Start slaying demons from the proficiency panel.

Triple hammer force!

As Ning Xiu slammed his hammer down, the tree demon's shoulder couldn't withstand the combined attack of his internal force and triple hammer blows, and the entire piece split open on the spot.

An arm suddenly detached from his body and fell to the ground.

The tree spirit's body trembled repeatedly, and a large number of tree roots immediately grew from the severed arm, attempting to form a completely new arm.

But Ning Xiu wouldn't give it that chance; his next hammer blow was aimed at the tree demon's neck.

Just then, a sudden change occurred.

The fruits shaped like human heads hanging on the treetops shimmered with colorful brilliance.

Before Ning Xiu could react, all the heads suddenly opened their eyes, and black threads shot out from their eyes. These black threads ignored the golden bell and Ning Xiu's external internal force and shot into Ning Xiu's body at an extremely fast speed.

An indescribable sense of disgust suddenly arose in Ning Xiu's heart.

Tyranny, greed, cruelty, lust, gluttony, bloodlust... all sorts of emotions that Ning Xiu had never experienced before surfaced in that instant.

“I have cultivated for over two hundred years, yet I am not good at fighting. You are stubborn and incorrigible. Since you are so fond of fighting, then stay here and become my protector from now on.”

Seeing that Ning Xiu had been hit, the tree demon spoke slowly.

Ning Xiu's crimson body began to slowly turn black, starting from his heart, and then the blackness spread outwards like ink.

In no time, half of Ning Xiu's body had turned pitch black, and his expression was as ferocious as a malevolent god. The golden sun pattern on his back had also turned into a white-edged black sun.

It creates a striking contrast with the other half of the gold-edged red sun.

“You…you wish…you dream on…” Ning Xiu struggled, clutching his chest.

The evil thoughts that erupted from the depths of his heart were like a virus invading every inch of his body. If this continued, it was only a matter of time before Ning Xiu's own thoughts were devoured by these evil thoughts.

The body will be completely controlled by evil thoughts, and from then on, it will become a walking corpse controlled by evil thoughts.

Fortunately, the Burning Sun Supreme Scripture has the ability to resist this evil thought, so Ning Xiu can hold on for a long time.

Just as Ning Xiu was resisting, a dazzling light suddenly shone from the black silver chainmail and clothes that he had previously thrown on the ground.

Then a string of Buddhist prayer beads suddenly flew up, carrying a white round bead, and flew quickly toward Ning Xiu.

The prayer beads spun rapidly, then suddenly exploded, scattering into twelve single beads that landed in a straight line on Ning Xiu's blackened left arm, as if a pressure point had been struck, with half of them disappearing directly into Ning Xiu's left arm.

The white bead merged into Ning Xiu's left palm and began to absorb the dark evil thoughts of that half of his body.

In this way, Ning Xiu instantly felt the invading sensation in his body gradually recede and dissipate, and the control of his body was constantly returning.

"How could this be?!" Upon seeing this, the tree demon was immediately shocked.

It never imagined that anyone could resist the erosion of evil thoughts and even suppress them.

In this way, its methods of controlling Ning Xiu would become completely ineffective.

【053】The World of the Murals on the Rotten Chess Table

"This thing actually helped me!" Ning Xiu looked quite surprised as he looked at the white bead in his palm.

This white bead is none other than the ghost tear left in the eyes of the vengeful woman.

When Su Qianqian said that this item had great uses and was a treasure, Ning Xiu didn't take it seriously.

But looking at it today, this thing is indeed a treasure.

All the dark evil thoughts were suppressed and absorbed by the string of Buddhist beads of Ghost Tears and Monk Zhengwu. Ning Xiu's body returned to normal. Without delay, he swung his hammer directly at the tree demon.

This evil spirit is unpredictable and treacherous; who knows what other sinister techniques it might be hiding? Ning Xiu can't afford to delay any longer.

The tree demon might not be so lucky next time it was hit. Seeing Ning Xiu approaching, it hurriedly tried to escape.

As it just said, it is not good at fighting, and if it were to fight Ning Xiu to the death, it would definitely not be a match for Ning Xiu.

"Wait! I am willing to negotiate with you, and I am willing to send you away from this place," the tree spirit hurriedly shouted.

But Ning Xiu was unwilling to listen to these things. If such evil spirits were not eliminated today, they would surely become a great calamity in the future.

The internal energy of the Burning Sun Taiyao Scripture erupted at this moment and was completely poured into the Thunder Hammer by Ning Xiu. This hammer blow would be Ning Xiu's most powerful hammer blow to date.

boom!

The tree spirit's neck snapped off, and the trunk, which was covered with numerous human-headed fruits, separated from the tree spirit's body on the spot.

Without the tree spirit's nourishment, all the human head fruits withered and shrank at a visible speed.

"My two hundred years of cultivation have been destroyed in the hands of this brat... I am not reconciled!!!"

The tree demon's voice grew weaker and weaker until it was gradually burned to ashes by Ning Xiu's crimson internal energy, its breath extinguished.

[Defeat the ferocious god and gain 3000 general proficiency points]

Ning Xiu nodded. Just as he had guessed, the tree demon was indeed the incarnation of Jinzhao Temple, or rather, the true form of Jinzhao Temple.

For over two hundred years, this evil god has taken countless innocent people into this mural world, which it claims is used for its own cultivation.

As soon as the evil god died, this mural world began to tremble violently, seemingly on the verge of collapse.

Ning Xiu quickly deactivated his Heavenly King state, went over to get his long robe and black silver chainmail, put them on, and then ran to the still drunken Ren Qianxing and Zheng Wu, forcibly slapping each of them hard across the face to sober them up immediately.

As a demon-slaying officer, he mistakenly entered this strange place and was caught in the same trap as the ordinary people around him. If I hadn't arrived in time, his life would probably have been in danger. Such negligence deserves this slap.

After Ning Xiu slapped them twice, Ren Qianxing and Zheng Wu cried out in pain and quickly covered their faces as they got up from the ground.

"Brother Ning? What are you doing here?" Ren Qianxing said happily.

"Let's not talk about this for now. Let's get ready; we should be leaving this place soon," Ning Xiu said, looking up at the increasingly noticeable trembling of the earth around them.

All that could be seen were colorful bubbles floating in the air. When everyone opened their eyes again, they found themselves back in the Great Buddha Hall.

Besides Ning Xiu, Ren Qianxing, and Monk Zhengwu, there were quite a few other people in the Mahavira Hall at the same time.

Knights-errant, merchants, officials, bodyguards... they were all ordinary people who had been captured by Jinzhao Temple in the mural world, and also the group of people who drank human saliva as peach blossom wine under the peach tree with Ren Qianxing and Zhengwu.

With the death of the evil spirit of Jinzhao Temple, all these people were released from the mural world.

"Lord Ning! You've come out!" Xia Yunsi, who had been waiting in the main hall, ran over with a joyful expression when she saw Ning Xiu and the other two suddenly appear.

"What's going on? This is Jinzhao Temple, so where were we just now?" Ren Qianxing asked, rubbing his dizzy head.

"Hey, where are the prayer beads my master gave me? They're nowhere to be found." Zhengwu searched his entire body but couldn't find the prayer beads anywhere.

Meanwhile, all around Jinzhao Temple.

Groups of people who had been captured in the mural world were released. Like Ren Qianxing, they all looked around in bewilderment, wondering why they were in this place.

Those who had been trapped for hundreds of years were instantly reduced to bones after leaving the mural world, without even having time to react.

Having spent over a hundred years in the world of murals, they were long dead. Now that they have returned to the mortal world, they are simply returning to dust, unable to escape the laws of nature.

People who have been trapped for decades begin to age at a visible rate, transforming into the physical state expected of their age.

"No! How could my body be like this?" the groom, still on horseback, exclaimed in a hoarse voice.

His horse was already old enough to die, and it would have collapsed to the ground, causing the groom to tumble off its back. But even so, he was completely unmoved, staring incredulously at his wrinkled and age-spotted hands with eyes filled with fear.

How can I, in this state, possibly marry my wife?

"How come we're still at Jinzhao Temple!" The woman in the green dress sitting in the carriage looked incredulously at the torrential rain outside the window. In her memory, the caravan should have already evacuated dozens of miles away from Jinzhao Temple long ago.

How did we end up back here in the blink of an eye, with so many unfamiliar faces all around us? The once desolate and quiet Jinzhao Temple had suddenly become bustling with activity.

In an instant, the already dilapidated Jinzhao Temple began to decay. The main hall and corridors inside the temple began to dissipate like quicksand in the wind, eventually turning into ruins.

With the death of the evil spirit of Jinzhao Temple, this once ancient Buddhist temple could no longer withstand the erosion of time and entered the final stage of destruction.

No one noticed, including Ning Xiu himself, that the moment Jinzhao Temple began to weather, a large number of transparent fragments swarmed toward Ning Xiu and then silently merged into his left arm.

At this moment, the night had passed, and a faint white light appeared on the eastern mountain peaks, signaling the arrival of dawn.

It's a brand new day.

……

The matter of the evil spirit at Jinzhao Temple is really difficult to explain to the people trapped inside. The most suffering are those who have been trapped in the world of murals for decades.

Having been out of touch with the outside world for decades, and unaware of what changes have occurred to his parents, wife, and daughters, he has lost decades of information about the current business world.

In their respective hometowns, they have likely already been identified by the authorities as missing persons who are dead. It would be extremely difficult for these people to return to their former normal lives.

Such a story of watching chess until the axe handle rots is considered bizarre and unbelievable, and most people would consider it a fantasy.

After searching through the ruined Jinzhao Temple, Ning Xiu recovered Black Wind, Black Tiger, and Iron-Eating Beast. He then explained the situation to Ren Qianxing, Zheng Wu, and Xia Yunsi.

Then the four of them went off separately to tell the bewildered people about the matter.

After hearing the truth about Jinzhao Temple, some people were shocked and greatly surprised.

Some people burst into tears on the spot, lamenting how many years of their lives could be wasted like this, and how some people had spent half their lives in the world of murals.

Some people stayed in the world of murals until they were halfway to their graves.

Seeing these people crying so miserably, Ning Xiu could understand them very well.

After all, in the story of "Watching Chess and Rotten Axe Handle," only the axe handle rotted, and only the people outside the mountains aged; the woodcutter, on the other hand, was unaffected by the passage of time.

Some people began to leave Jinzhao Temple one after another, preparing to return to their hometowns for a visit.

Some people remain in Jinzhao Temple, trapped in their memories, unable to extricate themselves. Everything seems like a fleeting dream; they have stayed there for too long and can no longer distinguish between reality and illusion.

They need to be given some time to recover.

As dawn broke in the east, the torrential rain finally stopped, and the air in the mountains and forests became exceptionally fresh, carrying with it the fragrance of damp earth and grass.

Everything that needed to be explained has been explained. Those who are still not quite ready should be given time. Ning Xiu and the others have important matters to attend to, so they cannot stay and accompany them any longer.

After the rain stopped, the group mounted their horses and left Jinzhao Temple, continuing their journey to Shenjia Town.

"My lords! My lords!"

However, not long after leaving Jinzhao Temple, they heard shouts from others behind them.

Ning Xiu turned around and saw that the newcomers were none other than the Li family's merchant caravan.

After the incident at Jinzhao Temple, the woman in the green dress became even more eager to travel with the Demon-Subduing Officer.

Having finally found himself on the same starting line as these Demon-Subduing Officers, he naturally had to swallow his pride and ask to curry favor with them.