spirits, and then looked at the remaining giant palm evil spirits. Without any hesitation, he continued to raise his hammer and charge forward.

Even the smallest mosquito leg is still meat; kill it.

After Ning Xiu had killed all the giant hand evil spirits, the crows that had spat out their eyeballs had long since flown away to some unknown place.

Judging from the current situation, the evil spirit of Jinzhao Temple seems to have the ability to take people who enter the temple to other places. However, Ning Xiu does not yet know whether the place he is in is the inner cave of Jinzhao Temple or the Sumeru World.

With the hammer on his shoulder, Ning Xiu climbed onto the withered trees where crows had once perched, using the height to survey his surroundings.

Unfortunately, the further away you go, the darker it gets, and you can't see anything at all.

In the north, however, thick fog blankets the area, making it impossible to see anything clearly inside.

"The Ren Qianxing and the monk Zhengwu I saw in the murals were in a white fog, unlike the people in the other murals in Jinzhao Temple who had various landscapes behind them. Could the white fog refer to these fogs?"

Ning Xiu pondered silently, if that were really the case, he might actually be able to find these two people.

Ning Xiu immediately jumped down from the treetop and quickly ran towards the direction of the thick fog to the north.

……

“Lord Ning!” Standing inside the main hall, Xia Yunsi stared incredulously at the murals on the wall.

Originally, there were only the figures of Ren Qianxing and Zheng Wu on it, but now a new mural has appeared out of nowhere not far from the two of them.

In this mural, Ning Xiuzheng, carrying a thunder hammer, stands on a desolate, ruined black earth. Beside him, a large number of crows perch on several crooked trees, creating a rather eerie scene.

Just now, Xia Yunsi couldn't even explain what had happened.

She felt a sticky sensation all around her, and all she could see was a colorful array of bubbles. When her vision returned to normal, Ning Xiu, who should have been standing next to her, was nowhere to be seen.

Along with them disappeared, the two black winds, the black tiger, and the iron-eating beast in the main hall also vanished.

……

As he stepped into the white mist, his field of vision shrank rapidly. Ning Xiu could only see the ground five steps away. Every step forward was fraught with unknown danger.

No one knows what the situation is like inside this thick fog, whether there are any evil spirits, or how many there are.

Ning Xiu had the Golden Bell protecting him, so he felt somewhat secure. Unless he encountered a very strong evil spirit, it would be impossible for it to break through his Golden Bell protection.

Didi da didi da didi!

After walking several hundred steps deeper into the fog, Ning Xiu suddenly heard a very lively sound of gongs and drums.

There was even a loud suona horn playing, full of celebration and joy.

Ning Xiu had heard of such a spectacle before when he was in Chaotiandu; it was something only done when someone was going to get married.

In this eerie and gloomy place, how could anyone possibly be there to welcome a bride?

Ning Xiu immediately headed in the direction from which the sound came. Now that he was trapped in this place, there was no way out but death if he continued to wait.

Only by finding and eliminating the evil spirit of Jinzhao Temple can they escape.

And the evil spirits living here might just know the answer Ning Xiu wants.

After walking over a hundred steps through the thick fog, Ning Xiu's vision suddenly cleared. Following the sound of the wedding instruments, he actually walked out of the foggy area.

Below them was a hillside, and at the foot of the hill, a wedding procession of dozens of people was walking along the road. The musicians in the procession were playing gongs and drums, and they looked just like ordinary people.

Everyone in the wedding procession was dressed in bright red clothes, and the groom, sitting on his tall horse, looked extremely pleased with himself, his expression full of contentment.

"Huh? How could this be..." Ning Xiu's expression suddenly turned extremely surprised. He had checked with his spiritual eye technique and found that there was not a trace of evil energy on this group of people. They were just a group of ordinary people.

In a place like this, what about the common people? A wedding procession?

The whole thing was bizarre and inexplicable.

To resolve his doubts, Ning Xiu immediately rushed down the hillside and went straight to the front of the wedding procession, blocking their path.

"Shut up!"

Seeing that a person was rushing down the hillside to block the road, the groom quickly grabbed the horse's reins and stopped him.

Upon seeing that the newcomer was none other than the Demon-Subduing Guardian clad in black silver chainmail, he immediately dismounted and said with a smile, "This humble one greets Your Excellency. May I ask what brings you to my road?"

"Where are you all going?" Ning Xiu asked.

"Your Excellency, I have come from Jingzhou, on my way to Nanjiang City to fetch my bride," the groom replied truthfully.

Nanjiang City is the capital of Yunze Prefecture, and there is no problem with that.

The problem is that this group isn't actually in Yunze Prefecture, so no matter how far they travel, it's all in vain. They have no way of reaching Nanjiang City. Don't they realize their own predicament?

Looking at the groom in his brand-new attire and the bewildered wedding party behind him, Ning Xiu suddenly realized something and asked, "Have you stayed overnight at Jinzhao Temple along the way?"

The groom laughed and said, "We did stay overnight. How did you know, sir? A few days ago, it rained heavily on the road, so we took shelter in Jinzhao Temple and left when the weather cleared up. But that was several days ago. You are truly a genius, sir."

This group of people actually thought they had left Jinzhao Temple and were on their way to Nanjiang City, but they didn't know that they had been trapped inside Jinzhao Temple from the beginning and had never left.