This scoundrel is a bit of a swordsman.

The three large characters "Silent Temple" float in the center of the temple gate. Even after countless years, and even though the temple gate is decayed, these three characters remain completely undamaged.

This is the Silent Temple, the legendary Silent Temple that worships demons. Xiao Xingchen recalled the rumors he had heard at the Silent Temple last time he was outside.

Outside Burning City lies a Flaming Mountain, and within the city is a small, silent temple dedicated to a demon resembling Pigsy (Zhu Bajie). He also overheard that the real silent temples all enshrine demons.

Could this be the legendary Great Silent Temple? He couldn't help but wonder, only by seeing it for himself could he find out the truth.

He stood staring at the three characters for a long time before stepping directly into the temple gate.

Contrary to his expectations, the temple was grand and imposing. Even with the passage of time and the decay of many things, its original outline should still be preserved.

But as he stepped into the temple, he was met with a shattered floor and a dilapidated demon statue.

On either side of the gate stood several large demon statues, but now, all of these statues were shattered and glued together, with dried blood seeping from the gaps in their surfaces.

The yard was riddled with craters, as if something had smashed it open, and broken pieces of belongings were scattered everywhere.

He strolled in, looked up, and saw that the Silent Temple had many levels; he was now on the first level.

If the first level is like this, the other levels must not be much better. There must have been a great battle here, because all the traces are from the fighting.

He even saw a tattered battle flag, with a tattered character for "heaven" still faintly visible on it.

Could it be that Yu Jingtian attacked and wiped out this place?

When it comes to matters of the heavens, the only things he can think of are Yu Jingtian and the 100,000 heavenly soldiers in the illusion. Only this force has the power to exterminate the demon race.

But then another question arose: Heaven and earth give birth to all things, and every race has its reason for existence. Why then does heaven and earth not tolerate demons? This question was buried deep within his heart.

Daji was trapped and remained silent, likely to avoid the wrath of Heaven and Earth, which perfectly illustrates the saying "not daring to speak loudly."

Continuing forward, many large pits appeared in the courtyard, varying in depth and even size. These pits looked somewhat familiar to Xiao Xingchen.

While the clash of melee weapons can create such large craters, there seem to be far too many here. Who would intentionally create craters in the ground during a battle?

This piqued his interest. The courtyard on the first floor was very large, and at the end of the courtyard was a flight of stairs leading to a grand hall, which was vaguely visible. Inside the hall was a huge statue.

For some reason, he carefully observed these deep pits, even touching the soil inside. He felt a strange sense of familiarity; these pits seemed to have been created by gunpowder.

Only gunpowder can explain the sheer number of deep pits here. When the enemy breached the temple gates, gunpowder rained down from the sky, creating a continuous series of explosions, which resulted in the current state of the courtyard.

"If this was indeed caused by gunpowder, then it means that a time traveler once participated in a battle here,"

He decisively concluded that this world didn't yet possess gunpowder; only those who had transmigrated from elsewhere understood it. One of his eight predecessors had once fought here.

Based on these speculations, he began to expand his thoughts. If this speculation was true, then someone must have escaped after the battle, since his predecessors were all buried deep in the Cangshan Mountains. This meant that his predecessors hadn't died here, and since he wasn't a sword immortal, this also meant that there was a way out.

He snapped out of his daze. The most important thing now was to find the escape route his ex had taken, so that he and Ruoxue could leave safely.

But after his initial joy, a new problem began to emerge.

Since gunpowder was involved in the battlefield, there must have been casualties. The courtyard here was severely damaged, but no skeletons were found. Dried bloodstains were present, but where were the bodies?

But these were minor matters; he was now eager to find a way out, and this problem was immediately forgotten.

Let's go check out the main hall first.

There were nineteen steps, not very high, and he leaped up in a few steps. At that moment, the scene before him changed once more.

Although there were only nineteen steps, when he stood on them, he had the illusion of standing on a mountaintop.

He glanced back and was surprised to find that the courtyard below was slowly shrinking, and more and more landforms were beginning to emerge—mountains and forests were appearing before his eyes.

The courtyard seemed to become the vessel for a map, and a huge geographical map began to emerge. Using the courtyard as a base, much like 3D modeling, mountains, rivers, and other geographical features were continuously added, slowly forming a massive map.

At a red dot on this map, there's a flag planted, suggesting that the location of this flag is an important place, hence its separate marking.

The moment the map appeared, the bell rang again.

"Boom"

The echoing bells sent a jolt through his body again; his chest pounded with each beat, his heart pounding so hard it felt like it was about to burst out of his chest.

Between the mind and body, the divine embryo, as if injected with stimulants, began to tremble with the tolling of the bell.

The bell tolled, the divine embryo and the heart beat simultaneously, slowly forming a regular rhythm.

"Thump, boom, thump,"

"Thump, boom, thump,"

The map of mountains and rivers seemed to be responding as well, the illusory map slowly solidifying, allowing Xiao Xingchen to examine it more and more closely.

Although he didn't know what it was, he knew he had to write it down. Its appearance here meant it was no ordinary map.

He even suspected that this map might be what Zhan Wuqing and Wu Xie were looking for.

Although he didn't recognize the mountains and rivers depicted on the map, that didn't stop him from starting to memorize it.

Centered on that flag, he meticulously noted down all the distinctive landforms nearby—the mountains, the rivers, the forests—a sense of unease told him this map would be invaluable in the future.

And the place where the flag was planted must hold a secret unknown to the world.

That wasn't the end of it. When this map of mountains and rivers appeared, the ancestral temple located on the ground suddenly underwent a strange change.

The bells within the ancestral temple tolled incessantly, each chime seeming to warn of an impending doom. At this moment, the bells resounded throughout Yong'an City.

Even Emperor Wu, who was already asleep, was suddenly awakened, then turned over and rushed out of the palace.

Consort Xian, being by his side, naturally heard the bell toll. She looked thoughtful, but showed no sign of anything amiss. She quickly got out of bed, grabbed a cloak, and went outside, draping it over Emperor Wu's shoulders.

"Your Majesty? What's wrong? Why are you so flustered by the sound of a bell?"

Consort Xian asked in confusion,

"You stay here, I'll go and take a look myself."

Emperor Wu didn't even offer a word of explanation before vanishing from the palace in a flash. The guards on all sides were alerted, and chaos erupted within the palace.

Within the Cangshan Mountains, from the ancestral land of the royal family, several gazes were fixed directly on the sky above the ancestral temple.

This moved Consort Xian deeply, as if an emergency had occurred that even she was unaware of. Since entering the palace, this was the first time she had seen Emperor Wu so anxious.

"The ancestral temple, that direction is the ancestral temple," she said solemnly.

"Someone is coming,"

"Your subordinate is here,"

"Go and ask what exactly happened at the ancestral temple."

"I obey my orders."

Even after the guards behind her left, she was still uneasy. Once she was certain that the Emperor's presence had vanished from the palace, she turned and walked into her boudoir.

"I need to rest. Remember, don't let anyone disturb me."